THE NEWS HACK'S CREED:
I know more than you.
I make lots more money than you.
I'm smarter than you.
I'm sexier than you.
I appear on TV all the time.
I work ten minutes a day.
I rule the universe.
I'm going to live forever.
You are an idiot.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 2:
A lie isn't a lie when it tells THE TRUTH.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 3:
I've come to realize that the looseness of the journalistic life, the seeming laxity of the newsroom, is an illusion. Yes, there's informality and there's humor, but beneath the surface lies something deadly serious. It is a code. Sometimes the code is not even written down, but it is deeply believed in. And, when violated, it is enforced with tribal ferocity.
--JOHN "OMERTA" CARROLL.
THE NEWS HACK'S CREED, No. 4:
News isn't news when we don't report it.
PERMALINKS:
THE NEWS HACKS' DICTIONARY
THE EUGENE DAVID GLOSSARY
AMERICA'S MOST UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY WEB SITE!
Blogroll Me!
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Saturday, March 24, 2007
Further in the official site of the Newsrag of the Zeitgeist, impassioned eloquence:
In fairness to 1919, not everything then was worse than today. Government spying on citizens was still technologically crude, neither Einstein’s theory nor GLOBAL WARMING had yet threatened the survival of humanity, Stalin was still a wannabe and Auschwitz just another Polish town. Fewer American troops were dying in an undeclared war—in 1919, it was in the Arctic, against the new Soviet Union. But. While [SIC] RACIAL SEGREGATION PERSISTS TODAY, at least the federal government is integrated, and while African-Americans go in fear of traffic stops, and periodic police shootings and mob violence, WE DON’T HAVE PUBLIC LYNCHINGS WITH WHITE FOLKS GRINNING, ABU GHRAIB-STYLE, AT A DANGLING OR BURNING BLACK BODY!!!!!!!!!! Nobody gets 10 years in the can for saying that A WAR WAS A MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!, much as SOME AMERICANS WOULD LOVE TO BRING THAT PRACTICE BACK!!!!!!!!!! Women can vote. (The 19th Amendment didn’t pass till 1920.) And despite the influence of the JERRY FALWELLS AND JAMES DOBSONS, the Bush administration couldn’t get away with a holiday message like what the Wilson administration put out in 1919: “The world ... should find renewed hope that CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!!!! principles will triumph and become the dominant force in the affairs of all men and all nations.” It’s all enough to make you wonder if we really are crawling up toward the light—though of course it could be A NUCLEAR FIREBALL OR A MERCILESS SUN!!!!!!!!!! Hagedorn’s account of 1919 might help reconcile you to living in the scary new millennium. [Truth-telling overemphasis added]
He teaches in the graduate writing program at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont.
We can imagine.
P. S. Nothing yet on covers. When do we finally get a movie plug from your PR exec Devin, JonBoy?
P. P. S. And while were tapping our fingers waiting for the N of the Z to post its covers, we found this:
But Webb doesn't favor a timeline for withdrawal, as the Nancy Pelosi bill passed by the House on Friday proposes, or capping the number of troops in Iraq, as Hillary Clinton suggests. Webb wants a diplomatic solution, and he's working with Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, a fellow Vietnam veteran and a friend for 30 years, to come up with a bipartisan bill that would incorporate some of what he calls "the more workable points" from the House bill without unnecessarily tying the hands of the military. He wouldn't say much about it—other than it's a work in progress....
We would not want to begin to guess how many columnists of every stripe view their readers as retards. This sort of graf we could have invented ourselves if someone had asked us -- and we earn several million less than Elea-NOAH. (That stinky still on?) Is JonBoy still sure we need newsrags -- or his zeitgeist?
In fairness to 1919, not everything then was worse than today. Government spying on citizens was still technologically crude, neither Einstein’s theory nor GLOBAL WARMING had yet threatened the survival of humanity, Stalin was still a wannabe and Auschwitz just another Polish town. Fewer American troops were dying in an undeclared war—in 1919, it was in the Arctic, against the new Soviet Union. But. While [SIC] RACIAL SEGREGATION PERSISTS TODAY, at least the federal government is integrated, and while African-Americans go in fear of traffic stops, and periodic police shootings and mob violence, WE DON’T HAVE PUBLIC LYNCHINGS WITH WHITE FOLKS GRINNING, ABU GHRAIB-STYLE, AT A DANGLING OR BURNING BLACK BODY!!!!!!!!!! Nobody gets 10 years in the can for saying that A WAR WAS A MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!, much as SOME AMERICANS WOULD LOVE TO BRING THAT PRACTICE BACK!!!!!!!!!! Women can vote. (The 19th Amendment didn’t pass till 1920.) And despite the influence of the JERRY FALWELLS AND JAMES DOBSONS, the Bush administration couldn’t get away with a holiday message like what the Wilson administration put out in 1919: “The world ... should find renewed hope that CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!!!! principles will triumph and become the dominant force in the affairs of all men and all nations.” It’s all enough to make you wonder if we really are crawling up toward the light—though of course it could be A NUCLEAR FIREBALL OR A MERCILESS SUN!!!!!!!!!! Hagedorn’s account of 1919 might help reconcile you to living in the scary new millennium. [Truth-telling overemphasis added]
He teaches in the graduate writing program at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont.
We can imagine.
P. S. Nothing yet on covers. When do we finally get a movie plug from your PR exec Devin, JonBoy?
P. P. S. And while were tapping our fingers waiting for the N of the Z to post its covers, we found this:
But Webb doesn't favor a timeline for withdrawal, as the Nancy Pelosi bill passed by the House on Friday proposes, or capping the number of troops in Iraq, as Hillary Clinton suggests. Webb wants a diplomatic solution, and he's working with Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, a fellow Vietnam veteran and a friend for 30 years, to come up with a bipartisan bill that would incorporate some of what he calls "the more workable points" from the House bill without unnecessarily tying the hands of the military. He wouldn't say much about it—other than it's a work in progress....
We would not want to begin to guess how many columnists of every stripe view their readers as retards. This sort of graf we could have invented ourselves if someone had asked us -- and we earn several million less than Elea-NOAH. (That stinky still on?) Is JonBoy still sure we need newsrags -- or his zeitgeist?
