“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-14 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Program scripts from week of March 10, 2014
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Linked Out
Linked In is one of the digital communities that all the experts tell me I’m supposed to belong to but I have very little idea why. The best thing that LinkedIn has done for me is re-connect me with an old buddy who had moved and I’d lost contact info for. Found him through his LinkedIn profile. Which explains why I spend so little time there. When I get a request for a link I approve it as long as I can see any kind of, well, link between us.
So when I came across the story of Kelly Blazek managing to turn that simple concept into the probable end of her career I was astounded. A little background – Kelly was a high profile marketing/public relations guru in the Cleveland area who had founded the Cleveland Job Bank. She has received a lot of well deserved praise for her work in trying to keep the best and best brightest in northeastern Ohio. Blazek has been quoted as saying she wants her subscribers to feel like “everyone is my little sister or brother, and I’m looking out for them.”
Everybody else is on their own.
Over the last year or so there have surfaced several instances when folks have approached Blazek looking to tap into that network of expertise and have been slapped down hard. When she took an extended swipe at recent John Carroll University graduate Diana Mekota. The response to the 26 year old’s request for a link can only be described as a tirade. It was inappropriate and completely out of proportion. Her fellow Cleveland area colleagues have backed rapidly away from Blazek. It should be noted that she has apologized publicly for the Mekota response and at least one other.
The really appalling thing is that this was done by someone who should have known better. THIS IS WHAT SHE DOES, for Pete’s sake. I can’t imagine she would ever recommend to a client this kind of a response.
Since even the pro’s will occasionally forget, let’s review. Everything you say on the Internet should be treated as public rather than private. Never write something that you don’t want to see on CNN, Huffington Post or your mother’s Facebook page. Always choose a polite, bland rejection over a pseudo clever, snarky one.
Negative reaction on the Internet moves at the speed of a wild fire and will burn you just as thoroughly.
Freedom of the Press
Over the run of this show I’ve spent a lot of time talking about journalism, the future of the newspaper industry, the problem of privacy on the Internet and the fine line between Freedom of Expression just being a troll.
I’m not sure any of those programs has dealt with a subject as potentially disastrous for the what we call the “American Way of Life” as this one. And I am absolutely serious when I say that.
Recently the soon to retire head of the National Security Agency (the NSA) General Keith Alexander has made several very strong statements about legislation that would limit the press from reporting on some issues that pertain to national security.
To hear those sentiments coming from the mouth not only of the head of a secret intelligence organization but one of our highest ranking members of the military makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Freedom of the Press was held in high enough esteem that the Founding Fathers included it in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution.
Like all our Rights, Freedom of the Press is not an absolute. Copyright laws, defamation or an attempt to incite a violation of the law that is both imminent and likely all fall outside Constitutional protection. I would also note that I’m not entirely without sympathy for the General’s concerns. Random releases of information can have a vast negative effect on our lives and way of life.
At the same time this is a path that we should tread only when we must and in as limited a form as possible. That’s where the imminent and likely language comes from. It is the current standard, as established in 1969 by the Supreme Court in Brandenberg v Ohio.
These may simply be the words of an outgoing agency head who doesn’t have anything to lose. If so I’m afraid they show a profound lack of appreciation for the American way of life and our traditions.
I’m afraid I agree with Benjamin Franklin, who wrote in 1755, “They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Freedom of the Press is an essential liberty in a free society.
Of course in 2013 the Reporters Without Borders Free Press Index ranked the United States as #32 in the world.
I am certain that General Alexander’s recommendations will do anything to improve that rank.
The Internet is such a weird place. Sometimes it’s a delightfully weird place that surprises you with odd but intriguing little corners of the universe. Then there’s the rest of the time. When it’s the playpen for every wannabe tough guy, cyberbully and blowhard out there. Recently I’ve come across a couple of bits of weirdness that just struck me as particularly ridiculous.
I recently allowed myself to get sucked into a silly “discussion” over the quality of a performance in a video. The comment thread was being dominated by someone who was just one step shy of being a troll. Having nothing better to do (that’s a lie, ANYTHING would have been better than this) I took him on. I countered his points, asked questions that he generally didn’t answer and just generally wouldn’t back down. Finally someone asked “What makes you so smart?”. So I pointed towards my degree in theater, my experience in being on stage in many different forms and my lifelong long love of live performance.
At which point I was chastised for presenting my credentials! According at least some folks standards out there I actually decreased my standing in the conversation by actually knowing something about what was being discussed.
I was flabbergasted. But it might just explain an awful lot about what passes for intelligent discussion out there. Allowing everyone into the discussion is one of the great gifts of the Internet. Somehow pretending that everyone arrives on an equal footing is just silly.
The other item I came across is kind of the flipside of this issue. It has to do with how we react online to people who disagree with us. If you criticize someone or something you may quickly find yourself labeled with phrases like “Haters gotta hate” or that you’re involved in some form of “shaming”. If I made my opponent in that first conversation feel bad about himself I could be accused of shaming him. And that would make me the bad guy. The problem here is that it tends to simply excuse any behavior from correction because that correction becomes “hating” or “shaming”. One of the first lessons parents try to teach children is that actions come with consequences. Twist the cats tail one time too many and you’ll get scratched. And let’s face it, that’s not the cat’s fault.
In the end the problem with the Internet is that it hasn’t grown up yet. Maybe someday it will and we’ll get rid of just little more of that bad weirdness.
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