The Political Whore

Last night some Facebook users were invited to be part of a beta test for Facebook Lite (the link now bounces you not to Lite but to regular Facebook), but they soon found that the invitation was premature: Facebook pulled the trigger on too many beta testers, only to shut down the link.

So, what is Facebook Lite?

Depends on who you ask. Tech Crunch reports that it looks much like Twitter or FriendFeed:

Okay, while it seems that most of the users who are getting this message now are not seeing much different, earlier this week, it looks like a very select few may have gotten a sneak peak at Facebook Lite. According to their tweets on it, it appears to be a more Twitter-like. One user notes that it, “looks like a simplified version of twitter with comments enabled. On 2nd thought, it looks like simplified FriendFeed.”

That is of course very interesting since Facebook just bought FriendFeed for around $50 million yesterday.

Tech Crunch features this screen capture of Facebook Lite.

The Washington Post, however, says it ain’t Twitter-esque or FriendFeed-like: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m retooling the Political Whore Podcast (or the HoCast, we we lovingly call it ’round these parts). I’ve added two regular guests, broadcaster/lawyer/former political candidate Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Joe Bardi, our associate editor whose political views shaped our hilarious Short List online for years.

We want to hear from you as we look at the hottest topics, sexiest political scandals and goofiest politicians each week. We’ll also name a Political Whore of the Week, somebody in national, state or local politics or government who best exemplifies that they are only in it for the money — or the stupidity.

We’re taping our weekly installments on Fridays at 10 am, so you can get us your ideas, questions or Whore nominations via Twitter (@poho) before then, or live during the podcast taping from 10-10:30 am. We’ll do our best to get the best of the tweets on the HoCast.

By Mitch Perry
PoHo correspondent
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.

Legendary television anchorman Walter Cronkite’s death on Friday at the age of 92 has prompted massive encomiums on his career and how no one figure could ever dominate mass communications like “Uncle Walter” did in the ’60s and ’70s. It also allows us to ponder the state of national television news.

In the immediate days (and weeks) after Michael Jackson’s death last month, America’s broadcast and cable news networks went — predictably — hog wild over the pop superstar’s death. They saw their ratings rise, while also receiving criticism from a lot of quarters that they were overdoing it.

But were you really surprised?

Pardon the expression, but haven’t we seen this movie, err, blanket news coverage before?

Can you say Anna Nicole Smith?  Ronald Reagan? Princess Diana anybody? Read the rest of this entry »

The News Media Guildi is protesting (and rightly) on behalf of its members at the AP because of new social media policies at the news organization that will now require reporters and editors to remove comments and other info on their Facebook pages that don’t meet AP standards.

From Editor & Publisher:

“It is making some people cringe,” said Kevin Keane, News Media Guild administrator. “It is not appropriate for a company that heralds free speech.”

Keane also objected to another portion of the new rules that states: “Posting material about the AP’s internal operations is prohibited on employees’ personal pages.”

“You can’t tell people not to talk about anything internal to AP,” Keane said. “It is too broad. People have the right.”

Equally is its backwards policy on reporters using Twitter to communicate news. Here is both the Facebook and Twitter provisions from AP’s Q&A-format policy:

Read the rest of this entry »

So wrong. So very wrong.

(As penance, here is the link to the American Association for the Deaf-Blind. Go there and you’ll feel better.)

The 2009 Legislative Session passed the 60-day mark on Friday, extended for one more week. The only thing left to do is pass the budget, with tobacco taxes and the Seminole Gaming compact — and the revenue they generate — included.

And so, the next thing for Florida politicos to discuss: Will Governor Charlie Crist run for re-election or for the United States Senate? And when?

So today on Twitter, there is a new #cristcountdown discussion.

What do you think? Post your tweet on Twitter:

RT @StateOfSunshine @jaketapper @markknoller #cristcoundown | Date and office

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Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, text message, or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using text messages may incur phone service provider fees.

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I am at the Tradewinds Island Gulf on St. Pete Beach, laptop in lap, filing updates on Twitter on the mayoral forum this morning. You can follow at my Twitter account.

Not much news so far, but one major candidate is missing, Jamie Bennett. He is at a City Council meeting.

UPDATE: Forum lasted about two hours, and no knockout punches or spectacular ledes. Here are some thoughts after seeing these candidates do their business:

• Deveron GIbbons is a smooth talker. He was engaging and inspirational, even riveting the audience with a story about being 11 years old and watching a guy get shot in the head right in front of him at a playground, as an illustration of understanding the violence gripping St. Pete. He was reallllll short on details or solutions, however. He started in on an answer about BayWalk, for instance, and never did get to what is wrong with it or what can be done about it. But he did it so slickly that I’m not sure everyone watching the forum got that he just cruised right past the question.
• Bill Foster is exceedingly well versed in the details of government and has some interesting ideas. His voice, however, is very soothing and low-key, so he tends not to score knockout points with his grasp of city hall policy. One reporter put him on his snoozer list.
• Scott Wagman keeps hammering the “I’m not a politician” bit and intends to throw as many new ideas out there as he can, even at the risk, as he admitted himself, that some don’t cut it. That can be exciting or a risky strategy, but his talk about keeping rec centers open for more hours and recruiting high school seniors and college students to get credit for mentoring after-schoolers at the centers was the most interesting new idea of the morning.
• Larry Williams is a nice guy but didn’t impress anyone at the event.
• Alex Haak’s Dutch accent makes it hard to figure out what he is saying — if he is saying anything worth figuring out. Hard to take the guy seriously, as he spoke for a short time compared with the rest and didn’t have much meat on the bone beyond a lengthy screed about how youth events will boost tourism.
• Kathleen Ford also had a strong command of details but just didn’t seem to connect with the audience.
• Jamie Bennett got screwed, as the forum was scheduled for the same morning as a City Council meeting. He chose the people’s business over campaigning.

