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Ranking the 5 Biggest Jerks in Game of Thrones This Week

It’s not smart marketing, but I’m leading with the disclaimers:

- I am not a TV critic

- I started watching Game of Thrones on HBO Go in January. January 2013. Just over two months ago.

- I don’t plan to put too much time into this.

On the plus side, I will also link to recaps written by people who do this for a living (or at least put more time into it than I do) at the bottom of the post.

So here are my rankings of the characters who were the biggest jerks (or tools, louts, cretins, bounders, sleazeballs, etc.) in Episode 1 of Season 3 of Game of Thrones (“Valar Dohaeris”). Your mileage may vary:

5. Melisandre: Taunting Davos over his dead son. Not cool.

4. Joffrey Baratheon: This is a good ranking for this perennial Top-2 contender.

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Three Clicks: How to Tweet from the Press Box

(See Click 3 for info on this video clip)

This is Three Clicks — a post about (approximately) three stories I read today.

1. Should Sports Reporters Be Permitted to Tweet Every Play?  (GeekWire)

GeekWire’s Taylor Soper wrote this story as a follow-up to the mini-controversy surrounding the University of Washington’s decision to reprimand a reporter for tweeting too much at a college basketball game last week.

The GeekWire headline asks a pertinent question, I guess, but here are two better questions: 

1. Why would a sports reporter think this is a good way to use Twitter?

2. Why does the University of Washington athletic department care?

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Three Clicks: Mark Cuban Blasts Facebook, Considers MySpace

Welcome back to Three Clicks, a roundup of items that caught my eye on the World Wide Web today.

Hi there. Even when I’m not posting regular Three Clicks updates, I am clicking and reading a lot of stories. I thought I’d lead off today by telling you one way I find a *lot* of good ones: Jason Hirschhorn’s “Media ReDEFined” email newsletter (screenshot above).

If you like the sort of stuff I share here, you’ll like this. He picks great content, and lots of it. 

You can get a feel for it by looking at his FeedBurner feed, and the signup page is here.

Anyway, here are three quick-and-dirty clicks. Well, actually four, since one is a two-parter.

1. Mark Cuban: Facebook Is Driving Away Brands - Starting With Mine (readwrite)

“We are moving far more aggressively into Twitter and reducing any and all emphasis on Facebook,” Cuban says, via email. “We won’t abandon Facebook, we will still use it, but our priority is to add followers that our brands can reach on non-Facebook platforms first.”

2. Mobile Ads Are the Future. They’re Also Lousy (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

Here are two of the problems mobile advertising faces: There’s very little screen real estate on a phone, and it’s hard to produce an ad that’s not annoying. Good quote from web ad designer Al Rotches:

When I see an ad pop up on my phone, I get scared. When I’m on my phone, this is my thing. I don’t want to be tracked, I don’t want to be interrupted.

3a. Postgaming with Axelrod, Part 1 (Politico)

3b. Postgaming with Axelrod, Part 2 (Politico)

I read a ton of post-election analysis, but my favorite read was this two-part Q&A Politico’s Mike Allen did with chief Obama strategist David Axelrod. Both originated in Allen’s legendary “Playbook” email. 

You know why I think I liked it so much? A Q&A is raw journalism, straight from the source’s mouth. Here’s what this key player saw and thought (or what he said he saw and thought), and that’s that. Simple and effective. 

Bonus Click: ESPN Camera Catches Rick Reilly Ordering Stu Scott To Credit His Twitter Feed (Deadspin)

Seeing this lame request accidentally caught on air — and Steve Young’s reaction — is priceless. 

That’s all for today. If I get a comment, retweet or share — or if Stuart Scott credits me on SportsCenter — I’ll do one tomorrow, too. I promise.

Three Clicks: The Bleacher Report Takedown and Much More

This has not been a good morning for my productivity. Why? Link after link of interesting content has been streaming toward me via Twitter. And I can’t get out of the way. 

So, in a slight twist on the usual Three Clicks format, here’s all the stuff I have read so far, with very little commentary from me:

1. Top 5 Ways Bleacher Report Rules the World! (SF Weekly)

A look inside the massively popular user-driven sports site. Here’s the subhed on the Weekly’s cover: “Unpaid Writers Churn Out Terrible Articles and the Owners Get a $200 Million Payday. It’s a Web Success Story.” 

