Dave Menninger

The somewhat depressing and controversial possibility of a newspaper bailout turned into a stone-cold reality in the past few months as politicians, including Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Ben Cardin and President Obama, have hinted at giving the newspaper industry a life vest to save a sinking industry. Kerry, in his dire remarks at the Senate hearing on “Future of Journalism” a few weeks ago, made a call to action to save newspapers and prevent future harm to democracy. Regardless of where direction of this policy is headed, the idea of a government bailout of the news industry, which is supposed to be the “watchdog” of the government, raises a few ethical flags.

President Obama echoed Kerry’s concerns at last weekend’s White House Correspondents Dinner, addressing the current state of the industry:

“…It’s also true that your ultimate success as an industry is essential to the success of our democracy. It’s what makes this thing work. You know, Thomas Jefferson once said that if he had the choice between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, he would not hesitate to choose the latter.

Clearly, Thomas Jefferson never had cable news to contend with — but his central point remains: A government without newspapers, a government without a tough and vibrant media of all sorts, is not an option for the United States of America.”

Obama was perhaps posturing to a room full of journalists, but the message comes across clear: newspapers not need help and their existence is a fundamental requirement for democracy to successfully survive. And any time democracy is threatened, the government will come to the rescue, right?

Sen. Ben Cardin actually has a concrete plan, The Newspaper Revitalization Act, to aid newspapers in their time of need. His plan allows newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, and thus receive the same tax-benefits as a non-profit organization. Revenue from advertising and subscription would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible. Cardin’s proposal became a reality on the state-level with this week’s news that Washington’s governor approved a tax cut for the state’s newspaper industry. The law gives newspaper publishers a 40 percent cut in the Washington’s main business tax.

The catch for Cardin’s proposal is that though newspapers would still be able to report on all issues, namely politics and political campaigns, the government would prohibit the newspapers from making political endorsements. This raises two ethical questions.

The first is whether newspapers supported with government funding should be barred from making political endorsements.

Political endorsements by newspapers and media organizations are a very essence of freedom of speech. Readers often find value in seeing a newspapers evaluation of the candidates given that the paper has in-depth coverage of political candidates throughout the course of a campaign. Putting a muzzle on journalists in this capacity is a step in the wrong direction.

There are existing models for publicly-funded or assisted media that are not limited from endorsing political positions. The clearest example of this is the U.S.’s PBS networks. PBS is a non-profit media organization that is partially funded by federal and state money (less than 50% of PBS’s revenue comes from government sources). PBS stations are not prohibited from taking a stance on political issues, in accordance with the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, but PBS and the government has been embroiled in several sticky situations involving political bias and politicians feeling that they can somehow control PBS’ coverage.

Most recently, Kenneth Tomlinson, the former Republican chairman of the Center for Public Broadcasting, the non-profit in charge of distributing federal funds to public television and radio stations, openly criticized PBS for a liberal bias. Tomlinson even hired an outside investigator to evaluate whether PBS’s political news coverage was slanting towards the left. In fact, it was revealed that most viewers didn’t think PBS’s news favored liberals; however, Tomlinson and other Republicans engaged in a heated debate questioning the bias of the well-respected news organization. Like PBS, the BBC, UK’s largest media organization which is partially funded by taxpayer money, has found itself embroiled in its fair share of accusations of political bias.

Some would argue that PBS represents a segment of the media in the U.S. whereas a newspaper bailout would effect thousands of news organizations. I fear that if most mainstream newspapers and organizations took on a similar model to PBS, many politicians would feel that they had the free reign to not only question, but investigate, the bias of any unfavorable news coverage if it didn’t lend support to their political leanings.

The second ethical question is whether journalists will be able to deliver unbiased reporting of the very people and institutions that are helping to subsidize their jobs. I think journalists at PBS have done an effective job of objectively reporting the news, despite the political pressure the organization faces from politicians. However, newspapers and thus journalists who are “saved” from government intervention are in a slightly different situation. From its inception, PBS was meant to be a non-profit news organization, that drew funding from a variety of sources, including the government. In the case of a newspaper bailout, the government could don the image of a “knight in shining armor” to journalists who, without the bailout, would be unemployed. Will all journalists and media execs buy into this? I’m not sure of the answer but the adoption of this perception surely could effect objective news reporting.

Yet having an appreciation for a policy, and letting that appreciation impact professional integrity are two different things. Would the politicians who supported the bailout receive favorable coverage? Most journalists would respond with a resounding no, as they should. Journalists are all beholden to an unwritten code of ethics when it comes to reporting the truth. And even in most disastrous modern-day case of a politician’s efforts to control the media, journalists have still proven that they fight to report the truth. Italy’s prime minster, Silvio Berlusconi, has been accused limiting the press’ freedom of expression by controlling negative coverage of his government on state-run media networks and papers as well as the institutions he controls financially. Many Italian journalists have retaliated, quitting their jobs, forming protest groups, and advocating fiercely for greater freedom of speech. These reporters have chosen dissent and unemployment over submission and employment within a state-biased media space.

