Hanif on Media

Taylor takes on new assignment

July 24th · Martin Luther King Jr., Priscilla Taylor, South Florida Times

Not just any local politician could have snagged Gov. Charlie Crist as keynote speaker for an annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast two years ago in West Palm Beach. Neither of them likely anticipated that two years later, Gov. Crist would be appointing then-state Rep. Priscilla Taylor to fill the District 7 vacancy on the Palm Beach County Commission.

Former Florida state representative Priscilla Taylor, at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast in West Palm Beach two years ago, with Gov. Charlie Crist, who has appointed her to the Palm Beach County Commission.

My latest in the South Florida Times.

From Rep. Taylor to Commissioner Taylor to Tarra Pressey and Obama too

July 20th · Priscilla Taylor

What a week.

Between writing, editing, interviews, research, configuring social media sites, class and a few public events, I’ve yet to recover from meeting the impressive array of folks at last week’s Census Bureau summit. But here, briefly, are some notable items since then about which I expect to share more:

The week really got rolling at the 9 a.m. Monday swearing-in of now-former Florida state Rep. Priscilla Taylor as the new District 7 Palm Beach County commissioner. I’ve known Ms. Taylor since she was a Port of Palm Beach commissioner. The Democrat seems an inspired appointment by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist

The next evening, I dropped by the kickoff of former Rep. Henry “Hank” Harper’s campaign to replace Ms. Taylor for the state House District 84 seat he once held. He’s one of several candidates such as Delray Beach Commission Bernard “Mack” Mackenson. As with “Monday Morning At the Commission,” it was good to catch up with folks I hadn’t been seeing elsewhere.

The talk of African-centered education takes on different tenor depending on who’s talking. Amefika is walking the talk from his Joseph Littles-Nguzo Saba charter school in West Palm Beach to Washington, D.C. To be around this school’s kids, parents and teachers is to know they’re trying to do something special. Watching the youth head out to walk the first several blocks with him and other adults was more than special: It was historic. I plan to more on that too. For now there’s a blog at school’s web site, and Twitter updates.

Tarra Pressey, the CEO of Tarra Pressey Enterprises, owns and manages food and beverage concessions from South Florida to Atlantic City. She just won another contract for the Fort Lauderdale airport. She’s busy encouraging girls to excel her. Yet she’s in her early 30s and not slowing down. She spoke at a Black Chamber of Commerce-sponsored session at her Sam Snead’s Tavern at the Palm Beach International Airport. I hope to share what she had to say, and more.

As always, the monthly Focolare meeting on Saturday was inspiring. I’ll share more on that over at InterFaith21.

On the national front, another classic: President Obama’s speech to the NAACP. I highly recommend reading or watching that one, and his Ghana speech. I’m not expecting to agree with all of his policy positions, much less expecting perfection. But I agree with countless other Americans, and folks around the world, that he is the best mind, and the most mature, balanced spirit to have occupied the Oval Office in lifetimes. Given that our country’s problems are daunting enough without the divisive shenanigans from the other side of the aisle (latest exhibit: Senate’ Judiciary’s Sotomayor hearings), we should stand with him even more strongly now.

International? Thanks to the abominable media coverage of the Mideast, there still are people who think we invaded a certain sovereign nation, sacrificed or defaced the lives of thousands of our young people and millions of Iraqis, while squandering trillions of dollars, and running our economy into the worst rut since the Depression, because “Saddam wouldn’t disarm. To help round out perspective, some sites are must reading. Richard Silverstein’s Tikun-Olam is among them.

So is Juan Cole’s Informed Comment. The University of Michigan professor of history is the most authoritative voice I know on “the Middle East, history and religion.”

For now, just that quick shout-out. As time allows I hope to catch up on all that,

and

more.

What a week.

Between writing, editing, interviews, research, configuring social media sites, a class and a few public events, I’ve yet to recover from meeting the impressive array of folks at last week’s Census Bureau summit. But here are some notable items since then about which I expect to share more:

The week really got rolling at the 9 a.m. Monday swearing-in of now-former Florida state Rep. Priscilla Taylor as the new District 7 Palm Beach County commissioner. I’ve known Ms. Taylor since she was a Port of Palm Beach commissioner. The Democrat seems an inspired appointment by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist
Former Florida state representative Priscilla Taylor, at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast in West Palm Beach two years ago, with Gov. Charlie Crist, who has appointed her to the Palm Beach County Commission.

