Holy Shit, A Spirited Kenny Blog Post!

I was reading Winnipeg Free Press reporter, columnist and American Flood Specialist Dan Lett’s column ‘Cash trumps responsible gaming’ and about half way through I just sighed. It was a sigh of complete sorrow and frustration, though not at Dan, as he is allowed to believe and write whatever he wants. It doesn’t make him right though.

Here’s a quick run-down of Dan’s piece: Gary Doer’s NDP government has allowed ATMs in Winnipeg casinos despite arguments from the Mother Hens of our society (who always know better than the rest of us) who say that allowing ATMs in casinos is enabling gambling addicts to feed their habit.

The short walk to the off-site ATMs, were suppose to give unlucky gambling addicts a chance to cool off, making it easier for them to “walk away”.

What stupidity! Have you ever heard of an addict saying, “Ohh, my crack dealer is too far away, maybe I will stop doing drugs”?

Back to Dan’s column, some of the unlucky gambling addicts were being mugged, and harassed on their way to the off-site ATMs. I don’t think that this would have been an issue for most real gambling addicts, if anything it would have fed into their psyche. And of course we know that addicts avoid going into dangerous neighborhoods when trying to score. I also think that any true degenerate gambler would have taken odds on what would happen to them on their way to the ATM, and place a wager or two.

‘Will I get mugged this time, or not? Two for five, five for ten, who wants to take it?’

Then Dan quotes Hugh McFadyen, the leader of the provincial PC party “It’s one more incremental step in the wrong direction.”
Hey Hugh, it’s a step in no direction either way, and I will tell you why:

It does not matter whether or not the ATMs are on site, or off site. Gambling addicts that suck at gambling are going to go to ATMs whether they are 100 feet away or 100 meters away. They’re addicts and they do irrational things to feed their habits. When you talk to most recovering addicts, they say they needed to hit rock bottom first before they could truly get better. With this in mind, I think we should help them hit rock bottom faster. Let’s install ATMs in every corner of our casinos. Or we can cut out the middleman and put card readers in every gaming machine and table at the casinos. Get them in rehab faster, get them treated faster, and get them back to work faster.

This column also made me realize how much everyone thinks our government is here to protect us from ourselves, which they shouldn’t be. There are some things we need our government to protect us from, national disasters, foreign armies, and domestic criminals. Our own selves isn’t one of them, and that is where personal responsibility comes in.

Hey, what ever happened to personal responsibility anyway?

VLTs don’t make gambling addicts, gambling addicts make gambling addicts.

The EA’s Virtually Super Bowl

Every year, EA pits the two Super Bowl competitors against each other, and this year it is no different.

Although the outcome is totally garbage, because we all know the Cardinals are going to bitch-slap the Steelers like they did something wrong (of course this is coming from someone who is in the midst of cooking pulled pork because all my picks for the post season turned up sour – my menu pick would have been hot wings if I had won), I figured I would still share the press release with everyone. That is if EA hasn’t laid it off by then.

EA SPORTS PREDICTS SUPER BOWL XLIII CHAMPION USING MADDEN NFL 09

January 23, 2009 - Black and gold will reign supreme in Tampa Bay, according to the official EA SPORTS simulation of Super Bowl XLIII by Madden NFL 09. According to the award-winning video game, the Pittsburgh Steelers will win an unprecedented sixth Super Bowl title in a tightly contested game against the Arizona Cardinals, by a final score of 28-24. Holding off a fourth quarter comeback by the Cardinals, the Steelers bring the Vince Lombardi trophy back to the Steel City for the second time in the past four years and for a sixth time in franchise history, setting an NFL record.


Madden NFL 09 is the most authentic and adaptable game in sports video game history, and utilizing each team's current roster and the latest player statistics, EA SPORTS matched the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals in a simulation of Super Bowl XLIII. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 3 touchdowns and was named the Super Bowl MVP; joining teammate Hines Ward who was the Super Bowl XL MVP. Steelers coach, Mike Tomlin, became the youngest coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl, at the age of 36.


The start of Super Bowl XLIII became a defensive struggle, but Pittsburgh put the first points up with a 10-yard touchdown reception to Santonio Holmes, with less than two minutes left in the first quarter.


The Cardinals returned the favor with their reinvigorated running game as Edgerrin James diced through the vaunted Steelers defense with 8-yard touchdown run, near the start of the second quarter. Pittsburgh, showing great balance, quickly swung the momentum in their favor with two consecutive touchdowns - a 10-yard scamper by "Fast" Willie Parker, and a 13-yard strike to Hines Ward. The Steelers headed into halftime with a 21-7 lead and the route appeared to be on.


