Blocking ads for better journalism

I’ve done something recently to make a small contribution to the future of thriving, responsible journalism.

I’ve installed Adblock Plus on my Mac. The program strips virtually all ads from my regular news sites.

If everyone installed the ad blocker program, we would wipe out a traditional revenue source available to the news business as it moves on line.

Of course the industry is struggling to come up with feasible economic models that work on the web. Unless news organizations can maneuver around ad blockers, they won’t be able to count on advertising as part of their plans.

That’s just fine with me.

I don’t feel guilty about blocking ads, including those that dance onto the screen and obscure the news.

Adblocker and I are just doing our bit to take journalism off the profit-driven treadmill that has so undercut journalism recently.

I’ve always hoped that journalism would be seen as a quasi-public utility. To serve the public interest, it should not be subject to the incentives of the commercial marketplace and the stock market.

I side with those who are looking to foundations to pay for independent, quality journalism. Among the foundations should be those that raise tax-deductible money from readers hungry for in-depth, unbiased reporting.

In this FOX News age, we need to be reminded that the goal of the news media should be to report and inform, not to harangue and create celebrity blowhards. For that reason, foundation boards should consist of journalists, not politicians, investors or others with vested interests.

If you want to help journalism, check out Adblock. And to see one way journalism could go with foundation support, visit Pro Publica.

Disclosure: My own neighborhood news site, The Hillsdale News, has sponsors that Adblock can’t touch (at least so far). The pittance I ask from local businesses pays solely for web hosting and support, about $600 a year. I volunteer my work as reporter and editor. If I were to make a non-volunteer, non-profit of The Hillsdale News, I’d switch to reader contributions and seek foundation support.

What's the big deal with Twitter?

Okay, I’ve been signed up on Twitter for several weeks. I have a handful of followers and seven or eight folks I’m following.

I still can’t see what the big deal is.

The “tweets” I’m getting here seem like rejects from a Chinese fortune cookie factory.

Many of my unfollowed “followers” appear to have something to sell. A house, a vacation in the Bahamas, a dinette, a hair tint, a massage.

I’ve used my 140 characters to alert my followers that I’ve posted yet another issue of The Hillsdale News. The little on-line newspaper can be found here.

I’ve also invited followers to join me cleaning up litter in Hillsdale. Surprise, none showed up. Who can blame them? They have hair to tint and backs to rub.

I’ve experimented with “news bursts.” So-and-so in the neighborhood died, a new store is opening, etc. Frankly, none of these tweets is important if you perch in a far-away tree, as most of my followers do. It may not be important even if you roost on a branch in this one.

I’ve read about the guy who wrote “Arrested!” because he was, and a whole bunch of followers came to his assistance. “Freed!” he tweeted, because he thought they'd like to know.

I still can’t figure out how, in custody, he was allowed to keep his smart phone to text his admittedly brief message. Perhaps he did it before the cuffs were clamped on. As for me, I'd still be fumbling around in my "contacts" list.

Mastering my cellphone is still on my "to do" list.

I suppose I’m being too rough on Twitter. I could ask the same questions about blogging in general and The Red Electric in particular.

What’s the point? Don’t we all have better things to do?

On second thought, at least with a tweet, I’m done in 140 characters.

According to my word count program, this post is somewhere north of 1400 characters, ten tweets. I could have said it with one: “OK. I give. What’s the big deal with Twitter?”

Come to think of it, I’ll go to my Twitter site and post exactly that. I'll tweet you what I find out, if you "follow" me.

Do you?

A Turkish Hack

As many of you know, I put out an on-line neighborhood newsletter, The Hillsdale News. A couple of weeks ago, a hacker (from Turkey of all places) managed to wipe out the newsletter.

Restoring it was a fairly simple matter, and Todd Coward, who manages the server for the site (and those of several other Portland neighborhoods) thought he had blocked the hacker’s entry.

He was wrong.

A week later, The Hillsdale News site, as well as Hillsdalebusiness.org, was once again inaccessible, although Todd had it up and running in a couple of days.

The hacker’s point of entry seems to have been a calendar program used by some other neighborhoods, also Todd’s clients.

In addition to being troubling, hacking is perplexing. Who would get his jollies by obliterating Portland neighborhood news? And from Turkey no less?

I never thought that anyone would want to destroy news of Food Front, the Multnomah Farmers Market and a solar Panel at Rieke Elementary School. What's the point?

Those knowledgeable about such matters no doubt will tell me that the hackers don’t care about content. The challenge is cracking the system. The destruction is evidence of their success.

From time to time I’ve written here about the end of newsprint and the rise of the internet, but the “Turkish Hack” has altered my outlook.

Do we suddenly have to live with information impermanence and vulnerability? Must we commit to print everything worth saving that is now stored in our computers?

And what about the biggest hackers of all? Nuclear war? Asteroids?

How do you back up for those?

A Tribute to John Braidwood

Wednesday, the day of the memorial service for John Braidwood, a leader in the Hillsdale community, his family put up the American flags John had installed in the the days following 9/11. The display of John's flags is a fitting tribute to John, a man of strong conviction and a big heart.

For more about John and his contribution to Hillsdale visit The Hillsdale News.