Hey Internet! Keep Your Eyes Off My Daughter!

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Update: We were asked to take down the picture of Allison Stokke -- and we were asked nicely, so we did it.

Websites like YouTube and MySpace have displayed the Internet's powerful ability to make regular folks into stars in an instant. (Remember this guy?) But what happens when the Internet makes those regular folks into stars against their will, or anoints them for reasons or qualities they don't want accentuated? Enter Allison Stokke, an 18-year-old high school student and superstar pole vaulter who just happens to be especially beautiful. The Washington Post explains:

In her high school track and field career, Stokke had won a 2004 California state pole vaulting title, broken five national records and earned a scholarship to the University of California, yet only track devotees had noticed. Then, in early May, she received e-mails from friends who warned that a year-old picture of Stokke idly adjusting her hair at a track meet in New York had been plastered across the Internet. She had more than 1,000 new messages on her MySpace page. A three-minute video of Stokke standing against a wall and analyzing her performance at another meet had been posted on YouTube and viewed 150,000 times.

Some people would be flattered, but to this student athlete trying to make pole vaulting history, it's nothing more than an unwelcome (and creepy) distraction. And needless to say, her father isn't thrilled either. After all, it's hard to have the "keep your hands off my daughter" talk with the ENTIRE INTERNET.

So what can Allison Stokke do about this? Is there any way she can undo what's already been done on the Internet? To find out, Luke and our own Alison talked to Michael Fertik, CEO of ReputationDefender.com, a company that provides just that type of service. It's a company that had no reason to exist a few years ago, but if you've ever been Googled by a prospective employer or blind date, you might be thankful they exist now. Check out our segment, then Google everyone you know and tell us if you find anything juicy.

Dan Pashman

3:56 PM ET | 05-31-2007 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Super Spammer Nailed, Drug Resistant Bugs and ReputationDefender.com!

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"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

The Rundown. In attendance: Matt Martinez (who brought bagels!), newly married Dan Pashman, Alison Stewart (class secretary today) and Luke Burbank via speaker phone from home because his NPR computer was packed away because we are now based out of NYC.

KILLER BUGS -- Following up on yesterday's story about the man with XDR-TB, we wanted to explore the medical angle of this story today. What are the details behind this resistant TB? How could someone get it? We were also curious about the world famous Colorado hospital where he is quarantined. The health story is these extreme bugs. While resistant TB is rare, how concerned should we be about drug resistant staph or salmonella? Is it a cause and effect...science creates incredible antibiotics and the bugs adapt, so scientists create more medications and then bugs adapt and the cycle continues? Is it antibiotics in the food supply? What is going on?

ECONOMY ON PAUSE -- The economy had its worst three month showing in four years when it comes to growth. The pace was 0.6 percent. So what does that mean to you practically? That's what we want to know. "It's the economy stupid" was the rallying cry when Bill Clinton was running for POTUS, so why haven't we heard boo about it so far this election cycle? Emily Meehan from the WSJ.com did a great job of explaining some investment ideas to us last week...so we thought we would bug her again.

IT'S HEALTH CARE STUPID -- Okay, so maybe this issue is the one which will define the election. There has been some reaction to Senator Barak Obama finally unveiling his health plan yesterday. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who actually signed landmark legislation requiring all Massachusetts residents to have health insurance, gives the issue very little play on the stump or his website. Senator Hillary Clinton is in a uniquely sticky situation. She was put in charge of changing health care back in the 90's and we all know how that went. She has not released a detailed plan yet. The BPP would break down the candidates' plans at this point and look at the issue as a political football.

SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO L&O? -- As political pundits speculate about the effect of Law and Order actor/ former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson's entering the presidential race, we wanted to know, what the heck is happening to Law and Order? Thompson had to wait for the series season ender before embarking on this new journey. Sam Waterston, an L&O fixture, has been all over the media touting the need for a bipartisan ticket via the Unity'08 movement. There's speculation he may be interested in seeking some office. The show has been on for an unprecedented 18 years -- but could it run out of steam? (The original has not been the same since Jerry Orbach died, IMHO.) NBC announced L&O: Criminal Intent won't be seen on broadcast first, but on cable network USA. L&O-RIP? (dungh-dungh) The Guests--TV columnist? Dick Wolff? Chris Noth?

DO YOU NEED A NEW THING-A-MA-BOB? -- Palm unveiled its newest creation: The Foleo. It's somewhere between a Treo phone and a full-blown laptop both in capability and size. It has received cheers and jeers from tech watchers. We'd check in with our own gadget guest to find out if it is worth the 500 clams. Also, to find out more about Jeff Hawkings, the man who invented the Palm Pilot. Can he make that kind of mark again?

STALKING STOKKE -- So an 18-year old athlete just wants to be known for her phenomenal track and field record. Instead, the gorgeous jock has become the object of much affection and attention for web lurkers. Not to bag on my co-host, but when I brought up Allison Stokke's name, he recognized it immediately and said he likes to refer to her as 'Allison Burbank'. He confirmed she was indeed 'hot'. Allison Stokke is one of the most searched names at Yahoo. Websites and fan pages have been devoted to her. Some have since been shut down and her family has said they aren't into that kind of attention. All she did was become a great pole vaulter -- she also happens to look like a cross between Gwen Stefani and Natalie Portman. We are going to try to talk to the founders of a website called ReputationDefender.com about how a person can go about protecting him or herself from being vaulted (pardon the pun) into the public eye.

SUPER SPAMMER IN THE SLAMMER -- Authorities are claiming that with the arrest of one 27-year old troublemaker we will all see less spam in our inbox. Robert Soloway is now in federal detention awaiting a hearing on Monday. He could spend years in prison for elaborate spamming schemes that duped people into heading to websites where he sold advertising for hundreds of dollars. Other judgments have been levied against him. Microsoft even went after him and won a 7 million dollar civil judgment. You know it's bad when you are on Redmond's radar. Can one arrest really make that big a difference? We would try to find an expert on the spam universe.

DEPRESSION AND THE NFL -- A New York Times story today reports that depression in retired NFL athletes is directly related to concussions suffered during their careers. Other brain trauma studies have confirmed the same among the general population. We wanted to look at what these players go through physically when they are hit. Luke brought up the fact that football helmets are more advanced than ever but that the players are bigger and stronger too. We wondered if we could talk to someone who could explain the intensity of the sheer impact of two giant men colliding. Also, Dan wanted to know about whether or not the commercial sports structure has been looking the other way on this depression/concussion issue.

RAW TAPE -- THE SPELLING B-E-E -- We mulled over the idea of a segment called Raw Tape where we would just play a chunk of audio -- uncut, unedited but maybe interrupted by us for commentary -- or not. The subject could be as serious as the CDC pressure on TB man or as whimsical as the last three minutes of the Scripps Annual Spelling Bee, which is tonight!

Alison Stewart

11:10 AM ET | 05-31-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

This Segment May Be Bumped Without Warning

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Credit: Scoobyfoo

Yesterday we promised a Make Me Care segment about the World Bank, but that story has been bumped. In fact, bumping is all the rage these days, as evidenced by the experience of our own Luke Burbank, who's been bumped from his seat on two different flights in the past week, despite being at the airport and checked in before boarding began both times. As it turns out, Luke is not alone, as an article in Wednesday's New York Times shows. The article states that "the number of fliers bumped against their will is expected to reach a high for the decade this year," all because of the common airline practice of overbooking flights. The practice has led to a revolt by airport gate agents, the people forced to deliver the bad news, who are using their computers to fill up flights with phantom passengers like "Mickey Mouse." This prevents the airlines from overbooking, and saves the gate agents the hours of verbal abuse they usually receive when they have to tell people a flight is overbooked. So how will the Bryant Park Project tackle this hard-hitting issue, you ask? Well, we promised you a more conversational show, so rather than conducting a formal interview, we just piled into the studio and turned on the mics. Let us know what you think, and feel free to share any airline bumping horror stories of your own.

Dan Pashman

10:31 AM ET | 05-31-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Iraq, Mitt's Money, Lindsay's Liquor, and a Really Big (Possibly Fake) Hog

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"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Well I (Dan) am back from my wedding. But enough about me. I'm pleased to join the gang in New York, across the street from Bryant Park, site of our eponymous project. (That's the first time I've ever used 'eponymous' in a sentence. Did I do it right?)

The Rundown. In attendance: Alison Stewart, Luke Burbank, Matt Martinez and Dan Pashman.

IRAQ CASUALTIES -- More U.S. troops have died in Iraq in the last two months than during any other two month span of the Iraq War. We debated whether we'd leave this story for the newscast, or take it on ourselves. After all, stories about these grim milestones have started to sound redundant to our ears, and we wondered how much impact headlines like this one actually have now. I pointed out that they must have some impact, since support for the war continues to decline. We decided that if we covered it, we'd like to talk to a regular Joe or Jane who supported the Iraq War from the start, but who's recently changed his/her mind, to find out how stories like today's played into the decision.

