WILLblog

Media Matters live at the Siebel Center

2010-02-21T15:30:00.005-06:00

Some 200 people turned out this afternoon at the Siebel Center for the first-ever live broadcast of Media Matters on WILL. Host Bob McChesney and gust John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation, talked about their new book The Death and Life of American Journalism (Nation Books) and took questions from the studio audience.

With reporters being but by the thousands across the United States, newspapers folding, and broadcast news mostly focused on entertainment, the future of journalism is in serious jeopardy. Who will report local news and how will they be paid, ask McChesney and Nichols? They propose a number of ways federal subsidies could support local news, much as America's Founders supported newspapers by subsidizing postage and printing.

At WILL we're working on several projects to put skills and tools in the hands of citizens who know their communities and can tell their own stories. The ability to produce and distribute media is no longer dominated by large entities, and anyone with a digital camera and a laptop can produce great journalism if they have the desire, skills, and ethics. A question for us is how can WILL stimulate, foster, and support community-based citizen journalists? We hope to discover answers in the coming months. Meanwhile, it helps to have an open dialogue on the status of journalism and media in America, and bring more voices to an honest discussion of the role of news in democracy. The Death and Life of American Journalism should help that process.

View more photos of this event on Flickr.

Carl Kasell to retire from NPR Newscasts

2009-11-23T13:53:00.002-06:00

Say it ain't so! Carl Kasell, the voice of NPR newscasts, will retire from that duty on December 31st. This from NPR:

After 30 years of waking up at 1:05 a.m. to anchor the top of the hour newscast during Morning Edition, Carl Kasell has decided the time has come to sleep in. He will leave his newscast post at the end of this year... but happily for all of us he isn't going far. Carl will continue to be the Official Judge and Scorekeeper for Wait Wait.. Don't Tell Me!, the show that turned him from a newsman into a rock star! Carl will also continue his travels to stations around the country on NPR's behalf. Carl has raised more than a generation of listeners with his calm and authoritative newscast and has been the first voice many people heard each day. He also has been a teacher and role model for NPR newscasters... not only because of his skill and experience, but also because of his kindness, integrity, and professionalism. Carl has walked into the newscast booth tens of thousands of times during his tenure. He was there the day that Iranian students took over the American Embassy in 1979... he was there when the Berlin wall fell in 1989 and he was there again when two jetliners slammed into the World Trade Towers in 2001. And he’s been there every week since. Carl first walked through the doors of NPR in 1975 as a part-time newscaster ... and was on the air in November 1979 at the inception of Morning Edition. In 1995, he hosted Early Morning Edition, which eventually led to Morning Edition’s early start time of 5 a.m. eastern. Carl is a proud member of the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame and a recipient of several major broadcast awards, including a Peabody which he shares with Morning Edition and another he shares with Wait Wait.

Meet Luciana Kieser

2009-06-23T15:49:00.003-05:00

From WILL's chief meteorologist and proud new dad Ed Kieser:

"Lucia and I are proud to announce the arrival of our daughter Luciana Eleanora Kieser. She was born yesterday (June 17, 2009) at 12:32 PM EDT... weighing in a 7 pounds 7 ounces... 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing fine."

Digital Transition Chaos

2009-04-16T09:19:00.004-05:00

Digital television is a great idea in theory. The reality is proving messy at best.

In the best-case scenario, you'd simply turn on your new digital TV and it would pull in video more beautiful than a DVD. Since each TV station can now broadcast up to four different channels, you'd have many times more programming choices than before, over-the-air without paying for cable or satellite service. Some people actually have that experience.

For others, just getting a good digital signal is like alchemy. You need an antenna, and sometimes an outdoor antenna, because the signal strength of digital TV is about one-hundredth that of analog. With analog a weak signal might yield a noisy picture, but with digital you get...nothing. Like anything digital, it's either on or off. If you have the wrong antenna, you won't get the new digital VHF channels including WILL's channel 9. So you have to know something about antennas, which most of us probably thought we'd left behind along with 8 track tapes.

But wait, the chaos gets better. If you have cable service, you may no longer even get your favorite local stations at all. That's what happened in the Bloomington, Illinois area, where WILL-TV is no longer available to Comcast cable customers. Or more precisely, WILL-TV is no longer available to Comcast customers who have the analog Comcast cable service. If you have the analog Comcast cable service, do you even know that? Once you ffigure that out, you can upgrade to digital cable for free and get a new digital set-top box. Comcast will keep your monthly bill the same for 12 months, but after that your bill will likely increase. Or you can drop cable and get WILL-TV over-the-air, if you have a TV with a digital tuner, or a digital TV converter box, if you are within range of WILL-TV's digital TV signal. Lots of ifs there.

(Fore more excruciating detail on the Bloomington Comcast situation, see David Thiel's post on TV Worth Blogging.)

Further, the 50 some cable services throughout central Illinois process their signals in different ways. An HD signal on one cable service may look very different from another service. We're getting many reports of out-of-synch audio, and people naturally assume we can do something about it.

Still further, the aspect ratio for HD is 16x9, whereas Standard Definition (SD) is 4x3. What does a 4x3 picture look like on your 16x9 HDTV? Hard to predict, because it depends on both the station producing the signal, and how that signal is processed by your cable service.

Many if not all of these issues will be sorted out over time. We may eventually arrive at the promised land of digital TV actually working. Meanwhile, if you're totally fed up with trying to watch TV I have a suggestion. There's always something good on the web.

The place just filled up with guitars

2009-03-31T14:37:00.004-05:00

Stepped outside of my office today and found the Campbell Hall lobby brimming with guitars and guitarists. The 17-member Guitar Ensemble from Illinois State University was here to play a Bach Brandenburg Concerto in advance of their concert in the evening. The segment aired today on WILL-FM's new Live and Local with Kevin Kelly.

No news

2009-03-03T10:03:00.002-06:00

Print journalism spent the 1980s and '90s taking profits and then, in the decade that followed, impaling itself on the Internet. - David Simon, Washington Post

So the Baltimore police no longer provide reporters with the names of officers involved in police shootings. Their ranks have been so thinned, no reporter has even asked for so long the police forgot the law mandates they provide this information without delay, to anyone. But it's not just the law enforcement beat in Baltimore. Science and environmental reporters, political reporters, financial reporters, and especially foreign bureaus have been cut, cut again, then cut some more over the past two years. At a time when so much news is being made, and the stakes are higher than ever, our view of the world is dimming. And that's today's news.

WILLblog returns...with disturbing news

2009-03-02T16:53:00.003-06:00

WILLblog was always intended to provide an insider's view on the public broadcasting world. (Soon we'll call it public media, but that's another post for another day...) Today I have some troubling news about struggling stations around the system. Of course just about everyone is dealing with fallout from the economic mess we're in, so this isn't meant to say "poor us." This is, however, about public broadcasting, so here goes: WNED REDUCES BUDGETED EXPENSES AND STAFF POSITIONS (Buffalo, NY) State funding for public TV, radio on chopping block (Charlottesville, VA) Layoffs at WBEZ, Vocalo (Chicago, IL) These are only three news items about very large cuts at local stations. I have friends at other stations all over the country, and many of them are laying off staff, cutting local programs, and reducing services just to survive. Of course newspapers across the nation are being hit even harder. In the case of some, like the Chicago Tribune, solvency is imperiled by excessive debt from buying other newspapers. Others, like the Rocky Mountain News, just couldn't make their payroll. Here is an important question we must raise as high as possible: At a time when, more than ever, we need to know what's happening, who will report the news? One other thing occurs to me as I ponder the fate of local npr and pbs stations: We have a chance to salvage the disaster happening to communities whose newspapers are folding, if we can remain strong enough to deliver. Might be a big if...

Happy Birthday Bur Oak

2007-04-24T09:40:00.000-05:00

This massive Bur Oak lives in the front lawn of the Natural History Building on the corner of Green Street and Matthews in Urbana. According to Geography Professor Bruce Hannon, it's the oldest living thing on the University of Illinois campus. Now 200 years old, the tree "was a sapling when the prairie fires swept easterly across what is now Champaign, routinely consuming everything before them," says Professor Hannon. "The wetlands that became the campus subdued these fires, allowing only the hardiest trees to survive. The Boneyard creek stopped the spread of the fire and allowed the Big Grove to flourish beginning in what is now downtown Urbana, and spread eastward. Only remnants of that grove remain, along with our most famous tree. It is important to learn the impact on the landscape we have had over that last 200 years. This living survivor provides us with a starting point." You can help celebrate Earth Day and a Bur Oak Birthday Party at 4 pm this Friday, April 27th at the tree itself. The Grand Prairie Friends will present landscape drawings, and give away Oak seedlings with growing instructions. Growing things that last: what a good idea!

President Bush on the Newshour

2007-01-16T18:16:00.000-06:00

President Bush made himself available for an extended interview with Jim Lehrer on the Newshour on PBS today, which is airing here in Champaign-Urbana as we speak. The subject is (surprise) Iraq. The President was disappointed that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "fumbled" the execution of Saddam Hussein in such an indignified way...and of course there are a few other problems too. How exactly do you conduct a dignified execution? Never mind, I don't think I want to know. Anyway, here's the archive page for this interview from the Newshour, complete with audio links: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/politics/bush-interview_01-16-07.html

Mistakes were made....

2007-01-11T18:53:00.000-06:00

I love the Spanish language. One of the things I love about it is the subtle variations of meaning provided by all those verb tenses. Then you have these standard ways of saying things like "It broke on me" which in English would be "I broke it." Speaking of breaking things, President Bush spoke last night (in English) about how things are going in Iraq. He proposed a new set of steps which includes sending more than 20,000 additional troops. He said mistakes were made...borrowing easily from the lovely Spanish-style passive verb syntax. But as always, I could be wrong so don't listen to me, listen to the President himself, presented here without filters: streaming RealAudio MP3 download

My election day rant

2006-11-08T14:37:00.000-06:00

I love voting on Election Day, I truly do. I wear that little 'I Voted' sticker like a badge of honor, like a silent-but-deadly public scolding to all those citizen-slackers out there who can't bother to make a few holes in a punchcard (or whatever...for me this year it was fill-in-the-little-circles). I know, I know, many non-voters don't pay enough attention to make an informed electoral choice, so they feel they're not qualified. Or they think "Why even bother?" The only answer I have is to take a good look at what's happening. Our communities, our nation, and this miracle we call Earth need our engaged attention. Look at the races that are decided by a few votes, and in one recent case, by a single vote. Then tell me your vote doesn't matter. But that's not why I'm writing this. I want to rant about something else entirely. Let me share with you a few pictures of my election day voting experience. This is the Hays Center in Champaign, which for years has been my polling place. A lovely little Park District facility three blocks from my house. And it's good that I know it so well because, well, it's not exactly endowed with prominent polling place signage. We see here a door in the back of the building with a small sign. The doorway is, shall we say, adorned with the colours of autumn. Basically it's choked with leaves, like no-one could be bothered to clean it up and make the place findable, let alone presentable. Here's a closer look.
I know I'm not making any friends with the County Clerk in pointing this out, but that's not my job. I also acknowledge that the Champaign County polling seemed to go very smoothly indeed (take that Mark Sheldon!). Here's my point: We should not only vote, but celebrate the act of voting. It should be a day of enthusiastic expression of what it means to live in a free country. I'm not asking for a parade, but merely a sense of aesthetics. If we care so little about the look and feel of democracy, how can we expect everyone to embrace it?

Behind the scenes at public radio

2006-09-20T10:23:00.000-05:00

Who can give you the inside scoop better than someone who actually works there? John Hodgman has been a contributor to This American Life, which airs on AM 580 Saturdays at 1 pm and Sundays at 6 pm. He's also a contributor to Comedy Central's The Daily Show and the nerdy guy on the Mac ads. He's written a book called The Areas of My Expertise--and, seemingly, he has a lot of them--including the hobo "movement." If you're in the mood for a good laugh--join Robert Seigel as you listen to the interview at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5764627. And then watch the video, which can be found below his photo. You'll never be able to listen to Dan Simeone or Denise Perry again without thinking of what's really happening in the WILL studio (whoops! He was visiting NPR, right, not one of the affiliates?)

