Joe the Plumber: Who is Joe? We Are Joe!

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Joe the Plumber




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by RidesAPaleHorse
image: RAPH

CNN's Handheld Audience Reaction Meters: Entertainment, Not Polling

It's Entertainment; not Polling:
Former Gallop Pollster Lampoons CNN's "Audience Reaction Meters" used in Presidential Debates




Special to Stinky Journalism
by David W. Moore

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Still wonder what-the-heck those squiggly lines are at the bottom of your CNN screen during the Presidential debates?

David W. Moore, the author of The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes The Truth Behind The Polls, and former senior editor at the Gallop Poll for thirteen years will tell you the folly of this pseudo-science.

Mr. Moore lampoons CNNs use of live Audience Reaction Meters during the Presidential debates as junk science. He tells you where the 25 year old hand meter technology came from and how its use in the debates, is completely counter to the concept of focus groups. He writes, [focus groups] are designed to obtain in-depth responses from the participants, who actually discuss the issues with each other and arrive at more considered views than what polls normally measure.

Moore argues that CNN has presented a 32 member groups reactions to candidates comments (shown in squiggly lines [0-100 with 0 equaling bad and 100, good]) as representative of American without one scintilla of scientific basis.

Should Americans really care what 32 people from Ohio think?

Continue reading: Latest Journalism News Updates


by David W. Moore
image: Stinky Journalism
Source: Latest Journalism News Updates

First Presidential Debate: Confusing CNN Graphic Showed Audience Reaction?

CNN's "Thingamajig":
"Live Audience Reaction" Graphic
Flat-lined at the Presidential Debates
StinkyJournalism

Can't CNN Leave Gismos Alone? Every time I looked at the "Audience Reaction" meter during the debate, it was flat-lined. Were these candidates dead men walking? The sciencey look of the graphic, you must admit, has an appealing truthiness.

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The similarity of CNN's "Live Audience Reaction" meter to the vital sign monitors in a hospital is unmistakable. Everyone knows from TV --"Doctor, come quickly. Code blue!"-- that flat lines in wave form graphics spell death for a hospital patients. But what the heck do the same flat lines mean for viewers watching the presidential debates?

The "Audience Reaction" meter – three colored lines at the bottom of the CNN News screen during the debates – combined with the enforced audience silence to provide a surprising effect: I felt slightly anxious and kept looking for signs of life.

Was I watching dying patients in the hospital with the mostly flat-lined and smoothly flowing and colorful wave forms? And what exactly was being measured anyway? My busy CNN television screen did not say.

Even media bloggers had no clue

MyChances.net asked, "Anyone have any idea how the little scrolling ‘Audience Reaction' is measured? CNN has one trend-line for independents, republicans, and democrats, and I'm not sure where they're getting those numbers."

Speculation abounded on the Web. SteveK on Media Bistro agreed that the meter "is fairly difficult to decipher."

At Yahoo! Answers, Austin M said, "CNN has chosen 3 audience members to give their reactions to CNN by giving them through a pulse machine. This is possible by seeing their pulse and looking at how it rises and lowers based on the questions asked. Also, those same people have a handheld device where they press 1 of three buttons meaning plus a little, minus a little, or back to neutral. (Used after each question.) Hope this helps."

Not really, Austin, but thanks.

Dennis left a comment on MyChance.net " with this CNN link which gives a partial answer: ' Voters watch the debate from Columbus, Ohio, and give their reaction to the responses in real-time.' But how this is done is not clear; nor is it stated how they gauge who is republican, democratic, or independent (presumably self-identification)."

Even the Wall Street Journal 's "Numbers Guy" couldn't enumerate--literally. He wrote, "Beneath the candidates, reaction from 32 undecided focus-group members in Ohio was presented graphically rather than numerically...reaction, positive or negative, was displayed as a rising or falling line."



The answer was from Ernanio was the best: "They have a bunch of potential voters from OHIO seated in a room with a dial thingamajig on their hands that when rotated can go from 0 - 100 to show how much they are liking the candidates intervention."

[Photo RIGHT: Some bloggers mistakenly thought the audience reaction meter measured pulse rates of the focus group. Here StinkyJournalism illustrates what a focus group member would look like, had it been true.]

What the heck was the thingamajig? Will CNN keep using it on the next two presidential debates?

