This Concludes My Broadcast Day (at The AP)

Back when television stations would sign off the air late at night, they'd run color bars with an announcer saying something like, "and this concludes our broadcast day".

So for me at AP, "this concludes my broadcast day".  The next part of my journey is with Bankrate.com, as Washington Bureau Chief. It is a tremendous and exciting opportunity. 

For now though, I'd like to share some thoughts about the steps proceeding this day.

My recollections of AP go back about as far as any memories I have. That’s because my father had his own 11-year AP career in 5 cities going back to my birth, ending in St. Louis in 1971 when I was 10 years old.  

In the 60’s, I remember visiting the New York headquarters at Rockefeller Center and watching a “Photofax” machine receive images just minutes after a space launch at Cape Canaveral. There were teletype operators back then and tickertape used to help transmit the news. It was there that he wrote the national broadcast report for about 5 years. I have more vivid memories of the bureaus in Topeka and St. Louis.


Fast forward. Having worked in radio for about a decade, including while in high school and college in Kansas, and later in Buffalo, New York, I would be hired by the AP in Dallas in 1986 by the late Brad Krohn. 
 

We operated the regional “Sunbelt” bureau for AP Radio and  the “Texas AP Network”.  A year later, I was transferred to the Washington Broadcast News Center, or what has been called the "BNC". There, I have remained for the last 25 and a-half years.

What a trip it has been.  

Some 26 years ago, we were writing on clunky custom-made computers, each requiring two large floppy disks. Heavy cell phones used in the field were the size of lunch buckets. A fax was sent by placing a phone receiver in an awkward, ill-fitting plastic cradle.

It was in July of 1986 that I first stepped inside the AP bureau in Dallas' Southland Life Building. That month, the Dow crossed over the 1,900 level.  It is now above 13,000. We recorded audio interviews on a cassette recorder or on reel-to-reel tape. A few miles from the bureau, Southwest Airlines was a scrappy upstart company vying against a seemingly unstoppable giant also headquartered in the city, American Airlines.  The latter has since filed for bankruptcy.  

Through it all, the core principles of good journalism have remained the same. But the changes in the media industry have been breathtaking.

By my own rough estimates, I anchored approximately 8800 AP Radio newscasts (including several dozen in the past few weeks after an 18 year interlude). During the AP All-News-Radio era I did about 15,000 “Business Updates”, live and taped. I will always remember the incredible current and former colleagues who always delivered, sometimes in the face of tremendous adversity. I think about wars, 9/11, earthquakes, the fall of the Soviet Union, deadly destructive storms and a whopper of a financial crisis.

On a lighter note, scores of visions and anecdotes rattle inside my brain. They were while working the overnight and every other hour of the day, 7 days a week including holidays. Amid the work, there were plenty of side-splitting laughs between the deadlines. 

The work included those hourly radio newscasts and live special reports, television stand-ups in the field and in the newsroom working with our wonderful photographers, interviews with celebrities and political leaders, and with admirable, regular people. I covered the economy's ups and the downs, and before that, handled the music industry beat in the late 80s while I was a news anchor. 


It is our craft to work with words, but this is one instance where there are no sufficient expressions appropriately reflecting the deep appreciation I have for my experiences. These opportunities were afforded me by a variety of managers, most of whom have since departed. But most of all, I'll treasure my friendships with highly talented, hard working colleagues.  In the future here in Washington, I'll still be down the street in the National Press Building or covering a story. So whether online, on the air, or elsewhere, I shouldn't be hard to find. 

Tips for PR Professionals: Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Shift

 (Speech to PR News' Media Relations Next Practices Forum 11/30)

Little did I know when I accepted the invitation to speak here on the digital transition, that I would be involved in a digital transition of my own. After 26 years with the Associated Press, I’ll be joining Bankrate.com at the beginning of the year as Washington bureau chief.

It is a tremendous opportunity and one that I’m very excited about.  I’ve had a wonderful run with the AP and am grateful for that experience.

The first we need to acknowledge is the pace of change, which I’d argue is more significant than most of us realize.  That creates both challenge and opportunity, the challenge to process, adapt and position, and the opportunity to be among the winners, and to separate from those who will fail to keep pace.

Change is occurring at virtually all levels of what we experience. Think about it.  Climate, global leadership, the economy, regulation, politics, technology.

An image that I think portrays this situation is “running to catch a moving train”.  

That’s the view from 50,000 feet.  Oops, I’m mixing transportation metaphors.

Let’s come back down to earth and talk about how some of these things affect journalists and professional communicators. As a benchmark of how things have changed, it is no secret that people are consuming news and information in different ways than before. Those differences are more pronounced among younger people.

As I’ve spoken to college journalism/communications students over the past couple of years, many expressed an affinity for printed newspapers. But if you ask them, how many of you are willing to pay for news, you won’t get many, if any hands raised. Someone wisely branded these folks, the digital natives, and they’re accustomed to getting information for free, don’t see a justification for paying for it.  

We know from the iTunes experience that people can be influenced to change, to be forced to pay for content.  Remember when Napster was all the rage about a decade ago, when mostly youngsters were essentially just stealing music all of the time?  

Steve Jobs and company came up with an ingenious model that made it easy to download and quickly pay for content. It is part of an experience using the browser,  iTunes, the ipod, and the Iphone.

Too bad, Steve Jobs wasn’t alive long enough to try to figure out a solution for news that works so well.  Our society, as we presently know it, is dependent upon excellent journalism. The quality of government breaks down when that information flow is hindered.

So there’s a lot at stake.

Let’s take a few minutes to offer some practical advice about the link between journalists and professional communicators. The first, most important thing is to urge folks to do their homework before making a pitch.

Of 100 pitches that come my way, 97 percent are non-starters.  That means it is a waste of time for me, and a waste of resources for you.  I’d argue that if you aren’t thinking about efficiency in this regard, then you might be basing your world on a potentially at risk business model.  The client, or the person paying your paycheck isn’t really paying you to throw a wild ball.  

So, why are the pitches wrong?

