Friday, September 25, 2009

Autumnal Hiatus


I’m pleased and proud to announce that I now have my own column on Blogcritics (http://blogcritics.com). It’s called

NewsWire, and you can get to it by going to the main site, clicking on the TV/Video category, and if you scroll down the homepage of that section, you’ll see, on the right, a sub-group called Current Features, and you should be able to view the NewsWire title, as well as my logo/icon: an old-fashioned weather-vane, complete with rooster and the four outstretched prongs, each with a directional letter on it: N E W S.


Click on the icon and it should take you to my column’s homepage, which is (or soon will be) topped by a banner, featuring a B&W photo of old-fashioned telephone/utility poles with wires strung from one to the other, many of them, alongside an empty highway leading to a distant horizon. I’m relying on the Blogcritics tech staff to put this together, because all I can manage to do is write and upload an article.


Somewhere – perhaps on the title page, but I really don’t know, will appear my permanent description of the column:


News is the lifeblood of participatory citizenship. Sometimes it's tainted with errors, sensationalism or dull stupidity; sometimes it's accurate, insightful, and genuinely informative. As (sadly) newspapers give way to screen-based news sources, TV news programs play an increasingly-important role in helping us understand what's happening in America and around the world. NewsWire monitors everything from the Sunday morning network/cable line-up, to PBS' Friday night roster of news/current affairs programs (and irregularly scheduled specials, like Frontline), to the comedy-news shows (Bill Maher especially, but also Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert), to the broadcast networks' nightly newscasts and the cable news channels' 24-hour fare. We don't cover everything every day (or even every week), but we eventually touch on it all – to let you know about the style and content of what's happening onscreen (and, when possible, behind-the-scenes).


As you can imagine, it’s going to take a while to get this going and establish a rhythm for it. Meanwhile, to make the process less stressful, I’m putting the Tower on hiatus through October; I’m sure that by November, I’ll be able to juggle both. I love writing Views From the Tower and have no intention of abandoning it. But NewsWire will allow me to immediately reach a broader audience while focusing on the subjects that fascinate me most: the news of the day and the couch potato medium that delivers it.


I’ll be sending announcements (to my corps of regular readers…) each time a NewsWire post goes up, and, of course, I’ll let you know when the Tower re-opens (I’m thinking: fireworks, maybe a Goodyear blimp…). Meanwhile, I hope you’re entering what will be a cool and lovely fall season. Don’t miss the glorious change-of-season colors, if you’re somewhere that the seasons do change. Either way, hang in, be well, and looking forward to hearing from you on NewsWire.

5 comments:

Paulette Esposito said...

Miz B.....HOORAY! That is wonderful exciting news! Congratulations and blessings on this new journey. Look out world audience, here comes MizB!!!

XXOO

GAPO*

Nadine B. Hack, President beCause Global Consulting said...

Brava! Richly-earned, well-deserved recognition for your great work!

Terry S said...

Hey, how's it going?

I followed your instructions to find your column without success. I couldn't find any "Current Features" heading.

Terry S. (aka Baritone)

MizB said...

Terry/Baritone -- I'm way behind schedule; haven't posted the first article yet, but I'm hoping to in the next few days. Ah, Life: sick friends, money woes, you know the drill... Thanks for asking. Keep keeping an eye peeled.

Terry S said...

Indeed I do know the drill. Up late, huh? I never get to sleep before about 2AM.

Just a little plug for my son, here. He has started a web site: cellpoems.org

It's designed for people to submit poems limited in length to the 140 character limit on Twitter. He's had some interesting submissions. He's quite a good poet himself.

He just started working at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and loves it. He hated a job he had at the NYU Law School.

Get some sleep.

T