Also, what about Time’s choice for their Person of the Year? Barack Obama - who’s that? Thank goodness it wasn’t some nebulous concept choice this year… And is Obama creating a Democratic power vacuum by creating a bunch of vacancies in the Senate through his cabinet
choices? Is he risking his majority? And finally, yes, we gotta talk SHOES! Is the whole shoe-throwing incident overblown? Could it be national catharsis for a president we’ll never see regret anything? Or is it just hilarious? Tune in to this week’s Wilshire & Washington, with hosts Ted, Teresa, and Maegan, and they just might tell you! - Blaise Nutter, producer

Listen here or use the blue Blog Talk Radio player on the right >>.

If you’re 10-20 – you have a MySpace account and text everyone, even when you’re sitting next to them

If you’re 20-30 – you text friends with pictures of you being drunk at some other party/bar that they’re not at – you use email to send for business or to get a job

If you’re 30-40 – you text once in a while in spurts, have a FaceBook page and use your cell phone all the time, you have a blackberry or IPhone and love it, you have Vonage to save you money on phone calls when you’re home

If you’re 40-50 – the IPhone is cool but the typing sucks, so you still have a Blackberry, you have a Facebook page to keep in touch with your nieces and nephews and other young/cool people, you rarely text, you’ve heard of Twitter but you think it’s some GIRL thing and you use your cell phone most of the time

If you’re 50-60 – you have a cell phone and like it a lot – maybe you have a BBerry or an IPhone and think it’s cool to see your email account when you’re not at home

If you’re 60-70 – you don’t know the difference between dialup and broadband connection for your home computer, you might have a cell but only for phone calls and probably not an IPhone, you have no fucking idea why anyone would ever text anyone else or have a Facebook page, twitter describes someone who is an airhead

If you’re over 70-80 – cell phones are pain in the ass, you can’t hear anyone on it anyway, you have never heard of Facebook, text messaging, iPhones, Blackberries or any of that stuff – if your car breaks down on the 405, having a cell phone is very useful. What is Vonage anyways, isn’t that just the phone company??

If you’re 80 or older – you don’t give a shit about any of the above – a phone with a cord is just fine. You’re not buying a sweater this year because you might be dead before it really gets cold, so who needs technology …..

Second, Ted, Teresa, and Maegan weigh in on the current issues confronting the Obama administration: Why are so many news outlets reporting the “angry left” is angry with Obama? Is there any truth to this whatsoever and should any of us be surprised at all that Obama might be a centrist (you know, as opposed to the communist anti-Christ)? Teresa and Maegan also talk the the indictment of Illinois Governor Blago - wow, what an idiot - and the ironic role of investigative journalism in the equation as the Tribune goes bankrupt. Perhaps those old media dinosaurs do know a trick or two of the trade. - Blaise Nutter, Producer

Listen here, or use the blue Blog Talk Radio player on the right >>.

Giving us some perspective, Ted Johnson offers an exclusive review of Ron Howard’s new film, Frost/Nixon, as well as a portion of an interview he conducted with the Academy Award Winning Director (oh yeah, All Caps) at a recent screening. Don’t skip out and miss Howard’s Nixon impression. Apparently, it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days. Teresa and Maegan also weigh in on the Bush/Nixon comparison, our leaders’ difficulties in admitting mistakes, and the judgment of history.

Now, who you callin’ a team of rivals? Hilary? Really? Didn’t you disagree with her on everything? Yeah, a reporter asked that and what was That One’s response: brushed his shoulders off. It’s like the primaries didn’t even happen. Obama’s got some explaining to do, with his appointment of Senator Hilary Clinton as his new Secretary of State. Will Obama punish the reporters for asking about that? And what about this paradox of our current presidential duopoly, with every time Bush says something, the market crashes? How does that reflect psychologically on the administration, and how will the Mumbai terrorist attack affect Obama’s first real days in office? Is this India’s 9/11? How did the media respond, online and off, and how has it affected the Obama’s transition? All on today’s Wilshire & Washington. - Blaise Nutter, Producer

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player on the right >>.