They don’t take into consideration what we do.  When I pick up the phone and I have someone say, I’ve got a guest for your show (and that happens), I’m forced to say something like thank you, but I don’t have a show. I cover breaking news and do enterprise stories on the business and financial beat.

In the past month alone, here are some actual pitches that came my way, that didn’t quite hit the mark -- expert tips on bird feeding, a hypnosis expert on how to manage election day anxiety, and interview with the author of “Buddy, How a Rooster Made Me a Family Man.”

For our audience and most of the audiences served by most of the journalists I know, we’re going straight to the consumer, the saver, or the investor.  The B-to-B story doesn’t work.  

I can appreciate why you might want to pitch a B-to-B story. But I can’t use it.

There’s something that you should think about, with regard to leveraging the news cycle better.  Every news shop has a news hole to fill.  And you’ve seen over the years, that some stories occupy much of that by their very gravity or import.
When those stories aren’t around, we’re left to fill the hole with the best thing we have.  

Two weeks ago, it was the Petraeus story, then that was pushed aside by the exchange of missiles and rockets in Israel and Gaza.  Then, a bit of a void, and TV, radio and newspapers, all did the obligatory Black Friday shopping story, which one can argue is a bit of a time filler. Last weekend was relatively quiet for news. My advice would have been looking to fill that space with your story.  

News organizations know that the holiday weekend is likely going to be fairly slow.  
Same for weekends in general, and Mondays.

Along with the changes in the business model that have come with the digital revolution have been that consumers have taken a table, at the virtual editorial meeting. That means that certain stories or issues get moved to the list of items that are up for consideration, because of their popularity.

The challenge is to identify when these situations occur, decide whether or how to respond and to do it in a timely fashion. That can create a PR crisis in no time, so the challenge is both on journalists and professional communicators to be ready to react.  

Another message I’d like to leave you with today, is that if you work it right, speaking globally here, you can trust us.  Or you can trust me and my colleagues, wherever I’m working. That means for us to move forward on a story, it helps to share some information.  

I can’t tell you how many times, I’ve had someone promise a “major announcement” seeming to think that by withholding information on what the announcement is, that we’ll just to show up with the hope that news is made.   

Experience has shown that when that is held out there for us, it is less than newsworthy.

The best situation is where we’re given an opportunity to prepare a story in advance, with an agreed to embargo, or release time. That way, we can get all of the content we need, such as an interview for radio, video, or quotations for print.  

Along the lines of thinking about story placement, there are prime times for radio, online video, television and print, and they don’t all intersect. Radio does best during commute times, so morning and afternoon drive. Online video is after people get seated at work, so beginning around 10 am or so. That shifts as the time zones come into play across the US. Newspapers want things ready for the morning paper. And TV has the morning and evening news shows, both local and network.

So, if you are pitching radio, don’t say we’re holding a news conference at 10 am and then we’ll do interviews after that. That’s too late. We’d want it for morning drive. Video, that might work.  

For me, there are a couple of ideal ways for a pitch to go. Ideally, someone gives me a head’s up, and says we’re going to have a story coming down the pike, maybe a week or so out, want to gauge interest.Since journalism tends to be a collaborative process, that gives us an opportunity to have a discussion to plan for coverage.  

Then, we have a discussion whether its a viable story, and we work out a process to get the story done.  I prefer email pitches, Phone calls are too hit and miss, so it is a much more efficient process to take a look at email. And I can hit delete more easily.

I do occasionally miss or fail to understand an email pitch. But my advice is to make the pitch as concise as possible. I don’t want to be pitched via LinkedIn, or Twitter, or Facebook. If you can’t sum up the pitch in 20 seconds, you haven’t though it through quite yet.

Social media are fine places for you to put some story ideas out there for general consumption, or to provide a link to a news release or something like that.

If you do reach someone over the phone, most of us know within 10 to 20 seconds whether the idea might have legs. It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally we’ll get someone on the phone who is argumentative. That’s not the way to build a sustainable relationship, that is if you ever want to try to do business with us again.

In that ideal world, that doesn’t exist, we have established relationships with pr professionals, and we both have an understanding of each other.  Over the years, those have been the most productive relationships that I’ve enjoyed relative to the workplace.

That’s why I’d argue opportunities such as this one here today, is a step in the right direction.  Thank you for being an attentive audience.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

For which I'm thankful:

I give thanks for my wonderful family, my bride Jeanne and son Chris at the very top of the list, good friends, including colleagues over many years in a number of locations, and the opportunity to work and make a living in journalism, which I love.

We give thanks for our nation, which has triumphed over so many daunting challenges, including the Great Depression, recessions, disease, two World Wars, the Civil War and evil as embodied in modern terrorism and Adolph Hilter and Nazism.

There are also the many, smaller things that we take for granted in our country. Natural beauty, entertainment, such as music and films, technology, college and professional sports, great restaurants and the ability to take a vacation and travel now and then.

We're very fortunate that the experiment, known as America, has given us all so much. Perfect? Of course, not.  But there's nowhere else on earth that works through its challenges so well, because of a system of laws and ideals ingeniously devised by the Founding Fathers and upheld by industrious people.

For these reasons and many more, we have reason to give a prayer of Thanksgiving each and every day our lives.

Things I Don't Get

1. Political rants on social networks.  It is akin to yelling in a conversation. Far from being about yielding understanding, it is about expressing anger, or frustration. And there's a lot of that.  Much of it doesn't appear to be even remotely aimed at engaging others to come over to one's own way of thinking. Or if it is, it falls well short of that aim.  It is similar to the problem with elected leaders.  Our democracy has been built on the need to forge useful solutions despite differences.  We'll improve as a society and a country when more of us place common purpose above self.

Remember the famed fable or myth of Narcissus, from which the psychological concept of Narcissism is derived? It is about a youth who falls in love with his own reflection, rejecting the advances of the female Echo.  His behavior leads to his demise. It correlates to the modern phenomenon of the political "echo chamber", in which too many people are casting their voices, unwilling to hear anything else.

