BlogHer - The Business of Mommyblogging on The Today Show - Comments

Picture of Kathy Lee clones (cows)

Sara Davis — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:37:15 -0500

This is a little off-topic, but fun: There is a Beefmaster cow named after Kathy Lee that was cloned a few years back. You can see more pictures of her clones here.

Sara Faivre-Davis

downtoearthblog.com and wildtyperanch.com

Now I know why morning show "interviewers" get no respect

GetSheila — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:52:03 -0500

Well I am coming to this party late. Just found all the brouhaha thru Mir's blog, WCS.

I think Kathy Lee Gifford was a perfect choice as interviewer.

Wait, that is not quite right. Let me try again:

I think Kathy Lee Gifford would have been the perfect choice as interviewer had she actually behaved like an interviewer with the best interest of the audience in mind.

As someone as clueless about computers as she is, she could have asked questions the rest of clueless-America would want to know, questions that would help them become less clueless and less frightened of those big, scary bloggers and more understanding of what blogging is all about.

Sadly, she did not. Disappointing.

Sheila GetSheila

Today show interviews

the farmers wife — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:25:42 -0500

First of all, you certainly realize that a Today Show segment isn't going to get to the nitty gritty of anything. It's fluffy stuff, and combine that with the fact that you were relegated to the fourth hour....your expectations for a good outcome are seriously diminished.

You must also understand that the producers pretty much decide the "focus" or what tack they're going to take in the interview and as you discovered they will keep pushing until they get what they want.

As far as Kathy Lee is considered, do not assume that she researchs any of the information covered on a daily basis. They just put the stuff in front of her and watch while she reacts. She does not delve any deeper than that, and that's what you were dealing with. There are other forums where this could be discussed in greater depth and with greater clarity. The Today Show is certainly not one of those forums.

Suzanne, the Farmer's Wife

The Today Show

Mommyto5 — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:01:15 -0500

I'm not much of a fan of television, but I'm so turned off by the TODAY show these days. The addition of Kathie Lee solidified that for me. She's just a prop...not even a good one.

It's the year 2008. My cat knows how to turn on a computer. Anyone who says they don't use a computer (much less turns one on) is just out there looking for a sarcastic comment from me. Not that I'd drop dead without one but please, she is in the media industry...how is it she doesn't use one? Oh, that's right, she's a prop. I forgot.

Does she think it's attractive to be cutesy and pretend she's the "femme fatale" who can't do a thing for herself? I'm sure Frank, who could be my dad, knows how to use a computer.

She's just an annoying twit with children who she parades thru the media...yet we can't put our children on our blogs because we're supposedly exploiting them? hmmmm. I don't need endorsements or kudos for my 5 children from the outside world, but I sure love to talk about them because they are such an important part of my life.

Go interview someone about Botox, Kathie Lee. Maybe more your speed.

Cheryl

http://dailyblonde.blogspot.com

I'd rather watch my dog than Kathie Lee Gifford

houndrat — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:16:22 -0500

Seriously. Who hired this woman? I watch the Today show in the monrings while I (constantly, it seems) nurse my 7-month old, since it seems like it's on for a about 23 hours a day. I can tell you, KLG is about as annoying as they come. Katie Couric seemed a bit clueless at times, but Kathie Lee is charmless.

I'd rather sit and watch my Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy single-pawedly demolish each and every one of my kids' toys (which is definite possibility) than watch another segment featuring that obnoxious wench.

http://www.houndrat.com

What is TODAY doing on the air for four hours a day?

windysblog — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:08:43 -0500

I find that even with all of that time, they still cut segments right in the middle of them. That's how I felt about the mommybloggers segment as well. So much could have been explored, they really should put an entire re-edited version on Dateline and have Anne Curry do the interviewing.

I have a soft spot for Hoda Kotb ever since Anne Curry did the segment about her having breast cancer. But Kathie Lee must go. On today's show she was an absolute dingbat (do people still use that word?), cutting in on Hoda constantly, and talking as if she was the authority in daytime entertainment television. She's been out of the loop so long! It seems that she hasn't realized there is life aside from Regis.

But we know. And we'll keep blogging. That's what we do, and that's why we know more about issues than the NBC researchers!

