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Saturday, December 15, 2007

David Hazinski aka Real Reporter


All over the blogoshpere the weapon of choice is the keyboard on a personal PC in order to slay the mighty professor of “real journalism”. Somebody regarding this whole issue has a very high opinion of himself and frankly he just might have the credentials to speak. Dictators and Professors are like that. My way or the highway.

According to Professor Hazinski, we (Bloggers) are all hackers of the English language and we imagine facts and figures and propagate lies. When we are wrong, we never post a correction. Bloggers have a private agenda that needs to be regulated according to the distinguished Professor.


Having just anyone produce widely distributed stories without control can have the reverse effect from what advocates intend. It's just a matter of time before something like a faked Rodney King beating video appears on the air somewhere.

Journalism organizations should head that off. Citizen reports can be a valuable addition to news and information flow with some protections:

• Major news organizations must create standards to substantiate citizen-contributed information and video, and ensure its accuracy and authenticity.

• They should clarify and reinforce their own standards and work through trade organizations to enforce national standards so they have real meaning.

• Journalism schools such as mine at the University of Georgia should create mini-courses to certify citizen journalists in proper ethics and procedures, much as volunteer teachers, paramedics and sheriff's auxiliaries are trained and certified.

Journalists generally don't like any kind of standards or regulation. Many argue that standards could infringe on freedom of the press and journalism shouldn't be regulated.
But we have already seen the line between news and entertainment blur enough to destroy significant credibility. Continuing to do nothing as information flow changes will further erode it. Journalism organizations who choose to do nothing may soon find the line between professional and citizen journalism gone as well as the trust of their audiences.
-AJC.com

Not long ago I was honored to be a contributing writer for one of the most realistic “Blog’s” on the entire internet. During my time writing there I got to know the owner of the site and frankly, I consider him to be my close friend and a brother. I’m talking about the site called Gun Toting Liberal. Where facts and opinions are drawn from and debated by many well written articles in the Main Stream Media (MSM). Many of the comments on the site are from very well versed readers and combined they debate the issues on their merits. Something you can not do with a television broadcast, newspaper or news magazine.

When it comes to political opinion, the GTL and I do not see eye to eye on all issues but that is half the fun of debating real issues. Has he changed my opinion on some issues, yes he has. Have I changed his opinion on some issues, yes, I like to think that I have.

Over at the Gun Toting Liberal he clearly states what he thinks about the Professors comments and I happen to agree with him…

We ARE the “Press” they spoke of, Mr. Hazinski — NOT you and your biased mainstream media. The town criers. The suspicious Citizens with a pen, sneaking around, playing “gotchya” with our government leaders — THAT’S what a “journalist” does, sir. When you and your multi-national, huge, biased corporations failed to do this, you not only forced our Founding Fathers to roll in their graves, you lost your status as the “Press” and “journalists” and the respect of the American People. You don’t like it, I’m sure. After all, your so-called “profession” is a shrinking and outdated one and your livelihood is in jeapordy. Why? Because the “Press” our Founding Fathers protected in the Constitution had little to do with the concept of people becoming fat, lazy, rich and biased while sitting on their pasty rear ends with a pen. - Gun Toting Liberal

Based on how I write here at Papamoka Straight Talk and from what I have learned from other great “Blog’s”, David Hazinski has probably only visited angry bloggers afflicted with anger management issues. Sites where opposing opinions are met with personal attacks and name calling.

Maybe he needs to visit reality and understand that the American people no longer trust the MSM because they are all biased and rightfully so. They are running a business and making a living from the written word they produce. That is where the difference becomes known between the MSM and bloggers like GTL and myslef. Most bloggers write and report as opinion journalist and never receive a dime for it. Raising my hand here. Three plus years of writing online and still no checks in my mail box.

While the revenue generating machines that are the MSM play to the advertisers and report accordingly they are swayed to slant the stories they provide. Fox swings from its side of the batters box and NBC swings from its. Somewhere in the middle is the general truth and that is what we as bloggers debate on a daily basis.

Sit down Professor, you my friend are yesterdays news and we will leave it at that.

Papamoka

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Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Writer's Guild America ON STRIKE!