Rich had it right on Sotomayor’s pseudo-tormentors

July 19th · Uncategorized

The New York Times Frank Rich:

“…we spent the week learning every last footnote about Sotomayor while acres of press coverage shed scant light on the shoddy records of those judging her.”

Rich was the best I read on last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee inquisition of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

But then, I must confess to having read very little. As he noted, I was like many of you:

“The public got the point anyway about this dying order and its tired racial and culture wars. With Sotomayor’s fate never in doubt, it changed the channel.”

I recommend his essay for its assessment of who’s really “got some ’splainin’ to do.”

There’s also Maureen Dowd’s.

The New York Times’ Frank Rich:

“…we spent the week learning every last footnote about Sotomayor while acres of press coverage shed scant light on the shoddy records of those judging her.”

Rich was the best I read on last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee inquisition of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

But then, I must confess to having read very little. As he noted, I was like many of you:

“The public got the point anyway about this dying order and its tired racial and culture wars. With Sotomayor’s fate never in doubt, it changed the channel.”

I highly recommend his piece for its assessment of who’s really “got some ’splainin’ to do.”

Also Maureen Dowd’s .

→ No CommentsTags: Frank Rich·Maureen Dowd·Senate Judiciary Committee·Sotomayor

Selma getting serious about 2010 Census

July 17th · Census

Selma, Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge “demonstration” was the latest by the local Complete Count Committee to influence where $300 billion a year in federal money will be invested over the next 10 years.

Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge “demonstration” was the latest by the Alabama city’s Complete Count Committee to influence where $300 billion a year in federal money will be invested annually over the next 10 years. My report in the South Florida Times updates my earlier blog post. In addition here are links to:

Donnie Coffee’s large photo of the folks on the bridge. (Couldn’t get it to load here. Bear with me folks, I’m still learning this stuff.)
Selma’s sites
John King’s sobering “Pain in Black Belt” report on CNN
The Montgomery Adviser preview (Note: Dr. Darryl Lee is misidentified as William Scott.)
The Selma Times preview
Census Bureau

News Ombudsmen, newspapers, news journalism declining in U.S. — even while surging abroad

July 12th · ONO, Organization of News Ombudsmen, Palm Beach Arts Paper, Palm Beach Post, South Florida Times, Stockholm, Sweden, The Coastal Star, The New York Times, Washington Post

From our recent Washington, D.C. conference of the world’s news ombudsmen, I came away thinking that we members of the international Organization of News Ombudsmen don’t have The Answer for newspapers either. At least, not here in the USA.

Our group’s president, Stephen Pritchard, reported that since last year’s meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, U.S. newspapers have lost 12 ombudsmen, including yours truly, to buyouts, retirement or some other budgetarily motivated downsizing. Of course, the overall number of professional news journalists no longer serving U.S. readers is staggering.

This year’s ONO meeting began with a reception at the board rooms of National Public Radio, a tour of NPR’s recording studios and an opportunity to observe a taping of NPR’s trademark All Things Considered.

(See the conference agenda here, along with a photo slideshow, audio and video of the Newseum panel and the texts of some presentations here.)

Our sessions continued at The Washington Post, the Newseum, NPR and The New York Times’ Washington bureau.

And repeatedly, during formal and informal comments over the next three days, my colleagues from as far afield as Eastern Europe and South America reported a different story from that in the U.S. — namely, flourishing rather than waning support for newspapers.

During the past decade I reported to Palm Beach Post readers the surging interest in ombudsmanship abroad, compared to the U.S.

Janne Anderson, tittarombudsman of TV4 in Stockholm, in his post-conference column, provided the typical kind of report I gave Post readers over the years, including:

“The U.S. ombudsmen are quite worried and the whole conference was colored by this anxiety but also by many discussions and suggestions about how media ombudsmen can survive and whether they will have a future?”

Meanwhile, from the former Soviet republics to East African countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, there is emerging interest in quality news journalism. That’s in contrast to its decline in the U.S., notably showcased in the Judith Miller debacle at The New York Times, and the supine behavior of U.S. news organizations in general, in helping promote our country’s invasion of Iraq. (For which our colleagues from abroad continue to remind us there has been little accountability. But that’s another post.)

The trend around the world is media organizations emerging from decades of dictatorial repression or state censorship, beginning to assert themselves as accurate, fair and free — and becoming interested in establishing an ombudsman role.

