Issue Debates Archives

Today, Beachwood Reporter editor & publisher Steve Rhodes announced he was walking away from his paid gig as an NBC5 Chicago news blogger. According to Rhodes, earlier this month NBC5 removed specific posts of his from its local news blog without his knowledge or consent, allegedly due to personal request from upper NBC5 management--and Tribune Company execs.

A recent post to my personal blog announcing my decision to switch from Mac OS X to Windows 7 after 15 years as an Apple user generated more controversy than even I, the Chicago blogosphere's official pain in the CMS, expected. It's not a decision I made lightly, but I didn't expect so many people to take my announcement quite so personally. In an era when most blogging is done via browser-based web interfaces, is the choice of operating system really that big a deal for bloggers? And more importantly, why?

Last week, local dining-industry PR shop Restaurant Intelligence Agency wrote a blog post telling clients to concentrate on exclusive media pitches or risk being blackballed by angry reporters. As long as three years ago, however, media watchers began warning that exclusives can actually do more harm than good in a highly interactive, Web 2.0 media world. Who's right?

I've decided to call it quits as a Huffington Post Chicago blogger. A charter blogger at that--I was among those personally invited to scribe for the site shortly before its August 2008 Windy City debut. But after fourteen months, nonstop theft of my content by spam sites has left me weary and wanting out. It's not just a HuffPost issue, either. As print media interests across the country continue to launch blog content networks, why don't their resident bloggers receive the same vigorous infringement defense as newspaper and magazine writers?

A new report from consumer electronics site, Retrevo (@retrevo), promoters of last February's savvy DTV converter box coupon exchange program, finds that 36% of Twitter and Facebook users under the age of 35 like to post updates immediately after sex. Yes, Retrevo is using its so-called "Social Media Addiction Study" as a marketing ploy. But I have a feeling the findings will have many readers nodding in agreement. If embarrassingly so.

Last November, the Federal Trade Commission caused a group heart attack among bloggers and online advertisers when the agency announced its intention to regulate online endorsements. As the new rules debut this month, however, the only bloggers with cause to fear are the ones who consider their viewers purely as a means to a financial end, rather than as a community of real people worthy of respect.

It's amazing how unused to receiving criticism reporters can be. Since writing about the future of journalism in Chicago this week here on Chicagosphere (and my Chicago Carless and Huffington Post Chicago bylines), I've been inundated with comments from reporters telling me that I don't have the right to share my opinion or voice dissent when it comes to reporters...because I'm not a journalist myself. (For example, see Kane County journalist Dan Campana's comments here.) In today's video post I ask my audience, do you think you should believe everything you read just because a reporter writes it?

UPDATES 7/21/09:

--Read a wonderful Sun-Times editorial from Tuesday chastising CTA President Richard Rodriguez for driving to work.

--Read CTA Tattler's rebuttal, saying "family values" make it OK for Chicago's top transit honcho to drive to work.

Yesterday on Chicago Carless, I published a video post calling out Chicago Transit Authority president Richard Rodriguez for his recent decision to continue driving to work every day to his top job at the nation's second-largest public transportation agency. He refuses to commute by CTA bus or 'L' in order to have more time with his kids in the morning. And the Windy City's top transit blog, CTA Tattler, is defending Rodriguez's decision.