A fluid situation

2006-08-10T17:11:00.000-05:00

Apparently today was not the best day to travel by air. I always carry lots of water on the plane, but on the bright side I guess I'll be traveling lighter. In case you missed the U.S. official word, or simply want the access to the public record, here are audio archives of this morning's news conference on the terrorism alert for commercial flights, presented by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Streaming RealAudio | MP3 download

More Crisis Views

2006-08-08T13:18:00.000-05:00

Lebanese perspectives on the war in Lebanon? Might be helpful for us to get them, and there are many different Lebanese perspectives. Here's a starting point on the community site kuri5hin.org. Please add suggestions about other resources for information, knowledge, and perspective.

Crisis in the Middle East

2006-08-08T09:09:00.000-05:00

OK, so all the Big Media have fully deployed their Crisis in the Middle East logos. We could of course wisecrack about how this is a bigger news-theme opportunity than the Michael Jackson trial, bigger even than Runaway Bride, but of course it's bigger than a news-theme and it's not funny. We had better understand it the best we can, and try to sincerely and fully address it. The implications and complications of the war in Lebanon and Israel, connected in so many ways with wars, conflicts, and contests pretty much everywhere else, must be covered as comprehensively as possible by our news media. Too bad in most cases that's not really happening. One case where it is happening is at the BBC, which too often makes up for the lack of coverage throughout the other English-speaking news media. Perspective, what's that? Aren't there just two sides to every story? You might find more here at the BBC News In Depth website, which also has a Middle East Crisis logo. Sometimes, logos actually mean something.

WILL-AM 580 News Podcast: A star is born

2006-07-12T16:33:00.000-05:00

So here we go again hyping our product. The WILL brand reigns supreme in the news- and info-space. In the universe of pubcasting on the web, we rock. That's not what I'm saying here, I'm being facetiously ironical. In fact I come here today not to bury us with non-faint praise, but to heap it on Jenn Rourke. Who is Jenn Rourke? Why, so glad you asked! Jenn Rourke is a fabulous student of broadcasting journalism who somehow agreed to work at WILL as our summer intern. Her mistake, our gain. What has Jenn been doing to earn her non-living wage as a WILL intern? Cranking out a custom, web-only version of the best of the best from AM 580 news. She's doing this every weekday, editing in news features, commentaries, weather forecasts, and other value-added audio content, including some cool music buttons. Jenn has her own radio show on Urbana's WRFU (Midwest Ninja, 4 to 5 pm each Wednesday). And she's the voice behind the new AM 580 Daily News Podcast, for which you can pick up the URL right here. A star is born...but now that Jenn's producing this, she can never leave!

Summer Reading?

2006-06-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

Why do we focus on summer reading? Probably most of us read year round, but for readers there's something magical about a lazy summer day sprawled in a chair or hammock, a cool drink at the ready, and a chance to lose yourself in another time or place or life right at your fingertips. I'm one of those people who compile lists of books. I read a review and I think "I'll like that one," and I shove a little scrap of paper in my purse, where I can't find it the next time I'm at the library. If I'm lucky I'll remember part of the title or the author's last name. I get several book reviews emailed to me--one weekly from the Christian Science Monitor, and another one this summer from NPR. I'm always fascinated by what "real" people read. Does a neurosurgeon read philosophy? Can a scientist comprehend poetry? Do English majors read only novels? I listen to WILL's talk show hosts Celeste Quinn and David Inge whenever I have the chance. I know they read a lot. They've pointed me in directions I never thought I'd find myself--from a mystical trip with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, by Susanna Clarke, I've been through a brick wall with Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and travelled through The Planets with Dava Sobel. But what do they read when they're not getting ready for an interview? I've asked David and Celeste and some of the other folks at WILL to share with all of us what they read and--we've added a twist to it--what music they like. Who would've guessed that TV program director David Thiel is a movie soundtrack junkie? And that AM 580 reporter Jeff Bossert is a fan of the movie "About a Boy," and the music that accompanies it. (We all know about Denise Perry's Clay Aiken fetish!) And that VideoWorks John Paul is a history buff who likes music from the 70s? Read some of their suggestions and add some of your own.

Congress to cut funding for...Mickey Mouse?

2006-06-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

The annual Congressional ritual to slash funding for public broadcasting has begun. On Wednesday the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut $115 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting budget next year, a 23 percent reduction. It was a straight party-line vote, led by Representative Ralph Regula, an Ohio Republican who is chairman of the appropriations panel. Moveon.org and others are cranking up the email lists to oppose the cuts, and I'm sure we'll be talking about it as the federal budget process progresses, if that's the correct term. Last year similar cuts by the House Appropriations Committee were firmly rejected by a bi-partisan Congressional majority after an outpouring of citizen support for public broadcasting. And for the most part support for PBS and NPR is indeed bi-partisan, which bodes well for our longevity. Public broadcasting should serve the public interests of all Americans regardless of political party, and as a producer I know we work very hard to do that. Still, it seems like someone is always trying to make partisan hay out of a supposed liberal bias in PBS and NPR programs. I'd love to talk with anyone about balance and fairness and the qualities that make for great journalism and public affairs programming. But it's harder to do this productively while being threatened and belittled. Plus, it'd be nice if our critics actually knew what they were talking about instead of simply relying on "principles." Rep. Regula reveals something interesting when he refers to our efforts to defend public broadcasting: "They'll trot out Elmo and Mickey Mouse and Lord knows who else, and I'll be out there kind of by myself." Mickey Mouse? Uh, that would be Disney. If only public broadcasting had that kind of money.

President Bush speaks on Immigration

2006-05-16T13:53:00.000-05:00

Border enforcement (especially the border with Mexico) through more border patrol agents, technology, National Guard deployments, involvement by state and local law enforcement, and larger detention facilities; a Temporary Worker program with background checks; better enforcement of laws against hiring illegal immigrants and a new immigrant identity card; a "middle ground" policy to those illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. long enough to establish roots; and re-embracing the Melting Pot and the English language. These are the themes I heard in President Bush's national address on policy on illegal immigration last night. What did you hear? If you missed it, here are archives: Streaming RealAudio Downloadable MP3

Eavesdropping on Alberto Gonzales

2006-02-07T11:40:00.000-06:00

If you tuned in to WILL-AM yesterday, you know we aired the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifying about the secert wiretapping authorized by President Bush. We were planning to do our winter pledge drive during this time, but something like this is too important to interupt with pleas for financial support... I have yet to find a complete audio or video archive on the web, but NPR.org has a really good page with lots of good stuff: NPR news reports, analysis, hearing highlights, and A Guide to the NSA Eavesdropping Debate. NPR continues to excel at providing more than just the surface. I wish we could get the entire hearing for download, so anyone could use the content for their own journalistic mashups. We need to democratize the media online...but maybe first we should democratize the federal government.

Illinois Governor delivers State of the State 2006

2006-01-19T15:09:00.000-06:00

It was the best of times, it was the best of times. Wow are we doing great in the great State of Illinois. Never mind the growing debt... Two years ago, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich went on a tear about how the problem with Illinois education was the Illinois State Board of Education. Last year he announced a plan to provide health care for all Illinois children. In the Governor's State of the State address yesterday, it was rebuilding roads and help with the cost of higher education. You just never know what it's going to be with Rod, but one thing is clear: We're living in the land of Oz. Just kidding about that, kind of. Part of my job here on WILLblog is to be provocative. But I would never tell you what to think, and always encourage you to be informed. So in keeping with our open-source philosophy of media, here are audio archives of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich delivering the State of the State address in Springfield on January 18th, 2006: streaming RealAudio MP3 download

Alito hearings on NPR

2006-01-16T10:32:00.000-06:00

Whatever you think about the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, we hope you caught some of the Senate confirmation hearings as they aired last week on WILL-AM. Some people told me the hearings were endless and boring. I didn't have the free attention to listen the entire week, but every time I tuned in it seemed pretty interesting, including the questioning by Dick Durban (D-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) on whether or not Roe v. Wade is "settled" law. The hearings have concluded, and now comes a certain amount of political push-and-shove over the confirmation vote in the full Senate. Given that Judge Alito didn't say anything with which he could actually be hanged, it's likely he will ultimately be confirmed. But until then, this is still a "democratic moment" during which members of the Senate, and by extension all Americans, have a chance to examine and consider the character and qualifications of someone who will play key role in determining vital Constitutional issues over the next several decades. In that light the hearings, though possibly "endless and boring," deserve our attention. Kudos to NPR for airing the hearings live, and for their extensive reporting and analysis. If you missed anything, you can listen again and get lots more on the Alito hearings here on the NPR web site.

Oh what a lovely war

2005-12-14T16:55:00.000-06:00

Why should we stay the course in Iraq? "We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of brutal dictator," said President Bush today on the eve of Iraq's first parliamentary elections. "It is to leave a free and democratic Iraq in his place." In a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the President admitted that "much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." He unveiled a "National Strategy for Victory" and fired more arrows at critics with the "cut and run" phrase we've heard so much of lately. And he acknowledged for the first time that as many as 30,000 Iraqi civilians may have been killed since the U.S. invasion. But why am I telling you these things, because you can listen to President Bush's speech here: streaming RealAudio downloadable MP3

How did your Congressperson vote on that bill?

2005-12-13T12:44:00.000-06:00

Here's a handy web site for checking up on your Member of Congress: it's the Votes Database, the site that "lets you browse every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991," created and maintained by The Washington Post. Not the sexiest of marketing slogans, but then who said democracy is sexy? You can browse by member, bill, vote margin, and "vote missers," among other options. We think options like this that make you better informed are a good thing.

What's in your CD player?

2005-11-16T10:45:00.000-06:00

If you bought recent CD releases from Sony BMG, it could be some great music...along with a nasty bit of software that could damage your computer. WILL's resident consumer electronics guru Rich Warren reports that in the name of copy protection, Sony BMG is now including on many of its CDs a program called a rootkit to monitor your computer activity and prevent you from making copies of the CD, even for your own fair use. The software can lead to computer crashes and loss of data, all in the name of protecting a large music corporation from a theoretical loss of CD sales caused by you making a copy of a CD you already paid for. Or putting it on your iPod, you selfish music lover you. Here's more if you want the sordid details. Personally I think if we believe in free markets, based on the notion of informed consumer choice, Sony BMG is likely to lose CD sales as consumers are informed about what they're buying. We love music, so we're happy to help that educational process.

The withdrawal method

2005-10-27T10:31:00.000-05:00

Oh my, how long it's been, and we start with a headline like this? My keyboard is fired up, so here we go. Harriet Miers has withdrawn as a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. The basis for her withdrawal seems to be that key conservatives were not impressed with her credentials. So the challenge to her nomination was from the right, which begs the question: How smart IS Carl Rove? After all, now the White House will be expected to nominate a "real" conservative. Meanwhile, NPR News will offer an hour-long program today from 1 to 2 pm Central on the Harriet Miers nomination withdrawal, hosted by Neal Conan. WILL-AM 580 will air this live.

Hurricane Katrina resources page from WILL

2005-09-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

We put together a modest web page with a few announcements and links to resources related to the Katrina disaster, and you can find it here. PBS and NPR programs and web sites, community events around East Central Illinois, and ways you can donate and help...it's a growing mess, just like the areas affected most directly by Hurricane Katrina. If you have information we should add to this page, please leave a comment or email the WILL webmaster...hey, that's me!

"There is a more than adequate law enforcement presence in New Orleans."

2005-09-02T16:19:00.000-05:00

I was trained as a journalism to be skeptical about public statements by government officials. I try to maintain healthy skepticism rather than let myself descend into caustic cynicism. But statements like the one above, but Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, add to the challenge. Chertoff's statement came amid other similar assertions we might politely call spin if we were in a forgiving mood, during a tense interview with Robert Siegal on last night's All Things Considered. Does Chertoff think we don't watch live TV reports showing the ongoing disaster in Hurricane Katrina's wake? Should we think everything's fine simply because he says so? NPR's reporter John Burnett was there at the New Orleans convention center, describing the continuing horrors of people by the thousands without food and water with no help in sight. Chertoff said help is there on the ground. Hmmm, what to believe? BTW, here's the report by NPR's John Burnett, providing a slightly different view.