To tackle this changing landscape, Tim O’Reilly - the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., open standards advocate, coiner of the term ‘Web 2.0,’ and buzzed-about short-list candidate for BO’s tech czar - stops by to discuss the MSM’s supposed collapse post-election, the opportunities MSM leaders are missing in their obsession with their own demise, and some of the major technological initiatives discussed at the recent Web 2.0 Summit he hosted in San Francisco with John Battelle. He also addresses some essential job qualifications for the soon-to-be-named tech czar and handicaps who among the digerati he thinks could best handle the job (not him, he says). Other topics addressed include how Twitter is creating new channels for people to communicate with government and consume news, and whether the President-Elect’s new media strategy really does offer the much-hyped transparency that netroots junkies are orgasming over, as Slate’s John Dickerson took umbrage with earlier this week.

Listen here.

Annenberg’s fearless new media leader on the future of advertising in digital. VERY USEFUL.

“As I sat in the various sessions contemplating the extensive possibilities at our feet when bold leaders push existing boundaries, my Twitter feed continued to ding on my Blackberry with updates from Romenesko and Jay Rosen: reports of more of the same old MSM coverage of layoffs and predictable navel-gazing about election bias born of the hierarchical point-counterpoint inverted pyramid storytelling model. The irony was biting. What is a journalist if not someone who hopes to enable others with the information they need to solve the problems of our time? To connect individual citizens with their communities? Shouldn’t newspapers be the ones championing this enterprise? 

The American Press Institute is huddled behind closed doors this week in crisis mode discussing how to save the deadwood editions that still turn a profit. You have to wonder if it’s just like watching the unplugged McCain campaign be pummeled by underestimating Web 2.0 technology. Since we won’t know until they publish a report what exactly they’re talking about, I am hoping the API conversation focuses less on redesigns and marketing gimmicks, and primarily on giving advertisers incentives to pay higher CPMs and invest in the redevelopment of dynamic, 21st century newsrooms that connect the distinct expertise of reporters with the emerging wisdom of the crowd. 

This doesn’t have to be a crisis: In fact, it is a time of great opportunity for those who are willing to make big bets — and implement them.”

Full column here.

“Liberals may be understandably ecstatic about the influence the blogosphere has had on the election results, but truly thoughtful and responsible citizens should have reservations about the absence of conservative dialogue. It’s too easy these days to consume self-reinforcing information, whether it’s O’Reilly or Olbermann, Drudge or Daily Kos. If we’re going to overcome the existing culture of ideologues to achieve the “change” we seek, it’s essential that we educate ourselves beyond our own beliefs.”

It’s an exciting time, though, for the blogosphere. More than ever it seems like this evolving trade may finally be on the verge of defeating it’s primary adversary: revenue. Next week after the election I’m heading up to the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco to participate in a broad conversation about the future role of the internet in public life, and I’m particularly excited to attend this workshop on the transition of offline dollars to online enterprises. Most of the predictors I read forecast that CPMs won’t increase for another decade, but I believe the election coverage has made the momentum shift readily obvious.

This leads me to believe that I might actually have decent health insurance again by the time Barackstar runs for re-election. (Fingers crossed.)

From a business perspective, it appears to be a home run. Despite the collapse and resurrection of niche efforts like ESPN mobile service, the power of direct access to consumers via cell phones has skyrocketed as high as the presidential election coverage, with candidates looking to the utility-driven impact of text messaging to galvanize their get out the vote efforts in November. In every meeting I’m sitting in, every conference I attend and every company I advise, we’re talking about mobile media as the next frontier, which has already been established overseas. 

From a user perspective, however, I’m starting to experience fatigue. Although, this may mean that at the ripe old age of 28, I’m already a geezer. Read more here.