Shamless KSU Plug

We're not supposed to be organs for advertising (well, in a perfect world, I guess...the truth is everybody in the media likes to eat and you can't live on free donuts in the newsroom forever) but I think I'm good with this one since it's media-related and a Kent State University-Poynter Institute joint production.

Former Akron Beacon Journal Editor Jan Leach, now living the life academe at Franklin Hall, is one of the brains buzzing over the 4th Annual Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop. This event on Thursday, September 18 is an all-day deal but includes lunch. "Whose Rules?" seeks to clarify what we all secretly love about the web: nobody's rules, anyone with a computer can pretty much report on what they want to report and comment on what they want to comment.

The common wisdom used to be the "Golden Rule"; whoever has the gold, makes the rules. Now whoever has the CPU the blog, with or without video. It's so easy even my tired old fingers managed to figure out a way to work Google's blogspot for this exercise. It's so easy I even made one for my dog.

Here's the official plug: you can try to email Jan but you'll do better getting more info from Darlene Contrucci dcontruc@kent.edu instead. If you're a student, it's free with advance registration. Otherwise if you breathe other-than-rarified Kent State air you'll need to shell out $50, which again includes food.

Probably not donuts, though. Those Kent and Poynter folks are obsessed with healthy living, even the ones who spend all their time in the Starbucks a quick walk from Franklin Hall.

Politically Incorrect Football

Some observations on Saturday's University of Akron-Kent State University football game at the Rubber Bowl:

• It truly was wonderful to see such an outpouring of humanity for the game; it helps prep the taste buds for what crowds could be like once there's a stadium facility the entire region can be proud of;


• Unfortunately those watching at home got a real taste of what kind of disrespect the MAC and even the #2 and #3 schools in northeast Ohio suffer at the hands of the media. Poor WEWS-TV likely had little choice but to toss game coverage at 3:30 to the #1 northeast Ohio football program -- Columbus-based Ohio State University -- with more than a minute left in the Golden Flashes-Zips game;


• Poor Sue Ann on Channel 5 was left with the task of playing "Heidi" (that's a reference to the stain left by broadcast switching away from a great comeback for a movie profiling the Pixie of the Alps before the NFL figured out how to buy the networks) and telling us since Akron had it in the bag they were switching to the OSU-Northwestern game. KSU could have mounted a last-minute drive if there had been a turnover -- which is the point of the Heidi reference;


• Maybe it is just me but would it be possible for the Zips to abandon the shooting of the cannon with every score against Kent State? I know it's been 37 years but hey -- give us a little love on this one, will ya? I think having the ROTC do push ups for each point might be reconsidered as well...

There is some great news coming out of the MAC and Zips programs; Zippy busted Virginia Tech's "Hokie Bird" in the battle of the mascots. Zippy is undefeated...hope for our future.

By the way, for those of you who say I show poor editing skills: you won't believe the restraint I showed in choosing Shirley Temple for Heidi rather than supermodel Heidi Klum. Sometimes the choices journalists must make in the pursuit of truth...

This Would Make A GREAT College Course...

There's a war of words going on behind the scenes as Kent State J-school students and friends come to the defense of the fellow who allowed himself to be skewered on WKYC earlier this week in Eric Mansfield's report on personal records found in the dumpster behind the Fairlawn BMV. In case you haven't seen these reports, it should be mandatory watching on so many levels.

The issue should be just how safe your private information should be when doing business with the public. Lots of folks who Eric tracked down told him they discarded the state driver's forms -- with addresses, social security numbers, etc. -- by leaving them with the clerks at the BMV. The young man (a KSU student who's been raving about this on his Facebook page, as well as garnering support from journalism students at Kent) who ended up splashed all over the story went to WKYC's Akron studios to check it out because his mother runs the bureau and is now in big-time hot water with the folks at the state. He says it's the lazy customers, not lazy clerks, responsible for not shredding the personal info...even claiming other tenants at the shopping plaza where the BMV is located could be behind it.

OK? Following along? You can be the judge on whether it's a story or not -- the State of Ohio thought it was troubling enough to warrant their own investigation -- but what I find fascinating is the response, both public and in private emails to Eric's bosses, complaining about the video lynching this young man says he endured by sticking up for mama. (Personal advice: don't be surprised after you GO to the TV station when they start rolling video)

What's even more interesting is that some of these emails originate from inside the Daily Kent Stater. (Disclosure: I serve on KSU's JMC Student Media Advisory Board, which means we vote on who has the student management positions and advise on budget issues.)

If the student journalists at the Stater have trouble grasping the issue -- and then flaming WKYC without even talking to their reporters for the other side from BMV-boy's rants -- what's that say about the state of investigating reporters coming up the ladder? Eric tells me he's not surprised that those accused of being asleep at the shredder switch would cry loud and long but when students displaying their positions at the Stater start weighing in without talking to a fellow reporter for the other side, it makes me wonder who's getting a fair shake from whom?