Media Mobilizing Project recently started a new initiative: Community Journalism in Times of Economic Crisis. The initiative is a response to both the economic crisis, which is hitting Philadelphians hard, and the growing problems with the for-profit journalism model, which is making it difficult for local newspapers to cover stories about the struggles of everyday people during the economic downturn. The goal of this project is to report on and collect the real stories of Philadelphia and beyond on MMP's community blog, so we can begin to get a picture of the economic crisis from the ground up. Here is a copy of our latest newsletter: The Human Right to Healthcare: Northeastern Hospital is Groundzero. Sign up for the newsletter!

In a thought provoking piece, one that helps me focus on where Philly Future is lacking, Christopher Anderson compares various local online media, including Philebrity, Philly.com, Citizen Mom, Beerleaguer, Philly IMC, Young Philly Politics, and Mere Cat. It's a a great read. Various new media is not as open as you'd think, and Philly.com still has a ways to go.

The fantastic coverage of the Phillies last week and the election this week exemplified why The Daily News and Inquirer are so important to our region. I'm gearing up an essay about how having a shared resource at times such as these is still so important and if these last two weeks didn't hammer it home for you, then the numbers of folks who ran out to buy keep sake newspapers should.

In any case, NBC is going local and their Philly service is looking pretty spiffy. This joins MyFoxPhilly, which should be congratulated on the last couple weeks as well.

Philebrity put together a great set of posts last week documenting Philadelphia's history on the Web. As Alex Hillman notes, this has only scratched the surface, but it's a terrific effort.

Thanks to Philebrity for adding Philly Future to the mix. There are lots and lots of people to thank for keeping Philly Future up and going, and as I mention there, I hope it continues to be of service to the community.

Karl

More eyeballs make all bugs shallow. It's an old saying in open source development circles.

The folks at Young Philly Politics and Hallwatch.org are trying to open up our city's electronic voting results on the Web sooner and to more citizens across the region.

click for more information.

Ultimately, there should be ZERO access to that back end database and a read only version of the results should be published to a public URL. Hopefully by pressing the matter, this will change.

By Michael Johns

It can be said that modern conservatism knows only two times. There was the time before him and there was the time after him, and those two times could not be more contrasting. In this stark contrast lies his larger-than-life legacy, and let there be no mistake: It is a legacy that will endure the ages.

As word of William F. Buckley, Jr.'s passing reached his many students, admirers and colleagues late last week, it seemed each had an account (some grand, some small) of how this intellectual giant memorably impacted and touched their lives, their vision, and their work. In the aggregate, they tell the story of a man whose immense collective qualities--genius, boldness, industriousness, persuasiveness, and (perhaps least appreciated) kindness and generosity--were without equal in modern American public life. Even in death, Buckley is bringing conservatives together more effectually than many conservative leaders are doing in life. It should surprise no one. To have had the good fortune to have brushed upon Buckley during this life was to leave impressed, inspired, and reinvigorated in the purpose-driven life that he lived admirably and which he cultivated in a whole generation of conservatives who, now in his absence, carry forward his torch.

It may be said too often of the recently deceased, but it must be said emphatically of Buckley: We will not likely see his type again.

Honestly, what is up with the Historic Landmark that is the Philadelphia Inquirer Building?

Read what Inga Saffron has to say on February 25th

Patriot Equities may not have fully sewn up the deal to buy the Inquirer Building, as Publisher Brian Tierney says in today's Daily News, but I'd wager a year's subscription to the Inquirer (what can I say, I'm partisan) that the building's two newsrooms aren't going to be packing up and leaving anytime soon. Philadelphia Media Holdings, which bought the Inquirer and Daily News in 2006, put the landmark white tower on the block last August. While no official price was disclosed, developers said the original number was upwards of $60 million.

