Posted 3:53 PM by Gene

We do not know why the WaPosties should get excited over "Rep. Moran's Mouth." After all they elected the Democrats, and this bozo goes with the territory. Or do they live in another territory?

Posted 1:46 PM by Gene

ALTRIA MOTIVE tells SAMMY GLICKMAN don't sell our cigarettes in your movies!

Who could have thought the CANCER-STICK BIZ would make the JUNK-ON-THE-SCREEN TRADE look respectable?

Posted 1:41 PM by Gene

The ASSociated Press runs PR for a [C]RAPPER!

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD to NEKESI MOODY MUMBI! MOODY NEKESI! WHATEVER!

Posted 11:33 AM by Gene

We suspect in time the con-SER-va-tives will discover THIS commentary [sic], linked by that monotonous left-beating drum. If "the editorial director of CBSNews.com" laughs this way, what of the rest of SUMNER's news outfit? He may have blurted what Kevin wants to hear, but maybe not a network still synonymous with MEMOS.

Posted 9:28 AM by Gene

Well! THE GREATEST 007 MOVIE EVER seems to be packing the movie S&M phreaks in to see all those product placements, but we strongly suspect the ALL-TALKING, ALL-SINGING, ALL-DANCING CGI will have the word disappointment tacked on to it; PIXAR this ain't. Meantime THE GREATEST COMEDY EVER should vamoose the popcorn restaurants in a couple of weeks. You have to wonder if in the long haul SLIME's mammoth publicity backfired. You have to wonder also if there's a backlash at SLIME. Probably not, but we can hope.

It appears too the TWXSTERS' CGI is taking audience away from DreamWorks's writedown. Could it be, SAMMY GLICKMAN, there are too many CGIs?

Posted 9:14 AM by Gene

More brilliance from the news trade:

Bob Dylan at the Spectrum
Blinq | Daniel Rubin: A listenable guide to the voice like sand and glue. Shows from 1966-1975.

So -- does that mean the guide is more listenable than the voice?

Posted 9:02 AM by Gene

Two stations will preempt SLIME's bonanza.

I would not hold my breath that it goes to double digits.

Posted 4:56 PM by Gene

Happily, even in the SLIME's charmed life a little rain must fall:

Universal Music Sues MySpace.com for Copyright Infringement

Posted 4:51 PM by Gene

More elbow rubbing from THE AUSTRALIAN SLIME:

Appearing after the all the voting wrapped up, Boehner and his new leadership team seemed anything but shell-shocked. Ebullient as ever, Boehner promised three different times in his brief remarks that the House GOP would "earn" its way back. Exactly how wasn't said because more pressing matters were at hand. Prompted by a FOX [SIC!] News producer, Boehner fessed up that today was his birthday and led his fellow Republicans in a brief birthday ditty. [Emphasis added]

Posted 4:43 PM by Gene

Dvorkin: Let's remember that journalism isn't stenography

Let's remember the way most of you hacks practice it that JERNALISM IS stenography.

Posted 3:51 PM by Gene

IT'S 1939 AGAIN AT THE MOVIES!!!!!

What gets the hacks like this? Why do they so vehemently believe movies are better than ever? Isn't there a SINGLE discriminating writer in the whole news trade?

Posted 2:30 PM by Gene

The NO-SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN ZONE no-spins:

FOR THE RECORD, FOX BROADCASTING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"O'really?"

(Via ShowBizData.com)

P. S.

“I have some stinky cheese in my refrigerator. It smells really bad, but people keep eating it.”

You mean the stinky NEWS HACKS and your QUOTES, PERFESSER THOMPSON? (Via the inevitable Romy)

Posted 11:44 AM by Gene

TRANSLATION: The Former Senator with the Polyester Hair wanted a PS3 for his kid, so he had a staffer call a Wal-Mart, which said Former Senator supposedly despises, and when the word leaked, said Former Senator blamed the staffer.

Yep, I think the guy's ready to be president.