Despite their high-powered air attack, Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt, kept to the successful running attack as the third quarter opened. The Cardinals made a statement as again they punctured the Steel Curtain with an Edgerrin James 14-yard touchdown run; drawing the score to 21-14. The Steelers, unfazed, looked like they had potentially put the Cards down for good with Santonio Holmes's second touchdown reception. At the close of the third quarter, the score was 28-14 in favor of Pittsburgh.


Taking a page from the Steelers defense, the Cardinals held tough and would not surrender any additional points. This coupled with Pro-Bowl receiver, Larry Fitzgerald's 15-yard touchdown catch midway through the 4th, brought the Cards within seven points. Neil Rackers added a 45-yard field goal with 3:15 remaining in the game, closing the gap to 28-24. On the following possession, Pittsburgh was able to break through for a few first downs; leaving the Arizona comeback short.


Super Bowl XLIII kicks off Sunday, February 1 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.


This was originally posted on the KenOramA Blog

Happy Obama Change Day!

I feel kind of dirty posting this as I’m usually trying hard to buck the trend, but I just wanted to post some screen shots from before this morning’s presidential inauguration in an attempt to compare and contrast the Main Stream Media’s coverage of the event.

Fox News, nothing too outrageous.



CNN hamming it up a bit



Canada.com (AKA CanWest), pretty somber, nothing about Ace Burpee being there.



BBC getting the two main points across, that there is a lot of people, and it’s historic.



Good ole’ MSNBC…I thought CNN was bad.



Look at that. CBC decided that news about our country was actually more important than another country’s news. Good on them, they still have a lot of the Obama flair, but they put Canada first.

I just thought this was neat because no matter how many inauguration searches there are, in third place ‘Penthouse pet of the year’ is beating all of them.

Priorities!

This post was originally posted at KenOramA.Blogspot.com

The KenOrama PodCast Number One

Well, after much delay, and much pain comes The Kenorama PodCast. What will hopefully be the first in a on going weekly series.

On this edition of the podcast;

What do you do if neighbor is a chainsaw wielding maniac

Kid rock not so much anymore

And various other things that you will just have to listen to find out what they are.

Music includes

Powerman 5000 – A is for apathy
Talking heads – Psycho killer
Danko Jones – Bounce
Muse – Supermassive Black whole
Blue Brothers – Soulman
Kid Rock – Cowboy
Kid Rock – Bawitaba
Rid Rock – Roll on
Motley Crue - girls girls girls
Motley Crue – Saints of Los Angelos

Feedback at KenOrama@live.com

-->Click Here<--

Enjoy!

Reliable Sources on the News Papers

I was watching Reliable Sources, with Howard Kurtz on CNN last Sunday morning, and they had a great panel discussion about the current state of news papers. The panel consistent of:

Phil Bronstein, editor of "The San Francisco Examiner," and until January "San Francisco Chronicle."

Jim Warren former editor of "The Chicago Tribune."

And Leonard Downie, Former executive editor of "The Washington Post."

Here is a transcript of the panel discussion, and a link to the webcast of the whole show. The panel discussion takes place in the last 20 minutes. I have highlighted the parts I found the most interesting;


KURTZ: In my first newspaper job in Hackensack, New Jersey, we banged out our stories on manual typewriters, and editors got the duplicates on something called carbon paper. We had no laptops, cell phones, BlackBerrys or blogs, but we did have readers, something the industry has been struggling to hold on to.

This has been a horrible year for the newspaper business, with layoffs and buyouts and cutbacks and sinking revenue and all kinds of dire predictions about the future. So we decided to call in three of the top editors in the business to examine why newspapers are hurting, what can be done about it, and what is the impact on aggressive reporting.

Joining us now in San Francisco, Phil Bronstein, who ran two newspapers for 16 years, first as editor of "The San Francisco Examiner," and then, until last January, the "San Francisco Chronicle." In Chicago, Jim Warren, who until August was managing editor of "The Chicago Tribune." And here in the studio, Leonard Downie, who stepped down in September after 17 years as executive editor of "The Washington Post."

Phil Bronstein, before we get into the Internet or the lousy economy, to what extent are newspapers suffering from self-inflicted wounds caused by years of complacency?

PHIL BRONSTEIN, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE": Well, whose complacency are we talking about? Are we talking about readers' complacency, Howie? Are we talking about reporters' complacency?

