Bias in News Reporting

While in college and majoring in broadcasting (of all things), I spent a great deal of time learning about the bias of News reporting.  In summation, we learned that personal biases will creep no matter how hard you try to avoid them.

While PVC is not a forum for Political banter, nor should it be, I have been astounded by the mainstream News bias in the election coverage which has run amok.  CNN, I am afraid to say, seems to have gone off the deep end (in perhaps my biased opinion).

I often keep the News on throughout the day and Jack Cafferty ends up on my screen more than I’d like to admit.  He can be cranky, and cranky can be good.  While I may not have made up my mind the direction I am likely to go for the election, Jack and the crew at CNN seem to have made up theirs.  Staurday Night Live may have hit the nail on the head with their skit throwing the toughest questions to Hillary and the softballs to Mr. Obama. 

I am heading down this path for one simple reason - Today I reposnded to Jack Cafferty’s blog -here-, and watched somewhat anxiously to see if they’d allow the post.  You see on his CNN driven blog, your comment awaits moderation before being posted. 

I can be cranky too Jack, but this post wasn’t as cranky as I would have preferred to be honest.  I pointed out that despite CNN’s continued “reporting” cry for Hillary to end the race (am I showing bias against CNN?), that she is losing the popular vote and quickly losing the Super-Delegate vote - she is actually beating Mr. Obama in perhaps the most critical way...the Electoral College.  Sure we aren’t at that point yet, but lest we forget that the Dems won the popular vote 7 years ago, yet lost the election to the current sitting President based on that fine thing called - say it with me now....the Electoral College.  In my post I asked CNN and Jack specifically, to recall history, and note that in the states that Hillary has won, had we been counting Electoral votes, she’d be President.  CNN however seems to be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy in a most different direction.  I am more than a little miffed my un-cranky (perhpas admittedly biased) post has not made his blog and was “moderated” out.

That got me thinking about PVC (yeah a stretch I know it - but I’m on some sort of a roll here), and what would we pull from comments and what we’d keep.  Turns out we have pulled some comments already.  Why?  Because they were clearly flaming without facts, and under fictitious names and email addresses.  We have no problem dealing with cranky, as long as it’s backed with facts.  We also request that if you’re going to flame, be prepared to not stand behind a fictitious email address and want to hold a valid discussion on the topic.  That’s what comments are for no?

We are attempting to make this a true community site.  It’s written by a variety of the best writers, and we’re always looking for more voices.  Those voices can be as PVC writers, bloggers, forum members, commentors, or simply emails.  Be cranky if you have to be, but not for cranky-sake.  If you feel we are too bias, tell us.  We won’t moderate your comment out.  Jack are you listening?

RED wiki Launched

Yeah, yeah, I promised in my last post that I would only have one RED post.  I lied.

After a request for a RED Wiki, we threw one together here!

What’s in it so far?  Nothing.  This will be an experiment to see if the community can fill this up with valuable information, no flame wars, no exaggerations, etc.  If we can get a valuable tool working, we all win.  If no one adds to it...we’ll remove it.  It’s up to you.  And Mike, and Adam and Art I guess.  Graeme Nattress want to contribute?

My Only RED Post

Like this site needed just one more RED post.  While perusing one of my favorite sites today, engadget, I came across this article about RED being used as a Telecine:

As if the much-hyped RED ONE camera didn’t have enough going for it already, it looks like it could soon be put to use for a slightly unexpected but most welcome task: capturing Super 8 film. That’s apparently possible thanks to what’s described as a “pre-prototype” rig that employs a RED ONE camera and a Moviestuff Workprinter XP system which, thanks to a direct interface to the RED’s GPI input, should allow you to do up 30 single frame captures per second in the RED’s 4K mode. As the On Super 8 blog points out, however, there’s still some “optical wizardry” needed to sit between the RED and the workprinter, but we’re guessing those Super 8 die-hards should be able to take care of that little detail before too long.

That’s the last RED post from me…

PVC-it Debuts -*Updated*

It’s highly likely that you’ve heard of Digg.  In fact, we have a Digg button on most articles, and have been “dugg” numerous times in our illustrious first 42 days of being online. 

The code monkeys here at PVC (namely me), have been working feverishly to bring a Digg-like clone to the professional video market.  Let’s face it, as valuable as Digg is, it’s really for the general consumer market and short of doing searches, there are no categories for the Professional Video person.  So we created PVC-it.  Yeah, yeah the marketing people weren’t exactly up all night with that one (again me), but hey it works pretty well, and it’s cool.

So here’s the idea:
Click here every day to see what others have voted for.  Heck, check several times a day to check out the top video stories across the web.  That’s right, when you see a story on any pro video site, PVC-it and it will alert others to click on over.  As with Digg, users will need to vote on current stories, or upcoming stories.  Once a story gets at least 5 votes, it moves from “upcoming” to “published”.

As a community member, it’s up to you, in addition to the great writers here, to scout the web and highlight the best stories, whether on the PVC itself, StudioDaily, DMN, Creative Cow...anywhere.

If you’d like to get the code to place the PVC-it button on your site click here in the PVC FAQ in the forums to get it.

