Posted 2:00 PM by Gene

Under the recently deceased Jack Valenti -- a past master of media manipulation and a golden-tongued filibusterer of the first order -- the MPAA was always a lobbying arm meant to protect the studios' interests at all costs: the NRA with sprocket holes.

That included creating and defending a ratings system that gives as little hard information as possible while purporting to be a parent's best friend.

The obsequious first rough draft of history is slowly disintegrating.

Posted 9:40 AM by Gene

"[I]f you have any recollection at all, I had been in the papers all year."

"Who elected you the PC police chief? Who elected you to anything?"

Advantage: TUI's producer. (Talking Under the Influence, that is.)

Posted 9:38 AM by Gene

FBI wary of relying on amateurs [Home-page hed]

NO COMMENT.

Posted 9:31 AM by Gene

See, when everybody in the press says Harry Truman was a "hero", that starts you believing Harry Truman wasn't a hero, because news hacks don't have heroes, except for people who are villains.

Occasionally, though, the stopped clock can be right.

Posted 9:23 AM by Gene

Does anyone expect people who wear gold chains for a living to do the right thing? The turnips who have stopped buying CDs recognize it.

A professor of mu-sic must add:

“They’re scared to death that the market for this is going to be hurt,” Gorder said. “The outcry could have an effect on sales. If it raises consciousness among people who have historically bought this music and thought it was OK, well, that’s lost sales. Executives’ bonuses are tied to sales and they don’t want to destroy this market.”

And which way is the market going now?

P. S. A complete, accurate and factual award to the MESS for the following photo caption on the story's first page:

Edgar Bronfman Jr., vice-chairman of Vivendi Universal leaves [SIC] the company headquarters in Paris....

Yes, I do believe he did.

Posted 10:27 PM by Gene

I don't know what to think of Rudy's profile in courage. If he can get people away from the small-minded partisanship that is today's politics, perhaps it will be useful. If it reminds people that abortion is as much a place for opportunism as any topic, and perhaps brings about a change and a meeting of the minds of both sides, perhaps it will be further useful. Alas, Pinch seems to like it, with bodes us no good, and many hacks are dismissing this as campaign strategy, and it seems people aren't budging from their spots on the ground, their feet firmly anchored in cement.

Posted 10:26 PM by Gene

Is there something vaguely obtuse with the wording of this hed?

Haiti Immigrants Angry With Boat Sinking

Posted 5:30 PM by Gene

How many people are killed by reckless drivers? How many of them CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGED the WORRRRRRRRRRRRRLD like David Halberstam?

Greg, will you SHUT UP?

Posted 5:22 PM by Gene

$35 million?

Posted 5:17 PM by Gene

How could anyone ever ever ever doubt lots of TV is bad for the young -- except unpaid sycophants like B. S. DEFENDER?

Posted 5:12 PM by Gene

With the comedies, everyone seemed to come forewarned: "It looks pretty funny," Simona Zappas, 14, said of the trailer for "Knocked Up." "But it could have all the good jokes in the trailer."...

Nobody minced words, especially when it came to bad dialogue masquerading as good taglines. After watching the "Fantastic Four" trailer, Adam Voron, 14, grumbled: "If that catchphrase 'I just bought this tux' is supposed to be cool, they're really in trouble."

Most likely the teenagers The Mogul's Friend interviewed have more insight than The Mogul's Friend.

Posted 5:10 PM by Gene

When the takeover boom ends most likely we won't know -- and we will at the same time.

Posted 5:06 PM by Gene

They could have used Magic Marker.

Next stop: a calendar?

(Via USAOKAY.com's On Deadline)

Posted 1:03 PM by Gene

Murdoch's Bid Places Google-Like Value on Dow Jones

In defense of SLIME, at least he's overpaying for an ASSET.

Posted 10:26 AM by Gene

Brown, Aiming to Succeed Blair as U.K. Leader, Promises Humbler Government

That shouldn't be too difficult.

Posted 10:12 AM by Gene

OOPS: A couple of jerks "crossed the line" -- on SATRADIO?

Stick a fork in it, the merger's done.

