DeRusha

stuffaboutminneapolis: From the book Good Night Minnesota by...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:25:12 -0600

From the book Good Night Minnesota by Adam Gamble and Joe Veno

www.goodnightourworld.com

How social media is taking the news local

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:19:01 -0600

How social media is taking the news local:

Our own Next Door Media is mentioned in the Mashable story along with ChicagoNow.com, WCCO-TV’s Jason DeRusha and the Austin-American Statesman.

lostremote: WCCO breaks Favre story on Twitter: When a source...

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:06:05 -0500

lostremote:

WCCO breaks Favre story on Twitter: When a source told WCCO-TV’s Mark Rosen that Brett Favre would join the Minnesota Vikings, he sent out a tweet. Moments later, other reporters re-tweeted the news, and it was piped out to Facebook. Soon, WCCO was one of the top three trending topics on Twitter, reports MinnPost, sending a big traffic burst to WCCO.com. The tweet beat WCCO’s TV coverage, but not by much. “It was almost simultaneous,” said News Director Scott Libin of the breaking news scroll on the air. But unlike WCCO TV, the Tweet spread around the country — a great example of leveraging the power of Twitter on a big story.

"Hello DeRusha, I hope all is well. I am not sure if you had a chance to check out Puppetry of the..."

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:32:00 -0500

“

Hello DeRusha,

I hope all is well. I am not sure if you had a chance to check out Puppetry of the Penis when it first came to NY several years ago. But this August the boys from down under (brothers, Simon and Justin Morley) will bring the ancient art of genital origami back to NYC (then to the rest of the country).

I hope you will able to join us. Let me know what performance works.

Puppetry of the Penis is a non-sexual, totally funny girl’s night out. I hope you will be able to join us. Our Penis Puppeteer are available to discuss this ancient high art and tutorials are available.

I look forward to hearing from you.

All my best,

Joe

Joe Trentacosta

springerassociatespr

1501 Broadway, Suit 506, NYC 10036

”

- I didn’t know the Penis Puppeters called me “DeRusha”

Not sure having Michael Phelps endorse a site called...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:48:00 -0500

Not sure having Michael Phelps endorse a site called FreshBuzz.com is the best idea.

Sometimes I Hate E-mail

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:29:00 -0500

There was a time when people who were angry about a minor error in one of my TV reports, they didn’t have a lot of options.

Complain to their spouse
Pick up the phone and call the newsroom
Write a letter

Today, with e-mail, viewers can send obnoxious notes without even thinking about it. For example, this note:

Hi
Spelling is obviously no longer considered to be a part of good journalism.
Power Point bullet highlights can be useful, but I would recommend doing a spell check first or it only magnifies errors.
You had Suprise. Most 5th graders can spell this word correctly - s u r p r i s e
Good Luck with your career
Steve K****
Minneapolis

I responded in a nice way, taking responsibility. I wish I could have responded like this.
Hi. (note the period I put after the word “Hi.” It’s called a sentence. Look into it.)

Courtesy is obviously no longer considered to be a part of good citizenship.

I don’t type the words on the screen, so I’m not sure you can associate one mispelled word with journalism. Also, most people in TV can’t spell at a 5th grade level, so cut us some slak.

Good Luck with being a douche.
Jason D
WCCO

"Jason, I’ve got a Good Question for you, if nuclear power is so safe and efficient, why is the..."

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:45:25 -0500

“Jason, I’ve got a Good Question for you, if nuclear power is so safe and efficient, why is the International Space Station powered by solar? Thank you.”

- Pat Walker, Anoka. (And Pat, Thank you. I think a nuclear power plant in space is a brilliant idea.)

edkohler: Vote for the the Twin Cities’ hottest Realtors (based...

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:32:50 -0500

edkohler:

Vote for the the Twin Cities’ hottest Realtors (based on photos on their biz cards).

The federal jury in Minneapolis said Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, Minnesota, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were swapped over the Kazaa, including “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls and “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns ‘n Roses. The first time the case went to trial in 2007, a jury awarded $9,250 per song, or $222,000.

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:21:18 -0500

The federal jury in Minneapolis said Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, Minnesota, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were swapped over the Kazaa, including “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls and “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns ‘n Roses. The first time the case went to trial in 2007, a jury awarded $9,250 per song, or $222,000. :

mediation:

Seems totally fair. I don’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.

DeRusha: I haven’t been following this case at all, but how did a jury of 12 agree that this would be a fair result? I’d be really interested to hear from these people.

Great Question

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:21:26 -0500

“why is some farts loud and none smelly, but silent ones are so deadly?”
-kathy owens, Woodbury, MN

Thanks for submitting your Good Question, Kathy!

Star Trib Subscribing: Always A Pain

Tue, 19 May 2009 07:43:03 -0500

As usual, subscribing to the Star Tribune is such a delight. The renewal in the mail quoted a price of $48.75/13 weeks. I looked online, where the price is the same. I called customer service, and they offered me $3.50/week if I did Easy Pay, which seems to mean they bill me every three weeks, and lock in my price. That’d be $45.50/13 weeks. Without easy pay, apparently I get one bill in the mail, so it’s worth it to give me $2.25 off.

