Lara Logan

Those of us back in the US, covering whatever we cover, do so almost always under the cover of law. We may loose our jobs, or have an advertiser pull his run, but our lives are safe and we will work — safely — another day.

Our prayers are with Lara Logan — and with the hundreds other journalists injured, imprisoned and killed doing the job of bringing the world to us.

Bill O’Reilly to President Obama: “Does it disturb you that so many people hate you?”

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly was relatively civil [by O'Reilly standards] to President Obama during his live 15-minute pre-game one-on-one. But O’Reilly can’t help himself — he was repetitively argumentative, stepping on the President’s responses in what was as much a debate as it was an interview.

Gersh Kuntzman and the future of journalism

Gersh Kuntzman, a standout community editor, was running with a Flip before Al Gore invented the internet (I exaggerate, but so does Gersh — usually to good effect). Any reporter who completes the Graduate School of Journalism that he runs at The Brooklyn Paper can swim with confidence in the uncharted waters of New Media.

Gersh knows that media in the future will not mirror media’s past, and that journalists must adapt or die.

He was my editor when I sold The Brooklyn Paper to a division of NewsCorp in 2009, and he’s continued under the new management to good effect.

Here’s a double scoop sampler, fresh this week, of video a la Gersh —

Want more? Here’s Gersh taking a dump for a story, covering snow on a budget; riding a new bike lane, and immodestly accepting the SNA’s Editor of the Year award (start video around 1:17).

Meanwhile, video is just one part of Gersh’s exposition. He’ll rarely pass up an opportunity to personalize a news story (for example, inserting caffeine suppositories; reporting each of the many times his bicycles were stolen, and covering the night he posed nude for an art class of hipsters).

• • •

Gersh would not suggest that he has all of the solutions to Old Media’s woes, and it’s not clear that his formula will pay off in the long run.

But the old prescriptions will no longer work: Readers won’t take the medicine old-line editors would like to continuing doling out, and staff-short newspapers will be unable to fill them in any event.

If newspapers are going to survive in print or online, they’ll need to adapt to the kind playful experimentation that Gersh can’t suppress.

UPDATE: Click to link to followup.

We don’t need a weatherman to know how the wind blows, but everyone needs shelter from the storm

We’ve seen plenty of clips parodying “news”people who stand outside in stormy weather to capture the rain live at 5 (their mothers clearly did not teach their children well). Flip side: Here’s a guy who’s outside in the rain for a cause — and in this case, his performance makes sense.

Good luck, California!

But, hey, it’s a holiday week and we’re mandated to kick back. With that in mind, here’s a double dose of Dylan (the second via a trip to YouTube). Enjoy:

As we commiserate with a drenched California, a blizzard-socked Midwest, and a cold-snapped Northeast … and with hope that there will be joy in our hearts and peace in our relationships in the New Year … Lena Horne:

So, you want to be a journalist!

By Brooklyn Lee at xtranormal

Video via Dana Rubinstein. Thanks, Dana.