Bay Buzz’s Aaron Sharockman has an interesting live blog of the forum. And the full text of all my Twitter coverage after the jump (in reverse order):

Read the rest of this entry »

anamariecox Kindle for iPhone. Killer fucking app. Genius. (Also could become “iTunes for news” if they keep selling magazine subscriptions.)
2 minutes ago from TweetDeck

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Get PoHo’s news, politics and media updates on Twitter.

eric_jotkoff VP Biden coming to Miami on Thursday. Speaking to the AFL-CIO, he will talk about how a strong middle class needs a strong labor movement
25 minutes ago from web

Love that Twitter, and 10 Connects reporter Preston Rudie has been doing a good job of telling the story of the missing boaters for the past two days from his Twitter account. This afternoon, he reports:

prestonrudie Coast Guard also said it found a life jacket and cooler about 16 miles SW of where the boat capsized. They believe it belonged to the men.
19 minutes ago from web

prestonrudie Missing boaters’ families were briefed by CG before they anounced the search would be called off.
20 minutes ago from web

prestonrudie Coast Guard will be calling off the search for the remaining 3 missing boaters at 6:30 pm EST. Watch at www.10connects.com
25 minutes ago from web

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Follow my tweets about news, politics and media at Twitter.

THE_REAL_SHAQ IF u r readin this, u shud b ashamed ov yurself, u shud b sleep,go 2 bed i say
about 2 hours ago from web

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Tweet with PoHo to get and give political and media news, commentary and heavy snark. Follow me at PoHo.

Eric Jotkoff First impressions of twitter – it is easier for Republicans since it does not take 140 characters to say “No”
1:18 PM [2-23-09] from TwitterBerry

(Jotkoff is the director of communications for the Florida Democratic Party.)

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Tweet with PoHo to get and give political and media news, commentary and heavy snark. Follow me at PoHo.

anamariecox BREAKING WH PUPPY NEWS: Due in April; will be rescued Portuguese Water Dog; girls like names “Frank” (after uncle Barney?) & “Moose” (same).
5 minutes ago from TweetDeck

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Tweet with PoHo to get and give political and media news, commentary and heavy snark. Follow me at PoHo.

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

Last month, I wrote a post here on Political Whore about US Airways flight 1549, which landed in the Hudson river with all aboard safe.  The first images where not from a major news organization or a photojournalist, they were from a bystander and were disseminated via Twitter.  It eventually prompted a response earlier this month from Michael Hussey at Pushing Rope with an interesting discussion about news. Read the rest of this entry »

Going to the parade, concerts, parties or anything connected to Gasparilla? Have a Twitter account? Then you are all set to join CL’s Parade of Tweeters, covering all the festivities of Tampa Bay’s pre-eminent annual buccaneer bacchanalia for those of us who are going to be stuck at work or at home in front of our laptops.

Here’s how:

1. Sign up for a free Twitter account (or use your existing account).
2. Have a blast at Gasparilla on Saturday and/or in the days leading up to the pirate invasion.
3. Send us a tweet when you see something interesting, funny, stupid, naked, comment-worthy, etc. Just use your telephone’s txt messaging capability to send a tweet, using Twitter’s 140-character limit. (You can also submit tweets via your computer if you are at a party or on the Bayshore with wireless access.)
4. Make sure you include the hashtag #gasparilla in your txt msg. For example: “Holy beads! I just saw Gayle Guyardo! #gasparilla”
5. Hit send on your cell phone. Your tweet will automatically appear on our Gasparilla page, cltampa.com/gasparilla, along with the rest of the CL Parade of Tweeters’ info and photos from the frivolity.
6. As if that wasn’t enough for your 15 Minutes of Fame, we’ll take the best and run them in our print edition the week after Gasparilla. And we’ll chose the very best to receive a free meal, from our Eats or Bites programs in the CL Deals section.
7. And while you’re in Twitter online, be sure to follow PoHo for political news tweets and cl_tampa for all our Creative Loafing breaking news in arts, music, food and the rest.

If you are from Tampa Bay, going to the Inaguration and on Twitter, how about sending us your observations from that historic occasion? Just end your tweet with #tampanews and it will go directly into our Tampa News Tweet feed in the News Section.

Jim Johnson is the founder of The State of Sunshine blog and joins PoHo as a regular contributor with this post:

One of the interesting changes happening to media will be how news is brought to the rest of us.

I’m sure many were watching televsion coverage of yesterday’s crash of USAir Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in New York City.  But even TV was not the fastest coverage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Get breaking political news (like Jeb! not running!) and pithy comments, all under 120 characters on the PoHo Twitter.

For those who, like me, feel the need to have your smartdevice or iPhone or whatever buzz incessantly with messages from friends and newsmakers/newsfollowers, make sure you add PoHo to those people you are following. And I’ll add you. Cuz I actually had two minutes of silence from my phone just now so obviously I still have capacity.

Want to get your political and media updates on Twitter, and even on your mobile phone? Then set your Twitter to follow PoHo. I’ll tweet the most important news of the day and not swamp you with trivial crap (that’s what this blog is for, after all).