MAKE ME CARE: THE WORLD BANK -- If news that the U.S. will nominate Robert Zoellick to be the new head of the World Bank has you reaching for the remote, you're not alone. So this afternoon, we'll going to try to find out why we should care. And we'll find out why Zoellick should not be confused with Zelig.

CHINESE FOOD CHIEF SENTENCED TO DEATH -- The former head of China's top food and drug safety agency was sentenced to death Tuesday after pleading guilty to corruption and accepting bribes. Luke's first reaction was, "REALLY?! DEATH?!" Sure, they contaminated our pet food, and they accidentally put antifreeze in a shipment of cough syrup bound for Latin America, but we didn't know an execution was in the realm of possibility. Would this kind of sentencing cut down on bribery and graft in the U.S.? Would it have kept Ken Lay on the straight and narrow? And even if it would have, would it be right, or downright cruel and unusual?

MITT ROMNEY WOULD WORK FOR FREE -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says he will not take a salary if elected. This story led Alison to wonder why Romney's incredible wealth ($190-$250 million) has not received more attention, considering we've heard plenty about Rudy Giuliani's business deals and John Edwards' $400 haircut. Matt asked whether the wealth of all the candidates gives lie to the childhood notion that "anyone can grow up to be president." And Dan asked what specific and tangible advantages wealth provides candidates, considering they don't actually pay for their own campaigns. Is it simply that they have more rich friends to hit up for donations? (If the BPP ran for president, we know we could count on all of you high-rolling blog readers to help us out.)

AIRLINE PASSENGERS GETTING THE SHAFT -- Luke flew twice in recent days, and nearly lost his seat both times, because overbooking has hit an all-time high. This great article talks about why airlines do it, how they do it, and how the people working at the gate sometimes use their computers to fill up seats with fake names, just to prevent a flight from getting overbooked, just so they don't have to deal with angry passengers. If we had a radio show today, Luke would have entertained you with his travel travails, like getting bumped from cushy first class to a middle seat next to a rather cushy person.

CELEBS BEHAVING BADLY (AND/OR POLITICALLY) -- So Lindsay Lohan got drunk again. How do these underage celebs get served at clubs? It's not like people don't know who she is and that she's underage. Of course, a tabloid photo of her stumbling out of your bar might be the best advertising you'll ever get, but that's about to change, thanks to a crackdown by the Alcohol Board of California...Other members of the glitterati will attend an uber-trendy fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at Brett Ratner's house. We all wondered what it will mean if these people actually start using their money and fame to advocate for anything more than a postpartum Brazilian...New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez (a.k.a. A-Rod) was caught on camera returning to a hotel in Toronto with a buxom blonde that looked nothing like his wife. The New York Post went with the cover headline "STRAY-ROD," followed by "He's a Yankee Doodle Randy" inside. Think you could come up with something better? Give it a shot! The best A-Rod-related tabloid style headline pun posted to the blog wins an undetermined prize.

AND MORE -- Other stories on our radar today include the guy who got on a plane with the superstrain of tuberculosis, a recall of contact lens solution, and the emerging questions about whether the story of an 11-year-old who killed a 1,000-pound hog is a hoax. What do you think? Do you buy it?

Dan Pashman

10:24 AM ET | 05-30-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

What a Sport! A Look at the Yankees, NASCAR and Steroids

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Alison Stewart and Bill Wolff from their NY Times "Vows" appearance, in which Times photographers glued them together for the photo.

The BPP Sports Page makes its debut today!

Because this whole Rough Cuts blog process is all about trying new things -- seeing what works and what should never see the light of day ever again -- we decided to take a personal approach to the big sports news stories of the day. I, like many spouses, live with a sports enthusiast. My sports enthusiast actually turned his life long fandom into a paying job.

He was a producer/on-air talent at ESPN for years. You may remember him as the 'disembodied' voice on ESPN's "Around the Horn" and occasional side kick on Max Kellerman's ESPN radio show.

So listen to what happens when sports, a news anchor and her husband all collide.

Alison Stewart

3:29 PM ET | 05-29-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Sudan Sanctions, Oh Google!, Gay Robot, Passive Aggressive Notes

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"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

We're in New York! Well, actually just Alison and Matt are -- Luke is hopping on a plane from Seattle and I (Matt) am fighting off sleep because I took a red-eye from Phoenix. So, I'm kinda here. All that to say, we got started a little late today -- but plenty going on. Coming up on the podcast later today: We're talking sports with some guy named Bill Wolff. We promise it'll be a good time.

The Rundown. In attendance: Alison Stewart (fresh from the gym), Matt Martinez (bleary-eyed nursing a venti skim latte) and Luke Burbank (joining us by phone, while driving and drinking coffee -- kids, don't try that at home).

SUDAN SANCTIONS -- President Bush is following through on a threat made to Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and plans to announce economic sanctions against Sudan today. Mr. Bush asked Sudan's prez to permit full deployment of U-N peacekeeping forces in Darfur, as well as allow aid to reach the region and to stop supporting janjaweed militias. Well, Bashir didn't do it. Hence, the sanctions. The violence and genocide in Darfur is such an important story, but it's also extraordinarily complicated. After we got through the news of sanctions, we thought this would be a good opportunity to step back and get a handle on the situation in the Darfur region. I thought we should call NPR's East Africa Correspondent Gwen Thompkins -- she's based in Nairobi, Kenya and just returned from a tour of the Darfur region. I worked closely with Gwen for three years at Weekend Edition, Saturday and one of the many things I was impressed with was her ability to put things in perspective -- to take a huge, sprawling, seemingly out-of-control story and make it comprehensible. Alison was interested in the fact that, back in April, President Bush backed down on the sanctions at the request of the U-N's Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. We wondered, since when does this administration back down because of a U-N request. (Sure, that's not fair -- but the Administration's U-N track record is less than stellar.) Luke was wondering how much of the aid promised to Darfur -- and the Africa in general -- is tied to faith-based groups.

IRAN -- The United States and Iran met for four hours of talks in Baghdad on Monday. The purpose: To talk about violence in Iraq, specifically who is responsible for it and how to make it stop. The U.S. says Iran backs Shiite militias. Iran says they don't. Ryan Crocker is the U.S. Ambassador in Baghdad, he described the meeting as business-like and focused solely on Iraq. The only firm thing that all parties seemed to agree on was that Iraq should be a secure and stable federal democracy with its own security force. But how? We thought it might be good to turn to someone like Reza Aslan and have a conversation.

GOOGLE NATION -- Google has hit a stumbling block in their attempt to dominate the world. The Federal Trade Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Google's planned purchase of DoubleClick, which would be the largest in Google's history (even more than what what it paid for YouTube). According to DoubleClick, this is what they do:

DoubleClick's suite of products empowers agencies, web publishers and marketers to work together successfully. This is realized through the integrated DART platform, our suite of products designed to meet the needs of the buy-side and sell-side of digital marketing. On the buy-side, DoubleClick serves the needs of agencies, advertisers, and marketers with MediaVisor, DART for Advertisers, DART Search, DART Motif, Klipmart solutions and strategic services. On the sell-side, DoubleClick serves the needs of web publishers, networks, and media websites with DART for Publishers, DART Sales Manager, DART Enterprise, DART Adapt, DART Motif, DART Motif for Flash-in-Flash, DART Motif for In-Stream and strategic services.

What?!?!?!?!?! I want to know what this company does -- in normal person speak. Maybe that'll give a bit more insight into why the FTC is in such a huff over the whole thing.

NASA ESCAPE HATCH -- This story is just cool. NASA engineers are designing a new escape hatch for the launch pad and, in a word, it looks awesome! Like some crazy roller coaster ride at Six Flags. If something were to go wrong on a launch, the astronauts would be able to bail by taking a contraption that would swoop them down a 370-feet tall 90-degree track. USA Today has a great graphic of it (of course they do). I want to talk to one of those crazy roller coaster people I always see on the Discovery Channel -- or to one of the many engineers that design roller coasters.

GAY ROBOT -- Word today that our favorite gay-themed robot pilot may now become a real show. The story is brilliant: Guy wants to make a sitcom about a robot that is gay. No one picks it up. Guy puts the pilot on YouTube, it becomes a hit. Now, the show is probably going to get picked up by Comedy Central. A good story about how much power the Internet can have.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- Passive Aggressive Notes. You can go there and check this out if you want to, but you don't have to. Really, just do whatever you want.

SPORTS -- We plan to talk sports today with Alison's significant other -- Bill Wolff. On tap: The Yankees suck, Barry Bond's steroid probs, super-big fun on the racetrack over the weekend and Bill's undying love for Luke Burbank. It's the BPP sports page. Stay tuned.