Here all this YouSpaceMyTube huddling was supposed to make for THE CAMPAIGN OF THE MILLENNIUM, and a staffer for The Newsrag of the Zeitgeist finds it BORING?!?
Howard "CW" Fineman MUST have a chat with him.
If the site can force power-hungry politicians to act like human beings every once in awhile, that's impact enough for me.
This 24-year-old has a lot to learn.
Howard "CW" Fineman MUST have a chat with him.
If the site can force power-hungry politicians to act like human beings every once in awhile, that's impact enough for me.
This 24-year-old has a lot to learn.
Following up on their enormously successful Blogger.com captchas of yore, the Dalai Lamas of Mountain View develop a new patented trick:
This site may harm your computer
This site may harm your computer
Oops:
In an editors' note in tomorrow's edition of The New York Times Book Review, the paper states that it regrets publishing a recent essay with certain resemblances to passages in someone else's essay -- particularly one involving a chambermaid.
In an editors' note in tomorrow's edition of The New York Times Book Review, the paper states that it regrets publishing a recent essay with certain resemblances to passages in someone else's essay -- particularly one involving a chambermaid.
Branson East comes up with another blast from the past:
What [Curtains] really brings to mind is less vintage Broadway than vintage prime time.
Lawrence Welk in Branson, "vintage prime-time" in Branson East -- I think it's quite fitting.
More fitting yet -- it's from Kander and Ebb, half of which is dead, so Branson East and its namesake merge into one inseparable slough of worthless nostalgia.
What [Curtains] really brings to mind is less vintage Broadway than vintage prime time.
Lawrence Welk in Branson, "vintage prime-time" in Branson East -- I think it's quite fitting.
More fitting yet -- it's from Kander and Ebb, half of which is dead, so Branson East and its namesake merge into one inseparable slough of worthless nostalgia.
Elsewhere in Stale.com, another typist goes into mourning over a comedian's self-cancellation of his Web video series. When a typist uses words like "classic" it smacks of desperation; when he admits "most blogs have an audience in the single digits[, a]nd most video blogs, unless made by an attractive woman, have a likely audience of one" he confesses to his "classic"'s ephemerality. (He hammers home the last e-nail in the coffin with "fleeting" in the last graf.) How many watched this comic? And how many could remember his routines? And how many, on second thought, would call them "classics"? There's too much of the you-had-to-be-there in our culture; that it all but disposes itself assures that it leaves behind not only nothing of value, but for all practical purposes nothing.
(Via Slashdot, where they're mildly upset too)
(Via Slashdot, where they're mildly upset too)
Stale.com's TV ad-blurbist is upset because her favorite Web site has been absconded by GOODTHINGS ENTERTAINMENT and won't be "quirky" anymore. We say any Web site that is a favorite of TV GET A LIFES! and offers "rambling recaps" and "talmudic forum commentary" is a perfect fit for a company that is the last word in obsessive-compulsive.
Friday, March 23, 2007
New Study Offers More Bad News For GOP :-D [Emoticon added]
TRANSLATION: Hacks are going to play this story so hard all weekend we'll wish they'd find another "ethics" "scandal" to masturbate over. I pray Lenny or any of our vaunted media superiors would please explain to us why public opinion polls (and précis thereof) are the wisdom of society, why polls are infallible, and why they so accurately predict societal trends. Okay, hacks may be happy now; we're going through a "liberal" phase. But history seems to happen in cycles; we had the ultra-capitalist presidents of the Gilded Age, and sixty years later we had FDR. But happy or sad over polls we can't look to them for confirmation of our right or wrong, but as mileposts that guess at the mileage. A society that places its faith in public-opinion polls, however "accurate", and that uses them to find its philosophical moorings, is a hollow one, and for that reason they've become the hack's crutch, a replacement for reporting, and observation, and wisdom.
TRANSLATION: Hacks are going to play this story so hard all weekend we'll wish they'd find another "ethics" "scandal" to masturbate over. I pray Lenny or any of our vaunted media superiors would please explain to us why public opinion polls (and précis thereof) are the wisdom of society, why polls are infallible, and why they so accurately predict societal trends. Okay, hacks may be happy now; we're going through a "liberal" phase. But history seems to happen in cycles; we had the ultra-capitalist presidents of the Gilded Age, and sixty years later we had FDR. But happy or sad over polls we can't look to them for confirmation of our right or wrong, but as mileposts that guess at the mileage. A society that places its faith in public-opinion polls, however "accurate", and that uses them to find its philosophical moorings, is a hollow one, and for that reason they've become the hack's crutch, a replacement for reporting, and observation, and wisdom.
Wet noodles could cover Nukeman as early as tomorrow!
Nukeman TREMBLES.
P. S. GOSH DARN, Nukeman isn't coming to America after all!
We know -- he did it to show up Foggy Bottom!
Nukeman TREMBLES.
P. S. GOSH DARN, Nukeman isn't coming to America after all!
We know -- he did it to show up Foggy Bottom!
HA HA HA! WE'VE LOST THE WAR! HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!
That's what YOU think.
P. S.
Still, the House legislation is HUGELY significant as a gauge of political support for the Bush administration’s war strategy. [PINCHIAN overemphasis added]
Hey Jeff 'n' Dave, do you think with our shares still trading near A TEN-YEAR LOW (and with our bonds on S&P credit watch so PINCH could shut up His malcontents) our adverbial power has waned just a little bit?
washingtonpost.com Goofs
Technical glitch of the cringe-inducing variety leads to 51-second error in Edwards coverage.
–Howard Kurtz 1:00 p.m. ET
Has ever this business been more self-centered?
Technical glitch of the cringe-inducing variety leads to 51-second error in Edwards coverage.
–Howard Kurtz 1:00 p.m. ET
Has ever this business been more self-centered?
ASSPress admits the Census Bureau admits it's overstated the numbers of uninsured!
So how do we know this number is accurate?
So how do we know this number is accurate?
Somebody finally gets Jo-NAH mad! And who is it? It's -- MR. MELLERDRAMMER!
Which puts us in mind of The School for Scandal:
SIR PETER.
What Sir Oliver do you blame him for not making Enemies?
SIR OLIVER.
Yes--if He has merit enough to deserve them.