A hurricane of media

2005-09-01T14:28:00.000-05:00

Anyone watch much of the TV coverage of Hurricane Katrina? Of course you probably couldn't help but watch, and the images of disaster and suffering are agonizing. Plus, this is an important event for all of us for many reasons, and we need to understand what happened as citizens of this nation and the world. The night it hit, I ended up spending a lot of time online, where I could get more in-depth news, video, first-hand reports, perspective, and breadth, and as a bonus, avoid the commercials, constant branding, and self-congratulatory tone of the cable TV news channels. More and more it seems the web is the better place to get a news signal instead of media noise. That said, there's still much value in traditional TV coverage. PBS has a few special programs you might want to catch: - The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will continue to provide ongoing coverage and analysis of the crisis resulting from the hurricane and floods. - On Friday, September 2, Washington Week will include a summary of the disaster and the events as they played out this past week along the Gulf Coast and the response here in Washington, D.C. - On Friday, September 2, NOW will cover the events along the gulf coast, including an update of the 2002 Daniel Zwerdling story on barrier island destruction and danger to New Orleans. NOW plans to stay on the story of the hurricane's aftermath for the month of September. - On Friday, September 16, NOW will stay with their hour-long townhall format but refocus the topic on the hurricane's aftermath. They will get as close to the disaster area as possible and will concentrate on why rapid response failed, the disease threat and the ethical issues of looting and disorder that has followed this disaster. We will postpone the social security hour until were able to focus our attention differently. - NOVA will completely update a segment on the danger to New Orleans from hurricanes (seen in the first "scienceNOW" program) for inclusion in the next "scienceNOW" (currently scheduled for October 18). - Sesame Street is rushing a re-broadcast of the five hurricane episodes (Big Birds nest is blown away) for air week of September 12. More to come...

Vlogging, podcatching, and other blognomena

2005-08-08T16:39:00.000-05:00

WILLblog and its founders are not cutting edge, I swear. As evidence, we're scrambling to catch up with the linguistics in yet another area of new technology, viz. the video blog. For the record, we're really unhappy with the term 'podcasting,' since it invokes the idea that you must use a specific commercial product when in truth any MP3 device will do the trick. So now comes this thing called 'vlogging' and we think we like it. Vlogging is not, of course, a new form of virtual forestry, but the simple extension of podcasting in the video realm. If you can publish an audio file with an RSS feed (podcasting) you can just as easily post a video file. Since most of this stuff came from the world of blogs like this one, we have (presto!) this wonderful new word 'vlogging.' Still confused? Don't worry, it'll pass, especially with the help of this nice old-fashioned radio story by NPR's Laura Sydell from Saturday's Weekend Edition. As for the word 'podcasting,' we really must remember to never let a former MTV video jockey define the terms for a democratic media revolution. Unless Apple is willing to cut us in on the profits...

Happy 50th Birthday WILL-TV

2005-08-02T17:15:00.000-05:00

When WILL-TV first signed on the air 50 years ago, it became the first educational TV broadcaster in central Illinois. If the local commercial media moguls had their way, it wouldn't have happened at all. The University of Illinois had to take the fight to the Illinois legislature to muster the political force to finally prevail. Some Americans remain conflicted about the notion of public broadcasting. You can see it reflected in the comments left by some on this blog. To me the most interesting objection is the one that says government funding of TV and radio programming leads to political control of TV and radio content. Another objection, raised by those who opposed WILL-TV going on the air 50 years ago, says public funding gives us an unfair advantage over commercial broadcasters. I love debating this stuff, and while I have my viewpoint I will always try to remain open to other views. To the first objection (government funding leads to political control) I'd say maybe but not inevitably, and I think we (WILL) have proven ourselves able to maintain control of our own editorial process, thank you very much. And can anyone argue with a straight face that there's no political control over the editorial process at Fox News? It may not come from the government, but instead reflects the politics of its owner and his billionaire frame of reference. Public funding may indeed give public broadcasting operations like WILL an advantage over commercial broadcasters. On the other hand, WGN last year cancelled its decades-long commitment to agricultural programming not because it wasn't profitable, but because it wasn't obscenely profitable. Several other radio stations in this market consistently gather up a large profit for their conglomerate owners, who simply add it to the piles of cash coming in from their hundreds of other broadcasting investments. WILL has more news reporters on staff than all these profitable local stations combined. They could fund a local news staff if they wanted to, but it would cut into their profit margins, and thus might impact their share prices...which is what their business really is. The reality is we're in a different business altogether, and that's education. We don't work as hard as we do (I can tell ya stories) to reap profits for absentee corporate giants, we do it as a public service to our communities. One could argue that publicly-funded schools are unfair competition to private schools, or that public libraries put commercial bookstores at a competitive disadvantage. If the sole measure of value is private profit, that might be true. But the founders of this thing we salute to spoke of other values, like the public good and the commonweal. We share this nation, this community, this planet. We have to figure out ways to make the best of that, and I like to think that's what public broadcasting is for. So here's a salute to WILL-TV's golden anniversary, with a nice Flash piece created by our friends at the University of Illinois Office of Public Affairs. I hope we're still debating 50 years from now.

Internet media gathering...er, steam

2005-07-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

Is this what the new media revolution looks like, finally? We've heard plenty of hype about how the Internet will change all the rules about [insert category or industry here]. But it hasn't quite made it over the revolutionary threshold, even though it has evolved into something that is transforming our lives in many ways. The impact of the Internet is already deep, we just haven't seen and heard the Big Bang that would launch a new Internet universe. The Internet has added great features and utilities to our previous media constellations. But to be a revolution, it has to actually overthrow something. So along comes this little thing called the Open Media Network (http://www.omn.org/) and it might just do the trick. If they can get the client to work right. If they can get media producers and public broadcasting stations to publish to it. If they can get an audience to download and install their client. If all that happens, those of us interested in bypassing the entrenched, moribund, paternalistic, and generally pathetic "news media" proferred by the corporate entertainment/profit centers might finally have a major return on the prayers we've invested in the Internet. For now we hedge our bets and suggest a few "What Ifs?": What if you could get a full range of news and public affairs media without all the hype, packaging, spin, commercialism, and annoying self-promotion that clutter up the coverage from the "major news networks"? What if you could go beyond packaged reporting and get the source video, audio, images, documents, and interviews from which stories are produced? What if you could have instant access to the widest range of perspectives (and not just the extremes) so you could discover what real people think (and not just the pundits and spin professionals)? What if you could compare feedback and ratings on sources of news and information with thousands of other informed users, who also have credibility ratings based on thousands of other informed users? What if you could easily contribute news and information, including produced pieces and raw material, to help build a global network of free media for the benefit of an informed global community? What's happening is since iPodder proved that people are willing to bypass the "mainstream media" to get what they need and want, the bandwagon has been boarded. On June 28th Apple released iTunes version 4.9 which includes a podcasting utility. This might be the tip of the tipping point. Regardless of how quickly it becomes obvious, the on-demand media revolution has been launched. Even the "major networks" seem to dimly grok this. But just look at poor CNN, which today announced it would offer a "premium broadband service in a move to remake the digital space and offer viewers unprecedented control over their news." It still believes we'll pay for their version of reality, rather than discovering our own for free. Cue the Gil Scott Heron quote please.

TGIF

2005-07-01T15:59:00.000-05:00

Walking across campus on this beautiful Friday afternoon, I encountered the Nanotechnology Lab. You can see in this image how the original building is being enlarged along three of its walls. My question is, shouldn't they be making it smaller?

Audio of President Bush at Fort Bragg

2005-06-30T10:08:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it the other night, here is the audio from President Bush's speech on Iraq at Fort Bragg from June 28th, 2005. streaming RealAudio MP3 download

2005-06-27T20:08:00.000-05:00

Let's be honest about bias in public broadcasting. Your view of it is rooted in your own biases. Or is there an objective measure of objectivity? Would it be based on numbers of conservatives vs. liberals quoted on the air? Or perhaps the voting records of reporters and producers? Before we go all simplistic or head toward slippery slopes, let's take a closer look at the current attack on public broadcasting. By now you might know that Kenneth Tomlinson, pal of Karl Rove, appointed to the chairmanship of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by President George W. Bush, secretly hired an Indiana gentleman by the name of Fred Mann to monitor the political "balance" of NOW with Bill Moyers on PBS. That's what Tomlinson claimed, but it turns out Mann also "monitored" the Tavis Smiley show on NPR and the Diane Rehm show from WAMU in Washington. What did he find, besides the fact that Bill Moyers has been off the air for the past six months? This gets interesting: Mann created guest lists with ratings "L" for liberal, "C" for conservative, and "anti-administration" for anyone raising questions about the Bush presidency. Scary, but perhaps somewhat statistically useful, depending on the intent of the statistical user. So for example Republican Senator Chuck Hagel was rated an "L" because he "expressed doubts about Iraq in a discussion mainly devoted to praising Ronald Reagan," according to a report by Frank Rich of the New York Times. There's more, and it may get reported...unless the reporters are too cowed of the fear they'll end up on this or another list as "anti-administration." Mr. Tomlinson signed contracts to hire people (we don't yet know how many) to measure the political balance of public TV and radio shows based on a rather politically unbalanced scale, and paid them public money. CPB was charged by Congress to shield public broadcasting from government influence. He hasn't been exactly forthcoming about the details, and this whole thing is giving off a strong and unpleasant scent. If reporters are not too cowed, we may be in for some very interesting stories.

Farewell to The Jazz Corner with Mick Woolf on WILL-FM

2005-06-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

I found out a couple of days ago that this Saturday night will be the last broadcast of The Jazz Corner on WILL-FM. Program Director Jake Schumacher says due to cost increases in just about every area, he's making several changes to keep the FY 2005 WILL-FM budget roughly equal to last year's. Several other changes will be made to the WILL-FM program schedule, and WILLblog will cover those too. But we're too sad about losing Mick Woolf to continue right now. So let's let Mick have the last word for today:

"Each Saturday night over the last 16 years, I have hosted The Jazz Corner. I have enjoyed exploring and sharing a wide variety of music with the listeners, meeting many local and legendary jazz musicians along the way. It's been an honor to hear from callers ranging in age and experiences from high school jazz band players to jazz lovers and musicians into their 80's. Because of all this, I am sorry to say that due to budgetary challenges and programmatic changes affecting WILL and public radio in general, the final edition of The Jazz Corner will air this Saturday night at 10 PM. "While WILL has offered jazz programming over the course of many years, with nationally syndicated programs, the locally produced Jazz Corner has been a staple broadcast service to the listeners in our community for at least 20 years. "I want to personally thank former Station Manager Dan Simeone, former Music Director Nancy Stagg, and former classical and Jazz Corner host, Michael Rothe (who hosted the show for at least four years) for the great opportunity to host this program beginning in July of 1989. Thanks as well to Paul Wienke for all his great efforts in teaming up for the Jazz Live series for several years, augmenting the Saturday night jazz programming by giving the local musicians an opportunity to be heard on public radio, giving WILL a chance to spread its wings in aspiring to fulfill this aspect of its mission as well. "I hope that in WILL's future decision making processes that the station will remain mindful of the importance of a collaborative and inclusive approach by drawing upon the experiences of staff, both on and off air, that can lead to a creative exchange of ideas and options for the station and the listening community in the midst of the challenges of balancing budgets, programming, and ties to the community. "Tune in one for the final edition of The Jazz Corner at 10PM Saturday night. Farewell and good luck to all.--Mick"

Audio archive of today's White House press conference

2005-06-24T16:32:00.000-05:00

President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari held a joint press conference this morning at the White House to address small issues like war, peace, and democracy in Iraq. Other media are reporting and analyzing, but our task here is simply to offer the audio archives. These recordings belong in the public domain, so WILLblog presents them here as 'open source media.' Please make of them what you will: streaming RealAudio MP3 download

More Than A Bus Ride: Desegregating Champaign Schools

2005-06-24T15:48:00.000-05:00

This just in from Kimberlie Kranich, WILL's Outreach Coordinator, and the person who deserves several tons of credit (to say the least) for making the Youth Media Workshop documentary project happen for the past two years:

All, Just a reminder that the radio documentary, "More Than A Bus Ride: Desegregating Champaign Schools," will air at 5 pm Saturday on AM-580 and again at 6 pm on Monday, June 27th. "More Than A Bus Ride" examines the process and implications of the 1968 plan that desegregated public schools in Champaign. Interviews with members of the committee formed to head up desegregation, as well as teachers, principals, parents and students tell the story and beg the question, "Are African-American students better off today than they were before the schools were desegregated?" Fifteen students from Franklin Middle School and Central High School conducted all of the interviews, engineered the interviews, and edited stories from those interviews as part of the Youth Media Workshop, a collaboration between WILL and Innovative Ed Consulting. Dr. Will Patterson, Dave Dickey and I put the final version together. The documentary features Harold Baker, Dereke Clements, Al Davis, Dave Downey, Maudie Flake Edwards, Lila Jean Eichelberger, Rupert Evans, Alvin Griggs, Ruby Hunt, John Lee Johnson, Julian Rappaport, Jackie Smith, Hester Nelson Suggs and Crystal Womble. More information, including transcripts of the raw interviews, desegregation documents from 1968, and more information about the students who produced the program are available at will.uiuc.edu Tune in and send us your feedback. Thank you! Kimberlie Kranich

You can listen to the documentary when it airs on WILL-AM this Saturday at 5 pm, and again on Monday, June 27th at 6 pm. You can also listen to it online in RealAudio and download it in MP3 format from the More than a Bus Ride documentary website. And if you missed the documentary from last year ('Our Journey: Stories of School Desegregation and Community in Champaign-Urbana') you can also listen to the whole thing or the interviews from which it was produced, read transcipts, and a whole lot more on the Our Journey website.