Matt Martinez

10:49 AM ET | 05-29-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Gone Fishin'

Filed under: Inside The BPP

We're out for the long holiday weekend. We'll see you back here first thing Tuesday. Have a great Memorial Day!

Matt Martinez

4:00 PM ET | 05-25-2007 | permalink | e-mail post

Twizzlers, For Sure...But Which Movie?

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Credit: massdistraction

This weekend is the kickoff of the eclectic summer movie season. In the coming weeks you can expect the likes of Ocean's 13, The Simpsons Movie and Knocked Up.

This weekend you won't be able to get away from Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It will be seen in 4,362 theaters, according to boxofficemojo.com. On the other end of the spectrum -- artistically and commercially -- Miramax's Golden Door will be seen in two theaters, with more additions as the summer rolls on.

I spoke with NPR's Bob Mondello. He has seen both movies and has a very personal connection to one of them. Take a listen.

Alison Stewart

3:15 PM ET | 05-25-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

FREE MONEY!

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Credit: scmtngirl

Now that I have your attention. Would you know what to do if someone suddenly gave you 2,500 bucks? With graduation and wedding season here, some people could find themselves a bit flush in the coming months. I spoke with the Wall Street Journal.com's Emily Meehan who did a little research about how to best invest a sudden windfall.

Have a listen on the streaming audio link above or download our podcast.

Alison Stewart

11:09 AM ET | 05-25-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

War Spending, Minimum Wage, Weekend Movies, Pomp and Circumstance

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"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Coming up on the podcasts later today: The Wall Street Journal.com's Emily Meehan tells you how to invest an unexpected $2500, and we talk weekend movies with NPR's Bob Mondello.

The Rundown. In attendance: Alison Stewart and Matt Martinez. And a bacon, egg and cheese muffin. Hey, where'd everyone go?!

WAR SPENDING -- Congress passed a bill that would provide $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It passed the House 280-142 and 80-14 in the Senate. Among those 14 Senate dissenters: Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Both were among the last to vote Thursday night. It's a calculated move on their part -- a conversation about how this could work for or against them in the coming presidential campaign might be in order.

MINIMUM WAGE -- Also part of the spending package: The first minimum wage increase in more than a decade. It's going from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 in three installments. Wages will increase by 70 cents before the end of this summer. Then another 70 cents next year and another 70 cents by summer 2009. This is one of many things in the spending bill that got lost in the hubbub around war funding. We wondered: What else flew in under the radar in the funding bill?

THE WAR -- I was reading D.C.'s commuter paper -- Express -- this morning -- and they have a section called "Blog Log" which is a random list of quotes from various blogs. This one from College Grad "Real" World recounts what happened at the end of an evening of listening to live classical music at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center:

It was a wonderful evening of music. It's amazing what the Millennium Stage shows for free. As I got back on to the shuttle bus to take me back to the Foggy Bottom Metro stop, the driver had on NPR. It was talking about the war in Iraq. I turned to my friend and said, "I wish he could just turn on classical music and let the moment last a little longer." Unfortunately, an hour's respite is all we were given from the "real" world.

This got us wondering about how you take in coverage of the Iraq War. Is it just a blur? Beyond depressing? Do you just tune it out? Or are you glued to every piece of information you can get -- how do you process it? We just thought this would be a good conversation to have going into Memorial Day weekend.

LEBANON -- We wanted to have a follow-up conversation on the situation in Lebanon -- catch up with reporter Ben Gilbert who is now in Tripoli. The United States sent military aid to Lebanon today -- and the Lebanese army beefed up their troop presence at the Palestinian camp where its been battling Islamist militants this week.

SMOKING SECTION -- There's a report out by a group called the "Institute of Medicine" that urges Congress to give the FDA the power to regulate nicotine levels in cigarettes. There is a bill in Congress that would give the FDA that authority -- it's supported by Philip Morris USA. We wondered why a big tobacco company would be supporting legislation that would heavily regulate its industry. We'd want to do some digging on that. This story comes at the same time as a new study by the Centers for Disease Control that says smoking is forbidden in nearly three out of four households. A smoking roundup this morning...

FOR ME TO POOP ON -- The president got pooped on -- and not by his political enemies. It happened during his news conference Thursday. The Prez was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, what does this mean? What's the news value? How does this increase my understanding of the world? It doesn't. It's just amusing.

COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES -- Alison wanted to talk with someone giving a commencement speech this weekend. She thought Soledad O'Brien might be interesting. She was also interested in the places that people are choosing to speak. (Or the people that places are choosing.) And we wonder about those students who are speaking this weekend -- who are they? We thought it would be fun to dig up the names of people who have spoken at their graduation and find out where they are now -- have the gone on to great things? Are they household names?

COKE -- Alison is interested in Coke buying Glaceau, the company that makes Vitaminwater. It was a $4.1 billion deal. Does Coke -- which is already in the water business with Desani -- want to dominate the water/sport drink business? We want to have a bigger conversation about the marketing of water -- especially the sport drink business. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I have been sucked in by Gatorade's marketing of their new sport drink Propel. I was watching a commercial for the drink a few weeks back: A guy is running through the city and when he finishes he takes a sip of his "Propel." I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm a guy. I live in the city. And I'm a runner! That's the drink for me!" It's that easy.)

TALK RADIO -- It's been a bad month for talk radio. Opie and Anthony suspended. Imus still reverberating. And now the FREE FM format has taken a hit in NYC. New York's 92.3 FM ended the format Thursday and returned K-Rock to the air. That was the station's identity before Howard Stern departed for satellite radio in January 2006. Why did it bail? Was the talk not working? Do people need talk radio to be more partisan and sexed up to survive? Maybe a conversation with someone from Broadcast and Cable? We just thought the whole talk radio subject had risen to such a level that we should talk about it.

MAKE ME CARE -- Alison came up with a great "Make Me Care" segment for next week: Tell me why I should give a hoot about who should be the next World Bank president. Paul Wolfowitz leaves at the end of June. We'll set that up for next week.

MOVIES -- From the smallest to the biggest movie releases -- we are talking with NPR movie critic Bob Mondello about movies this Memorial Day weekend. Expect a podcast later this afternoon.

Matt Martinez

9:04 AM ET | 05-25-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

To Be, Or Not To Be ... Cool

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Sofia Coppola, Russell Simmons, John Demsey -- the president of MAC cosmetics -- Talib Kweli and Tony Hawk are just some of the people interviewed in the new book Chasing Cool: Standing Out In Today's Cluttered Marketplace. It's not a how-to manual for those in need of a personality makeover. It's more of an exploration into the changing concepts about what is or isn't cool. The book follows the success of those companies that found a way to produce something authentic and the failures of those who faked it.

I talk with authors Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman. Have a listen on the streaming audio link above or download our podcast.

Alison Stewart

12:26 PM ET | 05-24-2007 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Monica, Monica, Monica. Plus Deadly Dust and Sparks: The Idol Kind and The View Kind

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"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Coming up later today, a podcast interview with the authors of Chasing Cool: Standing Out In Today's Marketplace. These arbiters of style and trends have a little advice for our show as we try to create something new and different while retaining all the great aspects of NPR.

Now, our meeting: In attendance: Matt Martinez, Luke Burbank, Alison Stewart. Producer Dan Pashman split yesterday because he is getting married this weekend! Congrats Dan.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MONICA GOODLING -- It is interesting when someone who is unknown to the average person is revealed to have had such an impact on our judicial system. With the cloak of immunity, the 33-year old former Justice Department aide told a House panel she was wrong to use political criteria when deciding who might be hired . She also suggested that her boss, Alberto Gonzales, may have discussed facts of the case with her when he shouldn't have. We thought it would be best to reach out to an NPR reporter covering this story and debrief him or her. Hello, Ari Shapiro, we will find you! Why did she have so much power? How troubling was her testimony for Gonzales? Is this kind of scrutiny unusual?

DEADLY DUST --The chief medical examiner in New York added Felicia Dunn-Jones to the list of 9-11 victims even though she died five months after the attacks. The 42-year old lawyer breathed in so much toxic dust from the falling twin towers that her lungs were destroyed. It's one of the many lasting scars of that day. Our own Matt Martinez produced a report with All Things Considered's Michele Norris about this health hazard. We thought we would talk to Matt about the details of this story, play some of the report he produced and then do a follow up interview with the worker at Ground Zero who was featured in the piece.

SPARKS FLY-- The American Idol finale. Seventy-four million votes gave spunky 17-year old Jordin Sparks the win. The TV show was an extravaganza which featured multi-million dollar selling artists performing, music legends like Gladys Knight on stage, a call for aid to Darfur, Oscar winners in the audience and career makers like Clive Davis giving speeches. As I watched I thought to myself, Idol has supplanted MTV as the king of the pop culture hill. We considered talking to Andy Denhart who writes a smart blog about reality TV.