As a writer and a blogger I am supporting the WGA on their strike. Hollywood and New York where most of the prime time shows are created has to support its writers and offer a bigger piece of the pie that is the world we as a people demand in entertainment. The old TV is nothing without the people that actually write the material that the actors and show host talk about day and night. Average pay for an entertainment writer is about $60,000 per year. Good money but if your work is under a contract and the contract is busted… there might be a problem.

Just writing this blog here is invigorating for me but then again I love to write. I put a ton of hours in creating the work that you read here and I do it for me and for you as a reader. I wish that I could make a living from just blogging other than working for XYZ company doing ABC and writing for Papamoka Straight Talk on the side. That is not the reality of blogging today. My advertisers don’t pay any bills here so I write for the love of writing. One or two dollars in Google clicks does not make me a wealthy man. From the point in time of starting this blog and my contributions to all other blogs that I write for I have received nothing in compensation. I am cool with that becuase my voice has been heard on many sites like the Gun Toting Liberal, Michael Linn Jones and Bring It ON! My works have been linked to Crooks and Liars, Slate Magazine, Imus in the Morning and the list goes on and on. Far greater minds than mine but my voice was heard in the written word. I consider myself blessed for my friends on each of these sites. Blogging is far different than writing for the studios and networks though.

All of the writers on strike with the WGA make a living writing, a meager living, bottom of the food chain living for all the shows you see on television. Would it tick you off if your work was sold on line and you receive nothing for the work you have done? Would it piss you off if they boxed your work and sold it in sets all over the world and you received nothing for the work? The LA Times has a great following of the Writers Guild of America strike, if you are a union working person and support other unions on strike then this is the site for you…

Jim Earl is very frustrated. He says the media keeps giving out the impression that TV writers get $200,000 a year. "I don't make anywhere near that," he says. (He won't say how much he makes, but says it's less than that.)

The 48-year-old Echo Park resident has been a writer on Fox's "Talk Show With Spike Feresten" for the show's second season. It's been his steadiest gig since he left Manhattan for Los Angeles about three years ago. "I was a writer on 'The Daily Show' and I was making about $100,000," he says. "I was making a good living, but I couldn't afford to live in New York on that salary. So I came here."

He looks hopeful but yet a bit weary as he walked a picket line today, wearing a black WGA "Comedy Writer" shirt. Before he landed the late-night show, he had a small radio show, did some stand-up, and also did some freelance writing work. He and his wife live in an apartment -- "I can't yet afford to buy anything."
- LA TIMES - Strike News

I’m looking at the argument that is the strike from the writers side just as I would as a published author. If my book is written and made into a movie, if it becomes a series, if it becomes marketable in any form then the writer should receive monetary gain from it. There should be no difference for products created by any studio by any writer. There is a difference with being a writer for a signed objection and project and that product produced being re-sold at a later date for more monetary gain for all of the rest of the people connected with the project. That is not the case for the original writers.

I’ll miss the episodes of House, Ghost Whisperer, and of course all of the late night television comedy. Oh crap! Comedy Central is busted too! I may go into withdrawal without my Colbert Report. Word on the street and on the air is that Jon Stewart of the Daily Show from Comedy Central is paying his writers their full salaries while the strike goes on out of his own pocket. I have not been able to confirm that as yet but that is the word on the street. Let’s see who else has the guts to back up the writers that make them look good on the old idiot box we call television. I’ll survive and so will you. Right is right and the writers deserve just compensation for the work they provide to make the stars of our world of entertainment look good. It’s just common sense when you really think about it.

Papamoka
Link to this post if you are a blogger and scream out loud on your site that writers deserve a better deal! As a blogger you are a writer and your work is just as good if not better...

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Sunday, May 27, 2007

Michael Linn Jones


My good friend and former co-writer over at the Gun Toting Liberal has more or less given birth to his own blog and web site. Michael is a great political writer and I highly recommend that you check his works out as often as you can. I've linked to his site here and I highly encourage you to do so as well.

Michael has allowed me the good graces to put a few of his pieces here on my site and let me tell ya his writing is phenomenal. If you have ever read his works in the past from the Gun Toting Liberal then you know his style and clever historical wit that seems to be very much relevant with anything going on political today.

On a scale of one to ten as far as true well written bloggers go I would give Michael Linn Jones a 9.5. My .5 deduction is a private religious debate that he and I love to joke around about. I'm still keeping my .5 till he changes his mind...lol!!!

Check his site out and you will never be disapointed...

Papamoka

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