Obey-Lowey-Leach amendment vote tally

2005-06-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

If you wanted to know who voted for and against the Obey-Lowey-Leach amendment to restore cuts to public broadcasting, say for example so you'd know how your Member of Congress supports your local public TV and Radio stations (or doesn't), you could look it up in the Congressional Record. Or you could download this PDF of the Final Vote Results for Roll Call 305. A big thanks to Tim Johnson (R) here in the 15th Illinois District for his yes vote! Also to Ray LaHood and John Shimkus elsewhere in the state. But, um, hey Jerry Weller, what did we do?

Patricia Harrison, welcome to the embattled CPB

2005-06-23T17:09:00.000-05:00

CPB Press Release (Washington, D.C. – June 23, 2005) Patricia S. Harrison, former Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), has been named President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). ”CPB needs to be in the forefront of support for public broadcasting and we look forward to supporting Pat Harrison in this important effort," said the CPB board in a prepared statement. Harrison stated, "I am pleased to join with the Board and all stakeholders in the future success of public broadcasting." She also vowed to join with public broadcast leaders to restore congressional cuts of CPB in the President’s Fiscal Year 2006 Budget. Harrison has served as Assistant Secretary since 2001, leading a bureau comprising 360 employees, managing 30,000 educational, cultural and professional international exchanges and working with 1500 public private organizations and 80,000 volunteers. Under her leadership the ECA's budget was increased from $237 million in FY02 to $430 million in FY06 and ECA received OMB's highest Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) score for effectiveness. In her position she was highly praised for her leadership and received the Secretary's Distinguished Leadership Award. Harrison started the U.S. government's first exchange program for high school students from the Arab and Muslim world, created both Culture Connect and Citizen Connect, comprising men and women volunteers working with their counterparts abroad helping to build civil societies and working on issues such as HIVAIDS, the environment, education, people trafficking. She also served two extended periods as Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Harrison, a native of Brooklyn of Italian heritage, is a former Visiting Fellow, of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a graduate of American University. In 1973, she co-founded the E. Bruce Harrison Company, with her husband, which became one of the nation's top ten owner managed public affairs firms. The author of A Seat at the Table, A Guide for Women Leaders, Harrison founded the National Women's Economic Alliance in 1983 to promote economic opportunity for women in business and industry. From 1997-2000, she served as Co Chairman of the Republican National Committee. In making the announcement, CPB Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson paid tribute to the executive search firm Spencer Stuart for conducting a comprehensive review of potential candidates for the position. "They reached out to over 200 people and had extensive discussions with more than 80 contacts. Over 50 diversity profiles were developed and eleven diversity candidates were reviewed by the committee." The three member search committee, comprising current and former Chairs, Katherine Anderson, Frank Cruz, and Ken Tomlinson, reviewed 23 prospective candidates over the course of four committee meetings. The entire CPB board conducted interviews with four finalists during deliberations on Monday, June 20, 2005. Patricia de Stacy Harrison was selected on Wednesday, June 22, 2005. Anderson, who chaired the search effort said, "Pat Harrison's career exemplifies outstanding leadership. She has demonstrated great strength in coalition building. She knows Capitol Hill and is devoted to public broadcasting and the mission." Contact Information Eben Peck Corporate and Public Affairs press@cpb.org (202) 879-9646

House vote on CPB funds offers hope for public broadcasting

2005-06-23T16:48:00.000-05:00

A few minutes ago the U.S. House of Representatives voted 284 to 140 to approve an amendment which basically restores $100 million cut from next year's budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. More than 80 Republican members joined the Democrats in approving the bipartisan Obey-Lowey-Leach Amendment to the budget bill recommended by the House Appropriations Committee, which had drastically cut the CPB's budget. (See the report by Broadcasting & Cable on the House vote.) What does this mean? First, that a very large outpouring of citizen calls, letters, and emails once again turned the tide on something that seemed inevitable. But we're not out of the woods yet...not by a long shot. The House will soon vote on the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, of which the CPB budget is a small part. This may happen tomorrow. While the Obey amendment restored cuts to the main part of the CPB budget, other big cuts were made to the Ready to Learn program, the funding for digital conversation for public TV and radio stations, and the interconnection service for distributing shows to stations. These were all zeroed-out by the House bill which will likely pass tomorrow. The Senate has not yet taken up this part of the budget, and while the outpouring of citizen communication may have saved public broadcasting in the House, there may be another battle in the Senate. As these things go, we can reasonably expect a political backlash. In other words, if you care about the future of public broadcasting, it's not time to relax. However you feel, please keep those phone calls, letters, and emails coming.

WILL-AM to drop American Public Media Programs...

2005-06-22T16:33:00.000-05:00

...like Sound Money, As It Happens, and A Prairie Home Companion. Let's have WILL Radio Station Manager Jay Pearce explain (from an email sent to staff):

I'll be putting out a mass message on this soon, but wanted you to receive heads up first. Due to budget considerations, AM 580 will be de-affiliating with American Public Media. This means that as of September 3rd, AM 580 will no longer be airing Sound Money, As It Happens, A Prairie Home Companion or Writer's Almanac. This was not an easy decision, but a necessary one. As you may recall, APM was formed in the last couple of years...taking with it several programs previously under the PRI tent. This forced us to pay an additional affiliation fee which we, and a number of other stations, can no longer afford. We will be making arrangements to replay A Prairie Home Companion on WILL-FM. And soon I will be able to tell you what will air in place of these programs on AM 580. I think it's safe to say you can expect other changes as negotiations with NPR and PRI continue. I'll let Jake speak for the FM. Thanks for your understanding...I thought you might appreciate the official word as it is at this moment. These things tend to undergo some interesting changes as they make their way through the grape vine. Yes, we are facing a very challenging year as far as the budget is concerned. Changes being made are meant to preserve the most important elements of our programming - and I think you all know that in my mind - that means locally originated elements that make WILL a relevant and imporant part of the community. I'd appreciate any feedback (especially sympathy)... Thanks. J

This budget crisis stuff just isn't funny anymore.

Media Consolidation Conference archives complete

2005-06-15T12:21:00.000-05:00

I finally finished all the archives from the May 10th and 11th conference at the University of Illinois: "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?" organized by Bob McChesney and the Illinois Initiative for Media Policy Research. (Let's also give a big hand to Victor Pickard who probably did all the actual organizing work). The conference archives are encoded as steaming RealVideo and RealAudio files, and as downloadable MP3 audio files. Since streaming video won't work well unless you have a broadband Internet connection, I wanted to provide the audio alternative. You don't need the video to get lots of great moments and ideas from this excellent conference. Check out the smackdown of Viacom executive (and U of I fundraising heavyweight) Dennis Swanson in Session Three on May 11th, and then marvel at why he agreed to appear on the panel so unprepared. WILLblog is a big advocate for freedom of the press, and we loved this conference. I gotta say that it felt dangerous, since many of the views expressed were highly critical of the current administration's policies on media ownership, and its attempts to control what gets reported by news organizations. In today's political climate, can we even talk about what's wrong with the media? If we do, will the news media cover it? Actually this conference garnered almost no coverage from the mainstream media, even with the likes of Seymour Hersh, Amy Goodman, and Phil Donahue as presenters. All I can say is the WILLblog videocam was there, and you can get the archives here.

WILLblog returns with...funding cuts

2005-06-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

So I've been out of town on an actual vacation, which is a good thing for mental health every once in a while, yes? But too bad, since I'm back just in time for this note from WILL station Manager Jay Pearce:

All, You'll be receiving more information on this soon from Don...but I wanted to take a moment to give you a heads up from where I sit. As you may be aware, a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee voted last week to cut the money already approved for CPB's FY06 Community Service Grants. The proposal is to cut 100-million dollars (about 25%) from this program by which stations like ours receive our federal funding. This federal grant makes up about 25% of WILL Radio's budget. Also on the chopping block...money for Ready to Learn, Digital Conversion and PTFP (equipment grants). CPB is being told to take the money from its general appropriation is it still wants to fund these programs. This would require cutting Community Service Grants even more. All together...these cuts could result in a total cut of 45% in federal funding for public broadcasting. Needless to say...this would be absolutely devastating to WILL. I'm not trying to cause panic or anything. But I do want you to know this is considered to be a serious situation. We will be joining in a massive effort to get listeners to call their congressional representatives to let them know what they think of this. Don has recorded a message which will be aired frequently on AM, FM and TV - setting out the situation. As I mentioned above, you'll be receiving more info about this soon...including what our assessment of the impact to WILL might be....

Let's just add real quick that no-one at WILL will tell you what to say to your Congressional representatives. If you are happy to see big chunks chopped out of public broadcasting, you can certainly tell them that. Either way, better do it soon, and as loudly and clearly as possible. And now it's (*sigh*) back to work for me. More soon...

Media Consolidation Conference archives complete

2005-05-17T18:34:00.000-05:00

Last week this campus was the site of a conference entitled "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?" sponsored by the Illinois Initiative for Media Policy Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Quite a line-up: Seymour Hersh, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Orville Schell, Phil Donahue, Dennis Swanson, and many more great speakers. We decided to capture everything on video, and provide streaming video archives for general edification. All material is made available with Some Rights Reserved under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (full details at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/ ). Here we go: Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 9 to 10:30 am Panelists: Seymour Hersh, Danny Goldberg, Linda Foley, Orville Schell Moderator: Ron Yates, Dean, College of Communications, University of Illinois RealVideo archive 10:45 am to 12:15 pm Panelists: Phil Donahue, John Nichols, Naomi Klein Moderator: Professor Bruce Williams RealVideo archive 1:45 to 3:15 pm Panelists: Len Hill, Dennis Swanson, Paul Jay, Roberta Baskin Moderator: Professor Angharad Valdivia RealVideo archive 3:30 to 5 pm Panelists: Amy Goodman, Ben Scott, Bill Fletcher Moderator: Professor Dan Schiller RealVideo archive The quality of the video isn't entirely my fault: lighting issues prevented perfection. The content is there without too many impediments. So if you missed this great conference, you don't have to. And get busy with media reform please.

University of Illinois Commencement archive

2005-05-15T17:36:00.000-05:00

CBS commentator and Illinois alumnus Bill Geist gave the commencement address today at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. WILL-AM aired the 2 pm ceremony live, and you can get the audio archive right here: streaming RealAudio MP3 download

Freedom of the Press Part Two: Chancellor Richard Herman, Rep. Bernie Sanders, Naomi Klein, and Amy Goodman

2005-05-14T13:02:00.000-05:00

Here is the video archive from the second part of the conference "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?" The conference website is here. These video archives are in RealVideo format. If you need a free RealOne player you can get it here without all the ads for subscription services. I may encode these in Quicktime video as well. If you complain to me loudly about the Real format, then ask nicely, maybe I'll find the time somehow. More archives from the panel discussions on May 11th will follow as soon as they're encoded.