We think judging Jo-NAH and MR. MELLERDRAMMER Richard Brinsley would have to revise that.
(Corrected at 5:00 p. m.; I misattributed a thought to Sheridan)
Which puts us in mind of The School for Scandal:
SIR PETER.
What Sir Oliver do you blame him for not making Enemies?
SIR OLIVER.
Yes--if He has merit enough to deserve them.
We think judging Jo-NAH and MR. MELLERDRAMMER Richard Brinsley would have to revise that.
(Corrected at 5:00 p. m.; I misattributed a thought to Sheridan)
$282,500 for:
"It was a okay day," she wrote of June 11, 1992. "I had lunch with Howard. Someone ran over my cat yesterday. I was real sad. Clay came over last nite and gave me some sleeping pills."
If I were you I'd have a few hundred press agents on hand -- or hope the greater-fool theory works.
"It was a okay day," she wrote of June 11, 1992. "I had lunch with Howard. Someone ran over my cat yesterday. I was real sad. Clay came over last nite and gave me some sleeping pills."
If I were you I'd have a few hundred press agents on hand -- or hope the greater-fool theory works.
Whenever a hack does the show-biz-is-better-than-ever routine, we think dollars -- the writer's and ours. And when some scribbler for an ALTERNARAG belches about this superplatinum age of "INDEPENDENT" music, we know what it means: more tunelessness with more of an attitude. The film biz' misuse of "INDEPENDENT" makes us distrust the word anyway. Of course he bemoans the "knee-jerk conservative" types with their set-in-cement playlists (if that isn't in danger of becoming a cliche....), but why should CHEAP CHANNEL play music that offends its listeners even more than it offends them now? Besides, for God's sake, if people want to listen to new kinds of crappy music, there are more ways to do so than ever, as even this toady admits.
(Via ArtsJournal, which has these annoying links)
(Via ArtsJournal, which has these annoying links)
The Blodget calling the Cramer black:
Leaving aside the insult that Cramer lobbed at "the Pisanis of the world," can CNBC really say nothing when one of its most visible employees urges investors to use the network to engage in behavior that is questionable to say the least?
It did it with MoneyHoney®!
Preceding sentence:
CNBC, meanwhile, is a subsidiary of GE, a company with a well-deserved global reputation for integrity, fairness, and quality.
You looking for a job, Hank?
Leaving aside the insult that Cramer lobbed at "the Pisanis of the world," can CNBC really say nothing when one of its most visible employees urges investors to use the network to engage in behavior that is questionable to say the least?
It did it with MoneyHoney®!
Preceding sentence:
CNBC, meanwhile, is a subsidiary of GE, a company with a well-deserved global reputation for integrity, fairness, and quality.
You looking for a job, Hank?
Now that "our" side's going to win (it says here), can there be any doubt this will not change one blasted thing? We're committed to Iraq for years, even if the Dems want us out to spite the oil companies, and Israel too on the side, just to show their superiority.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
More competition in the software biz:
Oracle's courthouse claims that SAP stole from it gigabytes of valuable customer-support software from September 2006 to January include dozens of stunning allegations that, if true, describe one of the most egregious cases of corporate shenanigans in computing industry history.
Oracle alleged in the lawsuit that workers at an SAP subsidiary "copied and swept thousands of Oracle products and other proprietary and confidential materials into its own servers" using fake log-ins or credentials stolen from legitimate, high profile Oracle customers like Honeywell, Merck & Co., Bear Sterns [SIC], and others.
The trove of ill gotten products allowed SAP "to offer cut rate support services to customers who use Oracle software, and to attempt to lure them to SAP's applications software," Oracle said.
Forgive us for thinking the only difference between software makers and Mafiosi is that most Mafiosi don't write code.
Oracle's courthouse claims that SAP stole from it gigabytes of valuable customer-support software from September 2006 to January include dozens of stunning allegations that, if true, describe one of the most egregious cases of corporate shenanigans in computing industry history.
Oracle alleged in the lawsuit that workers at an SAP subsidiary "copied and swept thousands of Oracle products and other proprietary and confidential materials into its own servers" using fake log-ins or credentials stolen from legitimate, high profile Oracle customers like Honeywell, Merck & Co., Bear Sterns [SIC], and others.
The trove of ill gotten products allowed SAP "to offer cut rate support services to customers who use Oracle software, and to attempt to lure them to SAP's applications software," Oracle said.
Forgive us for thinking the only difference between software makers and Mafiosi is that most Mafiosi don't write code.
We are surprised the hacks haven't made more of how close a rocket came to the League of Nations' new boss, which pretty well proves its usefulness, in Iraq or elsewhere.
About one-third of the people living in the national's capital are functionally illiterate, compared with about one-fifth nationally, according to a report on the District of Columbia.
TRANSLATION: The illiteracy outside the Capitol cannot match the illiteracy inside.
(Via ArtsJournal)
TRANSLATION: The illiteracy outside the Capitol cannot match the illiteracy inside.
(Via ArtsJournal)
More proof most TV viewers use their sets as night lights anyway:
Total time: 30 minutes.
Total commercial time: 15 minutes.
Total judges' time: 2 seconds.
Total Idolette time: 5 minutes.
Total "mentor" singing time: 6 minutes.
You tell me -- is this a "show"?
No -- but it's a helluva good marketing vehicle.
Speaking of marketing, Sharp is wasting "hundreds of millions" financing SeligSigns™ behind home plate, which will not stop the public from buying cheaper HDTVs.
Total time: 30 minutes.
Total commercial time: 15 minutes.
Total judges' time: 2 seconds.
Total Idolette time: 5 minutes.
Total "mentor" singing time: 6 minutes.
You tell me -- is this a "show"?
No -- but it's a helluva good marketing vehicle.
Speaking of marketing, Sharp is wasting "hundreds of millions" financing SeligSigns™ behind home plate, which will not stop the public from buying cheaper HDTVs.
Brent, having shot himself in the foot with an incomplete survey, fires back by blasting the ludicrousness of V-chip ratings. The only thing is he did it before the American Society of Willfully Ignorant Advertisers, which wasn't listening.
The battle continues.
The battle continues.