A POLITICAL VIEW -- Who didn't get forwarded the link of The View co-hosts Rosie O'Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck locking political horns over the definition of terrorism, the power of political talking points as well as religion and homosexuality? It was an incredible mash-up of politics and personal attack. We debated if this was a story to cover and our decision was yes. This show has incredible influence. According to Variety, it is the number four most watched show on daytime television. It reaches millions of women between the age of 18-49. And if Hasselbeck appears on Fox News Network as a guest host and O'Donnell's blog links through to various political sites -- aren't these women shaping opinion? What do you think?

If you didn't get to see the video, here it is in all its glory:

EYE ON IRAN --There are two big stories coming out of Iran today. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said he believes Iran can have a nuclear weapon within three to eight years and urged the U.S. and the U-N Security Council to tone down, in his word, "the rhetoric" when it comes to this issue. All this comes at a time when at least three Iranian-American scholars have been detained by Iranian security forces of some kind. As one headline called it, "The Quiet Hostage Crisis." I loved Mark Bowden's book Guests of the Ayatollah about the '79 crisis and suggested we could talk to him. Luke said he would talk to Mark Bowden about anything.

FIRED FOR GOSSIPING -- Four New Hampshire women claim they were fired for chatting about the relationship between a higher up and a woman who seemed to be getting preferential treatment. This case is a specific incident, but we wondered, is office gossip a bad thing? Isn't it normal? What about when it becomes what some folks call "triangulation" which, according to Wikipedia is "where reporting and communication relationships between two individuals are compromised when a subordinate bypasses a supervisor to share prejudicial information with others in a hierarchy without the supervisor's knowledge." Yikes. Some seem to think gossip serves a purpose.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

The Vice President and his wife released this picture with their brand new grandson Samuel David Cheney. Mary Cheney gave birth to the cute little guy yesterday morning. He is the first child for Cheney and her partner Heather Poe. Given what you know about the Cheney family and Grandpa's position on gay marriage, we wondered what you thought when you saw the picture and what caption you might give it?

STAR WARS' 30th ANNIVERSARY AND THE BPP HOST-- Luke Burbank said he could rant for 6 minutes about how people feel compelled to say to him, "Luke, I'm your father" or "Use the force Luke!" That would be one of the many ways people are commemorating this milestone. Others include a cool online offering: Lucas films will release a number of movie clips for fans to mash up as they please. We will keep our eyes open for good clips. Or you could just enjoy Chad Vader.

SITE OF THE DAY: ANCESTRY.COM -- We are considering a feature that highlights some great website that comes our way, or a site that is making news. Today's example would be ancestry.com which put more than 90 million war records online. The information can be accessed for free until June 6th -- the anniversary of D-Day. The founder of the site told the Associated Press that war has touched so many people's lives and "the history of our families is intertwined with the history of our country". We, of course, would do our own interview with him.

PHIL SPECTOR -- Luke is into the Phil Spector trial. Spector is accused of murdering an actress in his home. Apparently the judge ruled a forensic expert may have removed a key piece of evidence from the crime scene and hid it from prosecutors. To add to the scandal, this forensic expert is Henry Lee who was instrumental in .....wait for it....the O.J. Simpson murder case. This story is big on the West Coast. How could we make it more interesting to the rest of the country? Perhaps lay out who Phil Spector is and his huge contribution to modern music? Talk about his long troubled personal life? Look at the fine line between genius and madness?

WHAT TO DO WITH $2500? --There is a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about what you could do if you should come into a reasonably large amount of money. The sum is interesting because if you are employed and have some savings already, you might be inclined to just go on vacation or buy a flatscreen TV. Matt claimed he could rip through that amount at Burberry in one afternoon. The article's author, Emily Meehan, explains how to invest the money wisely. We are going to try to get an interview with her today.

Alison Stewart

9:52 AM ET | 05-24-2007 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

The Best Song In The World Today: "Wet and Rusting" by Menomena

Filed under: The Best Song In The World Today

These are heady days in my old stomps: The Pacific Northwest. The Portland Trailblazers got themselves the first pick in the NBA draft -- I hope Greg Oden owns some Polar Fleece -- and as if that weren't enough, The Rose City is also the home of the band Menomena. Their latest record Friend and Foe is so good it will crawl in your ear and lay awesome eggs in your brain. My fave so far is the beautiful / haunting "Wet and Rusting" (by the way, the fact that I just used the biggest cliche EVER to describe a song shows you exactly why I'm not a music critic).

Anyway, the song is great and Bonus! It even comes with a really funny / heartbreaking (okay THAT is actually the biggest cliche ever) video shot by my personal hero Lance Bangs.

The video seems kind of random at first, but give it a minute and it all starts to come together. I dare you not to get a little choked up by the shot of them bouncing on the rolling trampoline in slo-mo.

Thanks to I Can't Believe It's Not Better! for the heads up on the song. And yes I know it was also on Stereogum and other places a while ago. I get it, I'm lame.

Luke Burbank

4:14 PM ET | 05-23-2007 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Make Me Care: The Champions League Final

Filed under:

Liverpool fans cheer on their team prior to kickoff during the UEFA Champions League Final match between Liverpool and AC Milan at the Olympic Stadium Wednesday in Athens, Greece.

Credit: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

Here at Bryant Park Project World Headquarters, we are not ashamed to admit that many of us are big sports fans. But even this collection of sports fans issued forth a collective yawn at the mention of the UEFA Champions League Final, European soccer's Super Bowl, which takes place Wednesday.

Of course, there's no shortage of interest in Europe, especially in Liverpool and Milan, where the two teams facing each other today reside. It's a rematch of the David (Liverpool) vs. Goliath (Milan) matchup in the 2005 Final, which saw Liverpool execute an improbable comeback from a 3-0 deficit to win on penalty kicks.

And while interest stateside is sparse, there are certainly some Americans out there who really dig soccer, as we found out when we mentioned it in a blog post yesterday. Listener Drew Johnson, a 33-year old software engineer and devoted soccer fan from Saint Paul, MN, posted to this blog yesterday, and his passion for soccer earned him a guest spot today. (We presume the lesson here won't be lost on the rest of you.) Take a listen to Drew's conversation with Alison, then submit your comment below and tell us: Did Drew make you care?

And if you want a little taste of Liverpool's theme song "You'll Never Walk Alone," which helped inspire Drew's fandom, check out this video. The song starts about one minute in, after the game ends and Liverpool wins.

Dan Pashman

12:48 PM ET | 05-23-2007 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post

Congress Caves, The Period Pill, Google Wants To Run Your Life

Filed under:

"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Oh, Wednesday. We've got a boatload of one delicious podcast for you later today -- but first, the meeting rundown:

In attendance: Alison Stewart, Luke Burbank, Matt Martinez, Dan Pashman (producer), Wright Bryan (web producer)

IRAQ -- Lots of Iraq news this morning to flesh out: Roadside bombings, gun battles and a body found in a river south of Baghdad that might be one of the three missing U.S. soldiers. Dan played devil's advocate and asked why the coverage of the missing soldiers has been played up so much -- why are these three so special when there are soldiers dying everyday in Iraq? Alison countered that these guys were most likely kidnapped -- and that elevates the story. Add to that the possibility the soldiers were tortured and it rises above -- though doesn't lessen -- the daily carnage.

CONGRESS -- Democrats caved on their demand for a troop-withdrawal deadline in the spending bill. There was a brief discussion of the word "caved." Is it accurate? The deadline was the number one goal for Dems. The President already axed one bill with a deadline to pull troops out of Iraq -- and he planned to do it again if the Dems persisted in their demand for a time line. We thought a conversation with Jim VandeHei at Politico.com would be in order -- and that could lead to a bigger discussion about how this Congress is an "Oversight Congress." (Read: Endless, endless, endless committee meetings.)

GOOGLE EMPIRE -- Okay, I'm voting this the most disturbing story of the day. In an article in today's Financial Times, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that he hopes Google will soon be able to take over your life. It's like 2001, but six years late. From the article:

The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as "What shall I do tomorrow?" and "What job shall I take?"

He says that Google's ability to "maximize personalization" will enable the company to micro-tailor the software. Man, if we ever leave it to our computers to tell us what to do...uh, wait, hold on...just got an Outlook reminder...gotta run to a meeting soon...

PERIOD BE GONE -- Alison, noting she was the only woman on staff and didn't care if it was a creepy topic for the fellas because women will listen to this show too, pitched a Q&A with a doctor about the period-stopping birth control pill. (It was ok'd by the FDA on Tuesday. It's called Lybrel.) A couple of folks wanted to know about the long term health risks of a pill like this. Several doctors have said they have concerns over whether altering a natural human function will result in disastrous side-effects.

CABS GO GREEN/WHITHER THE HUMMER -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that every cab in New York will be a hybrid by 2012. And GM announced that the Hummer H-1 will cease production. A good day for the environment.

