kinnon.tv

Afraid of Reporting the News

I confess that I was troubled by the coverage given to the small town "pastor" who thought burning the religious book of another religion was the "Christian" thing to do. When the Vatican, Canterbury and the White House all weighed in on his intended actions, it simply became surreal.

And the story, created by the media and fanned into fiery frenzy by those who despise anything that appears to be "fundamentalist" Christianity actually did cause loss of life - even though, once he used way more than his allotted 15 minutes of fame, the "pastor" de-ignited his intentions.

Newsweek, hardly a trusted source of information for me, made this comment,

...the news media may have to examine their role in this episode. News organizations may well need to ask what public good was served by giving minute-by-minute updates of the antics of a little-known preacher. Jones's decision to burn holy books near his sparsely attended church became global news because, well, it was disseminated globally. By making it big news, the media had a hand in prompting the subsequent violence.

It was a story that was only worthy of coverage on the back pages of that "pastor's" local, small city newspaper.

But what about the Molly Norris story?

"The what?," you ask.

The Molly Norris story.

Norris was (and "was" is the operative word) the Seattle cartoonist, who in a moment of First Amendment exhilaration (and prompted by the South Park censored episode), thought it would be appropriate to create an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day".

I was peripherally aware of the story but it came into focus with this Mollie Z. post @ Get Religion, posted in mid-September. She comments,

So Norris shows some solidarity with these victimized cartoonists. Outrage ensued — protests, riots, you name it. She quickly backtracked and explained she didn’t mean to offend. Too late, Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki declared, putting her on an execution hitlist.

I've watched as there has only been a light sprinkling of coverage of this story in the past three weeks.

When I think about the millions of pixels spilled on the Florida "pastor" story, I ask where the anger or simple concern is for Molly Norris. Proclaiming the fatwa, al-Awlaki says, "her proper abode is Hellfire." He wants and expects her to be hunted down and executed.

Is this not a significant story?

She's lost her livelihood and her identity - forced into hiding at her own expense - because she believed her First Amendment rights protected her as she dared challenge religious censorship - well, actually she backed down after suggesting the challenge. Yet, she will spend the rest of her days looking over her shoulder wondering whether she will see death stalking her.

But where is the media. Where are the bloggers and twitterers standing in solidarity with Molly - whether you agree or disagree with her once suggested day?

Where are the spiritual leaders and politicians stating that this response to Norris is outrageous?

They are all, predominantly, silent.

To paraphrase Edmund Burke, "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."

UPDATE: (Before posting) This just popped up in Google Reader, Street Preaching is so Uncouth. Another Molly Z. post from Get Religion.

It is fascinating to me how much coverage the media devoted to the non-burn of the Koran in Florida compared to the actual “going ghost” of Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris or the actual arrest of four street evangelists in Dearborn. I would just love for someone who was involved in the coverage of the Koran burn threat to explain why they wrote eleventy billion stories on the Florida pastor and none on these other situations.

Fascinating or simply sad?

Canadian Self-Identity

Here's a clip that deals profoundly with the self-identity of Canadians, We Are the Beaver. Please. Try not to laugh. It hurts our little beaver hearts.

If video does not show up in feed, click here.

A Little History As to Why I Posted This:
Sometime in what now seems our distant past, Imbi and I owned a post-production company in Toronto (editing, special effects and audio post-production for television). It had a very '80's name (appropriate as we started the company in 1984), Scene by Scene®. (Link is to our website on Jan 06, 2000 via the Wayback Machine - which runs very slowly.)

A couple of days ago, in a moment of pathetic vanity when I should have been writing, I googled myself and discovered I had a credit @ IMDB...as an editor. Of all the work I've done as a director and editor, it's rather amusing that it would be this project I'd be noted for this. Don't get me wrong, I was honoured to work on Three Worms and An Orchestra with my friends @ JST Productions. After working with so many snakes in the biz, it was nice to work on a project that focused on worms - arrogant or otherwise.

For those interested in tech, I think it was the last project I ever did where we had multiple playback VTRs (Betacam and D-Beta) recording to a Digital Betacam Master deck - switching the program with a "live" feel - actually the antithesis of film-editing, for which I'm credited @ IMDB.

IMDB, television editor, Scene by Scene®, The Arrogant Worms

Musical Recommendation: Phil Keaggy & Jeff Johnson - FRIO suite

Imbi and I met Jeff Johnson on a Kindlings Hearth retreat earlier this year. Jeff's a composer, keyboardist, writer, singer and worshipper. (He's also funny and extremely energetic - but I won't hold that against him. The cropped image to the right was captured by Imbi.)

Jeff was kind enough to send us a copy of his new CD with Phil Keaggy, FRIO suite - which we received yesterday. The recording was inspired by their "experience at Laity Lodge on the Frio River in Texas." The music was produced as a collaboration with visual artist, Kathy Hastings. (We met Kathy this summer at The Kindlings Fest on Orcas Island. She's just as much fun and artistically gifted as her good friend, Jeff.)