Posted 9:48 AM by Gene

Even if Murdoch offered $1 million per share, there's no precedent for compelling the Bancroft family to sell their shares [Subhed]

SLIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 8:43 AM by Gene

We laugh at "the Streisand effect" but somehow the controversy over Digg.com is not that funny. There is more than a hint of anarchy here. Now it's a mere code to hack HD-DVDs. Who knows what it could be down the line? This is all about blackmail. For now, we laugh.

Posted 8:32 AM by Gene

Surprise: the Dalai Lamas of Mountain View decide to be evil.

Because of the voting power of Google's executives, the proposal's defeat was a foregone conclusion. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin control 66 percent of the votes.

We hope some time in the future these clowns have a PINCH moment.

Posted 6:41 PM by Gene

A neat way of generating some bad publicity for THE WORLD'S LEADING PRODUCER OF FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT: finding out if a certain target-practicer in Virginia bought one of these.

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO CARLY!

Posted 6:07 PM by Gene

Goody! Lenders manipulated credit scores to get deadbeats to buy houses.

Dow 36,000, Jim?

Posted 5:50 PM by Gene

Place your right hand over your heart and repeat after me:

I pledge allegiance
To the plan
Of the United State of Pinch
And to the banana republic for which He stands,
One autocracy,
Under Pinch,
Incorrigible,
With tyranny and injustice for --
Everyone but Pinch.

Posted 5:42 PM by Gene

Perfect timing:

There's a whole cottage industry of apocalyptic financial 'journalism'. Jerry Bowyer on Dow 13,300: the losers. [Home-page subhed]

Back in 1999 there was a whole cottage industry of DOW 100,000!!!!! jernalism. Jim Glassman helped build the cottage. It crumpled like the pigs' house of straw. Never mind, he'll always find a better straw.

Posted 5:39 PM by Gene

We like the Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang of the Congress too. But anger may lose effectiveness when (as many Beltway types do) people can view it as a mere character trait. And it isn't clear that Bang's indiscriminate venting gets things done. Well, it hasn't hurt his permanent reelection.

Posted 5:24 PM by Gene

Speaking of TENTPOLES, looks like Spidey may now do $40 million. Yeah yeah yeah, the PAUL DRECKS will eruct, $200 MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But they eructed over DVC too as it waned. This may not bode well for this RECORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! summer. If people can run out screaming from one EVENT, they can run out screaming from OTHERS. This is reverse Pavlovism.

Some will say show-biz has always been about events. True -- it's been that way since before Quo Vadis? But at least the biz gave something for people to remember; it wasn't a mere excuse for a mass night out, urged upon them by hundreds of thousands of publicists. If every other mass medium can decline so can the movies -- and now it has the reason that it can CLONE the same overproduced movie hundreds of times. The face may change, but the FAKE remains the same.

Posted 5:23 PM by Gene

A memorial as meaningful as yellow ribbons, leading to the fantasyland of "healing."

Posted 5:19 PM by Gene

Which has more smoke -- cigarettes...or the new abracadabra Sammy Glickman's about to add to his ALPHABET SOUP?

Posted 5:18 PM by Gene

Finally! The MASSACRE RALLY comes to a halt.

Remember it if Wall Street treats us to a depression.

Posted 5:16 PM by Gene

"There will only be two kinds of television in the future: event television and on-demand television," says David B. Wertheimer, former Paramount Pictures digital entertainment chief and now executive director of USC's Entertainment Technology Center.

TRANSLATION: TV is becoming as irrelevant as the movies -- and in almost the exact same way.

Posted 10:50 AM by Gene

By constructing a movie marketplace in which there's such a clear distinction between event product and everything else, Hollywood risks turning moviegoing into an event activity. The danger is that the public buys into the concept of seeing event movies to the point where people don't want to see anything but event movies. Since the industry isn't going to produce enough event movies to release 52 weeks a year -- mostly because that level of competition would probably result in megabudget boxoffice casualties -- Hollywood could wind up with moviegoers only showing up for event films and ignoring the nonevents.