You know, I think there's been a long time, over decades, separation of newsrooms from the public. You know, there's sort of an apocryphal story of the reporter who says, "I can't stake that call from a reader, I'm too busy doing journalism." So it really depends on whose complacency you're talking about.

I think newspapers and newsrooms have been very complacent. And, you know, not to be heretical here, but I think there ought to be some newspapers that probably should shut down just because they're not doing it the right way. They're not paying attention, they're not as connected with readers. I mean, newspapers used to do the things that the Web want to do, which is aggregate content and create community, and I think there's been much less of that going on.

KURTZ: Right.

Jim Warren, I wrote a book 15 years ago called "Media Circus" in which I argued the newspapers at that time were too dull, too incremental, too cautious and written too much for insiders.

Would you agree that that has been part of the problem?

JIM WARREN, FMR. MANAGING EDITOR, "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE": You know, to a certain extent, but it's a big marketplace out there. And the fact that not everybody reads (ph) "The Washington Post" and "New York Times" is not necessarily all that bad.

I mean, for sure, this has not only been, it's arguably been the worst year in the history of the business. Publicly traded newspaper- based companies, their share prices have gone down something like 80 percent. That's far worse than the Standard & Poor's 500 average over the past year.

So you've got a dramatic fall in revenues, dramatic fall in profitability. Some of these companies, like a lot of the Wall Street firms, way, way, way too highly leveraged.

That said, one of the more interesting things out there, one of the more interesting realities, guys, is the fact that if you take the whole universe of readership in some of these communities of a paper like "The Washington Post," combining the print version with the online version, you probably have audiences which have never been bigger than they are today.

Yes, The Post circulation heading a little bit south. But when you add in the number of folks who are looking at your great journalism, that's a pretty impressive figure.

Now, the question is how do you make money, particularly off the Internet? And right now, that is a severe challenge.

KURTZ: Let me ask the former head of "The Washington Post," Len Downie.

Certainly, the Internet has provided a whole new audience for lots of papers, including The Post, but at the same time, the staff has been shrinking because of the financial situation.

Why didn't most newspapers realize earlier what trouble they were headed for? Why didn't the newspaper company create a popular Web site like The Huffington Post or Politico?

LEN DOWNIE, SERVED 17 YEARS AS EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, in fact, "The Washington Post" and "New York Times" and a number of other newspapers have created very popular Web sites. Huffington Post and Politico don't come near us in page views. We have much, much larger audiences, and the top 10 news sites on the Web are dominated by the so-called old media companies, including CNN and NBC and "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times."

So people are reading our journalism in larger numbers than ever before. It's having more impact than ever before. But in terms of the business model, yes, we were way behind, we were complacent.

It was an industry that was a copycat industry where everybody did the same thing all the time. Television is the same way, where you've got the consultants out there telling every television station how to behave all the time.

KURTZ: And everyone was making.

DOWNIE: And everybody was making lots of money.

KURTZ: And so it seemed to be working.

DOWNIE: And the newsrooms got really big. I have to say that for some newsrooms that have contracted, the contraction does not yet hurt that much. For other newsrooms that were already smaller, the contractions hurt quite a bit.

KURTZ: And with all these cutbacks, Phil Bronstein, whether it's the Detroit papers eliminating home delivery several days a week, to your own "San Francisco Chronicle," which has had about 200 or so layoffs and buyouts and sections being cut, are newspapers now gutting the very product they're trying to sell?

BRONSTEIN: Well, I think they're responding to the economic issues. I mean, the reality is, "The Washington Post" -- and not to step into Len Downie's own territory there -- but "The Washington Post" is surviving and maybe even thriving because it's got a business (INAUDIBLE) that I think is more than 50 percent of its business that has nothing to do with journalism.

And I think, so, you get diversified, you might survive. But the news business as we know it is not surviving financially, economically. And so I think, you know, there's a big problem with the newsprint product.

Mark Rosenblum, who you know, our old friend from AP, said the other day, you know, it's not that we don't love Google, but we want to maintain Gutenberg. And the problem is hanging on to that printed version.

Yes, things are going to shrink, newsrooms are going to shrink, sections are going to shrink. But as Jim warren said, you're going to have a bigger audience out there. What are you going to do to attract that audience? By the way, there are also other financial models that are interesting. ProPublica struggling a little bit, but that's privately-funded investigative reporting. Mort Rosenblum is doing something called dispatches.

KURTZ: Right.

Let me go to Jim, because I want to pick up the point about the financial models. Tribune is bankrupt. This, of course, is a company that owns "The Chicago Tribune," "Los Angeles Times," "Baltimore Sun," other papers and TV stations.

