Good Evening Mr.Holt, Nice to see you this evening. There has certainly been some dangerous fires out in California recently with hundreds of acres being burned. Hopefully the area will receive soem relief very soon. Mr.Maceda's report from Iraq concerning the Iraqi troops being able to stand up to help the American forces to begin to come home should be interesting. I hope he is safe in that sandstorm. The US troops have been there over five years now and the Iraqi troops should be closer to being able to handle the situation. I hope the situation gets better. Looking forward to Mr.Maceda's report this evening. Looking forward to the broadcast Mr.Holt. Peace to you and to all!

Lots of Love to Laurel,Jackie Stephanie,Celine,Claudia,Anna and Matt!
Be Well Always!
XOXO
PS-As a HUGE Richard admirer I viewed him on MSNBC! Always handsome! He has a new "War Zone Diary 2008! Premiering July 6th at 7:00pm on MSNBC!  You know I will watch!    

Don't forget to watch Saturday Night Live tonight!

Love to L, J, S, Ce, Cl, A, & M!  XOXO

Hi Lester:

Once again I am sitting at home with the power out, dinner in the oven and hail pounding my roof.  Life is good here!  Just rainy and windy.  I keep telling myself that as I am trying to debate whether or not to pull the lasanga from the oven and put it in the fridge.

Thanks for the update Lisa on Richard.  Who can live without SNL, Laurel?  It is a staple around here!

Weekend bests to all!

P.S. To the ladies of the blog, the Pedi-Egg is no more than a cheese grater for the feet.  Why didn't I think of it?  

Good Evening Mr.Holt,Great broadcast as always! First of all the report by Mr.Maceda from Tikrit concerning the ablility of the Iraqi forces to handle fighting off the insurgents was somwhat encouraging news. Hearing they are fighting the Shiite and Sunni insurgents shows they can make progress to reduce violence in the region. Prime Minister Maliki seems to be addressing three enemies and gaining ground in the fight. Although the real test will be when the US troops leave and they are on their own to handle the situation. The US commander appeared to be impressed with Maliki and the actions he has taken recently. One thing I heard Richard say on MSNBC today was that violence is down, but it is still very intense in some areas. Hopefully, the violence will be quelled soon everywhere in the region. Only time will tell.
On another note the fires in California and the floods in Missouri certainly are terrible for the residents. May they all receive some relief soon. And I hope those dolphins are able to swim to safety before the holiday weekend. Thank you for the broadcast Mr.Holt. See you on Sunday! Peace to you and to all!

Lots of Love to Laurel,Jackie,Stephanie,Celine,Claudia,Anna and Matt!
Anna-I hope the power comes back for you so you can enjoy your lasagna. Stay safe! Also, I liked your plans for the dinner party! I loved the guest list!
Be Well always!
XOXO

That was positive reporting, Mr. Holt, on
Iraq and that the Iraqs are now a force to
be reckon with.  Good news, indeed.

I especially appreciated the story on
financial woes.  It is easy to get caught
up in the credit crunch.  I felt better
about my credit when I read that Sen. CLinton
is 22 Million in debt.

Lisa, Could you do me a favor and keep an eye out to see if Richard's new documentary makes it's way to the Web, in case I miss it? You may remember that my local provider doesn't carry MSNMC, for reasons both technical and political.

@Anna, There was a review of that on a msnbc blog  

http://doesitwork.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/22/1054978.aspx (this has a line break, if it doesn't work try a copy then paste to your address bar)
I swear by the thing!

To Josh Braun and Celine First Josh, I do hope you become a regular, your posts are insightful and interesting. But as I read yours and Celine's exchange I kept thinking.. Sure, there are some of us for whom policy papers are the stuff of entertainment. But how does one then reach what has lately been termed "low information" voters? I suspect that the campaigns need to play a role, Someone is going to take this the wrong way, but the Nightly News, with it's 22 minutes isn't quite the right format. Cable news in general is geared toward niche viewing (which is a part of the problem, granted) but the sort of casual voter we call low information isn't going to watch  C-Span either. Do either of you have a proposal that would spead non-biased, objective policy in a broad format?
There are, I suspect people reading this who could take a modest proposal (yes, I meant the Swift alluison) and run with it. We need one, this year more than most.

