Redding touts entrepreneurship

Oct. 25, 2007, 1:30 p.m. - Mixing politics and business, Robert "Rob" Redding Jr. of ReddingNewsReview.com urged reporters attending a National Association of Black Journalists Media Institute to consider being entrepreneurs rather employees.

Its time NABJ stopped tracking reporters to join these big-time media organizations, Redding said.

His comment came at the end of a lively panel discussion by Online Innovators during the Watergate Conference held on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007 at the offices of the National Journal.

The panel included Mario Armstrong, a tech guru (who was blogging the event as he was being introduced); Janet Roe, blog operator of the National Journals 'The Gate'; Jimi Israel, Columnist /Blogger and Host of the Barber Shop heard on NPR's Tell Me More; and Redding, publisher of ReddingNewsReview.com.

The group was asked by moderator Charles Robinson of Maryland Public Television what the impact Blogs and You-Tube are having on the presidential campaigns.

Look, not every blogger is a journalist, Israel said, so you should be very careful. Bloggers don't always check their facts, yet mainstream media is reading them.

In response to Robinsons question Have Blogs changed politcs?, Roe said: Yes. People are using them to announce and circumvent traditional media.

There was a lively back and forth between Rob and Jimi. Here's some of the exchange.

Jimi: I look at myself as a counter-spinner. I was one of the first to say the Jena 6 story was more than what people were talking about. What about them [sic] other boys who were arrested. Shucks, I called Bill Cosby a douche-bag in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I'm concerned about NABJ weighing in on the Don Imus situation. Who are we to decide who should be fired? Remember what Baldwin said, They come for him in the day, but theyll come for you at night.

Rob: (He's annoyed.) What are you talking about? He should have been called out and I take exception to what he said and you should too.

At this point the moderator steps in to calm the two down and get back to the discussion of politics. After the heated exchange between Rob and Jimi, a veteran editorial columnist had this response:

Wow, I hope you guys don't expect us to live up to that kind back and forth. Were just editorial writers, said Colbert I. King, Washington Post Editorial writer, who was taking it all in with Deborah Simmons, newly named Editorial Page Editor at The Washington Times.

King was impressed, but if anything he and Simmons may have seen the future. These are the Young Turks pushing the envelope of online journalism.