Now, the tendency has been to blame it on Sam Zell, the Chicago zillionaire who bought it a year ago and loaded it up with $13 billion worth of debt. But weren't there also years of mismanagement that brought the paper to a point where it had to be sold to a Sam Zell?

WARREN: Well, I mean, I think there were probably years of a certain myopia that was industry-wide, particularly the failure to embrace the Internet, particularly the failure to deal with sky-high production costs, particularly the failure to maintain, ridiculously, to me, low pricing levels. I mean, to get a home delivered newspaper in a plastic bag for less than it would cost me to go out to the 7- Eleven I think was a distinct mistake.

I think in the case of Zell, you've got to remember, in fairness, there was essentially a public auction of the company which nobody bid for this company that's got 25 TV stations and about 10 newspapers. So he came in and made the best possible deal that he could.

But when it comes to models from this point on, I mean, I think the two main ones that people are throwing out are the one that Phil alluded to, ProPublica, which people who don't know, is you sort of go to some rich philanthropist and get some money from them and exploit that sort of an NPR model. But the other one, which I think hopefully in a free marketplace can somehow survive, is the one in which you get people to pay for this information.

Len just alluded to all these Web sites which are doing so well, including CNN's. Where does that content generally come from? Most of it comes from newspapers, and they're not paying for it.

They've been ripping newspapers off, and newspapers have sat back and allowed that. And now go oh, my gosh, that's unfair.

KURTZ: Yes. Well, I want to pick that up in a second.

But let me ask you first, Len Downie, as you know, a lot of big papers and big newspaper companies are closing their Washington bureaus, or really gutting them. I mean, you have Newhouse Newspapers, Cox Newspapers. "San Diego Union-Tribune," no more D.C. bureau. The Tribune has combined its bureau with the "L.A. Times." It's now the "L.A. Times" and "Baltimore Sun" and others.

Some people say, well, maybe that makes sense because you had too many reporters in D.C. writing the same stories anyway. What do you think? DOWNIE: Well with the Internet, of course, you can get everybody reporting anywhere in the country. So you can get "The New York Times" or "The Washington Post" coverage if your local newspaper no longer covers Washington. But I am concerned that as all newsrooms contract, that the broad number of subjects that need to be covered in Washington won't be covered.

I think we saw that towards the end of this administration, where we all suddenly looked at, well, what happened to (INAUDIBLE) in this administration? What happened to the FDA? Suddenly, we were doing catch-up stories about problems that existed in these agencies.

Now Obama's going to come in, the Obama administration will come in. They're going to reregulate in a lot of areas. They're going to be doing a lot of really new things. And are we going to be there to watch whether they're doing the right new things, whether the changes will benefit the country or not? I worry we're not going to have enough reporters in all those agencies.

KURTZ: Right. Washington journalists not just doing standup in front of the White House.
Phil Bronstein, do we pay too much attention to newspaper layoffs and buyouts at a time when, you know, major banks and other companies are laying off tens of thousands of people? And will the impact on original reporting, the kind that Len Downie just talked about, be as great as we say, or will other media forces, citizen journalists, Web sites be able to pick up this slack?

BRONSTEIN: Well, first of all, you know, I think that even when newsrooms were pretty flush a few years ago, I mean, we were missing the big stories. We missed the first savings and loan collapse, a lot of controversy about the coverage of the original war in Iraq.

I mean, I think that, you know, we've always been missing stories. And maybe that's, to some extent, the complacency that you're talking about.

But I do think -- I'm glad you mentioned citizen journalism. And this has been a taboo subject almost in newsrooms. And the idea of comments on stories that appear on our Web sites have been this afterthought. But the reality is, I think one of the ways that we get our professionalism out there and professional journalism, and maintain it, and perhaps find a business model, is by engaging more with the audience.

So the real question is, what is that pro-Am (ph) relationship?

KURTZ: Right.

BRONSTEIN: What kind of relationship are professionals and citizens -- in other words, amateur journalists, if you want to call them that -- what kind of relationship are they going to have that's going to further engage those citizens, those residents, that audience?

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: OK. I've got to get a break in.

It has to be more of a two-way dialogue. For too many years, newspapers engaged in sort of one-way communication.

When we come back, we'll ask our editors about the coverage of the Gaza conflict and whether it has been fair.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

First Muhammed, now Juan Valdez

Don’t you hate it when you read an article about a group of people protesting art, whether it be comics, cartoons, or a music video, and the article doesn’t have the ‘offending piece of media’ in it, or linked to it?