Josh Do bear with us ladies. It really is fairly typical for us to discuss pedicure implements and politics in the same breath. I like to think of us as eclectic.  Brian, I suspect just rolls his eyes and chuckles at us.    

@Anna Sounds like your news viewing is quite eclectic! That's great.  So many folks stick to one or two sources these days, or a collection of ideologically charged ones.

@Claudia I do plan on sticking around, thank you!  I'm moving for the next few days and getting married in mid-July, though.  So my posting may become more sporadic for a month or so!

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that not everyone is going to be interested in watching/hearing/reading about policy discussions. This is what I was alluding to when I said that programs that go into lots of depth on issues often suffer from low ratings. PBS' News Hour is a great outlet for lots of information, but it's not exactly attracting giant audiences.  It gets about 2.7 million viewers nightly, according to Nielsen.  That's, as I recall, almost exactly a third of what Brian gets each evening with a network format and flashier graphics (which is not meant to be a dig at NBC News), and less than a tenth of what an audience-popular program, like, say, American Idol can rake in.

And again, what people say they want isn't always what they're willing to watch.  I remember watching the 2004 election results come in at the graduate student center, when I was a grad at UPenn. That year, there was a huge contrast in the way cable networks and broadcast networks were covering the election.  After watching CNN for a few minutes, with its roiling banks of flatscreens and swirling graphics, some of the students, thinking themselves erudite, began to complain about all the bells and whistles.  Why did they need all the music and the animations to present simple election returns?  Why must the news have all these entertainment tropes?

So, being a resident news junkie, I suggested that they switch to a broadcast network.  The woman with the clicker flipped on ABC, and there sat Peter Jennings, George Stephanopoulos, and Richard Clarke around a table, with scant graphics to be found, calmly discussing the returns, sans music.  It was really intelligent coverage, but there was no driving tempo.  And before five minutes was up, the same students who'd been complaining loudly about CNN capitulated and requested that the channel be changed back to cable news. I think people get really used to that aesthetic without even realizing it.

Newspapers, of course, went through a similar shift.  Before television, their stories used to take up miles of fine print.  And people would read most or all of it, because that was how you got your news.  Then live television began to offer breaking news as it happened, and newspapers suddenly lost their ability to scoop the competition.  Papers started running less breaking coverage, more analysis.  Over time news photos got more prominence in the papers, stories became shorter, and the print size larger.  Now some papers, like the Tribune have considered taking this trend even further, reformatting their print editions altogether (http://tinyurl.com/5oodnb ).

Of course, in other ways the pendulum has begun to swing again.  Now that people hit the Internet for breaking news, papers are getting back into the game of immediacy with their websites, and it's interesting to see how that changes the way they cover the news.

As for whether there's a way to reach low-information voters with in-depth discussions, that's a good question.  And, as I'm sure you know, it's a very old one.  It's a problem John Dewey tried to tackle in the 1920s, with his book The Public and Its Problems.  But I believe the first person to lament people's tendency to value form over substance was Plato, who wrote around 400 B.C. that "rhetoric...is not an art at all, but the habit of a bold and ready wit, which knows how to manage mankind."

I'm currently grinding through a Ph.D. program in communication research, and am continually in the presence of a lot of really smart people who study this stuff.  I'll tell you readily that they don't have many solutions.  Especially in areas like risk communication ("Wear your seatbelt;" "Keep your arms inside the car;" etc.), where the stakes are really high, you'd like people to truly know and understand the facts you're giving them and appreciate its importance.  But people seek and process information based on their individual needs, not ours.  They react strongly against the notion that we know best what's good for them.  And, barring fascism, there's really no way to force people to learn or be interested in something.

I think there's a lot of promise in the affordances offered by new information technologies.  Clay Shirky just wrote a great book called Here Comes Everybody, in which he looks at the way that websites like Wikipedia let people follow their own interests, while providing value for everyone.  People's variegated passions have given us access to articles on diverse topics from Leetspeak to Algerian Folk Dancing.

