blog.vanillacokehead.com

I saw LeBron James’ decision to go to the Miami Heat coming in the one or two days leading to it. Between the rumored desire for close friends James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh to play on the same NBA team – and the reports James had put down an offer on a house in the Miami area - to me the writing was on the wall. Sure, I’m bummed; but such is the life of a longsuffering lifetime Cleveland professional sports fan.

I agree with folks such as Terry Pluto who have criticized the way LeBron James turned this into a long, drawn out soap opera. The whole thing could have been done quickly, easily, and with more class than it was. James turned the whole saga surrounding his choice of where to play next season into an egopalooza – sure he tried to make it “for charity” and about having the best prospects to win an NBA title; but in the end, it was about LeBron.

From the beginning of his decision making process, I never faulted LeBron James for wanting to look for the best opportunity to win an NBA Championship. Any professional athlete worth his or her salt wants the best chance to win and be part of a championship team.

The way LeBron James turned this decision making process into an ego-driven, drama-laden, excruciatingly drawn out soap opera showed a marked lack of class.

It reminded me of when I was active on LiveJournal a few years ago – and a user decided to unfollow me there. The person wasn’t just content to just unfollow these people. This person listed – in a public post – all the people who were gone from her friends list; she also requested said people to unfollow her. It was insensitive. It was crass. And it was an unnecessary public manifestation of what should be a private, personal decision. I had no problem with being unfollowed – I had a problem with this LJ user turning it into a spectacle.

Terry Pluto made a great point when he said that “Twenty-five year-olds are usually not the most mature people on the planet.”. I know this first-hand. Nearly 20 years ago I was an emotionally immature, hot-headed, wet-behind-the-ears television news photographer in Jackson, Mississippi. I shot off my mouth first and asked questions later. I took things way too personally. I didn’t fully realize then the consequences of my actions and utterances. It took me another 10 years to start to mellow out and mature emotionally.

I look back at how I acted in my 20s and realize what I might have done differently. I have a feeling that in 10 or 20 years LeBron James might just look back at “The Decision” he made in 2010 and wish he had handled it differently.

My friend Chuck Collins mentioned this morning that 12 years ago today, Princess Diana died. Many say paparazzi photographers played a role in her death – it’s alleged that their chasing of the vehicle in which she was a passenger caused the car crash that took her life.

In July of 1996, about 14 months before Princess Di’s death, I left the TV news business; I had been a news photographer for seven years. I decided the stress was too much – a major contributor to this stress was having to regularly deal with police, fire, and other public safety officers who (IMO) often took it upon themselves to use police and fire lines as ways to restrict media coverage of crime scenes and other emergency incidents.

In the early 90s when I lived in Mississippi, media got along with “the authorities” and the cooperation level was pretty good. In Rochester NY – it was the opposite. It seemed like a running game between public safety officers and members of the news media at incident scenes. Many of “the authorities” in the Rochester area had chips on their shoulders and seemed eager to mess with members of the media. What I miss least about being a news photographer was the stress of being expected to get a story, to get video – and being impeded in doing my job by cops, firefighters, and other public safety officers.

In the mid-90s when I worked in Rochester, I could definitely see the tide turning for the worse for members of the news media. More public safety officers felt comfortable as the decade progressed to “play censor” with the news media. You could also see people getting more unhappy with what they felt was progressively invasive news coverage.

For many, the death of Princess Diana was a “Popeye moment” (“that’s all I can stands; I can’t stands no more!!!”) regarding the conduct of members of the news media. I think the alleged role of the paparazzi in her death pissed off quite a few people – and this anger turned the tide, perhaps permanently, against the media. Many were eager to lump legitimate media organizations in with the paparazzi – many people painted the entire news media unfairly with this broad brush.

This backlash against the news media can still be felt today: fewer cameras in courtrooms, people verbally (and in some cases physically) confronting members of the news media, governmental and other public bodies feeling more emboldened to shield information from the news media, and more news crews ordered by public safety officials to stay further away from crime scenes and other emergency incidents.

While I can understand the public anger against the media in general – I also am saddened that the proverbial “few bad apples” have made it rough on others who work in the media. Most people in the media show empathy and compassion and don’t shove mikes in grieving relatives’ faces and ask, “how do you feel?”. The paparazzi have made it difficult for legitimate journalists to do their jobs.

August 31, 1997 was a red letter day in the history of the information media – a rather ignominious day. I don’t think the media has – or ever will – fully recover.

This was originally a reply to a post in the blog of WKYC-TV anchor Eric Mansfield – expressing his concern regarding many news outlets last week being so eager to break news regarding the fatal accident involving Cleveland Browns player Donte Stallworth that facts weren’t being sufficiently checked or confirmed before going on-air or online or to print.

Michael Fleming of “Variety” has an excellent look at how the internet in general and bloggers in particular have exacerbated the whole journalistic issue of “getting it first” vs. “getting it right”:

He uses as one example the media maelstrom leading up to Natasha Richardson’s tragic death last week.

I agree with Fleming that the 24 hour news cycle of the internet and the eagerness of many bloggers to break news rather than slow down and wait for confirmation is “lowering the bar” for many other news organizations and media outlets.

This situation isn’t dissimilar to the way many software companies, pressed to meet announced deadlines, will release a software package with some known flaws then fix said flaws later with “service packs” or patches or upgrades. Many web sites are in an almost perpetual status of “beta” and are works in progress.

Problem is that computers can just swap out the old code for new code and move on. Humans, like elephants, have long memories and don’t as easily forget erroneous information or allegations.

When I taught computer classes in the Seattle area a while ago, one of the classes I taught was about browsing the web. The first piece of advice I’d give to my students entailed relating the old saying “you can’t believe everything you read in the newspaper” – and urging them to multiply that by five or 10 with things read online.

I guess the neighborhood grocery store is jonesin’ to get those Michael Phelps Frosted Flakes boxes off their shelves:

I needed my Acme Fresh Market Savings Card; but $2.01 off for a bong hit still isn’t bad money. :)