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wkyc.com had loads of problems election night, and our results really didn’t become available to most visitors until around 11 p.m. What a frustrating night. My video, above, was shot hours before the problems started. So, no, I wasn’t lying on TV … but we just didn’t deliver as promised.

On your mobile device, check out http://m.wkyc.com/ to see iPhone-friendly election results. It was my big innovation for election night.

Well, back on the job, time to win back some visitors, one click at a time.

Hope Obama works better than wkyc.com did election night. We’re still dead in the water.

Man, that forehead is shiny.

Tune in Tuesday to see my attempt to explain our mobile election results at http://m.wkyc.com/

Cute children’s book, interview worth the listen: Gravity and time. Gravity and time. … I didn’t take account of gravity and time.

AC/DC responsible for market crashes (scroll down)

We have a long way to go until most people understand climate change

And, MTV has a new video site that lets you embed videos

Spent the workday Thursday at a Poynter / Kent State media ethics workshop: Whose rules?

Jay Rosen was the keynote speaker (read his keynote here), and he was spot-on.

It was great to hear Rita Andolsen and Denise Polverine speak on a panel.

The opening and closing sessions were maddening, however.

• Professors and the editor of papers like the Plain Dealer spent the morning saying that papers need to experiment — but that these experiments had to “follow the rules” (fail)
• An academic derided the rise of TV live coverage. (What year is it?)
• All scoffed at the use of twitter to cover a funeral.
• And many current journalists — most with newspapers — argued that comments on their sites detracted from “meaningful, directed discussion.”

Twitter and funerals.

If you haven’t seen this yet, the Rocky Mountain News used twitter to live blog a funeral.

Everyone empanelled at the Media Ethics workshop thought this was beyond the pale and completely in bad taste.

It is.

But this was an ethics conference, and the reason this twittering experiment was unacceptable wasn’t really touched on.

How is a live text update from a funeral worse than a live video feed from a funeral?

While wkyc hasn’t twittered at a funeral, our experience at wkyc.com suggests that Twitter users might not be upset with us because we twittered at a funeral; they might be upset because we flooded their twitter stream with updates.

Our live twittering experiments — including twittering at an Obama rally and at the meeting to decide who should attempt to replace Stephanie Tubbs Jones — got negative feedback from three users because we were seemingly abusing twitter. Instead of telling Twitter users where we were at, or merely pointing to live coverage on our site, we deluged anyone who followed us with observations.

Some Twitter followers liked our experiments, however.

If funerals for newsworthy people can currently feature still photographers, live cameras and print reporters, saying that using Twitter to cover a newsworthy funeral is in bad taste seems a bit much.

Which is more intrusive: A satellite truck or a person typing into a cell phone?

Fix the audience, don’t fight the internet.

Participants in the conference most upset by online realities cited the necessity of newspapers (it was all about newspapers at this workshop) to keep democracy alive.

Panelists chuckled as they tried to imagine what bloggers would write about if there weren’t newspapers to harp on.

What I found lacking from any of these “we are defenders of democracy” comments was the truth about our business.

As Terry Heaton has laid out, A media company’s job is to assemble an audience and sell advertising to present to that audience.

If those at the conference who believe journalism exists to keep democracy alive really believed that, they would follow the lead of Snopes, Sharesleuth or Greg Palast and use the power of the internet revolution to expose corruption.

What I really think I heard internet naysayers express today was the desire to go back to the way it was.

One editor said he wants to be focused on getting more ads back into the print product. The print product is dying. Move on.

One newspaper employee could not imagine that conversations online that were not directed by the editors could be “meaningful.” Please read “Here Comes Everybody”

Unfortunately for many local media companies, bloggers would be just fine without your product. Why aren’t more media companies using blogger communities to improve upon their craft?

All involved, myself included, need to eat a big bowl of “get over yourself” and focus at the task at hand: Creating an audience — in any medium — so that advertising can support what you do.

This particular conference did not focus enough on the What to do or the How to do it, rather it stayed firmly in the Why(ine).

Metallica: Bargains, imprisoning me … all that I see, absolute savings (the first comment made me choke with laughter)

Global election map

The Republicans will be regarded from now on as “the party that wrecked America.” I like that meme.

Biden | More election stories

The Daily Show continues to offer the best political coverage on TV …

Scroll on the timeline for:
3:40 the fun really begins

4:21 eviserates McCain’s speech

7:07 “you mean to tell me they nominated a richie-rich, slow-talking Vietnam vet? Good luck selling that to the red states.

And another winner from Friday:

Watch the whole episode

Great rejoinders to every McCain attack on Obama … laying out reasons for why the Democratic Party should win … I may even watch it again

When the voice-over guy gets sarcastic (14 seconds in), you know there was a gaffe.

Maybe voters shouldn’t run from a candidate because of mistakes, but not knowing how many homes you own seems a bit out of touch