But isn't the point of all these wonderful TENTPOLES to get people into the popcorn restaurants? And what's wrong with a little business Darwinism if it might discourage people from seeing TENTPOLES -- especially when they see that's all your beloved biz makes anymore?

God, you're long-winded, Marty.

Posted 10:30 AM by Gene

OH oh, Treasury's persecuting Michael "Fatso" Moore for taking 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba!

Don't they realize this was a humanitarian gesture? It's demonstrably helped Fidel's health.

Posted 10:18 AM by Gene

Congresspoops find shacking up with BIGMONEY may not be as profitable as it used to be.

Posted 8:40 AM by Gene

More bull from BizWeek:

Apple's Steve Jobs and Google's Eric Schmidt are just two of the CEOs who work for a buck. Why do top executives give up their salaries? [Story subhed]

Because most of them own eighty million shares in their companies or are already vastly wealthy and can afford to make a statement.

Posted 8:31 AM by Gene

Concert-goers, and even Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, were caught off-guard on Wednesday night when a fight broke out on opening night at usually sedate Symphony Hall.

Television video of the fight showed two men struggling in the balcony -- one having his shirt pulled off -- as several people stood around them.

It figures the ASSPressians were too busy typing this to note what the Pops was playing at the time. The 1812 Overture, perhaps?

Posted 8:14 AM by Gene

New York is a bore because it's a sixties rag caught in a time warp. It was one thing to do a city magazine when you had Clay Felker and enough other highly self-regarding types to give it energy; take away the energy and you have what New York now is: a listings book with service features, tired reviewers, and an occasional piece of "reporting" to justify itself. That ADAM!!!!! is the hot new thing of the moment merely says that the people in the rag biz are looking for something to justify theirs, and their usual way is to overrate somebody and call him HIP.

(Via MediaBistro)

Posted 8:04 AM by Gene

Paris Hilton sculpture shows heiress in deadly pose

Thinking?

Posted 8:42 PM by Gene

The Girlfriend Wrestler has given up.

And The Paper of Re-CORD devotes 855 words to this, meaning a lot of media types are very upset that this Fount of Genius got canned, much as they were when JACK prepared for His Second Coming. There is no accounting for these no-tastes.

Of course when we linked to Variety's story the other night we figured the press would do him a favor and hush it up. Wrestling will do this to a man's reputation.

Even TMZ.com admits to it!

Posted 8:38 PM by Gene

Apparently some con-SER-va-tives are a little perturbed because Rudy and his wife gave money to Planned Parenthood. What did they expect from a mayor of Noo Yawk?

Posted 8:11 PM by Gene

A Columbia University professor is in hot water for leaking the contents of a compulsory literature exam to her students, allowing hundreds of Ivy League freshmen to cheat on their final and get away with it, campus sources said yesterday.

The professor - identified by students as Wen Jin - told dozens of students in her Literature Humanities section which passages from the books they'd studied throughout the year would be included in last Friday's exam, members of the class told The Post....

The cheating was discovered when the faculty decided at the last minute to change one of the excerpts - a quotation from Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment."

SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....

(Via -- oh well -- NRO)

Posted 8:06 PM by Gene

Militant 'Mickey Mouse' Pulled Off Air

Did somebody threaten to sue?

Posted 7:22 PM by Gene

One reason the holy cockroaches have a chance of destroying us is that when people make emphatic statements of common sense like this they're treated as pariahs. Buddy, you can start a restaurant in these here parts anytime.

Posted 5:50 PM by Gene

Greater public trust is vital to improving the flow of information about extremists. For the moment, says Mr Clarke, most terrorism-related investigations begin with intelligence gathered from foreign governments, intelligence agencies or electronic eavesdropping. In other words, many Muslims are reluctant to report co-religionists to the police, even if they disagree with their militant views. Unless the code of silence is broken, more bombers will inevitably get through.

TRANSLATION: NO SNITCHIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 5:45 PM by Gene

Whole Foods's stock, like Starbucks's, has seen better days, which raises the question: are people starting to spend less money to be twee?

Posted 5:40 PM by Gene

Why is The World's Oldest Adolescent making such a production out of something by rights he should have done some time ago?

