Eugene David ...The One-Minute Pundit |
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! |
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Posted
6:22 PM
by Gene
Of course it could be that the boredom factor kicks in quickly with porn. It could be the business has run out of orifices. It could be somebody's making those sales figures up (didn't the late Frank Rich say something about a $50 billion business, or something?) It could be this topic is now so tied up with media vanity and the need to always spin our rep that we can NEVER get an HONEST judgment on it in the first place.
Posted
4:13 PM
by Gene
Oh, and while we're thinking, a nice reminder for one of Little Malcolm's best friends: GO TO HELL, ANDREW TEUFEL!
Posted
4:06 PM
by Gene
Posted
4:04 PM
by Gene
Posted
1:44 PM
by Gene
Tartikoff's success was the primary reason GE bought NBC in the mid-'80s. It seems to us that LEGENDARY WELCH acquired a few other things besides when He "bought NBC", but then only hacks like Scott would consider being number four a "TRAGEDY", but then there's no contradicting these hacks on anything; after all, they live in their own unshakable Ptolemaic theory. Friday, June 01, 2007
Posted
5:43 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:39 PM
by Gene
And localism as a defense is a fraud because relatively few care for local news, and as so much of it is disseminated by 800-pound gorillas anyway.
Posted
5:35 PM
by Gene
Don't these idiot scribblers have ANY sense of self-control? 475 links on Google News. To be sure, many are duplicates, but this shows what can happen when PAUL DRECK takes charge of your PR campaign. IMBECILES.
Posted
5:26 PM
by Gene
Has anyone at this K Street warren ever heard of "reverse psychology"?
Posted
5:19 PM
by Gene
'Flip This House' star accused of fraud Leccima says he never claimed to own the homes. While not acknowledging his televised renovations were staged, he didn't deny it and suggested that A&E and Departure Films, the production company that makes the show, knew exactly what he was doing. I suspect he has a solid defense there.
Posted
1:45 PM
by Gene
Posted
11:47 AM
by Gene
Is this what Foggy Bottom calls "guts"?
Posted
11:33 AM
by Gene
Poll: a Fifth Vacationed With Laptops That's a vacation? Don't get sand in your keyboard! (Or better still, do, then you may not bring your laptop along the next time!)
Posted
11:00 AM
by Gene
In 1962, when Morse was cast as the lead in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," he told the producers they should audition Reilly for the role of Rudy Valli's spoiled nephew, Bud Frump. First off, it was most likely 1961 (that's when the show opened), and second it was Rudy VALLEE, not "Biiiiig girrrrrls do-on't CRY-YI-YI." Let's hope SLIME brings this high level of jernalistic eksellence to the JOURNALS! Who knows? What with WALTS He might improve it!
Posted
10:58 AM
by Gene
And his name is WALT!
Posted
10:44 AM
by Gene
Paris Hilton's Jail Time Countdown Is On
Posted
10:07 AM
by Gene
"You've got two marquee players, the Masters champion and, obviously, Phil being the second-best player in the world," Woods said. "It's too bad for the tournament." Multiply this by 100 million and you get an idea of how many stupid questions news hacks ask every day.
Posted
9:49 AM
by Gene
Reliance on foreign gasoline is growing That's gasoline. It's not just crude oil anymore.
Posted
9:39 AM
by Gene
But why did it take the grass roots so long to figure Dubya wasn't their kind of president?
Posted
9:18 AM
by Gene
Posted
9:14 AM
by Gene
"One means of reducing the discomfort created by the perception that we have no power or influence on the world around us," says Douglas Raybeck, a cultural anthropologist at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, is to retreat from it into trivia. "We display an increasing ability to take the trivial very seriously, in no small part because the trivial is understandable and nonthreatening." Or maybe a lot of people have a genuine interest in trivia because it's trivia -- or maybe a lot of people are stupid -- or maybe news hacks spend way too much time in reporting trivia because it allows them to quote 500 million times from PAUL DRECK! A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD to GLORIA! P. S. One other very good reason for trivia: ultrahacks like MARTY writing 2,649 WORDS OF B.O. on B.O.!
