PaleoMedia.org » Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org Reporting on the West and the World Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:51:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 A Sunday’s worth of links: 2012-01-29 http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/29/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-29/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/29/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-29/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/29/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-29/ Continue reading →]]> Archived Twitter links for January 23-29 via @paleomedia.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/29/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-29/feed/ 0 A Sunday’s worth of links: 2012-01-22 http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/22/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-22/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/22/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-22/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/22/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-22/ Continue reading →]]> Archived Twitter links for January 15-22 via @paleomedia.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/22/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-22/feed/ 0 A Sunday’s worth of links: 2012-01-15 http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/15/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-15-2/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/15/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-15-2/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/15/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-15/ Continue reading →]]> Archived Twitter links for January 8-15 via @paleomedia.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/15/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-15-2/feed/ 0 A Sunday’s worth of links: 2012-01-08 http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/08/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-08/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/08/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-08/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/08/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-08/ Continue reading →]]> Archived Twitter links for January 1-8 via @paleomedia.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/08/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-08/feed/ 0 A Sunday’s worth of links: 2012-01-01 http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/01/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-01/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/01/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-01/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/01/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-01/ Continue reading →]]> Archived Twitter links for December 23-January 1 via @paleomedia.
A much more reasonable quantity of tweets this week … to reasonable tweeting in 2012!

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2012/01/01/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2012-01-01/feed/ 0 Self-actualized one-percenterageness http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/self-actualized-one-percenterageness/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/self-actualized-one-percenterageness/#comments Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:10:30 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/self-actualized-one-percenterageness/ Continue reading →]]> Per Jan 2012 Harper’s Index (not online):

Percentage of all Americans who consider themselves part of the top 1 percent of U.S. earners: 13

Percentage of Hispanic Americans who do: 28

Source: Poll Position (Atlanta)*

*This was very difficult to find. Race and demographic data available here. Harper’s needs to do better with its bibliographing.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/self-actualized-one-percenterageness/feed/ 0 Fast writing chic http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/fast-writing-chic/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/fast-writing-chic/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:52:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/fast-writing-chic/ Continue reading →]]> Wired Magazine (alas, no link at wired.com) digs up five quick writers from the days before people wrote novels in a month:

  • Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange in three weeks. (2,785 words/day)
  • Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in less than a week. (4,343 words/day)
  • Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in 20 days. (5,770 words/day)
  • Georges Simenon wrote The Snow Was Black in less than two weeks. (3,640 words/day)
  • Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in nine days on a rented typewriter. (5,086 words/day)

Missing: A mention of Hunter S. Thompson’s famed writing binges.

So what’s my problem?

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/fast-writing-chic/feed/ 0 A Sunday’s worth of links: 2011-12-25 http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-25-2/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-25-2/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-25-2/ Continue reading →]]> Archived Twitter links for December 18-25 via @paleomedia.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/25/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-25-2/feed/ 0 Lots http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/22/lots/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/22/lots/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:15:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/22/lots/ there is something missing

from this story:

someone

somewhere

doesn’t bother to say

whether Esther

actually liked

King A

—Michelene Wandor via Rachel F. Moran

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/22/lots/feed/ 0 A Sunday’s worth of links: 2011-12-18 http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/18/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-18/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/18/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-18/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/18/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-18/ Continue reading →]]> Archived Twitter links for December 11-18 via @paleomedia.
This strikes me as perhaps too many tweets in a week.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/12/18/a-sundays-worth-of-links-2011-12-18/feed/ 0 Passing the buck on Paul Ezra Rhoades’ execution http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/11/17/passing-the-buck-on-paul-ezra-rhoades-execution/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/11/17/passing-the-buck-on-paul-ezra-rhoades-execution/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:19:08 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/?p=1113 Continue reading →]]>

Ezra Paul Rhoades

I am opposed to the death penalty.

As a pacifist, I’m opposed to the state taking people’s lives. I’m also opposed because of the well documented inequities in our application of the death penalty. And, yes, I’m opposed to the death penalty in my role as a journalist—I know first hand that law enforcement, judicial and political officials are not infallible and therefore not qualified to make this ultimate decision.

I am not going to rehash the many arguments for and against the death penalty in this post. But I will focus on that last point, about the fallibility of the people responsible for making the capital punishment calls. The case of Ezra Paul Rhoades in Idaho illustrates this point well—the law has enabled us to pass the buck in deciding and executing death penalty cases.

First, Rhoades was sentenced to death in 1988 by two judges, not by a jury of regular folks who would have had to wrestle with questions of conscience, in addition to questions of law. While I would hope that Judge Larry M. Boyle in Bonneville County, who handed down a death sentence for Rhoades’ murder of Susan Michelbacher and Judge J.C. Herndon who sentenced Rhoades in Bingham County for the murder of Stacy Baldwin, wrestled with their consciences, they were able to lean on state and federal law in making their judgements.

