In His Own Words: Remembering Daniel Schorr

You may not recognize Daniel Schorr.

But if you tuned into NPR at all in the past few decades, you were likely treated to one of the keenest voices in journalism today providing a unique perspective on the news.

His decades of experience and depth of knowledge were a breath of fresh in air in this era of 24-hour quick-judgement news.

Schorr passed away today at the age of 93.

He will be missed on the radio, but we are fortunate that his voice will live on:

Final Edition

The death of The Rocky, in their own words.

It's telling that the most poignant eulogy came from the newspaper itself -- in a video, embedded online.


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

The End of the Rocky Mountain News

Today's funeral notice regarding the Rocky Mountain News here in Denver hit me with a bit of nostalgic melancholy.


In the early 90's I fully expected and hoped I would be working at one of our two papers. I admit I was partial to The Denver Post, but that probably has something to do with the fact they kept me semi-employed through the summers for a while. I had my small, insignificant part in the city's infamous newspaper wars, and I treasure that to this day.

Of course, I am also symptomatic of the troubles our two city papers have gone through. A lifelong newspaper addict, I let my subscription lapse years ago when I hit that magical pivot point where you realize you've already read most of what's in the fine print, online the night before. The newspapers were piling up -- filler for that old purple recycling bin I had to lug out back every few weeks.

I get why the two papers were forced into bed for a while, but wonder if we wouldn't have been better served by one stronger paper instead of two facades duplicating themselves as they shrank both in size, content and, most importantly, advertising revenue.

My hope is the death of a Denver institution serves to breathe life into the remaining outlets in town. Maybe now that the war has ended with a whimper, The Denver Post will finally start figuring out life after newsprint. Who knows, maybe Gannett has bigger plans now for the 9News website?

I hope so.

Despite my own retreat from the journalistic ranks, I think society is well served by the hard work reporters put into finding out the things others would prefer go unnoticed.

Here's a toast to the future and the past. We were lucky to have had two great papers in town for as long as we did.

I know I'll be buying one last copy of the Rocky Mountain News tomorrow.

Modern in Denver

Yet another reason Denver rocks.

There's a small new local modern design magazine trying to get off the ground.


Distribution's limited, so if any of you cool cats happen to scoot by Mod Livin' grab me a copy of Modern in Denver.

The Illusion of Propaganda in the Digital World

With Iran showing off it's missle prowess this week, what's wrong with the front page of all these major newspapers?


One of those four launches never happened. The image was digitally altered from this photo:



With photos getting beamed around the world, in this case by Agence France-Presse, and published in newspapers and websites alike instantaneously, how do you know something is real?

This isn't a new problem. Think back to the O.J. Simpson trial when Time Magazine controversially altered a photo of the former football star for it's cover.

The challenge for media in the digital age is how to catch these things, and more importantly, how to acknowledge when they've been duped.

Iran clearly wanted to show four launches.

The real story is that their missile tests didn't quite go according to plan.

News Moves the Pied Piper Down the FM Dial

While I was off cavorting on far-flung beaches drinking too many cuba libres, Colorado Public Radio made a huge announcement that will finally bring NPR News back from exile in the AM radio wastelands.

In doing so, they finally acknowledged something anyone who has been to a symphony or opera here in town recently would have told you:

Classical music fans are an aging, if affluent, breed.

Looking to the future, CPR has finally decided to put news front and center, while finding a way to placate listeners with an ear for opera and strings.

This spring KCFR finally heads back home to 90.1 FM, taking its rightful place as CPR's flagship station. Classical music will now move to a new slightly less powerful station at 88.1 FM. That crackly AM station will now be someone else's playground.

For a while there were some ominous rumblings that they would consolidate their signals on a single FM station. Listening to all the feeds would have required an HD Radio, which no one is really bothering to buy yet.

This new solution elegantly serves listeners, while acknowledging that NPR's unique news programming is better suited for finding new subscribers in the iPod era.

CPR just ensured at least one membership renewal this year.

The Bryant Park Project

In case you haven't noticed on the right hand side of this blog, I'm a pretty devoted National Public Radio junkie. It's an addiction.

I even crumpled this year during one of those never-ending pledge drives and finally got my very own Colorado Public Radio mug. In case you ever thought it might be a neat addition to your morning cup of joe, it's one heck of an ugly mug.

It turns out NPR spent some of my mug money this summer, developing a new newscast that throws out tradition. The surprising part? The Bryant Park Project is a great show!

You can listen to it HERE where they are tweaking the concept right now.

This definitely ain't your daddy's NPR.

It's a hipper, more conversational concept clearly aimed at a younger, more net-savvy crowd. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's clearly not meant to replace the harder news stuff NPR already carries. I see it more as a lighter way to draw listeners once Morning Edition winds up. It's a bold, exciting direction for NPR.

Now, for the reality check: Will this new pair of socks fit Colorado Public Radio? Call me skeptical. This is the crowd that's strangely trying to coax people to listen to the news feed on digital radios no one owns. These are the same people who assumed that a local news station didn't really need local news updates.

At least I know some of my ugly mug money has gone to help develop The Bryant Park Project. Let's hope Colorado Public Radio finds room for something that thinks outside of their box. It's supposed to roll out to stations nationwide this fall.

UPDATE (9/21): It turns out Joanne Ostrow at The Denver Post had a blurb about this in her TV/Radio column earlier this week. My gut instinct about CPR not carrying it is now confirmed:

"For now, Colorado listeners are out of the loop. KCFR (90.1 FM) will not pick up the new NPR morning show. "We're concentrating on expanding our local news," said spokesman Sean Nethery. "

KUNC up in Fort Collins, but available here in Denver, won't be carrying it either. That's less of a suprise as they're still a hybrid NPR station playing music in between news. So here on the Front Range it'll be online or satellite only, at least for a while.