Al’s Rationale

Before the first Tuesday in November, Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken has three primary messaging To-Dos to accomplish: 1) Wrestle the ethics issue to neutral; 2) Prove that Norm Coleman has been a Bush loyalist; and 3) Convince swing voters that Franken is an acceptable alternative.
In terms of countering ethics charges, Franken has [...]

Now It’s Franken Doing the Spankin’

Following Norm Coleman’s lead, Al Franken is jumping into the Ultimate Fighting ring with a tough new ad.

This ad aint pretty. But will it get Franken off the mat?
On the question of personal ethics, no ad can make Franken’s problems go away completely. But this ad is an attempt by [...]

Participant or observer: Journalism and its impact on the subjects

This story in the Washington Post cuts to the heart of a central issue in journalism ethics: Do the people who document and retell the stories of people are the world have an impact on those lives? Should they? Are these journalists participants, observers or a combination thereof?
In the story, former photojournalist Warren Zinn tells [...]

How do you prove ads work? Lie and deceive!

The company that owns the Philadelphia (type that five times fast) Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News — not to mention the related Web site philly.com — subjected its readers to a smattering of ads for an airline with an innovative pricing model. Derrie-Air (get it?) charges customers based on their own bulk: “the more [...]

Is Olbermann good for NBC?

Is Keith Olbermann an asset to MSNBC and its parent NBC News? That, of course, is a two-pronged question. He’s certainly an asset in the business sense, giving MSNBC a fighting chance at keeping up with the Foxes. But perhaps more importantly, and certainly of greater interest to me, is considering this question in the [...]