Posted 9:03 AM by Gene

GanNETt's campaigning for the defeated Jim Leach to be League of Nations rep, and (yes, this is FRONTPAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) he'd be the perfect fit: a drone and an appeaser, apt for the last brain-dead days of Dubya's rapidly sinking administration.

Posted 8:54 AM by Gene

In a violent mutual shaking of heads Sen. Dennis Day tells a would-be Rush he's not running for prez, thereby shutting up the Freepers briefly.

Posted 8:48 AM by Gene

Granola or Victrola or whatever the name is has unleashed two lengthy typings that demonstrate no writer says less with more words, and at the same time shows TimesReject MIGHT have a worthy use.

Posted 8:34 AM by Gene

Britain's TV regulator has banned junk-food ads for children. We're of two minds about this: it's naked market interference, and it's also PC -- but TV has sold a lot of bad to youth over the years, not least the bad programming all that junk food has financed.

Posted 8:26 AM by Gene

RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'s madam has issued a "statement" (perhaps written by her) in which she says the finances were handled through a third party. It's official: HE'LL be sued.

It links on MediaBistro -- I'm not linking to THE SPYWARE COWBOY.

Meantime the genius who sold Him MySpace has resigned, so we can hope His tyranny has a bad day on Wall Street.

Posted 8:17 AM by Gene

Did you know Sirhan Sirhan shot five other people in addition to Sen. Kennedy? I didn't. None of the five were consulted on the WHINER BROTHERS' new weepie, and they probably won't see it. So it's just another hack bio -- surprise. Surprise too: LALA's calling it an excruciatingly earnest bore. Why did the WHINER BROTHERS have to make this picture -- and dishonor a martyr to terrorism in the process?

Posted 6:52 AM by Gene

The top four stories on DA NOOZ' site today are about guess which slimy media tycoon, meaning the battle of cheap one-upmanship between him and MORT ZUCK continues unabated.

DA POST is silent, perhaps permanently.

Posted 6:35 PM by Gene

McCain Calls for Common Sense in GOP

Alas, consider the source.

Posted 5:31 PM by Gene

Hey Larry, welcome to 1997! On his show last night, talk-show host Larry King told guest Roseanne Barr that he'd never used the Internet, that he "wouldn't love it," and that it probably wouldn't be a viable political medium because there are "80 billion things on it." And then he proceeded to ask Barr how the bizarre invention -- what's it called again? -- works: "What, do you punch little buttons and things?" Barr, ever gracious, offered to show King how to use the complicated contraption. King declined. Too many moving parts, no doubt.

Somebody really ought to teach Larry how to use a computer (mightily difficult, no doubt) -- then he'd learn who owns TMZ.com.

Posted 5:19 PM by Gene

America's consumer-products Dilbert-states busily invent new titles to justify weaning the public of MORE money through TV advertising:

Yum Brands Names Emil Brolick President of Brand Building

Posted 4:53 PM by Gene

We wonder if the instant conwiz about Steny is wrong. Steny is more photogenic and energetic than the Defeatocrat and will probably make a more effective majority leader. But can he maintain discipline in a party with 230 fiefdoms -- and a seniormost fiefdom in Madame Speaker? There's the question.

Posted 2:50 PM by Gene

Hmmm, is Noam engaging in the same hopeful thinking con-SER-va-tives did when SNIDELY WHIPLASH got into trouble?

Posted 2:45 PM by Gene

Now that THE GREATEST 007 FILM EVER is out the ASSociated Press must remind us about how Woodster the Perv became THE expert on all things sexual.

Couldn't someone at the AssPress have taken the time to identify the "unidentified actress"?

P. S. Regardless of what the ad-blurbists might say our Casino Royale will be Burt Bacharach's; he wrote a spritely and humorous score (a tad repetitive, perhaps) that summed up the character and the age well -- it was far better than the movie, a long-winded bore. We wonder if Burt's shadow will hover over this new masterpiece, which sounds to our ears like an EXTREMELY SERIOUS and HUMORLESS WUHK, whatever the leading man's physique.