Seymour Hersh at Foellinger Auditorium

2005-05-13T18:17:00.000-05:00

Yikes, sorry it took this long, but I finally got the video archive encoded from the Tuesday evening Seymour Hersh presentation at Foellinger Auditorium. Seymour Hersh, I hope you know, won the Pulitzer Prize for his expose of the My Lai Massacre, and also broke the Abu Ghraib story. He kicked off this week's conference entitled "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?" I'll have the rest of the two-day conference published here and elsewhere as RealVideo and possibly other streaming archives by Sunday evening latest. BTW, the consensus seemed to be that no, a free press cannot survive under present conditions. Film at 11.

Can a vote resolve the school mascot dilemma?

2005-05-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

Someone at NPR called me yesterday looking for a recording of the Illinois 3 and 1 music, to which Chief Illiniwek does his dance-like halftime routine. Seems they were putting together a story about Marquette University, which announced that it will put 10 possible new nicknames up for a vote. Formerly known as the Warriors, Marquette had changed its nickname to the Golden Eagles following protests from Wisconsin's Indian tribes. Sound familiar? Too bad Illinois "divested" itself of Indian tribes some time ago, or things might be easier to figure out around here. But I digress... So Marquette announced last week that it would change its nickname from the Golden Eagles to just the Gold. And lots of people went "say what??!" Sounds too much like an adjective or something. Meanwhile, we at Illinois have more like an ad hominenem than an adjective for a nickname, mascot, honored symbol, or pick your term. Say what? I'll try to be less obscure about this in the future, but for now here are some interesting pointers concerning our own favorite controversy: University of Illinois President B. Joseph White's letter to the NCAA in response to its questionnaire concerning Native American "mascots, nicknames and logos" (PDF file) The U of I's "self evaluation" concerning same for the NCAA (also PDF) The Honor the Chief Society website The University of Illinois Native American House, which doesn't exactly agree with the Honor the Chief folks The Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative website, which has some alternative suggestions for graduation day activities on the campus of the University of Illinois Finally, WILL's Chief Illiniwek issues page, which has links to streaming archives of WILL interviews and news features, the complete Intake Session from the Judge Garippo Dialogue, the Roger Plummer report, and oskee wow wow, so much

The Internet as a public utility

2005-05-09T16:41:00.000-05:00

Should public municipalities provide Internet access as a public utility? That's what some cities are doing, like Philadelphia and Seattle, which are in the process of rolling out near-city-wide wireless access grids to connect all citizens with the web. With the Internet becoming an essential channel for information and interaction in the digital age, there could be a strong argument for providing universal access. On the other hand, with so much money at stake in providing Internet access, there's an argument for not undermining the private sector as it competes to provide the best Internet services at competitive prices. Here's a program from NPR's Talk of the Nation which does a nice job of raising some of the issues and arguments. So what do you think?

President Bush hints at actual proposal on Social Security, offers I-told-you-so on gas prices

2005-04-29T16:38:00.000-05:00

U.S. President George W. Bush last night held the first prime-time news conference of his second term, an appearance "hastily arranged" according to the NPR report on All Things Considered. Among the highlights were the first details of what might become an actual proposal to deal with the putative Social Security funding crisis. It actually looks like the President may propose something that looks like a "progressive" benefit, with lower-income workers gaining more over time than higher-income beneficiaries. We'll see how that works out if it comes to real legislation in our, er, progressive Congress. The President also suggested that today's gas prices reflect the cost of inaction on the energy policies he proposed five years ago. Which is to say we should have been drilling for more oil in more places all along, just like he wants us to do now. You can still write off a big chunk of the cost of your Hummer H2, but that has nothing to do with energy policy, does it? If you missed President Bush's news conference last night, you can hear the whole thing right here: streaming RealAudio file MP3 download

More budget cuts coming at the University of Illinois

2005-04-28T12:04:00.000-05:00

A reliable source reports this morning that "University Officials are asking all colleges/departments to plan for a four-percent cut in our state appropriation which we receive from the University in each of the next two, possibly three, fiscal years." Have a nice day!

WILL Special Events Archives

2005-04-28T11:37:00.000-05:00

Either we're too ambitious or have too much time on our hands. Lately we're out there videotaping things seemingly just for the heck of it. But all of it has value, so we just set up a web page for our community events streaming archives. Hope you enjoy it as the thing grows. Here are some sample images from one recent event, the Illinois/Kiwanis Club Annual Basketball Banquet, held April 12th at the Urbana Holiday Inn. Given the amazing season in this Centennial-year celebration of Illinois basketball, you might say there was some love in the room. Bruce Weber even had his voice mostly back. I spoke with the very talented forward Warren Carter as this event was wrapping up, who seemed to not be thrilled that conditioning work was to start the next morning. I'd gladly trade places with him, but the shoes wouldn't fit. I'm throwing this in here just for, um, 'fun,' since it seems the controversy over Chief Illiniwek got a bit lost amid the quest for Illinois' first national basketball championship. This ice sculpture of the Chief withstood the lights for one night, but it's probably melted by this time. A metaphor perhaps?

New CPB head likes media consolidation, doesn't like NPR

2005-04-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

The reaction to one episode of Postcards from Buster spoiled the short tenure of Kathleen Cox as president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federal entity that funds public radio and television. Following that embarassing little spat, President Bush has now given the reins to the man who spearheaded the recent FCC effort to relax media ownership restrictions. And who apparently doesn't know anything about NPR or public radio, and rarely watches public television. Ken Ferree served as head of the FCC's media bureau, and was the point man on the commission's attempt to loosen media cross-ownership rules and other limits on corporate media ownership. In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, he says he doesn't listen to NPR because he commutes to work on his motorcycle, and likes People magazine. He equates the "Lehrer thing" to Shakespeare, which is too slow for his taste. The good news for us is Mr. Ferree likes the Internet, and sees interactive media as a promising terrain for public broadcasting. I couldn't agree more...maybe we'll see a Corporation for Public Blogcasting in the days ahead!

Pope trumps Bush and Lincoln

2005-04-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

Oh well, we go with Plan B, which is the announcement of the new Pope. I was thinking it would be Bono, but instead they selected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany to succeed Pope John Paul II. He will be known as Benedict XVI. THIS EVENING AT 7...WILL-AM will air a special program including highlights of the dedication of the Lincoln Library and Museum, and the news conference during which Richard Herman was announced as the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Slow news day...

Bush and Lincoln meet in Springfield

2005-04-19T10:56:00.000-05:00

Actually only in the loosest possible sense, since they don't live in the same century. President Bush appears in Springfield, Illinois in a few minutes (11 am CDT) to dedicate the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Musuem. WILL-AM will carry the event live, courtesy of WUIS 91.9. Check it out on WILL's live stream, and we'll have it archived immediately after the event.

Free speech in wartime

2005-04-15T13:28:00.000-05:00

(Cue the patriotic theme music...) WILLblog likes to stand up for free speech, at least partially because we can't seem to hold our tongue very well. We have principled reasons as well, including a commitment to serving the common good, building community, and faith in the U.S. Constitution. Not surprisingly, political tolerance of free speech is most severely tested in times of conflict and especially times of war. In terms of upholding our own cherished principles, we've reacted badly in past wars, but have always repented when the war was over. According to many of our national leaders, the U.S. is now engaged in a very long-term, possibly endless war on terror. With that as a set-up, I'll point you to the audio archives from today's Focus 580 program on "Perilous Times Free Speech In Wartime: From The Sedition Act of 1798 to The War On Terrorism," with Geoffrey R. Stone, the Harry Kalven Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. Either it was a great program, or we're guilty of sedition.

The coming media chaos

2005-04-09T13:32:00.000-05:00

WILL might seem like a somewhat stodgy and traditional public broadcasting operation. Which is mostly a good thing, since that tradition includes the commitment to serving the public interest, education in the broadest sense, community, that kind of thing, which is now laughably passe among the consolidated and thoroughly profit-oriented commercial broadcast media. But we're really rooting for the coming chaos that will almost certainly shock and awe the broadcast media universe in the coming five years. I'm talking about the power and utility of the Internet, which finally is starting to look like it could actually undermine the entire flawed big media structure. If you want a peek at the coming media chaos, and the reactions of panic and denial from the networks and advertising industry, check out Bob Garfield's story from yesterday's All Things Considered on NPR, An Impending Period of Transitional Chaos for Media. The handful of media megaconglomerates who control what you see, hear, and read on just about every traditional media outlet, and who reap hundreds of billions every year in advertising dollars, may yet find a way to lock up all "intellectual property" on the Internet. The Supreme Court may help them by ruling that technologies that enable us to share files are verboten. The interests who want you to sit passively and consume their messages and products without creating your own may mold the world wide web in the shape of 20th century commercial media. Not if we can help it.

CPB names ombudspeople

2005-04-07T17:17:00.000-05:00

This just in: The CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING has named former NBC newsman KEN BODE and ex-READER'S DIGEST editor WILLIAM SCHULZ as ombudsmen to review the work of NPR, PBS, and other public radio and TV outlets. The move may be related to recent criticism of public broadcasting for programming the critics say exhibits liberal bias; NPR already has its own ombudsman, JEFFREY DWORKIN, and PBS is hiring one.

Farewell to Pope John Paul II

2005-04-07T17:11:00.000-05:00

NPR has done a nice job commemorating the life and impact of Pope John Paul II on the NPR site, and will be providing live coverage of the Pope's funeral beginning at 2:45 am CDT tomorrow.

Steve Coll, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, on Today's Aft Mag

2005-04-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

If you missed Celeste Quinn's interview today with Steve Coll, who yesterday won a Pulitzer Prize for his book GHOST WARS: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CIA, AFGHANISTAN, AND BIN LADEN FROM THE SOVIET INVASION TO SEPTEMBER 10, 2001, you can catch the archive on the Aft Mag web page. Or if you subscribed to the Aft Mag Podcast RSS feed, you've probably already got it.

All the news that misfits

2005-03-26T17:50:00.000-06:00

NPR has a nice story on the manufacture of news via so-called 'video news releases.' Back in the day I worked as a PR guy cranking out written news releases on behalf of community organizations. Editors would read these and decide maybe there's a story there. If so it would be assigned to a reporter, who would do what reporters are supposed to do: research it and try to find the truth, or at least some semblance of balance. With video news releases, TV stations who have cut their news staff to the bone can simple run the package. No messy research or editing required. So what if the story comes prepackaged from a corporation or government agency? If it looks good on the air, it makes the cut. Fortunately the White House would never stoop to such deception, and if it did, our stellar local TV news operations would never air prepackaged political propaganda without providing balance and a disclaimer. Unless I'm wrong, which according to the New York Times I am. See "THE MESSAGE MACHINE: How the Government Makes News; Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News" from the March 13th Sunday Times. It singles out a certain Champaign-Urbana network TV affiliate as an example of the many stations who simply plug-and-play these White House video news releases. Are we shocked yet?

More journalism awards for WILL-AM

2005-03-24T11:32:00.000-06:00

OK, this is just pure bragging but I believe it's justified. Here's a note from the hardest working man in public radio, WILL Radio station manager and program director Jay Pearce:

The results of the Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association's 2004 Journalism Excellence Contest were released over the weekend. And I'm proud to announce that WILL-AM 580 won two awards in the Downstate Radio competition! * 2nd place in the Best Series/Documentary category for "Bridging the Achievement Gap" - by Tom Rogers and Jim Meadows. Their pieces were part of a larger overall initiative that included the efforts of many at WILL and our partner, The News-Gazette. I think it's fantastic that this project (which is a great example of the positive impact we are able to have on the community) has be recognized with this award. You can revisit it at: http://www.will.uiuc.edu/community/townhall/default.htm * 2nd place in the Best Editorial/Commentary category for Meg Minor's "Public Square" commentary about honoring veterans on Veterans Day. I think it's outstanding that the judges recognized the excellence of Meg's piece. I also think this emphasizes the value of "The Public Square" as a vehicle for members of the community to express their thoughts and ideas. You can hear Meg's commentary again on "The Public Square" archive page: http://will.uiuc.edu/community/publicsquare/archives.html Again, my congratulations to Tom, Jim, Meg and all who contributed to this award-winning work...and my sincere appreciation to everyone whose contributions make it possible for WILL Radio to have a positive effect on the lives of thousands of people in Illinois, Indiana and around the world on a daily basis! As President of the Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association...I will be proud to hand these awards out to our folks at the Illinois News Broadcasters Association convention next month in Decatur. I'd also like to point out that of the 18 awards to be handed out...13 will go to public radio stations! An extremely good showing by our Illinois Public Radio members!

If Public TV doesn't do it, will George Will?