Having exhausted his appeals, Rhoades sued the Idaho Department of Correction in September, arguing that the method of execution in Idaho could potentially cause cruel and unusual punishment. What has followed has been a highly clinical discussion of the death penalty—is a three drug cocktail better than a single lethal drug—that has distracted us from the case at hand. Tomorrow, Idaho will execute a man.

The practical effect of this legal wrangling has been a passing of the buck at all levels. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush considered the issue quite rationally in his Nov. 14 decision not to halt the execution, but concluded that the execution of the three-time murderer was in the best interest of the state, even though society has not resolved the uncertainty, expense and impact of the death penalty.

However, the citizens of the State of Idaho and the families of the individual victims in this case have a compelling interest in seeing that Idaho’s lawful judgments for the kidnappings and murders of Susan Michelbacher and Stacy Baldwin are enforced. Those judgments have been pending now for well over two decades while Rhoades challenged his convictions and sentences in state and federal court. There is much that has been said and written about the uncertainties and expense of death-penalty cases, and the impact that the length of time such cases place upon the families and communities of the victims, as well as the impact of such delay upon the ratio decidendi underpinning the death penalty in our society. Continued delay compounds those uncertainties, expenses, and impacts, and therefore is not in the public interest.

Then the 9th Circuit Court of appeals ruled yesterday, in clinical legalese, that Rhoades can be executed because he can’t prove his point that IDOC is not prepared to carry out the execution in a proper manner:

We conclude that Rhoades has not shown that he is entitled to injunctive relief on the merits of his claims. Because Rhoades has not shown that he is likely to succeed on the merits, which is required by Winter for injunctive relief, we need not and do not consider the district court’s remaining conclusions.

The November 15, 2011 emergency motion for a stay of execution is denied.

AFFIRMED.

But the real passing the buck comes from the politicians—the ultimate conscience in death penalty cases. The Governor, and in this case, since Governor Butch Otter has been at a posh resort in Hawaii all week, the Lieutenant Governor, are not beholden to legalistic or clinical reasons for granting clemency: they can do so because a higher power tells them to, because data on the death penalty demands it, because they feel like it. But they do not feel like it.

From the Spokesman-Review:

“It’s tough, it’s tough,” said Otter, a conservative Republican, when asked about balancing his faith and the death penalty. He’s been reluctant to discuss the matter as Idaho approaches its first execution since 1994, when murderer Keith Eugene Wells dropped his appeals and requested to be put to death…

… Otter told The Spokesman-Review this week, “I support the death penalty,” adding that it’s an issue he’s given a lot of thought to “all my life.”

“I think that as our criminal justice system … suggests, people have to be held responsible, and sometimes it’s to the max, and this is one of those cases,” Otter said. “They have to be held accountable for their actions.”

And Lt. Gov. Brad Little is not engaged, despite his deputization to become engaged:

Little said he hasn’t even read the letters and emails that continued to come in to the Capitol regarding the execution this week, leaving them instead for Otter on his return. “I guess I could go ask for ‘em if I wanted to, but I have chosen not to do that,” Little said.

The lieutenant governor cited two reasons for not wading into the issue: His role as lieutenant governor, and the circumstances of the Rhoades case.

“I mean, the Constitution says you have all the rights and powers of the governor when the governor’s out of state, but you know what? The governor comes back,” Little said.

But the worst part is that now the state is enabling us, the Idaho public and indeed American public to pass the buck, by banning witnesses at part of the execution:

Prison officials say to maintain Rhoades’ dignity, they won’t allow witnesses to view him being restrained or having the IVs inserted. They also said changing the procedure now could be disruptive.
But a group of Idaho news organizations say that policy conflicts with a 2002 federal court ruling that found the public, through the media, must be allowed to view executions in their entirety. The news organizations have asked the state to reconsider.