How Clueless Can They Get?

dolce_pics — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:22:55 -0500

New to Blogher and loving it!

I've been looking forward to watching this segment and yes, although I come to expect bad editing, the whole show ran around in so many directions that it would be difficult for a non-blogger to follow. I think all the guests did very well and I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to listen in on the rest of the round table discussion without the editing!

There is a reason why we don't have cable and watch tv. So much garbage out there.

Go bloggers!

-laura (blogging newbie)

http://www.dolcepics.com/

Is anyone at the Today Show smart enough to be reading this?

poppy — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:35:08 -0500

I doubt it.

Don't they realize that when we need to check the headlines, we go to an on-line newspaper? That our home page tells us the weather? That for celebrity gossip we have TMZ or Gawker or Perez?

Who needs morning television? It's noisy, inefficient, fake, and stupid.

Blogging at The Opiate of the Masses since 2004

At least WTAE got it right (sort of)

burghbaby — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:54:05 -0500

The timing of the Today debacle was particularily startling for me. While the piece was airing, I was sitting down with a local reporter answering many of the same questions regarding "Mommy Blogging." (The quotes are so totally necessary.) I later saw the Today piece and FREAKED OUT because I was so concerned that my stupid little words would also be twisted and make blogging out to be something that it's not. I was relieved (and shocked) when the local story ended up being not all that bad. It made the business of recording our children's lives seem important (which it is). While it still perpetuated the perceived problems of DANGER DANGER THE INTERNET IS SCARY, that issue was minimized. I have to admit, Ashley DiParlo gets a gold star from me, while I think I might just want to punch Kathie Lee Gifford in the face. Interesting that a local news station with far less resources can do a better job than Today.

another perspective

dadshouse — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:31:35 -0500

I thought the exposure for bloggers was great. Yes, Kathie-Lee doesn't get it. She doesn't get blogging, doesn't get the internet, doesn't get computers.

But I didn't get blogging until I started doing it - and I'm no stranger to computers. I was a Silicon Valley high tech professional for nearly 15 years, and worked in an internet startup!

Blogging is about networking and building community. Kathie-Lee is in a narcissistic profession where she gets put on a pedastal and the rest of us are mere mortals. She's not supposed to connect on a personal level. She may never get blogging.

As a single dad blogging about two-home parenting and modern dating, I've found most of my readers are women. Single, divorced, married - but women. So I totally appreciate the "mom blog" community. I hang on the fringe and am slowly being welcomed in. I also hang on the fringe of the single people who are out there dating community. I'm seeing it all, and it's definitely fun.

Dad's House http://dadshouseblog.com

Shiny Computers....

lynetteradio — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:17:16 -0500

KLG pretty much came off about as smart as a pop-tart. I had this mental picture of her running around a laptop yelling 'shiny...shiny...' Wow, what a perfect example for a person / mom / woman out of touch. Let's just hope that some other old media starts picking up on women bloggers that can do the story justice.

-- Lynette --

LynetteRadio.com

NewJerseyMomsBlog.com

bwahahahaa

Mir Kamin — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:16:03 -0500

You got me with that last line, Carolyn. ;) As a fellow Georgian, I feel I'm allowed to say this: Your mom? Bless her heart!

Hee. Thanks for the giggle -- best I've had all day.

--
Mir Kamin
(BlogHer Mommy & Family contributing editor)

Personal: Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Having it all with less: Want Not

Just tragic

CarolynOnline — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:13:13 -0500

As soon as it aired my phone started ringing off the hook. All of my friends wanted to know how much cash I was raking in from my blog. Um... none. Yet. Back off people! We're in it for the love of the game here. Although someday if/when I figure that money part out I will surely be partaking.

Even my mother called me and said, "that bloggy thing you've been writing for a year, I heard that the internet will pay you for it." Oh mom...back slowly away from the 21st century and put the keyboard down.

Bob and David?

Mom101 — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:34:26 -0500

My sigOth is obsessed with their blog (bobanddavid.com), although Mr. Show is long off the air.

Does that count?