2005-03-07T14:12:00.000-06:00

First I must apologise for the last couple of weeks of bloglessness. I've been working on a bunch of streaming video projects, which I'll share with you soon under the dubious theory that they're of interest to WILLblog readers. But today we have George Will exhibiting his mean streak. I have been expecting someone from the conservative pundit establishment to call for the end of public broadcasting, given all the other trends in our recent political, ahem, discourse. But in attacking the relevance of public television, I didn't really expect someone like George Will to defend commercial television on the basis of high standards. Read for yourself: http://www.cincypost.com/2005/03/07/will030705.html Since we're all about balance here on WILLblog (even if it comes with a side order of twisted humor), here's a reply from PBS President Pat Mitchell:

Pat Mitchell’s Response to George Will Column – March 3, 2005 To the Editor: In a recent column in your pages, George Will once again cites a familiar litany of cable channels to recycle the argument that public television has been replicated and is no longer necessary. A random check of his own local listings on the very day his column appeared would quickly suggest there are serious holes in that theory. On the night that his column ran, Mr. Will could have tuned into his local PBS station for a special report on evolving technologies and treatments for cancer, the most serious health crisis in America. If he thought he could get more intelligent, in-depth programming on one of the cable channel options he listed, his choices would have included the following: On A&E, he could have watched “Presumed Dead,” the true story of a woman’s body hidden in a refrigerator. The Discovery Channel offered “Human Cannonballs,” revealing that the most common cause of death for human cannonballs is landing outside the net. Bravo would have given him “Celebrity Poker Showdown,” while The History Channel offered the history of “Engineering Disasters.” All of this was in addition to the networks’ offerings of “Extreme Makeover” and yet another version of “Survivor.” Beyond his premise, which is undermined by the actual comparison of programming between PBS and cable channels on any day or night, Mr. Will relies on several inaccuracies to argue against the federal funding that makes up about one-fifth of public television's budgets. The first is about the size of our audience- PBS' is larger than any cable channel on any night, making PBS the only broadcaster whose ratings are actually rising, not falling. Next, our children’s programs are the number one choice of parents anywhere, and are, most importantly, the only free children’s programs outside of the few that are still offered on Saturday mornings. And those programs are offered commercial free, with many targeting the underserved audience of younger children. While Mr. Will rightly notes that 62% of poor households have cable, that statistic begs the question of the remaining almost 40%. Many of those homes have children at a crucial developmental stage when educational, literacy-based television like PBS can make significant improvements in school readiness. Finally, Mr. Will dramatically implies that the public may no longer value PBS. A Roper poll conducted just last month tells us emphatically that they do. Americans cited PBS as the most trusted national institution in the country, and ranked public television as the second best value for their tax dollars, behind only military activities. Of course we don't always disagree with Mr. Will. A few years ago, he wrote of Ken Burns’ landmark documentary Civil War which appeared on PBS, “If better use has ever been made of television, I have not seen it.” Spend more time with us, George. There's more where that came from, every day of the week. Sincerely, Pat Mitchell

Illinois Governor's Budget Message audio archive

2005-02-16T17:41:00.000-06:00

Doing our best to flood the net with audio bytes, and what the heck, serve the conscientious citizen: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gave us the good news and the bad in his annual Budget Address to the Illinois General Assembly, aired live at noon on WILL-AM. And presented here as audio archives that work with these computer devices we're all using: streaming RealAudio MP3 download

Urbana Mayoral Candidates Forum archive

2005-02-16T12:55:00.000-06:00

The three Democratic candidates in the Urbana mayoral race sounded off last night in front of the WILL-TV audience, also heard by WILL-AM listeners. Incumbent Tod Satterthwaite and challengers Laurel Prussing and Shirley Hursey appeared live in the forum hosted by WILL-TV's John Paul and WILL Radio reporter Jim Meadows. Here's our press release with details, and perhaps most importantly for the informed voter, here are links to the streaming audio archives: streaming RealAudio MP3 download

WILL begins Podcasting

2005-02-10T14:49:00.000-06:00

We're not likely to jump on just any old bandwagon. But the podcasting thing is just too darn cool to sit out. Don't look to WILLblog for the entire RSS/podcasting tutorial, since that's been done so well by people like Radio Userland and Wikipedia. If you have no clue, like me about a week ago, you could start there. If you just want the goods, you can pick up WILL's RSS/podcasting feeds from our new Podcasting page. Yep, we're committed to updating these feeds daily, just what I needed to fill out my lonely hours of free time as the web manager. Now if I just had time to run out and buy an iPod...

State of the Union audio archives

2005-02-04T17:17:00.000-06:00

In keeping with our mandate to provide archives of stuff that ought to remain in the public domain, here are streaming RealAudio and MP3 downloadable archives of President Bush's State of the Union address the other night. Sorry it took me this long to encode them... State of the Union address from February 2, 2005:

RealAudio

MP3 file

Illinois Governor delivers State of the State

2005-02-03T16:19:00.000-06:00

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich spoke before the state legislature today with the annual State of the State address. WILL-AM and other Illinois public radio stations carried the speech live today at noon Central. Through the "magic" of digital audio, WILLblog allows you the citizen to timeshift your State of the State experience by using the following audio links: streaming RealAudio archive downloadable MP3 audio file I didn't have time to hear it today, so I'll use the archive later myself. Meanwhile, since I can't say anything informed about it, please feel free to add your own editorial comments.

Censoring Buster: Not on this station!

2005-02-02T14:29:00.000-06:00

I don't like to brag, but we have a great Program Director in David Thiel here at WILL-TV. I'll let his recent email speak for itself:

As you may have heard from internal discussions and/or national press, there has been a minor controversy over one of the episodes of the Postcards from Buster series which airs weekdays at 3:00 pm on WILL-TV. The episode in question, "Sugartime," regards maple sugaring in Vermont, but has been singled out because the two featured families include same-sex parents. (Same-sex civil unions are recognized in Vermont.) PBS had initially scheduled the episode to air today, then postponed it to March 23 in order to take a closer look at it. Upon further reflection, they concluded that this was a subject best left to parents to introduce to their children at a time of their choosing, and removed it from the national schedule. That same day, the incoming Secretary of Education sent a letter to PBS President Pat Mitchell that harshly criticized the episode. (Buster receives some of its funding from the Department of Education's Ready-to-Learn program.) PBS maintains that the decision was made prior to the receipt of the letter, and as I know that discussion had already been going on for a week or two, I'm willing to take them at their word. Subsequently, WGBH offered the episode to any public TV station wishing to air it. So far, at least 23 stations have scheduled it to air sometimes over the next two months. Having screened "Sugartime," I believe that its content is entirely appropriate within the context of the Postcards from Buster series. The original Ready-to-Learn request for proposals included the desire for a series that would "appeal to all of America's children by providing them with content and or characters with which they can identify. Diversity will be incorporated into the fabric of the series to help children understand and respect differences and learn to live in a multicultural society. The series will avoid stereotypical images of all kinds and show modern multi-ethnic/lingual/cultural families and children." Other episodes have included families from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as divorced parents, single parents and children who live with grandparents. There is no discussion of sexuality, civil unions or similar content within the episode. There is one reference to a "partner," and another to a "stepmom." The focus, as with every Buster episode, is on the kids, and most of the show is about maple sugar. Whatever one may feel about the subjects of homosexuality or civil unions, the reality is that there are many children growing up in such a household, and many more who will work or play alongside such kids. I have scheduled the episode to air March 23 at 3:00 pm (the second date assigned to it by PBS). Several other stations, including WNET in New York, have also selected that date. My hope is to simply air it as originally intended, as just another episode of the series, without a lot of fuss. So far, we've received about a half dozen viewer comments regarding the national press, and all have urged us to air the program. However, it's possible that we may hear from others once word gets out about our airdate. (Kirby Pringle from the News-Gazette talked to me this afternoon.) If anyone asks, feel free to tell them the airdate, and to use portions of this e-mail to form your response. Questions about "Sugartime" can be directed to Anita or myself. KQED's president, Jeff Clarke, said the following in an interview regarding his station's decision to air the episode: "KQED's mission is to provide programs and services that reflect a respect for and understanding of our world and its inhabitants without exception." (Emphasis mine.) That's a philosophy that I can feel good about. David Thiel Program Director / WILL-TV

New A to Z program listings from PBS

2005-02-01T11:32:00.000-06:00

Maybe I get excited about small stuff, but this is pretty cool. PBS provides great web tools to its member stations like WILL-TV, including this new upgraded alphabetical listing of all WILL-TV programs. Each listing is a link to detailed program information, but the coolest thing is for each local WILL-TV program, like Prairie Fire and Illinois Gardener, you can sign up to be reminded of each broadcast by email. You can even select when you want to be reminded. The WILL-TV Programs A to Z listing is available from the WILL-TV home page, which also has a What's On Tonight section, and a very powerful program search engine. If, like me, you're often forgetting to watch something good on your public TV station, you can use these tools to make it better.

More on RSS Feeds from public broadcasting

2005-01-18T16:09:00.000-06:00

RSS seems like Really Sweet Stuff. To recap, what it means is you can 'subscribe' to sources on the web who publish an RSS feed, and get their latest information, stories, or rants automatically. Lots of blogs have RSS feeds, and most of the well-funded news sites. WILLblog even has one, though it's formatted as a Atom feed which is a slight variation of RSS. To view RSS feeds you need an RSS reader, which is either a stand-alone desktop program, or a plug-in for Outlook, or...well there's now a variety of RSS feed reader options. You don't have to be a geek but it might help. Here's a really great article on CNET with the basic terms, and links to download RSS readers. WILL provides a web page displaying RSS feeds from a number of credible sources, and also from WILLblog. ;-] This page does the feed reading for you so you don't need to download or install anything but your own browser. In case you're interested it's built with VBScript. We'll be adding to the feed list as time goes by. Meanwhile, if you have your own RSS reader and want some great RSS sources, NPR provides a web page from which you can subscribe to NPR new content by category. And I just found this RSS page on the New Hampshire Public Radio site, which now offers 7000 different feeds! How do they do it? It must be magic...

Condi Rice confirmation hearings live on NPR

2005-01-18T11:24:00.000-06:00

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today and tomorrow, as the Senate considers her nomination as Secretary of State. If you want to hear them, they're live on NPR in RealAudio, and I'm sure audio archives will be published on the same page.

WILL web site redesign

2005-01-11T13:08:00.000-06:00

It's about time to seriously begin thinking about starting the site redesign process at WILL. It won't be quick, because we'll take the time to do it right, meaning based on web standards and user-centered design. I'm simply raising the flag here to begin the adventure, and I really want your input. That said, one thing I feel strongly about is the importance of maintaining an identity for WILL on the web. Yes, the web is global, but WILL is a local service, but which I mean defined by a geographical service area. If we lose our roots, we lose the things that define us and make us special. We are your East Central Illinois NPR and PBS station. We aren't NPR, PBS, or the BBC, even though we airs lots of their programs. I raise this because lots of 'experts' in web design tell us that people usually don't know or care if they're on a local station's web site, or on the NPR or PBS site. Users navigate across local/national web site boundaries often without noticing any difference. In the past NPR and PBS have encouraged us to take advantage of this by presenting lots of links to their sites, with the hope that users will be impressed at the depth of their 'local' site. Why does this bother me? Two points for now: 1) I don't want to decieve anyone into thinking WILL created all this great content on the Frontline web site, for example. Also, I can't provide user support if it's broken. We create our own content and put it all on our own web site. I'll do everything I can to provide user support for anything we create. 2) Style and aesthetics are vital to the evolving craft of web media, and I want us to have our own. As Midwesterners our style might seem rather plain, but it's our style. Stubborn? That's us! People may browse from local to national sites all the time without noticing, but is that a good thing? I want our web site users to know where they are. If the WILL site sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb amid all the other homogenized local/national sites, at least people know who we are. That doesn't excuse us from bad design. We're simply determined to have our own. Over the next few months, I want to work with you on the next generation of our web site. Any suggestions, ideas, preferences, etc. will be welcome.