Posted 5:21 PM by Gene

The deputy editorial boss of the Strib retires -- and not a moment too soon for the good of his health:

"They ordained that we would have a conservative of the day. I’ve got to tell you, you run out of good ones real quick," he said. "You’ve got Steve Chapman, whom I really like, who’s a libertarian and a good guy. So you didn’t mind running him, but you kind of held your nose when you ran Mona Charon or Debra Saunders. I mean, good grief. Jonah Goldberg? Finally, we were able to get rid of that bugger. That’s my point: Avista is much less of a micromanaging outfit than McClatchy was."

Keeping in mind Jo-NAH is a first-class damfool, it goes without saying if a writer like Dr. Johnson were a conservative columnist the watching-the-door-on-his-way-out ideological chief of Minnesota's Politburo would no doubt have found an excuse to call him a bugger too. We're sure he's so fond of himself he would NEVER say his immortal editorials had anything to do with all those people being laid off -- or his nice retirement (lucky him), NO; it's the DO-NOT-CALL LAW and Craigslist and department stores merging and bad education and global warming and sunspots and....

We're sorry you couldn't stay on to fight the good fight, then you and your remaining staff wouldn't have had the money for CODPIECES.

(We're sick of linking to Romy -- and how the hell does he find all these PROGRESSIVE sites?)

Posted 5:15 PM by Gene

We're going to do a little amateur math here: extrapolating from Tuesday's figures we'd bet the immortal Spidey will draw about $50 million next weekend. That would be a two-thirds drop. It could be outta here by the time Milk and Apples arrives. Will the what's-good-for-PEOPLE-WARNER crowd that writes all that show-biz PR bull note that? Do pigs...that's such a tired cliché.

Posted 5:07 PM by Gene

Gonzales to House: Focus on crime, not firings

Hey Cipher! Focus on resigning so we can get an AG who can focus on crime and not warming an expensive leather seat.

Posted 5:01 PM by Gene

This we gotta see:

Official says thousands of Palestinian police are deploying in Gaza City in a show of law and order.

What kind of law -- and what kind of order?

Posted 2:54 PM by Gene

Calame: Idea of a Murdoch WSJ "disturbing," "disconcerting"

More so, we suspect, than anything he ever saw in The Paper of Re-CORD.

"Critics have come to think I was soft and a management shill...."

Which we would not have been if YOU-KNOW-WHO owned it.

Posted 12:33 PM by Gene

we've got glasses!

we've got shrek!

we've got apples and milk!

we've got government types and pressure groups looking over our shoulders!

(all sic; we figure if mickey d doesn't like caps neither do we)

Posted 11:09 AM by Gene

Sure, Wall Street Journal reporters aren’t donning black armbands and streaming out of 200 Liberty Street in lockstep (and that’s not a joke—they’ve done stuff like that before!)....

WE BELIEVE IT.

And if one wanted to know whether or not SLIME's takeover has been approved all one has to do is see WHICH Journals hacks are wearing the armbands.

(Via MediaBistro)

Posted 10:57 AM by Gene

Cheating scandal snares nearly half of IU dental class

I don't want them drilling my teeth!

But then this is the same skool that employed BOBBY KNIGHT!!!!!!!!!! and likened the No-SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN ZONE to "Father" Coughlin, so there must be some truth-free zones there.

(Via Inside Higher Ed)

Posted 10:53 AM by Gene

The Man Who Created the GREATEST TELEVISION SERIES of ALL TIME and RENEWED PROFESSIONAL BOXING was involved in some sport before -- closer perhaps to wrestling.

Ah, the heroes of news hacks!

(Via IWantMedia)

Posted 10:18 AM by Gene

Is it me or does Jo-NAH look more and more like Bluto every day?

Posted 10:09 AM by Gene

A (Bad) Joke:

Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing at Dow Jones & Co.? An April 23 editorial in the Wall Street Journal complained that the monthly job numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics have “become unreliable,” and by underreporting job growth, the BLS is hurting the economy.

