Dan Weintraub to visit column-writing class Oct. 21

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Dan Weintraub, a columnist for The Sacramento Bee will be coming to the CSU, Sacramento column writing class next Tuesday to talk writing, politics and perhaps a little about the future of the newspaper industry.

He was scheduled earlier in the semester - the night of the second presidential debate - and had to cancel.

Like many Sacramento Bee staffers, Weintraub has been adjusting to the new fiscal realities of the publishing industry. Among other things, he has started a new feature in the newspaper called The Conversation which goes into depth on different issues.

The approach is interesting and Weintraub will likely talk about what it was like to launch The Conversation, as well as how it is going.

Weintraub is a veteran member of the Sacramento press corps and believes in doing a lot of reporting before he writes a word for his column.


Dan Weintraub

Marcos Breton on tap for column-writing class in October

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton has agreed to come in and speak with the column writing class at CSU, Sacramento Oct. 28.

Breton has been at The Bee for 18 years and is a survivor of the recent layoffs and purges that have marked The Bee for the past year.

His column draws comments - lots of comments - and in a departure from normal practice, The Bee's new editor, Melanie Sill, has at times had Breton responding to people online to the online comments they post.


Marcos Breton

He was the subject of a question-and-answer session in Sacramento Magazine in 2007.

Here is the link to that story:

Breton Q&A in Sacramento Magazine

Column writers tackle the Obama-McCain debate

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The students in the Column Writing class at CSU, Sacramento gave out more than a few groans during the debate between presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, but dutifully pounded out their 600-word columns with all writers making their deadline - about 50 minutes after moderator Tom Brokaw declared that the debate was over.

A few extra groans came out when technical problems nearly made several students miss their deadlines.

But they made it. And the results can be read by clicking on the links to the right of this column.


Obama and McCain

It was the first real on-deadline assignment for the group. Other columns have been done with days of lead time, though a quick look at tonight's columns convinces me that many of these students are as good - in some cases better - when pushed with a tight deadline.

The general consensus of the columns?

Well, of the columns I sampled (with the balance to be read Wednesday and Thursday), more than a few writers objected to the constant finger-pointing that did seem to mar the flow of the debate. Even when confronted with a yes-no question, both candidates filled the air with speeches.

Here's a short video of the class watching Round 2 of the presidential debates.

Column writing students to post analysis columns at end of tonight's debate

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Tonight's column writing class at CSU, Sacramento will join the ranks of pundits across the world by watching the Obama-McCain debate live - and then posting their columns immediately after the debate is over.

Watch out Fox News, J-131 is moving on up.

The opportunity popped up when our guest speaker for the evening, Dan Weintraub of The Sacramento Bee, had to bow out at the last moment. He will be coming in a few weeks to talk about political reporting and how he survives in this brave new world of almost-instant analysis.

No doubt the students will have lots of questions about how he does what I am asking them to do tonight.


Dan Weintraub

Up until now, the students in the class have been able to write much more leisurely, with days of lead time.

Tonight, the deadline will be upon them with all columns to be filed no later than one hour after the debate is completed.

I supposed I could start the class off like the announcers at a racetrack:

Writers: Start your computers.


Tonight's debaters

The Sacramento Bee's Rick Kushman tells TV tales to column-writing class

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The Sacramento Bee's television critic, Rick Kushman, kept the CSU, Sacramento column-writing class laughing for a good part of his hour-long presentation/conversation Tuesday night.

At one point, he boosted his credibility tremendously by pointing out that he once was on the receiving end of a kiss from Tina Fey.

Yes, that Tina Fey, the actress who does an impression of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that is better than Sarah Palin can do of herself.

Rick has started a new column in The Bee - added to his other duties covering television. He detailed out some of the pitfalls of starting the column "The Good Life" from scratch - a column that "still evolving," he said.

Rick didn't encourage anyone to leap into the world of print media, but he was encouraging for anyone who wants to write and be published in whatever media environment develops.

"It's all about good-writing - all good writing."