BlogHer - Do You Have A Question For Tina Brown of The Daily Beast, Donna Byrd of TheRoot.com and Ilene Chaiken of The L Word? - Comments

Questions About Journalism's Future

Jenee D — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:40:12 -0500

@Tina Brown

I'm a freelance journalist. I've heard some people in our field speculate that because of the economy, the days of news orgs hiring a lot of permanent staff will be no more. Instead, most news orgs will hire freelancers because it's more cost effective. Do you foresee this happening?

@Donna Byrd.

I interviewed spiritual author and speaker Iyanla Vanzant for The Root earlier this year. My question is about the black press and new media. Black newspapers are hurting in the economy. Some suggest if black papers just publish strictly online that could save them. However because of class issues, many black people don't have access to computer resources like other groups. If black papers went digital, do you think they would lose black readers?

Also what role should black news sites play in bringing more black people up to speed in the age of new media?

Thank you for your time.

Jenee (Juh-Nay)

Cocoa Fly blog

Thank you!

Bev — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:52:03 -0500

Lisa, you are so kind to comment on my suggestions. I am a newbie blogger and am already enjoying all the encouragement from BlogHer.

I was actually thinking about Edith Wharton! But Evelyn Waugh would work too and I'd be glad to hear Tina's viewpoint.

I'll be there and I'll be listening.

Bev

Bev, dare I mention Evelyn Waugh?

Lisa Stone — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:37:37 -0500

That name has a likelihood to come up with Tina Brown. I love this question, thank you!

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.

The evolution of OurChart...

Lisa Stone — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:05:40 -0500

...and how about its future? :)

Thanks Paula!

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.

Duly noted, editors of Femisex.com

Lisa Stone — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:04:44 -0500

Related: Both Huffpo and The Daily Beast have received criticism for leveraging naked babes and celebrities to drive traffic:

Mediaite: Dueling Sex Watch: HuffPo and Daily Beast Battle over Bikinis

Trashy Parasitism as a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme? Hi, HuffPo

HuffPo response to Dumenco via Howard Kurtz's column: Not Safe for Work

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.

Question

basykes — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:01:13 -0500

It's not that she killed off a favorite character -- everyone wanted her dead -- it's that she spent the entire last season hinting at who was the murderer and then ended the series without ever revealing the answer, leaving legions of fans feeling royally cheated.

And yes, I'd love to know her answer to that.

Great question Bev: Is the "national conversation" over due to

Lisa Stone — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:55:54 -0500

...social media?

Along these lines, btw, Elisa Camahort Page is emceeing a futurist conversation that I can't wait for: Who We Will Become, with PBS Frontline's senior producer (and one of the early instigators of their Digital Nation initiative) Raney Aronson-Rath, Northwestern University professor and sociologist Eszter Hargittai and Berkman fellow and Microsoft Researcher danah boyd.

I want someone to ask about the singularity...

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.

Basykes, shall I ask Ilene about the risks of tying

Lisa Stone — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:50:25 -0500

your viewers into knots by killing off favorite characters, making them feel "royally cheated" as you describe?

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.

Question for all three women

Bev — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:49:05 -0500

Think about a female author whose writing you admire - who was publishing 40 or more years ago. What do you think she would be blogging about if she were writing today?

Could You Talk More About the Evolution and Vision of OurChart

paulag01 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:27:53 -0500

First off I am thrilled out of my mind to hear this panel & hear Ilene speak in person again (had the thrill of listening to her on an Olivia cruise a few years ago). I will be running, not walking from my lunchtime commitment to this panel. The person skidding in last minute in a suit will be me.

I know OutChart has taken a few evolutions from its beginning to its current incarnation on the Showtime site. In previous seasons it played a prominent role in The L Word and in the last season only a passing mention. Ilene can you speak to your original vision for that site and how it has evolved? What you learned worked, didn't work and your lessons learned as well as current hopes for it.

Oh & ditto on the Jenny thing, we were praying she'd die in season 2 (even built a season cliffhanger board game for it that year)...and it drives one nuts not to know who killed her.

Warmly

-Paula

Paula Gregorowicz
The Paula G Company
http://www.thepaulagcompany.com

Will you commit to Zero Tolerance to Sexism on the Daily Beast?

Femisex — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:57:59 -0500

Editors of Femisex.com

Tina Brown—

I recently listened to you speak at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, in New York. (I am an alum of that school.) It was very clear from that speech that you have liberal leanings. As a liberal, how can you justify the sexist leanings of your heds and deks on the Daily Beast. Recently when David Letterman attacked Gov. Sarah Palin on her “slut” look, you responded by announcing that David Letterman was Palin’s "latest victim."

The message you so loudly sent was that public figure woman have no right to stand up and complain when they are called sluts or when their female children are sexualized by the media. You have even suggested that Palin react more like Hillary—that is, not complain at all; to ignore such sexism.

A short time later you had this header: “Palin’s Polarizing Departure.”

We promptly wrote a piece that showed that Polarizing was a term used primarily against women to disembowel them politically. To Wit: David Geffen, against Hillary. (Geffen made the case--as Obama did throughout his campaign--that Hillary was too polarizing to be an effective leader.) It would seem to many reasonable people that by propagating the term Polarizing in relation to women and by ignoring the very troublesome use of the word Slut to describe a sitting governor you are only setting women’s rights on a backward path.