MUSLIM PEW POLL -- An interesting poll from the Pew Research Center on Tuesday surveyed a large sample of the estimated 2.4 million Muslim Americans. Dan pointed out while the headlines all focus on the assimilation and moderation of Muslim Americans (see USA Today), if you dig deeper into the article, the picture is less rosy.
American Muslims between 18 and 29 have a greater acceptance of suicide bombings -- one in four saying it's justified in some cases .

100 WETTEST CITIES -- This is one of the most viewed articles on Yahoo.com, not Maxim. Despite the legend of a damp, dank northwest, Luke's old stomping ground Seattle was not number one -- which Luke already knew! That honor goes to Mobile, Alabama. Alison wondered if it was too 'news you can use' to do a story about how weather affects emotional and mental states.

IN VIRTUAL WEATHER NEWS -- You might need to factor in a chance of hail the next time you play video games. Luke pitched a story about Electronic Arts' soon-to-be-released video game which introduces real time weather conditions to its NCAA '08 football game. So if it's really raining in Phoenix right now, and you're playing a game in Phoenix right now, it'll start raining in your video game, leading to the video game version of wet turf. We thought we'd love to have Win Rosenfeld, our video czar, do a piece on this one, so you could really see what the game looks like.

SHOW CHICAGO THE MONEY -- The MacCarthur Foundation announced it will invest $26 million over five years to help redevelop some of the city's most economically challenged areas. The plan will be developed from the ground up and drafted by community groups. Wright suggested we talk not just to experts on stories like this, but also to regular folks who can give us a sense of the issues on the ground. Also, the segment should include a primer on who and what the MacCarthur Foundation is.

CAPTIVE IN IRAN -- Sixty-seven year old Haleh Esfandiari, a scholar on Middle Eastern and Iranian affairs, is being held captive in Iran. Only her 93-year old mother, who lives there, has been able to see her. Matt wanted to know more about how this happened, who this woman is, and whether the charges against her have validity.

NICE TRY -- Mr. Martinez attempted to pitch a story about a woman who weaves clothes out of audio tape. He lost us at the word "weave," but got us back when he said there was a way to hear audio from the clothing....stay tuned for that one.

We also mulled over how to improve some of what we've already posted. We do appreciate the constructive feedback. Please continue to let us know which if any of these stories sing out to you. Remember, the show WILL have a newscast at least twice an hour, so we will get you information on day-of events.

Alison Stewart

10:16 AM ET | 05-23-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Fat Chance: Is Bill Richardson Too Hefty To Be President?

Filed under: Election 2008

New Mexico Governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson.

Credit: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

Bill Richardson officially announced his race to the White House on Monday, which kind of surprised us considering he was at all the debates and has campaign ads. You figure once you get to that point people pretty much know you're running for president -- or do they? Luke had a question in this morning's meeting -- is Bill Richardson just trying to get noticed? Are his platform and performance in the debates and general bona fides not enough to propel him into the American public's consciousness? And Luke also wondered why someone with such a solid resume has been so completely dismissed so early. Luke called a Columbia University student named Seth Berliner to talk about an article he wrote that might explain why Bill Richardson is not getting noticed: He's too fat. Listen to the podcast or the streaming link above for more on this weighty issue.

Matt Martinez

3:26 PM ET | 05-22-2007 | permalink | comments (13) | e-mail post

Gay Robot, Bill Richardson, Paula Abdul's Nose

Filed under:

"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Well we survived editorial meeting number two! In fact, our only regret is that we're not yet at the point where we can cover ALL of these stories. But we did lay out at least five more segments to be recorded and posted by the end of next week, covering topics like the 2008 presidential race, the battle over veganism, European soccer's Super Bowl and Gay Robot. (Actually, we're fighting with All Things Considered over dibs on Gay Robot. Stay tuned.)

Meeting Rundown. In attendance: Alison Stewart, Luke Burbank, Matt Martinez, Dan Pashman (producer)

IMMIGRATION -- We were on the verge of dismissing this story as one that currently amounts to little more than political posturing, when an interesting discussion broke out. How long will immigration be a front burner issue without some kind of bill being passed? Why is it taking so long? (After all, remember those big May 1st marches last May 1st?) Is it just because there are powerful interests on all sides? Or are some Congressional politicians more interested in the debate than the resolution? And how important is this issue to the American people? Recent polls show it now ranks right after the Iraq War (still #1), but is that just because the political debate has pushed it towards the top, or is it really such a kitchen table issue? (Which came first, the chicken or the immigration debate?) And how many people are tangibly affected by immigration, versus the number of people concerned by it? Damn, we need to flesh this discussion out, but we don't have a radio show yet. If only there were some sort of place, a gathering area if you will, that could be accessed by people all over the world, where you could write in comments and discuss these issues. Man, that would be great. Oh well.

MYSPACE -- The popular website has agreed to turn over the names of registered sex offenders with MySpace accounts to authorities. Luke thought the story was interesting, and Matt pointed out that this dance seems increasingly common between internet companies and the authorities: Feds demand information, company balks, Feds push back, company caves. He added that Craigslist has a self destruct button to wipe out their hard drives if the feds ever try to get them. Alison pointed out that Rupert Murdoch's recent acquisition of MySpace might have had something to do with their relatively quick acquiescence.

GAS PRICES -- It seems like high gas prices are having an effect like never before. Luke said that as a loyal Los Angeleno, he loves driving, but he's actually looking forward to moving to New York and getting rid of his car because of the price of gas. This would be a great chance for us to go a step further: What are some of the less obvious ways that rising gas prices drive up the cost of living? Exactly what are people giving up, what choices are they making that they did not have to make before, as a result? And what are the real reasons for the increase? We'd love to have someone like James Surowiecki from The New Yorker, Rob Walker from the NYT Magazine's "Consumed" section, or NPR's own Scott Horsley to discuss.

BILL RICHARDSON -- He announced yesterday that he's officially running for president. First off, we were all surprised that this announcement hadn't been made already. Hasn't he been at all the debates? Doesn't he have commercials (that we ourselves have featured)? And why has someone with such a solid resume been so completely dismissed so early? Luke has an interesting theory on that one, and it's the winner for today's breakout story. Check back here around 5 pm eastern for more.

HIGHBROW / LOWBROW -- The idea for this segment came out of a series of conversations. We were discussing some celeb news, including Paula Abdul's mishap, as well as the big American Idol finale tonight. We then shifted gears and talked about the "Most E-mailed Articles" sections on a variety of news websites, which we all agreed we look at regularly. From there came the idea for a segment we'll call "Highbrow/Lowbrow," where we tell you which articles were most e-mailed on sites like NYTimes.com, UsWeekly.com, WashingtonPost.com, TMZ.com, LATimes.com, People.com, etc, you get the idea. Highbrow/Lowbrow: All the gossip, none of the guilt! (Or: You're not trashy if you get your celeb news from a blog that also covers fighting in Lebanon.)

MIAMI SEX OFFENDERS -- Luke and Alison were both fascinated by a story on Miami sex offenders done by NPR's own Day to Day. In the future, when we find great work by our NPR colleagues, and we feel like there's a discussion there for us, we won't hesitate to play a clip of their story and talk about it. (And in case you're curious, we prefer the term "homage" to "theft.")

GAY ROBOT, VEGANISM, A PITCHING PARIAH, AND MORE -- We're all in love with Gay Robot, the show pilot that the networks rejected before it made a huge splash on the net. Now the show's likely to be the big prize at the end of a network bidding war. Then there's the NY Times op-ed piece on veganism, which seems to be a topic that elicits strong emotions on all sides. We'll dig deeper into both of these stories next week. And we're going to try to interview former Major League baseball pitcher Mike Marshall, who won the Cy Young Award in 1974, and who still holds the record for most pitching appearances in a season. Marshall now has a Ph.D. and says he's invented a new way to pitch baseballs that will end arm injuries, which often take pitchers out of commission for months, years, or careers. But nobody in baseball will listen to him or give his pitchers a chance. Plus, tomorrow is the UEFA Champions League Final!!! If "Huh?" is the only response you can muster, you're not alone. (It's European soccer's Super Bowl.) We'll feature it tomorrow on the next installment of "Make Me Care."

DAY TWO -- One other note: We don't want to be one of those news outlets that immediately moves a story from the front page to the fire, without a follow-up. So for instance, in our theoretical radio show, we would not forget today that we spent time covering Lebanon yesterday.

So that's what's on our radar, even though most of it won't be on our air (since we don't have any air yet). Let us know what gets you going, and let us know what we missed.

Dan Pashman

10:45 AM ET | 05-22-2007 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post

Make Me Care: The Lebanon Conflict

Filed under:

Smoke billows from the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr Al-Bared near Tripoli in northern Lebanon today. Lebanese troops fought new gun battles with Islamic extremists in the north of the country, a day after bloody clashes left over 40 people dead.