There has been much Tarzanian chest thumping over LALA's decision to choose a Hollywood producer as an honorary opinion editor. We have not followed this figuring this is more onanism from a biz that can only pile it on. If these cretins who are seeing their circulation frigate leaking from all directions are so concerned about conflicts of interest why do they put out non-stop PR as show-biz coverage? This is the sort of conflict of interest that should get editors mad: instead, they self-righteously scream, and fool no one with their pretend anguish as the vessel takes on more water.
More to the point, what disqualifies a Hollywood producer from being an opinion editor so long as the paper puts him on a leash and clears him of any conflict of interest? We've seen worse from "professionals."
More to the point, what disqualifies a Hollywood producer from being an opinion editor so long as the paper puts him on a leash and clears him of any conflict of interest? We've seen worse from "professionals."
ESPNCorp Network comes up with a brilliant idea: it's "thinking" of turning ads into "pop-ups." If networks want to do this why not just put all the shows on the Web, where we can hover a cursor over them, and voila! Instant ad! This lamebrained stunt, like the GOODTHINGS Frankenstein research, misses the point, as usual: the public does NOT want advertising, and it's devising means of avoiding it much faster than BIGMEDIA can make commercials palatable.
Whatever we have said about Sen. Edwards -- the man or his politics -- we salute his continuing to campaign. The fact that he can continue shows some grit, and whatever a man's politics, some grit is a good thing.
In another IWantMedia link:
FCC Member Wants More Fruits, Vegetables on TV
We are sorely tempted to say something, but we think it best not to.
FCC Member Wants More Fruits, Vegetables on TV
We are sorely tempted to say something, but we think it best not to.
Sen. Edwards may end his campaign because his wife has suffered a bad cancer setback, so what does a proud NRO blogger do? He bloviates!
UPDATE: Pardon my cynicism, but if big news days are the days to release bad news that you want swept under the rug, then is this the perfect day for a particular North Carolina district attorney announce what [a certain highly inaccurate, formerly-spyware-spreading multi-millionaire headline pusher] is saying?
REPORT!!!!!: ALL CHARGES MAY BE DROPPED AS EARLY AS TOMORROW IN DUKE LACROSSE RAPE CASE, FOXNEWS REPORTS!!!!!!!!!! 'WE WILL BE HEARING A DISMISSAL IN THE COMING DAYS'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....
Would this very embarrassing news end up at the bottom of the front page in North Carolina papers tomorrow, instead of above the fold? [WALTER WINCHELL!!!!!!!!!! overemphasis added and link removed]
NO WE DON'T PARDON YOUR CYNICISM.
UPDATE: Pardon my cynicism, but if big news days are the days to release bad news that you want swept under the rug, then is this the perfect day for a particular North Carolina district attorney announce what [a certain highly inaccurate, formerly-spyware-spreading multi-millionaire headline pusher] is saying?
REPORT!!!!!: ALL CHARGES MAY BE DROPPED AS EARLY AS TOMORROW IN DUKE LACROSSE RAPE CASE, FOXNEWS REPORTS!!!!!!!!!! 'WE WILL BE HEARING A DISMISSAL IN THE COMING DAYS'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....
Would this very embarrassing news end up at the bottom of the front page in North Carolina papers tomorrow, instead of above the fold? [WALTER WINCHELL!!!!!!!!!! overemphasis added and link removed]
NO WE DON'T PARDON YOUR CYNICISM.
Elsewhere in the world of throwing our money down the toilet, GOODTHINGS and SLIME are starting another YOUTUBE, and the Dalai Lamas of Mountain View shoot back by calling the venture "Clown Co."
Hey clowns, when you spend $1.6 billion for $15 million in ad revenues the joke's pretty much on YOU. (Just don't anyone tell the credulous shareholders.)
(Also via IWantMedia)
Hey clowns, when you spend $1.6 billion for $15 million in ad revenues the joke's pretty much on YOU. (Just don't anyone tell the credulous shareholders.)
(Also via IWantMedia)
GOODTHINGS ENTERTAINMENT SIX SIGMAS TV COMMERCIALS ON TIVO! Its crack Dr. Frankensteins use "neurophyisiology" to "examin[e] brain waves, galvanic skin response and eye movement of TV viewers" watching fast-forwarded ads!
LITTLE JEFFY, WHY DON'T YOU JUST SPIN OFF THE DAMNED THING?!?!?
I needed a laugh after that last post.
(Via IWantMedia)
Our favorite PR man Rog has a heartbreaking story on the singer Phoebe Snow's profoundly disabled daughter, who died this week at 31. I will do no more than link to it; it speaks for itself. (Picture from phoebesnow.com)
We've been hearing it for years. Decades. D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people.
Okay -- now it's prettier ugly people.
Okay -- now it's prettier ugly people.
A brilliant use for BlackBerry -- Monopoly and Tetris!
What hath God -- oh, never mind.
I wonder -- how much time do games take up on cell phones and pocket organizers?
What hath God -- oh, never mind.
I wonder -- how much time do games take up on cell phones and pocket organizers?
Bertelsmann posts record profits
Music sales boost conglom
Bay City Rollers sue Arista
Band claims royalties for last 25 years
These things wouldn't be related, would they? Naaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Music sales boost conglom
Bay City Rollers sue Arista
Band claims royalties for last 25 years
These things wouldn't be related, would they? Naaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Wonderful:
U.K. School Kids Strap on Stab-Proof Vests as Knife Crime Soars
Those who think good parenting will cure society's ills have to realize some problems are beyond parenting.
U.K. School Kids Strap on Stab-Proof Vests as Knife Crime Soars
Those who think good parenting will cure society's ills have to realize some problems are beyond parenting.
There is mourning in the world of jernalism: Our long-time StinkyInky TV columnist has been forced to stop writing her insidey stuff.
Asked if it was unwise to chip away at yet another area in which the Inqwaster [cutely self-deprecating SIC] had national standing, Clark said the paper's goal is to "serve our readers, not to make Romenesko," a popular journalism blog found on Poynter.org.
Realizing that StinkyInky Publishing Co. is out to make two aggressively dumb papers, there is worse advice.
Asked if it was unwise to chip away at yet another area in which the Inqwaster [cutely self-deprecating SIC] had national standing, Clark said the paper's goal is to "serve our readers, not to make Romenesko," a popular journalism blog found on Poynter.org.