Posted
9:09 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:57 AM
by Gene
There is better news, however: "About half" the viewers watching in playback mode "are skipping through the [commercial] spots," according to Pat McDonough, svp-planning policy and analysis at Nielsen. Which STILL means ever MORE money wasted on crappy critically-acclaimed television. P. S. DVR VIEWERS PUSH AD RATINGS UP!!!!! [USAOKAY!!!!! good-news overemphasis added] Guess which high-powered newspaper chain owns -- oh, I mustn't tell. A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO LAURA AND THERESA!
Posted
8:46 AM
by Gene
It's rather like asking forgiveness for suggesting a game of Russian roulette, but we'll take it under advisement.
Posted
8:39 AM
by Gene
Yes, the oh-shut-and-up brigade will be in full force today. Thursday, May 31, 2007
Posted
5:48 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:19 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:17 PM
by Gene
Translation: 1. Another one with an aftertaste, and 2. Now ethanol's pushing Coke out of the market?!?
Posted
5:15 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:06 PM
by Gene
Former longtime "Tonight Show" sidekick Ed McMahon is urging people to donate DVDs for U.S. troops in Iraq, saying movies offer a safe and comforting escape from wartime realities. Does this guy use Netflix?
Posted
5:04 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:02 PM
by Gene
Dell to eliminate 8,800 jobs Natch the stock did a KUDLOW (i.e., it went way up after hours). P. S. How many job cuts in India?
Posted
5:00 PM
by Gene
The honeymooner quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was identified Thursday as a 31-year-old Atlanta personal injury lawyer whose new father-in-law is a CDC microbiologist specializing in the spread of TB and other bacteria.
Posted
4:57 PM
by Gene
![]() I never heard of them. Who were these ugly geeks?
Posted
3:30 PM
by Gene
I wonder -- what was the September, 1929 equivalent?
Posted
3:05 PM
by Gene
Posted
2:50 PM
by Gene
"And, besides, I don't think taxpayers are interested in us using the time or resources to put this together," he said. "We wouldn't even be promoting our community. We'd be promoting 20th Century Fox's movie." Not every pol is cheaply opportunistic -- or stupid. (Via ShowBizData)
Posted
10:22 AM
by Gene
Sure you don't mean "four-or-six"?
Posted
9:51 AM
by Gene
So see, the mail IS to blame!
Posted
9:42 AM
by Gene
"The book on him is he's lazy...." So was Ronald Reagan. Pfffffffffffffffft! (Via Spectator.org)
Posted
8:22 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:11 AM
by Gene
And we wonder why the word "ethics" has such a smell? "This is no longer the fun and games we have come to know and love." Isn't that what HYER LERNING is about?
Posted
8:06 AM
by Gene
Ask Rummy. He put them there.
Posted
8:04 AM
by Gene
The better news: NBA ratings are way down! ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz. Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Posted
6:24 PM
by Gene
P. S. Yes, yes, something called "Showtime" and something else called "Simon and Schuster" helped launch it -- but people forget SUMNER has relinquished virtually no control over both His VIACONS since He split them up. Anything done by a SUMNER-controlled operation, we strongly suggest, HE does, and no matter what the company that did it might be called, this farce has SUMNER -- written all over it. P. P. S. Evidently Slashdotters don't read as someone posted a Yahoo! logo with the summary. Yes, a couple of former Yahoo! executives did the organizing -- but a couple of CURRENT SUMNER properties did the bankrolling. P. P. P. S. Yes, we suppose we should beamingly exclaim, "Oooh, look at the grown-ups playing Wookiees!" We suppose we should all laugh. DAMMIT, I want Fitzgeralds and Cathers and Mankiewiczes and Coplands and Kerns and Ellingtons making our culture again, not billionaire hacks and their infernal whores.