Next, I'll lighten up for a few entries.

2. Pinterest.  Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but I tried to get ahead of the curve on .this increasing popular site, ranked 15th in the U.S. I've not found it useful or interesting, for me. Most of its users are women, so maybe that has something to do with my inability to "get it".

3. The NBA.  I'm not a basketball hater. In fact, I love college basketball. But they are two different games, pro and college hoops.  I went to a number of Washington Wizards games when Michael Jordan had his ill-fated involvement with the team, but that was the end of it for me.  And that was a decade ago.  These guys are great athletes, I know that. But that isn't enough for me to pay to watch. The cost of attending the NBA games has gotten ridiculously high in my view.  I would have rather gone to see the Washington Nationals, when they were a bad baseball team at a lower price, than support the NBA product.  And for me at least, it isn't much better on television, which doesn't cost an extra cent to watch at home.

4. People who "don't like" seafood, or some other entire class of food.  We're not talking about allergies or other serious health issues here. I've cooked all of my adult life.  And one little secret of cooking is that if you want to, you can sneak in all kinds of ingredients that people think they dislike but they will acknowledge actually improve taste.  It is clear to me that some folks have contrived their food preferences based on perception of the food.  In this case, in their minds, perception becomes realty. Not talking about vegetarians here either.  Most of them are honest and straightforward about why they are doing what they do. (I don't routinely sneak potentially unpopular ingredients into recipes, in case it comes up as an issue down the road). 

Back to my original point, which is a broader observation on the political part of all of this. As humans, despite a self-assured notion of our highest level of intelligence among earthy creatures,  we have seen limits to empathy.  A quick check of one definition of that word, according to Merriam-Webster: "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this".

Here's hoping that, on the things that actually do matter, (not the NBA, Pinterest or food preferences), we gain a greater ability to empathize with our fellow inhabitants of planet Earth.

With the new film about Abraham Lincoln gaining a lot of attention, I'm reminded of one of his most popular quotations. He was an aspiring Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate when he said "a house divided against itself cannot stand".  It was 1858, before the outbreak of the Civil War.  As a deeply religious man himself, Lincoln drew upon a passage from the Bible, Mark 3:25, which says "if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." 

Hard Times for Buffalo Sports Fans

There are few cities as heavily invested emotionally in a local sports franchise as Buffalo, New York and its Bills of the NFL. Between having married into a family from Western New York and still having good friends there, I've been feeling the pain of the team's 2-3 start, punctuated by a pair of historically bad performances on defense. 

It is what makes the story there additionally unfortunate.  And with the NHL owners locking out their players once again, like other hockey markets, the Western New York city can't turn its attentions to the Sabres this fall, not yet anyway.

So what's happening with the Bills? 

After spending a record amount on Mario Williams, the Bills are setting records on defense. and sadly, they aren't good ones. Here are some passages from the AP's story on Sunday's blow-out at the hands of the 49er's.

"The Bills became the first team to give up at least 550 yards in consecutive games in the same season since the 1950 New York Yanks."
"Alex Smith threw for a season-high 303 yards and three touchdowns, Frank Gore ran for 106 yards and a score, and the 49ers amassed a franchise-record 621 yards in blowing by the Buffalo Bills 45-3 on Sunday.

San Francisco also became the first team in NFL history with 300 yards passing and 300 yards rushing.
Since taking a 21-7 lead against the Patriots, Buffalo has been outscored 90-10. The Patriots and 49ers combined to gain 1,201 yards. "

As bad as this is, it isn't the worst nightmare that Bills' fans can envision. A nagging worry is that the team will move to a more economically robust market. The current Bills' lease at Ralph Wilson stadium expires in July of next year.  Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Charles Schumer have jumped into the fray in the effort to try to keep the team in Western New York.

As an aside, the Buffalo area has been through hard times, in retrenchment for decades in tandem with the migration to the Sunbelt and decline in heavy industry. But that seems like history now.  There is a more positive feeling in the air there these days. Work is proceeding on new development on the Buffalo waterfront as my friend Scott Brown recently reported for Ch. 2 there. 

The better vibe is long overdue for the hard-working and good-hearted people there, who I've only seen as very welcoming and friendly. It is something I had the good fortune to first experience when I was just out of college, moving from Kansas to take a job in a city where I knew no one before. 

Whenever any professional sports franchise goes through low a low such as this, there are no easy answers. The Bills aren't the Cowboys, or the Yankees or the Dodgers. Even with the heavy (and so far lost) investment in defensive end Williams, further big spending likely wouldn't provide a quick fix, even if an option.

In Washington, fans of the Redskins have come to know the frustration associated with a perennially underperforming team owned by someone willing to ineffectively spend a lot of money.  The Mario Williams disaster is reminiscent of the Albert Haynesworth defensive debacle in D.C.

Unfortunately for the fans of the Bills, "wait until next year" must ring a bit hollow at this point. The people there deserve better. They deserve a break.

My Birthday Thank You and Teddy's Big Win

I had a wonderful birthday which included time with my longtime friend and former colleague Ken Giglio at Nationals Ballpark. At the stadium, not only did the Nats win, but Teddy finally won the race of the presidents. (He got an assist from his mascot buddy from Philadelphia. See more about that below).


You know you’re getting older when, at the drugstore, you have talk yourself out of buying the Gummy Bears infused with fiber.

But seriously folks...

I’ve been touched by kind words and birthday wishes coming from friends and family. As I look to process that, I’m comforted by a couple of quotations that I found recently.

My sentiment is similar to that of Oklahoman Will Rogers, a former National Press Club member himself, raised near my own hometown. He once said that “strangers are just friends I haven’t met yet”.  On that same subject, Elbert Hubbard, a writer and philosopher known for founding the Roycroft community in East Aurora, New York, is quoted as saying “a friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same”.  My greatest blessings are my wife and son. But I’ve also been blessed many times over surrounded with forgiving people who affirm friendship all the time. Such kindness might come from someone whom I haven’t seen in years, or those in the course of my daily life. God bless you and thank you so much for that.

