Letter from the new robber barons

Dear Loyal Customer,

Thank you for your letter complaining about our decision to increase the interest rate on your World Conqueror Gold Mastercard to 29.99%.

Our policy is to ignore complaints which we find inappropriately expressed, inordinately passionate, or pleading, but we are making an exception in your case because of your attention-getting British accent.

We note your explanation that you took ten days vacation and that, when you returned, you opened your statement to discover that our exorbitant finance charges had put you over the credit limit. We are also thrilled that you used our new interactive website, ProtectionRacket.com, immediately to restore the over-limit funds via your bank.

However, given that our profits for the last quarter totaled less than the targeted $500 Billion, we cannot review our decision on this occasion.

But rest assured that we remain your attentive servants, especially after our employees were all given preferential Swine Flu shots at our 89-story corporate headquarters ahead of sick people and young children in the surrounding community. This should enable us to continue to service your needs, 24/7.

We are also most grateful for your role as taxpayers in providing our $700 trillion bailout at the end of last year. If those funds hadn't been made available to us, and we hadn't passed most of them on as bonuses to our hard-working staff, only the good Lord knows where your account might be today.

Yours Sincerely,

R. Baron
Customer Service Director,
U.S. Bank of Greed

Its all over the evening news.......

Folks who are ancient enough still to be drooling over Paul Simon's epic album Graceland will remember one of its unfathomable but deliciously-sounding lines;

"Its all over the evening news - all about the fire in your life on the evening news." I've never had a clue what he was on about. But I know that when I came to America the Evening News really counted for something.

It was Jennings v Rather v Brokaw.

These days, apparently, up against Twitter and Facebook and My Space and Me-Me-Me-Me-Space, its old hat.

But last night, one of the old stodgers' programs did something great. And it was the one which had the audacity to put someone who wears a skirt in front of the camera in place of Dan Rather.

Yes, Katie Couric, of whom all we normally hear is diving ratings, hemlines, and allegedly bitchy asides, turned in a newscast that Edward R. would have been proud of. Departing from the nightly rundown protocol of her corporate-driven colleagues and their obligatory features on diet pills, dog food, toothpaste and flu scares, the CBS Evening News devoted its entire half hour to the biggest story of our time - Afghanistan.

Scariest of all, anyone watching would have learned new things - a groundbreaking concept for most network American television. There were maps, explanations, context, and - most alarming - real-time war footage (not network library rehash) from experienced correspondents.

One of them was Lara Logan, another female trespasser through the male news firewall, previously famous only in the mainstream media for an alleged tryst with a US Government contractor in Iraq. Her story for "60 Minutes" filed last month gave a terrifying real-time eye-witness account of a Taliban attack on a US Army stronghold. It was a courageous, dramatic and first-hand example of genuine war reporting carried out at great personal risk. Last night's piece contained an exclusive interview with a senior US Army official on the ground (in other words, not a pundit) pulling no punches about the task facing them. Again, she was uniquely, enterprisingly and daringly placed to give the audience priceless and unvarnished insight into the challenge.

Move over Hollywood.

Some people still care about real, bloody-minded first-hand journalism. Katie Couric and CBS stood alone last night in front of the American TV-watching public in placing critical world events over short-term economics. Now, if they could only do something about Dave Letterman.......
: ABC, Afghanistan, BBC, CBS, Couric, Dave, Katie, Lara, Letterman, Logan

In today's sports, no good deed goes unpunished

When Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of the 1960's Liverpool soccer team said the sport was more important than life and death, thankfully he was joking. These days, its hard to know if folks know the difference.

We do know that many professional sportsmen and women will sell their own mothers to win these days. Witness the baseball doping scandal, soccer's various betting scams, and the vast sums demanded by football players and boxers alike.

But even sadder is when a rare attempt at sportsmanship in the cliched old "spirit of the game" is punished by the sport's own ruling authorities.

As Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington stood on the 16th tee at Firestone they were going head to head to win the Bridgestone Invitational. Enter the chief referee of the PGA European Tour, John Paramor, who warned the pair for "slow play". No matter that they were the final pair on the course, and that they were set for a compelling climax, perhaps the most captivating of the season. Paramor told the world's greatest player, and his best current pretender to that thrown, that they were "on the clock". Even yours truly, a perpetually hopeless and luckless amateur, knows that such an edict can ruin your concentration, even in a five-dollar round, let alone a high stakes international event.

