SP Radio Podcast: Dissecting the SP editorial process
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Download this week's episode here.
On this edition of SP Radio, we take a look at Smile Politely and its role in the local media landscape. The impetus for this conversation was the recent article the site published on Calvin Miller, which drew a lot of local attention and commentary.* Many of Miller's accounts in that article have been discredited by the recent release of the police video, but does that mean we should not have published it and that his account is not newsworthy? Why did it get published in our Culture section?
We take a look inside the process of publishing this article and why we chose to put it on the site. And instead of focusing exclusively on this one issue, we open it up to a larger conversation about what SP, Halfwayinteresting.com and other online media sites do and how it compares to traditional journalism and activist journalism.
In addition to SP editors Caleb Curtiss and Joel Gillespie, we are joined by Eric Bussell, the founder of HalfwayInteresting.com. Eric is also a frequent commenter on Smile Politely, including many in the Miller article. Eric discusses his thoughts on the publication of the that article and how his site approaches the publishing process.
*The article was originally published on the Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center website.
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| Engineers | Design | Product |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Davis | Lino Wiehen | Lucas Gonze |
| William Khoe | Douglas Kim | Dave Warmerdam |
| Amit Behere | Suman Nichani |
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A reminder: You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes by searching for Smile Politely Radio in the iTunes store.
If you have suggestions, criticisms or would like to be a guest/contributor, please contact us at spradio@smilepolitely.com.
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Thank you for discussing Ron Paul’s “successors” - the future of the freedom movement. The movement didn’t begin with Dr. Paul, nor will it end with his exit from the political scene. How many future political leaders were in that audience of nearly 5,000 last night?
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I love the Guitars
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I also got to visit Big Grove Tavern during the soft open and definitely enjoyed the pork belly the most of all the dishes I sampled. The cheesy grits and the vinegary pickled vegetables were a perfect compliment to the rich pork belly.
The Alan Partridge lookalike on the right in the first small photo has nothing to condescend to anyone about. AH HA!
Snell and the little Hitlers of the neighborhood association need to chill out. Legitimate businesses should have the freedom to exist without having to endure the slings and arrows of ignorant and misguided opposition.
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Swap the dog for a fire pit and it sounds like you’re writing about my back yard. Very nice.

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What a great job by all the volunteers! This event was really put together fast, and well. What I noticed about the crowd was how many old faces I saw despite occurring on a college campus. I talked to quite a few, including students, who assured me…