Day: November 22, 2004

For bloggers, it would appear has come early this year:
In yet another management shift, CNN on Monday hired former CBS News executive Jonathan Klein to oversee its flagship network and try to narrow the prime-time ratings gap with industry leader Fox News Channel.
Yes, that would be Jonathan “[a blogger is] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas” Klein. Who, apparently, can “understand today’s news consumers in ways never before available to media executives” — something about implanting radio transmitters in their dental fillings, I believe.
Fox News spokesman Robert Zimmerman, on the other hand, has our kind of snark:
“‘We wish CNN well on their annual executive shuffle,’ Fox spokesman Robert Zimmerman said.”
Zing! Get that man a blog — and some pajamas…

More From:
Mickey Kaus
Powerline
Roger Simon

Nick Denton has the idea of a blog ethics committee, nominating Jason Calacanis and Jeff Jarvis to lead it.
Calacanis is willing, Jeff is more skeptical of the need.
I’ll need to think more on this, but my first reactions are:
– If you’re going to have a “code of ethics” that bloggers can declare they adhere to, I would think there would also need to be an enforcement mechanism — some kind of auditing, a complaint investigation process, and finally, some method for discipline. That’s the work of more than just a handful of bloggers; that’s right back to the old ‘blogger trade association’ idea.
– As a general principle, I don’t like the idea of attempting to homogenize the blogosphere in any way; see my post on a spectrum of standards. That said, there are a few areas where I would support standardization (in methodologies for tracking traffic statistics, for instance), and I can see the potential usefulness of a neutral “seal of approval” from a trade association for bloggers marketing themselves to advertisers and even readers.
– My doubts aside, my ideal conception of a blogopshere full of diversity is also wide enough to include the idea of such a trade association / ethics committee, as long as membership is voluntary and the association doesn’t abuse its (potentially powerful) position to strongarm non-member bloggers. In other words: if some bloggers want to write down their ethics and form a club around it, that’s fine by me, as long as they don’t try to force those rules on me (or on anybody).
More thoughts later, I’m sure…

Wizbang is now accepting nominations for 2004 Weblog Awards, some of which are based on Ecosystem categories.
I’m gunning for ‘Best Weblog Written By An Arctic Land Mammal’, myself. But I’ll probably get screwed by those damned snowshoe hares again this year…