Surfette

The Sea-Eat blog: Breaking info on tsunami aftermath, help efforts

Here's how to help: The Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog, or Sea-Eat Blog for short. Superb on-the-ground blogging provides breaking information on:

• where to send money,
• what kind of help is needed,
• aid organizations,
• helplines,
• infolines,
• email addresses,
• phone numbers
• news updates
• comprehensive links
• tolls of missing and dead by country

There are many more sites out there. I found this one in John Schwartz's story in the NY Times.

Update: Dennis Kennedy has an exceptional list of other blogs and links here.

The courage edition

I have no value to offer today -- I'm typing over at Pressthink -- but these people sure do:

• Comeuppance, or, my homeboy opens up a can (Hat-tip: Lying in Ponds)
• ABC New's Vargas Girl Asks: Why So Few Women in Prime Time? (Hat-tip: Ms. Musings)
• Dan Gillmor: "I'll be leaving the San Jose Mercury News next month to work on a citizen-journalism project..." (Hat-tip: Jay Rosen)
• Is A Flying Monkey With Lasers On Its Friggin' Head A Good Value For The Experience It Offers?
• Nobelist Maathai

Any others we should be reading? Please post below.

Kind of a drag: The origins of Spin Alley

When I met Jay Rosen at Bloggercon III, we talked about the origins of spin and Spin Alley and its effect on election coverage. (As you may know, I started Surfette in order to discover "Who cares?")

We agreed that I should trace the meme for Jay's blog, Pressthink. Here is what I found: "Kind of a Drag: A Short History of Spin Alley and the Press."

Excerpt: 

When Jon Stewart "busted" Spin Alley in his famous confrontation with the Crossfire people (the most downloaded video clip ever, at the time) he was hitting on a practice that had grown more and more disreputable. As a designated spot for the practice of spin, the Alley only fell from legitimacy when an alternative practice rose up and called out to conscience of the press. It was one lesson of Campaign 2004: Forget about spinning the outcome, just fact check the debates.

Now that we know this (and a pretty obvious lesson it is) we can look back at the life and times of Spin Alley, one of the strangest places ever founded in American politics-- not least because it required the cooperation of journalists who would appear to be the intended victims of spin. This is a story with some twists in it. ...more

I'd welcome your comments on this post over at Pressthink.