A Change in the Wind

Don't like the latest science? Kochify the News!

As has been much discussed, the Tribune chain of newspapers -- including the Los Angeles Times -- is up for sale, and the billionaire Koch Brothers say they want to buy it, according to reliable sournces, including the Wall Street Journal. A HuffPo summary:

Tribune emerged from bankruptcy in 2012, and began preparations to sell off its newspapers earlier this year. New York Times' Amy Chozick reported that the Koch brothers were the frontrunners to buy the papers, ahead of other potential buyers including Rupert Murdoch. The reports have prompted some Los Angeles Times staffers to say that they would quit if the sale went through, and a grassroots fundraising campaign to buy the Tribune papers.interested in buying it.

Now, back on the Internet, a clever new website called Kochify the News allows readers to take real news items and "Kochify" them with the click of a mouse.

Here's an example. A front-page story on climate change and drought begins with a classic 21st-century headline:

Climate Change May Bring Drought to Temperate Areas, Study Says

Wet areas will get wetter and dry areas will get drier, says a scientist, describing the findings of a NASA-led study on rainfall trends. Drought-prone areas include the Southwestern United States. 

And, now, in the Kochified version: 

Climate Change to Add More of What We Love to All Our Favorite Areas

Thanks to the wonders of Earth's naturally-changing climate, our favorite sunny travel destinations are getting drier, warmer, and just better. But don't worry rain-lovers, wet climates are going to be flooded with more watery goodness too. 

It's astonishingly good -- and intended to be a start on the way to building an on-line constituency. 

h/t: Jack Shafer

The lull in the rise of global temperatures: NYTimes

Justin Gillis for the NYTimes writes definitively on "the lull" in the rate of increase of global temperatures. It's confident writing that coolly savors the ironies of the crisis, even as it depicts the news with jaw-dropping facts. Speaking of the leveling out of global mean temperatures in the last fifteen years, he writes: 

What to make of it all?

We certainly cannot conclude, as some people want to, that carbon dioxide is not actually a greenhouse gas. More than a century of research thoroughly disproves that claim.

In fact, scientists can calculate how much extra heat should be accumulating from the human-caused increases in greenhouse gases, and the energies involved are staggering. By a conservative estimate, current concentrations are trapping an extra amount of energy equivalent to 400,000 Hiroshima bombs exploding across the face of the earth every day.

So the real question is where all that heat is going, if not to warm the surface. And a prime suspect is the deep ocean. 

Another suspect is medium-sized volcanoes (and this story mentions Asian air pollution). Many climatologists, such as Bill Patzert, would point to the recent shift of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation as a factor that tends to result in dryness and cold, and tends to hold down the rise in the global mean.

Surely the final result will be a mix of these factors. 

But what a terrific story by Gillis.

How do you find your stories? Nancy Rommelman

Nancy Rommelman is a fascinating writer and an equaintance: she has a lovely column on the freelance (don't say free-fall) life here. A quote:

How do you find your stories?

"I sometimes find story ideas in the Metro section of the newspaper, one-inch items with headlines like, “Man Nails Girlfriend’s Fish to Floor.” The short-shrift given to these stories will spark my wondering, what is this about? Usually the story doesn’t make complete sense; I want to look more deeply. I wrote about mushroom foragers in Alaska after reading one line about them in Bon Appetit. The reference started a little itch that I needed to scratch; the scratch bloomed to a topic, the topic to a pitch, the pitch to a story. Follow that itch."

I love that she writes both fiction and non. Gotta love those smarts. Here's a book of her stories from an interesting Portland-based press called Dymaxicon. 

 

 

 

Newspaper reporter the bleepiest job in America

Allegedly. Lousy pay, poor benefits and retirement, if any, little security, high pressure, demanding hours. From the Poynter Institute, which tasks itself with developing and promoting the press and reporters, this news: 

Newspaper reporters can add CareerCast.com to the list of sources telling them to flee journalism.

The group took 200 jobs and ranked them in order from most to least desirable, based on factors such as environment, income, outcome and stress. Add all that together and newspaper reporter rings in at a dismal 200 out of 200 – the worst job on CareerCast’s list, below lumberjack, janitor, garbage collector and bus driver.

“We look at a wide range of criteria, as analytical as we can be,” said Tony Lee, CareerCast’s publisher. “There are some subjective pieces but, frankly, it’s really driven by the data.”

The data come from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and trade associations.

Newspaper reporter ranks below bricklayer, security guard, artist, author, painter, dishwasher, and janitor. Hmmmm. 

Economist Justin Wolfers points out a flaw in this ranking. He tweets: 

Simple observation: If newspaper reporter really were the worst occupation in America, it would be easy to find a jobonline.wsj.com/article/SB1000…

Bogart would say he has a point. From the classic Deadline USA, l952.

From the edge of climate change: Vice (mag) in Venice

A profile of Vice magazine (and its CEO Shane Smith) in The New Yorker concludes with this memorable scene. And yes, this was a report on climate change, from a believer in "environmentalism" -- Smith.

