Is Tweeting News?

As allied forces begin to expand their involvement in the ever-changing situation in the Middle East, Americans find themselves going to a new source for up-to-the-minute news. Twitter and Facebook have quietly emerged as premiere destinations for information. With the help of social media, citizens have been able to spread news globally. Instantaneous and always on, new media has created an innovative way to stay on top of today’s headlines.

But with rapid-fire news comes a lack of editorial control. The information being received isn’t always the truth and, in some cases, is purely fabricated. So what is more important: information now or well-edited news tomorrow? Will Twitter ever replace CNN? Has society lost the need for the 24-hour news cycle?

The Commonwealth Club will host a lecture to help answer those questions: "News Media vs. Social Media: Can Both Survive?" will look at the evolving state of news in a constantly updated world. Join NBC news anchor Diane Dwyer for a nonpartisan discussion on the fate of the news industry on May 9th.

Also, be sure to check out just how much has changed by listening to a 2006 speech from journalist industry icon Dan Rather. With more than 40 years of experience, Rather has seen the evolution of the news media first hand. From the rise and fall of the newspaper industry to the creation of the 24-hour television news cycle, he experienced the highs and the lows of the industry. Hear what he has to say about the state of American news and where he thinks it’s heading by listening to the audio recording of "What is Happening to the American Media?"

–James Dohnert

Huffington Post Purchased by AOL, Reinforces Importance of Content

In the era of digital media, people frequently say that "content counts," but the reality is often different from the rhetoric. Online news in many cases is repurposed content from print or other "old" media, and original online content is increasingly produced by unpaid and heavily opinionated writers.

So news people might well be heartened by the report today that AOL has purchased The Huffington Post for $315 million. Namesake and co-founder Arianna Huffington will remain as editor-in-chief of the site. The liberal blog-and-news service has grown quickly in popularity in recent years, adding more paid staff, localized editions, original content, and special sections. Its acquisition is the latest sign that AOL sees its future in quality content, not in providing access to the internet itself, which was its former reason for being. The company made headlines last year with the purchase of TechCrunch, and it has been steadily building out its network of "hyper-local" news sites, AOL Patch.

For some background: Huffington has made numerous appearances at The Commonwealth Club of California. Below is video of Arianna Huffington addressing the Club in 2008, when she discussed her take on American politics and the old/new media divide.


Here is audio from her 2003 appearance at The Club. She returned in 2004 to discuss that year's political campaigns; you can read a transcript of her 2004 speech and audience question-and-answer session. And, finally, she spoke to a sold-out Inforum crowd just this past November, when she and moderator Raj Patel talked about everything from the Huffington Post's news choices to The Daily Show's John Stewart; you can read an extended excerpt from that event in the digital edition of The Commonwealth magazine.

San Francisco Public Press Hits the Newsstands – And The Club Is There

The newspaper is dead. Long live the newspaper.

Print critics have been predicting the burial of print newspapers for many years now; in fact, the chairman of Tribune Company, Sam Zell, said this week that home delivery of newspapers will soon become a thing of the past, with papers being replaced by "PDFs."

One could be forgiven for questioning whether he knows what a PDF is, but it is true that the print news business has undergone traumatic downsizings, bankruptcies, layoffs, rising prices, audience losses, and hemorrhaging advertising revenue, and that it's been a tough haul for many if not most newspaper companies. They might be showing some success at reinventing themselves; a number of these large papers, including San Francisco's own Chronicle, are surprising people by reporting that they're back in the black, even as the larger economy continues to struggle. Still, it's probably a safe bet that papers will continue innovating and experimenting, until they come up with a stable new business model.

Are California's Media in Crisis?

The evolution of news media has been a long-standing object of The Commonwealth Club's attention. The Club most recently delved into the effects of the decline of traditional news media -- primarily print newspapers, but also some television and radio news -- and its effect on California governance. After all, if one of the roles of journalists is to shine a light of public knowledge onto the workings of public institutions, then what will happen with fewer reporters digging into government lobbying relationships, contract negotiations, and legislation writing?

An expert panel explored this topic February 19 at The Club's San Francisco headquarters. Watch the video above.

Should “New Media” Mean New Rules?

We all know that media is changing. Many journalists see that technology is a double-edged sword, streaming important news to us faster than ever before, while also cutting away at trustworthy, ethically obtained news stories.