So what does CNN News say?

I wrote to Edie Emery, in media relations at CNN, seeking answers. She kindly e-mailed me CNN's press release. It explained (emphasis mine):

Continue reading: CNN's "Thingamajig": "Live Audience Reaction" Graphic Flat-lined at the Presidential Debates


by Rhonda R. Shearer
images: Stinky Journalism
Source: CNN's "Thingamajig": "Live Audience Reaction" Graphic Flat-lined at the Presidential Debates

Canadian Survey on Foreigners Reveals Surprise

by RidesAPaleHorse
image: RAPH


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He is Risen!

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Happy Easter!


graphic: RidesAPaleHorse
source: John 11:25


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Barack Obama: White America's Past Transgressions

A quick shot of the Messiah pointing his finger at whitey for all the transgressions we have heaped upon the poor black community.

I'm not convinced except for one thing. (above)

by RidesAPaleHorse
image: RAPH

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Super Bowl 2008

by RidesAPaleHorse



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Four Horsemen for a New Century

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The Biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: allegorical figures in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. The rider on the white horse has many interpretations—one is that he represents Christ; the rider on the red horse is war; on the black horse is famine; and on the pale horse, death.

RidesAPaleHorse offers us four new horsemen for a new time.

[image: RideaAPaleHorse]
Source:
* Four Horsemen of Apocalypse





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Moohamhead's Revenge

by RidesAPaleHorse

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American Daredevel: R.I.P.

The original Extreme Gamesman

Name at birth: Robert Craig Knievel

Evel Knievel brought the spirit of P.T. Barnum to daredevil motorcycle jumps in the 1970s. Dressed in his signature red, white and blue jumpsuit, Knievel would race his motorcycle up steep ramps and over obstacles, including the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas (in 1968) and a row of 13 double-decker buses at London's Wembley Stadium (in 1975). Often he crash-landed, thrilling viewers while breaking dozens of bones. His most famous stunt was an attempted jump over Idaho's Snake River Canyon in a rocket-powered "motorcycle" in 1974. The attempt failed when the craft's parachute opened prematurely, but Knievel survived. He retired in 1981; his son Robbie Knievel succeeded him as the family motorcycle daredevil. Evel Knievel received a liver transplant in 1999, due to hepatitis C presumably contracted through blood transfusions after his many crashes.

Extra credit: George Hamilton portrayed Knievel in the 1971 movie biography Evel Knievel... George Eads played Knievel in the 2004 TV movie Evel Knievel... Knievel played himself in the 1977 film Viva Knievel.

More Evel photos and career statistics at Evel Knievel
Knievel jumping lorries in Wembley Stadium

The crippled grandfather of extreme sports inhales deeply. He sits in his leather easy chair, mind clouded by meds, bones throbbing with arthritis. As he watches an NFL game, on which he has bet $1,000, the cantankerous stuntman clutches oxygen tubes supplying life to hardening lungs.

It is a shock to the senses, if not the sensibilities, to see ultra-cool Evel Knievel, 68, looking so feeble, so frayed around his graying daredevil edges, right down to his gnarled knuckles and wobbly gait.

His ravaged, 155-pound body isn't composed of original parts. He has a new liver and a replacement hip, and most recently doctors inserted a drug pump in his abdomen. It gives little reprieve from the excruciating pain in a fused spine mangled by hundreds of perilous, cringe-inducing motorcycle jumps from the 1960s and '70s.

"Ever see one of them before?" Evel asks, lifting a pajama top to reveal a pain-relief gizmo under his pale skin. "This sends morphine and synthetic heroin into my back 24 hours a day. It's awfully strong — it affects your thinking, your brain."

by RidesAPaleHorse
note: mondoreb
[graphics: top-RAPH; bbc]
Sources:
Evel Knievel - who2
Evel Knievel, long retired, frail, feisty, still cheating death - USA Today





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Why Men Shouldn't Take Messages

by RidesAPaleHorse



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American Daredevil

by RidesAPaleHorse

[graphics: top-RAPH]





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Dog the Bounty Hunter: Missing

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by RidesAPaleHorse





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Happy Thanksgiving to Our Readers

Amen.