We took a water taxi through the canals, past crumbling buildings and water-stained walls, and arrived at San Marco just as the floodwaters were rising. The area was swarming with tourists, and a narrow pathway of raised wooden planks was threaded precariously through the square. As the water rose, the tourists crossed the square on the planks, shuffling in a long, two-person-wide line, like animals boarding Noah’s Ark.

“It’s fantastic,” Smith said, watching the tourists. He began to talk about global warming. “Humans won’t do anything unless we have a gun pointed to our heads. But I think this is it. I think we have a gun pointed to our heads. It’s like, ’K, chaps, it’s time to fucking fix it!”

Lombardi had bought Smith and his crew some plastic waders from a souvenir stand. He and his cameraman put them on and strode into the knee-deep water. Smith kept his hands in his pockets as Fairman filmed. I waded a few feet behind. The water was filthy, and occasionally a dead pigeon floated past. Someone was playing the piano in a café at the edge of the square, and its tinkling sounds filled the air. Smith began doing a little waltz in the water. He marvelled, “It’s all eerily surreal.”

About halfway into the square, Smith stopped. A few hundred yards away, he spotted the Bar Americano, which had a foot of water inside but appeared to be open for business. Smith had an idea. “You know what’ll make this a Vice story?” he called over his shoulder. “We’re going to walk into a bar and have a drink!” The idea had all the elements of a Vice feature—a collision of tragedy, hedonism, and world-shaping events. Smith mused, with evident pleasure, “The world is sinking, and we’re having a drink.”

He waded in the direction of the bar, and the cameraman followed. A tourist pointed and shouted, “CNN!”

Does make climate change sound kind of...fun. 

A pic from a traveler of Venice at high tide. Believe it or don't. 

Portlandia mocks aggregated "journalism" today

From a real honest-to-God pitchboard (for journalists) on a national site: 

"Proposal: Daily series of trending news rewrites 
Publisher: Newsmax Media 
Fee: $160 
Urgent?: No

Description: Seeking writers for the section of our website that aggregates and rewrites trending news. Posts on average should take 25-40 minutes, be 300-350 words and we expect eight stories a day in a 6a-3p window (to be expanded soon). We are flexible to shorten days and willing to work with a writer for as few as 4 posts a day (reducing the rate proportionately). Good for writers who want steady work and can commit to 2-3 days per week minimum. Examples of content: newsmax.com/thewire"

My reaction is one of horror. But the incredibly imaginative Portlandia had a better idea -- mockery. They really went to town with the ridiculousness of aggregator sites, coining a wonderful/awful new word for a purveyor of such. Not a journalist, a "linkalist." To wit:

"On last Friday’s episode of“Portlandia”, the Portland Tribune was sold to LinxPDX — “a very successful online blog” — and editor George Heely was demoted to “linkalist.”

New owners Trudy (Carrie Brownstein) and Craig (Fred Armisen) meet with the staff and tell them about the paper’s new direction (“we’re just going to lose the whole print thing”).

Trudy: “People don’t need articles anymore, and we don’t want to provide things that people don’t care about.”
Craig: “They probably read about every fifth word, so just make it those five words.”

George (played by George Wendt) wants to keep doing real journalism, but he’s told to change his ways.

Trudy: “The site is called LinxPDX; we don’t actually have articles. We have links to other articles.”
Craig: “Think of yourself less of a journalist and more of a linkalist.”
George: “But we can still write stories.”
Trudy: “In your free time you can write all the stories you want.”

 

The tweet that got “70 million hits.”

In the end, George becomes the newsroom hero as his tweet — “Charlize Theron NSFW” — sets a LinxPDX record with “70 million hits.” When a colleague looks at him in disgust, George barks at the guy: “Get off my back, will ya? It’s the future!”

I asked the real Portland Tribune newsroom boss what he thought of the episode and how his newspaper was portrayed.

“I thought it was pretty funny,” says Tribune executive editor Kevin Harden. “And, given the state of the industry, I cringed just a bit because it tickled the truth.'"

[from veteran journalism watcher Romenesko]

Seth humiliates Charlize in front of a billion people

The World's Most Famous Man throws it down, bringing the scorn to the 2012 Academy Awards and Seth McFarlane:

in the thick of the “We Saw Your Boobs” song, which must have lasted five minutes all by itself, this line jumped out at me: “Jodie Foster in ‘The Accused’”. And I thought to myself “wait, isn’t her nudity in that movie part of a *rape scene*?” It threw a really sour note into what was supposed to be light-hearted. 

But the in-depth thing I want to talk about is the “reaction shots” to the song, pre-taped by game actresses who were playing along. The substance of these reaction shots highlights just what’s so awful about McFarlane singing this song: mortification from most of the actresses and a little fist-pump of triumph from Jennifer Lawrence when he says we haven’t seen hers.

The song, the reaction shots and Seth McFarlane’s general attitude are all based on a commonplace and awful trope: that sex is a contest, and that men win and women lose when sex or nudity happens. It’s an archaic, prudish, creepy concept that derives from twisted notions about female purity and women-as-property.