What will it take for you to pledge to Zero Tolerance to sexism on the Daily Beast in the manner media so clearly adheres to in terms of racism?

It seems impossible to ignore the fact that when powerful women, such as yourself, accept sexism aimed at women they don’t like, ALL Women suffer. If it is OK to sexualize “that” woman, then it is equally OK to sexualize “this’ women.

The Editors of FemiSex.com

http://www.femisex.com/content/the-polarizing-sarah-palin-and-hillary-rodham-clinton-andany-woman-who-wants-be-king

http://www.thedailybeast.com/big-fat-story/2009-06-12/the-wrath-of-sarah-palin/

http://www.femisex.com/content/the-s-word-it%E2%80%99s-not-breakfast-anymore-psst-someone-tell-media

http://www.femisex.com/content/slut-word-used-most-often-rapists-they-rape

Is media and technology separating us or bringing us closer?

Bev — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:45:40 -0500

40 years ago there were 3 major networks and a handful of national newspapers. Now the outlets for media are countless, and we can create our own social networks.

It's great to have all of this, but it's overwhelming. 40 years ago a person who made an effort to watch the news and read a major paper every day felt well informed; now it's impossible.

How do you think we will handle this? Will media, technology and more outlets bring us closer together and better informed, or further apart in our own niches - unaware of what others outside our niche are doing?

Would love to hear your insights on this.

Strategy?

basykes — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:59:14 -0500

If it's a strategy to build an audience for a future film, it has failed with me. I am still so angry about the time wasted on the last season of The L Word that I have no interest whatsoever in a film, were it to be made.

Immoral Matriarch, let's see what we can get from Ilene...

Lisa Stone — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:03:10 -0500

Was this approach perhaps a brilliant strategy to build audience for a feature film? Did a master storyteller here build her own case for her film? How do we as viewers feel about that?

I personally think it's brilliant -- LOOK at all of us! We really cared about this story.

There's a classic challenge for women's or lesbian or African-American programming, as a creative enterprise and as a for-profit business: How do you produce content so fantastic that it becomes mainstream? Looks like The L-Word nailed it, which was one of Ilene's goals -- because not everyone in this thread is gay, but we were completely sucked into the drama too. I'd like to ask Ilene more about that too.

TheRoot.com is doing a great job along these lines as well -- check out these stories:

Toward an 'Authentic' Black Barbie

Stay In Your Lane, Beyonce

The Best Year In Jazz Ever

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.

This is what I want to know.

Maria0305 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:51:27 -0500

I was a faithful fan of that show, but the finale left a bitter taste in my mouth, as it did for everyone else I talked about it with. I would just like to know who killed Jenny so I can ~~applaud them~~ finally know.

- Maria

http://immoralmatriarch.com

Do You Have A Question For Tina Brown of The Daily Beast, Donna Byrd of TheRoot.com and Ilene Chaiken of The L Word?

Lisa Stone — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:26:48 -0500

I've gotten so many private emails from BlogHers who want to meet these women that I decided to open a conversation about the BlogHer '09 Saturday keynote I'll emcee with Tina Brown, Donna Byrd and Ilene Chaiken.

Given that each woman has made media history offline, I plan to ask about their experience -- so far -- bringing their creativity and strategies to social media. What do they love about it? Or hate? Can they tell their stories on the Web better than in traditional media -- or are they limited by the medium? And is there any profitable business model in sight for online news and culture, news and culture from an African American perspective, and mainstream storytelling that happens to include lesbians? (Don't throw eggs on that last one, I want us all to learn from the brilliant arguments these women clearly know how to make for quality content.)

I simply kick-off the conversation -- in the BlogHer tradition, many of the questions are up to you. What will you ask Brown, Byrd and Chaiken? If you're not going to join us in Chicago in person, what can I ask for you? As always, if I use your question, I'll credit you and your blog if you have one. Please leave your question in the comments below. Thanks.

Do NOT be shy: I can confirm they are writers first, famous second, after this week's conversations. They are looking forward to meeting you as much as you look forward to getting to know them. Brown, Byrd and Chaiken all plan to attend sessions at BlogHer and to learn more about this community.

Here's a little more on the speakers, including links to their extended bios.

Tina Brown is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller “The Diana Chronicles.” Brown won many awards for her leadership of three magazines -- Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. She has written for numerous publications including The Times of London, The Spectator, and the Washington Post. >More

Donna Byrd is Publisher of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine that provides thought-provoking commentary on today's news from a variety of black perspectives. As publisher, Byrd leverages her expertise in marketing, strategic business planning and digital innovation to lead one of the top African American-focused daily magazines on the Web. >More

Ilene Chaiken has been a pioneer in the portrayal of lesbians on television, with a penchant for storytelling and a passion for her community. Chaiken has worked openly as a lesbian in Hollywood for over 25 years and is internationally known for her creation of the groundbreaking series, “The L Word.” Chaiken spearheaded the launch of OurChart.com, a fully-featured social networking and media site on the Web for lesbians and their friends. >More

Okay, bring on your questions!

Best,
Lisa