Dateline: Austin, TX — THE BIRD GETS A BUM RAP. As the always effervescent South By Southwest multimedia festivals explode here every year at this time, the thousands of visiting movie, web and music buffs will often complain about Austin’s ubiquitous black bird.

They regard this humble creature (though it has an elegant scientific name, Quiscalus Quiscula) as something of a downer. Continue reading “SXSW Highlights Nation’s (In)security – and Families’ As Well” »

Dateline: Austin TX — WE CAME FROM ALL OVER the world to this three-sided, multimedia party known as the South By South West Festivals, celebrating film, music and internet culture. But death cast a pall over its later days.

The first fatalities to occur in SXSW’s 27-year history – two killings, plus 23 people injured, after an evidently drunk or drug-addled driver plowed into a Festival crowd – came after the “Interactive” segment finished, but as the Film division stoically continued until yesterday and the Music events still went on until today.   Continue reading ““One Armed Man” – A Triumph in its Medium, Though Underacknowledged” »

THE TSUNAMI IS UPON US. With February marking fifty years since the original miracle happened, the media’s own backward-looking Beatlemania is now flooding unstoppably through every platform.

And inescapably this is just the beginning. February 7th 1964 was indeed when The Beatles first landed on US soil, for a short trip dominated by their Ed Sullivan Show appearance … but they came back. Continue reading “True Capturing of The Beatles, After 50 years” »

THIS HAS BEEN – OFFICIALLY AT LEAST – one of those quiet weeks for political reporters. The U.S. Congress doesn’t come back to work (silly word, I know) until Monday, January 27.

But members of both House and Senate are in this quiet time having to think hard — though not necessarily talk to the press — about the uncomfortably hot potato recently tossed into their laps by President Barack Obama.   Continue reading “Leak-stopping? … or Leaker-saving?” »

THE VERY FIRST REPORTING of Nelson Mandela‘s death sparked in me a sharp flash of disappointment with journalism, along with inevitable sadness over losing the great man himself.

The disappointing journalism was all the worse for coming from my own home-town paper, The New York Times, one of the finest news organizations in the world — most of the time.    Continue reading “With Mandela’s Death, Sloppy Telling of his Life” »