Everyone talks about Wikipedia, though, so I'll give you another example.  Say what you will about a site like Daily Kos, with all its inflammatory rhetoric and political slant, one thing that's interesting there, from a philosophical perspective, is that when one of its users writes a post on any given topic—nuclear energy, say—whether the original article is informed or not, it will be visited and commented on by people who do know something on the subject.  With 125,000+ users, and 800,000 daily readers, there are actually nuclear engineers and sustainable energy experts who read the site, coalescing around and commenting on articles they're interested in.

So, while in a traditional news environment reporters have to go out and find the experts, some new media environments like Daily Kos or Wikipedia are set up so that experts come to them.  In both cases, you have to be very careful, though, to appreciate the filtering or self-selection that's taking place in the process.  And I don't say this as a screed against either the news media or new media.

Traditional news media get most of their information from institutions - the Supreme Court, the NRA, city hall, etc - and thus sometimes privilege institutional viewpoints over those of the unorganized citizenry.  This has been noted by a variety of observers, from Herbert Gans to Gaye Tuchman.  And I think it's a fair enough observation.

A place like Daily Kos, on the other hand, may get the benefit of non-traditional expertise.  For instance, a commenter on Daily Kos who sweeps the floors at a nuclear power plant may have a unique on-the-ground perspective of the nuclear industry not shared by a plant manager, or the head of an electric company, either of whom NBC might be more likely to interview.  The custodian may also dish the sort of dirt that managers are unwilling to publicize.

At the same time, if the janitor is commenting on Daily Kos, while he may not have been vetted for his institutional position, he's most certainly been self-selected for his political views.  And if you're going to a site like DK for information, it's vital to consider that fact.

I'm not a Daily Kos participant, but I have studied the site from an academic standpoint.  My only point in examining it here, along with other sites like Wikipedia, is that to some extent places like these allow us to reap the value of people's diverse passions, rather than merely lamenting the fact that folks don't have the "correct" core set of interests.  Political candidates have begun to harness this same phenomenon.  Obama's online efforts (which include an entire social networking site embedded in his homepage), have been so wildly successful because they similarly have spaces that allow people to follow their interests and aptitudes.  He's been accused of being a blank slate and a Rorschach candidate precisely because he lets people imbue his campaign with their own passions. And, IMHO, it remains to be seen whether he'll actually harness any of the distributed wisdom that this style of campaigning pulls in, or whether he'll merely use the surface appeal of it to get elected.

At any rate, it'd still be nice if everyone took an interest in the political system and policy in particular.  But bringing that to pass is a rather timeless conundrum.  And, while I'd love it if it happened, it comes down to, as usual: "Who am I to tell people what they should care about?"

My heart goes out to all the people affected by these disasters. I hope things start to get better soon, and I've been deeply touched by all the stories of folks actively taking care of their friends and neighbors. I also hope, in the wake of all this, the "powers that be" will begin to examine some of the tough realities surrounding the tragedies.  The people who've lost so much deserve no less.

I'm a native of California.  The possibility of climate change-effects aside, and with the realization that the latest fire season is likely a record-setter, I think it'd be good to remember that drought is the norm there.  The western U.S. doesn't ultimately have enough water to support the sizable population that lives in it.  This was the thesis of Marc Reisner's book of some years ago, Cadillac Desert. He basically predicted an eventual Great Eastward Migration, as water supplies out west dwindle, and become increasingly inundated with salt deposits. Despite my great love for the place, I think he may be right in the end. In either case, I hope folks will begin looking for creative solutions in time to avert continued climate disasters - though I honestly don't know what these would be.

With regard to the tragic flooding in the Midwest, I continue to think of William Least Heat-Moon's book from a few years back, River Horse, in which he describes how all the engineering we've done to the nation's waterways has made them remarkably - and increasingly - susceptible to flooding.  I don't know enough to say whether the current situation has to do with his concerns.  But in either case, the book's observations are worth considering in their own right.

