Mr.
Matt
Spangler

Bruni’s Final Restaurant Recommendations

via adamiss

From Frank Bruni’s final column, this is his “recommendation list”.  Ideal for NYC visitors and for you locals, a good list to try and knock off. I’ve bolded the ones I’ve been to. I’ve got a lot of good eating to do.  Frank Bruni will be missed.

Good Tips At The End of His Meals

• BLT Prime, 111 East 22nd Street (Park Avenue), (212) 995-8500
• Cafe Cluny, 284 West 12th Street (West Fourth Street), (212) 255-6900
• Cafe Luxembourg, 200 West 70th Street (Amsterdam Avenue), (212) 873-7411
• ‘Cesca, 164 West 75th Street (Amsterdam Avenue), (212) 787-6300
• Degustation, 239 East Fifth Street (Second Avenue), (212) 979-1012
• Eleven Madison Park, 11 Madison Avenue (24th Street), (212) 889-0905 
• 15 East, 15 East 15th Street (Union Square West), (212) 647-0015
• Harry’s Cafe & Steak, One Hanover Square (Stone Street), (212) 785-9200
• Keens Steakhouse, 72 West 36th Street (Avenue of the Americas), (212) 947-3636
• Locanda Verde, 377 Greenwich Street (North Moore Street), (212) 925-3797
• Marea Restaurant, 240 Central Park South (Broadway), (212) 582-5100
• Masa, 10 Columbus Circle, Time Warner Center, 4th floor (Broadway and 59th Street), (212) 823-9800
• Minetta Tavern Restaurant, 113 MacDougal Street (Bleecker Street), (212) 475-3850 
• The Modern, 9 West 53rd Street (Fifth Avenue), (212) 333-1220 
• Momofuku Ssam Bar, 207 Second Avenue (13th Street), (212) 254-3500
• The Odeon, 145 West Broadway (Thomas Street), (212) 233-0507
• Peasant, 194 Elizabeth Street. (Spring Street), 212-965-9511
• Perbacco, 234 East Fourth Street, (Avenue B), (212) 253-2038
• Peter Luger Steakhouse, 178 Broadway (Driggs Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 387-7400
• Porter House New York, 10 Columbus Circle, Time Warner Center (59th Street and Broadway), (212) 823-9500
• Soto, 357 Avenue of the Americas (Washington Place), (212) 414-3088 
• Sushi Yasuda, 204 East 43rd Street (Third Avenue), (212) 972-1001
• Vinegar Hill House, 72 Hudson Avenue (Water Street), Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, (718) 522-1018

Rupert Leads They Way

This past week Rupert Murdoch came out publicly and stated that he plans to “charge for all his news services by next summer”.   I think people who work in the news business across the country breathed a collective sigh of relief. In the wake of Chris Anderson’s “Free” diatribes and the public skewering of his theories by journalists like Malcolm Gladwell, this comes at the perfect time for an industry that is having a serious crisis of self.

Whether or not this will work is an entirely different thing all together but drawing this kind of line in the sand is exactly what the industry required.  Someone had to have the balls to say enough is enough, I’m willing to put my reputation and company on the line to take this bold step.

Of course, before we give ole Rupert a medal of honor, we have to remember that old adage that people won’t change unless they are forced too.  People won’t drive less unless gas prices are astronomical, and Rupert wasn’t willing to make this bold change until he experienced a 3.4 billion dollar net loss at News Corporation for the financial year to June.

The bigger question is can the other entities wait long enough to see the repercussions of this move?  It will likely not be until 2011 before the reports are back on its effect for News Corp, and that is too long for the rest of the major players to wait and see. Companies like the New York Times need to make the move now to charge for something that has great value and by doing so force the hand of public perception.

New Journalism in Iran

via soupsoup (via winstonwolfe)

An anonymous reader on Andrew Sullivan’s blog, The Daily Dish

“Reading your blog over the past 30 something hours makes me realize why the mainstream media is really finished. I mean, this point has finally hit home. You are blogging real time events, with descriptions, evaluation, analysis, and eye witness accounts. You are gathering information from a myriad of sources and putting it out there for a cohesive message. CNN, NY Times, et al are merely running an article about “thousands” of protesters. Its a canned message from just a few stale sources. The revolution is definitely on in Iran. And its on in American journalism too.”

Its hard not to agree with this, especially when looking at the recent coverage of the Iran election.  I’ve been amazed at the amount of Tumblr images flying across my follow dashboard and while there are certainly media people in that group, there are no “journalists”.  Each is reposting a story and spreading the word based on an emotional reaction to an image they see.  They see batons and they see blood.  Most don’t even know what or why the fighting is about, who is the bloodied and what the reason they were bloodied was. Still, when you sit on the side of the fence where you are aghast at the violence and shocked at the images…you push it around, you Twitter in opposition and you call the traditional outlets dead and idiotic.

Arguably if you boiled everything else down to its most basic elements, you might find that this is the reason that the New York Times is struggling and fear mongers like Fox News seem to report good earnings.  Fast and sexy schlock sells.  The New York Times probably has stuck to their guns a bit too long, keep expensive passionate writers who take their time to cover stories, and fact check and make sure they have it right before publishing it. As everyone knows…time costs money…and good journalism takes time.

Don’t we need a mix of “new” and “old”?  One of the things that made Obama’s speech to the middle east recently so powerful was that we now have a President who doesn’t make rash decisions.  He is reasoned. He looks at both sides. He looks at the facts. He is open minded and ready for dialogue…and then he makes a sound, distinct decision.

Taking this hot topic off the table, and supplanting it with another, perhaps the Duke Lacrosse case.  Would the fact that the kids were totally cleared get the same amount of Twitters,  Tumblrs and blog postings after the two month trial where they discovered the girl was lying?  In the Iran case, I think its pretty clear that there is stuff here that needs to be shown now…but you see the folly if you apply this thought process to every story and the entire idea of journalism.

One of my favorite quotes ever was by Michael Irvin, after he was effectively tried in the media for an allegation of cocaine, and then when he was totally cleared weeks later with absolutely no connection he yelled at reporters, “Print the truth as big as you did the lie!”

As with most arguments about “new” online journalism it starts to look shaky when you analyze it in relation to a general reporting methodology. The big challenge is the reporting vs the opinion. New journalism, citizen journalism of this nature, must be leveraged by traditional media outlets to gather the facts, add them to the pool of consideration and analysis to help us make better decisions.  If we have the information lets use it.  I think the Times knows this and they are pushing their New Media team to open up the channels for shared open source information.

Then the intelligent reasoned individuals with a sense of both sides of the argument - arguably in my vision, the Pulitzer winning writers and opinion leaders at the New York Times - can look at all sides and help shape the reactions of our nation.

And then if terror, and lies and deception are the fact…then we act.