Kudos to the Journal. It certainly is great to see such an influential news organization point out the problem, and call for government reform. But maybe Dow Jones could also help the economy by convincing its own editors and writers to exercise smarter editorial judgment: To stop reporting the flawed BLS data as if it were gospel.

Unfortunately, last Friday, Dow Jones (and to be fair, much of the business media) were at it again, parroting without skepticism BLS seasonally adjusted growth for April at only 88,000....

The BLS numbers have put the brakes on a vibrant economy during the last two years by frightening investors away from U.S. equity markets blahblahblah....

1. Considering that the right hand is the CONSERVATIVE EDITION, and the left hand is the LIBERAL EDITION, the answer is NO. 2. Those fantasy numbers don't seem to have discouraged investors in the last six months -- and especially during the MASSACRE RALLY. 3. Why should we believe economists in the first place, regardless of where they report their numbers? 4. Would it make you happy if you could have folks parrot your own idea of accurate numbers?

Posted 9:50 AM by Gene

One of these things is QUITE like the other:

Media Execs: Govt Should Stay Out Of Programming

NCTA: Big Cable Players: Amid Competition, Size Make [SIC] Us Stronger

They were covering the same event, by the way.

Posted 8:06 AM by Gene

ROMY AT WORK: We don't mean to harp on this topic as it's the sort of behavior that makes bloggers make news hacks look unselfish, but dammit if he had to link to some tantrum throwing leftie who calls Lileks a "wing-nut." And the irony is he might be on to something: one guesses that more than a few Stribbers were either jealous or disdainful of the man, and not for his politics; this crybaby may be right when he talks of the guy's penchant for self-promotion. But in our teeny tiny blogging worlds everything is subservient to the teeniest tiniest most spiteful politics, and we haven't proven our manhood until we can let out a bawl to shut an infant up.

Posted 9:10 PM by Gene

At a pizza shop near Fort Dix where a few M----ms were out to deliver more than pizzas:

As for Super Mario's Restaurant, its chef, Joseph Hofflinger, 35, quit today after finding out the news that the restaurant's owner was the father of one of the suspected terrorists.

When asked by reporters as to why he quit, Hofflinger said, "Because I won't work for somebody that has any ties or admission to terrorists." He continued, "My son is in the 82nd Airborne. I won't work for a place that supports terrorism so I'm out."

In a way it's a shame, as the owner said he loves his country. Nonetheless how many in the new, improved U. S. of A. would take such a stand?

Posted 5:18 PM by Gene

Attorney General Cipher's at it again:

"Robust protection of civil rights is important for our national security," Gonzales told about 160 people at the luncheon.

"Protecting civil rights and liberties prevents the radicalization and development of home-grown terrorists," he said.

...[J]ust before the luncheon, Gonzales met with about 10 Arab American and Muslim leaders who complained their rights are being strained through discrimination by immigration and other federal officials.

NUF SAID.

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

All right, when can Larry "Gekko" Kudlow say his friend Dick "$180 Million" Grasso was VINDICATED?

Posted 5:10 PM by Gene

The bad news: ESPNCORP's earnings were up. The good news: its "media networks" were "flat."

When does Ub Iger's luck finally turn south?

Posted 5:08 PM by Gene

A "criminology major" was arrested for committing a murder "during a dispute over a video game console."

Not very smart.

Posted 4:55 PM by Gene

No matter how well meaning - and with a liberal like Rep. McGovern it is very well-meaning -- the idea of a Congresspoop living on three dollars of food a day for a week, however soundly symbolic, is risible when not contemptible, just another example of a Congresspoop getting his name in the papers for a cause. If he really wanted to set an example he'd have to give up his health care, and his office, and his committees, and his credi -- voting card, and his pride -- not easy on a Congresspoop's salary and campaign expenses.

Posted 10:38 AM by Gene

Paris Hilton Asks for Schwarzenegger Pardon

I wouldn't bet against DUMMKOPF GRANTING it.

Posted 10:24 AM by Gene

Well! Here's a sales pitch for newspapers:

Police arrested a Desert Hot Springs man after he allegedly made threats to bomb The Desert Sun building on Monday, according to Palm Springs Police Department.