Alberto Gonzales AG confirmation hearings live on NPR

2005-01-06T11:23:00.000-06:00

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning as the nominee for U.S. Attorney General. Will the committee use interrogation methods proscribed by the Geneva Convention? You can hear the hearing live from NPR at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4270020

Tsunami Aid: How to Help

2005-01-04T13:15:00.000-06:00

Remarkable to see former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton together on Larry King last night, asking for cash donations to help relief operations in South Asia. If it takes a natural disaster to rebuild partisan bridges, we can say that something good came out of it. Meanwhile if you want to help, how exactly do you go about it? Public Interactive, which builds web sites and services for public broadcasting stations, offers a site called Disaster Aid: How to Help. There you'll find links to aid agencies and other info about giving to help those people, communities, and nations affected by the December 26th tsunami. I hope this helps you help.

RSS Feeds from NPR on WILL site

2004-12-28T20:21:00.000-06:00

Want news of a particular stripe any time of day? The web serves it up alright, but it can be tough slogging through the noise to find the signal. RSS, a sort-of new technology for updating content through something called a 'feed,' makes it easier to find specific channels of information. NPR now offers RSS feeds on a wide range of topics, from world news to religion to the environment. You can 'subscribe' to these RSS feeds if you have an RSS reader, which is usually a program you install on your computer. Or you can find a web site that 'aggregates' the RSS feeds for you. That's what we're up to as of today on the WILL site. Imaging getting the most current news from NPR in whatever detail you want, organized by subject category. That's pretty much what you'll find on WILL's RSS News Page. We've only scratched the surface here in terms of other great feeds we could provide. If you want us to add something, just let me know.

WILL-TV Says Bye to The Nightly Business Report

2004-12-22T16:04:00.000-06:00

I can't say I'm a devotee, but we know that some people watch The Nightly Business Report on WILL-TV. If you're one of them, we're sad to inform you the show disappears from our schedule after December 31st. To explain, WILLblog turns things over toe WILL-TV Program Director David Thiel:

"Why, after 23 years on WILL-TV, have we dropped NBR? The funds necessary to purchase the new season are not available. Significant increases in our PBS dues, reductions in State and University funding, and a shortfall in member contributions have forced WILL-TV to make a number of budget cuts during our current fiscal year. Where possible, we have made reductions in areas which are largely invisible to viewers. However, for the first time in many years, we must drop an existing program if we are to stay within our budget. There are several reasons why "The Nightly Business Report" appeared to be the best choice. First, it is our single most expensive, individual program acquisition: $13,520 to renew each year. The vast majority of our shows--including all of those from PBS--are purchased in large packages, but NBR is one of a relatively small number of series that we must buy on an individual basis. Such programs are most likely to be affected by cuts to our program budget. Second, the size of the audience for this series--as measured by A.C. Nielsen--has diminished over the years. During the July 2004 "sweeps" period, NBR averaged a 0.1 rating among TV households. That means that for every household with a TV set in our coverage area, one out of a thousand was watching the program. Third, our efforts to solicit corporate underwriting and individual member contributions in support of NBR have met with little success in recent years. Other acquisitions such as "The Lawrence Welk Show," "The Red Green Show" and the various British comedies are both popular with viewers and well supported by them. Is it possible that NBR could return? Yes, but there would have to be a significant, positive change in our financial fortunes. Such changes could include an increase in member contributions, more funding from State and University sources, or a decrease in our PBS dues. While we will continue to do what we can to encourage member contributions, we don't anticipate those other factors to improve in the near future. Regardless, NBR will remain off our air in the short term. Because the WILL stations are "forward funded," the money we raise during this fiscal year (which ends June 30, 2005) goes toward expenses in the next fiscal year (beginning July 1, 2005). During the current fiscal year, there is simply no money available for NBR. I am very sorry to be forced into this decision, and I realize that it will make some loyal WILL viewers unhappy. Unlike many other institutions, WILL-TV does not have the luxury of operating with a deficit. Unfortunately, that occasionally means that difficult choices must be made. I hope that this adequately explains the situation with NBR, and I thank you for your interest in WILL-TV. David Thiel Program Director / WILL-TV"

All the Bush News that Fits

2004-12-21T13:12:00.000-06:00

NPR has launched a web feature called "The Second Term" to highlight NPR news reports on the second term of President George W. Bush. NPR calls this an "ad hoc topic section," and says it will contain "stories about George Bush's second term, the cabinet, administration plans, the opposition's reactions, and the inauguration. It will continue as long as the NPR Online editorial team believes it to be valuable, certainly through the inauguration." NPR also offers an RSS feed for this at http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?topicId=77. In case you just can't get enough...

In Memory of Lost Friends

2004-12-14T15:33:00.000-06:00

It's difficult to understand why someone would take their own life. It's even more difficult when that life has been so well-spent, with so much more promise to come. Similar tragedies in the past month make me pause and try to appreciate this moment, every moment, before it's gone forever. Iris Chang, an extraordinary writer and alumnus of the University of Illinois College of Communications, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on November 9th. Her first book was Thread of the Silkworm, which told the remarkable story of the Chinese scientist Tsien Hsue-shen, founder of the Chinese rocket program who emigrated to the United States only to be isolated in America. Her second book, The Rape of Nanking, earned international acclaim and served to announce Iris Chang as a ground-breaking scholar and human rights advocate. He third book, The Chinese in America, told the extraordinary narritive of her own ancestors in a way that revealed America's own identity. I had a chance to interview Iris Chang in 1995, and was immediately struck by her intelligence and humanity. Apparently she had a similar impact on everyone she met. About 100 people attended a recent event in her honor at the University of Illinois, where her former professors, friends, and colleagues spoke movingly about her life, her work, and our loss. A scholarship in honor of Iris has been established by her family, with information available at the University of Illinois College of Communications, 217-333-2350. Gary Webb, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the San Jose Mercury News, was found dead last Friday at his home in Sacramento County, California along with what appears to be a suicide note. Gary Webb won the Pulitzer for his reporting on the Loma Prieta earthquake. In 1996 he wrote a series for the Mercury News alleging that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had helped finance the Contras by selling tons of crack cocaine in Los Angeles with the knowledge of the CIA. Under attack, the Mercury News later backed away from supporting Mr. Webb, who went on to publish a book-length treatment of the story entitled Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Today's college students most likely don't even know the word "Contra," unless they like the traditional dance. These stories are important to remember. With that in mind, and as an observance of the lives of these fine writers and human beings, we're republishing WILL's interviews with Iris Chang and Gary Webb (RealAudio format). They are gone, but their work lives on. Iris Chang: Thread of the Silkworm, from Focus 580, November 22nd, 1995 The Rape of Nanking, from Focus 580, December 17th, 1997 The Chinese in America: A Narrative History, from The Afternoon Magazine, May 19th, 2003 Gary Webb: Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, from Focus 580, August 13th, 1998

Blood, Oil, and Eagle Feathers

2004-12-13T17:15:00.000-06:00

I keep missing great interviews on WILL's Focus 580. Several from last week were worth spending the gas money to drive around with the radio on, which is about the only time I normally get to listen. But one of the great things about the web is you can time-shift your listening. So if you can, check out two programs from last Friday - Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Foreign Oil, with author Michael Klare; and John James Audobon: The Making of an American, with author Richard Rhodes. Both interviews are available in RealAudio and MP3 format on this Focus 580 archive page. And let's all marvel that David Inge can read two somewhat heavy books for interviews on the same day.

Please no thongs, we're British

2004-12-03T17:56:00.000-06:00

Boy, we sure wouldn't want to offend anyone in our audience. So when Denise Perry, our manager of special projects and resident Clay Aken fanatic, produced a feature for WILL-AM's program Sidetrack, accompanied by a web page with pictures of her posing with her official Clay Aken thong....some people voiced concern it was too racy for a public broadcasting web site. Golly, but it seems like some of the radio shows I've produced here over the years might have crossed that line for us long ago, and no turning back. But never mind, we threw it out there without fanfare, and gosh, there was audience demand: Denise's "Not a Claymate" page got more hits last month than all but two other pages on our site. Even more than WILLblog, if you can believe that! (Ha-ha, whatever...) Jeepers, no one in our web audience minded a bit seeing Denise hold up a small piece of celebrity-themed underwear, but apparently someone on our own staff took offense. The claim (which reached me 3rd-hand) was that the display of a thong "sexualizes women." And before I even knew of the complaint, the page was removed from the WILL site. So golly gee willacres, I have a couple of points to make about this. Nobody gets to remove stuff from our site like this without asking me about it, so I put it back up. As to the claim of our staff member, I think this is a lovely chance to have a conversation about what does or does not constitute sexualization, and if that's automatically offensive, politically incorrect, in bad taste, or otherwise ookey. Could I pose with my underwear and offend people too? Or would it have to be someone else's underwear? Now I want to be open-minded about this, so I'm prepared to have that conversation. In the meantime I restored the web page with one minor alteration: I pixelated the thong. I happen to think that's funny, and there's a place for funny on our site. There's no place for censorship though, and it seems to me that's what's at work here. What do you think?

Iraq Blogs and Sites

2004-11-24T13:47:00.000-06:00

Know of any good blogs or web sites covering the war in Iraq? Different perspectives are important to build an informed view of one's own, and to that end I offer the following starter list: DVIDS, the Digital Video Imagery Distribution System (http://www.dvidshub.net/index.php) is maintained by the U.S. Army. Lots of images and video from military sources in Iraq, along with background info, etc. Not a blog per se, but deep and active content. Baghdad Burning (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/), presented here in stark counterpoint to DVIDS, is a "Girl Blog from Iraq" that seems to become increasingly demoralized as the U.S. occupation continues. Finally (for the moment) we have the Iraq Resources page from the American Press Institute (http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/content/3949.cfm), a great source for lots of news topics. Know of some other good sites or blogs? Leave us a comment with details, please.

NPR's Anne Garrels in Fallujah

2004-11-15T17:31:00.000-06:00

Ann Garrels does not sound happy reporting from inside Fallujah. Her report from today's All Things Considered shows a glimpse of hope amid a field of disaster. The city was the center of the resistence to the British occupation of Iraq in the 1920s, and while parallels could be drawn, it's difficult to see where they lead.

WILL-AM Quicktime stream launch

2004-11-12T15:16:00.000-06:00

At the request of our Internet listeners, WILL-AM today begins live streaming in Quicktime format. If you go to our Listen page, you'll find links to our live stream in RealAudio, Windows Media, and now Quicktime. If that makes you happy, please let us know.

Election Returns on will.uiuc.edu

2004-11-02T20:43:00.000-06:00

OK, so we're announcing the election returns on the air too. Just like we always do: faster (but not too fast), and with the usual public radio lack of hubris. But the thing here is we're publishing the election returns on the WILL Election web site, updating the vote in key area races as they come in. And if they don't come in fast enough we're chasing them. The county clerks can't hide, though at least one I could mention will try. Enjoy the election, and though we won't all be happy with the results, remember we share this town, this country, and this planet. No matter how we feel about that, let's make the best of it.

New University of Illinois President announcement

2004-11-02T08:37:00.000-06:00

I've been absent from WILLblog too long, I know. All I can say is I need a couple of clones, and everything will be alright. Anyway.... The new president of the University of Illinois will be announced at 10:30 am Central time today at a press conference in Chicago. WILL is covering the event live on AM-580, streaming it live on our Listen page, and coordinating a seperate Quicktime video stream for the Office of University Relations. Another press conference will be held at 4 pm today in Urbana, and we'll stream that too. Any guesses as to who the new university president is?

Presidential Debate archives

2004-10-16T13:31:00.000-05:00

Searching for audio archives of the presidential debate, I bumped into great stuff at the Internet Archive site, including both streaming and downloadable audio from the first debate between Bush and Kerry on September 30th. The IA does it right, including the use of Creative Commons licensing for the public domain. I couldn't find the other presidential debates on the IA site, so to make your life just a little bit simpler, here they are, the presidential debates in MP3 format: September 30th, 2004 on Foreign Policy October 13th, 2004 on Domestic Policy Sorry, I missed the 2nd debate due to a technical problem. If you know where it can be found, please leave a comment with the info.