NPR’s Alicia Shepard laid this out in her column following last year’s sessions.

She quoted Pam Platt, then ONO’s president then as well as the public editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal in Kentucky, the first paper in the U.S. to create the position: “Ombudsmen are growing in parts of the world where a free press is starting to assert itself.”

Shepard concluded by noting, “Meanwhile, the editorial director for Kenya’s Nation Media Group has asked ONO for help in writing a job profile so he can hire an in-house critic. Considering the dozens of polls that repeatedly tell of the media’s loss of credibility in this country, it is unfortunate that more U.S. news outlets aren’t willing to take this same step toward regaining public esteem.”

This year, my Swedish TV4 colleague Anderson similarly reported that “A number of media companies from various countries in Africa want ombudsmen and have requested help from the ONO.”

One result of such interest abroad, as he wrote, is that: “Next year will be the ONO conference’s 30th anniversary. It will be held in Capetown, South Africa.”

In a previous post I mentioned The Coastal Star newspaper, one publication in which my freelance writing appears, and the Palm Beach Arts Paper. The feedback I’m hearing regarding those papers and the South Florida Times, another for which I write, suggests a fine future for quality journalism whether delivered via print, broadcast, online or whatever technology provides.

But the big question in the U.S. still is not news: whether quality newspapers will prove to be the exception rather than the rule.

Our group’s president, Stephen Pritchard, reported that since last year’s meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, U.S. newspapers have lost 12 ombudsmen, including yours truly, to buyouts, retirement, layoffs or some other budget-motivated downsizing. Of course, the overall number of professional news journalists no longer serving U.S. readers is staggering.

(See the conference agenda here; a photo slideshow here; the audio and video of a notable panel and the text of some presentations here.)

[Read more →]

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Census 2010: Turn it in Selma — and America

July 12th · Census, Education

How serious are civic leaders in Selma, AL about a complete and accurate count in the 2010 United States Census?

Serious enough to get state approval to close down the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The span, infamous for the vicious March 7, 1965 “Bloody Sunday” attack by state troopers on civil-rights marchers, only temporarily was indisposed at 7 a.m. this morning, a Saturday. Police had alerted citizens to adjust their schedules or use a bypass route.

But the move was the latest step by the Alabama community’s Complete Count Committee to help national and state officials recognize where some of the $300 billion in federal money to be allocated annually for the next 10 years should be invested.

Thus a diverse group of elected officials, business people, educators and religious leaders are saying to their fellow Dallas County residents: We need you to support the 2010 Census by sending back the 10-question form due to arrive in the mail April 1.

Jimmie Coleman III, a co-chairman for the committee, said “It was good to see the community coming together today on an issue as important as the census. Everybody is trying to build better relations. We’re bridging a new way to through the census count and how important it is to providing services.”

Debra Reeves-Howard, a job developer in Alabama for 24 years who also works with the local Complete Count Committee, says that “At some point said we have to stop reliving Bloody Sunday and move on.”

I met Ms. Howard this week during a meeting of partners of the 2010 Census hosted in Destin, FL by the Census Bureau’s three-state (Florida, Georgia and Alabama) Atlanta Region. (Full disclosure: the Census Bureau covered the costs for me and other attendees.)

I was there as part of a group of African-American leaders and others who are connected to and active in their communities, and also advocates who can help get the word out about the benefits, dispel myths and communicate the criticisms we hear.

I plan to share more regarding the meeting as well as the ongoing census effort.

But the Selma-area leaders get it. Ms. Howard told us “99 percent of our students are economically disadvantaged in our school system. How can they learn if they’re not taught? The problem is we in the black belt have no money.”

So the committee has elected and school officials on board, she said. A former unused school campus building is now the U.S. Census Workstation, for anything from answering questions to Census job testing. Census job announcements are posted in schools and offices. Flyers were passed out at school graduations encouraging people to please send back their Census forms.

“I am excited about the Census 2010,” Ms. Howard said. “It has set fire in my soul.”

Perhaps other communities and their Complete Count Committees not need be as proactive.

Then again, given the economy and the desperate need across America, maybe they should.

They can start by going to

www.census.gov

www.2010censusjobs.gov

or calling 866.861.20190.