The customer had initially called Sunday because he said he did not receive the coupons he wanted in his Sunday newspaper, said Greg Castro, director of Circulation for The Desert Sun.

“The customer service representative said she would have the coupons sent out on Monday,” Castro said.

Though a newspaper employee delivered the package as told, Castro said the man called the newspaper’s customer service department again on Monday and said he still did not get the coupons he wanted.

“That’s when he said: ‘What do I have to do? Come down there and blow up the building?’ ” Castro added.

Officers searched the Desert Sun building, assisted by a bomb detection dog and did not find any devices, police said. (Whew!)

I even have the slogan: Don't get mad -- get coupons!

(Via the usual Romy)

Posted 10:17 AM by Gene

It was inevitable: Dubya said we're "addicted to oil"? So guess what happened: farmers and investors became addicted to ethanol!

Posted 10:14 AM by Gene

On a more somber note regarding children, there's been a heartwrenching story in the British press these last few days over the alleged kidnapping of a three-year-old girl, which has received stone deaf silence from our ultra-self-centered press.

Evidently compassion stops at borders.

Posted 10:12 AM by Gene

Excellent news for Kellogg's, Mickey D's and other members of The American Society of Willfully Ignorant Advertisers:

About 90 percent of U.S. children under age 2 and as many as 40 percent of infants under three months are regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos, researchers said yesterday.

They're hooked!

Posted 9:55 AM by Gene

Does anybody remember a year ago? When USAOKAY!!!!! tried to win a P-Ulitzer with news of all the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL our government was doing "tapping" our phones and constantly prying into our private lives and what not?

You don't?

Evidently neither does USAOKAY!!!!!

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO OLIVIA!

Posted 8:59 AM by Gene

Report: Vista To Boost PC-TV Tuner Market

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!!!!!

Posted 8:57 AM by Gene

When we first heard of this story we thought it another con-SER-va-tive cause, which on second thought made us wonder how much mere politics can soften outrages like this, when it shouldn't.

Posted 8:56 PM by Gene

Please, pretty please, we want you to know -- the knobs on our car aren't too complicated! So please, pretty please, buy our car!

Posted 6:17 PM by Gene

ADAM!'s boys try to "rethink" MM, but when we got to page 2 we said, forget it. It's like "rethinking" Einstein.

Posted 6:04 PM by Gene

SALE OF THE MONTH:

Prison Pays $6,000 To Change Locks After Keys Sold On eBay

The humor fades as the story says it was sorta kinda accidental, but you never know with eBay.

Posted 5:49 PM by Gene

When hacks sell something they usually leave out a detail that would make a reader's brow furrow. And the important detail in this plug for Internet TV is -- what bandwidth? If it's YouTube we can see people rushing to their monitors to savor My Favorite Martian. Make no mistake, TV is migrating to the Web -- but so long as the picture resembles something through the bottom of a dirty beer mug it will be a very long trip.

One other cute missing detail: will it be downloadable? People Warner? Rootkit? SUMNER? You kidding?

(Via MediaBistro)

Posted 5:30 PM by Gene

Survey SAID:

A new survey by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research has found that 65 percent of faculty members say they believe in God.

Which, if one can believe polls at all, says that over a third don't, and besides, it's less than the general public.

We could liken academics to their natural media allies for showoffy agnosticism and personal godhood but that would merely be flogging a dead leatherbound Gideon Bible.

Posted 5:18 PM by Gene

The blue-chip average matched an 80-year record for the longest streak. The last time the Dow rose 24 out of 27 sessions was in 1927.

And two years after THAT...oh, never mind.

The three sessions in which the Dow fell were April 11 (89.23 points), April 23 (42.58 points) and April 30 (58.03 points).

THE MASSACRE RALLY CONTINUES!

Posted 5:15 PM by Gene

We'd never heard of Ty Pennington before this, so I guess you could call it a brilliant career move.

Posted 5:11 PM by Gene

Edwards: Wealth Doesn't Hurt Credibility

Let Honorary Mayor Mike run (whose chopper is the veritable equivalent of the Comb) and we'll see about that.

