Wendy’s White Board

I was relieved to speak with a family member over the weekend who wears the uniform and has settled his family on a domestic American military installation after many years overseas. Given the tragic events of last week, I was anxious but he reassured me that everything was fine. He's always been good about calming fears.

On Veterans Day in the U.S. and Armistice Day elsewhere we give thanks to those who suit up and risk everything as we put this day in current context. But I'm an old-school history geek deeply affected by studying the events leading up to and following The Great War, especially after visiting the Imperial War Museum in London. If I had ever taught history -- only journalism topped that as a career choice -- this would have been my area of specialty.

Two of my favorite books about that era -- The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman and The Rites of Spring by Modris Eksteins -- masterfully explain the economic and cultural factors that led to the Victorian world being torn apart and for Modernism to emerge, for better and for worse.

What I admire the most about these authors is their unsentimental tough-mindedness not only of the time they depicted, but their continuing reminders of lessons that remain unlearned. Tuchman was particularly ruthless about this.

I'm not sure what Tuchman, who died in 1989, would make of our twin engagements in the Middle East. She thought Vietnam as foolhardy an involvement as I regard Iraq (and Afghanistan, increasingly). I will never agree with my relative -- who proudly served in Iraq -- about how the U.S. throws its military weight around the world.

But in this gem of a Vietnam-related essay, "The Citizen vs. the Military," Tuchman explains the unfortunate reality of why we'll always need to remember those who serve:

"It is not the nature of military man that accounts for war, but the nature of man. The soldier is merely one shape that nature takes. Aggression is part of us, as innate as eating or copulating. As a student of the human record, I can say with confidence that peace is not the norm."

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If Jeff Jarvis is distracted by Twitter, then Twitter must really be a distraction. As much as I love Twitter, and consider it, among other things, my own personalized news wire, I feel overwhelmed on a daily basis by tracking the "stream" I've created. Drowned, even.

So the recent introduction of Twitter lists came as a blessed relief. Despite worries about list mania becoming a popularity contest (guess which subjects are at the top of the list of lists!), I've found that not only have lists slashed the time I spend working through my feeds. They also make me feel less hurried in keeping up.

This morning, for example, I quickly went through the two or three lists I've made that are essential to my work, and got through them in about 10-15 minutes. That's less than half the time I typically had spent trying to catch up with my main feed every morning. Later in the day, I'll go back through my lists again, and others that aren't a high priority.

The real-time quality to Twitter is what makes it so addicting, but it's simply become unmanageable. Now I can read my feeds when I'm ready, and don't worry that I'm missing anything. Most importantly, I'm more productive because I'm less distracted. (I've also used TweetDeck, which I find absolutely distracting.)

Of course it's more than likely that Twitter lists will proliferate to the point that consuming them will feel like drinking from a fire hose. I'll worry about that problem if it arises. For now, I enjoy and use Twitter with much more ease, and a lot less stress.

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In this short, but essential post, Jonathan Fields doesn't waste a word in distilling what I've learned from a dramatic period of career transformation during the last year or so:

"There is, no doubt, a time for chaos and exploration.

"In fact, it nearly always proceeds and informs a period of greater, more focused building. And, it’s not unusual for it to occasionally return as you question your current path. But, understanding and, to the extent possible, directing that chaos toward a resolution is critical, even if it means letting go of paths and options in order to create the space, focus and intention to drive forward with one. Because, with rare exception…

"For greatness to emerge, options must narrow…and chaos must die."

I do appreciate the reminder. I would suggest reading the whole thing thoroughly, and taking heed of every single word, even though "legacy" is a bit of a heavy term for me.

My blog on journalism, media and work in the digital age is here. I don't get to it as often as I'd like, but it contains my thoughts and activities as I've re-energized myself since leaving the newspaper world behind. 

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Former Wall Street Journal online editor Jason Fry, who's been team-tagging a New York Mets fan blog for several years and now does new media evangelizing, writes on the National Sports Journalism Center site about the pros and cons of sports bloggers starting up their own individual sites.

You've heard these before: Patience and planning, of course, but having a strong background doing the news is ideal. The rote, often boring routine of cranking out daily fare -- some call it hackery -- can really pay off in the blog life:

"When Greg and I started Faith and Fear, we were both experienced journalists who’d done lots and lots of meat-and-potatoes stories for various employers. A lot of them were dull stuff, but they’d given us a firm foundation as reporters and writers.

"We didn’t need that to blog, but we did wind up grateful for it. Again, the question to ask here is, 'What if I succeed?' If you gain a following as a blogger, readers will hold what you write to certain standards for fairness and accuracy – and in my experience, readers’ standards are higher than you might think. They will pick apart the honesty of your writing and the logic of your arguments, and they will do it publicly. When that happens, a good journalistic footing is an enormous relief."

That blog, Faith and Fear in Flushing, ought to be worth some anguished posts during the World Series, contested by two teams loathed in Mets Land. And the blogroll is a work of art in itself; I especially love the "Road Apples" moniker for out-of-town media in the N.L. East.