Realizing that StinkyInky Publishing Co. is out to make two aggressively dumb papers, there is worse advice.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
This is peachy:
Data stolen from TJX -- the parent company of T.J. Maxx and other retailers -- has surfaced in the Sunshine State, where it's been used to help thieves steal about $8 million in merchandise from Wal-Mart stores. The thieves used the stolen TJX customer data to create dummy credit cards for purchasing Wal-Mart and Sam's Club gift cards, and then used those to hit stores in 50 of the Florida's 67 counties.
I understand why some people won't order on the Web; you never know where your credit card will show up. That a big company had sensitive data stolen so easily like this is inexcusable -- and a little scary.
(See also here)
Data stolen from TJX -- the parent company of T.J. Maxx and other retailers -- has surfaced in the Sunshine State, where it's been used to help thieves steal about $8 million in merchandise from Wal-Mart stores. The thieves used the stolen TJX customer data to create dummy credit cards for purchasing Wal-Mart and Sam's Club gift cards, and then used those to hit stores in 50 of the Florida's 67 counties.
I understand why some people won't order on the Web; you never know where your credit card will show up. That a big company had sensitive data stolen so easily like this is inexcusable -- and a little scary.
(See also here)
Jernalism perfesser Shafer on -- "editors writing badly":
I take as an article of faith that every workaday journalist who blossoms into the supreme editor of a publication demonstrates at some point an ability to write effectively—if not artfully. Unless they can write, how can they judge and edit their staff's copy?
And some would-be jernalism profs can't write either. We're sure Jack whizzed by the disagreement of "every" and "they." If he wanted to be non-sexist and not a dimbulb he could have written, "...all workaday reporters who blossom into supreme news editors demonstrate...." (We've replaced "journalists" as it has a "sanitation-engineer" reek.) Yes, this is just one klumpy piece of verbiage. But one such here and one such there and klumpy verbiage here and there and you're talking a sea of verbal molasses that makes people fume over reading news hacks even more than mere errors or omissions.
That this occurs in a piece about editing is a typical news-hack joke.
I take as an article of faith that every workaday journalist who blossoms into the supreme editor of a publication demonstrates at some point an ability to write effectively—if not artfully. Unless they can write, how can they judge and edit their staff's copy?
And some would-be jernalism profs can't write either. We're sure Jack whizzed by the disagreement of "every" and "they." If he wanted to be non-sexist and not a dimbulb he could have written, "...all workaday reporters who blossom into supreme news editors demonstrate...." (We've replaced "journalists" as it has a "sanitation-engineer" reek.) Yes, this is just one klumpy piece of verbiage. But one such here and one such there and klumpy verbiage here and there and you're talking a sea of verbal molasses that makes people fume over reading news hacks even more than mere errors or omissions.
That this occurs in a piece about editing is a typical news-hack joke.
Speaking of presidential campaigns, Duncan Who? is giving up his House seat, but does intend to pass it on to his son.
Don't you love hereditary Congresspoops?
Don't you love hereditary Congresspoops?
Today President EarthSaver launched his presidential campaign without doing so, and King Richard of People Warner launched his mayoral campaign likewise.
Don't you hate when these overambitious pols play coy?
Don't you hate when these overambitious pols play coy?
Oops: people have the audacity to complain about the USAOKAY.com's NEW! IMPROVED!! site -- and somebody lets a certain Web and BS "evangelist" have it -- though not by name:
If some users of Web sites like Netscape and USA Today don't care for some of the newfangled ideas, it might be because their demographics skew toward the 40-somethings and 50-somethings who are dazed and confused by the emerging Web world. It's also possible that the corner of the tech world that shills for each Web fad de jour is an echo chamber of folks more captivated by technology than the rest of the world.
Hint hint?
(Via IWantMedia)
If some users of Web sites like Netscape and USA Today don't care for some of the newfangled ideas, it might be because their demographics skew toward the 40-somethings and 50-somethings who are dazed and confused by the emerging Web world. It's also possible that the corner of the tech world that shills for each Web fad de jour is an echo chamber of folks more captivated by technology than the rest of the world.
Hint hint?
(Via IWantMedia)
Figures: the creators of the Lonelygirl15 shtick have signed an advertising deal with Hershey.
In other Internet BS, Howard "CW" Fineman says the uncontrolled viral YouTube Web blahblahblah will decide our next president. So why do I think it's still going to be news-hack bias and "polls" -- and megapundits like Howard "CW" Fineman?
In other Internet BS, Howard "CW" Fineman says the uncontrolled viral YouTube Web blahblahblah will decide our next president. So why do I think it's still going to be news-hack bias and "polls" -- and megapundits like Howard "CW" Fineman?
Evidently (as I predicted) AH-nult and PILLHEAD have agreed not to call each other irrelevant and a sell-out, respectively.
Now they can compete to be asses in other endeavors, and will succeed swimmingly.
Now they can compete to be asses in other endeavors, and will succeed swimmingly.
Well lookie here: Guess who may face criminal charges for doctoring his company's books? Our favorite budgetary truth-teller, David Stockman!
Stockman and Heartland Industrial Partners, the Greenwich, Conn., private-investment fund he co-founded to invest in the auto industry in 1999, lost hundreds of millions of dollars when Collins & Aikman plummeted into bankruptcy protection.
I guess that's one means of bringing your government expertise to bear.
(Via Freep.com)
Stockman and Heartland Industrial Partners, the Greenwich, Conn., private-investment fund he co-founded to invest in the auto industry in 1999, lost hundreds of millions of dollars when Collins & Aikman plummeted into bankruptcy protection.
I guess that's one means of bringing your government expertise to bear.
(Via Freep.com)
We're almost starting to feel sorry for these newspaper companies; they finally realize the mess they're in. But we harbor no illusions; all their mammoth blatherskite has to go someplace, and we have no doubt people like SUPERDUPERMEGAGIGABLOGGERS are picking up the slack big-time (which may explain why their audiences are down).
The massive national pet-food recall stemming from deaths of at least 10 pets is also letting consumers in on one of the industry's well-guarded secrets -- that some of most premium pet-food brands in the U.S. use the same manufacturer that processes dozens of low-price private-label products.