And if you didn’t see Teddy win. Here’s the video. Nats fans owe a debt of gratitude to the Philly Phanatic, who essentially body-checked the other three presidents, Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson.

On Boffo Box Office, music group Passion Pit and Taco Bell

Who knew that a nickname for a drive-in theater is a "passion pit"?

I recently happened upon that factoid as I was trying to find out the name of a group which provided the musical backdrop for a catchy Taco Bell commercial.  Yes, I know, that's a bit of an unlikely turn of events.  But that's the way a search for information can often twist and turn, particularly when the connections are just a "click" away.

You may have heard the music on currently airing commercials.

 
Here's a link to the music video "Take a Walk" by Passion Pit. The group is touring small venues in the U.S. this fall and is due to play on Saturday Night Live Oct. 13.

If Wikipedia has it right, the group took its name from Variety magazine's "Slanguage Dictionary". Back when drive-in movies were common, they were a favorite destination for families as well as teenagers with access to cars, including when on dates.  The latter is where the passion pit reference comes in.

As for the source of the information, Variety's punchy headlines have been drawing attention for as long as I can remember, often drawing upon alliteration or a touch of irony or humor. For example, the headline for the 1929 stock market crash was "Wall Street Lays an Egg".

In its coverage of the entertainment business, Variety has coined a variety of phrases that have become well-known beyond the trade.  If a movie is a hit it does "Boffo box office". A favorite is a "fave", a "sudser"  is a soap opera and the Disney company is the "Mouse House".

As to the effectiveness of the ads, I have yet to go to Taco Bell after its recent menu makeover. But I have learned a bit more about the music group Passion Pit and Variety's Slanguage dictionary.

Alfred E. Neuman and My First Lesson On Journalistic Impartiality

It was an early lesson in the ideal of impartiality.  I guess I was about 7 years old and was fully invested in reading comic books, Famous Monsters of Filmland and, for laughs, Mad Magazine.  Any fan of "Mad" knows that it fully explores satire, often seizing upon the news or themes of the day.

In the build-up to the 1968 presidential election, one edition of Mad included a bumper sticker, trumpeting its iconic character Alfred E. Neuman for president. Of course, they weren't serious. If you don't know about Mad's approach it involves a combination of humor and anarchy (the light-hearted kind). Being a kid who loved corny jokes (some things never change) I thought this would be well-placed on the back of our old Ford station wagon.  We were a one-car family back then.  The only trouble was my father, who then worked for the AP, was dead-set against it. And so it didn't end up on the car, or if it did, it wasn't there for long.

I understand now why he was right. Appearing to advocate for Alfred E. Neuman would be akin to saying "none of the above" in the election. Even though it was only representing my underdeveloped viewpoint at the time, people seeing my dad parking the car at the State Capitol building in Topeka, where he often worked, might not have gotten the "joke". 

Mad magazine helped me to get through the late '60s and early 70s. I probably read more versions of "Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions" in paperback than I should have.  Insert your own joke here about how I should have done my homework. 

I'm glad to see that Mad is still around, and apparently still poking fun at the political scene. In this day of embittered political discourse, some good-natured humor would be a welcome distraction. And that's not a partisan political comment.

Jon Stewart, Sarah Palin and Press Freedom: On The Minds of Visiting International Journalists

Journalists from around the world have common concerns and curiosity, as three separate gatherings in the past three weeks have reminded me.

Whether they are from China, the Middle East, or Europe, many of our reporting colleagues are wondering when and whether a new business model will be found.  Economic pressures continue to challenge nearly all sectors of the profession.  I even heard some express concerns about reduction among the older ranks of journalists in Africa. Institutional memory and experienced talent is at risk in many places.

If they are from countries like Mexico or Pakistan, they likely continue to have concerns about their safety, since those are among the most dangerous countries in the world for working journalists.

These trips are organized by the U.S. State Department, with the underlying hope of encouraging democracies, emerging and otherwise,  around the world. I've been fortunate to have been included in these discussions relative to my many years as an officer and as president of the National Press Club.

I also found that some journalists share concerns that I hear voiced by members of the American public. Some, including two from Turkey and the Caribbean, expressed fatigue regarding the length of the U.S. presidential campaign. Regarding the election, one journalist suggested that voters have been disappointed in the wake of hopes raised by then-aspiring candidate Obama.  A couple, maybe more, commented in negative terms about Republican Mitt Romney's overseas trip.

Where it went off the tracks recently involved Russian journalists.  One suggested that there essentially has been a cover-up, or at least a wholesale downplaying of the Occupy Wall Street movement.   I tried to explain that it was a top story for many days running, but that it essentially ran out of a storyline, not to mention the movement itself appears to have cooled, perhaps for lack of a central unifying theme and decentralized leadership.  The cold war may be over, but there are persisting tensions running between Moscow and Washington. 

On more upbeat themes, several of the journalists said they enjoy watching "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, concerned that young people might rely too much on it and less on the news media for their information.  One was curious about speaking fees charged by celebrities and others, asking specifically about Sarah Palin. I did note that the NPC had been unsuccessful in getting Palin to speak at the Club last year.

I even had a question from a journalist from the Middle East asking what happened with Rick Sanchez who used to anchor on CNN.  Most of these journalists look to the U.S. for leadership on the global stage, particularly involving the foremost freedoms we hold dear.

The Olympics Have Shown a Widening Digital Divide

Analog aficionados have squared off versus digital devotees. And a business model hangs in the balance.

Are you a person who doesn't want to know how the Olympics turn out until you can watch it on television? Or do you watch events live during the day on a tablet and perhaps again later at home on the wide screen?

If there's one thing the flow of text and video from the Olympics has demonstrated to us, it is that we're an information society divided.  It is not unlike the way we look at the national political discourse as red vs. blue states. Only in this case, it is those who want their information in real-time vs. those who only want content when it presented on television, even delayed.