Harrington, a proud PGA role model who nevers falls foul of the game's etiquette, fell apart. He hit his ball in the water, ran up a triple-bogey eight, and the contest was over. Woods won but did not celebrate. Instead he expressed disappointment for the effect of the referee's intervention on the play of his partner and chief competitor. Tour officials subsequently threatened him with a fine for his remarks, when they should have been proud that their greatest-ever ambassador had set an example for the millions of youngsters the organization's mission aims to encourage, simply by putting golf's unique spirit of camaraderie before cash.

It reminded me of another golfing colossus who was branded a fool and a traitor for an appropriate act of dignity and generosity forty years ago next month. Jack Nicklaus, at the climax to the Ryder Cup, could not bear the thought of his European rival, Tony Jacklin, missing a short putt and throwing the whole match away for Europe. Nicklaus was widely ridiculed for conceding the putt, ensuring the game was halved and the tournament drawn. Only four decades later is it truly recognized as one of the actions which sets golf apart as a game which still retains the core values of human endeavor. Shame the PGA, the very people meant to safeguard those values, appear to have forgotten.

Kidnapping, then lunch and Godzilla......

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's population-starving and mistress-loving "Dear Leader", is a big fan of Hollywood. His favorites, according to Wikipedia, are Rambo, Friday the 13th, Godzilla, and anything starring Elizabeth Taylor. And now the man who is scared of flying and goes everywhere by armored train is the envy of Hollywood, as well.

He's pioneered a whole new way of enticing big names to play guest star. How those horrid little entertainment shows (Entertainment Tonight, Extra) not to mention Oprah, Ellen, etc, must envy his pulling-power.

His secret? Kidnapping.

Grab a couple of cute young American journalists, hold them hostage for a while, and see who you can entice over from LAX. On this occasion, Pres.Clinton played the starring role. It may not have been as photo-op friendly as the inter-racial "beer on the White House Lawn" but it ended in more glory for Bubba.

One caveat if you try this at home; you might not get who you want. What if Richard Holbrooke showed up, for instance? He once boxed the ears of Bosnian leader Radovan Karadzic to get him to sign the Dayton Peace Agreement.

So remember, when kidnapping, specify your lunch guest. Jimmy Carter? Al Gore? They'll do nicely. Then you can go back to watching Godzilla and hurling rockets into the Pacific before bedtime.

Zimbabweans get to tell their story

The BBC are being allowed back into Zimbabwe eight years after they were thrown out by the brutal Mugabe regime. CNN is also close to an agreement with the new government.

The awkward arrangement under which Morgan Tsvangirai became Prime Minister, albeit with Mugabe lurking behind his shoulder as "President", seems to be a sign that the country is turning its wounded face to the light.

For years, the BBC tried to film the rape of farms and property surreptitiously, smuggling in reporters on tourist visas
using covert cameras and microphones. Inevitably, especially in television, the story suffers when the reporter lacks the freedom to question everyone involved and be transparent about the work.

The ruination of Zimbabwe will now be documented more fully and hopefully, with the world watching, the resulting coverage will lead to more help, and swifter reform and recovery. I visited Zimbabwe in better times, when tourism was booming and the economy was healthy in the early nineties before Mugabe's mood swung against his citizens.

Its a country of stupefying beauty and delightful, softly spoken and gentle people. They deserve to tell their story.

Operator snoozes while train speeds along

Here's Citizen Journalism at its finest. A teenager catches a Washington Metro Operator sleeping on the job. It comes to light days after a crash on the system, and an incident where another operator was videod texting while driving. Thanks to YouTube, and easy-to-use cameras, the age of the citizen reporter has truly arrived. And its distribution on YouTube circumvents the usual unseemly scramble of TV networks to secure exclusive rights.

Mugging on Hudson

I was mugged tonight along with my wife and two young children outside a restaurant in an allegedly upscale Westchester community, and with the encouragement of the local police.