Fry's thoughts on journalism and new media are at Reinventing the Newsroom.

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Sportswriter Buzz Bissinger (who penned a book with LeBron James) liked NBA commissioner David Stern's decision in 2005 to bar entry to players straight out of high school and those under the age of 19. Now as Stern considers raising the age limit to 20, Bissinger is turning on the policy, saying it hasn't helped players. But ol' Buzz, as he is wont, doesn't stop there: 

"Equally important, professional sports leagues and the N.C.A.A. should stop jumping into the same Jacuzzi together, turning the idea of 'student-athletes' into a farce, padding university coffers and keeping the pro owners from having to pay for the grooming of young talent.

"If David Stern truly cared about his players’ well-being, he would advocate that all the silliness over the sanctity of the college academic experience stop and that N.B.A.-bound players get some share of the millions of dollars they generate: in the greatest capitalistic society in the history of the world, this may be the greatest inequity."

Thanks to the excellent Sports Law Blog for the h/t.

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I won't delve into the general ugliness of the Steve Phillips/ESPN story and Deadspin's maniacal (pathological?) obsession with the sports cable giant. Especially after it got scooped by the New York Post. But Nick Denton's defense of his blog empire's ethos is more troubling to me than anything else:

 

These rules, however, were written in an age when print outlets had time to consult their attorneys and deliberate the legal risks, and moral ethics, of publishing controversial stories. Daulerio says a Gawker lawyer did not look at his posts before he published them. In fact, Gawker founder Nick Denton recently sent a memo to his staff imploring them to act less like traditional media. "Let's check to see whether the associated claim is true," Denton wrote. "But we should publish anyway, making clear what we know to be true and what remains up in the air ... There's no way we're going to slow our publishing schedule to that of a ponderous newspaper-style organization, where everything has to go through layers of edit and approval and checking and legal ... At some media organizations, you might get rapped for running a premature story. At Gawker Media, you'll lose way more points for being scooped on a story you had in your hands."

No mention on the consequences if a "scoop" is wrong or information "up in the air" later turns out to be incorrect. Maybe he can explain everything away dismissively, with snark, as Denton is prone. But there are legal implications to ponder. And lives that can be, and have been, wrecked.

Both Phillips and the ESPN production assistant with whom he had an affair have been fired.

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I thought this was a bogus story when I first heard about it, and can't believe The New York Times made such a big deal about it over the weekend: President Obama's all-guys hoops games, and what that might say about the true influence and "place" for women in his administration:

“Women are Obama’s base, and they don’t seem to have enough people who look like the base inside of their own inner circle,” said Dee Dee Myers, a former press secretary in the Clinton administration whose sister, Betsy, served as the Obama campaign’s chief operating officer.

Ms. Myers said women have high expectations of the president. “Obama has a personal style that appeals to women,” she said. “He is seen as a consensus builder; he is not a towel snapper and does not tell crude jokes.”

But wait, the hectoring gets sillier still, from NOW president Terry O'Neill. Then again, Obama was remiss in filling out an NCAA women's basketball tournament bracket last season. What a Neanderthal! 

At least Obama is playing golf with a woman! Oh joy! Nip that Martha Burk problem in the bud before it sprouts.

I don't know what it's like to be a woman in the realm of high political circles, but I do cover sports for a living, and have devoted much of my work to covering women's sports. Dee Dee, you don't know towel-snapping like I do!

I know what it's like to operate in a mostly male environment, and to push for more media coverage of women athletes who aren't in the so-called "Bambi" sports (tennis, gymnastics, figure skating, etc.).

But I find this whining from very privileged women -- the products of elite educations and powerful political, corporate and social connections I have never enjoyed -- absolutely bamboozling. Former Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Joane Lipman, also writing in the NYT over the weekend, sounds as though we're still in the 1970s.

Perhaps this is the mid-life crisis issue for women of my generation. I understand their frustration, but I don't share their dour mood. And I don't like the implication that their experiences speak for all of us.

Neither do I have a problem with guys wanting to be with the guys. Even males I know who are deeply involved in women's sports need this release. Ladies, just let them be, for a few minutes out of the day.

Obama was right to call the claptrap over his hoops games "bunk." As usual, he was being too polite. Women need to be more concerned with finding satisfaction with their own work and lives instead of worrying about symbolic issues and infantile name-calling on the Web.

Here's some very helpful advice in that regard.

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My latest post at Blue Star Basketball examines four women's college programs that have been touched already by tragedy -- the death of a fellow college athlete and two near-death experiences and a potentially fatal diagnosis for three of the top players in the sport.

As I busily write season previews, assess the national landscape and break down the conferences, these events ought to make everyone take pause. The young people whose talents we marvel at aren't drones, interchangeable parts that we can conveniently fit into a preseason lineup on paper.

The wildly unpredictable human intangibles that are difficult even for coaches to factor in take on a new dimension when lives are taken, altered or threatened, as they have been at the University of Connecticut, and to Cal's Tierra Rogers, Amber Gray of Tennessee and North Carolina star Jessica Breland.

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