In the end, we all empowered the police, the judges, the governor and the lieutenant governor to make the decisions they made and we must take responsiblity tomorrow when Rhoades is executed. The only way most of us will do that is through a public witness like a brave reporter who is willing to document the event for us. I plan to be present at the execution as well, standing outside the prison gates while a man is put to death inside. I’m not reporting on it; I just feel a need to be there. I suggest that everyone—whether you support of oppose the death penalty, whether you feel it is justified in this case or not—be present tomorrow morning in some way. The bucks stops with each of us tomorrow morning.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/11/17/passing-the-buck-on-paul-ezra-rhoades-execution/feed/ 4 A vision for community radio (in Boise) http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/11/11/a-vision-for-community-radio-in-boise/ http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/11/11/a-vision-for-community-radio-in-boise/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:26:22 +0000 Nathaniel Hoffman http://www.paleomedia.org/?p=1096 Continue reading →]]>

Ghetto Blaster by Stephen Barnett / Flickr

I’ve been working with my local community radio station to come up with a way of getting more “news” on the air here in Boise. A small group of local folks have been talking for a few months about ways of recruiting citizen journalists to produce the news report on Radio Boise. The recent call for ideas from the Association of Independents in Radio helped crystallize my thoughts on this, especially with AIR’s notion that public radio ought to “go outside” its comfort zone in pushing the boundaries of public media in the 21st Century.

Community radio is one medium that has always thrived on “going outside” and bottom up production. As community radio pioneer Lew Hill wrote in 1966: “A constant exchange between the staff and the audience enriches the schedule with fresh judgment and new ideas, materials, and issues. Thus members of the staff work out their own ideas and, if you like, categorical imperatives, with some of the undistracted certitude one feels in deciding what he will have for dinner, subject to the menu.”

Hill was describing the then-new interplay between radio producer and the citizen audience that kept the station lights on through listener sponsorship, as opposed to advertising. But in this media age, mere audience sponsorship is not enough—we now have the technological ability to radically dissolve the traditional barrier between broadcaster and audience through real-time audience feedback and citizen journalism. In a sense, a community radio station in 2011 must “go outside” in order to gather up the people and give them microphones.

The practical idea here is to recruit, train and deploy a small army of citizen reporters in Southwest Idaho through a series of public journalism events we might call the KRBX Radio News Experience. The Experience draws on several new modes of thought circulating in cutting edge journalism circles today including NYU Professor Jay Rosen’s “people formerly known as the audience” and CUNY Professor Jeff Jarvis’ notion of the “conference” as news event. As Megan Garber at the Nieman Journalism Lab put it recently: “Our assumptions about information itself are shifting, reshaping ‘the news’ from a commodity to a community, from a product to a process.”

One might think of it as Ignite Boise meets American Red Cross CPR training meets Poynter (2.0? 3.0?).

KRBX in Boise has been on the air for only six months and has already filled a gaping hole in the Southwest Idaho broadcast spectrum, attracting almost 900 individual supporters in its first on-air pledge drive this month and beating its own fund raising goal. Tired of the staid musical offerings and corporate driven news on commercial radio and cognizant of the yawning cultural gap between the East Coast driven news agenda of the local NPR affiliate and Boise’s Mountain West culture, the community has flocked to KRBX for its diverse musical offerings and voices. But Boise needs its own locally controlled and community driven news broadcast as well, as prioritized by these planks of Radio Boise’s mission:

  • Democratize the local media landscape by giving a voice to unrepresented or underrepresented members of our community
  • Provide an educational media clearinghouse for issues-oriented information
  • Strengthen “cultural health” and community identity”

Into the Boise-area news void we would convene the Experience, journeying with prospective citizen reporters through the process of pitching stories, gathering background, developing sources, conducting interviews, working as a news team, writing scripts and collecting and editing sound. The Experience would train up the next generation of radio reporters in Idaho, jumpstart KRBX’s essential foray into community news and serve as a model for crowd-sourced, event-based, collaborative news production.

We would take the Experience out into the community, holding fortnightly and then weekly events at high schools, Latino community centers, refugee resettlement agencies, college campuses, farmers’ markets, a pavilion at the county fair, the LGBT center and other neighborhood and community venues. The events would be fast paced and fun and will quickly involve people in the production process based on their interests and skills. Participants in each event could produce 2-3 polished stories that would then form the backbone of a weekly local news report for the station.

We could recruit among local bloggers, community groups with little to no access to the media and through the significant social networks already engaging with the station. The training/production experiment will also reach out to other community radio stations in Idaho, including a bilingual station that will soon be broadcasting in the Magic Valley and two new stations run by Native American tribes (KWIS and KIYE).

The Boise area is well positioned for this venture. It is the political and economic center of the state, has a growing creative class that is very engaged in building up the arts, considers itself a technology hub and as a refugee resettlement center, has a quickly emerging international diversity. All of these demographics could engage with the Radio News Experience platform.

The Radio Boise working group that has been meeting for a few months to brainstorm these possibilities has made it abundantly clear that people are (a) not satisfied with their current sources of local news and information and (b) want to be more intimately involved in decisions surrounding local media provision. Radio Boise would be an ideal laboratory to test both a higher caliber news product and a more democratically sourced news producer.

]]> http://www.paleomedia.org/2011/11/11/a-vision-for-community-radio-in-boise/feed/ 0