How serious are civic leaders in Selma, AL about a complete and accurate count in the 2010 United States Census? Serious enough to get state approval to close the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Selma Census 2010 leaders at the Edmund Pettus Bridge (L-to-R): State Rep. Yusef Salaam; Judge Kim Ballard; Debra Howard; District Attorney Michael Jackson; Councilwoman Angela Benjamin; Selma Schools Superintendent Dr. Austin Obasohan; Dr. Darryl Lee, Census Bureau; Selma Mayor George Evans; William Scott, Census Bureau; Valley Grande Mayor Tom Lee, Councilman Corey Bowie. (Photo courtesy Jimmie Coleman.)

Walkathon for African-centered education echoes Harriet Tubman (from South Florida Times)

July 11th · Barack Obama, Education, South Florida Times

WEST PALM BEACH — If Amefika Geuka were planning a 1,000-mile walkathon from West Palm Beach to the White House while cursing out President Obama along the way, he likely would lead evening news broadcasts and get invited to all the professional haters’ radio and cable-TV talk shows.

Instead, he says he is embarking on his trek, at age 69, to promote a constructive message on behalf of the African-American students whom traditional public education poorly serves.

These students’ future will be tested when his “National Walkathon for African-Centered Education” steps July 15 from the Joseph Littles-NGUZO SABA Charter School on Corporate Way in West Palm Beach.

Geuka, the school’s co-founder, announced his journey at a June 30 kickoff news conference at the school. He plans to lead a contingent of South Floridians on the first leg, and to be joined daily by surrogate walkers on the way to the nation’s capital.

Following the scheduled Aug. 12 arrival will be a ceremonial stop at the U.S. Department of Education, a visit to the White House and rally.

Geuka emphasized that his walkathon is not a protest march; that he’s not walking against anything, but for something: the needs of students.

Parents and students alike have cited the Joseph Littles-NGUZO SABA Charter School’s ability to help reverse the decline of students who were foundering or had failed in traditional public schools, and the school’s ability to help those students thrive.

The difference comes, he said, when children of African descent get the education they should: in “a nurturing environment rooted in their own heritage, history and culture.”

Geuka draws the parallel that “African-centered education for children of African descent is every bit as valid as Jewish-centered education for Jewish students, and Christian-centered education for Catholic students. But when it comes to black folks, somehow that is supposed to verge on racism and reverse discrimination and all that kind of nonsense.”

Geuka said he not only wants to elevate awareness of and respect for African-centered education, but also to counter opposition to the schools’ access to the education financing that regular schools receive.

Public education unions generally oppose charter schools. In theory, such institutions can be organized by anyone in the name of educational innovation, can earn legal standing from states or local districts, and can receive public education dollars.

Because public funding migrates with students from regular to charter schools, the argument is as much over money as it is about approaches to education.

Moreover, Palm Beach County School District officials long have cited the Joseph Littles-NGUZO SABA Charter School for poor financial management, and its students for poor academic performance.

District officials say that is why the school is an estimated $300,000 in debt and its students are failing the FCAT.

Geuka counters that his school’s nearly 100 kindergarten through eighth-grade students generally are the very at-risk kids who were being forced out of regular schools. He says the district’s consistent handicapping of the school by withholding the full financial support its students deserve, particularly capital dollars that can be used for buildings, is the reason why it is behind on rent payments and looking to raise money as part of the walkathon.

Jeffrey J. Hernandez, the district’s chief academic officer, has told Geuka that a meeting between officials with the school district and the charter school to address their mutual concerns will be scheduled soon.

Also pending is the national education conversation, which will include President Barack Obama and new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, about how charter schools in general, and those with African-centered curricula in particular, will fare.

A major question is how local, state and national officials will deliver on education’s political cliché of the last decade: choice.

Meanwhile, Geuka is organizing a network of supporters, hoping to generate a snowball effect similar to the Internet-and-talk-radio phenomenon on behalf of the Jena 6 African-

American teens accused last year of assaulting a fellow Louisiana high school student.

Regardless of whether news organizations consider his trek historic, traveling with it will be the simmering debate about the status of charter schools, and African-centered schools in particular, in public education.

Instead, he says he is embarking on his trek, at age 69, to promote a constructive message on behalf of the African-American students whom traditional public education poorly serves.

(This post originally appeared in the South Florida Times July 11, 2009.)

[Read more →]

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Organization of News Ombudsmen flashback: “All the news that’s fit to blog?”