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Four Falling Flags Flumox Hillary

Inspired by this incident, captured on video:


[graphics: RidesAPaleHorse]



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Networks Scramble to Find Quality

It seemed the new TV season had just started, then, suddenly, the stream of new episodes threatened to run dry.

For the most part, you can relax for the rest of the month. Even with TV writers on strike, most of your favorite comedy and drama series have episodes on tap through November, and even beyond. But a few will be in reruns all too soon.
--AP/MyWay

by RidesAPaleHorse



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Danger Ahead: Falling Cow Zone

Slippery pavement's not the only hazard for the unwitting motorist these days. Beware of of the Falling Cow Zone. A little reminder, courtesy of DBKP and RidesAPaleHorse.

What's with all the falling cows? Three stories about cows falling from the sky.

THE STORY:
From Seattle Pilot::

A Chelan County fire chief says a couple were lucky they weren't killed by a cow that fell off a cliff and smashed their minivan.

District 5 Chief Arnold Baker says they missed being killed by a matter of inches Sunday as they drove on Highway 150 near Manson.

The 600-pound cow fell about 200 feet and landed on the hood of the minivan carrying Charles Everson Jr. and his wife Linda of Westland, Mich., who were in the area celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary. They were checked at Lake Chelan Community Hospital as a precaution. The van was heavily damaged, including a broken windshield

Lest you think this is a freak phenomenon, here's one from lsst year in the U.K. from The Guardian:

A woman sunbathing at Compton Bay on the Isle of Wight had a narrow escape when a cow fell 16 metres (50ft) off a cliff to its death and landed where she had been lying moments earlier.

Sally Brown, 51, of Cowes, had just picked up her body board when she heard a loud noise as the animal hurtled down a cliff. She said later: "It would have killed me if it landed on me." Jane Phillips, of Compton Farm, apologised, adding: "It doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if it had landed on her." Her husband Den covered the dead cow with a canvas until it could be moved at low tide.

And finally, one last look at the Falling Cow Syndrome in legend. This from Flat Rock:

According to Reuters, the dazed crew of a Japanese trawler was plucked out of the Sea of Japan earlier this year clinging to the wreckage of their sunken ship. The rescue was followed by immediate imprisonment once authorities questioned the sailors about their ship's loss. To a man they claimed that a cow falling out of a clear blue sky had struck the trawler amidships, shattering its hull and sinking the vessel within minutes.

The men remained in prison for several weeks - until the Russian Air Force reluctantly informed Japanese authorities that the crew of one of their cargo planes had apparently stolen a cow wandering at the edge of a Siberian airfield, forced the cow into the plane's hold, and hastily taken off for home.

Okay, so the last one is an urban legend, but that still three stories of falling cows, two which are legit.

As if there's not enough to worry about.

by Mondoreb
[image:RidesAPaleHorse]




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Hillary Coming Out: Resume Enhancement?

Hillary Clinton a lesbian? Coming out?

The rumors, whispers and speculation has been heavy this week about the relationship of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's relationship with her personal aide, Huma Abedin. Supposedly, the Los Angeles Times has a story about a sex scandal involving one of the presidential candidates that it's been sitting on.

The blogosphere's been a-buzz.

RidesAPaleHorse's take is that it might just be the act of resume enhancement.
Is Hillary merely cementing the Gay/Lesbian vote? It seems safely in the Democrat Party corner. Hillary is the cautious sort, as anyone who's heard her explain her votes on Iraq and Iran or her stand on Gov. Eliot Spitzer's position on illegal immigrant driver licenses in NY can attest.

You'd thought "First Lady" and "Senator" on the resume would be enough.

UPDATE: From September 21, 2007 New York Daily News:

Hillary Clinton officially declared she's not a lesbian - not that there's anything wrong with that.

During an interview with The Advocate to be published next week, Sean Kennedy, the gay magazine's news and features editor, asked the presidential candidate, "How do you respond to the occasional rumor that you're a lesbian?"

"People say a lot of things about me, so I really don't pay any attention to it," Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) replied.

"It's not true, but it is something that I have no control over. People will say what they want to say."

by Mondoreb
[image and questions:RidesAPaleHorse]

MORE:
Hillary Clinton a Lesbian? Would Set Gay Rights Back 50 Years



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September 11: Never Forget

--RidesAPaleHorse

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