Posted
6:22 PM
by Gene
Posted
6:13 PM
by Gene
And that's one thing about this idiot stock speculation that makes me mad: the money either sits on paper or just VANISHES, as it did during the dot-com bust. It usually doesn't buy anything except a need for Prozac.
Posted
6:03 PM
by Gene
One hopes this typical Stale.com conventional devil's advocacy about steakhouses from the very stale Daniel Gross isn't an omen, for we'll all frown when Wall Street wants to laugh, but the money throwers at these marvels of the hour give us pause. Then again, they haven't been wrong yet. Pffffffffffffffffft!
Posted
3:17 PM
by Gene
Maintenance in progress... Our site is currently being updated. Please check back later today Wednesday May 30 2007 9:15am EST. It's 3:17 p.m. Do you know where your Web site is?
Posted
3:12 PM
by Gene
At the end of a post where he freaks out over a preposterously inappropriate way of measuring the federal deficit, Andrew Sullivan says this: I also noticed in my latest letter from the Social Security Administration that, as currently configured, I'll get 76 percent of what I'm due if and when I retire. My bet is that it will turn out to be less than half. The boomers are going to hog all of it for themselves.Please. Just stop it. Assuming Wikipedia has his age right [!!!!! -- Ed.], Andrew will turn 65 in 2028. Even if we do absolutely nothing, CBO estimates that Social Security will pay out full benefits at least until 2053. Andrew will be 90 years old at that point. We side with Kevin -- after all, Mr. Mellerdrammer is no doubt well-paid into the system on the strength of what all those elite editors were hoodwinked into believing about him.
Posted
3:03 PM
by Gene
Could it be that editorial-page editor Andrew Rosenthal’s new office is just as big as publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.’s 16th-floor spread? “Let’s kill that rumor now,” said Mr. Rosenthal. “It’s not. His is a slightly different geometry.” Mr. Rosenthal was speaking about geometric shapes and sizes by phone on May 28, exactly one week after his staff took residence on the tower’s lucky 13th floor. With the relocation from 229 West 43rd Street, Mr. Rosenthal was forced to give up his two-room suite that included, most importantly, a private bathroom. Now: “My office is exactly the same size as [deputy editorial-page editor] Carla Robbins,” Mr. Rosenthal said. It still sounds pretty good for a five-star hotel.
Posted
1:19 PM
by Gene
Posted
1:08 PM
by Gene
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Kobe Bryant says he wants to be traded by the Lakers. Is even he that important?
Posted
10:01 AM
by Gene
Posted
9:45 AM
by Gene
Posted
9:43 AM
by Gene
This should be refereed by PAUL DRECK. Pffffffffffffffffffffffft! Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Posted
9:54 PM
by Gene
No. 1 WORLDWIDE!!!!! Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Mum's the word!
Posted
6:03 PM
by Gene
“The Sopranos” teems with the mindless commerce and consumption of modern America. [Home-page squib] Substitute The New Yorker for "'The Sopranos'", "twaddle" for "commerce", "insufferable pretensions" for "consumption" and "high-end media" for "America" and you have a much better sentence -- and one that isn't written by The Greatest Magazine Editor of All Time either.
Posted
5:52 PM
by Gene
And not everyone has a vibrant economy.
Posted
5:51 PM
by Gene
(Via FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!News, which is drooling)
Posted
5:39 PM
by Gene
![]() Look at the backdrop below the flag. Is it me or does it call to mind "Mission Accomplished"? The question is not if Dubya is dense. The question is how dense.
Posted
5:36 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:33 PM
by Gene
![]() What do I think? I think after the politicians and the hacks and the Bunsen Honeydews get together we'll permit the impermissible while screaming ETHICS!!!!! often enough to convince us we're doing the right thing. That's what I think.