Twitter presented a unique opportunity for people who wanted to watch hijacked streams of the opening ceremonies.  NBC opted not to offer online video streams of both the opening and closing ceremonies.  So when Tweets started appearing to point out a live feed (such as from the BBC intended for the British audience), more than just a few folks began watching.  In the end it didn't seem to hurt ratings and NBC now expects to avoid taking a loss on the games. It will be interesting to see if a future decision is made in favor of live feeds domestically in the U.S. for opening and closing ceremonies.When you are paying $1 billion for the rights, it is understandable that an enterprise is looking to manage risk.  The only problem is that enraged viewers can find also find a potentially sympathetic global audience through social media. Check out some of the angry hashtags on Twitter, such as #nbcfail. 

The bulk of the viewing public appeared to be just fine with watching the delayed telecast, as if it were happening in real time. Better at home on the bigger screen perhaps?

Similarly, it has been clear that some folks don't want to know about the outcome of the competitions ahead of their delayed viewing.  Social media is full of people complaining that they weren't given "spoiler alerts".  In case you don't know, an example of a spoiler alert is a sort of warning given before an important movie plot twist or resolution is revealed, such as in a movie review. This divide has put some news/entertainment organizations in the position of having to decide whether to help keep the "secret", at least with headlines, or strictly hold to tradition in reporting news when it happens uniformly across all platforms. 

It seems like a fair bet that as more "digital natives" and their successors come of age, as we older folks go on to that viewing room in the sky, the proportion of the audience demanding real-time content and information flow will predominate.  It also might be that traditional television and Internet technology will have melded by then anyway, making obsolete the question of whether to force delayed viewings and to withhold information on results.

Story Pitches: Some Are Over the Plate, Some Not

Between hundreds of emails clogging my in-box every day, countless telephone pitches and personal interactions over the course of a career, I've had all kinds of experiences with professional communicators. Most have been positive, but a few stand out as remarkable, and not in a good way. We're glad to hear story ideas, or pitches, but some left something to be desired. This is about process, not particular stories.

One should be quick to add that there are excellent actors and poor performers in every profession, including journalism. So, this isn't an exercise in bashing. People of all experience levels and capabilities are trying to get stories in front of journalists.

A few of the "greatest misses” since these were definitely not “greatest hits":

1) "Your competitor is reporting"... or "a newspaper is running a story today that"...

This is almost always a non-starter. If one of our rivals has gotten an exclusive or has done an enterprise story, more often than not we're going to pass. Some entities think it is worth the risk to hand a story to another shop. If that happens, we don't want to be eating news leftovers.  We want the exclusive. If that isn't possible, we want to get it first.

2) "You guys ran a story"... If we already have the story, why are you pitching us? Now, it could be that there's another angle that advances or, or adds a broadcast element to a story running in print. But that's not what people are typically offering.

3) "I have a guest idea for your show", or a possible "article". We don't expect that everyone understands exactly what we do, but a minimal amount of research or use of that “Internet” search thing can provide a lot of useful information. Fact is, I don't have a "show" and my work primarily shows up on broadcast/online platforms, such as radio or video. Starting a conversation based on a faulty premise isn't helpful.  If you need to talk with a colleague elsewhere in the organization, we can help get you to that person.

4)“Hi, Mark, how was your weekend. Is it hot there?” Answering my phone, someone I don't know starts off failing to identify themselves or asks a personal question. Since I don't work at a call center, I will often stop them and ask who is calling. We usually can tell within 10 to 20 seconds whether a pitch is worth pursuing. Since time is usually precious, is it best for us to work through the pitch ASAP. Some folks will be argumentative once we've figured the story isn't a good fit.  Not productive.

5) You'll need to register on our website before we tell you who to contact in our organization. Please don't require us to create a username and password on your Internet site to allow us get a media contact. We often need quick access to information and to get to the people who can facilitate it. There are few things more frustrating than organizations that refuse to put their media contacts on the public or newsroom side of their site. So, we're not enthusiastic about trying to remember yet another username/password combination. Basic contact information, including name, email and cell phone number, should be part of any news release.

6) We sent you a news release, but we're not available to respond to any possible follow-up. Any number of times we've been sent news releases with contact information that isn't relevant when the release goes live. The person is on vacation or their voice mail is full.What's the use in sending the release out then?

7) We won't be able to connect you with an example of a person cited in the news release. We were told that a majority of members of a trade organization shared a specific concern about the economic outlook. Being in broadcast news, I followed up to ask if they could connect us with one of those people to go on camera. Amazingly, they told us several times in the following days that no one could be provided. It is counterproductive to put out a release stating something supposedly widely believed and then being unable to provide a single person who can stand behind or verify the claim. How about anticipating that broadcast and other journalism organizations will naturally ask for an individual example and have people ready to go at a reasonable time? 

Finally, there are many, many examples of stellar communications professionals, some of whom I count among my very good friends. They don't need to be told about any of this. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm blessed to have been married for more than 20 years to a professional communicator. So, I raise these examples with the goal of engaging in a discussion how the process can work better.

A Hot Pepper (and Garlic) Epiphany: Pan Roasting

Recipes for salsa, pesto and bruschetta get a new twist thanks to a technique I learned about recently for pan roasting peppers and garlic in a small cast iron pan on the range-top.

Credit for this goes to Rick Bayless, as mentioned in his book "Mexican Everyday"

The first question you might ask is "why?" What's the benefit? It both adds something and takes something away. Pan-roasting takes some of the heat out of the chili and some of the bitterness out of the garlic.  What you gain is a bit of smoke, color and texture.

It is pretty simple and quick.  Simply put, take a small pan, place it on medium or hotter heat on top of the stove.  I use a spray or paper towel to apply the smallest amount of oil to the pan.  Then, place whole jalapeno or Serrano chiles along side unpeeled individual garlic cloves in the pan.  Heat the garlic for about 10 minutes and the chillies for about 15 minutes, or until they are black and blistered on all sides. The garlic cloves can then be peeled after they've been seared and the stems should be removed before use. The peppers can be frozen and used later. 