But the dilemma becomes significantly more cloudy when the hand who is throwing a life vest to the drowning industry is the same hand who needs to be evaluated through an objective lens. And the question remains in the case of a bailout, if there will forever be the government’s shadow hanging over the media organizations who survive thanks to these benefits.

(Photo credit: Flickr/VaxXzine)

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Michael Roman, the chicken expert at Gorman Heritage Farm, has started a new group for folks in the Greater Cincinnati area who are interested in backyard chickens for city dwellers, suburbanites, and those in small towns. 

If you have chickens in your backyard, or would like to, join us!  The group is just getting started right now, but we hope to set up tours of area coops, provide resources and research for communities planning ordinances regarding chicken keeping, form chick-buying and feed-buying co-ops, share coop plans, and benefit from each other's experiences. 

The 1.0 release of the Skirmish Wars: Advance Tactics print ‘n’ play wargame (a wargame heavily inspired by the popular Nintendo DS game of similar name). So while I strongly encourage you to check out this excellent gem (and a big thanks to the three authors!), now seems like a great time to check out some affordable (costing only what it takes you to print them out) board games that you’ve probably never heard of.

• Zombie in My Pocket is a quick little game where players wander through a mansion attempting to survive while working to ensure that they don’t end up on the wrong end of a team sacrifice!
• Merchant of Venus is an old Avalon Hill classic where players trade goods, upgrade their ships and battle for supremacy - the game has been out of print for many years, but has found new life thanks to the efforts of the people at Board Game Geek (BGG)
• Magic Realm is an epic empire game with a fantasy setting - the game is another that has been out of print for quite some time, but has been updated and given a nice new presentation by the folks at BGG
• Reiner Knizia’s Decathlon is a series of 10 sweet and short dice games strung together like its namesake
• Pocket Civ is a rich and interesting, solitaire civilization game - it doesn’t sound like much, but this one has really struck a chord in the boardgame community, achieving a 7.05 rating on BGG
• Oh No, There Goes Tokyo! is a fun little wargame where each player controls a portion of the Japanese military, desperately trying to stop Godzi…err..generic giant monster from destroying the city (or their part of it at any rate!)

Need more print ‘n’ play goodness? Check out this list at BGG and the Games by Spielers section at the Spiel podcast forums.

selling the packaging without the music; also, NPR's streaming the album [via] 

I received the call again yesterday, as I have once a month for the last year. My auto warranty was expiring, it said, and I should press 1 to speak with a "warranty specialist" about extending it. The calls were blatant violations of US telemarketing rules: no company name was given, incorrect caller ID information was displayed, and I had been on the government's Do Not Call list for years. Yet the calls continue. Oh, Federal Trade Commission, (ostensible) consumer watchdog, will you not bark?

Thirty thousand people with more initiative than I possess managed to dig up the real numbers of the telemarketing firm behind the calls, and they complained to the FTC, which yesterday went nuclear on the alleged perpetrators. The government filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago asking for a restraining order against the companies involved, an asset freeze against the defendants, and a court-appointed receiver who could take over their businesses. The FTC seeks to claw back all of the money made by the firms, planning to use it for "consumer redress."

Click here to read the rest of this article

The Friends of Findlay Market is offering their Spring Forum, Findlay Market: Growing Green which will discuss Findlay Market’s environmental initiatives, successes and plans for the future.

The evening’s presenters include:

• Milton Dohoney, City Manager , Welcome Remarks;
• Holly Christmann, Program Manager, Hamilton County Solid Waste District: Recycling and Composting Programs at the Market. Hamilton County has provided support for recycling and composting programs at the Market;
• John Fanselow, Third Sun Solar and Wind Power: Market House Solar Power. Mr. Fanselow directed the installation of the solar electric system on the roof of the market house at Findlay Market;
• Mike Morgan, Over-the-Rhine Foundation: Green Renovations of Historic O-T-R Buildings. The Foundation recently completed the “OTR Green-Historic Study,” which looked at ways that historic buildings in O-T-R can be renovated in a manner that is both environmentally conscious and that respects their historic character;
• Sarah Saheb, CHEF Project, (Cultivating a Healthy Environment for Farmers): Organic Urban Farmers for the Market. The Corporation for Findlay Market was recently awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help develop urban farmers as producers of food for sale at the market. Participating farmers will grow food for their families and sell surplus at Findlay Market’s Tuesday and Sunday farmers' markets.
  

Wednesday May 20, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Memorial Hall (1225 Elm Street next to Music Hall) in Over-the-Rhine. Free and open to the public. Refreshments from Findlay Market will be served after the program.