Posted 5:02 PM by Gene

It just became a little tougher for Lileks's admirers to justify his job.

Just as Strib and the StinkyInky are the same (cutting and slashing for profit, putting ads here, there and everywhere) so may be their employees. We forget Stinky demoted one of its most BELOVED figures Gail because the bosses thought she was too TV-insiderish, and perhaps likewise is true for Lileks; I'd bet the top brass suppose him an aw-isn't-he-cute kind of guy who can occasionally get angry, but who writes for a clique much as if he were writing a column about Gumby. The more I think of it that way, the more it makes a rudimentary sense, even though it's not the brightest apple of an idea in the barrel.

And when he writes "[I]t's just-the-facts-ma'am -- and I'll no longer be telecommuting, either. This means I will start burning my share of hydrocarbons like a good American" I can definitely see it.

(Via the usual Romy)

Posted 3:36 PM by Gene

I'm Shocked [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

JPod didn't mention that Romney voted for Tsongas in 92 !

05/07 02:32 PM

All we can say is, Ms. Travers, he has his own ersatz con-SER-va-tive, you have yours.

Posted 3:34 PM by Gene

Blair Congratulates Sarkozy on YouTube

What hath God wrought? Pffffffffffffffffffffffft!

Posted 10:46 AM by Gene

Strib has all but fired James Lileks, a genuinely boneheaded decision; but now is the time for one of blogging's leaders to bravely prove he doesn't need paper. After all, if Mark Steyn has a site, why can't he? I guess the problem is that Steyn is aggressively prolific -- and as good as blogging can feel to the soul, there is no substitute for a paycheck, which the Web's great democratic revolution has yet to produce many of (puff pieces notwithstanding), while the tired old dead tree-killing press still can, even in its senescence.

I shouldn't sound so sour but it's impossible not to after over four years typing in a vacuum. And besides, if he doesn't land a job elsewhere in Bigmedia I would be very surprised. A mere blogger lacks that kind of luxury.

P. S. at 11:05 a.m.: My original post said "The Clatch" did it; I'd forgotten it sold Strib off to a "private investment firm", meaning it's been STINKYINKYIZED, which explains such an arrant blunder.

Posted 10:39 AM by Gene

3-D printers in the home would seem dubious. How often would one need to conjure a bolt or "a spare dishwasher rack"? I'd guess it would be awhile before you could print a replacement auto part with the kind of tolerances to make it work. I can see it in small businesses and copy centers, but this still sounds like the sort of thing whose time might always come.

Posted 9:07 AM by Gene

It's Useless News vs. -- kolledge prezuhdents!

We root for neither side, that's plain enough.

Posted 9:06 AM by Gene

Reason no. 5: "Irrational exuberance."

Posted 8:18 AM by Gene

Tootsie Roll -- a "tarnished icon"? Perish the thought!

Posted 8:16 AM by Gene

Why Asia Is Ignoring Global Warming

I can think of four reasons: 1. Japan makes a lot of money; 2. China makes a lot of money; 3. Asia makes zillions of consumer goods; 4. China has over a billion people. Does that answer the question?

Posted 6:54 AM by Gene

Intellectual-property theft is illegal, and it's wrong. We wouldn't do it, or countenance it. But when show-biz unleashes mountains of dreck, and idiot press-agent news hacks idiotically celebrate the fact, forgive us for showing a soft side for the folk in "the land of vikings, reindeer, Aurora Borealis and cute blond girls."

Posted 9:53 PM by Gene

Shhh, don't say anything, but on the day the TWXSTERS proclaimed THE REINCARNATION OF BOXING using practically every synergistic trick in the book, the chief engineer of this triumph was arrested for a little -- altercation of his own...with his girlfriend.

Promise you won't tell? Our lips are sealed.

Posted 6:00 PM by Gene

P&G wants to be my friend.

IDIOTS! Why can't you just turn out a decent product as always -- and stop trying to convince me you're my friend by wasting so much of MY money on crappy television?

Posted 5:52 PM by Gene

Paris' Jail Stint Likely to Add Allure

...said longtime publicist Michael Levine....

