Eastern Market is a valuable part of the city’s heritage and culture, and I hope it’s rebuilt. Markets are among the best things about cities. I wouldn’t think of Seattle without thinking of Pike Market, for example.

Here, a DC city councilman discusses what’s next for the market. Here’s also a Washington Post column about the market’s significance to the city.

More pictures from The Post.

Control room with 181 televisions … sobering.

And yet I still don’t know what Johnny Mountain’s real name is.

For whatever reason, my hyperlinking isn’t working right now, so here’s the link, below:

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_117205010.html

Two thoughts: First, I agree with NBC’s decision to show the Virginia Tech killer’s video, but disagree with how they went about it. I wouldn’t have shown the kid posing like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, or whatever, because we don’t need to glorify him, or be tacky just for ratings. (And NBC destroyed their rivals in the ratings that night, because we Americans love being tacky while criticizing others for being tacky.) But I would have run 20 or so seconds of him talking to the camera.

The news is still news, whether or not it’s comfortable. A major part of the story is, why — as in, why did he kill 32 people. Answer: He was crazy. It may seem obvious, but most criminal experts, I think, would tell you that most killers are actually perfectly sane, albeit exceptionally callous, people. So it is news that he was crazy. But could NBC — and other media outlets, including newspapers — have told us that without splashing the kid all across their screens and front pages? Yes. In a situation like this — using 9-11, for example, as a guide — I think you show only as much sensational material as you need to, in order to get the point across, and nothing more. Anything else is just exploitation for ratings, and it’s the absolute wrong call.

Second … in the wake of the whole Imus deal, there’s been a lot of discussion in the media about whether we’re debasing our culture and values with certain content in the entertainment industry. Maybe part of the problem is, we disagree on, or are too lazy or greedy to consider, what those values should be. Let’s be clear: As a writer and journalist, I fully support the First Amendment. But with rights come responsibilities. It is legitimate to say things that are edgy or controversial, if those words serve a reasonable public interest. It is also legitimate to question whether such an interest exists. For example, does calling the Rutgers basketball players “nappy-headed hos” further a reasonable public interest, or is it simply an exploitative, irresponsible use of free speech? Do we really want, or even need, to place it in the same protected public status as say, an anti-war protest?

Here’s an observation: The American movie and music industries have never, in the history of their existence, taken about a major reform that wasn’t forced upon them by either government action leading to economic harm, public pressure leading to economic loss, or the serious threat of either. And that’s not going to change — the industry just doesn’t self-regulate. It’s not a benevolent industry. It doesn’t really care about its impact on society. Money is king, and trumps everything.

So if you hate what Viacom or Time Warner or one of their subsidiaries are doing, consider your options. Pressure your public officials, and don’t let them up for air. The 2008 election cycle is a good time for that, because a small percentages of votes this go around will determine who runs the government. So politicians will scour the land for every vote they can get, based on whatever issue they can pander to. Sure, they might lose out on contributions from Hollywood moguls if they get too tough, but politicians would rather have votes than Hollywood dollars, anyway. This issue in particular would suit Al Gore well, given his and his wife’s outspokeness on the issue. I hated them for it at the time, but in retrospect, they — and let’s not forget C. Delores Tucker either, she was more outspoken than the Gores — were probably right, to some degree.

Also, if you hate rap videos, or lurid pop songs, or movies and music featuring dumb, oversexed, self-misogynist pop tarts, don’t just stop at not buying those products. Viacom, for example, like Time Warner, is a vertically integrated, diversified company — they’re not going to give a damn if you stop watching BET or MTV. They’ll just sell you something else. But if you stop watching BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and stop watching movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, and stop buying your kids toys and theatre tickets tied into their shows (Blue’s Clues, Dora the Explorer, etc.) and stop going to Paramount theme parks, and let them know it’s because of the filth they distribute, that will hurt Viacom, and a similar model would be true for Time Warner, CBS Corp., Disney, Sony and others — but if, and only if, enough people do it.

Publically traded companies get real antsy when their stock price drops (which is why I bet GE — not NBC, but GE, their parent company — and CBS Corp., which owns CBS Radio, had to let Don Imus go). Remember: Hurt their stock price, save the world.

GOULD: There’s a whole other aspect of our website that doesn’t have anything to do with the Stalker Map. But what the Stalker Map is [is] citizen journalism. People don’t read with the expectation that every word of it will be gospel. Everyone who reads it knows that it isn’t checked at all. [emphasis added]

KIMMEL: Well…

GOULD: What they read it for is immediacy.

KIMMEL: I don’t think that’s necessarily true.

GOULD: You don’t unfilter sort of the way people that perceive celebrities in real time that you don’t get from any other media. And that’s what I think is great about it.

KIMMEL: Well, I mean you also get what is essentially slanderous statements or libelous statements put on your website. For instance, today I noticed there was something about Kevin Costner. I went on to see what was there today. It said how fat Kevin Costner was and it had a picture of Jabba the Hutt next to him. Now, I know you sell advertising. I don’t know why anybody would buy advertising on a website. But I don’t know what the point of something like that is.