Credit: Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images

By now you have seen the headlines about the conflict in Lebanon but you might not be that clear on who is fighting whom and why.

Or, if your inner smart guy/gal tells you this is important and would read up on it -- if you didn't have to make plans for Wednesday's American Idol final -- this podcast is for you!

Journalist Ben Gilbert is in Lebanon and takes the challenge we posed to him: Make Me Care about the violence in Northern Lebanon.

After you listen to the segment let us know if Ben made you care -- if yes, why? If not, why not?

Alison Stewart

4:45 PM ET | 05-21-2007 | permalink | comments (15) | e-mail post

UPDATE: My Dad's In There

Filed under:

Philip Gates stands outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Faithful Bryant Park readers/listeners/viewers will remember the story of Philip Gates that we featured last month. Los Angeles radio producer Jim Gates told us about his experience shuttling his 70 year-old dad, Philip, to jail in downtown L.A. where he was scheduled to do some time. Philip was arrested in November of last year for protesting a U.S. Military school known to most folks as the School of the Americas. (Now called Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.)

Well, after doing his time, Philip was released last Friday. Jim picked him up and they made a beeline for Philippe's, the legendary L.A. sandwich spot. Before he could dig in, we asked Philip Gates to give us the low down on his time in the clink. Check out the podcast -- or the streaming audio link above.

Jim Gates did a whole feature on his experience with his dad -- this is a direct link to the story.

Luke Burbank

2:15 PM ET | 05-21-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Morning Meeting: Our First One

Filed under: Inside The BPP

"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Hi everyone -- just finished our very first editorial meeting here in the BPP Editorial Complex. To quote Alison, "Well, that wasn't horrible." She's right -- it was a pretty good meeting. About thirty minutes longer than I wanted it to be, but I was never bored and that's always a sign of a good meeting (which is rare).

Meeting Rundown. In attendance: Alison Stewart, Luke Burbank, Matt Martinez, Dan Pashman (producer), Wright Bryan (web producer)

LEBANON -- The first ten minutes of the meeting were about the situation in Lebanon, it's the story dominating the cable networks and will be the lead story on every newscast tonight. Our question was: Why should we care? It's obviously a big story -- but why? We're going to talk with former NPR producer -- now independent producer -- Ben Gilbert in Lebanon. We're going to give him 60 seconds to make us care about this story. We're actually calling this segment "Make Me Care" -- it's a way to take these big stories that are played out in the media for days and really get to the heart of the matter. And after we run the segment, our question to you will be -- did we make you care? Stayed tuned -- this is the story we're following later today.

MICHAEL MOORE AT CANNES -- Alison brought up the Michael Moore movie Sicko that played this weekend in Cannes. It's about America's health care system. We thought it would be great to talk with someone who saw the movie -- get a quick review, then talk with a culture type about Michael Moore movies in general -- has it gotten to the point that Moore is simply preaching to choir, that he is not actually convincing/converting people to his side?

RON PAUL -- Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) is all over the 'net these days. He has been for a while, actually. There's been this huge push for the presidential candidate on Digg and a massive letter writing campaign to The Daily Show of all places, urging Jon Stewart to interview him. It's a fascinating Howard Dean-ish campaign story. The momentum could propel him to some sort of front runner status, but will that translate to votes, will he founder like Dean? We're thinking we go to the guys who run Politico.com and get their take on the Ron Paul situation.

GANG BANGER UNIONS -- Luke saw this interesting piece in the L.A. Times about former and current gang bangers in unions -- thought it might be a nice conversation.

SPORTS -- The big hockey game this weekend was sidelined for the Preakness pre-show. The PRE-SHOW! Where's the outrage? The Ottawa Senators claimed a 3-2 win in overtime over the top-seeded Buffalo Sabres on Saturday -- but you probably didn't see it because NBC cut out for the bigger money-making Preakness coverage. The Senators advanced to the finals -- they're waiting for the Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings to settle the Western Conference finals. (Not that you -- or NBC -- care.)

BOOMER WEALTH GAP -- Alison pointed out the great enterprise story on the cover of USA Today this morning, about the wealth gap between Boomers and younger people -- from the story:

Nearly all additional wealth created in the USA since 1989 has gone to people 55 and older, according to Federal Reserve data. Wealth has doubled since 1989 in households headed by older Americans.

Not so for younger Americans. Households headed by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s have barely kept up with inflation or have fallen behind since 1989. People 35 to 50 actually have lost wealth since 1989 after adjusting for inflation, Fed data show.

We thought a conversation with Dennis Cauchon, the guy who wrote the story, might be nice. We may not get around to this today -- but go read the story. Very good.

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD! -- We had a conversation about the Chinese food story in this weekend's Washington Post, which freaked out Wright -- he had no idea that tainted food from China may be getting into the US -- he was even more freaked out that we were even getting food imported from China. I think his alarm is triggered because food is such a personal thing and to not know where it's coming from is a bit uncomfortable to deal with. That led to a discussion about increasing corn prices, which are leading farmers to feed their livestock trail mix. There's some kind of food conversation to be had here -- perhaps with a fellow like Michael Pollan, who wrote the equally fascinating and devastating "Omnivore's Dilemma."

ON THE DIAL-- If we were on this morning we'd have a Soprano's wrap up, talk about The Simpsons and Family Guy episodes (which lambasted their own network last night -- FOX) and look ahead to later this week: American Idol finals, the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance? -- and preview our movie discussion this Friday with critic Bob Mondello this Friday. (More on all this later.)

We aren't going to follow up on all of these stories -- the idea is that we pluck one or two and give it a go. As we grow and get more feedback we'll start plucking two or three ideas from the meeting and eventually, we'll have an entire show to give you.

Matt Martinez

12:13 PM ET | 05-21-2007 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post

The Game Plan

Filed under: Inside The BPP

Yeah, we know. Long time no post. We've been sitting around and thinking big thoughts about the show -- and now, it's time to share. Starting next week you're going to be hearing a lot more from us -- and we hope we'll be hearing a lot more from you. Here's what you can expect:

We're going to have our daily editorial meetings at 9am. (Except this coming Monday, because some of us will be on an aeroplane -- so we're gonna have it at 11am -- all times Eastern.) We'll run the meeting down on the blog shortly after. Of the story ideas from that meeting, we will pick one or two news stories to follow throughout the day and do a post later on with our own treatment. The idea here is to give a flavor of how we'll do news -- the approach, the editing process, the final product. We are also going to experiment with videotaping our editorial meetings -- do some quick down and dirty video editing and get it up online. We may not do this everyday in the beginning. Also, it may not work. But we're going to try.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we will do feature audio/video posts. Expect these mid-dayish. Next week our planned features are: A Luke follow up conversation with Phillip Gates (original story here) about his time in prison -- he was released today. On Wednesday Alison is going to chat with Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman, they just wrote a book called "Chasing Cool" about corporate America's search for the next big cool thing. And on Friday Luke and Alison will do a news roundup podcast.

All of this stuff is the bare minimum you can expect from us, and we hope you'll check in throughout the day.

Have a good weekend! Talk with you on Monday.

Matt Martinez

3:23 PM ET | 05-18-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Working for a livin'....

Filed under: Inside The BPP

Work Perks

As of 1:45pm EST on Wednesday May 16, 2007, my first 54 hours of working for NPR and the BPP have been jam packed. I have been to 10 meetings in 2.5 days. I have three more today.

I have filled out HR paper work and sat in on a broadcast of All Things Considered but had to leave the room because of a real or imagined need to sneeze.

However, crossing over from fan to colleague is what takes most of my energy --
that and remembering names.

So first impressions: People here are dedicated. The offices are very tidy. There is lots of spirited discussion. Luke is a great office mate -- sorry the photo is bad -- I took it with my cell phone.

Odd impressions: NPR plays on the speakers in the restrooms.

A fan's impression: My delight when I realized the voice at the other end of a table was indeed Andrea Seabrook!

Gracious impressions: Michele Norris allowing me to shadow her all day while she had pieces to write, interviews to conduct and managed to pick up the phone to notify someone that, oh ... Jerry Falwell might not be well.

Grand impressions: Because there is a convention of police officers in town one of the few hotel rooms available: The Watergate. And because the guy at the front desk was a news junkie, he upgraded me to The Presidential Suite. (No lurking ghost of Nixon, though.) I thought he was kidding until I walked into a hotel room bigger than most NYC apartments. It included 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, full dining room table and a bed that was so high I had to take a running leap to get under the covers.

I also scored some really cool pens. (See photo)

Work impressions: Our staff has doubled. There are now four of us. We need to decide on a name. Also, this show is going to be so great to build. And somehow we all found time to view this video again and again. Warning...this video DOES NOT end well for the small child involved. View at your own risk. It is SOOO wrong. And.....if you know this kid or how to contact his parents we want to know....first, is the kid ok? Then, how can we get a hold of the parents to have a chat? Let us know if you know.

