Television journalism went into decline when Chet Huntley retired.  He had a neat voice, he never talked down to his audience and he was all business — his business, journalism.  The Joe Friday — "just the facts, ma’am" — of reporters.  Even those times he stepped over the line and showed his feelings, I’ll bet it was due more to human error than the compulsion to commandeer the bully anchor pulpit for spouting self-important opinions.

Many of Mr Huntley’s successors are refugees from speechwriting and press secretary gigs in the House, Senate and White House.  They made their career switches after working their Rolodexes.  OK, it’s a free country.  But that’s why it is difficult to understand why their bosses all of a sudden want to invoke the hallows of journalism school in taking on the so-called citizen journalism phenomenon.  Did you know that Huntley crossed a picket line once because he believed journalists had no business being represented by the same union that represents actors?  What would he say now.

That’s where Gregg and Evan Spiridellis pick up the slack by working their video magic on the subject.  You’ve got to watch this.  Hilariously yet gently on point.

PS:  Huntley actually could have joined an actors union by way of his uncredited turn in one of the best movies made about corporate politics — and one of my all-time favorite movies — Executive Suite [1954]. 

I’ve got the fever and it’s worse than before.  And I’m not just channeling Peggy Lee.  Turn me loose — preferably in the digital media/network/advertising space.

I just wrapped up a promising gig:  helping
a great CEO articulate a brilliant business
model and present the pitch.  We were getting ready to knock the socks off the venture capitalists who
had requested meetings when — cue the music, possibly the Law & Order sound — things got woolly in the infrastructure and the whole thing disintegrated.  Lessons learned forthcoming — here’s the first.

Steam is building in this neck of the woods again.  Vapor, duplicity and exaggeration are back as well, but not in the quantity of the late 1990s.  This version of Valley Voodoo is a different kind of magic.  Tools and toys that people want, moving along a the better-understood information highway.

VCs are backing sensible platforms and ideas that are
exciting not just because they could be lucrative but because of how they open up communication and connect people —
socially and commercially.  Entrepreneurs who grew up soaked in
Internet functionality, because they use it for everything, may stand on the
verge of maturity, but they’re teaching other generations what can be done with an equally-maturing Internet. 

All they need, besides
a personal shopper from Bloomingdale’s instead of Abercrombie &
Fitch, are a few with-it veterans that get them, their dreams and what it takes to fund and run a company.

Guy does a great service by sharing this essay by George Orwell.  If you don’t have time to read any of the classic books on how to write clearly and powerfully, keep this essay handy.

This one is a classic.  Chris advises on the process for establishing the "corporate" social network, but what he says here applies to vetting any tool for communicating or engaging a community.

I believe the concept of core competence is relevant.  For a couple of reasons. 

First.  No matter where a career might take you, it’s important to have a few skills that will serve you whatever the market conditions or personal situation — something you can always do to support yourself.  Second, in marketing, we have more than our share of charlatans and posers just in it for the regular paycheck — not for the passion of a product or service.  A core competence set can really separate the wheat from the chaff.

But this post is not about core competence, really.  It’s about a concern I’ve had for years now:  that one core competence — writing — is perceived only as a tactical device.  It goes something like this.  The real thinkers really can’t write, but they don’t have to do the writing, anyway.  It’s something to be delegated to someone who still knows how to diagram a sentence and proofread.  "Give it to the wordsmith."

I just had a thought.  Maybe by confining writing to the wordsmith
category, the puffed-up exec types are really telling us that their
work is so perfect, they just need a human spell-checker. 

Well, we may
be blowing another big bubble out here in Silicon Valley, but more and more VCs and analysts are going to
shine a blue light into the vapor beginning to mist over our landscape.  Best to put a marketing pro on
your executive team who, while giving you the right words, challenges
your every assertion.  You know them:  one of a kind, revolutionary, the next YouTube.

Better get someone who can find the differentiation in your hot new
product.  Someone who can respond point by point during The Scrutiny.  Moreover,
accept that your core competence set needs the added firepower of a marketing leader who can think on his feet and put real dramatic emphasis around the
advantages of your product — just as well, if not better, than you can.

And remember:  most of us have forgotten how to diagram a sentence.