Web Cred... the players (H-I-J-K)

Blogging, journalism, and credibility... this week's conference at Harvard will be blogged and webcast, and I understand there will be an IRC channel.  Those of us with an interest in the conversation will certainly have a chance to listen in.  This series of blog postings is aimed at helping those who attend (and I mean that in the broader sense, since physical attendance is limited) know a little more about who is talking and writing.  I'm attacking this in alpha order. Or really reverse-blog-alpha order.

... click here for participants whose last names begin with A and B.

... click here for participants whose last names begin with C through shining G.

I wish I was there out front of the Harvard Law School hustling programs...

"Getcher program... can't tell the bloggers without a prooo-grammm!"

<disclosure> The following WebCred Program information includes material from many sources, from Wikipedia and Googling around to focused use of the High Beam Executive Search, a service that's reasonably inexpensive but that I get free because I pestered CBO Chris Locke. </disclosure>

John Hinderaker -

"On the whole, I think Col. Ryan is too kind to the American press. I think that the press's undermining of our war effort is, in many instances, deliberate. It appears to me that many, if not most, American reporters, editors and news executives want to make it impossible for America ever to fight a war. To further this goal, I think they use their reporting to undermine our effort in Iraq. The idea is that if we are defeated in Iraq, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to fight another war anywhere for a generation. Is this assessment too harsh? I don't think so."

  John is a lawyer who represents corporate interests.  His clients have included chemical companies,insurance companies, and shopping center developers.  He is a blogger who questions the patriotism and the decent intentions of American journalists.  I assume he's included here because he got his JD from Harvard Law.  Based on what I've read by and about him, I don't like what he stands for.  Imagine if your playbill included that kind of sentiment about a supporting character in "Phantom of the Opera!"  This is program blogging at it's dodgiest!   

Edith Holway - Edith is the Fellows and Programs Administrator at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University.  The Center is a co-sponsor of the event.  I can't find a blog with edith's name on it. 

Kathy Im - Kathy K. Im is a program officer at the MacArthur Foundation.  No Google, no HighBeam, nobody's base are belong to us.

Brooks Jackson -  Brooks Jackson is a journalist who covered Washington and national politics for 34 years, reporting in turn for The Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal and CNN. At CNN he pioneered the "adwatch" and "factcheck" form of stories debunking false and misleading political statements starting with the Presidential election of 1992. His investigative reporting for The AP and the Journal won several national awards. He is the author of two books: Honest Graft: Big Money and the American Political Process (Knopf, 1988) and Broken Promise: Why the Federal Election Commission Failed (Twentieth Century Fund: 1990).  Brooks is Director of the Annenberg Political Fact Check project.  He's the guy you should think of when you threaten to "factcheck" somebody's ass.

Jeff Jarvis - Jeff Jarvis blogs at Buzz Machine.  According to a current post there, he is a big-media careerist who comments on media, he voted for Kerry, supported the liberation of Iraq, goes to church and owns (a little) Sirius stock.  Oh, he is also now president & creative director of Advance.net, a disclosure that makes me wonder if Peter Weinberger is any relation to the good doctor but that's a rumination best left for another small world in the upper middle class stream of consciousness.

Alex Jones - Director of the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University and a member of the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government.  This link is the reason my program is worth $10 and you should buy a glossy copy from one of the charming usherettes in fish net stockings showing just a hint of garter belt and wearing little Anna Molinari embroidered rayon and nylon cardigans, by Rossella Tarabini; Temperley London silk and nylon shorts, Agent Provocateur brassieres; La Crasia gloves; Fogal hosiery; and of course Christian Louboutin shoes. The reason I claim my glossy printed program is better than the current "participant list" that you can find on the web is this:  when you click on the links for these people on the participant list, you often go to some generic and institutional web page.  My staff of researchers, working night and day, have assembled more meaningful links.  Take Alex Jones... here's the participant list link.  Here's my link.  You decide.

Alex Jones incidentally is the author of the LA Times op-ed screed titled "Bloggers are the Sizzle not the Steak."  Jay Rosen bridges this misinformation in his pressthink blog today.  Rosen points out that the time for the blogger versus journalist, sizzle versus steak assessments is long past.  He says,

The price of professionalizing journalism was the de-voicing of the journalist. The price for having Big Media was the atomization of the audience, who in the broadcasting model were connected "up" to the center but not "across" to each other. Well, blogging is a re-voicing tool in journalism, and the Net's strengths in horizontal communication mean that audience atomization is being overcome. It's an exciting time in journalism. As the great social weave from which it arises changes form, the thing itself comes up for grabs.

Rick Kaplan - According to an article from Atlanta's 11Alive in February 2004:

Former CNN President Richard Kaplan has been named president of MSNBC, NBC News' 24-hour cable channel. Kaplan replaces Erik Sorenson, who has been general manager of MSNBC since August 1998. ... Kaplan was most recently a senior vice president at ABC News. But from 1997 to 2000, Kaplan served as president of Atlanta-based CNN-US and was responsible for all news and programming at the flagship network of the CNN News Group. He was fired in 2000 after the network's reporting on "Operation Tailwind," a 1998 program charging that U.S. troops gassed dissidents and children in Laos during the Vietnam War, was discredited. He has also been criticized for his relationship with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. Prior to his most recent tenure at ABC News, Kaplan was a teaching fellow at the Shorenstein Center of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He currently serves as an adjunct Fellow and continues to consult and lecture at the Shorenstein Center and is a professor at the University of Illinois. Kaplan has received numerous awards for his work, including 34 Emmy Awards, four Oversees Press Club Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards and 12 Headliner Awards.

Jim Kennedy - James M. Kennedy is vice president and director of strategic planning for The Associated Press.

Programs, getcher programs... 

That was H-I-J-K... what could be next besides LMNOP?