As technology continues to affect the dependability of our information, media ethics will be at the forefront of the conversation. Since the process of gathering, writing and publishing information now takes only minutes, and as the competition to get the story out seconds before your competitors intensifies, is it necessary to relax accepted journalistic standards?The South Carolina newspaper The State recently published e-mails, which it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, between a number of different media outlets and the office of Gov. Mark Sanford. The e-mails contain what is best described as “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” negotiating.

Washington Times Radio staffer Joseph Deoudes wrote Gov. Sanford’s communications director Joel Sawyer promising Gov. Sanford would “be on friendly ground” if he chose to speak on Washington Times Radio. WACH morning anchor Tim Miller promised not to “bash” Gov. Sanford like other media organizations might be apt to do. And ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper sent e-mails to Sawyer saying negative things about NBC’s coverage of Gov. Sanford’s affair, implying that ABC would not project such a disapproving point of view on the subject.

Many journalists and citizens alike have objected to these actions, because they inhibit the public’s access to unbiased information. But many media organizations have argued that these days it’s not so much about getting the news right, but getting the news first.

At a recent Commonwealth Club event on the terrible status of newspapers, Phil Bronstein, Executive Vice President and Editor at Large of the San Francisco Chronicle, talked about how sources have now become citizen journalists. “ You cannot ignore, nor should you ignore, the ubiquity of the public, the access to information that the public has that professional journalists often don’t have,” said Bronstein.

Some news organizations today point out the fact that the same technology that increases the pressure to publish stories first -- and leads to more relaxed vetting of information -- is also increasing the ability of citizens to fact check the information of news stories themselves. People on all sides of the news, from journalists to readers, are having time cut in half: Journalists have half the time they used to, to check the facts. Readers only need half the time they used to, to point out errors.

So maybe our next step is to have journalist print a story as fast as possible and leave it up to the public to check the facts. But then what really is the point of journalism? Perhaps people could just pass around information themselves by writing their own news stories on their own blogs, allowing stories to be as subjective as they want, leaving it up to others to find out what is truth, what is exaggeration and what are simply lies. But there still is one major advantage that real media organizations have over all us bloggers: their legitimacy. As Bronstein pointed out, holding people and organizations accountable is simply not something that bloggers can do with the expediency of legitimate news organizations.

On August 19, The Club will host an event called Predicting the Future of Media. Panelists -- including representatives from YouTube, the Associated Press and the Center for Investigative Reporting -- will discuss what traditional media will have to do to stay in the game while new media keeps changing the rules.

The once most trusted man in America famously said about journalists, “Our job is only to hold up the mirror -- to tell and show the public what has happened.” Many would argue against a change to Walter Cronkite’s standard of journalism without a long hard look at what it will mean for our proud history of freedom of press.

Consider this: A Time Magazine online poll published today shows Jon Stewart as the new most trusted newscaster in America, winning with 44 percent. In second place was Brian Williams with 29 percent, third place went to Charlie Gibson with 19 percent and in fourth place was Katie Couric with 7 percent. This poll is quite telling, because out of all these newscasters, Stewart is the only one whose show, “The Daily Show,” is broadcast on Comedy Central.

A comedian as the new Walter Cronkite? In a way, it makes sense that people would trust a man whose job it is to make fun of people. Unlike the press who embarrassed themselves over the Sanford affair, he is probably less likely to promise any corporation or political party or person “friendly ground” for an interview or agree to allow only positive framing of an issue. Friendly ground and positive framing don’t make for lots of laughter, after all – as Jim Cramer found out when he got a very unfriendly grilling by Stewart earlier this year. And when we are faced with the behavior of the media in Sanford affair, which many have publicly denounced, people might well conclude that it seems smarter to trust a guy who appears to not owe anything to anyone.

--Camille Koué

The Media and the Recession: Dr. Duffy Sparks HuffPo Debate

Commonwealth Club President and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy touched off a spirited debate among Huffington Post readers with her recent article on that site, "Bad News Bears: Economic Fear Mongering by the Media." As of this morning, 60 responses had been posted to the article's comments section. In true Internet fashion, the comments range from hearty agreement to vociferous disagreement.

Read the post yourself and join the discussion!

San Francisco Chronicle Staff Cuts

The San Francisco Chronicle may have escaped the grave, but there's still a painful downsizing taking place at the city's major print news outlet. The online news site San Francisco Sentinel is publishing online a list of what it says are the first batch of Chronicle employees to accept a voluntary exit deal.

