Chicago Tribune Steve Johnson: Hypertext Column: ABC Ends Deal With Web Star
By Steve Johnson: Hypertext, Chicago Tribune
Sep. 28–When the ABC News Web site scooped up new-media newsreader Amanda Congdon after her acrimonious departure from the popular “Rocketboom” Web video show, it seemed a sad and probably unworkable attempt to try to latch on to a fame derived elsewhere, which abcnews.com would never be able to replicate.
The pieces Congdon filed for the network’s site — retaining her trademark awkward narration and overly precious but not entirely sensical camera mugging — did nothing to challenge that line of thinking. Most recently at ABC, she’s been doing what could only be called a “Rocketboom” knockoff: Congdon at a desk, her full upper body in frame, delivering news and notes about the Internet.
What was occasionally cute when it was a plucky little amateur production just seems amateurish when it is backed by the ABC brand and expertise.
ABC apparently agreed, and this uncomfortable marriage of old and new media will end. Congdon, a Northwestern University grad who started as an actress before landing “Rocketboom,” and the network are parting ways, both sides have said, when the contract is up at the end of the year. Who broke up with whom is a game of she-said/they’re-not-saying, but the end result will leave one more quirky Internet star who failed to cross over.
Perez Hilton, of his eponymous site, and his fellow gossipmongers at TMZ.com may make the transition if their new TV series catch on, though bottom-feeding remains bottom-feeding no matter how large the tank.
Some of the current “Saturday Night Live” cast members were discovered via their comedic Web videos.
But more typical is the story of Brooke “Brookers” Brodack, the early YouTube star signed, with much fanfare, to a development deal by NBC late-night host Carson Daly but more than a year later still working in short videos for the Web. A new CW network series may have the Web-sensation-to-mass-culture relationship about right: “Online Nation” (6:30 p.m. Sundays, WGN-Ch. 9) sifts through Internet video to make a new version of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
Neither Congdon nor ABC will talk about why it didn’t work out.
Congdon’s blog (at amandacongdon.com) says, “I’ve decided not to continue at ABC once our year together is up (and it ain’t up yet) in favor of a new, innovative project that will take every ounce of my time and energy.”
She declined further comment, about what that project may be or anything else, through a “virtual assistant.” She does have a development deal at HBO for some sort of comedy series, but HBO, like any network and even Carson Daly, has many development deals, few of which will ever result in something the public sees.
ABC News wouldn’t let anybody say anything beyond the official statement: “It’s been a great year with Amanda — a great experiment for both of us. We thank her for her many contributions.”
Congdon was a bad fit for a journalistic enterprise, in part because she insisted on playing by the Web’s still-developing rules of ethics and propriety. Most notably, she refused to see the problem in her spring appearance in long-form Web commercials for DuPont.
In a series of six “Science Stories” touting DuPont’s wondrous chemicals, Congdon narrates and appears on camera, saying such things as, “Basically, when you’re staring down a bullet, Kevlar is man-made gold.”
She does not say her name, although the mannerisms are identifiably hers, the same set that you’d see on “Rocketboom” or at abcnews.com.
Her take on all of this was blithe:
“Isn’t that what new media is all about?” she wrote on the blog. “Breaking the rules? Setting our own? I see nothing wrong with doing commercials, which is what they, quite transparently, are. … Bring on the endorsements!”
The journalistic rules — essentially, be fair and honest and don’t sell out — aren’t exclusively for journalists.
They work pretty well for business folk. They work for Web video stars. And they are essential for bloggers, who are trying to develop the kind of trust that old media organizations have built over years.
ABC, though, defended Congdon’s spokesmodeling at the time, contending that its prominent Web hire was more of a commentator than a journalist.
Never mind that many of her Web pieces have been more about reporting what other people say and do than offering what she thinks about things.
Was ABC News so afraid of ticking off Webheads bearing residual Congdon-”Rocketboom” loyalty that it couldn’t do the right thing and dole out a suspension, at minimum?
This may be the most telling part of the whole ABC-Congdon relationship: The Web has mainstream news organizations discombobulated enough that they sometimes forget their own, entirely reasonable rules.
Or at least they put them on hold until the end of the year, when the contract is up.
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sajohnson@tribune.com
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