“It’s futile for us to even try and compete with the Internet as far as speed is concerned,” says Frederik Pleitgen, correspondent for CNN in Germany. Last week, we welcomed him as our final guest to our seminar “Reporting America,” a student-run seminar we organized at the Free University.
Pleitgen reviewed articles submitted by seminar participants to iReport. He also took the time to talk about his experience as a CNN reporter on assignment in Germany, Burma, Iraq and elsewhere.
We gladly took the chance to ask him some questions about the future of 24h news channels in the digital age. Here’s the interview.
CBS has started to put up old video clips from their archives on its website. Here is one feature called “See It Now” that takes Edward R. Murrow and his viewers to Berlin – a city marked by the Cold War, the Airlift, and bombed-out buildings. The images might be grain and dusty, but they paint a vivid picture of life in occupied West-Berlin.
This is what went down on Fox News this morning, according to Salon.com:
[Co-Host] Kilmeade and two colleagues were discussing a study that, based on research done in Finland and Sweden, showed people who stay married are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s.
And this is what Kilmeade (the brown-haired guy) managed to say about that study:
I am getting a strange Déjà-vu to 1933, when another dark-haired guy was talking about the need to have a “pure society”.
Also, I don’t even understand how he can get from A to B on this one. According to Salon, the study refers to people who stay married, not implying any racial or ethnic conclusions at all.
But luckily, Kilmeade is so stupid pure he can’t even coherently insult people – what the hell does “marrying other species” mean? Does he have an ape girlfriend at home? Maybe they can do a sequel on that for tomorrow morning.
It’s a sad day for political commentators around the world. In this “slow-news” day right before the Independence Day holiday, Governor Sarah Palin has announced she will step down before her term expires in 2010, turning over the governor’s duty to lieutenant governor Sean Pernell. Watch her remarks here:
Now, this is sad news! Since George Bush has been gone, and Dick Cheney along with him, there has been a lack of politicians to make fun of.
Yes, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina dutifully filled that gap with the announcement that he’d cheated on his wife with an Argentinian woman. That kept pundits and Jon Stewart going for a good few days – but for the long term, that’s not enough! And now, with the loss of Sarah Palin, who will be left to joke about? I am considering re-joining the Facebook group “I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin,” just for old times’ sake.
But friends, don’t fret: There are rumors Palin might seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012. Hurray and a happy Fourth of July, everyone!
USA Erklaert blogger Scot W. Stevenson has been a guest on tapmag before. We were happy to have him also visit our seminar last week, where he gave a compact and informative guest lecture on transatlantic journalism.
Here is the video (in German). Scot mainly talks about the differences between American and German interpretations of free speech, the rights and duties of the press, and how the Internet undermines German privacy rights via American websites. Good stuff.
Last night on Rachel Maddow, Kent Jones went for a little cultural superiority talk, when discussing the Eurovision Song Contest:
“You ever wonder what happened to countries that didn’t invent Blues or Jazz or Rockabilly or R’n'B or Funk or Hip-Hop? This happens!”
Just around the 100-day-mark of Barack Obama’s Presidency, he is faced with a great challenge and opportunity: naming a new justice for the Supreme Court. Of course, everyone wants to have a say in that.
This isn’t a new episode of The Hills or Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten, but these days it seems professional journalists have all caught some of that exasperated, gawking and driveling tone usually confined to fashion (or rather, pre-teen) magazines. The object of this circus: Michelle Obama.
The First Ladies of Fashion - Screenshot from vanityfair.com
Maybe it’s been a while ago that you fell in love, or maybe it was just yesterday. But childhood loves bear a special significance to many of us. They shaped who we are looking for in the opposite sex, what we want to be “when we grow up”, or which food we like.
First Loves in Polaroids on ourfirstloves.com
The site ourfirstloves.com has collected many such stories, from falling in love with spaghetti to memories of first pets. They’re funny, heart-warming, and sure to make you laugh. There’s also someone who shares my first love. His name is Frank and he is 80 years old, but I think I have to visit him someday because he has what I want: an own library.
Die schrecklichen Ereignisse von Winnenden wurden inzwischen medial verarbeitet und hundertfach durchgekaut. Was dabei heraus kam, war definitiv keine Sternstunde der deutschen Medienlandschaft. Auseinandersetzungen mit der Berichterstattung über den Amoklauf findet ihr unter anderem hier bei Spreeblick und hier bei Stefan Niggemeier (via Medienelite).
Die Tagesschau rühmt sich derweil, das Video mit den letzten Minuten des Täters nicht gezeigt zu haben – wohl aber ein verstörtes junges Mädchen – während das ZDF erklärt, das “Fälschen im Internet kinderleicht” sei (Video). Na sowas. Fast alle Medien haben inzwischen Fotos des Täters, Bilder seines Elternhauses, nennen teilweise die Adresse eben jenen Hauses, und Bild schießt wie immer den Vogel ab und druckt am Tag nach dem Amoklauf Bilder angeblicher Opfer (!!).
Viele Politiker ergehen sich ganz betroffen in Verbotsideen – Sportwaffen verbieten, Ballerspiele verbieten, Einlasskontrolle an Schulen. Einige dieser Ideen mögen sinnvoll sein, doch die tieferen Ursachen einer solchen Tat berühren sie nicht. Wie es mit 17 war, daran können sich viele scheinbar nicht mehr erinnern.