It’s good to see that Reuters will be making the editors and other news shapers more accessible to its readers.

There was a death threat sent by a Reuters employee to the blog littlegreenfootballs.com few months back that threated:

“I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut….”

I have a few questions about the matter:

1. You supposedly suspended an employee. Has this employee been fired?

2. Have you contacted law enforcement about the employee who made this threat?

3. Where does the investigation stand now?

A thread at the blog that received the “throat cutting” threat can be found here:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/? entry=20760_A_Death_Threat_from_Reuters_  (Bumped)&only

I hope most successful journalists will not be the free agents. While free agency improved the lot of baseball players I doubt it did anything to improve the game. And for all the bad movies produced under Hollywood’s studio system any list of ‘best ever’ movies is top heavy from that era.

The individual will or won’t be empowered by the course of events, but this shouldn’t have an impact on doing the right thing.

So, technology has eliminated the monopoly on distribution and lowered the barrier to entry for people who want to be heard a little further than earshot of Hyde Park Corner. Isn’t this all the more reason for news organizations with a commitment to journalism not to squander the high ground?

Competition, or more efficient cooperation, from the masses may help in telling the story but readers cannot be allowed to forget that someone who has nothing to lose by lying — and perhaps even quite a bit to gain — cannot occupy the same perch as a news organization, whose only real asset is a reputation for accuracy.

It is the obligation of the Reuters of the world to see to it that this line is not blurred, for the sake of journalism.

Hi…
IF “it’s all about conversation”… you may find this interesting, written today, Sunday, Nov. 12.

The (almost) lost art of conversation.
OR: are we really afraid to connect with each other?

Heres my pet theory: everyones got a story, and some of them are damned interesting. But why are we hiding them? Or is it just that we dont know how to share them? In a very wired world with communication technology capable of so much, why do we stink at connecting with one another? Are we afraid?

A story. We just got back from a short cruise. Weve done lots of cruises since the early 80s, and my favourite time has always been dinner. I loved getting to know some fascinating people and learning from their different, and rich, experiences.

But now theres a new trend in cruising. Youre not assigned a table anymore, forcing you to eat with, and get to know, strangers. You can eat anywhere you want, at any time. Eat by yourselves or with people you know every night.

I think its a huge opportunity lost. Heres why.

One year we sailed out of Naples, Italy. We got on the ship a couple of hours before sailing and wandered the decks looking at, and sizing up, the passengers. I took note of one couple; she was short, heavy, dressed in black, very Italian. Her husband was from central casting; white hair, suit, and following behind her.

Dinner time, 8pm. We walked into the large dining room looking for table 41. And there she was. Well, not much conversation with them I thought, knowing they were quite Italian. Beside them were a pleasant looking couple, also about 25 years older than us, probably American.

It turned out she was a superior court judge in New York State, and she knew everybody. He was the best joke-teller Ive ever encountered. The other couple were travelling the world, she recovering from breast cancer. We told stories, laughed and cried every night. Our table was the first to fill, and the last to leave. We connected with each other and it enriched us.

It happened again on a ship through the Panama. We walked up to our table and it was a sea of white hair, average age 75+, but fascinating people, every one. Americas leading sociology textbook writer for colleges. An 85 yr. old firecracker who had nursed in 25 countries. A 45-year teacher in a one-room school who travelled to a different country every summer. Every subject resulted in animated conversation. We left the ship for a few days and brought them back gifts from Machu Pichu. They cried, and the picture of all of us is still on our kitchen wall.

Yes, travelling is a great way to connect to new people, but why dont we do it all the time? Are we afraid to be open and tell our stories? Afraid to offend by asking for their stories? Dont want to enter someones space? Ill bet if you talk to a hundred people, a high percentage will be proud of their family, their accomplishments, their experiences & dreams. And they’d probably like to tell them, but they don’t know how and they dont feel safe.

A good conversationalist just knows how to ask questions. CBC Radios Barbara Frum was the best, and all of us can learn something from her. Open-ended questions find out whats important to the person youre talking to. Barbara often just said: tell me about and the game was on!

When youre next on a plane, a ship, or waiting for a bus, open up a conversation with a few non-threatening questions. Tell me about your work? Whats the most fun you have with your family? If you could do one thing tomorrow, what would it be? And have your stories ready so this isnt just an interview. The worse that will happen is they don’t want to participate, and your antennae will let you know. The best is you make a new friend. You will walk away feeling enriched. They will tell their friends and family they met an interesting person… and a new friend.

And connecting isnt just a rich experience with people you dont know. Good conversations help existing friendships grow much deeper.

Four us spent a recent New Years weekend at beautiful seaside lodge. We decided to learn more about each other by answering questions in the past, present & future. We answered questions like A book that affected me?, A person that affected me?, A skill I will learn?, and An experience I will have?. The result was deeper friendships with people we knew more about.

Everyones got a story, and feeling connected to more people, and ourselves, means listening to and telling those stories. Doesnt the popularity of devices that help us communicate, like cel phones & Blackberries, show a yearning to stay connected?

Problem is, we are less connected to each other. But if we just take the risk to tell about ourselves, and carefully listen to their stories, that will change.

And hey, who doesn’t need new friends?

-30-

Robb Lucy is a Vancouver, Canada entrepreneur, writer & producer rlucy@eyelearner.com

There may be another reason that professional journalists will become an endangered species. They simply are not reliably covering the most important stories of our times. Stories like the threat to democratic government everywhere by criminal intervention with election technologies.

I used to think that Reuters was the news source that reliably reported on all important stories. Now Reuters like all the other Corporate Media seems to be playing it safe. Just today in Reuters I saw an in an article the suggestion that the reason that the Republicans lost in the recent election was because of the Iraq war. That is such a pathetically inadequate version of reality.

The reason the Republicans lost is the growing realization that our democracy has been hijacked by an immoral, criminal political class, serving corporate paymasters, who have dragged the world into the most dangerous abyss since the 1930’s.

The gutless corporate journalist careerists are ignoring the gravity of what is going on. As the whole world sinks further into the mire, perhaps some of you should start reporting on the the fact that the entire world is at the edge of a very dangerous precipice. The job of the press is to inform, educate, and warn. Unfortunately, the latest generation of paid corporate journalists have forgotten their responsibilities of keeping the insane from running the asylum.