Minnesota Independent » Kare

Media Monitor: Q is for ‘question’ in MPR’s new brand

Paul Schmelzer — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:14:09 +0000

What’s in the Q? Minnesota Public Radio is capitalizing on its status as possibly the state’s best newsroom by rebranding its news operation to better integrate radio and online news: It launched MPR NewsQ today. But what’s up with the name? The first association I get with “Q” is the now-defunct Twin Cities queer publication Q Monthly. (A little googling finds several others, including a college LGBT publication called Q Magazine and a Q-Notes.) My guess: it stands for “queue.” Local technology consultant Sheldon Maines tweets his confusion. “Why? What does it mean? What’s with random capital letters?” Later, he notes that one needn’t stand in line — like my guess suggests — to get news online. On Twitter, other locals are pondering other q-words: quorum, quandary, quasi, quibble…

Kupchella to tackle healthcare reform: Rick Kupchella has two new projects in the works after leaving KARE 11 two weeks ago. One’s a new-media project, but details haven’t been revealed yet. This is the other: the i.e. network, a PR effort targeting healthcare reform. According to the network’s site, they’re partnering with Target and “some of America’s most progressive corporate entities” to create The ALLIANCE for a Healthy Twin Cities to promote lower cost, higher quality healthcare through a focus on wellness. But it might not be as “progressive” as you’d think: partnering with Kupchella is Tom Mason, formerly chief of staff for Norm Coleman, senior communications adviser to Tim Pawlenty and communications director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Once dubbed a “rising star” of the GOP, he also published Twin Cities Business Monthly for five years.

Saberi’s plea: As Fargo-born journalist Roxana Saberi calls for the release of her former cellmate in Iran, Iranian aid worker Silva Harotonian, protesters for democracy in that country are reportedly dealing with the government’s news blackout by making an underground newspaper. Here’s the translation of one.

LATimes gives props to local Twitterer: The Los Angeles Times included a local — Secrets of the City‘s Max Sparber — in its list of funny tweets in response to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s news conference yesterday, in which he revealed he’d been unfaithful to his wife. “None of us are in a position to judge Sanford until we too have had sex with a woman in Argentina,” Sparber wrote. “Now who is up for a road trip?”

Hubbard honored: Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of KSTP radio and TV as well as other broadcast stations, is receiving the Historic Site in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists tomorrow. The family-owned company has been in business since 1942.

Media Monitor: RNC tweets, Secret Service tip-offs and an ode to ‘Ameirca’!

Paul Schmelzer — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:55:26 +0000

Tweeting the RNC: Picking up where MnIndy’s Tom Elko left off, Twin Cities-based journalist Maryn McKenna looks at how Twitter, “the police scanner of 21st century newsroom,” aided RNC news coverage, working in props for local indymedia: “[I]t’s clear that smaller operations with much smaller budgets — the Minnesota Independent (funded by the nonprofit Center for Independent Media), The Uptake, and Twin Cities IndyMedia — not only kept up with the majors but often lapped them.”

Secret Service briefed MSM on RNC threats? MinnPost’s David Brauer points out shocking video of a WCCO cameraman freaking out on RNC protesters — captured on film by competitor KARE — while not realizing that the crowd was barring him because a man was having a seizure nearby. While many of us covering the RNC were on edge, Brauer shares a surprising reason that’s new to me: According to WCCO union steward Dave Chaney, the station was “getting emails from the Secret Service all day long that there were people in that crowd that were going to try to attack,” Chaney said. One threat involved a “gentleman who was supposed to be a black belt in karate who was going to try to assault one of us.” Funny: We in the independent media never got such Secret Service notifications.

Local heads top reporters’ org: St. Cloud Times reporter Dave Aeikens has takent the reins as president of the national Society for Professional Journalists. MN-SPJ has the video.

“Ameirca!” My favorite on-screen RNC typo.

Media Monitor: Metromix sneak peek, EPpies and an Ohmigod moment

Paul Schmelzer — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:34:26 +0000

KARE’s Vita.mn? The Deets offers a sneak peek of the new events site Metromix, apparently KARE-11′s answer to Vita.mn, which launches tomorrow. [Tangent: How many sneak peeks has Ed Kohler scored? The Daily Mole. MinnPost. Others?]

Local EPpy finalists announced: Speaking of Vita.mn, the Strib’s entertainment site is facing off against the Metromix.com network in the EPpy Awards. Both are finalists for best entertainment site. Minnesota Public Radio is a finalist for best local radio site, and St. Paul’s America Public Media is listed among the “Best Network or Syndicated Radio-Affiliated Web Site” for American RadioWorks. The Strib made the list for “Best Special Feature in a Web Site” (1+million visitors/month) for its 35W coverage, “13 Seconds in August.”

Ohmigod, can I quote you on that? Via Twitter, a bit of quick media crit from UnJournalism blogger Mike Keliher, who wonders about a direct quote in KARE’s coverage of a meth lab bust at the wrong Brooklyn Park home. Of the homeowner’s reaction to raiding police, he asks, “How does a reporter know if someone said ‘ohmigod’ rather than ‘Oh my god’?

Ethanol Advocates Jam KARE-11 Poll

Paul Schmelzer — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:59:17 +0000

KARE-11′s recent poll on ethanol “must’ve struck a nerve,” the station reports. The Washington Post revealed that after KARE launched a poll asking consumers what they think about E-85, the American Lung Association and the Renewable Fuels Association sent out an email urging ethanol supporters to jam the poll. Under the subject line “YOUR QUICK VOTE IS NEEDED! – Send KARE11 a message about E85!” the email made its way to the Department of Energy, where it was forwarded on, with the endorsement of Assistant Secretary Alexander Karsner, to some 450 employees and contractors.

The email campaign followed a report on E-85, the fuel made from corn-derived ethanol mixed with 15 percent gasoline, that the American Lung Association called “very biased and inaccurate.” By a 400-vote margin, the top poll response was “Ethanol is not perfect, but is at least an alternative.”