Mom-101
Cool Mom Picks.com

Same Old Same Old from the Really Old Today Show

Grace Davis — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:02:48 -0500

This is not the first time the Today Show, with its antiquated take on what's really going on in women's lives, has screwed up their presentation of women/mother bloggers. The unsavory memory of Melissa Summers/Suburban Bliss getting ambushed by a media savvy shrink and the not-so-subtly hostile Meredith Vierra
rushed into my mind when I heard last month that local hero Jill Asher was to appear in a filmed segment. Jill - and you, Mir and Kristen - is nobody's fool and I knew that in her very nice way, she would play fair but hard against the forced giddiness from the passive aggressive Today Show on-camera talent. Then, when Heather Armstrong was added to the mix, I knew she wouldn't take any prisoners and would try to work in Al Roker's nipples into the fake coffee klatch banter.

I share with Heather the disappointment that she couldn't pull that off and I'm annoyed with the clearly rushed and sloppy production of the segment i.e., identifying Jill as Maria Bailey, not identifying Elisa Camahort at all.

Though some may consider this to be some sort of PR coup for anyone, these excellent bloggers deserve better. What is a true PR coup was Heather's front page presence in the Wall Street Journal. Now that's the kind of coverage that's relevant to what's going on with our mommybloggers, a wildly successful and entrepreneurial group of women who give their audiences/consumers what they want by delivering an entertaining and intelligent product far superior than the outdated national morning talk shows ever could.

The Business of Mommyblogging on The Today Show

Mir Kamin — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:15:34 -0500

My heart sank when this morning's segment on the Today Show started off with Hoda Kotb announcing "... the growing popularity of... 'mommy blogs.'" She used air quotes, and everything. You could've substituted anything bizarre and mystifying in the quotations, actually. "Alien bloodsuckers," or "giant pink sea monsters," for example.

I turned to my husband. "This is not going to end well," I said.

But first, let me back up.

A couple of months ago, I was approached by an NBC producer to participate in a "blogger round table discussion" to be used on the Today Show. Fellow blogging moms Kristen Chase and Jill Asher had been invited, as well, and we were told we'd sit down for a very informal discussion with NBC correspondent Janet Shamlian. After discussing it with each other and our trusted advisors, we all agreed to do it.

I can't speak for the other women involved, of course, but as for myself, I can tell you that I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. It was fun! Janet was warm and genuine and she knew her stuff -- she's read blogs, she's read our blogs, and she asked smart questions. We talked for hours, and cracked jokes about how it would end up being ten or twenty seconds of actual air time.

This morning, the Today Show aired the segment. The discussion Janet held with Kristen, Jill and myself was used as a bit of backdrop in a piece that was, in turn, the backdrop for a live interview with Heather Armstrong.

Take a look at what was aired:

While there are things I wish they'd done differently relative to the presentation of the round table discussion, my strongest feeling after watching this in its entirety is an overwhelming sense that NBC missed a prime opportunity.

Yes, mommyblogging (air quotes or not) is hot right now. Big companies are taking notice. There is money to be made. This is not new information. Digging a little deeper would be new information, and rather than sharing some of the interesting and even profound things that came to light during our blogger discussion, or asking Heather questions that she hasn't been asked previously, or -- here's an idea -- letting her actually get out a complete thought, what could've been a great segment about moms who blog became The Story Of How Kathie Lee Gifford Is Afraid Of Her Computer.

I'm going to sit firmly on my hands and let others make the point.

Life in the Garden settles for a gentle jab:

Kathy Lee was clueless to the concept [that blogging can make money]. Who Knew that this blog thingy on the interweb could cost you your job and possibly create a new revenue stream?

Susan at Working Moms Against Guilt doesn't mince words:

Kathie Lee was such a poor choice as the interviewer. Apparently, she doesn't "do" computers or the Internet, and therefore doesn't really know what blogs are. But she gave it the old college try--and sucked. Fortunately, her cluelessness made the bloggers look even smarter and sassier, which is just fine.

Amidst the many folks Twittering and blogging about Gifford's multiple "haha" references to not knowing how to turn her computer on and how she "doesn't do" computers, her continual harping on Heather for potential privacy concerns in blogging also came under fire.

I could hear Sarah's eyes rolling from hundreds of miles away:

I enjoyed the segment even if Kathie Lee Gifford is pretty much a tool and obviously hasn’t spent much time reading blogs. Did she actually say she was afraid of the computer?