The list includes some names and news beats that are likely to interest long-time Chronicle readers.

For more background on the Chronicle's troubles, see here.

Bad News Bears

The US economy is still suffering, and some serious strategic and structural changes are needed in business and government to address the underlying causes of the crisis.

But in the spirit of FDR’s comment about fearing fear itself, I believe the US media is making this crisis far worse than it needs to be. As the headlines and newscasters scream the latest bad news – job losses, stock market plunges, poor corporate results – investors’ jitters increase. They shun the markets, which dries up the capital available to companies, which reduces their operations, which leads to layoffs, which leads to foreclosures and falling consumer spending, which drags down the banks, which . . . you get the picture. It becomes a self-perpetuating negative cycle, which our national leadership is struggling to turn around by pumping bailout money into the damaged economic sectors.

But it seems to me that this cycle of doubt itself, rather than fundamentals of the economy, is partly to blame for the dizzying decline in the market averages and the associated fallout. The media reports the economic news that fuels this downward cycle. And I believe there is more here than just the media acting as the bearer of genuine bad news. So let’s take a hard look at what is going on in the media today and how that affects news reporting.

As we know, the traditional media is highly threatened now, because its historic business model, based on advertising, has been blown to smithereens by the internet. Few newspapers and not many radio or television operations have successfully made the transition to the Internet era. We have a front row seat for this sorry spectacle here in the Bay Area, as San Francisco’s only daily newspaper, The Chronicle, dies a slow death. The Rocky Mountain News ceased publication in February, and both the LA Times and New York Times are wobbling.

As the classic media fights for its life, publishers, editors and reporters grasp at hyperbolic subjects and viewpoints they hope will command attention, in a struggle to retain readership and viewership and to continue to attract advertising dollars. Bad news has long been known to draw more attention than positive stories, so it’s not surprising that a concentration on bad economic news would dominate the media right now.

But there are degrees in the extent of negative focus. At the moment, editorial decisions are being made in favor of covering bad economic news at the expense of other important topics, concentrating media coverage obsessively on negative stories about the economy. For example, last month a TV editor scrapped a story for which I was to be interviewed on some important good news - a potential US-Russian deal to work together on stopping Iran’s nuclear program and to cancel the missile defense plan for Eastern Europe - to instead report on the latest US government support for the insurance company AIG. Those micro-level editorial decisions being made throughout the media are what in the aggregate are producing the unitary focus on economic bad news.

No one, least of all I, would argue for media happy talk about the economic crisis. The real underlying factors behind the crisis – the long neglect of a prudent energy policy, the need to rethink the criteria for extending credit to homebuyers, for example – need to be reported in full, and the media should help to surface new directions and policies to put our economy on a sustainable growth path.

But this constant yammer of the latest declines on Wall Street and how Joe Public feels about the disaster surrounding us is simple fear-mongering, which leads to bearish behavior by investors and shoppers. I am afraid that the media’s own perceived interests, at this time when their backs are against the wall, may not be serving public needs as they once did when they could be counted on for more fair and balanced coverage.

This points up the importance of reading, watching and listening critically to what the media is currently reporting, discounting the crisis tone and looking more at the fundamentals of the economy. As President Obama said in his inaugural address, “our workers are no less productive today than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished.”

We are experiencing a crisis of confidence, and I fear that the media are fanning the flames in an effort to save their own skins. The ironic thing is that media perceptions of their own interests may be shortsighted. The economic downturn may finally demolish many media companies, whose business fundamentals are weak, along with all the other individuals, companies and other organizations that are being so negatively affected.

Schwarzenegger Makes a Big Splash at The Commonwealth Club

"The Commonwealth Club brings me luck," joked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger when he spoke at The Club last week. He used his appearance (his second in 12 months) to kick off an energetic campaign to fight for a handful of ballot initiatives that he says will help California stave off another brutal budget fight like the one we just endured; he said that the initiatives, if approved by voters in a special May 19 election, will make the state take money from the boom years to help smooth out the bust years.

If the governor wanted to attract attention with his speech and the audience question-and-answer session (see photo below of Schwarzenegger being asked questions by Commonwealth Club VP Greg Dalton), he succeeded wildly. Press coverage of the event, beginning with a live broadcast over KQED radio in the Bay Area, was extensive, and we've collected just a sampling of it here.