Its a story about kids and where they are, and are not, welcome.

I booked a table at a recommended local restaurant, the Caravela in Tarrytown. A Portuguese survivor, known for its fish and its welcome.

They turned out to be arrogant child-haters. My 6-year-old daughter and (almost) 3-year-old son are no angels, but they're not juvenile delinquents either. I made sure when booking to tell the guy we had two young kids, and they did run around a bit.

The trouble began when we refused to sit next to the kitchen, five miles from the nearest fellow-diners. We asked for a table closer to the middle of the restaurant where the other eight or so customers were eating, From then on, the staff were slow, dismissive, and passive aggressive. I eventually snapped when the manager chastised me for asking to move tables. I asked for the bill and refused to pay for the main course which had not yet arrived. The helpful Tarrytown Constabulary (three of them) arrived with great fanfare (blocking the entrance) and informing me (with all the confidence of the Law and Order Federal Prosecutor) that to refuse to pay the bill would infringe New York State Law (after all, we were from DC).

The mostly elderly people in the restaurant ignored our plight. They are clearly its future.

With my children crying on the sidewalk, I forked out and left after they threatened to arrest me.

We'll pursue this with vigor but no great confidence in justice. The restaurant, and the cops, should be ashamed of themselves.

Why Jackson's death is a challenge to his media stalkers

The instantaneous media has big problems with stories which contain ambiguity. For instance, they know how to report the death of someone "good", or someone "bad". But the sudden departure of the most talented entertainer in a century, tortured as he was by his own childhood and by the media, is presenting the hacks with a considerable challenge.

None more so than Martin Bashir, the inscrutable ABC Nightline Host, who was tasked tonight with delivering the network "tribute" to a 50-year-old man whose death left many friends in tears in my local bar.

A few years ago, a British commercial TV investigator out for a sensational headline, Bashir bluffed his way into the Jackson compound to make a documentary with a bad taste approach and style matched only by the horrid nature of the allegations themselves. His strategy was to lure the performer into a compliant on-camera friendship over a period of several days hospitality at the ranch, in the hope that Jackson would incriminate himself in his alleged abuses of children.

You might be concerned that Bashir hadn't demonstrated the right sort of balanced view of Jackson necessary to present tonight's ABC Show, but think again.

Although the allegations in his "documentary" were never proven, Bashir was there tonight in a new mask, talking about the Jackson family press conference on ABC News as "understandably emotional." And tonight's show was as inconclusive as only "The Mouse" versus Disney News can muster. Reinforcing, perhaps deliberately, a British (false, by the way) stereotype for insistence on decorum, Bashir drew particular attention to the fact that Jackson wore pajamas to one of his court hearings. As any mediocre lawyer might know, eccentricity might be an indicator of a problem, but isn't proof of criminal behavior.

At the end of the ABC show, in what Bashir himself might have described in UK tabloid language as a "bizarre twist" Barbara Walters, who DOES understand shades of gray, asked him what Jackson would be best remembered for. His list highlighted a singer who could "reach three octaves". Clearly, one octave is all you need for American network news.

My own recollection of Jackson, which just proves how old I am, way precedes "Thriller". Its a song called "One Day in Your Life", Number One in the UK singles charts in June, 1981, which captures the age of his innocence; an "in-the-moment" joy which, whatever the truth of his subsequent illnesses, Jackson wished for all young people all his life. After all, he was deprived of his own childhood, which might explain everything in time.

ABC News, and the others, for that matter, would better serve and interest the public by looking at the wider picture this tragic story might reveal. About childhood, poverty, greed, loneliness, fame, flunkies, tabloids, prescription drugs, and the entertainment business's self-destructive nature. But then, its cheaper to run old B-Roll of alleged confessions and dance routines.

Iran Western Reporter Update

The BBC's veteran foreign correspondent John Leyne has also been "asked to leave". John isn't one to get himself theatrically arrested (unlike some foreign reporters), he and his managers probably concluded it would be in his listeners' and viewers' interests for him to try to "play the game" and report what he could report from his Tehran base given the circumstances. Or maybe he dared to venture out? Indeed the BBC have said they'll keep their Tehran office open.

