August 2007

MSNBC’s Alex Johnson has a red face after quoting a fake Al Sharpton. The blog, part of the News Groper parody site, commented on the racism behind the prosecution of Michael Vick. Here a portion of the blog post MSNBC used, then pulled, according to News.com:

“Consider this: If the police caught Brett Favre running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other to the death, would they bust him? Of course not. They would get his autograph, commend him on his tightly-spiraled forward passes, then bet on one of his dolphins.”

As a public service, here is a TechCrunch list of other fake bloggers:

• The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
• The Secret Diary of Steve Balmer
• Larry Ellison’s Fake Blog
• The Secret Diary of Jonathan Schwartz
• The Secret Diary of Bill Gates

We’ve added a blog section to the site where we’ll talk about various housekeeping items.

I’m creating a new project and I’d like your help: name the best news blogs in the following categories:

• Technology
• Sports
• Entertainment
• Politics
• U.S.
• International

Iraq Slogger is being cited as the source of news confirmed that GOP lobbyists are working to undermine Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the current Bush-backed choice to lead that country’s government.

Federated Media, the blog advertising network created by John Battelle, won $4.5 million in its second round of funding, according to PaidContent.

Venture Beat updates the original Private Equity Hub story, noting that Omidyar Network, not New Enterprise Associates was part of the second-round of financing. Venture Beat is part of Federated Media’s blog advertising network.

Here at Professional Blogging News, we’re often asked to define professional blogging. Before we explain what professional blogging is, let’s talk about what it isn’t.

Professional Doesn’t Mean For-Profit

The two most common definitions of professionalism points to a career, or ‘one working for pay.’ However, professionalism is more a matter of behavior, not bottom-line. A professional blogger accepts certain basic standards, such as honesty, quality and sourcing. Payment doesn’t promise any of those.

Professionalism Doesn’t Require A Business Suit

One of the benefits of blogging is you are only known for your words.Your appearance won’t sway audiences to your opinion, nor does the fact you wear a t-shirt and jeans instead of a suit-and-tie matter. Professionalism is a state-of-mind, not state-of-dress. Like our first point, professional dress doesn’t equate to professional behavior. More business transactions than we think are made in casual dress than corporate-wear.

Have bloggers gone corporate? Matt Richtel, who writes the ‘Bits’ blog for The New York Times comments on the upcoming BlogWorld and New Media Expo slated for November at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Long the anti-establishment outsider, Richtel wonders whether a blogging convention is more an oxymoron.

What does this mean? Citizen journalists throwing back lemon drops and sniffing nametags; anti-authoritarian chatter mixed with discussions about advertising models, booths about cat pajamas?

Among topics during the three-day event, a few caught are eye:

• Keeping Your Blog Out of Court
• Hiring Bloggers
• Citizen Journalism & Mainstream Media

Still undecided: keynote speaker. Do you know the speakers scheduled? If so, contact us.

If you’ve been watching the progress of Hurricane Dean through the island of Jamaican as it heads to Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico, a reporter for the Jamaican Gleamer is blogging about the aftermath of the monster weather mass.

Daraine Luton writes and shows photos on the Go-Jamaica Hurricane Dean Watch site. Here’s what Daraine wrote Mon., Aug. 20:

Jamaicans awoke today to scenes of destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Dean, which tore through sections of the island last night and claimed at least one life in Manchester.

Other posts detail how the island government attempted to restore some traffic and more reports of devastation.

As Hurricane Dean heads toward the Mexican resort town of Cancun, you can read Hurricane Cancun, which includes breathless dispatches about the first sign of Dean touching the area.

“All of a sudden it’s raining hard and the wind is blowing hard. We suspect we will lose power shortly. Goosebumps on all our arms! Oh wow, it’s really blowing and it’s still early. Will continue to post as long as I can. Hang on Mexico!”

The site also has a live Cancum Webcam located atop the Royal Resorts Hotels. When we checked at around 10pm Mexico time, the scenes were pitch black, except for minor hotel lighting.

Hurricane Cancun also includes airport arrivals and takeoffs, a great service for those worried about love ones who may be vacationing in the area. Arrivals from Newark, NJ and Houston,TX were canceled, with only flights from Mexico City marked as still on-time.

Several sites live-blogged the Sunday Democratic Presidential debates in Iowa. Among the news sites offering blow-by-blow commentary: The New York Times and  MSNBC.

Katherine Q. Seeyle, a New York Time political writer, live-blogged the event at “The Caucus.” The bottom-line: “This is a more civil debate than we had expected,” Seeyle wrote.

Chuck Todd, NBC’s Political Director, blogged at MSNBC about the issues brought out during the debates, rather than moment-by-moment commentary.

All of the candidates seemed aware of the phrase “Iowa nice.” It’s something Iowans pride themselves on; they punish negativity and it seems all of the frontrunners decided to show themselves as “Iowa nice.”