Posted 12:37 PM by Gene

This should get the indentured servants mad: How can the Walter Mittys of academe, who crawl into a hole whenever the alums come around and demand to know why THE TEAM isn't winning, say they're educating their athuhletes when they pay all these coaches so much money? First off these guys should be held to the same standards as CEOs -- they rub elbows enough with them. Second, knock off the empty CYA talk about learning and share the spoils with the people who really earn the coaches their dough: the players.

Posted 12:06 PM by Gene

STENY WINS! (sez the Mess)

TOTAL CRAP! LOSES!

Show 'em the IRON FIST, Nancy!

Posted 11:49 AM by Gene

"It's the lowest form for hype," says Gary Carr, senior vice president of national broadcast for TargetCast TCM. "It's an embarrassment to our business. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind buying into this. I'm ashamed for Fox doing this, after the network gained respectability in recent years. They have gone for the low blow again."

TRANSLATION: PLEASE, PLEASE, WE'LL PAY $2 MILLION FOR A THIRTY ON AMERICAN IDOL!!!!! PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 10:31 AM by Gene

And to add insult to injury:

Without Couric, 'Today' is actually up

Posted 10:27 AM by Gene

America's hospital biz endeavors to be almost as heartless as RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 9:30 AM by Gene

Further proof The Empire is in terminal decline:

Queen Album Named Britain's Best-Selling

Posted 9:23 AM by Gene

That the Super Suck-Up Jann was able to secure a straight interview with HISTORY'S GREATEST COMEDIAN after thousands of rip-roaring press releases says that now's the time for the news biz to turn its entertainment sections into advertorials. If all it's going to give us are raves and ads, let's knock off the holier-than-thou noble-calling junk and have these toadies do as they please.

Posted 9:11 AM by Gene

ESPNCORP emulates RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ESPN doesn't seem to be worried. In an e-mailed response, ESPN spokesman Bill Hofheimer wrote that the ratings speak for themselves and that there are plenty of people happy with the broadcasts ... they just don't go on blogs to proclaim how satisfied they are.

"While a small fraction of fans have voiced concern with the new approach, when was the last time a customer bought a computer and called Dell to say how much he/she loved the new monitor?" wrote Hofheimer.

Hey Bill! Glad you mentioned DELL!

Posted 9:05 AM by Gene

And Reader's Digest Association, publisher of America's worst magazine -- yes, worse than anything from PEOPLE WARNER -- is going private too, meaning its declining pool of geezer readers is someone else's problem.

Posted 8:54 AM by Gene

Madame Speaker-Elect uses "strong-arm tactics"!

She's going all out for TOTAL CRAP!

"I hope you like your committee assignment, because it's the only one you're going to get."

I smell -- REFORM!

Posted 8:45 AM by Gene

"Absolutely . . . they can go after Fox and find out what the financial arrangement was between Fox and Regan Books," Galanter told Court TV. "And I think they could go after HarperCollins [the publisher for which Regan Books is an imprint] and Regan and find out what the deal was with Simpson and the people behind the book."

RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! confesses. Or is He merely taunting?

Okay SLIME: who sues to get the $2 MILLION back?

P. S. The clown David Hinckley says we can stop RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with on-off switches.

Pffh-hh-hh hh hh hh hh hh ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 8:20 AM by Gene

CHEAP CHANNEL's going private for a sizable haircut off its all-time high, meaning the broadcasting of audio commercial irritations is not quite the biz it used to be.

Posted 8:16 AM by Gene

It's easy to do the devil's advocate routine here but predicting CDs and DVDs will go away may be like predicting the paperless office. Erasable media are apt for erasable culture -- [C]RAP, grossout "comedies" -- but good culture deserves something you can grasp. You can't accidentally delete a CD. The big advantage of sorting media files may not be so big when you have 10,000 files. And maybe hard drives are getting huge, but one crash and there goes your movie library. And it's not clear downloaded media enjoy that big a price advantage either: the other day I went to Amazon.com and bought the Gone with the Wind Collectors' Edition for $20 ($5 a disc) and Complete Birth of the Cool for $10 -- on sale, to be sure, but this points out another thing: CDs and DVDs may now be price-competitive because their "infrastructure" costs are surely not much higher than downloads' (don't forget Brian Robber). And hard though the Bugmeister may try, most downloads do not have cover art.

