When KRON Channel 4, a San Francisco television station, opted to boot Rosenberg and Feldman from a planned visit to a weekend talk show because the News Director there didn’t want to have on authors whose book, in part, takes a critical look at television news, it ignited a firestorm that is still raging –outrage being expressed by commercial, private and even some academic websites and blogs.

The first to report the story was LAObserved, a widely read and well respected blog that many in the L.A. media turn to learn the scoop of what is really going on in the City of the Angels.

And, as they say (not sure exactly who, but they do say it!) “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”  It didn’t take long for that post to either be picked up by others or else motivate others to post their own opinions and comments–from a daily San Francisco free paper, to the website of the Los Angeles Times, to the blog of a well respected San Francisco press association, to an academic blog—-just a few who have weighed in on this story…with more promised later on!

Proof that No Time To Think is THE media book for 2009!

Some other links below:

http://www.lostremote.com:80/2008/12/30/kron-cancels-on-authors-of-tv-critical-book/

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2008/12/kron_cant_stand_criticism_bags.php#more

Click the image below for full size.

Rosenberg and Feldman were interviewed on KTLA-TV’s “Pacesetters” program with Ray Gonzales a few weeks back.  The video is now available online, but unfortunately there isn’t a way to link to the episode directly.  If you go to this page and scroll back to the 11/30 episode in the flash player, you can find it divided into three parts for your viewing pleasure.

And on the audio side of the spectrum, WMLB out of Atlanta have made their interview with Rosenberg and Feldman available as a podcast as well.  Simply go to this page and click on the two links on the right under “Multimedia” to listen to the mp3 files.

Before Barack Obama got elected President, there was much talk about a Clinton “dynasty” had Hillary Clinton beaten him.

The truth of the matter is–the Clintons never have been a dynasty in any conventional usage of the word. The Kennedys, on the other hand, are practically the dictionary definition.

Comes word that Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of J.F.K, is expressing interest in taking over Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat once Clinton formally resigns following her presumed confirmation by the Senate as Secretary of State.

Besides her dad, one of Kennedy’s deceased relatives, Robert, was a New York Senator before running for the presidency. Her uncle Ted is….well, uncle Ted, one of the longest serving and most influential Senators in the body.

But here’s a way to really tell who belongs to a true political dynasty and who does not: Some are already saying Kennedy doesn’t have the experience needed for the Senate…never held an elective post. The fact that that probably will not make one bit of difference is proof positive that she is very much a part of an American dynasty.

A sad day for the newspaper industry and for the people of the communities served by papers belonging to the Tribune company which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier today.

Of course, the odd thing is that even with the downturn in the economy and, for the newspapers, advertising, the Los Angeles Times, the Tribune’s trophy paper, continues to actually make a profit. Yet, it is being dragged down by the weight of the debt of the parent company which has forced layoffs and other drastic cutbacks at the paper.

What happens now is unclear. Technically, the chapter 11 filing would give the Tribune Company time and space to reorganize….But it might be for the best if the LA Times were cut loose and sold as a stand-alone entity.

Charles S. Feldman was interviewed on BBC4’s Today Programme alongside Kevin Bakhurst, controller of the BBC News Channel, and surprisingly they found quite a bit of common ground on the current state of news-gathering and distribution as well as the direction we are headed in the future.

Click here to listen to the segment.

Elsewhere around the blogosphere…

• A fascinating and harrowing consideration of the role that 24-hour news might have played in last week’s atrocities in Mumbai can be found here.
• A writer for a student newspaper shares some thoughts here.
• Beth Mellor has blogged some thoughts about the interview on her blog.
• And Etan Smallman has some thoughts on his blog as well.