1. The Christian Science Monitor: California's Voters Get Next Say in Budget Battles

2. The Los Angeles Times: Schwarzenegger Begins Campaign for Ballot Measures

3. Bloomberg: California Teachers Plan Rally as 26,000 Warned of Job Cuts

4. The Guardian (UK): Schwarzenegger Urges California Voters to pass Budget Reform Measures

5. CBS 5 (San Francisco): Poll: May Election Nears, Few Focus on Props

6. LAist: Battle Over May 19th Election Props Begins Heated Race

7. San Diego Union-Tribune: State Budget Springs a Leak

8. KQED Capital Notes: "It's the System," Says Guv



(Photos by Amanda Leung)

Chronicle Update: Tentative Deal Reached

San Francisco might not be left without a major daily paper after all, if a tentative deal between the paper's owner and its largest union holds. As reported in today's Chronicle, the deal involves wage and benefit cuts, increased work hours, and a reduction in the work force of about 150.

As noted on The Commonwealth Club's blog here, paper owner Hearst was threatening to close or sell the paper if it couldn't get major concessions within a matter of weeks. Hearst also owns the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which is facing its own death spiral. Media observers had questioned whether San Francisco would earn the dubious distinction of becoming the first major city without a major daily newspaper. (San Francisco continues to have the free daily Examiner.)

The Chronicle notes that Hearst still has to negotiate with its other large union, the Teamsters.

In the meantime, you might want to check out the blog of Chronicle editor-at-large (and frequent Commonwealth Club event moderator) Phil Bronstein, who recently wrote about the messy newspaper industry. "The speed of technology has stunned a lot of people, along with quick-changing consumer habits. The economy sucks more than ever before in our lifetimes," Bronstein writes. "Even while slamming ourselves for being too complacent, we're also just shell-shocked by what's been happening."

San Francisco Chronicle: The First of the Last Papers?

Read a 3/10/09 update on this story: Tentative union agreement in Chronicle case


In 2007, UC Berkeley Professor of Journalism William Drummond challenged a Commonwealth Club panel on journalism with this: "It's always been a great puzzlement to me [that] in an area where people are intelligent, affluent, sophisticated -- how come even now, how the LA Times is still a major newspaper of considerable import, and San Francisco has never produced that kind of product?"

If that was a long-standing question of Bay Area media watchers for years, the answer is not likely to become any easier now. The San Francisco Chronicle could be sold or even closed if owner Hearst Corp. is unable to get significant cuts to operating costs in the next few weeks. Yes, weeks -- not months, not years. The cuts might be unachievable; some estimates are that the company would have to cut as much as 47 percent of staff.

But others are suggesting that San Francisco could soon become the first major U.S. city without a paid daily newspaper (we do have, of course, the free daily SF Examiner and a number of local news and opinion blogs, in addition to broadcast media). Even if the paper survives, if it loses so much of its staff, will it be able to cover the city and region the way it historically has? (Hearst's Seattle Post-Intelligencer is also facing a Chronicle-like end.)

With losses of $50 million a year, and more predicted for 2009, the Chronicle was in serious trouble even before the economy went off a cliff in 2008. (For a good overview of the challenges facing newspapers and other local traditional media, listen to audio of Professor Drummond's Sept. 27, 2009, Commonwealth Club panel discussion, "The State of Journalism," with industry pros Leslie Griffith, Robert Rosenthal, Kevin Keeshan, and Steve Wright.)

If we are about to enter a post-Chronicle era, that does not mean there is less news to report and be interpreted. The Commonwealth Club hosts a wide range of speeches and panel discussions by newsmakers, and this blog is just one effort we undertake to try to get this news out into the public consciousness, making connections between speakers here with timely issues in the news.

There are also, of course, many blogs, written by everyone from teenagers to laid-off newspaper reporters, and these blogs do everything from highlighting important news that is overlooked by the major media, to pushing partisan agendas. We will likely see a continued multiplication in blogs covering our local scene, and we will likely see some aggregation of blogs into super-blogs (hyperblogs? can we coin a term here?) like Huffington Post. Michael Kinsley, former editor of The New Republic and Slate.com, and the former editorial page editor of the LA Times, recently recanted somewhat on his earlier criticisms of news bloggers and offered a more optimistic assessment of their value, during a speech at The Commonwealth Club December 9, 2008 (listen to audio; see the video).

What will the future of Bay Area journalism be?