She is worried about Dooce exposing her child to people, yet I know what Kathie Lee’s kids names are and what they look like too. What is the difference between talking about your personal life on a blog or talking about your personal life on a morning talk show. Oh, right. People are still reading blogs on a regular basis.

Jennie at Preteens, Toddlers, and Newborns, Oh My! is also calling for the clue phone:

And here's my question for Kathie Lee: How is what we are doing any different from you blathering on about your children, showing photos and bringing them on camera over national television for 15 years? I would think someone like Kathie Lee would be a little less likely to judge another woman after all the flack she's taken over the years. I think this is at the heart of why the woman drives me nuts. She just doesn't see the connection.

Christina at A Mommy Story can't understand Gifford's obvious disdain, either:

At one point Kathie Lee said, "You seem like a lovely lady....BUT..." and while the "but" was sugar coated, the underlying message was that she disapproved of Heather posting intimate details and pictures of her daughter on the internet. Before Heather had a chance to answer, she was cut off for an introduction to the next segment. (And let's not even get started on how Kathie Lee talked about her kids on TV on a near daily basis when she was with Regis. How is that different?)

Christina goes on to wonder what NBC was hoping to convey, here:

I wondered what the Today Show expected its viewers to take away from this segment. Did they want them all to rush out and start mommy blogs, because clearly there was money to be made from it? Or were they trying to caution moms against exploiting their children and opening them up to stalkers by blogging about them? The messages seemed contradictory to me, not unlike the old dichotomy of "Women should have equal rights! Get out there and work! Oh wait, you're going to be a mom? How can you abandon your child by working? You should be at home!"

Honestly, I wasn't sure what the focus was, after watching it. I feel like the taped segment was designed to make it look like we hardly do anything and then rake in the bucks, and I feel like the thrust of the live-interview time with Heather was made to make it look like -- in seven years of blogging -- maybe Heather has never really stopped to consider what she's doing.

Which... come on.

I would be less disappointed, I think, if I thought this was the best NBC could do. Having met Janet and her producer and spent the time with them that I did, I am just that: Disappointed. It could've gone a different way completely. Check out what Janet wrote in her blog:

What they write about used to be the stuff of diaries or a mid-morning phone call between the best of friends, and maybe that's why they've become so popular.

Being a mom can be isolating, but with a connection to the Internet we can peek behind the curtain of our contemporaries who blog about their lives, whether it be a tense morning moment with a hubby over who's driving carpool to feeling guilty about taking little Tommy to our hair appointment instead of taking him to the park.

I have to admit, there are several blogs I check every morning...if only to validate that that I'm not the only who feels like she's constantly dropping the balls.

Those are the words of a woman who Gets It. Kathie Lee Gifford did not Get It, not even a little.

And I'll tell you something else, too. In the hours that we sat around talking about blogging, I know that more was said than could be included. I get that. But I'm sad that they chose to focus on Kristen's "controversial duck theft" when she has more to say than that. I'm sad that they plucked a comment I made about my earnings totally out of context (for one thing, it was in response to being asked repeatedly to give a "reference point" to help Janet understand the possible scope of our incomes, and for another, I immediately qualified it by pointing out that I was speaking of my entire income -- from working more than full-time -- of which the revenue from my personal blog is but a tiny fraction). I'm sad that Jill made some wonderful, eloquent points about the community of blogging and how it's buoyed her through a family crisis and that was cut.

I'm particularly disappointed that they cut the part where I answered the "why do you blog?" question by saying that my blog is a perpetual love letter to my kids. Because it is, and if they really wanted to make the segment about the mommyblogging it was purported to highlight, that is what the viewers needed to know.

Instead, within an hour of the segment, my husband had an email from a friend asking him how his "sugarmama" was doing. Kristen had an email from someone saying that she has decided to start "a blog about kids," and after seeing the Today Show segment she sees "how easily you ladies are doing it" and she would like Kristen to tell her how to make money.

Not one of us started this for the money. (None of the four of us featured today, anyway.) Not one. The fact that we're now making money is a side story -- and an important one -- but when you skip the beginning, the ending doesn't make any sense.

Didn't someone once say to do what you love, and the money will follow? That was the story here. At least, it should've been.

BlogHer Contributing Editor Mir also blogs at Woulda Coulda Shoulda and Want Not.