Showing posts with label Fishbowl DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fishbowl DC. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Mediabistro's Fishbowl DC's Eddie Scarry reminds us that POLITICO is "always selling" and always promoting themselves, even to the point of creating a video patting themselves on the back for being -wait for it- legen-dary.; Remembering D.C. and the daily anticipation of getting The Hotline by fax in the early 1990's, when the Internet was still not a daily reality


POLITICO: Our Story; http://bcove.me/oawud7k0

Mediabistro's Fishbowl DC's Eddie Scarry reminds us that POLITICO is "always selling" and always promoting themselves, even to the point of creating a video patting themselves on the back for being -wait for it- legen-dary.; Remembering D.C. and the daily anticipation of getting The Hotline by fax in the early 1990's, when the Internet was still not a daily reality

The former Washington Post reporters behind it, Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris,
whom I read for years while living up there, are trying to create a wave of publiclity that will create a corresponding interest in that.

But how will they keep that information only in select hands when everyone at the law firms, lobbying firms and trade associations they are trying to convince to subscribe to it can always  copy and email real "nuggets" to their friends who don't get it?.

It reminds me a lot of the problem faced by The Hotline -now owned by The National Journal- in the pre-Internet era of the early 1990's, when that goldmine of information used to be faxed daily into offices throughout The Beltway and people would gather around the printer mid-morning waiting for it all to spill out, so they could grab a page and see if there was something in it that dealt with their area of coverage or responsibility.
People would be positively giddy on days after big events in Washington to see what was being written about that subject, and that was especially true during the 1992 presidential election.

And there was always someone in an office who would try to pull the last sheet out before it was finished printing, who'd be yelled at in a milli-second. Good times!

That was also back when if you saw someone reading a copy of The Hotline on the Metro in the evening on your way home, especially an original copy with the Red masthead, that was your clue that the person you were looking at was someone much smarter and better-informed than the average Washingtonian around you.

I kept old copies of them in stacked banker boxes in my garage, with colored 3M Post-it's on the sides with subject areas written on them that I dealt with or was interested in. 
My little treasure trove!

Of course, that was also in the era of heavy faxing, when people routinely forgot to replace the paper in the paper tray of the printer and there was hell to pay if it turned out to be you.
Email is so much easier! 

FishBowlDC blog
New Video Reminds Everyone That Politico Is Still Politico And Always Will Be
By Eddie Scarry on March 27, 2013 12:00 PM
A new three-minute video produced by Politico touts the publication’s “early success” and its plan for the future. Full of Politico bluster, it’s part of a new “brand and advertising” site the publication launched this week, according to Mike Allen‘s Playbook.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/new-video-reminds-everyone-that-politico-is-still-politico-and-always-will-be_b100185

Friday, February 13, 2009

Marlins Stadium Non-Vote; Pronounced Plouffle as in Liar

7:30 p.m.

Just got back from the Marlins Stadium non-vote at County HQ in downtown Miami, at the multi-use, multi-ethnic and multi-agenda driven Stephen P. Clark Government Building, via the 93 Biscayne Max.
Stephen P. Clark Building. 111 NW First Street, Miami, FL 33128

This morning was the first time I've taken that semi-express bus in about a year from nearby Aventura, and after the trip back to Aventura early this evening, all I can say is that it's much
quicker -and imminently more relaxing- in the morning while reading the papers, though I did get some great shots of The Freedom Building at sundown; while waiting at the same red light that I haven't caught green on since the first term of the Reagan Administration.

While coming back home I also saw the multiple police helicopters flying over North Miami -at least three- looking for a multiple-murder suspect as the bus trudged north and approached NE 125th St. & Biscayne.  Two of them remained stationary as if frozen, and the other making sweeping banking turns while it looked for the suspect, as if it were trying to flush a bird out of some trees.

Just a thought here, but perhaps in the future, Metro-Dade Police and local LEOs might want to consider contacting Transit HQ so that they can get BOLOs out via radio to bus drivers going thru areas where a dragnet is taking place, so they don't let the suspect board and have everything become a hostage drama.  One of precisely the sort that would be turned into a very mediocre film that I would never seek out at the movie theater and only see once it's in heavy rotation on TNT or USA Cable.

As it was, I already felt like I was a hostage for the better part of the day downtown, as the county's  powers-that-be did a positively dreadful job of keeping the hundreds of folks joining me for the first few hours properly informed, while we parsed phone messages and rumors that came in as one hour turned into another.
Mere "Extras" in someone else's film.

Meanwhile, just a few feet away down the hallway, conveniently, members of the local media could watch the City of Miami hearing live on a TV, while hoi-polloi like me and the others were left to grasp at straws and try to figure out what was going on at Dinner Key.
More mañana on the Marlins Stadium debacle and the half-assed communication and citizen customer service efforts.

After being there for almost six hours, and seeing lots of familiar faces, including some other bloggers and public policy website folks, I also met some new folks of a similar mind-set, many of whom I'll be talking about over the weekend as I discuss everything that happened -and didn't.
Avec photos.

But that will wait 'till then, since I first need to relax and get ready to watch some action and
adventure with the continuing chronicles of Sarah Conner and the new ones of the amazing Eliza Dushku on the Dollhouse series premiere on Fox-TV.
Lucky Friday the 13th has finally come for those of us who love both.

But before I get too comfortable, I wanted to share this great video that I saw earlier today,
before leaving for downtown Miami, from my daily Mediabistro Fishbowl DC email on yet 
another sign of the "Obama difference."
Not for the first time I'm here to say, be careful what you wish for.

Take it away Dana Milbank at the National Press Club.