*Update* When you first register you have the luxury of right-clicking a special link which will place the PVC-it bookmark in your bookmarks folder.  From then on when you are on a site with and there’s an article you want to PVC-it, you simply click that bookmark link and it will open a browser window (under) your current window so you can add the article to PVC-it.  If you’ve already registered, you can go into “profile” and do the same with the bookmarklet. 

NAB Purchases

Every year for the past 11 years or so, I have made the trek to NAB.  For several years, myself and a couple of friends/co-workers used the trip as an opportunity to ride our motorcycles from San Francisco to Vegas.  Nice ride, and something to look forward to every year.

Despite having to pack intelligently for a motorcycle ride, but remembering to pack, suits, shoes, etc for the show, I always ended up coming back from NAB with more than when I left.  You see, I’m a bag person.  “Hello my name is Scott, and I have a problem”.  There’s something about the ability to pack my expensive gear, neatly, safely, and oh yeah, stylishly.  Folks who know me, know I will usually return home from NAB with at least one Porta Brace, Kata or other such bag.  That of course always made the ride home an exercise in packing proficiently.

Why would a reasonably bright person buy products, then attempt a cross country trek on a motorcycle?  Because you can get some incredible bargains at the show.  No, I’m not talking about buying a new switcher for your studio (although they’d be happy to take your oder).  Instead, I’m talking about walking up to a booth and asking them if they’re selling their monitor they’re using for the show on the last day of the event.  I’d suggest walking up to Kata and Porta Brace, but you’ll have to race me to their booths so don’t even bother. 

You see, what I do every year is think about what I’d really like to get a screaming deal on, then find the booth and convince them to sell the show floor demo at a great price.  The argument is simple for them, after a week long event on their feet, dealing with Vegas, cabs, and crowds, they want to go home.  Exhibitors aren’t allowed to pack until the show floor closes on the last day, and they usually have a plane to catch.  Do they want to pack that monitor, bag, tripod, and then have to fill out the GES forms and more, to get it shipped home (and pay for shipping of course).  You see, this is a great opportunity to grab a deal.

First day of the show, pick out what you like and simply ask if they’re selling at the end of the show.  But remember, Porta Brace is off limits until I’ve had my pick!

No - the Format War is Just Beginning

Let’s face it, we all saw the Blu-Ray battle won some time ago.  Perhaps a far more interesting battle is heating up between rivals Microsoft and Adobe on delivering content via a graphical open run-time platform or via a web browser.

Adobe has tremendous distribution in Flash technology as it’s nearly everywhere.  Microsoft’s Silverlight leverages the graphical ability of their browser.  Adobe’s Air, is a distributable runtime platform that’s no longer in beta as of this morning.  You can download it here for Windows and Mac.

*Updated*

While perusing the net this evening I ran across something interesting on Tim Sneath’s blog.  Never been there before but was searching for Silverlight and MTV.  Actually trying to track down a rumor that Microsoft is offering Silverlight around and folks - prominent folks like MTV, are passing in favor of Flash.  So as I read his blog post about Silverlight and MTV I then clicked over to his example, which is Jackass 2.5 the movie supposedly being hosted by Limelight Networks and Microsoft.  Well, interestingly enough, it’s Flash.  Hmmmm.  Looks like I have more digging to do.

We’ll be watching this very closely as you can imagine not only here, but also in our soon to launch WebDevCoalition.  For more info, check out BetaNews.com

As a disclaimer - Adobe is paid advertiser of this site, and Microsoft isn’t...yet.  (maybe never now)

New Software From Vara Software

Best may be piling it on too much for certain.  Never heard of it, now that may be likely.  Vara Software has been one of my favorite companies since I first encountered VideoCue.  If you don’t know VideoCue, go to their site right now and download it.  It’s an entire TV studio in an inexpensive package.  In fact, I often use the teleprompter alone when necessary.

Ok, enough love, but they do have a new product that does have me equally excited, and it’s called ScreenFlow.  It gives very good flexibility in creating screencasts, tutorials, etc.  You can use your built-in iSight (Mac only folks) and also bring a window of yourself into the mix where necessary.  I downloaded the demo and created a brief tutorial on a SSD MacBook Air.  Yes, only the 1.8 processor, and the software still worked flawlessly.  Needless to say, I whipped out the plastic and you’ll have a full on demo here shortly. 

The “Air” Apparent

First things first, I completely agree with Mike Curtis, that the MacBook Air isn’t for us.  Except that....

Excuse me while I hit the way-back machine and meander down memory lane to the days of yore, when if you wanted a great NLE machine, it made sense to make that machine, your only machine.  If you planned to do any business, script writing, Quickbooks, spreadsheets, well then you must have another machine my friend, as the NLE will likely crash if things aren’t just so.  Perhaps you remember those days?  Or perhaps you’re lucky enough to only live using a new MacBook Pro (or insert top of the line PC here), with the latest Office, Logic Pro, FCP Studio, After Effects, Photoshop, InDesign, etc.  I could go on and on, but you get the point.  Today’s top end PC or Mac could run a small country, and at the same time, slice bread, produce the next Grammy-winning album, er CD, er, MP3, oh - and concurrently output the next top grossing feature film.  Perhaps I want my ultra-portable computer to write scripts, handle my day to day email on the road and not have to worry about lugging around my editing machine, when maybe my next trip is finding the right client, not editing on the airplane.

Bear with me here....

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