The recipe I really liked was for fire-roasted salsa, including cilantro, diced fire-roasted tomatoes (I bought a 15 ounce can), a bit of lime juice, a small diced onion, salt, ground pepper, three pan-roasted garlic cloves and two (or even one) roasted Serrano chili.  By using a food processor to combine the items to the desired consistency, you get salsa that's much better than what you get in a jar.  Be careful with the amount of chili-induced heat.  I love spicy food but have found that other folks aren't as tolerant of too many Scoville units.  One to two roasted Serranos were enough. And if you find you need to add heat, you can always turn to your favorite hot sauce to season to taste.

Of course, you can always heat to the grill to do the pan roasting, but this method is quick and easy and only takes a small amount of space on the range-top. And given our recent heat wave, standing in the sun was not on the top of my to-do list.

Since my initial trial, I've used one or two of these pan roasted items for Huevos Rancheros,  Bruschetta (with roasted tomatoes and garlic) and pesto (roasted garlic).

Since the Rick Bayless cookbook was the inspiration for this, I'd obviously recommend you pick up a copy.

What Really Happened When The Supreme Court Decision On Health Care Was Announced and How Journalists Responded

The Supreme Court's 2012 decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred as "Obamacare", will be studied by historians and legal experts for years.  Not only was it a watershed moment in politics and for the law as well, it turned out to be a dramatic day for the practice of journalism.  The latter is worth investigating, particularly for those of us either working in news, or those who are interested in knowing more about what happens behind-the-scenes.

As is widely known by now, there were some notable mistakes made in the initial reporting of the complicated decision. 

One of the best, in-depth treatments of how the coverage was managed has been produced by the respected SCOTUSblog. The blog was followed closely for its own coverage of the decision, as you can see from the following link. The account runs more than 7,000 words.

Not only does this very well-detailed account go into what was happening with reporters and others working the story, it looks inside the inner workings of the White House and the court itself.  The event may also have been important to affirming the value of Internet-only journalism at a time when newspapers and other outlets are continuing to struggle with the business challenges of the digital transition. 

Here's the detailed entry, titled "We're getting wildly differing assessments".

A Forrest Gump Moment During Iran Contra in 1986

As a reporter, you never know how things are going to turn out when covering an event or story.

From time to time, you get a front row seat to history, or a small piece of it. That's what happened in 1986 when President Reagan tapped then Senator John Tower of Texas to be among those investigating the Iran Contra Affair through the Tower Commission.

This was the story of the day, at the time. And once he was named, journalists needed to gather reaction from Tower himself. That day, Tower was in Dallas and I was sent out with an AP photographer.  He gave a brief statement and I filed for radio and print. The way it worked out, that photographer got this shot of Tower, and I just happened to be in it.  The photo was on the front page of The New York Times, one of the Dallas papers and, I suspect, a number of others.  I'm the guy in the trench coat to the right. (click photo at the left to enlarge New York Times photo).

Tower himself would die in a plane crash in 1991.

As if to bring this full-circle, I hosted another then-member of the Tower Commission, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft for a National Press Club Luncheon in 2011.  By that time, Iran Contra didn't come up, but we had a full discussion of issues involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and terrorism.  (Photo below courtesy of Noel St. John)

Here's a link to the video of the NPC Luncheon.

Talking Heads and Soundbites -- 26 Years and Still Going Strong

Years ago, in the midst of the punk and alternative rock eras, one had no idea that some of the lyrics splashing around would find resonance a generation or two later. 

"You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?"

So a few grey hairs later, I'm reminded of the song "Once In A Lifetime" by the Talking Heads, which referred to the notion that one could essentially wake up realizing that a lot of time had passed.
Such is the case as I reflect on the fact that it was 26 years ago that I reported for work for the first time at the AP Radio outpost in Dallas. I had packed all I owned into a two-seater Ford EXP with no air conditioning for the move from Buffalo. (Air conditioning wasn't a must in Buffalo, New York). I drove to stay with my mother for a few days in my hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas, before making the sharp turn south to the "Big D".

It was an exciting time. I truly appreciated the tremendous opportunity I was given, although sad to leave my friends behind in Buffalo, where I'd worked for the previous four years for WEBR and WBEN. In Dallas, I was anchoring for the Texas AP Radio Network and providing reports for the national network.  I would work with tremendously talented and kind colleagues led by the late Brad Krohn, as well as Amanda Barnett and Jim Ribble.  They helped me to embrace the technology and demanding work flow. Amanda and Jim are still in the industry doing great things in Atlanta.

Back then, we were using reel-to-reel tape, cart machines and a proprietary computer workstation to get our work done. That was as the digital transition was just beginning, before most people were using personal computers and cellular phones were heavy lunch bucket devices with no Internet connection.

A year later I would be moving to Washington, where I've continued to work for the AP, mostly focused on business and the economy.  Since then, I've been blessed in more ways than I could have ever expected, thanks to my wife Jeanne and son Christopher, other family members as well as my friends and colleagues.   Alongside radio and video, social media has been added to the media mix I  think about.  And users of media have sat down at the table to help decide what we'll be working on during any given day.

By the way, I didn't replace that small car with no air conditioning until immediately after my arrival in Washington.  That was a lot of driving to afternoon news conferences with the windows down around the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  

So, as I listen to the music of the day, admittedly less now than back in the Talking Heads era, I can't help but wonder what pithy lyric might find predictive resonance down the road.

Better Words Needed!

Back when I was a kid my grandmother referred to every refrigerator as a "Frigidaire". I didn't understand it because the impact of the brand name was lost on me. In this way, she was a creature of habit. Her usage of the term reflected the fact the brand was the first major commercially available product, which was widely used.  Of course, competition including other brand names eventually overtook the marketplace, but she and many other Americans never quite got around to updating their vocabulary.

We find ourselves similarly challenged now during a time of rapid technological change, and it may not occur to us that we use terms that are literally outdated.  The problem is that we have trouble coming up with better replacements.

Examples? Do you say you "type" on a keyboard?  But, in fact, you haven't used a typewriter in decades, if ever.  Similarly, some of my colleagues in journalism will continue to refer to "taping" an interview, even though the analog tape-based technology hasn't been used for some time. Is that a "film" you are watching? Well, maybe it is, but it might be all digital.