It's not clear how much Patriot, a Wayne company that was assembled by alumni from Mike O'Neill's Preferred Real Estate, is offering now, but many suspect the sale price will be much less. The big question now is what will Patriot do for PMH. We know that Patriot specializes in lease-back deals. For all Tierney's broad hints about being courted by New Jersey Gov. Corzine for a a high-profile spot on the Camden waterfront, one suspects the talks are nothing more than a strategic flirtation. Why else would architects from H2L2 be prowling the newsroom here all last week, with clipboards and blueprints in hand? They're getting ready to renovate.

Now see this thing from the Daily News:

Deal or no deal? Tierney disputes report of newspaper building's sale
By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News
farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225

A Delaware County real-estate investment and development firm has emerged as the leading suitor for the venerable Daily News and Inquirer building, at Broad and Callowhill streets.

Two officers of Patriot Equities LP, of Wayne, said yesterday that a deal had been reached, under which both newspapers would remain in the building and share it with other tenants.

But Philadelphia Media Holdings chief executive Brian Tierney cautioned that negotiations were just beginning.

"We're negotiating, but until a deal's a deal, it's not a deal," Tierney said. "We're not negotiating with anyone else, and we're not soliciting any other offers, but there's no definitive agreement."

Patriot Equities, which specializes in underutilized corporate real estate, was among 300 developers nationwide that had expressed interest after the building was put on the market last year, Tierney said.

And we'll throw this out there: what's up with what we saw on the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia website?

I went to Philadelphia's Constitution Center last night to hear Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps and regular radio producer for NPR talk about his work as a gatherer of stories. He said this is his life's work. How refreshing to hear of a man who has found his work, and that work is helping other people find their own stories and share them with the people they love. This is the human experience at its best.

Radio personalities are "different" from the bigger than life celebrities on television. Even though they have influenced me for much of my life, since I don't see them they don't project an overpowering sense of celebrity. So for example, Terri Gross introduced the evening. Wow. Terri Gross. I listen to her as many days as I can. She is like intellectual and cultural oxygen in an underwater world. And there she was a few feet away (I was sitting on the front row.) And Jane Eisner, Vice President for National Programs at the Constitution Center did the interview. I just stared at her, trying to understand how she could speak so intelligently, in complete sentences no less. Unlike politicians who speak in routine phrases or actors who read scripts, these public figures actually come up with intelligent observations. I love it. It turned out the "founder of Public Radio" was in the audience, an unassuming man, in an overcoat who started All Things Considered in 1971. (I didn't catch his name. Anyone know it? Bill Semring?) And he was just there, sitting in the audience.

Going into Philadelphia and sitting in a live audience a few feet away from live performers seems so retro, and yet so real. It's an treat, amidst my busy life, to occasionally experience these rather esoteric benefits of living within the orbit of this major metropolitan community.

If you're interested in storytelling or memoir writing, check out my blog entry on the topic at Memory Writers Network

I drove down to Philadelphia to participate in a Boomervision conference at WHYY, sponsored by the good people of Coming of Age, to help me figure out what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life. While I was there I ran into a guy who grew up near me, so in addition to the panel, I got some memory sparks out of the evening. If you want to read my blog entry about the panel discussion, or the interview I did with the StoryCorps van parked outside, check out my blog:

Memory Writers Network

Jerry Waxler

I was driving home shortly before 2 a.m. when I heard a familiar voice on the radio. I soon realized I was hearing the launch of Will Bunch's next career as a talk radio host. That's when I picked up the phone and made my first call to the "Big Talker" in ages.

The experience stirred some thoughts on the future of traditional news media, about which I go into more depth at the smedley log.

Even more eloquent thoughts on the future of the news can be found at Slacktivist, written by another local blogger employed in the field of journalism.

Your dreams drive your life, but it's not always easy to remember those dreams. To figure out how you got here, check out my blog about Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Michael Vitez's book Rocky Stories. In my blog entry, I show how you can use the famous stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a writing prompt to get in touch with your dreams, the way so many visitors to the museum do every day.

Memoir Writing Prompt: Your Rocky Story

News Item:
Journalistic Fraud Damages 'Mainstream' Credibility

It's not that long ago that fabricating the news was absolutely unheard of. When Walter Cronkite appeared on our TV screens, people listened. When a major US publication put something in print, it was like being carved in stone. More and more these days, that's just not the case. It's getting harder to believe what you see. Even photographs, once considered to be proof of an incident occuring, can now be manipulated on any home computer.