But apparently the UK Government has annoyed the Iranians to such an extent that he had to go.

Two interesting things here.

Firstly, it shows the extent to which the regime is monitoring respected foreign reporting which is listened-to and watched extensively within Iran itself. It will be significant to see what this does to the thousands of Iranians who listen to the BBC World Service radio and its much interfered-with Persian TV service.

Second, it demonstrates the level of paranoia the regime has about the conclusions westerners are reaching about events on the Iranian streets. I can't imagine it will endear the regime to the millions of Iranians who cherish free speech and consume the BBC, Voice of America, and the myriad social media available to them.

Keeping the story alive without reporters

NBC's Tehran bureau chief, Ali Arouzi, appeared live on Meet the Press today and told David Gregory that although they were still not permitted to cover the rallies there were (so far) no restrictions on what they could say. With CNN covering the story from the US and London and giving extensive coverage to YouTube videos and Twitter, it was strangely reassuring to see a live journalist against a Tehran back-drop, even if he is basically confined to barracks. Presumably, NBC will be well-placed to grab the first pictures if the ban is lifted. Those news organizations who've withdrawn to Europe or elsewhere in the Middle East will face a long delay in resuming their own newsgathering process. Meanwhile, it remains perilous for western journalists and their local employees to venture onto the Tehran streets. Already, the BBC's John Simpson and his cameraman have been arrested, NBC's Richard Engel has been deported, and there are stories tonight about the disappearance of a photographer for Life Magazine, and the arrest of a Newsweek journalist. Margaret Thatcher used to speak of depriving the Irish Republican Army of the "Oxygen of Publicity." This is clearly the Iranian regime's strategy, but they haven't banked on social media and the internet, which in spite of its rumor-driven propensity and knee-jerk nature, is keeping the story alive in the west. The challenge for the networks there is decyphering the genuine videos and tweets from the fakes, and trying to avoid scurilous rumor. "Trust but verify" was never so poignant.

Getting arrested, and telling the story......

AS USUAL, THESE ARE MARK'S VIEWS ALONE. NOT HIS EMPLOYERS' VIEWS.

A very distinguished journalist and former colleague of mine, John Simpson, the BBC's Foreign Editor, managed to get arrested over the weekend in Tehran trying to cover the protests. This wouldn't have scared John. In fact, he always relished an event which promoted his profile. But he's a dedicated public service broadcaster with few rivals, and he's been arrested so many times in so many countries he's probably lost count.

And immediately following his release, he made sure his team's filming was more "covert", and the BBC News coverage of the aftermath of the Iranian election, and the vote-counting process which more befitted the books of a corrupt and clinging Wall Street derivatives trader than a national electoral system, was the best available in America.

For the record, both WETA and WHUT in Washington carried his accounts. I turned to CNN tonight and, as usual, Wolf had a lot of scary scenes graphically recreated in the studio behind him, but all the footage (B-Roll) they showed was from the 1979 uprising. CNN has many courageous reporters, too (Christiane Amanpour is one) and so do the networks.

But let's hope the TV and Radio network accountants don't pull the plug on this story, possibly the most significant political change on foreign shores since the overthrow of Communism.

Do the TV Networks, and NPR, still have the resources, news judgment, or commitment to events abroad?

As usual, a generation yearns to be educated. And I don't mean the Iranians......

Taking things for granted..........

My barber had a go at me this morning. As usual, it had gotten far too long. The guy in the next chair was almost bald.

"How old are you? 49? How come you only come in here every three months? What's the matter with you?
Do you know how much some men would pay for hair that grows like yours, especially at your age?"

"It fends for itself" I respond.

"It looks like it" he says before grabbing his comb.

The older I get, the more it grows. Guess I'm very fortunate. Never thought of it that way before.

Can you catch Swine Flu from Twitter?

REMINDER: THESE ARE MARK'S VIEWS . NOT WAMU's, NOT AU's, NOT ANY OTHER 'U's VIEWS. FIRST ON THE WEB AT WAMU'S "THE CONVERSATION."

Washington's News-Talk Commercial radio station has an "Answer Desk" these days.