As a half-hearted attempt to get it right, I might be guilty myself and have heard other folks say they "DVR'd" something, or used the recording capability of their cable set-top box to capture a program for later viewing.  Seems like we should be able to do better than that with the word selection. But we're still working on it.

Can you think of other examples?  What other terms might be at risk?
Language tends to be a living and breathing entity. But there are cases where the words fail to keep pace with the evolving times because we are thinking about our past habits.

Our Two Part Video Project -- Challenges Confronting Young Job Seekers

Today's college graduates, who entered school when the financial crisis hit its zenith, face complex challenges. These include a tough job market and a mountain of student debt. Here are parts 1 and 2 of the video effort. They are companion pieces to a 10-part radio series, which aired on AP Radio. A big thank you to my New York colleague Luke Sheridan.


Part 1 -- Overview: (YouTube link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXMYdWM8fAw&list=PL3BFDF96115D41804&index=2&feature=plpp_video

Part 2 -- Student debt: (YouTube link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY6HkUBOhWk&list=PL3BFDF96115D41804&feature=mh_lolz

Paying Attention -- Being Focused on the World Around Us

I haven't posted many links on this blog, but this is a remarkable essay.  At a time when our behavior is being transformed by technology, we all need to give considerable thought to the negative implications of those changes.  Have you ever been in public watching a parent ignoring their child because they're focused on their mobile device? And what do these habits say about us? This is a quick read and quite thought-provoking. Although it is from the Harvard Business Review, it could just as well be delivered at a homily at Sunday mass.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/06/what_captures_your_attention_c.html?awid=8429786022698583094-3271

Commencement speech at Field Kindley, Coffeyville, KS

Thank you. I want to begin by offering a note of thanks to everyone who played a role by inviting me here today, beginning with Darrell Harbaugh, who began here at Field Kindley just as I was leaving.

On the podium at Field Kindley High School, Coffeyville, KS with (L to R) Darrel Harbaugh, retiring Debate coach, myself and Principal James Dodge, who is also retiring.

Come to thing of it, it seems like I'm the only person here who isn't graduating, retiring, or getting a promotion.

Congratulations Mr. Harbaugh for your excellent leadership of the Debate program here and best wishes on the next phase of your journey.

Also to Principal Dodge and Assistant Principal Vargas. Congratulations on your new responsibilities, as well as to Principal Dodge as he wraps up his successful tenure here.

Also thanks to Superintendent Dr. Robert Morton and Dr. Hamm, whose career here goes back to when I was a student. But he was a child prodigy, so he was quite young then.

Let me begin by saying what a wonderful honor it is to have a few minutes to speak to you here today.

My beginning here

All those many years ago when I was in your spot, I could have imagined many things, but it never crossed my mind that I might be back here addressing the Field Kindley Commencement. So this is a great pleasure.

Graduating students. First, congratulations. Today marks a key achievement of your promising lives.

I'm here to encourage you, to continue your journey with pioneering Kansas spirit, however your own vision of the future might look. For me, I always knew that I wanted to work in broadcasting, I just wasn't sure how I'd get to where I wanted to be.

I did know that I had to leave, not because I didn't love it here, just because that's the nature of the media industry. The best opportunities for a broadcast journalist are in larger cities. And so, I worked hard, here first as a student, got my foot in the door of KGGF. My journey led to Washington, where I've been for most of my life now.

I've talked with a lot of college students over the past year.

It is understandable why they have been concerned about their own prospects given the severity of the economic crisis that presented itself in full view 4 years ago.

But instead of focusing on the negative, it is more important for you to embrace opportunity.

And to realize the many unique good things that are happening at this moment in the history of our country, and our planet.

When I was a student here, we spent a lot of time in the library, looking at news magazines, like Time and Newsweek. 

 Awash in information, misinformation

 From an access to information and media standpoint, and in other ways, we were more separated from the rest of the world because the Internet and personal computers were still being developed.

In the past 20 years, everyone in the developed world, particularly those in free societies, have been more closely tied to one another than any other point in all of human history.

One of key reasons why there have been uprisings in the Arab world over the past year, has been access to information, both through Facebook and Twitter but also because of television news, such as the Al Jazeera network.

What does that mean for you? Well for one, you have excellent access to information. 

While the world is awash information, there's also excellent access to misinformation.

Whether it is to do something as evil as fomenting terrorism, or just trying to take a shortcut in winning voter support for a political aim, there are plenty of forces in play that seek to distract all of us, from the truth. As a journalist, I'm involved in the fight for truth. Millions of dollars are spent aimed at distracting people, both voters and our elected leaders.

The father of American humor Mark Twain, who himself was a journalist and died over 100 years ago, said “The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so.” 

Manage your digital reputation

There's also more information available about connected individuals that's accumulating in our digital world. That puts the burden on each one of you to take care managing your activities online, managing your image, in a way that won't do damage when it comes time to apply for a job, or date, get married, or have children who can look up what you have done.

If you haven't started thinking about what kind of digital footprint you are leaving, I'd urge you to do so, for your own protection.

Even though you are graduating today, your work isn't done. Your futures are tied to your own ability to seek the truth, to seek knowledge and to continually engage in a search for your own identities.

If you are headed to work, to learn a trade, attend a college or university, or raise children at home, all of those are the places where the next opportunities are presented.

Maybe it has already been the case for some of you. I can tell you my own journey, personally, professionally, and spiritually, has taken many unexpected turns.

Opportunities for doing good

One of the beautiful things about life, is that we do not know how it turns out. At this point, you might be saying, I don't like thinking about the unknown. There's too much white space on the blank page.

But try to look at all of that blank space, as an opportunity for your own achievements. They are opportunities to seek the best in other people and set a high standard for your own life, whatever the day to day might bring.

I'm the father of a college student, Christopher, who graduated from high school just two years ago.

When my son was in elementary school, I gave him some advice.

