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Al's Morning Meeting

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Al Tompkins
Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise. Posted by 7:30 a.m. Mon-Fri.
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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'


*1. You thought sub-prime lenders were gone? No way! They are making FHA loans.

*2. Salon investigates "Friendly Fire" incident that leads to document shredding.

*3. Just in time for Thanksgiving, PETA posts a video of turkey abuse on a poultry farm.

*4. Seven key questions about a car company bailout.

*5. The Flip Cam has gone HD with a customizable cover.

6. A fun video to help you with digital conversion.

7. ProPublica's investigation into air marshals gone bad.

8. An awesome storm chaser photo blog

9. Planet Money is a really good blog about money and finance.

10. ESPN's "The Journey of Richard Jensen" -- the comeback of a wrestler -- is an extra good video.

11. You can lay subtitles or text bubbles on video -- any video. I will be using this to teach about storytelling.

12. I now use Utterz to file audio reports. You can use your computer's mic or any phone. It's simple and would be a great reporter's tool.

All of my Diggin' sites are saved on Poynter's del.icio.us page.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.


Edwards Joins Long List of Politicians Involved in Sex Scandals
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So John Edwards now admits to having an affair. Let's remember that he is a private citizen who holds no office and is not running for office. That he does not currently hold office and is not currently running should have a bearing on the tone and degree of coverage. It is interesting that the disclosure comes today, a day when so much of the nation's TV audience will be watching the Olympics. Friday nights are great nights to release bad news and watch it wither over the weekend.

We can only hope this is not an excuse for journalists to start asking all politicians if they had affairs. Just asking the question causes harm if there is no justifiable reason to do so. There are too many important issues at hand for the country to get derailed by this.

This scandal may not compare to doozies of the past. Here is a list of 10 of the most noteworthy political sex scandals in American lore.

For a more serious look at sex scandals in American history go here.

Here is a chronology of Congressional sex scandals dating back to 1850.

Here is Huffington Post's list of the 53 biggest political sex scandals ever.

Which scandals make the most news? So far the biggest scandals, in terms of news coverage, have had sexual overtones, as opposed to high-level political corruption. See the list.
Posted by Al Tompkins 5:39 PM
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nice job Al All us libs want to thank you for perpetuating the... More.
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