You don't say!
You don't say!
The network that pioneered the financial funnies is going to do a cartoon?!?
When they have Jim "ILLEGAL BOOM-BOOM" Cramer?!?!?
When they have Jim "ILLEGAL BOOM-BOOM" Cramer?!?!?
GREAT news for con-SER-va-tives: Dennis Miller's starting a radio talk show!
You wonder why it took so long; he's a -- natural for it.
You wonder why it took so long; he's a -- natural for it.
The more officials are "outraged" over negotiations with terrorists the more likely they are to countenance them.
On this topic we can definitively not expect one word of truth from our superiors.
On this topic we can definitively not expect one word of truth from our superiors.
"I really resent this," the lawmaker said. "Rahm Emanuel told us a vote against this bill is a vote to give the Republicans victory."
Republicans need no help when Democrats start arguing.
Republicans need no help when Democrats start arguing.
The Wizard of Angry Money says the Democratic party must distance itself from the Israel lobby -- and Democrats respond in a manner suggesting their courage is a function of political donations.
What have the Dems been doing these last few years? Of course many of them can't stand Israel. When will they have the spine to proclaim their spinelessness?
What have the Dems been doing these last few years? Of course many of them can't stand Israel. When will they have the spine to proclaim their spinelessness?
AH-nult calls PILLHEAD "irrelevant" -- and PILLHEAD shoots back saying AH-nult "SOLD US OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Here we have two kinds of pompous asses: the pompous ass who plays to his audience (media) in the guise of "governing" and the pompous ass who plays to his audience (con-SER-va-tives) in the guise of "telling the truth." It would be nice if once in a while they kept their asses shut. [Pardon my French.]
Judging from Ms. Travers (and her sidekick WALTER WINCHELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] PILLHEAD's trying to effect a reconciliation -- for the good of the party.
Here we have two kinds of pompous asses: the pompous ass who plays to his audience (media) in the guise of "governing" and the pompous ass who plays to his audience (con-SER-va-tives) in the guise of "telling the truth." It would be nice if once in a while they kept their asses shut. [Pardon my French.]
Judging from Ms. Travers (and her sidekick WALTER WINCHELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] PILLHEAD's trying to effect a reconciliation -- for the good of the party.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Mickey D's is about to try to expunge dictionaries of "McJob."
There is nothing wrong with working for the Mick; but building thousands and putting so many of them in lower-grade neighborhoods (plus neglecting the food and the -- "atmosphere" for so long) allowed the notion of a bad job to sink in because the Mick was a bad place to work. And the chain hardly pays medical-industry wages. "McJob" will stick because it so pungently describes the too many menial jobs in our "service" economy.
There is nothing wrong with working for the Mick; but building thousands and putting so many of them in lower-grade neighborhoods (plus neglecting the food and the -- "atmosphere" for so long) allowed the notion of a bad job to sink in because the Mick was a bad place to work. And the chain hardly pays medical-industry wages. "McJob" will stick because it so pungently describes the too many menial jobs in our "service" economy.
Like James Frey before him, SNIDELY WHIPLASH is selling his "memoir":
DeLay told The Associated Press on Tuesday that writing the book had been a "cleansing process" and that his co-author, Stephen Mansfield, "really captured me."
1. How much cleanser did you use? 2. Are you sure that's a compliment? 3. Should you have used the word "captured"?
P. S. At least James Frey wrote his.
P. P. S. 274 on Amazon.com. We have a little catching up to do. Anyone for Oprah?
DeLay told The Associated Press on Tuesday that writing the book had been a "cleansing process" and that his co-author, Stephen Mansfield, "really captured me."
1. How much cleanser did you use? 2. Are you sure that's a compliment? 3. Should you have used the word "captured"?
P. S. At least James Frey wrote his.
P. P. S. 274 on Amazon.com. We have a little catching up to do. Anyone for Oprah?
The paper of Robert "Beat Me" Fisk apologizes for something else:
In 1997, when this paper called for decriminalisation, 1,600 people were being treated for cannabis addiction. Today, the number is 22,000.
...[A]lmost half of those affected [are] under 18. With doctors and drugs experts warning that skunk can be as damaging as cocaine and heroin, leading to mental health problems and psychosis for thousands of teenagers, The Independent on Sunday has today reversed its landmark campaign for cannabis use to be decriminalised.
When news hacks support something, we shouldn't count to ten -- we should count to ten million.
(Via, alas, The Corner)
In 1997, when this paper called for decriminalisation, 1,600 people were being treated for cannabis addiction. Today, the number is 22,000.
...[A]lmost half of those affected [are] under 18. With doctors and drugs experts warning that skunk can be as damaging as cocaine and heroin, leading to mental health problems and psychosis for thousands of teenagers, The Independent on Sunday has today reversed its landmark campaign for cannabis use to be decriminalised.
When news hacks support something, we shouldn't count to ten -- we should count to ten million.
(Via, alas, The Corner)
"There have been losses in the past, but they have always been close," said Stanford sports economist Roger Noll, who says California is the leading edge of a growing national antipathy to taxpayer financed stadiums. "Maybe California has gone from 55 percent against to 80 against, while the rest of the country has gone from 40 against to 60 against. But it's still against."
There's a lead the rest of us should follow.
There's a lead the rest of us should follow.
The NBA fined Charlotte Bobcats part-owner Michael Jordan $15,000 for discussing Texas freshman Kevin Durant during an interview last week....
A Bobcats spokesman Tuesday confirmed the fine, which is at least the second in a week for an NBA team involving Durant, the 6-foot-10 forward who is expected to be the first or second overall pick if he declares for the draft.
The Boston Celtics were fined $30,000 after general manager Danny Ainge sat next to Durant's mother during the Big 12 tournament.
This kid's hot!
A Bobcats spokesman Tuesday confirmed the fine, which is at least the second in a week for an NBA team involving Durant, the 6-foot-10 forward who is expected to be the first or second overall pick if he declares for the draft.
The Boston Celtics were fined $30,000 after general manager Danny Ainge sat next to Durant's mother during the Big 12 tournament.
This kid's hot!
Putin also ordered a commission be set up to find the reasons for the three tragedies.