July 6th · ONO, Organization of News Ombudsmen, Palm Beach Post, Washington Post

ìI hardly have time to go to the bathroom,î said then-Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell. ìStart a blog?î

Before we survey the recent Washington, D.C. meeting of the world’s news ombudsmen, indulge me a look back at our meetings last year in Stockholm and two years ago at Harvard.

Amid all the breaking changes at my former newspaper, I missed ONO’s 2008 Stockholm sessions.

That was regrettable. Not only because I had told my Swedish counterpart, Lilian Ohrstrom, that I really hoped to be present. And because it would have been great to check out her city where colleagues reported the sun didn’t set until around midnight, and rose again around 4 a.m.

What I also missed was sharing in the continuum of my colleagues’ thinking regarding what Buzzmachine.com blogger Jeff Jarvis succinctly had summarized during the previous year’s meeting: ìThe architecture of news is changing, because it can.î

Fortunately, our website carried ìReports from the 2008 ONO Conference.î They’re still available. Including the welcome from Par-Arne Jigenius, former Swedish national press ombudsman, ìto the native country of the ombudsman institutionî (not to mention the gender-neutral Swedish word).

I also liked what I heard in then-ONO President Pam Platt’s weblog reports. Such as:

ìThe international nature of the Organization of News Ombudsmen is one of its greatest assets. It is inspiring to meet and talk with people from around the world who are committed to a free and fair press and who advocate for the reader, viewer, user or consumer. We come from different places but there are great common denominators to what we do, and what we encounter on the job.î

There’s plenty more at our website from ONO’s 2008 Stockholm meeting for media watchers who may have missed it. For example, our current president, Stephen Pritchard of the London Observer, noted web developer Joakim Jardenberg’s suggestion that, given the sniping between mainstream media and bloggers, we should ìstop calling ourselves ombudsmen and look upon ourselves as nurturers of an online community.î

But looking back yet another year: Unlike at the earlier Istanbul, St. Petersburg FL, London and Sao Paulo meetings of our increasingly international group, I thought our digital focus really crystallized in 2007 in Cambridge, MA.

ìOmbudsmen in a Time of Transitionî was an appropriate theme.

The sessions at the Nieman Foundation’s Walter Lippmann House headquarters came against the emerging background for newspapers and news ombudsmen of a firmly entrenched phenomenon of blogs.

In addition the Harvard meeting was our first that I had attended in more than 20 years from which we blogged reports to our website — itself another tool ONO did not have two decades ago.

As my colleague Ms. Howell’s comment above also suggests, blogging news ombudsmen still were the exception. In contrast was ONO member Jose Carlos Abrantes of the 140-year-old Povedor dos Leitores, Diario de Noticia of Lisbon, Portugal: ìI am a blogger since 2002 — five years,î he said. ìAnd I have five blogs.î

Most memorable for me were self-described ìBlogger Guyî Jarvis’ thought-provoking suggestions — which I blogged from the meeting for our website — from the session, ìIs There a Shared Watchdog Role for the Public, the Blogs & Ombudsmen?î

ìWe’re better off if we start to see stories as a process rather than a product,î he said. Sometimes, ìYou put up what you know and say this is what we don’t know, what do you know?î

He also said the best thing a newspaper can contribute to the conversation with its community is facts; so why not solicit some from, for example, the countless people who can tell how well computers are being used in a community’s elementary schools.

I still regularly check Jarvis’s thoughts regarding the possibilities for newspapers (he’s not optimistic), and for other kinds of media. Anyone who really cares about all this should check out his July 4 post on ìJournalistic narcissism.î Talk about ìindependence.î

Along with my own report to Palm Beach Post readers, there’s more leisure reading online from that meeting. For example the thoughts of Alan Rusbridger, editor of the consistently groundbreaking British newspaper The Guardian, which hosted our London meeting. (That’s some of us above in the center header photo at The Guardian’s visitor center, The Newsroom.)

Ms. Platt aptly summarized the editor’s comments on ìOmbudsmen in the digital futureî:

ìThe new model of journalism is more fluid, and demands more transparency. Trust, he said, is the only thing in the end that we have going for us, and that calls for ‘a searching examination of what we mean by journalism.’ î

Although spread too thin myself as a news ombudsman, I still was calculating how to incorporate a blog while fielding and investigating readers’ concerns, researching and writing columns and editorials, and editing the letters page — all tasks that I enjoyed, and which had value for readers. While I was doing the math on all that, the paper’s major downsizing last year removed me from the equation.

