Chuck Newton

The Real News Network

It started out as Independent World Television (IWT) and it has slowly grown into The Real News Network, which is now in beta.

If you are a news junkie like me, it is fun to finally start to see serious news programing on the web that is not just an offshoot of the cable news channels.

Real News has no government funding.  No corporate funding.  No advertising.  It is meant to be independent and provide you (at least eventually) with news and opinion outside of the filters that already exist in network and cable news programing.

Along with hard news coverage they have in depth uncensored interviews.  I have always been a Gore Vidal  fan.  Like him or hate him, Real News has an 7 part interview series.  It is sad to see Vidal in a wheelchair, but he is a quick as ever.

Working at home, and mainly from a notebook computer, it is a pleasure to have these sites at your fingertips to listen to and view as you intersect with your daily work.

Is This Anyway to Advertise? Does The Bar Have A Right To Regulate Good Taste?

Carolyn Elefant at MyShingle has posted about DivorceEZ.Com and attorney Steve Miller's problem getting approval by the Florida Bar for his TV spot.  The Florida bar says The ad is a "verbal depiction" whose language promises a particular result, both of which are banned in Florida.  In short, the Florida Bar has banned the 1st Amendment.  You cannot "verbally depict" the services you are attempting to provide?  As for promising a particular result, that is a problem in Texas as well.  You just have to state you "may" be able to "get rid of that vermin you call a spouse".

Are You IPod Ready?

Should we be taking our ques from political marketing and foresight?  That is where the money and innovations is sometimes.  So it is that I thought of lawyers when I saw this gem in the Washington Whispers section of U. S. News & World Reports:

It wasn't long ago that we told you of how the Democrats and Republicans were preparing a new way to reach voters in 2008 through their mobile technology and iPods. Well, now we know why. Republican pollster David Winston tells us that new research found that 40 percent of 2006 voters ages 18 to 34 own iPods. And many don't make time to watch lots of tv, choosing instead to TiVo their faves or record podcasts. So what will be the best way to reach those critical voters in 2008? Through their iPods, he says, especially when the mp3s go wireless. "That's the next environment," he predicts, "where people will get their information."

These statistics being true, it begs the question as to what we Third Wave attorneys are doing to market ourselves and promote our practices through the use of iPod technology?  In short, do you have an iPod strategy?  I do not, but I can assure you I am going to start working on one.