Of course, I don’t understand why it’s not cheaper to just renew online, since that would involve zero personnel costs and virtually zero overhead. And why not have a huge discount for doing an entire year, so they don’t have to deal with me and can lock me in for 52 weeks?

The last time I wrote about this, the Strib was trying to charge me $66.69 for 13 weeks, and over the phone they gave me something like $33. That was insane. It looks like things are starting to make a little more sense.

WELCOME TO OLD SKOOL ADVERTISING WEEK ON MEDIATION!!!!!!!!

Mon, 11 May 2009 14:20:26 -0500

mediation:

Hey folks. I know a lot of you read this site either through RSS or in your tumblr or reblogged on other sites, or other places not directly on this site. And that’s cool.

This week, however, there’s a treat for all the direct visitors. We’re going to be doing some throwback advertising on this site. So check back every day for new… SPLASH PAGES!!! BLOCK ADS IN THE SIDEBAR!!! MICROPAYMENTS!!! And as soon as I can figure out how to do them, POP UP ADS!!!

Don’t worry, next week I’ll go back to the “Content Partner” model, but I thought I’d just take you all back to 2005’s advertising methods so you can remember how crazy it was.

Big hugs to my stand-in advertisers, most of whom I think know I’m using them as advertisers, and most of whom you readers won’t even see because you totally ignore advertising or because you’re getting the content somewhere else.

Slate.com investigates which foodstuffs are cheaper to make than buy.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:25:50 -0500

Slate.com investigates which foodstuffs are cheaper to make than buy.:

(via chriseats)

Robyn's Good Question

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:40:00 -0500

“Why do cats love the taste of human ear wax?”

-Robyn from Frederick. This was a real submission. I’d love to hear suggestions on how to answer this one.

"“I’m getting busted for this all over,” Kessler said. “I’ve been getting calls from viewers. We were..."

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:13:47 -0500

“

“I’m getting busted for this all over,” Kessler said. “I’ve been getting calls from viewers. We were out at a store — at the Dayton’s Marshall Field’s the Macy — the other day and I got busted by a sales lady. You really caught me off guard. Are you really writing about this? I thought this was all off the record. Who do you think I am, Jason DeRusha?”

That’s almost as priceless as something bought at Tiffany.

One thing I know for sure: Had DeRusha bought an uncomfortably fitting ring from Tiffany, he’d have whined about it so thoroughly on Facebook that the folks at Tiffany would have sent over an even more expensive ring to shut him up!

”

- OH SNAP, CJ is steppin’ to DeRusha!

(After she wrote like 500 words on Britney maybe catching a movie, lol.)

(via mediation)

Today's Viewer E-mail of the Day

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:32:00 -0600

“Do you really think anyone is going to believe that $800 Billion divided by 140 million works out to be $5,714.00 dollars per taxpayer? Lets simplify this for you, lets take 140 million and give each taxpayer 1 million, that equals 140 million.”

Uh. Not really. 140 million times 1 million = 140,000,000,000,000. But thanks for playing. And Ken in St. Paul? Next time leave your real phone number, so when I try to call you and tell you that you’re insane, some poor frazzled stay-at-home mom doesn’t pick up.

Following my news story on Googling yourself, I received the following via e-mail and blog...

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:37:00 -0600

Following my news story on Googling yourself, I received the following via e-mail and blog comments:

“What specific steps do you take to “Google Yourself” on the internet???”
(First, go to Google. Then, type your name in the search box. Then click Go.)

“I’m tried to goggle myself and it cost money to do that , I’m Very disappointed !!!!! its not free!!!!!”

” I tried to google but i was disappointed that it cost money I thought it would be free, is there a free site. Char”
(These people went to www.goggle.com which is not the same as www.google.com . Awesome.)

“GOOGLING FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION SHOULD BE A FELONY AND OBAMAS PLAN TO PUT ALL MEDICAL INFO ON THE NET SHOULD ALSO BE OUSTED.

WHY DOES WCCO THINK THIS ISSUE ISW FUNNY?”

Why indeed.

A Real Good Question Submission

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:20:22 -0600

“If a man wears a ring on the middle finger of his left hand rather than on his ring finger, does that mean he’s gay? (I am referring to Tom Lyden of Ch. 9.)”

-Julia, Eden Prairie

Dear Julia: Yes, Tom Lyden is gay. Thanks for asking.

Why does TV News do repeated stories about animals?

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:54:58 -0600

Why does TV News do repeated stories about animals?:

I bust my butt blogging almost every day, and Jeanette does a story on a dog who was shot, blogs about it, and gets almost 70 comments.

The initial mention of the story got 40 comments. Man people love dogs.

chuckt: WCCO Radio in 1958 predicts smart phones. [via...

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:58:01 -0600

chuckt:

WCCO Radio in 1958 predicts smart phones.

[via MNStories on Twitter]