I wish they would let us decide on our own whether piece of media is offensive or not. It all boils back to those comics of Muhammed that a very, very, very small segment of Muslims got all enraged about.

Everyone was afraid to publish the comics with the story, so basically a handful of nuts held the whole mainstream media by its balls.

To use a Counter Strike term, “Terrorists Win”.

So, every time I find one of these stories about a sensitive clan of people that get offended at a silly little comic, or video, I will post the story and the offending media.

So we begin…




US cartoon provokes Colombia ire

Colombian coffee growers are planning to sue a US cartoonist for millions of dollars over a cartoon they say damages the reputation of Colombian coffee.

The cartoon is by Mike Peters, whose work is published in the US and abroad.
In it, one character refers to crime in Colombia and then to Juan Valdez, the fictional coffee grower used for years to advertise Colombian coffee.

Coffee growers say the cartoon links their industry with violence. Mr Peters has said he intended no offence.

The cartoon strip which appeared on 2 January is part of the Mother Goose and Grimm series that Mr Peters draws.

In it, Mother Goose is sighing over a cup of fresh Colombian coffee.

Another character comments: "Y'know, there's a big crime syndicate in Colombia. So when they say there's a little bit of Juan Valdez in every can, maybe they're not kidding."

This plays on a former slogan used to advertise Colombian coffee.

The comic strip finishes with Mother Goose drinking tea.

National dignity

Colombia's National Coffee Growers' Federation, Fedecafe, said they had instructed their lawyers in the US to begin proceedings against Mr Peters and the agency which distributes his work, for "damage and harm, detriment to intellectual property and defamation".

In a statement, Fedecafe said the cartoon "associated organised crime and the atrocities committed by violent groups with the hard, delicate and honest work of more than 500,000 coffee growers and their families".

The cartoon also affected the reputation of Juan Valdez, the "icon and symbol" of Colombian coffee, by suggesting that there was a connection between coffee tins and the victims of violence, Fedecafe said.

The iconic coffee grower, accompanied by his faithful mule, was created in 1959, and has appeared in countless TV advertisements, in the US and elsewhere.

The federation said they would expect coffee growers to be adequately compensated for damage caused.

Humorous subject

Gabriel Silva Lujan, Fedecafe's general manager, told reporters in Bogota that the cartoon "was an attack on national dignity and the reputation of Colombian coffee."

He said he expected the lawsuit to be filed by the end of the week and would be for at least $20m (£13m).

Mr Peters has said that he loves Colombia, drinks Colombian coffee and did not intend any offence.

"The cartoon is meant to be read along with the rest of the week as a series of which the theme is based on the fact that the inventor of the Pringles can had his ashes buried in one," Mr Peters said in a statement, reported by the Associated Press.

"I thought this was a humorous subject and all my Mother Goose and Grimm cartoons are meant to make people laugh. I truly intended no insult."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7815338.stm


Published: 2009/01/08 11:57:49 GMT

© BBC MMIX

And here is the Offending Comic, really not that bad!

Winnipeg’s Free Press using the ‘New’ Math

The Winnipeg Free Press’s beta website has come under all sorts of fire, and it is still kind of glitchy. Honestly, it does look amateurish, especially when the headshots of the reporters, journalists, and /or columnists don’t line up with the background…but I think they finally got that fixed for the front page.

I guess they’re still working on it.

I do like how they’ve added the ‘Most Viewed, Most Commented, Most Emailed’ tabs, but I was confused by it on Wednesday morning by this:

I took some screen shots to illustrate my point.



You’ll notice the Most Commented tab is picked and the most commented story is ‘Phoenix Sinclair’s Mother files appeal of murder conviction’ by Staff Writer. So I click the link.



Odd, the most commented story has four comments. That seems kind of low, but hey, what do I know?

The second most commented story was ‘Violence on Transit driver proves cams’ worth: union’ By James Turner, who I think is just great! So I click on that link.



Nine comments - that’s awesome that James has more feed back, he deserves it. But wait one minute here. There are more posted comments on the second ranked story then on the first.

I know my numbers pretty good, and nine is greater then four. I don’t know what is going on with the Winnipeg Free Press beta site, but there is something broken under the hood of their website. What happened here?

I thought maybe that the longer the story is posted the lower it could rank, because you don’t want a year old story that has 30 comments staying ranked number one for a year. But they were both posted on the same day.

So then maybe the Phoenix story got more comments, but they deleted those comments for one reason or another?

Or are the ranks skewed against James Turner for some reason?

I don’t know, maybe John White, the lead of the new website who has commented on this blog before, can tell us?