Where do you get your news? How good is it? Leave a comment and join the discussion.

Phil Bronstein Talks Len Downie and Commonwealth Club on Huffington Post

Phil Bronstein, editor at large and vice president at The San Francisco Chronicle (and a long-time moderator of Commonwealth Club events) contributed a blog posting to the Huffington Post recently. In it, he discusses the challenges (sometimes amusing) of interviewing another journalistic pro.

Am I the only one who thought of the Ron Howard film "The Paper" when I read his comments about journalists stealing each others' notes? Bronstein begins his post with "Good journalists are trustworthy, but they don't trust anyone else."

Christie Hefner Exits Playboy Enterprises

At a time of unprecedented turmoil in the publishing and media markets, Playboy Enterprises Chair and CEO Christie Hefner has announced her plans to leave the company she has led for 20 years.

Hefner, seen in the photo above addressing The Commonwealth Club of California on January 19, 2005, has been credited with stearing the company through decades of changing tastes in America's political, cultural, and business scenes. From closing the company's iconic nightclubs to selling its iconic skycscraper in Chicago (sorry; so much of the magazine – like it or dislike it – is iconic), Ms. Hefner changed the company into a multimedia player with considerable successes in video and the internet. The company has, arguably, not recovered from the loss of big-pocket advertisers after it became targeted by right-wing critics in the 1980s. But it remains a major multimedia player, and Ms. Hefner has been a high-profile media executive with frequent public appearances (at everything from the old Internet World expos to the aforementioned Commonwealth Club, where she discussed globalized media companies).

Her exit marks yet another turning point for the company founded by her father in 1953. No doubt, publishing industry eyes will be closely watching her successor for indications of how much he or she will change the direction of the – sorry – iconic company.

This just in: MSNBC interviews Christie Hefner about her future plans; click on the video feature to view the interview.

Ted Turner on Nuclear Disarmament

In the above video excerpt, media mogul Ted Turner explains that his professional focus has changed from being a media entrepreneur to taking on the big issues, such as nuclear disarmament.

It was part of a wide-ranging (and often humorous) discussion he had with the San Francisco Chronicle's Phil Bronstein at The Commonwealth Club November 18, 2008.

Please forgive the low-quality video; we'll post a full video when our video partners at ForaTV make it available.

Ted Turner: Man of Mystery

Ted Turner once called audience members with crucifix-marked foreheads “Jesus freaks” one Ash Wednesday and believes global warming will ultimately cause humans to become cannibals.

Yet there is more to Turner than his propensity for raucous hyperbole and politically incorrect jest.

In his new book, Call Me Ted, according to reviews, Turner wants to tell you about the rise of CNN, his sporting adventures retaining the America's Cup and winning the World Series with the Atlanta Braves, the inner-workings of the infamous deal with Time Warner and ill-fated merger with AOL. But save for intimate details of his divorce from Jane Fonda, there is little new information about his life, and that seems to suit Turner well.

According to a New York Times article, writer Bill Burke wrote a flattering and lengthy magazine article entitled "Leadership Lessons I Learned From Ted Turner," which resulted in Turner immediately offering Burke the job of writing his memoirs. Burke has never written a book before.

What did Turner get by choosing Burke rather than an author with more gravitas for the autobiography (for which Grand Central Publishing paid an advance of $5 million)? Turner's agent Morton Janklow seems to indicate that, despite worries about Burke's inexperience, Turner's comfort with the author was a fair trade off for the lack of a big-name writer.

A review in the San Francisco Chronicle gets to the heart of Turner's entrepreneurial spirit, comparing him to other contemporary tech visionaries who stumbled once their dream was established.

Turner is a perfect visionary for a start-up; a leader who might make mistakes, but who will always be ready to work harder than the next guy and turn a crazy idea into a successful organization. But once the idea is realized, the charismatic visionary can be out of place.

The hard-charging Turner can be seen here in a 60 Minutes segment on the 1977 America's Cup.

In a dispute over the purchase of sails, Turner tells Walter Cronkite if his competitor is winning by the end of the race, "We'll sink them," before adding, "That would be unsportsmanlike conduct, I'm sure."

The irascible Turner continues to be the philanthrophic man of mystery thoroughly romanticized in American culture. A sort of gap-toothed, free-wheeling Bruce Wayne of cable news who still thinks you should try some bison meat.

Turner will appear at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco Wednesday, November 19 at noon and in San Jose.