Gotta go to another meeting!

Alison Stewart

2:13 PM ET | 05-16-2007 | permalink | comments (3) | e-mail post

Watch Out Jeff Foxworthy...

Filed under: Election 2008, The Dagobah System

There's a new funny man on the block and gosh darn if he doesn't look an awful lot like New Mexico Governor and Presidential Candidate Bill Richardson:

Two things surprised me about the ads:

1.) They're actually pretty amusing.
2.) They're actually pretty effective. (In the sense that they made me think about Bill Richardson for 60 seconds, which hadn't really happened to me before. Ever. In my life.)

The spots got us wondering, why is it so rare for candidates to use humor in their ads?

"Humor has its pros and cons," says Evan Tracey of TNS Media Intelligence, a company that helps campaigns hone their political ads. "Funny works when you want to get noticed (but) jokes are only good the first time you hear them - they become progressively less funny the more you hear or see them."

And the proof is kind of in the pudding. For instance, Wes Clark tried to bring the funny with an Outkast reference when he was running for President back in 2004, and even though the ad made a lot of people laugh, it clearly wasn't enough. (I think Andre 3000 actually got more votes than Clark in the Georgia primary.)

Mark Putnam is a partner at Murphy Putnam Media -- the people behind the Richardson ads. He says, "I don't think it's that the traditional ads don't work anymore. I think here we had a unique intersection of a candidate's record, personality, and his status in the race, and it really was a great way to showcase how much he's done in his career and at the same time give people a feel for him. Voters are always hungering for something that captures their attention and imagination, that's something that's been true from the beginning."

One thing to watch out for though if you are a candidate trying to use humor, make sure the joke's not on you:

Alas, Christopher Knight did not win that spot on the Rockingham County Board of Education, but he does have an awesome fake Light Saber to remind him of his time as a candidate.

And what about the guy in this Dos Equis ad? I mean, he's not officially running for anything, but can you imagine if he was? I think he could maybe win Emperor of The World or something.

Luke Burbank

2:28 PM ET | 05-10-2007 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Update: Spellings in the House

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Spellings testifies in her standard somber black top and pearls.

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings faced the House Education and Labor Committee today. Most of the questions were about -- surprise, surprise -- the student loan scandal. Some of the harshest questioning came from Chairman George Miller. (D-Calif.)

Miller asked if the Dep. of Ed had "blinders on" when it came to uncovering improper relationships between student lenders and colleges or student loan officials at those colleges.

Spellings said any suggestion that her department showed favoritism to the federally guaranteed student loan program "is totally without merit and has no basis in fact."

While she was testifying, news crossed on the Reuters wire that JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid five college student aid officers to do work for the bank while they were on college payrolls, earlier it was reported that the bank also arranged a $70,000 dinner cruise in New York City harbor for more than 200 student aid officers.

If you have the fortitude, you can read the pdf transcript of the hearing or -- if you have a couple of hours to kill (like we did) -- you can watch the entire hearing on the House website.

Full Committee Hearing: "Accountability for the Department of Education's Oversight of Student Loans and the Reading First Program" (U.S. House of Representatives)

I'm sure this will be the first of many more hearings and investigations into the student loan scandal. We'll continue to follow it.

On a completely unrelated and superficial note, Education Week blogger Alexander Russo wrote this morning:

Wearing a somber black top and pearls, EdSec Spellings endured repeated interruptions, refutations, and harrumphs from a worked-up Chairman Miller in the first leg of this morning's oversight hearing...

Just so happens that Spellings is wearing the exact same outfit in the stock photo we used earlier this morning. Talk about a scandal!

Matt Martinez

1:49 PM ET | 05-10-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

Let's Hope Those Five Seven Years at A.S.U. Were Worth It

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U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings will appear before a congressional committee Thursday. Harsh questioning is expected over a scandal sweeping through the college student loan business.

Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The $85 billion student loan industry has been all over the news this week. Investigations have revealed that some universities may have gotten kickbacks from big lenders, and that the government was overpaying some of these companies to the tune of hundreds of millions of bucks, and that Sallie Mae was getting special treatment from its pals in The Department of Education, and that Wolfgang Puck is responsible for thousands of people defaulting on their student loans.

As it happens, Margaret Spellings (the most appropriately named Secretary of Education EVER.... Seriously, Spellings? That's perfect) was already scheduled to be on Capitol Hill today to talk to the House Education and Labor Committee about the "No Child Left Behind" reading program Reading First -- but you can be sure she's gonna get an earful about her department's oversight of the student loan industry.

Yesterday the House overwhelmingly passed The Student Loan Sunshine Act which is aimed at bringing a little transparency to the relationships between the loan industry and the schools that use them.

Much like that Organic Chem final we took sophomore year, we found all these story threads to be utterly confusing, so we called Anya Kamenetz, author of Generation Debt for the Cliff's Notes version. Plus we talked to Greg Treece -- an occupational therapist in Illinois who is dealing with the hassle of crushing student loan debt.

You can subscribe to the Bryant Park Podcast here.

And we want to know what you all think about this loan brouhaha. You have loan debt? How much? Tell us your story.

Luke Burbank

7:22 AM ET | 05-10-2007 | permalink | comments (6) | e-mail post

Transamerica

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Credit: scot2342

Quick..what could be President Bush's third veto?

Embryonic stem cell research -- Number 1.

Iraq War funding with a troop withdrawal marker -- Number 2.

I'm guessing transgender protection wouldn't be your first choice for number 3.

Without much mainstream media coverage, the House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act last Thursday. It has an extension to include gender and gender identity including transgender people. The bill passed 237 to 180 and would provide $10 million over two years to help cover the cost of hate crime prosecutions. Previous law applied to violence based on race, religion or national origin.

The Administration says if a bill gets to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Mr. Bush will veto it because of its "constitutional questionability." The Seattle Post editorial board disagrees with the veto on such grounds.

When I read the Hate Crimes story -- bells went off. Somehow, I felt that I had been hearing, reading and seeing a lot about transgender people in recent weeks, but from very different sources.

Just last week I remarked to someone that I was a little surprised there hasn't been more ruckus made about a family hour TV show on Thursday nights, which features a transgender lead character: Alexis Meade. She showed up on Ugly Betty as a gorgeous supermodel woman struggling with how to navigate life as a chick, complete with jokes about mustache waxing and who gets to be on top during certain activities.

Just last November, a more cartoonish transgender TV character named Zarf showed up on "All My Children."

In real life, about two weeks ago, a well known sports writer for the LA Times announced in a column that after 23 years with the byline Mike Penner, he would return to work in a few months as Christine Daniels. He wrote in his column that his brain was "wired female."

From the serious, life changing choices and basic protections ... to basic needs: An organization out of California is mounting a campaign for unisex bathrooms so that transgender people who need to find a loo aren't faced with difficult and perhaps humiliating experiences. Check out the site: Safe2pee.org. Really. That's the site.

And, Renee Richards has been on a book tour recently.

I've always thought, when I see a subject pop up in three or more very different places within the same time frame -- there's a story to be found.

I'm going to wander over to the GLBT center in NYC today and do a little research about numbers. I'll get back to you.

In the mean time as I research transgender rights..an important question -- does this interest you?

Other angles here? Has this issue hit home with any of you? We might want to have a conversation about this soon.

Thanks for the feedback.

Alison "I Haven't Really Started Yet" Stewart

Alison Stewart

1:31 PM ET | 05- 9-2007 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post

A Very Special BPP Update

Filed under: Inside The BPP

Before we kick off another busy week, we wanted to give an update on the progress of The BPP.

Video Fun
First, we want to take note of one of our first true video features about personal space in virtual reality. Producer Win Rosenfeld ventured into the world of Second Life. We want to know what you think about the piece. And did you think our conversation with Win about the video hit the right note? The idea is that conversations on the radio can be continued online through video and the comments section of the site. And vice versa. We're experimenting.
Let us know.

Best Song in The World
Also last week, I debuted "The Best Song In The World Today." I probably should have made the point in the post that this is something we hope is going to be a regular feature. Every once in a while we post a song that we call "The Best Song In The World Today" We want to use this feature as a way to debut new music. And you can totally disagree with us about the song. Tell us we're wrong and tell us why. We also want you guys to tell us what you're listening to and to nominate songs for "Best Song In The World."

This Is a News Show, Right?
We had a bit of a kerfuffle with a reader of the blog about the direction of our news coverage, which is pretty much non-existent right now. (We know! We know!) This is going to be a news show, so we should probably start doing some of it -- and a toute de suite. And we will, we promise -- just as soon as we get a staff a little bigger than me and Luke and Alison -- and technically Alison hasn't started. So, really, it's just me and Luke and a couple of paper clips.