McFarlane thinks if he has seen a woman’s breasts, he has won and she has lost, and he is now entitled to gloat about it. Women whose breasts Seth McFarlane has seen are meant to feel humiliated and degraded by that fact, even though it’s expected of actresses to show their breasts to get work. Meet the expectations placed on you by your industry, talented actresses? Too bad you’ve now injured your own dignity such that Seth McFarlane can mock you about it in front of a billion people. Even if your character is naked *because she’s being raped* (see point 2 above), it still amounts to a victory for Seth McFarlane to have seen your breasts.

If you watch the poor quality clip (in all senses of the word) you will see McFarlane make a mocking reference to seeing Charlize Theron's breasts, and see her hide from the camera in shame -- or disgust. 

David Perlman, the science reporter who just won't quit

A few years back the science writer Chris Moody suggested we need to see scientists less as nerds and more as rock stars.

Yes, and by the same token, great science reporters too. 

In that vein, here's a lovely look at David Perlman, who has been reporting on science for the San Francisco Chronicle for longer than I have been alive. 

SAN FRANCISCO — David Perlman had two deadlines on his mind as he elbowed his way through the Exploratorium, cane in one hand, notebook in the other.

As the San Francisco Chronicle's veteran science writer, Perlman has been covering the granddaddy of hands-on science museums since it was just a glimmer of an idea in the fertile mind of physicist Frank Oppenheimer, the "uncle of the atom bomb."

Now, after 43 years in the elegant but drafty Palace of Fine Arts, the museum was getting ready to close before moving to new digs on the Embarcadero, and it was Perlman's job to chronicle the last day in its original home.

So the first deadline was his own — 6 p.m. to make the next day's paper with a front-page story. The second belonged to the woman tagging along behind him.

She's "doing a story about the oldest living reporter — me," Perlman told the amused museum staff. "She has to be done before I die."

Science and journalism have come a long way since Perlman picked up a fountain pen and began to write.

For more of the Los Angeles Times story by Maria L. La Ganga, go here. Here's Perlman:

Overheard him pitching a story to his editors from the AGU last December. They weren't any more welcoming to his version than my editors were welcoming to me. Life in the big city. 

Orwell on the rules of story-telling in non-fiction

A review of Zero Dark Thirty includes this gem of a quote, one writer in effect overhearing arguably the first great modern non-fiction writer, George Orwell, talking about what we today call literary non-fiction, and what fictionalization he allows in a non-fiction story. .

There were few more minute observers of fact than George Orwell. As Timothy Garton Ash has written, if Orwell had a God it was Kipling’s “God of Things as They are.” Yet, as Garton Ash says of Orwell: “One of his most powerful early essays describes witnessing a hanging in Burma. But he later told three separate people that this was ‘only a story.’ So did he ever witness a hanging? He annotates a copy of “Down and Out in Paris and London” for a girlfriend: this really happened, this happened almost like this, but “this incident is invented.”’

Orwell was a polemicist trapped in a realist's body. That's what made his fiction so striking -- its consciousness of its own politics.

At the same time, note the assumption embedded in that quote or Orwell's. An essay will focus on a story. Of course! That's his attitude, and that's the forgotten Orwell -- the great storyteller.

Here's an example, from the story about a hanging::

We set out for the gallows. Two warders marched on either side of the prisoner, with their rifles at the slope; two others marched close against him, gripping him by arm and shoulder, as though at once pushing and supporting him. The rest of us, magistrates and the like, followed behind. Suddenly, when we had gone ten yards, the procession stopped short without any order or warning. A dreadful thing had happened — a dog, come goodness knows whence, had appeared in the yard. It came bounding among us with a loud volley of barks, and leapt round us wagging its whole body, wild with glee at finding so many human beings together. It was a large woolly dog, half Airedale, half pariah. For a moment it pranced round us, and then, before anyone could stop it, it had made a dash for the prisoner, and jumping up tried to lick his face. Everyone stood aghast, too taken aback even to grab at the dog..

In the end, it's not Orwell's rules that make him special. It's his writing.  

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My hero: George Orwell by Margaret Atwood

The road to Nineteen Eighty-Four

A fresh view of George Orwell

Avoiding over-reaction by any means necessary: NYTimes

Evidently the media adults in the room -- excluding The Weather Channel -- are going out of their way to underplay the big winter storm hitting the East Coast this weekend. The Times and the Post are not putting it on top of the front page and are avoiding calling it by TWC's name. Meteorological services too are emphasizing the caveats. Not to mention complaining about the The Weather Channel's exploitation. 

Said the Atlantic Wire:

AccuWeather and other services don't play along with the new name game, says [senior meteorologist Tom] Kines, because the practice "confuses people." Unlike a hurricane, which affects everything in its path, a winter storm's wrath doesn't have the same certain doom. "The National Weather Service does not name winter storms because a winter storm's impact can vary from one location to another, and storms can weaken and redevelop, making it difficult to define where one ends and another begins," National Weather Service spokesperson Susan Buchanan told The Wire.

But when does avoiding panic become an over-reaction itself? Maybe when a newspaper sets out to remind us of how it compares to a blizzard from the 19th century. Even if it is the Great Blizzard of 1888. 

If this is the worst winter storm in 125 years, isn't it pretty serious? 

[pic from NYC, before Nemo arrives, via Stormgram at NBC]