Posts about hype

What Would Google Do? on a Fortune best list

December 26, 2008 by Jeff Jarvis
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wwgd_jackeytI’m delighted to say that What Would Google Do? is on Fortune’s list of the three best web books of 2008.

Jessi Hempel gives me a justified ding for name- (actually place-) dropping, which I feared would happen as I gave credit where credit is due to meetings at — warning: I’m about to place-drop — Davos for inspiring and introducing me to ideas and people. I’ve learned it’s impossible to say Davos (there: I did it again) without pretense. Then she concludes with thisL “…the book offers a great overview of what all businesses across nearly every industry have learned about the way the Web changes what they do.”

I’m honored to be in the company of Steve Baker’s The Numerati and Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff Groundswell.

This on the same day that Fred Wilson suggests buying the book.

Nice Christmas gifts.

The shame of American TV journalism

February 9, 2007 by Jeff Jarvis
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Think Progress puts together a brilliant compilation of the humiliating hype of cable news over the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

Larry King: “The Number 1 story around the world tonight.”
Scarborough: “For better or worse, would you call Anna Nicole Smith an American icon of the early 21st century?”
Anderson Cooper asks about her Playboy mansion days: “What was she like then?”
MSNBC: Why was she so intriguing to so many people?”
Larry King: “This story will have a lot of legs.” [Cue drums]
Scarborough: “Why the obsession with Anna Nicole Smith?”
Jack Caferty (bless him) to Wolf Blitzer: “Is Anna Nicole Smith still dead?”

Says Think Progress:

NBC’s Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to 3 minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse — 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq.

And big, old MSM says they know how to do journalism and nobody else could do it as well, certainly not us, the unwashed.

Watching the coverage certainly makes me want to wash it off me.