I was hoping they would get my mortgage refinanced, my kids admitted to the Beauvoir School and arrange a climatic change to the pattern of mid-Atlantic Spring tornadoes.

Sadly, they couldn't even answer the most fundamental of contemporary questions: "Can you catch swine flu from Twitter?".

It's a pressing concern, since so little is known about this mysterious, foreign virus, which according to the media was brought to our innocent shores via poor sanitation in both human and pig farming in less admirable countries. It's been pennies from heaven for the sick, desperate and destitute old media, already almost extinct from the "Arrogant and Out-of-Touch Virus" which has reared its head persistently in the U.S. since the days of the robber barons.

The most hyped-up story of the new century has also been perpetrated by the new wave of "social media", inspired here by America's neurotic obsession with Armageddon, as illustrated in such signature films as "Asteroid", "Independence Day" and - better still - the Rupert Murdoch-sponsored terror TV Show "24". Perhaps instead of a wine collection, Jack Bauer has a cellar-full of Tamiflu to save us from the ultimate nightmare.

But he will have to overcome the army of Tweeters pushing links (now called "Tinyurls" - you might have arrived here via one!) without checking the origin of the information, or the facts, to the latest hyped-up scare story. I took my daughter to a movie about solar flares at the National Air and Space Museum this afternoon. Believe me, it was every bit as scary as swine flu. But, somehow, I resisted the urge to Twitter.

This, you would think, would be an opportunity for "old media" to score, presenting themselves as the calm, trustworthy, factual stand-outs to reassure a nervous populace already reeling from the bailouts. An alternative business model to hyped-up sensationalism there, perhaps, but think again.

The local and network TV channels joined their cable subsidiaries in pushing the Armageddon theory, along with public radio and the major newspapers. The latter, at least, shouldn't need a reminder of their paltry coverage of the world-wide AIDS epidemic (deaths so far 32 million worldwide) or of the genocide in Rwanda (at least 800,000 dead).
Or of the opportunity to put such stories in context when a new type of flu arrives.

But the news-bicycles are now ridden so fast that the chains have broken, and we're all left on our hands and knees on the cycle track, covered in WD40, searching for the chain-link that might provide the clue. There has still got to be a future for people who check before they tweet, but how do we tell the difference? In public media, our credibility, and financial survival, depends on it.

Steal the flashcard

Thanks to all who have responded here and elsewhere with your thoughts about our complaint to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs about the shameful treatment of our reporter David Schultz, who was stripped of his equipment by armed security guards as he interviewed a veteran who agreed to speak with him. Just to keep everyone up to date, here is David's feature and other stories on WAMU 88.5, and the letter from WAMU 88.5 General Manager Caryn Mathes to the head of the VA.

As you'll see, David's flashcard was returned. We're still awaiting an apology from the VA, who have promised a review of procedures. Our newsroom will be following that review, and reporting on the concerns of veterans going forward, hopefully without running the risk of theft or false arrest.

Mark

No, mate, that's not a riot.......

Pic from CNN.com
First seen at www.conversation.wamu.org
(These are Mark's views, not WAMU's views, not AU's views, not any other U's views.)

Watching the TV pictures of a couple of hoodlums smashing a window at a London branch of the grandly named but lately disgraced Royal Bank of Scotland reminded me of a scene from a movie which other tragic forty-somethings might recall. In "Crocodile Dundee", Australian outback-dweller Paul Hogan is released onto the mean streets of New York and is confronted by a mugger, to whom his response is "no, mate, that's not a knife, this is a knife" whereupon he produces from underneath his cloak a huge meat-cleaver which would impress the most brutal abattoir owner.

The western media has been calling for a financial riot for weeks now. "Where is the anger?" cried a New York Times Op-Ed, followed by a chorus of dire warnings of fire and carnage ahead of the G20 summit. Don't get me wrong, I'm as angry as the next caller to the Diane Rehm Show. But where the media are concerned, the mass unemployment of uninteresting ordinary folk and a plummeting Dow Jones don't quite suffice when there are gasoline bombs and flying crowbars to be video-taped. And the City of London is a perfect venue, where the Gucci display-windows and the glistening buildings of the fallen banks provide an unlikely stage for the destitute sleeping in the doorways of pubs and theaters.