Posted 8:25 PM by Gene

That mysterious killer has claimed another victim.

Needless to say the LI-TE-RA-RY BLOGS like this one and this one and this one have not mentioned the masterwork at all. What hermetically sealed buffoons.

Posted 8:02 PM by Gene

If the Defeatocrat becomes majority leader, Madame Speaker gets a hack pol and ABSCAM alumnus who called an ethics bill "total crap." If Steny wins, she looks like a weakling.

Great strategy, Nancy!

Posted 5:09 PM by Gene

FNC Denies $2 Million Hostage Payment

O. J...oh, never mind.

RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'S publishing madam says it's "a confession." TRANSLATION: We have to say that because otherwise we look bad. RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'s competitors are furious. TRANSLATION: They're furious because they didn't get first dibs on it.

Posted 4:51 PM by Gene

I'M A POPULIST!!!!!!!!!! DEAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Well-fed Dobbsian overemphasis added]

YOU'RE AN ASS!!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 3:30 PM by Gene

A couple of GoogleNews-generated heds:

TV rights to 007 films stirred, not shaken

Fox Squeezes OJ For Killer Ratings

These are extremely typical of heds with idiot hooks. How many "Borat Make Glorious Box Office" heds have we endured? This is Sex, Lies and Videotape Syndrome, where EVERY editor had to use a pun on that title whether it was warranted or not. Okay, the second hed came from a "pure" Web site. But it also came from NEWS HACKS.

This is surely a reason why one writer says newspaper circ isn't declining, it's in an avalanche -- and there's no reason news Web sites can't fall down the same cliff. (Link via Romy)

Posted 2:13 PM by Gene

Oh, NO! NASCAR's declining?!?!? How will all those CEOs justify all those millions they spend "plastering logos"?

One problem is the new drivers lack sex appeal. TRANSLATION: Stock-car racing's turning into FILLUM.

Posted 2:08 PM by Gene

[I]n Oakland, Ignacio De La Fuente, a City Council member who also serves on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority's board of directors, suggested that his city might even benefit if the team moved.

"To be candid, we made more money in one Rolling Stones concert than the A's made (us) in a whole year. We will deal with it," De La Fuente said.

But the whole point of building ballparks is wasting money, not making it!

Posted 1:53 PM by Gene

James Dickeyson comes up with an outstanding solution for the War on Terror: using local police officers!

Don't they have enough on their hands?

Posted 12:01 PM by Gene

Elsewhere in the Twin Towers of Babble:

Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Parsons defended his decision to keep AOL and said the Internet unit could be worth as much as $26 billion in the next few years.

``It's even conservative,'' Parsons said in an interview yesterday at Time Warner's headquarters in New York.

Conservative -- compared to the $350 BILLION IN MARKET CAP you were once worth.

Posted 11:22 AM by Gene

George Clooney Named PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive

NAWWWWWWWWWW, this has NOTHING to do with it.

Posted 11:01 AM by Gene

Mr. My Business is My Business's favorite Republican Mr. McConnell will now lead the Senate minority. Can he do anything but whine about campaign finance reform?

And the author of the Mickey Mouse Protection Act and co-builder of the Railroad to Nowhere is BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!

Posted 10:45 AM by Gene

Marash promises Al Jazeera English won't be al-Jazeera

Uh, DAVE, you don't think that might be...a problem?

Posted 9:37 AM by Gene

RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! may have paid a ransom to release His two reporters.

It's official: He's below primordial slime.

BIG caveat: it's WORLDNETDAILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Via MediaBistro)

Posted 9:34 AM by Gene

Hey LENNY! Maybe if you hadn't done things like campaigning for Jim Webb you wouldn't have to DOWNSIZE YOUR NEWSROOM!

Rule 1 of NEWSHACKDOM: Nothing is EVER your own fault.

Posted 9:30 AM by Gene

On their journey through the stages of grief, conservatives don't yet seem to have gotten past denial.

