Posted 1:16 PM by Gene

And in more surprisingly awake blogging from the left coast's Paper of Re-cord:

"There has never been a television event in the history of the world that had a billion viewers," said the academy's executive director, Bruce Davis, when I asked him about the figure two years ago. "It's a handy number to throw around, but it's not true."

In the current issue of Sports Illustrated, columnist Steve Rushin nicely dismantles the billion figure as it applies to the Super Bowl. It turns out a media research firm measured the worldwide audience for last year's game and came up with a figure of 93 million, only about 2 million of them from outside North America.

I've said that before; but news hacks will continue with their fantasy, as it saves them the trouble of reporting -- or thinking.

And think they won't, not with this piece of statistical doggie doo all over the Web.

P. S. to the ONE BILLION crowd: when this latest immortal masterwork begins it will be just after 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. in most of Europe, 2:30 a.m. in Moscow, 5 a. m. in New Delhi, and 7:30 a. m. in Tokyo.