Uptake

Eight months after election day, Al Franken will be sworn in today as Minnesota’s second U.S. senator. The UpTake brings the video of the 11:15 ceremony — in which Franken will be sworn in on a bible owned by the family of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone — at 11 a.m. CT. C-SPAN will also [...]

The UpTake’s Noah Kunin is tracking Sen.-elect Al Franken’s arrival in Washington, D.C., and — in advance of tomorrow’s swearing-in — offers live video of Franken’s 12 noon CT press conference:

Here’s a 16-minute video recap of Minnesota’s five-month slog (so far) to elect a new U.S. senator. It’s the work of those stalwart Franken-Coleman multimedia chroniclers at The UpTake.

With Norm Coleman set to address the media at 3 p.m. CST, speculation abounds about whether the now-former senator will file a lawsuit to prevent certification of a win by Al Franken or, less likely, concede. One GOP bigwig has weighed in, urging Coleman to step down: Former Gov. Arne Carlson, who attended the 1996 [...]

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign staff ejected a Minnesota Independent reporter from a press conference at campaign headquarters Wednesday afternoon. The MnIndy reporter made it as far as the inside of a small press conference room at a drab office park in St. Paul when a staffer asked who he represented and on that basis said the reporter would have to leave. In response to protests that MnIndy is a news outlet like others in the room, the staffer replied, “Right, and it’s funded by George Soros,” and escorted the reporter out. It’s the fourth time the senator’s campaign has denied access to local independent media at a media availability. Video (think “Blair Witch Project,” set in a boring office interior) after the jump. Spoiler alert: Norm’s door is extremely squeaky.

Today’s media round-up: The Secret Service warned mainstream media sources about alleged threats against them by RNC protesters (this independent media site didn’t get such tips). A look at how Twitter served as the “police scanner of the 21st century newsroom.” And more.

Groundbreaking citizen-based media group The UpTake announced the relaunch of its website today. The UpTake focuses on training and assisting citizen journalists in reporting the political news of the day and becoming an engaged part of the media. The group’s emphasis on video content was highlighted by a live webcast of Tuesday’s mega-rally for Democratic [...]

Four Minneapolis-based citizen videobloggers from The UpTake are heading to Iowa today to join three reporters already on the ground to cover the presidential caucuses. They’ve got an ambitious news plan — from reporting on get-out-the-vote efforts and updates from headquarters of key candidate to victory parties and views from greater Iowa — but here’s [...]

Deadliest war ever: For journalists, Iraq has been the bloodiest conflict in history, with three times as many reporters killed than during both World Wars combined. Whereas two died in WWI, 68 in WWII, 77 in Vietnam and 36 in the Balkans, the war in Iraq has already seen the deaths of 206 journalists and [...]

Minnpost unveils design: Two biggish announcements at last night’s media get-together at Minnpost: publisher Joel Kramer has hired on 612 Authentic, a local group of videographers, to bring motion to the site; and they’ll be doing five- to 10-minute segments on TPT’s Almanac “roughly every other week.” Kramer also unveiled mockups of the site design. [...]