Us Now, the groundbreaking documentary is about the power of mass collaboration, the internet and its potential impact on society, is available for viewing free online for a limited time at  http://www.joiningthedocs.tv.Â
Directed by Ivo Gormley, the film explores how the web is changing the many ways in which we can organize ourselves. From a democratic football club where the fans pick the team to a lending service where everyone can be a bank manager, Us Now brings together the leading thinkers in the field of participation and web culture to describe how mass collaboration could change society. As the co-author of Wikinomics:  How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, I was asked by Ivo Gormley to participate.
The UK documentary had its North American premiere 2½ months ago in Toronto.  One of many attending the premiere was Ruby Ku, a self-described 20-something SciBus student at the University of Waterloo.  Ruby was good enough to track down the URLs for many groups featured in the film:

1. School of Everything - a website that helps people who want to learn meet up with people who want to teach.
2. Zopa - a market place where people lend and borrow money to and from each other, sidestepping the banks.
3. Couchsurfing - a worldwide network making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit; participate in a better world, one couch at a time.
4. The People Speak - a campaign to engage young people on the global issues that will shape their future - an initiative from the United Nations Foundation.
5. Slice The Pie - a music financing company that aggregates thousands of people’s opinions about upcoming bands and allows fans to invest in producing albums.
6. MyFootballClub - join members from over 80 countries who own Ebbsfleet United and vote on all key decisions from team selection to financial budgets.
7. Mumsnet - a social enterprise + community of parents sharing their know-hows on the net and meeting up in real-life.
8. Open Everything - global conversation about the art, science, and the spirit of “open.”

It would be great to see the documentary go viral.  If you haven’t seen the film, please give it a try.  And if you like it (which you will) tell as many friends as you can.

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This past Monday, Seicer and I were downtown checking out the construction progress of the new Queen City Square tower...




...and the progress on The Banks:




Coming North off of Walnut St. we noticed the surface entrances to the Riverfront Transit Center. Some of the benches and metallic facade around the entrances have already begun to rust.



-Street level infrastructure of the Riverfront Transit Center showing signs of rust.

Most people don't even know where these stairs and elevators lead to.



-Surface level entrance to the underground Riverfront Transit Center.



-Surface level elevator entrance to the underground Riverfront Transit Center.

When viewed from street level, they've been known to fool out of town visitors or unknowing locals into thinking Cincinnati has some sort of subway transit system.




On the outside, their design is modern and appealing.




But on the inside, behind the locked doors, are stairs leading down into darkness.




Where do these stairs go? Well, to the Riverfront Transit Center of course! Or as I affectionately call it: Cincinnati's other abandoned subway (To read about the original Cincinnati Subway which was constructed from 1920-1927 then abandoned, leaving a network of tunnels beneath the city streets, click here).

Unlike it's abandoned predecessor, the Transit Center is not a failed or abandoned project, just one waiting to be utilized. Also, unlike the original abandoned subway, the Riverfront Transit Center may soon have a more active, useful future.

What is the Riverfront Transit Center? The Transit Center is an underground tunnel running beneath 2nd street with two portals on each end. The tunnel runs parallel to Ft. Washington Way and opens up to Pete Rose Way near the US Bank Arena on it's East end and to Central Ave. near Paul Brown Stadium it's West end.




The idea for the Transit Center was born out of the reconstruction of Ft. Washington Way and the construction of the new stadiums. Unlike Riverfront Stadium before them, Great American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium do not feature expansive plazas at street level for buses and taxis to park. The Transit Center was built to accommodate these buses which now required a new place to park for events like Oktoberfest, Riverfest, Bengals and Reds games, etc. Designed with the future in mind, the roof of the tunnel is raised and features large, industrial vents to accommodate rail transit, should Cincinnati ever embrace a light rail plan.



-This image, published in a 1997 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer, shows concept art of the what the Transit Center could look like. Note: the streetcar station in the top right.

Aside from special events that bring large amount of buses and people downtown, the Transit Center remains closed, locked up tight in a somewhat abandoned state. I had only been down there on a few occasions before this day. Back in January of 08 I walked up and down 2nd St. checking the surface entrance doors to see if any were opened. I found one opened door and proceeded down the steps. I don't think that door was supposed to be unlocked, because once I got down there, there was hardly any light, no buses or vehicles and no people. I snapped one grainy photograph at 1600 ISO and left.



-January 2008 view of the Transit Center, most of the lights were off.

The next time I was able to get down there was during Oktoberfest Zinzinnati 2008. The doors were unlocked, the lights were on and there were a few buses parked down there. Seicer and I walked down to find the nice, modern light fixtures and hand crafted mosaics of the center's walls.



-Oct. 2008 view of the Transit Center during Oktoberfest.

