Beyond Frequency

Seth's Blog : The problem with cable news thinking

[I agree with Seth Godin's blog today wholeheartedl!]

...from Seth Godin

The problem with cable news thinking
Not only the networks of all political persuasions that come to mind, but the mindset they represent...
When I was growing up, Eyewitness News always found a house on fire in South Buffalo. "Tonight's top story," Irv Weinstein would intone, "...a fire in South Buffalo." Every single night. If you watched the news from out of town, you were sure that the city must have completely burned to the ground. 
Cable news thinking has nothing to do with fires or with politics. Instead, it amplifies the worst elements of emotional reaction:
Focus on the urgent instead of the important.
Vivid emotions and the visuals that go with them as a selector for what's important.
Emphasis on noise over thoughtful analysis.
Unwillingness to reverse course and change one's mind.
Xenophobic and jingoistic reactions (fear of outsiders).
Defense of the status quo encouraged by an audience self-selected to be uniform.
Things become important merely because others have decided they are important.
Top down messaging encourages an echo chamber (agree with this edict or change the channel).
Ill-informed about history and this particular issue.
Confusing opinion with the truth.
Revising facts to fit a point of view.
Unwillingness to review past mistakes in light of history and use those to do better next time.If I wanted to hobble an organization or even a country, I'd wish these twelve traits on them. I wonder if this sounds like the last board meeting you went to...

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Five Reasons It's Tough For Us To Be Redskins Fans?

...the five last place teams that have made up the Redskins' schedule.  As the article below points out, every team the Redskins has faced this year has been win-less. 

I am leaving the Giants out since that was the first game of the season and they are of course not the dregs of the NFL as the other teams are...including my beloved Redskins.  It is painful to write, but you cannot run from your past or your favorite team. 

At least the Phillies are bringing some happiness!

Redskins are first in history to play six straight winless teams

By Chris Chase

If the Washington Redskins' schedule was any softer it would be on a package of Charmin. If the Redskins were a college team (which, at times, they resemble), pundits would mocking the team's strength of schedule.

As the great Joe Posnanski pointed out this morning on his blog, when the Redskins host the 0-5 Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday, it will mark the team's sixth consecutive game against a winless team. I'll repeat that because it doesn't sound as impressive the first time around: So far this season, every team the Redskins have played has been winless at the time of the game. According to STATS LLC, it's the first time in the history of the NFL that this has happened. The last team to have faced five winless teams was the 1954 Giants.

According to my dad (whom I had to call to get help with the equation), the odds of this happening are 1 in 32,768. (Feel free to check this and let me know if our numbers are wrong.)

Here's the way the Redskins schedule has broken down so far, along with their opponent's record at the time:

Week 1 -- at New York Giants (0-0)

Week 2 -- vs. St. Louis Rams (0-1)

Week 3 -- at Detroit Lions (0-2)

Week 4 -- vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-3)

Week 5 -- at Carolina Panthers (0-3 -- Note: Carolina had a week 3 bye)

Week 6 -- vs. Kansas City Chiefs (0-5)

Obviously, the Giants were winless because they had yet to play a game. Since then, the Redskins have faced the dregs of the NFL but could only muster a 2-2 record against them. (Which is pretty much all the evidence one should need to pass judgment on the future of Jim Zorn.)

New York excepted, the current combined record of the rest of the 'Skins opponents is 2-22, with the only two wins coming against the Redskins themselves (by Detroit and Carolina). After Sunday, last place Washington will have faced every of their last place peers in the NFC, as well as one in the AFC too.

The streak will end in week 7 when the Redskins host the Philadelphia Eagles, a team with a whopping three wins to its credit thus far.  

Related: Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins

What Does A Daily Show Body Slam Feel Like? Just As CNN!

If you look at the opening segment from The Daily Show Last night, you will learn as John Stewart simply blasted CNN for dropping stories, failing to focus on facts of legitimate news items while focusing on 'fact-checking' Saturday Night Live. 

The SNL fact-check earned CNN backlash from a wide range of organizations, but launched a well-deserved tirade from Mr. Stewart and The Daily Show crew.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CNN Leaves It There
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

I have made no secret of the fact that I believe that CNN has generally abdicated its role as a hard-hitting news organization in favor of fluff and soft ball insight.  That is not to say that there are not stories that are worthwhile, but for a group that has 24 hours in the day and a strong international presence, the quality of the 'news' here in the US is mediocre at best.

The most disturbing part of the Daily Show piece is their display of the CNN's lack of fact-checking when it really counts; on little things like health care statistics.

I have finally stopped watching the sporadically relevant CNN American Morning and will now be tuning to BBC World News in the morning.

GCECS Follow Up And Social Network List

Innovation Philadelphia deserves a note of congratulations for a successful Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit event today at the Convention Center.  The session that I was fortunate enough to lead, "SaaS – It Takes A Village To Raise A Venture"  was filled with a great, inquisitive audience, which made or a dynamic, interactive workshop.

It was a pleasure.

In response to one of the questions from the audience to me about social networks that our platform supports, the links below give a few lists of them. Because we are able to integrate any social networks under a single sign on environment through a personal homepage and dashboard, any of those listed below can work.

As we discussed in the session, our goal is to give the most power and flexibility to our clients.  We provide the value-added tools like semantic search, business intelligence, widget builders and personal homepages to tie everything together, but the selection of the tools can be with you; just as you can choose the apps you want on the iPhone.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional information.  It is my pleasure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

http://traffikd.com/social-media-websites/