The violence itself could have been choreographed by those who view British life as a kind of mirror-image of the nation's TV soap-operas, which are devotedly watched by a majority of the population. It's media imitating life, imitating media. Everyone in the UK these days seems to default to behavior appropriate to the bit-part actors from the BBC's stable of prime-time reality shows. These two petty criminals and the fifty or so photographers and videographers are seen participating in some kind of weird cameo, where the snappers watch as the hoodlums smash the windows, but all are careful to keep clear of the flying glass. At no stage does the allegedly solid British bobby intervene, or is even seen. The entire scene appears like a conspiracy between the two mutually-benefiting groups.

It took me back to my days as a local radio reporter and the riots in the UK in 1981. They were not by any means the worst the world has seen, but in an allegedly civilized country, they were bad enough. A "ska" band, "The Specials" were top of the music charts with a song called "Ghost Town", an eery anti-unemployment anti-Government song, in which the prophetic final line was "...people getting angry".Banks, businesses, and homes were burned. People were injured and killed. In July, 1981, CS gas was fired by police at demonstrators for the first time. The riots of Toxteth, Liverpool; Brixton, London; Handsworth in Birmingham, and Chapeltown in Leeds changed communities for ever. I was a reporter at that time and most of the protests were too dangerous to record much video or sound from close proximity. Certainly, the rioters didn't wait politely for a gaggle of Fleet Street's finest to assemble.

There was no prearranged vandalism, convened via Facebook or Twitter, for the world's media to consume with the demonstators' compliance.

How much did the British tabloids pay these two individuals? How did a smashed window become worldwide news, covered by the most reputable of news organizations? What happened to discriminating, independent journalism?

No mate, this wasn't a riot. This was a set-up. And we all bought into it.

Note to journos: when covering the financial crisis, talk to the people affected. Reminder: not many of them routinely smash bank windows.

Certainties in Spring

First seen at
http://www.conversation.wamu.org

There are waves of blue crocus, white snowdrop and yellow daffodil in Dumbarton Oaks in Upper Georgetown.

And the best reason for my seasonal optimism is the four months which have elapsed since the vet gave my dog four weeks to live, and Pundit is still dragging me to the Hearst Recreation Field each morning, despite his incurable cancer.

But the truth is I'm equally energized both by our recent membership campaign, where our amazing recession-hit listeners came through with much more than we'd bargained for, and by the latest Arbitron numbers for our flagship program, The Diane Rehm Show, which are beyond extraordinary.

Diane's national weekly audience grew by 28% over the past year to more than 2.2 million, an achievement Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi puzzlingly overlooked in his story about NPR audiences earlier this week. A baffling oversight, because it was the outstanding number from all the public radio program statistics.

Given the importance of this program in American life, none of this is a surprise to us at WAMU.

In the run-up to the most exciting and important US election, held amidst the most worrying and confusing economic crisis in years, Diane's ability to energize her guests to synthesize the issues, explain them in everyday terms, and suggest energizing solutions has been consistently brilliant. She has represented the concerns of the public to the moneyed and powerful throughout this time, and she has become required listening in an increasing number of cities, families, schools, and businesses.

On a more experimental note, and thanks largely to the people who support our work, including those who contribute to this unique site, I have been able to make some program changes also. Don't worry, I gained Pundit's approval first.

We debuted "The Takeaway", the allegedly hip alternative to Morning Edition on HD3. It hasn't found its voice just yet, but there are inspiring moments, chuckles, conversation-starters, and provocative reasons to tune in. Please give it a try and let me know what you think. So far, we've had a handful of BBC fans moaning about the demise of the 9 a.m. "Newshour".

So please, if you like the Takeaway, let us know.

If you don't, we'll hear from you anyhow.

Happy Spring from Pundit.

A new NPR boss and a new deal for public radio?

FIRST PUBLISHED AT WAMU'S THE CONVERSATION

PLEASE NOTE:-
THESE ARE MARK'S VIEWS. NOT WAMU's VIEWS, NOT AU's VIEWS, NOT ANY OTHER 'U's VIEWS.......