I urged him to offer a compliment to at least one person, ideally a different person, everyday.

He learned over time that this was something that gave him positive feedback. By helping others, perhaps in just a small way, he was building goodwill. Helping his community and support team, one day at a time.

I can tell you far away from here, in busy Washington. That's not the way things always go.

You might say "good morning", or hold a door open for someone, and the simple gesture might go unnoticed and not returned as it is here, where people are more willing to acknowledge strangers. But we should always do what we can, trying to make a positive impact where we can.

One of the other assets you have is that you are living in the United States. Just by being born here, you have an advantage that other people on the planet envy. We live in a nation of law, free from a shooting war in our homeland. Most people have access to health care, food and other vital resources.

With great power comes....

Super heroes are big in the movies these days.

One of the lines in the Spiderman movie was “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Late former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had a similar, more elegant and developed sentiment when she said “Freedom makes a huge responsibility of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”

So, we can extend from that the hope that all of us can be -- the best we can be. he smartest we can be. The healthiest we can be. To be the kindest we can be.

We have the opportunity, we have the freedom. Now we just have to choose to take the right turn.

Look for mentors

I've had a lot of good fortune in my life. It is important to be open to opportunities when they present themselves.

Even after high school, you'll meet people who can serve as mentors whether you are my age, or yours. They might help you to know more about religion, or they might also help you to learn a skill, or to guide your career.

I've had the benefit of having many people like that in my life. Here in Coffeyville, it was then-debate coach Les Kuhns, government teacher Gene Neely, who was also our adviser in Key Club.

At the radio station KGGF, a man who some of the parents here might remember, Bill Miller gave me a huge break and great room to learn, and most importantly, to make mistakes on the air.

Even in recent years, I’ve sought the counsel of people who could help me to learn about something.

As Kansans, you carry inside you a pioneering spirit, the same one that helped to settle the Old West and to stare down the Daltons. It is a heritage that involves rugged individualism. Whether your own journey keeps you close to home, or far away, those characteristics will be a great help.

I talked earlier about access to information and technology, which are, on balance, positive.

There are risks presented with technology also. I see that people are less willing to make real connections. So while having friends on Facebook has its benefits, it is the non digital connections that you make that will help you the most.

Look up from your phone, and embrace the beauty of the world around you. There's a lot to be said about going outside your house, looking at the sky and seeing what kind of day it is. It is the difference between saying, it is a beautiful day, and appreciating that, as opposed to seeing the digitally presented weather forecast.

You, too, can do it!

Over the years, I've met all kinds of people, leaders at the highest levels of government, celebrities and just good, hard working people.

At one level, it is a great thing to be able to have a conversation with some of your heroes. For me, some of those have included, baseball ironman Cal Ripken jr., or the Reverend and great civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, or Betty White or Morgan Freeman.

Just over a year ago, we celebrated at the National Press Club with two of my heroes from Montgomery County, Bill Kurtis who has been a great success in the news business, not to mention the narrator in Wil Farrell's Anchorman (a sequel is in the works by the way). You know Bill Kurtis also as the force behind the development in Sedan, originally from Independence. Another great person from here in town is television's Chuck Bowman, who went from Coffeyville, to Tulsa and then Los Angeles. He acted on TVs old Dragnet, and then directed TV's Incredible Hulk, Dr. Quinn and more recently ABC's Castle among others.

These are great men who worked hard and made their marks in the most competitive of fields. And there are dozens like them, hailing from Southeast Kansas, who have done well, thanks to their dedication and hard work.

So you all of you, you can make your own way too.

A seemingly never ending series of decisions are yet to be made. You have your minds, and your hearts, including your education here, to help guide the way.

You can expect to have a great journey, if you decide to make a difference across the street, or half a world away.

Challenge "conventional wisdom"

So, before I close, (and that's not a cheap way of getting you to applaud because I'm signaling that I'm almost finished) I'd like to point out how we can all look at the world a little differently, a little more clearly, if we challenge popularly held notions.

And we can begin by knocking down the concepts of conventional wisdom and common sense. Wisdom is not conventional and sense isn't all that common.

Proverbs abound that are just a bunch of bunk. Let's take a look at a few.

1. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. What's actually true is that what doesn't kill you can mess you up for life and even make you wish you were dead.
   Many of these have to do with health, it seems.
2. Time heals all wounds. All wounds, really? Have you ever heard of a scar?
3. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Wrong. Otherwise, the multi-billion dollar drug industry would fold. When was the last time a doctor asked you how many apples you've had? Good try, apple farmers!
4. Honesty is the best policy. Maybe most of the time. But most people would rather be complemented than be told the absolute truth. And whenever my wife Jeanne brings home some new clothing, it always looks absolutely fantastic. Right dads out there? Actually, in my wife's case, it does always look great.
5. Love is Blind. Again, contradicting the popular notion that I just mentioned. So are we supposed to be honest, or be act with the blinders on? Probably something in-between is best.
6. All good things must come to an end. Well, not all good things end. A lot of bad things must end too. Or don't. So, I don't know what that saying is supposed to do for us.
7. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Actually, you can. In fact, before you eat it, you must have it.

And finally...

Just two weeks ago, as I was working on this speech, I realized I was celebrating my connection to Kansas . That same afternoon I went out in to my yard to plant some seeds I had grown over the past couple of weeks.

Those were Sunflower seeds. And as I was working with them, I thought, “ah, ha”.

A celebration of my connection to the Sunflower state.

Our collective journeys have all brought us here together today. And I consider that a blessing.

Stay in touch with your Coffeyville and Kansas roots. Embrace your inner Kansan. Plant some sunflower seeds. Question that “common” wisdom.

If you do that, continue to work hard and strive to do the right thing, maybe even set a goal of helping to make other people's lives better, the result, just might surprise you.

Oh, and there's one more saying that doesn't hold true, “You can't go home again”. Everyone here has been so nice and welcoming. It has been a wonderful visit back to my hometown.

Thank so very much for having here today and for being such a kind audience. Congratulations, parents, students and teachers, and Go 'Nado!