I think we can find some reasons: Russia's falling apart, life is cheap there, no one assumes responsibility, and Belly Kisser thinks he can fix it all with daydreams of superpowerdom.
I think we can find some reasons: Russia's falling apart, life is cheap there, no one assumes responsibility, and Belly Kisser thinks he can fix it all with daydreams of superpowerdom.
And in other great achievements of big business:
Cost-cutting, lax oversight blamed for deadly BP blast
Cost-cutting, lax oversight blamed for deadly BP blast
1. This publicity stunt was intentional; 2. THE CONSPIRACY'S mock OUTRAGE was intentional; 3. No one would dare ask why what's acceptable in movie houses is unacceptable on billboards and taxis.
After Dark said the posting of the billboards was an accident. CEO Courtney Solomon said the wrong files were sent to the printer, who then passed them on to the billboard company without approval from any executives at After Dark.
TRANSLATION: The dog ate my homework!
(Via ShowBizData)
After Dark said the posting of the billboards was an accident. CEO Courtney Solomon said the wrong files were sent to the printer, who then passed them on to the billboard company without approval from any executives at After Dark.
TRANSLATION: The dog ate my homework!
(Via ShowBizData)
And the answer to MS. NANCY is:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., described as "maybe the most dangerous leader in the long campaign by anti-Catholics within the Church who mislead Americans," has advanced "the culture of death," a former congressman charged.
Former U.S. Rep. Robert Dornan....
Can't these California Congresspoops retire peacefully, like Duke Cunningham?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., described as "maybe the most dangerous leader in the long campaign by anti-Catholics within the Church who mislead Americans," has advanced "the culture of death," a former congressman charged.
Former U.S. Rep. Robert Dornan....
Can't these California Congresspoops retire peacefully, like Duke Cunningham?
MARKETERS NEED to "get real" and acknowledge that marketing isn't merely advertising and communication: It's about "building a relationship with consumers," according to Jason McDonell, director of marketing for Frito-Lay's Doritos brand.
DAMMIT you're only selling corn chips!
Yes, when we hear "marketers" talking getting real and relationships they're more honed in to schmoozing in Hollywood than ever.
DAMMIT you're only selling corn chips!
Yes, when we hear "marketers" talking getting real and relationships they're more honed in to schmoozing in Hollywood than ever.
There is a simple solution to D. C.'s lack of voting rights: have the government cede all residential areas in the District back to the state of Maryland, and limit the District to Federal facilities. (Congress ceded part of the district back to Virginia before the Civil War.) Of course I'm sure the Marylanders will love having responsibility for the Crime Capitol of the World, not to mention the citizens would now live in Washington, MD -- but at least they'd stop yapping about non-representation.
PRESIDENT BUSH CALLS EMBATTLED ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES TO REAFFIRM HIS SUPPORT IN THE FACE OF CALLS FOR HIS RESIGNATION [ESPNCORPNetworkNews.com "breaking-news" SIC]
Ciphers will hang together!
Ciphers will hang together!
I wonder if Jo-NAH calling the alleged "Reaganite" Sen. Law-and-Order "more of a Howard Baker type" is his way of trying to call off his kennel.
The Mogul's Friend, who has surely spent as much time in the mansions of the industry's bigwigs as anyone, now sides with -- the PEE-PUL!
We note some editor didn't put the word "idiots" in quotation marks in the subhed. That says it all.
We note some editor didn't put the word "idiots" in quotation marks in the subhed. That says it all.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Warhol's $250 `Marilyn' for Sale at $15 Million at Christie's
Get out the cookie jars!
``Prices for Warhol and others are reaching the point of absurdity,'' said U.S. private dealer Richard Polsky. ``I would be a seller right now -- especially if I had a blue-chip work.''
Absurdity is the art market's middle name.
Get out the cookie jars!
``Prices for Warhol and others are reaching the point of absurdity,'' said U.S. private dealer Richard Polsky. ``I would be a seller right now -- especially if I had a blue-chip work.''
Absurdity is the art market's middle name.
Lunkheaded Promotion of the Month:
A campaign to promote a push-button ignition system on the 2007 Nissan Altima sedan is to begin this week and continue through March 30. For the promotion, 20,000 key rings will be deliberately “lost” in bars, concert halls, sports arenas and other public places in seven large markets.
Each key ring will have three keys, all real, and two tags. The biggest key resembles a car key and the other two look as if they could fit the locks on house or office doors.
One tag declares, “If found, please do not return,” because the Altima “has Intelligent Key with push-button ignition, and I no longer need these,” a reference to the technology that allows an Altima owner to start the car by pressing a button on the dash rather than inserting a key.
So if we don't need keys, who needs key rings?
(Via Media Buyer Planner)
A campaign to promote a push-button ignition system on the 2007 Nissan Altima sedan is to begin this week and continue through March 30. For the promotion, 20,000 key rings will be deliberately “lost” in bars, concert halls, sports arenas and other public places in seven large markets.
Each key ring will have three keys, all real, and two tags. The biggest key resembles a car key and the other two look as if they could fit the locks on house or office doors.
One tag declares, “If found, please do not return,” because the Altima “has Intelligent Key with push-button ignition, and I no longer need these,” a reference to the technology that allows an Altima owner to start the car by pressing a button on the dash rather than inserting a key.
So if we don't need keys, who needs key rings?
(Via Media Buyer Planner)
According to Senate Judiciary sources, committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy has asked his Democratic attorneys....
Stop the presses! STOP THE PRESSES! The PROWLER said "DEMOCRATIC"!!!!!!!!!!
They'll drum you out of the movement for that!
Stop the presses! STOP THE PRESSES! The PROWLER said "DEMOCRATIC"!!!!!!!!!!
They'll drum you out of the movement for that!
Gonzales [Rich Lowry]
Smart insiders are thinking he's out, perhaps by the end of the week. For what it's worth...
03/19 03:47 PM
Who says insiders are smart?
Smart insiders are thinking he's out, perhaps by the end of the week. For what it's worth...
03/19 03:47 PM
Who says insiders are smart?
Now Georgia wants to apologize for slavery.
Leavign aside that the time for action was 142 years ago, we ask: when reparations?