Hey Harry! Were you partying at the funeral with LENNY?

Posted 9:17 AM by Gene

Today, for a brief moment, Andrew Sarris remembers what a person who calls himself a film critic should be doing.

Posted 9:09 AM by Gene

Speaking of television:

Remember when virtually every TV show aimed to please, all but jumping into your lap and licking your face like a happy puppy? Those days, for any number of reasons, appear to be gone, at least for a while. Viewers now sit still for shows (a la ABC's "Lost") in which there may be no real closure or resolution to individual episodes, just the vague promise of a payoff somewhere down the line. Unfortunately for Diggs and company, prime time may have passed the saturation point on this kind of twisty serialized drama. Viewers may even be yearning for such mundane commodities as sense and sensibility once again.

Posted 9:04 AM by Gene

How does one respond to RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? Clearly He wants people to get mad and give Him ratings and sales. But if we ignore Him (how do you ignore RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?) we condone the act. One good thing -- the reverse Robin Hoods of MadAve who have been merrily financing His escapades may feel a slight twinge of upset stomach, and the con-SER-va-tive idiots who have insisted He is one of theirs will SHUT UP -- for a second.

There is also the remote possibility His latest affront may backfire on Him.

P. S. at 3:50 p. m.: I guess they didn't shut up even a second:

NOV. 15, 2006: I KNOW I'M FALLING INTO JUDITH REGAN'S TRAP ...

... even discussing this - but it still needs to be said:

If there is such a thing as the pale of civilized society, Judith Regan has put herself outside it.

Posted at 3:40 PM

But not, we may presume, her Boss -- and the Boss of several of our contributors. By the way -- what's that deep hole you're climbing out of?

Posted 8:58 AM by Gene

Speaking of The Paper of Re-CORD, Jeremy Lott makes a persuasive case that TimesReject has ruined its op-ed section. Since Pinch began His experiment it's become hard not to see His Web site as damaged goods. The public has returned the favor by making its columnists invisible. We suspect John Tierney, in a rarity among Paper of Re-CORD writers, has sense enough to recognize this. That more columnists haven't abandoned the op-ed section or the paper outright may be a reflection of institutional ennui -- or rigor mortis.

Posted 8:57 AM by Gene

Q. Now that the Democrats are in power, will the NYTimes be giving them hell like you did the Republicans for the last six years?

-- John

I think we know the answer to that question.

Posted 2:35 PM by Gene

Murdoch 'deplores' anti-US sentiment

Cle-VER, RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You increasingly want to rule America, and to do so You produce increasingly crappy entertainment that people overseas hate, that gets people hating us more. We can do without Your sympathy, RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 2:25 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: Fathers are becoming every bit as adolescent as their sons.

Posted 2:25 PM by Gene

Microsoft wants to "edge out" antivirus companies?

Why wasn't that its intent in the first place?

Posted 11:59 AM by Gene

Now those eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil Nazi evangelicals think "Supporting Israel is ‘God’s Foreign Policy.’"

What SHALL we do, PINCH?

Posted 11:51 AM by Gene

The ad biz has pledged to police its kiddie ads with a longer wet noodle!

Posted 10:00 AM by Gene

And Greg, repeat after me: BIAS HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH NEWSPAPER LAYOFFS.

Posted 9:58 AM by Gene

She Survived Iraq -- Then Shot Herself at Home
Her name doesn't show on any official list of American military deaths in the Iraq war, by hostile or non-hostile fire, who died in that country or in hospitals in Europe or back home in the USA. But Iraq killed Jeanne "Linda" Michel just as certainly, as an article in today's Albany Times-Union suggests.

Greg! You smiling?

Posted 8:38 AM by Gene

TNR comes out against Alcee!

Time to wield those brass knuckles, Nancy!

There's ample reason to think that Americans cast a negative vote last week--not so much for Democrats as against Republicans.

How soon does that shoe fit the other foot?

Posted 8:29 AM by Gene

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, co-author of a bill to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, has been picked by White House strategist Karl Rove to be general chairman of the Republican National Committee, RNC officials confirmed yesterday.