The Public Square: air space for your voice

2004-10-13T19:02:00.000-05:00

WILLblog apologizes for spotty postings of late. Heck, I've basically been AWOL, but I do have about 10 thousand legit excuses, and too little sleep to prove it. I have so much to tell you about, to catch up if that's even possible. I'll begin with an (overdue) pointer to The Public Square on WILL-AM. Avid WILLblog readers (?!) will recall a bit of controversy involving WILL-AM's commentary policy. (See my original WILLblog post on this.) When you say you'll open up the airwaves for community commentaries, but then get a bit picky about the content of said commentaries, people get upset. In fact some rules are necessary, such as a prohibition on libelous remarks. Plus we really do have limited air time to offer, and if 100 people want their 3 minutes this week, it ain't gonna happen. So how does a radio station with limited staff determine who gets their piece on the air? What we decided was first come, first served. As long as you don't go ad hominem on somebody, you can write about anything your heart desires. We'll record and air it. But we're limited to one commentary per week, so if 100 people submit commentaries to The Public Square, we'll just have to say "take a number." The Public Square is unlike anything on any other radio station I know of. You got something to say? Then say it. We'll even archive it on our web site. This provides further proof that 1) WILL is the most responsive community radio station you ever dreamed of; and 2) We are definately off our rocker.

Speaking of the Debates...

2004-10-07T17:50:00.000-05:00

If someone wanted to review the recent presidential and vice presidential debates, they might be able to find them on the NPR site in RealAudio format. (If you didn't Tivo the video, you're probably out of luck.) But let's say you don't like RealAudio, and you wanted to download the audio to your iPod or whatever. For MP3 files of the presidential and vice presidential debates, and other such events some argue should be in the public domain, you might look to WILLblog.

Free Media laughs

2004-10-07T17:40:00.000-05:00

The organization Free Press notes that TV stations will rake in a record $1.5 billion this year form political campaign ads. Can corporate media actually undermine our democracy? WILLblog doesn't know the answer, but we know they're happy to oblige attempts by the candidates. Meanwhile here's a sorta fun little Flash movie produced by Free Press called "Debating for Ratings." I think I liked the recent Jib Jab piece better, but this one has more of a point.

Critique is disloyalty!

2004-10-04T17:55:00.000-05:00

The caller started yelling. He couldn't believe our guest had called American troops "idiots" and "stupid." His phone begin to distort as his rage increased in volume. Hate to do it, but I hit the drop button before he could burst a vein on the air. Our interview with Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer for The New Yorker, about his book The Fall of Baghdad, covered a lot of ground. He had not said anything remotely like what the caller loudly claimed. He had observed that the American soldiers he interviewed outside of Fallujah didn't know about the history there, how in 1920 Iraqis rose up against the British occupation, a story held with great pride by most Iraqis today. Mostly he criticised the war planners in Washington, who were so surprised and unprepared for Iraqis' resentment and resistence to American occupation. The issue under discussion was wisdom in Washington, not the intelligence of American troops. Or is that off the table? Any critique of war planners is disloyalty to the troops? Sounds like life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, not the United States. If we hope to establish a healthier political culture in the post-Saddam Iraq, we'd better set a better example ourselves.

NPR Online hits the spot

2004-09-26T14:59:00.000-05:00

Whilst touting the BBC for its worldly World Service, let us also give a nod to NPR. They've got some new online staff over there, and as someone who's been closely watching the development of NPR's online news service, I can see they're kicking it into a higher gear. As evidence, here's an example from this weekend, a Week in Review segment with Scott Simon and Juan Williams on Allawi, Iraq and the U.S. Election. Submitted for your approval.

Nice election you've got there

2004-09-26T14:47:00.000-05:00

If you're sick of swift boats and "Rathergate," you might find real election news and analysis of actual issues on the BBC's Vote USA 2004 web site. Sometimes the best way to understand something is to step outside of it.

Videotape of Police Riles State's Attorney

2004-09-14T16:59:00.000-05:00

OK, break it up, nothing to see here. Or is there? What happens when community activists begin videotaping the city police as they go about their work in the community? Traffic stops, shoplifting calls, crowds in front of nightclubs, various and sundry disturbances...mostly scenes of officer interaction with African-Americans, captured on consumer-grade video. What is the reaction? Mostly nothing, at least from the police officers themselves. One even tells the videographer he doesn't mind, the media does it all the time, and police even do it themselves. But at some point, an ill-defined line is crossed by the activists, or at least by the State's Attorney John Piland, who files charges of criminal eavesdropping against the documentarians. WILLblog saw the footage in question (and thanks to the quick work of Paul Riismandel, heard the audio as well) at Boardman's Art Theatre in Champaign this past Sunday, along with about 150 other members of the community. I think if John Piland had not taken the unusual step of charging the activists (unusual given the lack of warning or complaint by the police), fewer people would know about the video. What does it show? Nothing like a smoking gun: no police brutality, no abusive language, nothing really to put the police in a bad light, even though the lighting was bad. The video is actually difficult to watch, because the quality is iffy at best. However, the viewer takes away a sense of unease not related to the jumpy camera work. Clearly, these encounters are tense, and the people in the frame don't trust each other the least little bit. It is a case where the police see it one way, and the citizens see it another way altogether. This is not a recipe for good relations, and the area authorities, including the State's Attorney, might want to be aware of that. The activists, Visionaries Educating Youth and Adults, have posted the video on their web site. WILLblog doesn't endorse eavesdropping, and we certainly can't testify at the trial if it comes to that. But the video itself might hold some pretty important lessons for the community, which the filing of charges seems only to underline, and let's hope somehow we make something positive from that.

Passing of a Fellow Blogger

2004-09-13T17:12:00.000-05:00

WILLblog has never been very hip to the incestuous aspect of blogging, wherein all the bloggers blog each other's blogs. We figured too many uses of the word 'blog' would, well, just blog down after a certain point. Which makes me even sadder to report the death of a true blog pioneer, the voice behind Uppity-Negro.com, Aaron Hawkins. His daily postings were always insightful, funny, and occasionally even profound. Here is a guy who was truly in the loop, had something to say, and the talent as a writer to make the reading worthwhile. Uppity-Negro was relevant, and gave us an example of something on the web that matters. I don't know if anything we do here is really going to last. But for some reason I have faith that good writing matters, and by that measure at the very least, Aaron's life counted for something important. We'll miss you Aaron, but long live Uppity-Negro.

The Internet, Libraries, and the Public Record

2004-09-10T14:49:00.000-05:00

"It is both a pity and a sign of the times that the libraries do not have recordings of both conventions for the civic review," writes Andrea Antulov in yesterday's Letters to the Editor section of the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette. "I urge your readers to demand they ensure citizens have plentiful and easy access to historial, journalistic and civic records. After all, that was the purpose of libraries' creation, to ensure a literate, informed citizenship without regard to social class in order to protect democracy." WILLblog couldn't agree more, and Ms. Antulov's point aligns with a project we've been working on. We think things like convention speeches belong in the public domain, and anyone who wants to hear, view, or read transcripts of them should be able to freely and without hassle. The Internet could be that public library, and I know not everyone has access to the online universe at their homes, schools, and offices. But they do have access to the Internet at the physical library. So what's the problem? Simply this: Content like convention speeches on the Internet is "owned" and controlled by those who put it on their web sites. Whereas you as a citizen have a right to experience media coverage of the convention via television networks (if they bother to air it), and of course your local NPR station WILL-AM, you don't have a right to the audio and video records of these events. They're not in the local library, as Ms. Antulov attests. Here is a partial solution: NPR has all the convention speeches archived in RealAudio on the NPR web site. I spent a frustrating 15 minutes this morning tracking down all of the different pages that link to all of the content. (Maybe my search skills need work, but...) So here are the URLs that get you all the convention speeches: Republican National Convention: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3877883 (Day One) http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3882508 (Day Two) http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3885136 (Day Three) http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3887311 (Day Four) Democratic National Convention: http://www.npr.org/politics/convention2004/dnc_schedule.html (All four days) All audio is encoded in RealAudio streaming format, meaning that without, ahem, special tools you can't download and save the audio. It's part of the public record, but the audio files aren't in the public domain. Some of us would like to change that. I suspect NPR would be more willing to contribute to that effort than, say, CNN which actually charges the online audience for streaming content. But for the Internet to fulfill its potential to serve the interests of citizenship and democracy, we must view it more as a public library than as a gated community. And keep stocking the shelves.

RNCBlog4 - Random Thoughts

2004-09-02T14:58:00.000-05:00

A few random thoughts about the RNC in NYC: -Just about every reception, breakfast, meal, etc. is sponsored by a company, activist group, or some combination of them. The Illinois Delegation events are no exception. But we hear these are the "minor league" events. The real receptions of power and note are invitation only, and closed to the media. For example, there are several wood trim, plush carpeted rooms at Madison Square Garden with their own security detail that host such events. A glimpse inside shows a level of posh reception not seen by most delegates. -Every hotel hosting a state delegation has a 24 hour security detail. Outside our hotel, there are always five NYC Police officers and a K-9 unit, and sometimes what appears to be a Secret Service members and cops on bicycles or motorcycles. Mind you, that is for one hotel housing one delegation. The Illinoisans took a luncheon harbor cruise around NY today. The whole time we were followed (closely) by a NYC police boat. -The delegates are making time for fun. Some stories of popular events: shopping, Broadway shows (Aida, The Lion King, and Chicago are most often mentioned), visiting Ground Zero, attending Yankees and/or Mets games, and walking through Central Park. Don't worry though, the IPR reporters are way too busy working to have any fun or see any sights. -The delegation took a trip to Ulysses S. Grant's Tomb yesterday. If you recall, Illinois made an attempt to have the tomb and remains of the president, general, and former Galena resident brought to Illinois. Officials here in New York say that attempt was the impetus for the NY state and federal government to get its act together and restore the monument, and install security to put an end to the vandalism and homeless shelter nature of the site. Anyway, Illinois delegates came lay a wreath at the tomb, hold a memorial service for Grant, and take a tour. Illinoisans say they are glad the tomb is in good shape, but still kind of wish it had come to Galena. Still, kind of a neat trip. -Everyone we have run into in New York has been very polite and nice. Especially the police. It may be a concerted effort to make the RNC feel at home, or could be the lingering effects of the post 9/11 New York mentality. Still, I think it's safe to say the rude New Yorker stereotype has been put to rest (at least a little bit) this week.

RNCBlog3 - Glitter and be Gay

2004-09-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

This morning the pattern of the RNC was thrown for a bit of a loop when comments U-S Senate Candidate Alan Keyes made about homosexuals become common knowledge. Keyes reiterated his long standing view that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, and that sex is an act that should only be performed when procreation is a possible outcome. He said those who do otherwise are "selfish hedonists". That in itself probably wasn't a big deal -- only a restatement of Mr Keyes long standing beliefs. What got him into trouble was a question from a reporter about Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter. Keyes said by his definition, she would be one of those "selfish hedonists." Now moderate Republicans in Illinois have a long history of understanding members of the conservative branch of the tree have different views. For the most part, they have been able to peacefully coexist. But they draw the line at attacking (either directly or indirectly) the daughter of the Vice-President. Former Governor Jim Thompson called Keyes comments "offensive" and "extreme". State Party Chair Judy Baar Topinka called them "idiotic". Even the conservative Republicans from Illinois here in New York couldn't defend Keyes, and challenged him to focus on the Republican ideals of job creation, lower taxes, better defense, and less and more efficient government. The day's events seemed to be the final straw for many candidates that have suffered Keyes since his appointment to the ticket. On the shuttle buses around New York, Illinois delegates said things like "Why can't he just tone it down a bit", "Too bad we couldn't have a more mainstream candidate", and even"we would be better off if Jack Ryan stayed in the race." There is no doubt in my mind Mr. Keyes represents the feelings of many Republicans in Illinois. But those people don't seem to be represented by the Illinois Delegation. How many there are will, in part, be ferreted out by the November election. As an aside, "Equality Illinois", a Chicago-based gay rights group held a quickly put-together martini reception in the Illinois delegation hotel tonight at midnight. There were only 20 people there. But some of them were Republican delegates.

Garrison Keillor invades Central Illinois

2004-09-01T18:48:00.000-05:00

OK, he's a Lutheran so it's not really an invasion but I had to hype it somehow. Garrison Keillor visits Bloomington-Normal on September 22nd to present material from "Lake Wobegon Days" and field audience questions: 2 pm at Illinois Wesleyan University's Westbrook Auditorium, and 7 pm at ISU's Braden auditorium. Both events are free and open to anyone, but tickets must be acquired in advance. You can pick those up at Illinois Wesleyan's Ames Library information desk, and ISU's Milner Library general reference desk. Info available at 309-438-7402. These things tend to sell out quickly, so good luck.