Posted
5:27 PM
by Gene
Jamshidi said the same charges had been lodged against Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with George Soros' Open Society Institute.... Shucks, I guess that doesn't help either. (Via Chronicle.com's News Blog)
Posted
10:45 AM
by Gene
The sad thing is no one can hear her blame JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS anymore. Boo-hoo!
Posted
9:42 AM
by Gene
Nah, it won't hurt the economy, Wall Street says.
Posted
9:36 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:59 AM
by Gene
Miss USA Rachel Smith, who slipped and fell to the floor during the evening gown competition and was jeered by the Mexican audience during the interview phase, was the contest's fourth runner-up. Thanks, Trumpster, for your fine contribution to international relations! Hours before the pageant began, dozens of protesters held a mock ceremony in downtown Mexico City that featured "Miss Marijuana,""Miss Sexual Health,""Miss Human Rights" and other candidates with obscenities written across their sashes. The group yelled "Neither ugly nor beautiful, should a woman be considered an object!" Oh, shut up. 1999 Miss Teen USA Vanessa Minnillo and "Extra" weekend correspondent Mario Lopez hosted the live, two-hour telecast, broadcast on NBC and Telemundo, expected to be viewed by more than 600 million people in more than 180 countries. Has THE DONALD bought out the ASSPress?
Posted
8:43 AM
by Gene
Time Flies [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Our friends at Powerlineblog.com turned five this weekend. 05/29 12:02 AM And they don't sound a day over two.
Posted
8:29 AM
by Gene
ABANDON SHIP!
Posted
8:24 AM
by Gene
First on the list for the latter: SHARON. Monday, May 28, 2007
Posted
3:53 PM
by Gene
Even as the industry tries to branch out, though, there is no promise of an answer to a potentially more profound predicament: a creative drought and a corresponding lack of artists who ignite consumers’ interest in buying music. Nope, I guess it's not just file sharing.
Posted
11:37 AM
by Gene
I suspect it would be more apt to say it blurs the line between fantasy and fantasy.
Posted
11:20 AM
by Gene
If NOSE weren't the perpetually raised left fist in the air Gekko Kudlow would write her a stirring defense.
Posted
11:14 AM
by Gene
And really it's not brainpower but code-writing power, which merely seems the same.
Posted
8:54 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:22 AM
by Gene
![]() By the way Uni, don't pat yourselves on the back about how you've allegedly made older women fashionable; Athena would look good at any age.
Posted
8:16 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:09 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:06 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:04 AM
by Gene
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Posted
11:06 AM
by Gene
Posted
10:55 AM
by Gene
Posted
10:48 AM
by Gene
Posted
10:35 AM
by Gene
Heavy TV viewing under 2 is found About 40 percent of 3-month-olds watch television or videos for an average of 45 minutes a day, or more than five hours a week, according to the first-ever study of the viewing habits of children under the age of 2. The study, by pediatric researchers at the University of Washington, also found that by age 2, 90 percent of children are watching television for an average of more than 90 minutes a day. ![]() RIGHT ON, right B.S.?
Posted
10:28 AM
by Gene
Though "Days of Darkness" criticizes the isolation and aseptic blandness of modern life, and though the main character's aging mother is dying in a hospital, it is a much lighter film than "Invasions." Arcand says it is the first time he has included elements of slapstick comedy in a movie. A barrel of -- something, we are sure!
Posted
10:25 AM
by Gene
They're smiling! The hacks are SMILING AGAIN!
Posted
10:23 AM
by Gene
Posted
10:16 AM
by Gene
![]() A scholar has written a one-volume biography of FDR, and as Jonathan Yardley reminds us in his eloquent review, whatever his foibles, Roosevelt was a man, and after Truman most who followed him didn't even qualify as mice.
Posted
10:12 AM
by Gene
Silver is professor of molecular biology at Princeton University. He is the author of "Challenging Nature." He has no financial ties with any biotech firm. No, noooooooooooooooo!
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