So that's why he did it!

Some RNC members greeted the news as another example of White House cronyism....

I'd say the WaPost isn't the only paper that can macaca.

Posted 6:59 AM by Gene

I gave up on entertainment adver -- "JERNALISM" long before this TWXSTER decided to get nominally upset over all his fellow scribblers turning into ad copywriters. We can never take news-hack self-flagellation seriously because it always follows on bad work -- and the excuses provide the excuse for more bad work, and more excuses.

P. S. at 10:55 a.m.: Why is it every time I hear about this stunt it grows a little less funny?

P. P. S. at 11:10 p.m.: Well -- not entirely:

[B]ecause News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox likely didn't cut Cohen in on the movie's gross points--a percentage of the movie's revenues--he has missed out on a substantial payday. While Borat may go on to gross as much as $300 million, including overseas box office, DVD sales and TV deals, Cohen won’t see much more than his initial advance.

Posted 6:53 AM by Gene

For the first time in years, Michael Kinsley shows sense -- albeit through the prism of a home-page squib writer:

The urgent issue of Iraq should be decided by the people we elected, not a commission. If we'd wanted James Baker to run the country, we'd have voted for him.

Posted 9:58 PM by Gene

Establishing relations with Tehran is a fool's errand -- and the World's Oldest Adolescent is the perfect fool.

Posted 9:49 PM by Gene

Hundreds of thousands raped in Congo wars

Something else for the Peacemaker Kofi to platitudinize on, and ignore.

Posted 9:25 PM by Gene

The Majority Leader-in-Waiting has a little -- ethical problem.

Nothing a Speaker-Elect can't cure.

Posted 9:22 PM by Gene

"The transcendent theme of the new season is that the quality is one of the best in years, and quantitatively it's one of the most disappointing in years," says ad-buying chief John Rash of Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis.

"The very nature of what made the season so compelling — ambitious and addictive serialized dramas — has made many viewers adopt none of them because their media menu is so full."

When MEDIA BUYERS talk like MOVIE AD-BLURBISTS, complete with SENTENCES THAT MAKE NO SENSE, their continued misuse of OUR MONEY is assured.

And alas, it's a can-you-top-this among these idiots, as witness this blarney.

Posted 6:43 PM by Gene

Looks like the League of Nations will accept nothing less than total American submission and a complete screwing up of the world's economy to stop global warming.

Would it ever occur to anyone that the outfit that gave us Oil-For-Food and the Durban Conference (not to mention genocides everywhere) may be on slightly shaky ground?

Posted 5:41 PM by Gene

THE GREATEST COMEDY OF ALL TIME gets a less-than-hilarious reception from Christopher Hitchens, meaning common sense hasn't died out yet.

P. S. at 9:45 p.m.: I don't know what to think of this story: was its star engaging in marketing -- or is RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Posted 5:25 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: The late king of whosit has left ZONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!! and SUMNER holding a bag full of -- flatulence.

Sirius spends $131 signing up each new subscriber, whether it's a Stern fan or not, double the cost at XM. And so far Sirius hasn't projected when it will actually book a profit.

At that rate our prediction of eventual bankruptcy for the DOG Star doesn't look all that bad.

Posted 1:21 PM by Gene

From IWantMedia, a few heds:

Google Video to Run Ads on User-Generated Content

Video Blogger Headed to Time Warner's HBO

Former CNN Anchor Launches Webcast

Lycos to Launch 'Virtual Living Room'

More and more, Webcasting sounds like a fad. I remember how the late Carroll Carroll presciently complained there wouldn't be enough talent to support cable -- and now comes B. S. DEFENDER'S nightmare-promise of billions of channels. Who's going to watch them? Who's going to finance them?

Posted 12:33 PM by Gene

All RIGHT, Mr. Retired Sun-Times Book Editor, we GET the MESSAGE. If you want our newsrags to print four-letter words, FINE. But don't complain when readers blast customer-service reps with ANOTHER reason not to buy their junk.

Can't some people THINK?

