Media Watch

While most of the local media is focused on the Butter Cow at the Iowa State Fair, the national press is counting down the days before the year's largest republican fundraiser. You might think, judging by the media frenzy surrounding this early presidential contest, the GOP gathering at Hilton Coliseum is a critical badge to earn in order to become a US president; candidates who don't participate are hurting themselves. Not so fast, pundit breath. Only once in thirty years has the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames predicted a presidential election, when in August of 1999, George W. Bush walked away with seemingly all the honors: Iowa Straw Poll, Iowa caucuses, other US primaries and the general election itself. John McCain, who eventually won his party's nod in '08, earned only a tenth-place showing at the money gala. Needless to say, as a measuring stick, it has little meaning.  Only Bush 41 & 43 have eventually gone on to win the presidency after an Ames Straw Po...

I'm not going to talk about the Buggles here, and how their video was the first ever to hit MTV.  So if you thought that's what this article was about, move along, slick! It surprises people when I explain how audio may be more important than the quality of their video.  But it's painfully obvious when we sit together and watch a barely discernable presentation. Watching a poorly lit video, or even one with harsh backlighting, is doable if the audio is outstanding. Try it some time.  Watch a few tutorial videos where the presenter obviously has some sort of headset where he or she is practically spitting into the mic.  You hear every bad breath sound and can practically smell what was for lunch.  Or one where the presenter is talking from across the room.  The viewer turns up the volume only to hear a toilet flushing in the background. The thing about video with horrible audio is that you can look away or become distracted from the visual cues, but ...

By some measures, the 2012 republican presidential line-up has been set, and but for the primaries have staked their claim on the White House. Despite the media's bombardment of polling data, it's traditionally too early to tell who will lead the pack during the actual election year and some of today's shining stars are likely to be flushed after Iowa's Straw Pole next month. This is my second season shooting (with a camcorder, mind you) interviews of right-leaning candidates at WHO Radio, arguably the most identifiable radio station in the largest population center of the first-in-the-nation state of Iowa. This is where the momentum begins for every President elected in modern times. So it matters who shows up for the party. And while my list is growing almost by the day, a few high profile nomination seekers are conspicuously absent. If history is the best predictor of the future, then establishing a good ground game here with a personable appearance on WHO...

Former New York Governor George Pataki has been spending some time in Iowa and some are wondering if he's running for President.  WHO Radio's Jan Mickelson is one of them.

If all you do is tell followers what you're selling, then customers stop paying attention.  You can always improve your tweets & status updates by changing the focus from today's special on the menu to a special moment with customers, like photos from an event (preferably one that's related to your business over your nephew's ballgame). Burying the coupon code and saying something about a recent winner up front is more interesting.  Get the pitch in, but compelling or interesting factoids make you more of a friend than a "pitch person".

Last month Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) told Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson that the fix for the US debt crisis is to default on its debts as a way to save $1.7 trillion in interest payments -- effectively filing for bankruptcy -- and advance bond investments. Of course he also mentioned that we, like Greece, could see rioting in the streets by people losing their federal entitlements. "We're not immune from that," the 2012 GOP Presidential Candidate told Mickelson.

By August of '07, Former Massachusetts Governor W. Mitt Romney had attended more than 200 campaign events in Iowa as he appeared to lead the pack in the '08 GOP run-up, according to a statement during an interview with a radio host in Des Moines . "As you know, I enjoy getting together with Iowans all across the state." the candidate said in response to Jan Mickelson's final on-air question.  But the answer didn't fit Mickelson's query at all, which was actually an invitation to join him on the radio again, but for more than the eight minute heated discussion that ensued over whether Romney could reconcile his stance on abortion with his religion. All about being a Mormon "I'm happy to talk about my faith," says Gov. Romney multiple times while on the campaign trail.  But that doesn't square with his repeated theme in this interview , which is, "I'm not here to talk about Mormonism."  "No, I'm not running as a...