I'm amused that iTunes classifies this music as New Age - a category that it may fit stylistically, if not spiritually. These two committed Christians have produced an artistic work that is layered, intriguing, engaging and very pleasing. Keaggy's guitar playing, as to be expected, is as good as ever. Jeff builds gorgeous and delightful sonic environments that allow Keaggy's guitar to soar. I recommend the album highly. (I'm bound to drive my family nuts with how often it gets played. A good thing I'm up north and they are in the city - though I'm pretty sure the muso Kinnon kids will love it too.)

Available from iTunes and Jeff's label website, Ark Music. (Check out Jeff's other albums on iTunes and at Ark - he's a gifted guy.)

Back to the Internet's Eden

"The Net is Eden. Blogging is native there. Microblogging is native there. Non-substitutable walled corporate gardens are not. " - Doc Searls (in the comments on Dave Winer's Post)

How many of us noted that Friend Feed was purchased by Facebook recently? How many of us even care? Yet we, the users, are the ones who gave FF our musings and conversations - we are the ones who gave it, its ultimate value. (Those of us who used it, of course.)

I've written over two thousand posts here at this humble node on the pushed pixel universe. Some of them have lasting value - at least to me. Though kinnon.tv sits on the TypePad platform, the posts are mine - as Doc Searls notes in his post on social media, Geology vs Weather,

...blogging is an independent category. You can move your blog from one platform to another, archives intact. Not easy, but it can be done. More importantly, your blog is yours.

I Tweet Therefore I Am

My rule of thumb for Twitter is that I only follow people who tweet things of interest. (Make yourself useful, and I may follow you.) I'm interested in ideas, arguments, things noteworthy. I don't care what you had for lunch - but I might like to know about a great restaurant. You get the drift.

The trouble with Twitter is that it is ultimately fleeting - which may not be a bad thing but, if you Tweet things you hope to be able to find later, you may be out of luck. Doc uses the analogy of geology vs weather - in terms of blogging versus other social media like Twitter, Facebook, Tweetstalk and MySpace - the companies in the Despair.com Venn Diagram that Doc refers to in the folowing quote,

...there is a difference between the social media in the Venn diagram and blogging, and that difference is akin to that between weather and geology. The former have an evanescent quality. I’m still haunted by hearing that users get a maximum number Twitter postings (tweets) before the old ones scroll off. If true, it means Twitter is a whiteboard, made to be erased after awhile.

Building a Mystery

The interwebs as we know them are barely 15 years old. They have become a vast library of the collective intelligence of us all, as any one of us adds content to them. (And yes, some folk who add content do reduce the collective IQ.) The problem occurs when content is added to corporate entities that can disappear in a heartbeat - along with your thoughts, art, ideas, etc. - the library is diminished - sometimes significantly. Dave Winer says,

...it's time to use the web again to store our ideas, and instead of relying on Silicon Valley companies to link our stuff together, let's just use the Internet. That's what it was designed for.

Smoke Gathering

The mistake has been to refer to Twitter as micro-blogging when it is more like text messaging, with only a slightly longer half-life. And it's important to realize that data on places like Facebook, Flickr, MySpace et al exist at the whims of these corporate entities. (You may want to read their Terms of Service again.) Whereas the thoughts, ideas, arguments, memories that exist as data on your blog are your own - to do with as you please.

Back to the Garden

So let me repeat web pioneer Dave Winer's sentiments in his blog post, Scoble, your blog still loves you.

Our blogs are still there, as is the web and the Internet. They never went away just because we foolishly flirted with something fast and easy and seductive. Our blogs never went away, they're still ready to share our ideas and connect us with others.  We'll go back to basics now, take what we learned from this round of innovation, and build it for real this time.

And let me give the last word to another of the true Internet heroes, the good Doc Searls,

...blogging is geology. A blog’s posts may be current and timely, and constitute one person’s contribution to conversation around a subject or two, but each post is built to last. It has a “permalink”. Over time posts accumulate like soil deposits. You can dig down through layers of time and find them. What do tweets have? Temp-o-links?

Should I tweet this post?

UPDATE: You should read Jonathan Brink's post on Social Media. (But do note he blogged it - and also note the corporate social media entities featured in the video.) This is a great line from Jonathan,

We’re so disconnected in our normal lives that social media is giving us a perspective and experience of something our traditional tools for connection have failed to deliver.

Dave Winer, Doc Searls, ephemeral social media, geology vs weather, oc

Tom Wright on Blogging

This is an outtake from Imbi's interview with the Bishop of Durham, NT Wright that I shot in 2007. Portions of this interview appear in Imbi's documentary, Mind the Gap, a look at church leadership in the 21st Century. The documentary will be available in the Fall.

I thought this clip was particularly appropriate in light of Michael Spencer's recent post, Blogosphere Spirituality: An Assessment.

NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

Intellectual Property/Copyright: This video may be embedded on blog posts where this particular topic is being discussed. Permission is NOT given to re-edit this or use it in any other context other than as a standalone video with the MKPL bug, opening and closing.