(Via ROMY, who can be quite irritating at times; and I've substituted his link since Mr. RSTBE obviously wanted to pull a practical joke with his URL)

Posted 12:28 PM by Gene

I'm glad you think EXACTLY as I do:

THE NEW CONGRESS....Did Democrats win last week by running a bunch of conservative candidates? I think Michael Tomasky gets things just about right in his LA Times piece today....

And Michael Tomasky writes for guess who? The American Prospect. This is like Jo-NAH praising an article in The Weekly Standard. Why do these pundit-clowns ponder in their own little hermetically sealed BOXES?

Posted 9:09 AM by Gene

TRANSLATION: National Public NewsTalk Radio doesn't want to run any musical programming, but it will appease the idiots by shunting it off to the Web, and hope no one listens, then it can do nothing BUT newstalk.

(Via ArtsJournal)

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

You go to nymag.com and the first thing you see is a whatisit by Jay Mc -- McClain, McCluskey? McINERNEY! And you think, didn't he spend 300 pages sniffing cocaine at The New Yorker in the second person? Then you realize he's written another 10,000-word essay on Manhattan's snobs, and you know he's just pulled another fast one on an editor who still thinks he's F. Scott Fitzgerald reborn, but you know the editor doesn't know better.

Then you see that guy who typed 15,000 words about the brilliance of this zillion-dollar news comedian has typed out more free associations on the "death" of the network news, and then you know -- all is right in the world...or at least Adam's world.

Posted 8:35 PM by Gene

OH oh, we have our first test of Madame Speaker-Elect: she's backing Rep. Defeatocrat over Steny -- and Steny says he has the votes to win!

Let's see that famous iron discipline, Nancy!

Posted 8:21 PM by Gene

Pat Buchanan and I rarely agree....

You agree more than you think. You're both blunderbusses: Pat by screaming and banging his fists, you by screaming and banging your fists with a feather. He won't listen to the other side for sheer intolerance; you won't listen to the other side for sheer reason. He believes he's always right, you believe you're always right. No, you and Pat Buchanan agree a LOT more than you think.

Posted 3:47 PM by Gene

RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MATH: By opening THE GREATEST COMEDY OF ALL TIME at an extra 1729 screens he was able over the weekend to get an astonishing extra $1,472 a screen!

Yes, we know, we know, it's a big hit, but how will it be any more remembered than Fahrenheit 9/11, except as a mass-induced headache?

Happily THE CONSPIRACY can't entice people to stomach the rest of what it offers, and RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'S TRIUMPH is somewhat offset by Phone-Thrower's BOMB.

Posted 3:46 PM by Gene

"In Vietnam today, it's not permissible to talk about basic things like human rights and democracy," said Sara Colm, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Those are words that have landed people in prison."

But it'll land Wal-Mart in the MONEY!

Posted 3:29 PM by Gene

We never got around to talking of Ed Bradley because we didn't know enough about him, but the brief if intense episode of media-state mourning aroused our suspicions. His bio lists a lot of accomplishments, including the obligatory awards, but we must ask how many people remember all this meritorious reporting, any more than they remember P-Ulitzer winners. And we must say his last major stint was his press-agentry for THE GOLFING MACHINE, a "report" we suspect is far more typical of the LEGENDARY 60 Minutes than its defenders might want us to think. We are reasonably sure at his best Mr. Bradley was a committed and capable reporter, but for our own good let us never mistake what they do for curing cancer.

Posted 3:13 PM by Gene

Yes, I think we can work together:

TIME: Can Democrats trust President George W. Bush enough to work with him?

Pelosi: I think we have to start from a level of trust. On some issues where there is consensus, we can cooperate and build bridges of trust.

TIME: Oblivious, in denial, incompetent, dangerous. Do you regret using any of these words to describe the President?

Pelosi: No.

Posted 12:59 PM by Gene

We doubt seriously that the University of North Dakota will ultimately be allowed to use its "hostile and abusive" nickname, but if anything can bring down the greedy twerps of the NPCPCAA, we're rooting it on.

Posted 11:16 AM by Gene

GREAT: GanNETt may buy TRIB!

A merger of TWO WHALES!