Over the next couple of weeks we're going to be ramping up our news coverage. And if there are stories out there that you think we should be doing, drop us a line. Otherwise, stay tuned, there's more to come soon.

Matt Martinez

12:18 PM ET | 05- 7-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Bryant Park Smackdown

Filed under: Inside The BPP

Yesterday I posted a video that I thought was cool. The response was, well, decidedly not cool. We got some email questioning our news bona fides. Some people asking, "Who the hell cares what you think?" or "What does this mean?" One comment rose above all of them, though, and Luke and I want to post excerpts of it here with a response. We think it's important. (You can read the entire thing in the comments section.)

The comment is from Joshua Johnson -- he is a news announcer at WLRN, down in Miami. He raises some very good, pointed and rudely worded questions, (we can take it) and we have some very polite answers.

Here we go:

I'm 27 years old, and I do news for an NPR station, so maybe I'm totally biased. But I was really hoping that this program would shape up to be a little more newsy than what I can get, oh, I dunno, EVERYWHERE ELSE ONLINE. Yes, you weighed in on George Tenet and on Virginia Tech, but essentially you asked us how you should cover it. You even said that you "didn't have that much to add to the conversation" about the V-Tech massacre.

Well then, why the hell should I listen to you? If you've nothing to say, then don't say anything!

There are plenty of angles to that story that no one seems to want to discuss: namely, the bullying angle. That young man who killed all those people was reportedly bullied mercilessly for being quirky and different. No, that doesn't excuse what he did, but YES, it repeats a clear pattern of young disenfranchised men giving up on life and taking out their anger on the innocent.

How plugged in to young America are you really, if you couldn't think of that?

MATT: Okay, so the blog isn't "newsy" enough for you. And that's fine. We're not out to please everyone here. Our goal is to use this site to develop a new kind of NPR news program, to talk with you about the kind of stories you want to hear. And the bullying angle is a fine suggestion. I can imagine talking with someone who was bullied as a child -- how they worked through that experience, ask them about whether they ever felt the kind of rage that Cho felt. Good suggestion. Thank you.

LUKE: Heard that, Matthew.

BPP is on, reporting, right now. You're not launching, you're not experimenting: WE CAN SEE YOU. And that means, you exist. You're already starting to make an impression, and I think you're making a crappy one so far. Just look at the list of stuff on the "Interweb" that you like; a good chunk of those links are to gossip sites and time-wasters! WTF? Is this what NPR thinks I need in the morning, given all the stuff I've got to do before work? I don't have time for gossip, or for viral stupidity that my friends will send me anyway.

MATT: A couple of things here. First of all, we are getting ready to launch. We are experimenting. And we don't have a show yet. We barely have a staff. The point of this blog is to talk with you about what we want to do. To get your input. To create a show that you might want to hear. I know I sound like a broken record, but it's the truth. In response to not "having time for gossip" or "viral stupidity," I think you're dismissing a huge section of American culture here. What you find stupid, other people find cool. And sometimes we're going to take note of cool things happening on the Internets, and sometimes you're going to hate them. Luke?

LUKE: I couldn't agree more sir.

Here's a crazy idea: Do some news. Do stories that younger adults will REALLY CARE ABOUT. Where's your coverage on the student loan scandal? Not even a mention of it on your blog, and I've been hoping you'd key into that, but you didn't. You're so busy trying to be hip, you don't think to be RELEVANT. Where's your mention of the congressional report on abstinence education being ineffective? That's certainly relevant to anyone with a high school-aged relative, especially since young attitudes on sexuality are changing and the congressional funding is up for a vote in the next few months.

What about that new report from the University of Chicago about the attitudes of African-American youth on life? Very interesting, and illuminates some things that people thought they knew about young Black folk like me. (BTW, that's at blackyouthproject.uchicago.edu) And what about finding ways to take big national stories that everyone's talking about, and make them play to a younger audience? Iraq is, after all, a war being fought by the young and run by the old.

MATT: You know what -- these are exactly the kinds of ideas we're looking for. We want to know what's missing from your newslife -- it will help us create a more interesting, relevant show. And, relevance is relative. (Hey! I think I just coined a phrase!)

LUKE: Roger that.

...if NPR would rather try to be my buddy than give me the information I need to know, I don't have time for it. Personally, I don't need any more buddies. I need people that I can trust to speak my language and respect the issues that genuinely affect me.

MATT: This show is going to be conversational, very talky, and personality based. We are going to talk to you about the news the way we talk to our friends about the news. It will be solid journalism done differently. And, honestly? Yeah, we want to be your "buddy." We want to talk with you. Engage you. Find out what you're thinking.

LUKE: I'm glad to hear that Josh has all the buddies he needs. That makes one of us. Dear god am I lonely.

MATT: We hope we get more letters like Joshua's. Except, not so much ALL CAPS yelling. We are all about hearing what you have to say. Have at it. We're listening...

Matt Martinez

9:59 AM ET | 05- 4-2007 | permalink | comments (18) | e-mail post

The Best Song In The World Today!

Filed under: The Best Song In The World Today

Among the many things that make me happy in life: Mojitos, People Magazine (especially the double issues), unicorns, ponies, malt liquor and dancing! And what makes dancing super fun? When it's done to a DJ-Disco-Funk song featuring a children's choir.

It's called "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice (two French dudes gentlemen). They just played Coachella last weekend. Check out the video and make sure to turn this up real loud.

He Hates Us! He Really Hates Us!

Filed under: Inside The BPP

So I was clicking around on the always excellent Gawker today, and noticed an oldish post from them dissing David Broder for writing about how he only listens to Morning Edition. A little further down in the comments section, I saw this gem from someone with the handle bacon-yum:

I love the judgment inherent in saying that he only listens to NPR, not like those low-life plebians who listened to Imus. I have NPR set on my alarm clock, because the grating, fuzzy-wuzzy, overly-earnest tone of it makes me snap awake with a shudder of revulsion. I grew up in an NPR house, that s*** makes my skin crawl. F****** Morning Edition, f****** Prarie Home Companion, f****** Fresh Air, f****** All Things Considered, hate, hate, hate. Sorry, the mere mention sets me off. Don't even get me started on WBAI.

04/19/07 12:25 PM

Yikers. bacon-yum be haaaaating the NPR.

That's okay, though, the bacon-yums of the world are precisely the folks who we are trying to reach with this new show. As soon as I can figure out how to email him / her (for some reason I just assume that someone with bacon-yum as their nickname is a dude, but I could be totally wrong) we are going to try to start up a little dialogue. What do you guys think?

Developing...

Luke Burbank

4:30 PM ET | 05- 3-2007 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

 

Don't Stand So Close To Me

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Win Rosenfeld's avadork.

When our intrepid producer Win Rosenfeld told us he wanted to "spend some time in an online community" for a piece he was researching, we assumed it was only a matter of weeks before we saw his mug on To Catch A Predator. But it turns out he was actually looking into a legit (and really interesting) phenomenon in the virtual world of Second Life. Check out the video:

This video requires version 8 or higher of the Adobe Flash Player.Get the latest Flash Player.

You can click on the download link above to hear an interview with Win about working on this story.

Click here to subscribe to the Bryant Park Podcast.

Matt Martinez

11:48 AM ET | 05- 3-2007 | permalink | comments (29) | e-mail post

 

Tenet's Media Rampage: What Would You Do?

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Former CIA Director George Tenet's new book "At the Center of the Storm" details his involvment with the White House after 9/11 and in the run up to the Iraq War.

Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

For the past 36 hours former CIA Director George Tenet has temporarily replaced Howard Stern as "The King of All Media."

I typed Tenet's name into Google News and as of 7:15 a.m., 2,241 articles have been written about Tenet and his new book, "At the Center of the Storm".

The headlines range from "Deconstructing George Tenet" to "Tenet Seems to Have Grown A Conscience."

As I watched the coverage of Mr. Tenet's promo tour, from the combative 60 Minutes interview to a quieter version on the Today show, I found I wanted more. I wanted to know about Tenet the man, the culture of CIA and, quite simply, about the book .

So how would The BPP have covered this story?

Should we have strung together the media clips of the story knowing he gave everyone the same answer? A faux-interview?

Talked to a writer or person-in-the-know about Tenet "the man"?

Or should we have read passages from his book and then got analysis from someone who has studied the CIA?

This last one would be my vote: I want to know more than just the two major points media reports have focused on: Slam dunk & bad intel on Iraq. On all the stations yesterday people kept referencing the book but I wondered, did anyone read it?

Or, if we were on the air right now, would you want us to get on Mr. Tenet's dance card and interview him ourselves?

More importantly, what would you like to have seen in the Tenet coverage?

Continue reading "Tenet's Media Rampage: What Would You Do?" »

Alison Stewart

10:05 AM ET | 05- 1-2007 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post