InternetMonk, Michael Spencer, NT Wright

Summer Hours - Little Blogging

There was a time I blogged a minimum of once a day. I miss that time.

I've got lots on my mind that I'd like to blog about. Things like Katherine Schori (TEC's Presiding Litigator) and her new definition of the word heresy. (Apparently evangelicals are heretics, in case you were wondering. At least as far as THE Episcopal Church is concerned.) Katherine might want to spend a moment or two in the New Testament. She'd be shocked at what she might learn. Her theological degree is from where, again? UPDATE: Fuller's Rich Mouw responds to Schori... in a more gracious manner, of course.

And can someone help me understand all these posts from Brian McLaren where he declares certain people 'getting it right.' (Of late, I would think Brian would want people to get things "left" - but perhaps that's just me.) He's got the Pope, Tony Blair, the G8 (not the one from Pontiac, unfortunately) Frances Collins, Derek Webb, Jim Wallis and Jon Stewart all 'getting it right.'

Did I miss the memo where Brian became the arbiter of who does and doesn't get things right? Do these people get an award when Brian says they "get it right"? Like the Templeton Prize or something. Is there money involved? I'm just wondering. Maybe I could get something right for a change. (Or something left as everything changes.) Brian's going to be speaking at TEC's General Convention where Schori declared evangelicals heretics. I wonder what he'll say. Especially as Tom Wright says TEC is "leaving the family" of the Anglican Communion. [NTW quote via iMonk & Scot McKnight]

I'm almost finished reading Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck's newest book, Why We Love the Church - which was sent to me by their publisher after I agreed to review it. I'll have a fair amount to say about it in my review. And I'll be quoting Umair Haque, John Medina and Clay Shirky in my comments. And referring to the People Formerly Known as meme from 2007. Stay tuned for that later this week. (I hope.)

I've been around a body of water known as Lake Simcoe most of the time since the end of June. I can't remember a day when the wind hasn't been blowing and the lake hasn't had white caps. What's up with that!? I understand why the MSM and certain Gore-following scientists changed their tune from Global Warming to Climate Change. It's been years since a July in Ontario has been this cool. (Trust me, I'm not missing the humidity.)

There are so many other notes in my Blog This file, but I've got to run. I'll be back later in the week.

Brian McLaren, contrarius, the contrarian, Kevin DeYoung, news, random links

Andrew Jones, the Tall Skinny Kiwi Documentary

Thanks to the Missional Tribe, Andrew's production gear has begun the trek to reach him in points beyond. Thanks to all who contributed to making this happen. Soon we should see the Jones Family missional travelogue appearing on Vimeo and YouTube. Stay tuned.

Andrew Jones, Missional Tribe, Tall Skinny Kiwi

LinkWithin Plugin

I've added a new plugin to kinnon.tv. It's called Link Within. It's now adding suggested links from within kinnon.tv to the ends of my posts. Some of the suggested links are rather interesting, others rather amusing.

What I have found intriguing are the posts Link Within has dredged up from the archives - posts I've long forgotten about. Some of them aren't half bad, if I do say so myself.

LinkWithin

St. Michael of Jackson

The hagiography begins.

At a period in time when the world watches as Iran shakes with potential for democracy, the news cycle is dominated with the death of the apparent "King of Pop." As per usual, fantasy trumps reality in celebrity-obsessed Western culture. (I recorded a couple of hours of CNN last night - and then scanned through their coverage from the too weird Larry King to the over the top Anderson Cooper.)

There is no doubt that Michael Jackson was a gifted performer and writer - who had the wisdom to work with people like Quincy Jones and Greg Phillinganes. Never a real fan in Jackson's prime, I do have his Number Ones in my iTunes library - the Glen Ballard/Seidah Garrett penned Man in the Mirror being my favourite recording.

His sad death, however, is the end of a tragic life; a gifted little boy whose childhood was wickedly stolen from him by an abusive, domineering father and Motown Records - who grows up vowing to never grow up - living in a perverse Neverland. (Michael was no Peter Pan.)

Now the fawning media, no doubt looking to drive up their audience numbers, are thrilled to be wall to wall Jackson. I agree with Jonah Goldberg on this one, "I must say I find the media’s instinctive rush to sanctify Michael Jackson disgusting."

The metaphor that came to mind for me this morning was that of traffic accident gawkers. They slow down to stare at the misfortune of others - slowing everyone else down in the process. Might I suggest whilst being respectful to his family, we need to move along people. There really is nothing to see here.

And there are a lot more important issues for us to consider.

UPDATE: Jordon Cooper offers his own take on Jackson - and quotes a lucid Andrew Sullivan in the process. (I haven't found Sullivan particularly lucid of late.) Challies quotes Sullivan, as well. And the iMonk points at a truly significant life and death.

(Photo credits: Wikipedia and iStockPhoto.)

celebrity-obsessed, michael jackson

Too Funny...

...not to post

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