Posted 10:39 AM by Gene

I wish I knew exactly who Malcolm Jones is, for he is at least as full of it as any writer in the history of newsrags -- somehow the forgotten reviewer Jack Kroll comes to mind. (Forgotten, that is, except by anyone who had to read him.) We too read of the murder of this actress, and DA NOOZ ran a picture of her on its home page that showed she was appealing, in an oddball way. But to liken her to Lana Turner (and that's what he does) shows the kind of obtuseness we expect from hacks trying to make a point. (More so under the circumstances -- and especially as this was first thought a suicide.) Isn't a murder bad enough without their trying to caboose significance onto it?

Posted 9:46 AM by Gene

And further in the world of show-biz PR, a PAPER of RE-CORD SCRIBBLER with his OWN BLOG WITH MOVIE ADVERTISING tries to convince us Rosie's Nephew is about to unleash a SECOND COMING OF CASABLANCA, except there are a few things wrong with the script: 1. Bogie, Ingrid and Michael Curtiz are dead; 2. So is Max Steiner; 3. So is Herman Hupfeld; 4. Jack Warner took the Allies' side; 5. Casablanca wasn't an ARTHOUSE FLICK; 6. DR. EVIL'S ALPHABET SOUP (nowhere mentioned; it might make a slight difference); and 7. Who needs Casablanca when MOVIES ARE BETTER THAN EVER!!!!!?

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO DAVE!

P. S. Rosie's Nephew's latest masterwork's going for $25.32 on hsx.com. That seems a little puny for THE NEXT CASABLANCA, n'est-ce pas?

P. P. S. And just how much do people in the biz care to make good movies? Dave moves the super-CW proprietor of Hollywood Elsewhere to launch into a BIG discussion of CASABLANCA II's ASPECT RATIO! Hey moron! Have you been to the HAPPY FEET SITE?

Posted 9:42 AM by Gene

THE NEXT CAMPAIGN ISSUE
Is America too [SIC] Racist for Barack? Too Sexist for Hillary?

Is Barack Too Coy for America? Is Hillary Too Angry?

Posted 9:38 AM by Gene

Elsewhere RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! makes it known the YouTubers are mad over the site's new "corporate domination."

AS IF.

P. S. YouTube's hit numbers may not be sacrosanct. How does that grab you, RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Posted 9:36 AM by Gene

RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! makes an astonishing admission: At the direction of FOCUS GROUPS He's turning the film version of Dallas into a comedy.

AS IF.

Posted 9:32 AM by Gene

The government believes Fidel Castro's health is deteriorating and that the Cuban dictator is unlikely to live through 2007.

...the same government that has believed ELVIS is kaput.

Posted 9:30 AM by Gene

And the TWXSTERS put a red-and-blue Venn diagram on their cover, meaning they must still be sore about the rate base.

Posted 9:28 AM by Gene

And in another "WEB EXCLUSIVE" America's leading -- er, newsrag tells us the movie biz is about to do to Christians what it's done to computer animation. We need the leading -- a newsrag to know?

Posted 9:26 AM by Gene

Perhaps the movie biz has made too many movies of Truman:

The auction made $241,999 (including the buyers’ premiums) from the books, snapshots, furniture, bric-a-brac, clothes and memorabilia. Some items garnered amazing prices: $3,750 for a curved horn trophy that Capote claimed he'd lifted from Hemingway's house in Key West and $2,750 for a baby blanket crocheted by his Aunt Sook. But 74 lots didn't sell, including the tux he wore to his famous Black and White Ball 40 years ago this month. The sale's centerpiece was his "last manuscript," a handwritten account of a long-ago meeting with his literary idol, Willa Cather, that was estimated to sell for $20,000 to 30,000. In the end, it found no takers.

Posted 9:23 AM by Gene

The newsrag that is now figuring out how to boast it's NUMBER ONE is saying PAPPA'S BACK.

Had he ever left?

Cover hijinx: our cover's in color; the rest of the world gets a black-and-white shot. What gives, JonBoy? What's your next trick (besides convincing people you're NUMBER ONE)?