All of these are extraordinarily hard problems. Anyone who grapples with them in real terms, rather than simply writing about them, has my undying respect. So much about the way we live these days has to be thoroughly reworked.  From the personal level to the national, it's a daunting litany of projects.

@ Claudia:  Thanks for the link.  It made me chuckle that the author thought it was a cheese grater too.  Anyway, I have to get working on some $10 gizmo that will make me multi-millions just like Joy Mangano on HSN.  Mom to millions on mops!  And yes, to the men of the blog, this is not a female only product so check out those feet because women love a well groomed man.

Claudia, I am having a hard time seeing Brian in the pedicure chair at the salon with cucumbers on his eyes.   I could be wrong.

@ Normand:  You and I are going to have to ban together on this non-stop advertising for drugs.   Personally I think all of the drug advertising in America should be banned.   I wonder how much marketing and advertising gets passed on to us in each dose of medicine.   If you see any studies on this please advise.

@ Lisa:   Lasanga tonight for dinner.  I never served it last night and missed Lester too.  All is well.  Just a small reminder of how good and rich our lives are here in America.  You always know you will have power soon unlike life in other parts of the world.

@ All:  Is anyone else still struggling with the Supreme Court decision this week concerning child abusers?   I have to tell you I am sick over this decision.  Most of these criminals have 100's of victims.   What is happening in America when we as a nation do not protect our children?  This issue just raises my BP from 110/70 to infinity.

And from the cover of Vanity Fair this month, "As a woman I have no country.  My country is the whole world." --- Virginia Woolf  

Count down to July 4th!    
   

Hi All:

I hope everyone had a restful and happy weekend.   Being the junkie I am I feel compelled to tell you about the article about Bill Clinton in VF.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/07/clinton200807

Jackie, don't be mad at me for this one.   The article basically summarized everything I have felt about Bill for some years.   He was the reason I just could not support Hillary.  Unfair, I know.

@ Laurel:  As always, thanks for the Richard update.  That video was something else.

@ Josh:  Congratulations on your move and upcoming wedding.  This is a wonderful time in life.    I must add a tip I heard on TV this weekend from a male so I will quote it as "A happy wife is a happy life."  Remember that as you go through life.

Bests to all!

Josh, my first reaction to the 3030 newspaper was, Where have I seen that format before, oh yes, magazines!
But then, that might just be the answer I seek, a daily magazine,at low cost, profit that comes in ad revenues and mass circulation, that covers a few topics in depth, rather than many just skimming the 5 W's. Want to become the next JFK Junior? We could be on to something.

The other thing I realized today, There is no accounting for what will strike the public. Even my reaction to the Midwest Floods is far different that my reaction to Katrina, and I can't really tell you why. I nearly went to Louisiana at the time of Katrina, my emotional reaction to that event was so strong. Yet when I view the floods I tend to cluck in sympathy for a moment then worry about the price of bread this winter. Not a nice thing to admit, yet I'd wager a number of people, if they were totally honest, would admit to the same thing.
I do have my reading for next week cut out for me. Thank You

Moving is no fun, but weddings are. Congratulations!

Anna I grew up a doctor's daughter, and back in the day it was considered unethical to advertise drugs. Although the reps would always leave my dad with more than enough notepads to last a year. It use to embarrass me to take an excuse note to school written on some pad labeled with the latest antibiotic. I've often thought it put a weird sort of pressure on the physician, suddenly the patient is doing the prescribing not the doctor.  

One last note, I checked the NYT Bestseller list today, hoping War Diary had made it. Not yet, but I was touched to see that "Big Russ and Me" was No. 5.

MR. HOLT, I READ THIS MORNING THAT THE HORSE RACE
IS ON FOR MEET THE PRESS.  YOU ARE THE CONSUMMATE
PROFESSIONAL, AND YOU WOULD BE MY FIRST CHOICE.
HOWEVER, NBC DOES NOT ASK MY OPINION.  I'M SUCH
A DITZ.  I WILL BE IN YOUR CORNER, THOUGH, AND
HOPE FOR HE BEST.

LUCK, ALWAYS
PHYLLIS KUNZ

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