Vivian Schiller, NPR's new Chief Executive Officer, has a unique opportunity to slay the dragon which has had many public radio stations breathing fire at the mother ship these past few years - the web.

At a public media conference a few years back a station delegate, fed up with paying top dollar on behalf of his listeners for NPR's news magazine shows, summed up the marriage:

"NPR wants to sleep with other people, and we're tired of being told to 'lose a few pounds'."

The problem is NPR-DOT-ORG, which has been perceived by many stations as a rival, not a partner, with its slick one-shop content, and contextual information to add to the stories aired.

Recently, NPR even offered live steaming event coverage which competed for listeners with NPR-sponsored station programming, and promoted it on air in a program the stations pay for - Morning Edition. Meanwhile, even the biggest stations can barely afford a webmaster (or webmistress?) for their own sites.

Rather like the poisoned chalice handed to President Obama of drinking the collegiality and cooperation Kool-aid with the fisticuff-prone democrats and republicans, Vivian Schiller will face entrenched positions. But she has a vital task to unify the public radio community system behind one, dedicated website, which can be customized by individual stations according to geography to make it local or "hyperlocal", and contain all the great public radio programming there is from coast to coast and around the globe. The one-destination goal is surely the most economic choice for the system's future survival, and the fairest and most accessible for public radio's community of loyal listeners, who won't be asked to fund competing services.

Especially now with the economy in the tank, and the new media revolution well underway, its clear we public service broadcasters all need each other if we're to continue to set the standards of excellence our listeners have come to expect.

Sleepless Nights at the Bank which never sleeps

THESE ARE MARK'S PERSONAL VIEWS, NOT WAMU'S VIEWS, NOT AU'S VIEWS, NOT ANY OTHER U'S VIEWS........


Ira Glass's This American Life and NPR have done a great job already at deciphering the financial crisis. Tomorrow at noon on WAMU 88.5, there is another special edition.

By way of preview, here's my two cents (sorry 0.4 cents).

Its not simply that they gambled billions of investors' money, these banks. Or that they were so knee-deep in their own greed that they forced the Government into a corner where not bailing them out would have spelled disaster for the customers.

For me, it was the sheer incompetance and arrogance manifest for decades before the crisis in their derelict customer service.

You know the thing: Long lines in the branches followed by disengaged, dismissive tellers. On the phone, press one to give us your money, to withdraw yours please hold for a couple of hours, since all of our representatives are currently assisting.......

I might have some sympathy, if they hadn't been so arrogant. Five years ago a part-time finance person who worked for my wife's small non-profit was caught stealing from the bank account. Large amounts over several months disguised as payroll. It nearly bankrupted the business. Was the bank helpful? She needed someone to investigate, quickly. She needed a temporary overdraft, or a loan, she was the victim of a crime and deserved some sympathy and support. Did she receive any of those things?

No. After days and days of filling out forms, and making phone calls with no return calls, she was simply left to sink.
It was apparent then that the conglomerate of unmanageable proportions was looking gleefully beyond the average customer to its mountains of paper money, all of it about to turn toxic.

Fortunately, BB&T came along, offered her a loan and a line of credit, and took her to lunch.

Now, our taxes are going to bail out the people whose corporate monolith refused to help us in our hour of need. Its tough to swallow. At least I won't be losing any sleep over them.

The Feds and The Raccoons

First Published at http://www.theconversation.wamu.org

Walking Pundit (my ailing 9-year-old golden retriever) in the woods this morning there was a bunch of warning posters on the trees:

"Rabid Raccoons sighted. Keeps dogs on leash." (- that'll be the day). There was a helpful picture of the dangerous beast for the benefit of us ignorant urban types, which from a distance could have been taken from nearby bushes. But on closer inspection it seemed to have been cut and pasted from a wild animal website.

We were walking through Dumbarton Oaks, a spectacularly ornate and ornamental garden in the Upper Georgetown section of D.C., which has been happily under-visited by lawnmowers and fertilizers. Its run by the Department of the Interior. We wandered through the woods into an adjoining section of Rock Creek Park, where I noticed there were no more posters. Rock Creek, I understand, is run by the National Parks Service, which belongs to the Department of the Interior.