Who says ASSPress doesn't look after the poor and neglected in society?

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO SANDY!

Posted 3:16 PM by Gene

Did you realize France is still right-wing?

Well, at least Sarko's saying nice things about us. Let's hope that lasts more than a few months.

Posted 3:15 PM by Gene

The Google Interview could become the 21st-century equivalent of the candidate's pilgrimage to the General Motors plant.

TRANSLATION: We're replacing one kind of intransigent incompetence with another.

Posted 1:01 PM by Gene

"You want to be able to get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and say, 'Hey, I put that on the air.'"

And you've done that every day, Fred Silverman, with your back to the mirror.

(Via ArtsJournal)

Posted 12:23 PM by Gene

Surprise: after a decade with The World's Oldest Adolescent the UK has become another nation that doesn't much like its political parties either.

Posted 11:58 AM by Gene

The soon-to-arise Second Coming of Christ tells us one of the few sensible things LBJ ever did was to banish Ol' Blue Eyes from his premises because of his mob connections. Second Coming was "crushed", perhaps as part of his training as a saint.

Posted 11:46 AM by Gene

As PAUL DRECK!!!!! dangles fourteen phones from his head, I wish I could ask CURLEY (Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk!) and other assorted uber-scribblers this: why are BIG B. O. GROSSES for TENTPOLES GOOD NEWS?

And need we be told yet AGAIN what's good for PEOPLE WARNER is good for America?

Posted 9:53 AM by Gene

The Paper of Re-CORD is busy today!

1. It discovers, much to its chagrin, that liberals (?!?!?) back gun rights! (?!?!?) Of course these are liberals like Larry Tribe, who may not be too trustworthy in the first place -- or as the Paper puts it, "Scholars who agree with gun opponents and support the collective rights view say the professors on the other side may have been motivated more by a desire to be provocative than by simple intellectual honesty." Rather like Michael Kinsley and Stale.com, n'est-ce pas?

2. Happily groups like MOVEON.ORG and the other celebrated NETROOTS screamers are pushing ever more vigorously for the Dems to get us outOUTOUT!!!!! of Iraq, which seems to have helped the Dems immensely.

3. We hear what we've said pretty much all along -- business is trying to be PC for profit. How long, say, Little Jeffy gets by with that gag depends on how long His shareholders are willing to take $35 a share -- and given the late ranting over Goodthings Entertainment, we'd say not very.

4. The Paper also discovers that Old Whiny Wine Brine bequeathed his medium a ton of would-be loudmouthed millionaire drunks, which means thousands are saying stupid things on the air, and their bosses think the advertisers don't care -- true enough. True also that the liberal's idea of taking care of the rot is the Fairness Doctrine, but then both sides would send anyone they disagree with to a concentration camp, which may explain all those would-be drunks. True further that without these jerks the medium would have thousands of hours of dead air -- which, given the likes of CHEAP CHANNEL and SUMNER, isn't a bad idea.

5. In news of cul-TYURE, Manohla Granola believes if you're going to be held hostage by Jerry Dreckheimer and Sony Pictures, it's best to think the hostage holder is your friend. It may be a problem, however, when the hostage holders inflict you with non-stop TV shows on the big screen, and if that isn't punishable by the Geneva Conventions we don't know what is. Neither does it help that Manohla Granolas and Jerry Dreckheimers view hack sci-fi as "legit."

6. Finally, in a topic dear to my heart, Encores!, which stages concert versions of old musicals, is putting on a "revue of revues" -- a good idea on paper with songs like "Dancing in the Dark" (NO, I do NOT mean "THE 'BOSS'", KIM WILDE, MIKE MAREEN or JESSY) -- only the shows were padded with sketches, and as the producer Mr. Zaks says, "Ninety-five percent of them did not make us laugh....Some of them must have been uproarious at the time, hilarious. But we would just sit there and look at each other." "But at their heart," the Paper of Re-CORD continues, "revues were disposable entertainment, a flash in the pan, the 'Saturday Night Live' of their day." Huh?!? John Belushi will be funny forever!