As we stepped into the center of the tunnel to take a wide photograph, a voice came over the loudspeaker: "Excuse me, you must exit the Transit Center, the Transit Center is not open to the public." Confused, we looked for an employee, a person or someone who was down there before we heard the announcement again. We made our way towards the stairs, heading back up to the street level as the same voice once again came over the speaker to say "Thank You."

It's a shame the transit center isn't used more often as it looks very nice and could be a great example of modern transit architecture. As a bus terminal, it pretty much fails except in the case of special events. Local bus operators such as METRO, TANK and MegaBus prefer to use Government Square due to it's location in the central office district at the heart of downtown. If the Transit Center were to be utilized for light rail or as part of the upcoming 3C Corridor, it would give Cincinnati a rail transit station in a key location right under the riverfront.



-Look familiar? This underground transit tunnel in Seattle is currently undergoing renovations to accommodate light rail transit. (Photo courtesy of King County Engineers Office)

Despite the Transit Center now being locked up from the surface, Seicer and I were determined to see if any of the other entrances to the center were open.



-One of the street level information boxes for the Transit Center. Most of these are turned off, the few that are on instruct viewers to check METRO's website for bus schedules

So we headed into the Central Riverfront Garage, beneath the Freedom Center.



-Closed doors to the Transit Center within the Riverfront Garage.

While there were clues indicating the Transit Center's existence, most of the signage throughout the garage only directed pedestrians where they could park, exit and where attractions such as the stadiums and freedom center were located. No signage indicated where the transit center could be located and even the elevator buttons leading to it had been disabled.



-Even the signage within the Riverfront Garage doesn't indicate the Transit Center exists and the buttons on the garage's elevator have been disabled.



-This Central Riverfront Parking Garage is similar to the one being constructed beneath The Banks development.

We exited the parking garage and got back into Seicer's car. Heading down 3rd St., we turned left on Central Ave. in an attempt to find one of the portals of the Transit Center.

Directly below 2nd. St., on each end of the tunnel are two parking lots, which block the tunnel's entrance and exit. This is not a problem for buses which exit and enter the transit center, considering there is no activity or buses utilizing the Transit Center. At the ends of the tunnel, at the back of the parking lots are large gates, barracading off the Transit Center.




Peering through the gates one can see the empty tunnel, which features few lights left on and rust beginning to form on some of the walls.




While I may jokingly refer to the Transit Center as "Cincinnati's Other Abandoned Subway," the Transit Center is not a failed project by any means, just an underutilized one. If adapted for light rail transit, the RTC could literally become an active subway station for the city, connecting to a regional light rail line. As the 3C corridor, a high speed amtrak rail line connecting Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, is planned; the Riverfront Transit Center has been considered to possibly be the location of a new Cincinnati station on the 3C route. As progress continues on The Banks project and the new Central Riverfront Park, one is left to wonder whether or not the Transit Center will ever be used to it's full potential. Until the surrounding development is complete or plans for light rail and the 3C Corridor are brought to fruition, the Transit Center remains quiet and closed beneath the city streets, just like it's abandoned predecessor, waiting for a chance to come to life.



-Weeds and grass growing up between Paul Brown Stadium and the Transit Center's western portal. Hopefully soon these open areas will be replaced by development.

To read more about and see photographs of Cincinnati's original Abandoned Subway system, click here.

To read about and see photographs of the construction of the Riverfront Transit Center, check out Jake Mecklenborg's Cincinnati Transit website.

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Previous update: May 6, 2009 :: Alisha's Apartment

In the tradition of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," EFF board member and Princeton Computer Science Prof. Ed Felten has written an essay in response to the recently passed "3 strikes" legislation in France:

Yesterday the French parliament adopted a proposal to create a "three-strikes" system that would kick people off the Internet if they are accused of copyright infringement three times.

This is such a good idea that it should be applied to other media as well. Here is my modest proposal to extend three-strikes to the medium of print, that is, to words on paper.

My proposed system is simplicity itself. The government sets up a registry of accused infringers. Anybody can send a complaint to the registry, asserting that someone is infringing their copyright in the print medium. If the government registry receives three complaints about a person, that person is banned for a year from using print.

As in the Internet case, the ban applies to both reading and writing, and to all uses of print, including informal ones. In short, a banned person may not write or read anything for a year.

A few naysayers may argue that print bans might be hard to enforce, and that banning communication based on mere accusations of wrongdoing raises some minor issues of due process and free speech. But if those issues don't trouble us in the Internet setting, why should they trouble us here?

The whole proposal is worth reading. But we think Prof. Felten hasn't gone far enough. As Cory Doctorow has suggested, this wonderful idea should also be applied to corporations -- if the Walt Disney Company is accused of copyright infringement 3 times, it should also be banned from the Internet, don't you think?

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