The New Republic magazine, for the second time now, has come under scrutiny in this regard. The publication has been featuring a column called The Baghdad Diarist, reportedly written by an Army private in Iraq. When supposed facts contained in the column began to be questioned, the Army launched an investigation. It seems now the author of the articles has signed a sworn statement that quite a bit of what he wrote was made up. Back in 1998, this same magazine fired a writer for using imaginary sources and non-existent events in many of his stories.

That same year the Boston Globe lost two of their columnists when their integrity came into question. In 2003 The New York Times fired a high profile reporter for wrting articles that just weren't true. Also in 2003, The LA Times fired a staff photographer for manipulating photographs posted from Iraq. In 2004, CBS News dumped their long time evening anchor for basing reports on documents that were forged. That same year, the Boston Globe published photos of US soldiers allegedly raping Iraqi women. The photos were actually downloaded from a pornographic website, and showed neither US troops or Iraqis. In 2006, Reuters published pictures of the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict that were such obvious fakes it made insiders wonder how they ever got published at all.

The list goes on and on, stories are slanted and pictures are altered, to fit both the liberal and the conservative point of view. The American public deserves better than that. Politics, it's well known, is a very dirty business. Reporting the news should never succumb to a political slant. If an editorial statement is made, it should be labled as such. Editorials are opinions, but not necessarily a statement of fact. The image below is neither editorial nor fact, but you figured that out for yourself, didn't ya...

News Source: CNS News

Cartoon from Sid in the City

Philadelphia Inquirer: Putting the map on Philadelphia:

A multidisciplinary group of professors and graduate students is mapping and graphing job dispersal, incomes, health-care coverage, arts-related business, and about 100 other quality-of-life measures in the Philadelphia region's 353 towns and municipalities.

Temple is tackling the gargantuan project with the help of $2.1 million in two grants awarded in 2003 and 2006 by the William Penn Foundation. The nonprofit focuses its philanthropy on the Philadelphia region.

Magazine-style top-10 lists of the best places to live, or to raise kids, or to own pets, or to party, are not the goal, say project leaders. "It's not up to us to say certain community conditions are the ideal set," said Carolyn Adams, professor in the department of geography and urban studies and codirector of the project with Temple professor David Bartelt.

The goal is to make information available from many sources, and, in so doing, present a data-based picture of current conditions on this mosaic of nine counties, with about five million people, two million jobs, vast wealth and distressing poverty. "It brings public data to the public," said Elizabeth Halen, a Temple graduate who massages the torrent of data.

Check out this important local, informational resource here.

I think that a healthy democracy depends on interested people acting as watchdogs over the politicians they elect. That's why I started Keystone Politics in 2004 and it's still our mission today. Since then, the site has grown from being a place where only I contribute to a place where several regular contributors join the dozens of commenters and bloggers create great discussions about Pennsylvania.

Now, we're looking to become more aggressive in challenging the mainstream media, asking tough questions, and participating in open government and oversight initiatives. With that in mind, we're looking for regular contributors to help us in our mission. Above and beyond blog posts and comments, we rely on this group of core contributors to provide comprehensive coverage of PA politics.

If you're interested in PA politics and want to contribute, we'd like to hear from you. General contributors are great, but we're also looking for some specialists in:

• Western PA
• 2008 Presidential Race
• 2008 Congressional Races
• and more if you have suggestions!

E-mail admin@keystonepolitics.com to learn more about contributing to Keystone Politics.

You won't hear about it on Digg. It's not on Newsvine. Good luck trying to find relevant links on del.icio.us. It's nowhere to be found on popurls, or OriginalSignal. It's not being talked about on the blogs Memeorandum, Megite or TailRank track. There isn't a page on Wikipedia. And little reference on WikiNews. On Topix.com or Netscape.com, nary a peep.