BRAGMAN: There’s also a big contradiction. She said citizen journalism. She used the word “journalism” and then said, “Everybody knows not everything is true.” Most journalists at least try for the truth. It’s a goal.

GOULD: I mean do you read “US Weekly” and expect that everything in it is true or “Star.”

(CROSSTALK)

BRAGMAN: I expect that they try. I get calls from them fact checking and I don’t from your website.

GERAGOS: That’s absolutely true. “US Weekly” at least has a legal department that vets things.

KIMMEL: And our photographers at least are taking photographs of things that are happening, as opposed to — I mean I’d just want you to think about your life and…

GOULD: Wow!

KIMMEL: …weigh your options. And I mean because I would hate to see you arriving in hell and somebody sending a text message saying, “Guess who’s here?” You know what I’m saying?

GOULD: Honestly, I think that there’s a shifting definition of what is public and what is private space for everyone not just celebrities. The Internet, blogs, MySpace, no one has the reasonable expectation of being able to walk around the street and not being noticed by someone.

My opinion: If there’s no fact-checking, it’s not journalism. It’s rumor. Rumor is not journalism. Rumor is rumor. So she shouldn’t call it citizen-journalism. Hell, I live in Los Angeles. I know how sometimes you think you see somebody, but maybe it’s not them. Once, I ran into Rick Fox. Not too many people look like Rick Fox, so I think I could say, “Hell, that’s Rick Fox.” But once I also ran into Heather Locklear — or so I thought. Do you know how many Heather Locklear lookalikes there are in Los Angeles? Do you think it’s more, or less, than a few?

Either way, would I feel comfortable, as a journalist, publishing random, unconfirmed tips about the whereabouts of people, without first obtaining credible, independent verification? Guess that’s not how Emily Gould rolls.

Gawker prints titillating information, true or untrue, to get readers eyeballs’ and drive up advertising revenue. Big shocker, whatever. Just don’t call it journalism. Hell, I plead guilty to reading Gawker, maybe once a month. But I’m under no illusions as to why I go there. You don’t offer the pretty girl a drink to learn more about her summer in Provence. And you don’t go to Gawker for anything other than a helping of trash, which may or may not be true. They’re pornographers in a sense, really.

Two French hikers who got lost in thick jungle in French Guiana survived for seven weeks by consuming turtle meat, big hairy spiders and river water …

Mr Pillois confirmed to the French broadcaster RFO Guyane that their jungle diet had included spiders. They had chopped down trees to make a fire.

According to Gilles Nayral, Guilhem had lost about 20kg and he had lost feeling in his tongue “because of the poison from a spider he had eaten without having cooked it enough.”

I turned on the radio in my car to learn that a raging fire was affecting the Hollywood Hills near Universal City and on top of Mount Lee — the home of the HOLLYWOOD sign. The sign was reported to possibly be in danger! Fortunately the landmark survived, but then we were surprised to learn that two kids from Illinois are reported to have started the fire!

I ran back to my apartment, grabbed a digital camera, and sped down Victory Boulevard towards Burbank. You can see the air become filled with smoke the closer I got, and fine particles of ash started falling out of the sky around the time by the time I got to Burbank Boulevard. As I got closer to the studios, the air smelled and tasted of hickory. The first shot here is at Victory and Burbank. The next shot is on Flower Street in Burbank. If memory serves me correctly, the last three shots are in the general vicinity of Alameda and Victory. Not being very familiar with the side streets of Burbank, I was taking an unintentionally circuitous route to get to where I believed the fire was. I need to keep my Thomas Guide in my car.

You could see the smoke overhanging the studios, like Disney-ABC here on Alameda in Burbank.

People seemed calm, but kept looking towards the hills. People pulled their cars off to the side of the road on Riverside Drive and snapped pictures.

I decided on a whim to jump on the 134 (Ventura Freeway), and tried to exit at Forest Lawn Drive. That would take me to an area of Griffith Park, which by now I realized was Ground Zero for the fire. Not surprisingly the exit to Forest Lawn Drive was blocked off — an ominous sign. I tried an end-around move, and drove up to the next exit, Zoo Drive, and drove as far up Zoo Drive as I could until law enforcement said I couldn’t go any further — the turn-off where Zoo Drive meets Forest Lawn Drive. These shots are taken at that point, across the street from the Traveltown Museum.

Turns out Ground Zero was one mile west of here, at the corner of Forest Lawn Drive and Barham! I found the fire! At first I went home disappointed, thinking I hadn’t found it. But looking at the Thomas Guide, I realize I did.

One lesson I now realize — besides keep a Thomas Guide in your car at all times — is that when you’re en route to a breaking news story, you lose a lot of time if you don’t get the exact location from a source: be that source a scanner report, or a tip or confirmation from a human source. I wasted half-an-hour trying to find the fire based on hunches. Certainty is much better. If I had my Thomas Guide, and had paid more attention to the radio reports instead of getting all excited, I could have possibly seen the fire firsthand from the front side, instead of getting to the bar just in time for last call. Lesson learned.

It was a rush — a taste of what reporting so-called breaking news must be like. Happy spring break to me.