I wonder if anyone can shed light on this?

My main concern is this: do the raccoons understand the divergent roles of the various Federal Government departments? What would happen if they were to stray into the Parks Service territory? Would they get arrested in one, and shot-on-sight in the other? Just a Brit pondering the wonders of the US of A......and, if you're a lawyer, in which territory would you advise my dog to be bitten by one?

How not to speak Janitor

FIRST PUBLISHED AT http://www.conversation.wamu.org

I marched late into work the other morning without saying hello to one of the janitors. Normally we'd give each other a cheery if polite greeting. But I'd just had a tough phone conversation and I was preoccupied and late.

I didn't see her bending awkwardly into the hallway cupboard where her supplies are kept.

Our janitors are employed by independent contractors. They work as hard as anyone in the building, in more challenging circumstances (smelly food, forest-threatening piles of newspapers, etc).

They don't take as many sick days as some of us, they never admit to being tired, and they don't respond to "challenges", they simply do what needs to be done.

Their zealous use of the vacuum cleaner gives them a noisy reputation, especially in the studios, but personally they're much quieter and less verbally demanding than the rest of us.

Last night I told my media management students the story of an exhibition by Duane Hanson at American University's Katzen Arts Center two years ago, which I attended with my then 3-year-old daughter. If you click on the link, scroll down three or four items to see what I'm talking about. I told the students that managers need to make everyone in the organization feel valued and take an interest in everyone's work. In this, I said, all employees should be seen as equal.

Duane Hanson became famous in the 1960s and 1970s for his lifelike sculptures of everyday people that were cast from live models, then painted in great detail and finished with ordinary objects.

In this exhibition at the Katzen lifelike figures which were really sculptures were positioned all around the building. In the coffee bar, the galleries, the corridors, and the concert halls. My daughter examined them closely to make sure they weren't moving.

There was one particular sculpture which caught our attention. It was a janitor, complete with (bright yellow) garbage-bin on wheels, mop-on-stick, sprays, fluids, and brushes.

"She" was standing by the elevator, and the exhibition visitors would emerge in clusters from the elevator, and walk right past her.

No one saw her. With her cleaning equipment, she was the largest "still-life" exhibit of all of them. But no-one noticed.

My daughter said: "They should put her in front of the elevator, then everyone will see her."

"That's not what she would want" , I ventured. Like I would know......I walked past her..

Don't hang up, hang on.......

First published at http://www.conversation.wamu.org

Internet subscriptions are like getting a tattoo. Great idea at the time, but painful and frequently impossible to remove when you come to your senses. For some web-based businesses they appear to have become a perpetual sleeping earner, so long as the ancient art of stonewalling is part of your employee training.

Years ago, I opened a modest AOL account. That was back when we all needed help navigating Al Gore's great new invention. The monthly deduction of $6.95 has lurked on my credit card ever since. Its one of those calls I've always been meaning to make.

Last year, with the surge of enthusiasm for New Year cleansing, I called the AOL number helpfully printed on the credit card statement. The man from AOL "customer service" tried everything. Why did I want to cancel? Could I go on hold for a moment? What was my subscription number? What was my password? Perhaps I would like to try their new (offer) with extra (fill-in-the-blank-thing-you-don't-need). Could I repeat why I wanted to cancel? He couldn't find any record of my subscription. Then he found it. And he put me on hold again. Then he came back and said it was canceled. Only it wasn't.

The following month, there it was again. Again I called. Another practiced filibusterer. I reached his "supervisor". I begged, yes pleaded, to have my $6.95 back. They assured me it was canceled. It wasn't. My credit card company said they could take no action without confirmation from the retailer. Great. I'm embarrassed to say, I'm still a proud subscriber to AOL.

My wife had one, too, with a business called "Credit Inform" who send you a note when someone is poking around your credit report. She hadn't used it in 18 months at $8.95 a month. Same problem. Pin number, no record, security word, reference number. After more than half an hour of pleading (as a colleague here says, "another half hour you'll never get back") they agreed to cancel and apply a two-month refund. We'll see.

The motto: don't subscribe. Or if you did, don't hang up, hang on........