Leavign aside that the time for action was 142 years ago, we ask: when reparations?
Which last post may explain the subhed to this MESS story:
Why is the mind wired to wander every chance it gets?
Why is the mind wired to wander every chance it gets?
Take that, Sen. Ossified Kleagle: Arlen O'Specter runs again!
"There are a lot of important things to be done and finally after being here to acquire some seniority, I'm in a position to do that," said Specter, 77. "I'm full of energy and my wife doesn't want me home for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Neither do we, which is probably why we'll elect you for your @#$%&* sixth term.
"There are a lot of important things to be done and finally after being here to acquire some seniority, I'm in a position to do that," said Specter, 77. "I'm full of energy and my wife doesn't want me home for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Neither do we, which is probably why we'll elect you for your @#$%&* sixth term.
Planner of USS Cole bombing confesses
TRANSLATION: The usual gang of idiots will spend inordinate time pondering our government's motives in releasing such confessions while paying no mind to the confessors.
TRANSLATION: The usual gang of idiots will spend inordinate time pondering our government's motives in releasing such confessions while paying no mind to the confessors.
Just what I need, Terry: to buy another album I listen to once. Okay, this act with the cute name (and the cute album cover) may be all right, but for what CDs cost I want something a little more than cute and all right. I've bought enough CDs I've listened to once. So they do "a forty-minute-long multi-movement work for voice and bluegrass quintet that is through-composed" -- please! Plus you plant these guys in the same graf as three favorites of the tiny musical-theater cult, whose cast albums sell in the hundreds. (Can you believe Hello, Dolly! sold 80,000 units -- in its first week?) The republic swarms with regiments of musicians just above the level of anonymity: "accomplished" jazzers and "accomplished" rockers and "accomplished" bluegrassers and what not, all very good for what they do -- and because they all have high technical competence and low inspiration they'll stay there. They generally crib quite freely off one another and rely on their friends and their tiny fan details for support, which doesn't help. I do not like it that our culture seems to be devolving into these limitless glorified high-school cliques centered around glorified no-names. I want something good, and I want something I can remember. Maybe these guys are good, and maybe some other act you could pull from a hat would be just as good. But I've had it with this vast sea of gray -- I want some colors.
Obviously Mr. Wittes has never heard of Don Quixote or "tilting at windmills", but at least he's honest: let's ditch the Second Amendment and stop all these right-wing -- er, criminals from owning guns!
Now we've said this before; we don't like the NRA either, especially its constant obstructionism. But of course Benjamin isn't serious, which places a big fat doughnut hole in the middle of his showy non-argument.
Now we've said this before; we don't like the NRA either, especially its constant obstructionism. But of course Benjamin isn't serious, which places a big fat doughnut hole in the middle of his showy non-argument.
Here the craven Spaniards say, "Please, please, don't attack us! We're good guys!" and install SUPERCHICKEN to seal the deal, so what happens? The holy cockroaches target Spain anyway!
We would say serves 'em right, but in this case it would be serves 'em left.
We would say serves 'em right, but in this case it would be serves 'em left.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Why we do not trust news hacks, reason no. 72,458:
Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, nearly 9 of 10 Iraqis say they live in fear that the violence ravaging their country will strike themselves and the people with whom they live.
MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today.
Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, nearly 9 of 10 Iraqis say they live in fear that the violence ravaging their country will strike themselves and the people with whom they live.
MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today.
Lately Mark Steyn's been veering off frequently into glibness, but then he writes an article like this, honoring one of history's true heroes, William Wilberforce, and he regains his old poise again.
(Link via -- oh well -- NRO)
(Link via -- oh well -- NRO)
OH oh, that Paramount exec's drumming his fingers:
"Ghost Rider" didn"t register a single positive review on Variety"s [SIC] Crix Picks chart ("Cheesy Rider" headlined the review in the New York Post) but the movie has passed $156 million worldwide. "Night at the Museum" inspired Stephen Holden of the New York Times to this lumpy metaphor: "The movie is an overstuffed grab bag in which lumps of coal are glued together with melted candy."
There"s [SIC] always a degree of culture shock when movies this inept produce numbers this ecstatic. Several glib explanations suggest themselves.
From a marketing standpoint, we are reminded that February and March are oddly underrated by the studios. Every "tentpole" movie seemingly has to be released within the eight week May-June corridor of self-destruction. Yet clearly a lot of filmgoers would like to be entertained in the post-Oscar period as well, and they deserve better than they are getting.
When news orgs quote the NEW! IMPROVED!! PAUL DRECK!!!!! as saying this is a SUPERMEGAPLATINUM AGE for movies, and the hacks bow down on one knee yelling AAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!!!!!, who says so?
"Ghost Rider" didn"t register a single positive review on Variety"s [SIC] Crix Picks chart ("Cheesy Rider" headlined the review in the New York Post) but the movie has passed $156 million worldwide. "Night at the Museum" inspired Stephen Holden of the New York Times to this lumpy metaphor: "The movie is an overstuffed grab bag in which lumps of coal are glued together with melted candy."
There"s [SIC] always a degree of culture shock when movies this inept produce numbers this ecstatic. Several glib explanations suggest themselves.
From a marketing standpoint, we are reminded that February and March are oddly underrated by the studios. Every "tentpole" movie seemingly has to be released within the eight week May-June corridor of self-destruction. Yet clearly a lot of filmgoers would like to be entertained in the post-Oscar period as well, and they deserve better than they are getting.
When news orgs quote the NEW! IMPROVED!! PAUL DRECK!!!!! as saying this is a SUPERMEGAPLATINUM AGE for movies, and the hacks bow down on one knee yelling AAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!!!!!, who says so?
The airline biz is said to be "institutionalizing the apology."
Didn't America do that some time ago?
Apologizing is not particularly costly for airlines.
TRANSLATION: Some people are shut up easily.
Didn't America do that some time ago?
Apologizing is not particularly costly for airlines.
TRANSLATION: Some people are shut up easily.
We'll willingly concede, for once, that the governor of Massachusetts is getting the kind of treatment he'd receive were he a Republican. That said we wonder if there isn't a piling on here. Is it realistic to expect someone like this to run perfectly out of the box? Perhaps if "expectations" are high it's because news hacks helped raise them, as usual.