Important to note that B/R lead NFL writer Michael Schottey told me on Twitter:

not my place to speak for company, but know that my editorial experience for 2+ years doesn’t jive w/ picture [SF Weekly author Joe Eskenazi] paints.

(If you want Deadspin’s quick take — I’ll bet you do — here it is:

“Bleacher Report Is The Worst Thing In The History Of Journalism” Is The Headline Bleacher Report Would Write For This Story

2. Nate Silver: What I Read (Atlantic Wire)

The smart guy behind the data-driven NYT blog FiveThirtyEight tells us what he reads. 

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Three Quick Clicks: Mobile Ads That Work (Really? Some Do?)

Welcome back to Three Clicks, a regular(ish) roundup of items that caught my eye on the World Wide Web today(ish).

Here, quickly, are three links to items I read today (or recently). 

1. Mobile Ads: Here’s What Works and What Doesn’t (Wall Street Journal)

(I was able to read it without a subscription; hopefully those of you who also don’t subscribe can see it too.)

Banner ads—the boxes or rectangular ads on many mobile websites or apps—are known as the “spray and pray” approach. Marketers, consumers and companies all said these ads are cheap, crude and annoy mobile users. Still, banner ads account for nearly $2 of every $10 spent on U.S. mobile ads, according to eMarketer.

See above for a screenshot of my current least favorite “spray and pray” ad, found in Slate’s Android app. The “New Weapon” speech bubble moves back and forth along the bottom of your phone. Dear Slate, please make it stop.

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Three Clicks: ‘Readers Will Visit Because of Other Readers’

It’s been an active week for Three Clicks. Inspiration from ONA? Boredom? You make the call.

1. How Journalists Can Turn Their Stories Into Conversations (Poynter)

Put simply: I spent some time managing comments at The Washington Post, and I agree just about every word of this post. This is great stuff from Tyler Borchers, a junior at Ohio University.

Here’s my ranking of Borchers’ top five observations:

1. “Ignoring readers is a luxury of privileged writers at prominent news organizations.”

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Three Clicks: A Better Way to Pick Presidents

Another day, three more clicks. Click here for the archives, and note that I have finally enabled comments.

1. What Does It Take To Be a Good President? Four Things, Mainly. (Slate)

Slate’s John Dickerson kicked off a series on how Americans should pick our president today, making a point that may be obvious but is enjoyable to echo nonetheless: Modern campaigns are lousy at telling us which candidate will be better once in office. 

Instead, Dickerson writes, wouldn’t it be great if we approached presidential campaigns like big companies run job searches? They identify the skills and attributes needed to succeed in a position and then ask questions of the job candidates aimed at finding out if they meet the criteria.

The four qualities we should judge a president by, according to Dickerson: 

Political skill: Campaigns give us a good idea of a candidate’s priorities, but can they read the political landscape they’ll face when they get to office? Are they honest enough to win voters’ trust but ruthless enough cut a deal with their enemies when necessary? Are they comfortable with the schmoozing, backslapping, and ego-massaging that comes with the job?

Management ability: Is the candidate focused enough to follow an overarching vision, but nimble enough to tweak that vision when real-world events intervene? Can they admit mistakes and learn from them? Can they sift through complex ideas? Can they recognize baloney when it comes from their staff or supporters? Do they know how to hire a good team?

Persuasiveness: Do they know how to deliver a good speech? Do they know when to stay quiet? Do they know how to read public opinion? Is it possible for a president to short circuit Congress by taking an issue directly to the people?

Temperament: Has the candidate ever faced a true crisis? Do they have the equanimity to handle the erratic and unpredictable pressures of the office? How are they with uncertainty?

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Three Clicks: Can We End ACL Tears?

Welcome back to Three Clicks, my sorta-regular post running down the first three links that catch my eye and seem sharable. 

This is a trailer for Paul Lockhart’s new book, which aims to introduce us to
“mathematics as an artful way of thinking and living,” Measurement ). See Item 3 for more. 

1. With Technology, Bringing the ACL Tear to its Knees (Smart Planet)

As sports fans know, there aren’t many good stories out there containing the words “anterior cruciate ligament tear.” Here’s a pleasant exception:

Some in the medical community believe they have found a way to reduce the number of ACL tears athletes suffer. How? By teaching them to move differently. 

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