I still envision intriguing possibilities for readers, for my ONO colleagues and those still working to make newspapers work.

And regarding the ìblogger vs. MSM (mainstream media) culture war,î I have plenty of thoughts to share in future posts.

“I hardly have time to go to the bathroom,” said then-Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell. “Start a blog?”

Before we survey the recent Washington, D.C. meeting of the world’s news ombudsmen, indulge me a look back at our meetings last year in Stockholm and two years ago at Harvard.

Amid all the breaking changes at my former newspaper, I missed ONO’s 2008 Stockholm sessions.

What I particularly missed was sharing in the continuum of my colleagues’ thinking regarding what BuzzMachine.com blogger Jeff Jarvis succinctly had summarized during the previous year’s meeting: “The architecture of news is changing, because it can.”

Fortunately, our website carried “Reports from the 2008 ONO Conference.” They’re still available. Including the welcome from Par-Arne Jigenius, former Swedish national press ombudsman, “to the native country of the ombudsman institution” (not to mention the gender-neutral Swedish word). [Read more →]

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Future of the newspaper? The classy Coastal Star and the Palm Beach Arts Paper

July 1st · Barack Obama, Briny Breezes, HOM, I21, InterFaith21.com, Jerry Lower, Mary Kate Leming, Michelle Obama, Palm Beach Arts Paper, Palm Beach Post, The Coastal Star, Uncategorized

For those who may have missed it in a different context over at InterFaith21.com I had posted introductions to The Coastal Star newspaper and the Palm Beach Arts Paper.

In print and online, both publications are packed with contributions by freelance colleagues such as yours truly who recently were with The Palm Beach Post or other area publications.

The classy Star’s niche is coastal towns south of Palm Beach. Publisher Jerry Lower was director of photography for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Editor Mary Kate Leming, his wife, was media editor for The Post. Folks tell me they love the Star’s smart, locally focused content, the exquisite color photography on its high-quality paper. My InterFaith21 column is a regular there. I also contribute some political writing.

Similarly, inserted In the Star through special arrangement is the Palm Beach Arts Paper — “Your Seasonal Guide to South Florida Culture.” Again, the arts writers and artists featured are my former colleagues Sharon McDaniel, Greg Stepanich, Scott Simmons, Hap Erstein, Katie Deits, Pat Crowley and others.

Both publications are a great service for folks who constantly are telling us “I miss your” columns, articles, photos, artwork, etc.

But they’re not only great reads — which is the feedback I hear. They’re also great media stories in themselves regarding the future of our newspapers.

Stealing some of my lines written an Internet minute ago — “In this murky dawn of the digital age, as media-kind continue to stumble in search of ways to serve well and prosper” — I’m proud to say my Coastal Star and Palm Beach Arts Paper colleagues still are part of the answer.

The editor of The Coastal Star, Mary Kate Leming, and Jerry Lower, her husband and The Coastal Star publisher, hosting area journalists in August 2008 in Briny Breezes.

For those who may have missed it, in a different context over at InterFaith21.com I introduced The Coastal Star newspaper and the Palm Beach Arts Paper.

In print and online, both publications are packed with contributions by freelance colleagues such as yours truly who recently were with The Palm Beach Post or other area publications.

[Read more →]

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It’s 3 a.m., but President Obama…

June 26th · Barack Obama, Michelle Obama

…hardly need worry about this my first post at HanifOnMedia.com.

In fact, I’m asking you all not to phone the White House crisis line to bother him about it.

After all, the 3 a.m. crisis-call campaign ad was just another of then-Sen. Hillary Clinton’s political ploys that ensured she wouldn’t win the White House.

Americans have since made it clear that we want a different kind of politics: less cynical, more collaborative, more transparent.

(So does the rest of the world. Witness Iran, June 2009.)

Similarly, one of the great failures of our contemporary news journalism has been to present reporting and commentary as a monologue from on high. In contrast, our new media technologies and applications promote mutually informative conversation for any who use their G-d given intellect. Plus it’s ubiquitously available whenever people are reading, writing or answering the crisis line. Even at 3 a.m.

[Read more →]

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News Media, New Media, Politics, Culture & Spiritual Perspectives from South Florida to Infinity.

Taylor takes on new assignment

July 24th · Martin Luther King Jr., Priscilla Taylor, South Florida Times