All Blog Posts from Public Eye

I’ve often thought that great minds think alike. I just never thought my mind would process and conjure up the same things as the mind behind “Xanadu.”

A little less than two years ago, when the FCC started publicly considering/lofting-trial-balloons about possibly adopting an a la carte cable pricing strategy – where you could pick and choose the exact channels you wanted to subscribe to – I, in my previous existence as a think tank-er, was interviewed by Networking on the topic:

"Couldn't this continue the overly personalized media world -- with conservatives opting to not pay for MSNBC or CNN?" Matthew T. Felling, media director at the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a think tank in Washington D.C., told Networking.

Left-leaning consumers, meantime, might permanently tune out Fox News and conservative shows like "The O'Reilly Factor" and not just change the channel in angst.

Yesterday afternoon, Broadcasting & Cable reported that Robert Greenwald -- who directed “Xanadu” before he became a progressive documentary filmmaker – had uploaded a video online and started an Internet campaign pushing a la carte for that very outcome.

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Editor & Publisher reported Thursday on a panel on "The Changing Media Landscape, 2005," at Columbia University. "The discussion brought together Len Apcar, NYTimes.com editor; Jeff Gralnick, NBC special consultant and former VP of ABCNews.com; Andrea Panciera, editor of The Providence (R.I.) Journal's ProJo.com; Craig Newmark, founder and chief customer service representative (explanation below) of Craigslist; and James Taranto, editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal's online editorial page, OpinionJournal.com."



Reading about the event, which covered a wide range of topics, I was reminded of an interview I did in March for Columbia Journalism Review's CJR Daily with Tom Fenton, a correspondent for CBS News from 1966 until 2004 who has become critical of the news business. I asked Fenton if he had any advice for whomever takes over the "Evening News" anchor desk. Here was his response:

Go back to reporting. Go. I've noticed that under Bob Schieffer they have started putting the emphasis on the correspondents in the field, pointing out that they have correspondents in the field. Mind you, there are not many that are left. The ones that we still have are good, but they're very thin on the ground. I would put more resources back into reporting. The budget, as it's now used by CBS, is so restrictive that it's very difficult to get permission to send anyone to a story. You have to go through the whole budget process, you have to explain why you're going for the story. There's no going out to look for news -- basically, you go out with a preconceived story. That's an unfortunate restriction. I think they should hire more correspondents. Get them out in the field. Boots on the ground. Eyes and ears. They don't have to be horribly expensive. You can even go for one-man bands if you prefer. Young people, like yourself. People who think this is a great calling, and who could go out with a DVD and laptop editing [setup] and email stories back. That's another way to go. It doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive.

Below are few more pieces of advice for CBS, from around the 'sphere.

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