Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Thoughts from David Cohn's Representative Journalism: Funding Beats or Stories (cross-posted from a comment left there, with a couple typos corrected).

Key point, that people don't have to believe in "journalism" to contribute to its practice through spot.us.

This will bring many more people to get involved, which will make the funding of individual stories more independent of pressure from concentrated interests than beat-covering institutions.

It is the general thought that Amazing Things is doing well and - although we are doing pretty well, we're only making it because of your support. Some of you are members - and that helps a lot - even at the lowest level. But it is our membership - especially at the higher levels and our auction that keeps us alive.

— Michael Moran, Amazing Things Arts Center

http://agaricdesign.com/amazing-auction-enhancements
http://agaric.chipin.com/amazing-auction

Spotted on a discussion thread that turned to questions of government spying (FISA), in a comment by the inimitable Bill Conroy:

(For the record, I assume this communication is now being monitored since it likely crossed international lines over the Internet -- wish the monitors would weigh in, as long as it doesn't show up on my phone bill ... make it more interesting.)

Saul Alinsky on the radical:

In the end he has one conviction—a belief that if people have the power to act, in the long run they will, most of the time, reach the right decisions. The alternative to this would be rule by the elite—either a dictatorship or some form of political aristocracy.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/11/195520/045/275/493981

I have nothing against the people of the nuclear industry. In fact, I think they've done a very good job not killing many of us, certainly fewer then even natural gas drilling, and despite not building a power plant in well over 30 years, still provides 20 percent of U.S. electricity.

It's one Jewish lunar year since my father died, and I got broken up with again (and we both better accept this, at least for a while, this time).

And I am all right.

Explaining PWGD in the context of Daniel Pepper's proposed trans-national branded organization of experienced freelance journalists:

Suppose your organization grows from 100 to 1,000 journalists. You want everyone in the network to be able to communicate with everyone else, but now you have ten times the chance that one member may be off topic, unproductively combative, overly enthusiastic, or disruptive in any other way toward the group goals of social justice and journalistic excellence in the public service.

Let me say now before Hillary Clinton officially ends her presidential bid that while I follow Molly Ivins on this and opposed Senator Clinton's presidential ambitions from the start, there was definitely sexism in the campaign coverage that I and many people with a far greater reach than my voice should have spoken out against more loudly and more often.