The Effy's sound very much like Howard Stern's Ef (or F) Emmys, which he has had for many years, commenorating the highlights and lowlights of his radio show. I'm not saying you should change the name, merely pointing out similar cultural phenomena.

It also might be interesting if you let readers comment on the nominees, add their own (if not vote), and argue it out for a little while before you announced the winner.

Just a few thoughts... good luck with this.

Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com

Neat, very neat - falafel head gets it - to put up there next to his pea (body)

My goal, actually, was to have others doing their own categories or the same categories with different nominees and outcomes. It just occurred to me that I needed a shtick this year. Sometimes you need a cattle prod, ya know?

Well two out of the four don't qualify as journalists. That would be O'Reilly and Geraldo who are commentators and talk show hosts.

The other two are anchors and used to be journalists. Good journalists

Need a better list, cause I was going to link this until I read it - but no I'm not going to put the list together. I 've got other things on my plate so I'll flake out on y'all.

Good idea. Poorly executed. You could CYA and put up a worst Reporter moment?

Aren't we curmudgeonly?

I see your point on O'Reilly, but didn't Rivera go with some military units and give REPORTS from the field in Iraq? Journalistic? Probably.

So, take it easy there, Mister Critical.

Good stuff, Craig.

But you should be careful when playing with your braincells in public; you're starting to sound almost Sharklike -- which is its own punishment: it can only lead to a mental imbalance, massive ostracizing, and a lot of "critics".

Oh, and they'll accuse you of being "pissed".

Either that or they will threaten that they "were" going to link to you, but you didn't live up to their standards.

News anchors aren't considered journalists? I think they would tend to differ, as they usually are the Managing Editors at whatever news network they work for.

Rather and Brokaw are sticking with CBS and NBC, respectively, and will be doing news analysis, specials, and so forth.

Finally, all four certainly consider themselves journalists, so from the standpoint of a proper category, I think you're fine.

Aren't semantics fun?

This site, from what I understand and using all my mental powers within me to remember, is called Blog "critics" Craig :)

Yeah, Geraldo qualifies. He just seems like such a cartoon character that I forget he at least plants himself in dangerous spots and pretends that they're more dangeorus.

But yeah, it's early here. And I'll have to stop now and do my dumb journalism thing ; )

I didn't take offense or anything. Just thought it was a bit ticky tack. I am really hoping some people will do their own Effy's, but I can dream right?

Holy crap. Just playing here Craig.

I didn't threaten - it was a mere statement. OK got it. Craig - no discernable sense of humor about his very important Effys. Check.

And I wasn't playing semantic games. My opinion is that they are not what i consider journalists (though Brokaw and Rather were). I don't care what they would call themselves and I wasn't asking Craig to change his categorization.

Good lord. Please note smiley faces all over my previous posts - meant to denote - "not taking this shit seriously" until someone says I'm threatening them.

Love. Temple

deep breath :)

Hey Temple,

My only real reaction to all of this is to point out that Brokaw and Rather are *still* journalists. Just because they aren't sitting in front of teleprompter every evening for half an hour doesn't steal away the fact that both are journalists.

Rivera and O'Reilly, whatever your opinion of them, are also journalists. They report on the news, give their own analysis, interview people, and at least pretend to hold themselves to some level of journalistic standards. You may not like them and think that their standards are bogus, but that would make them -- in your opinion -- poor or fraudulent journalists, not non-journalists.

Finally, I'm the one playing at semantics, if anyone is (I'd put an emoticon here, if I used them...).

Cheers,

Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com

It comes down to a definition of journalism, so, yes semantics if I'm answering more seriously. If anyone who opens their mouth is a journalist .. well, no they're not.

I already agreed that Geraldo was., though he's hard to take seriously.

But no journalist I know or work with or have ever worked with thinks O' Reilly is a journalist. He has a talk show where his opinion dominates the conversation.

Or Don Imus. Or Howard Stern. Or Larry King. Is AL Franken a journalist? Is Rush Limbaugh? They all have shows, too.

Newspaper columnists are often thought of as journalists, but most of them who aren't self-important windbags acknowledge they do things a little differently.

Eric makes a good point about the network anchors having more say in what's going on then just reading the news. An Editor isn't necessarily a journalist either, though he or she hopefully has been.

Yes, I am passionate about people understanding what I do for a living. And no, I haven't explained it to the best of my ability here. But it's a start.

Temple -

In all seriousness then, what is your definition of a journalist? What activities do they perform (even the poor ones) that O'Reilly et al do not?

I might just have a broader definition of journalist than you do -- and perhaps I'm incorrect. For instance, I would consider an editor at a newspaper to be a journalist because he or she shapes coverage of the news, edits news stories, oversees layout, hires freelance writers, etc.

Now, maybe this sounds bizarre, but I would put O'Reilly in the journalist camp because he hosts a "news program" in which he introduces news stories, provides analysis, and interviews guests.

I might agree with you if you can provide a tighter definition that I can live with.

Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com

I guess I just use the broadest definition of the word. What I was trying to do was find some people to put as nominees for my little award here.

Let's just hope this doesn't get all crazy when people read the Effy for the Worst Teen Princess.

I think maybe I will do sports next.

yeeesh, all this because Brokaw said bukkake?