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, December 08, 2007
Posted
6:42 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:13 PM
by Gene
New York's woes can be seen as a long-overdue comeuppance to a city, prone to hubris and arrogance, that stimulated and benefited greatly from the late credit orgy. But today, more than ever, Gotham deserves the sympathy of the nation. (Three words: New York Knicks.) The benefits of what New York produces—from Rent to financing for companies—emanate throughout the country. We would say Dan should have quit while he was ahead but that would have meant not writing anything at all.
Posted
1:12 PM
by Gene
And NRO admits: — Warren Bell has been a sitcom writer and producer and a member of the WGA for 18 years. He is currently executive producer of ABC’s According to Jim, which will return to the air sometime in 2008. He lives on a small lake outside Los Angeles with his two sons and his wife Jessica, who, it should be noted, is always right. TRANSLATION: He, like many of the millionaires, works both sides of the street, and his house is probably bigger than the lake.
Posted
1:10 PM
by Gene
Campaigns, once wary of self-mocking have come to accept late-night shows as part of the process, says Frank Donatelli, a longtime GOP consultant who is working for Republican contender John McCain. "The rite of passage is when a political figure breaks in to popular culture," Donatelli said. "And that normally happens when you become the butt - or the subject - of somebody's jokes on the 'Letterman' show or the 'Leno' show or 'Saturday Night Live.' " TRANSLATION: Frank's on BOOBS McKEATING's ear every day screaming, "YOU GOTTA BE ON IMUS EVERY @#$%&* DAY!!!!!"
Posted
9:50 AM
by Gene
Now consider today's situation. After over a century in business THE CONSPIRACY and its heirs and assigns face exhaustion. Of course no one will say this as too many in the rag trade spend their every column looking for work there. Indeed they share one crucial trait with the recorded...SOUND biz: they no longer oversee a mass medium, having concentrated their attention on the stupid and the teens. Take away the "hit" properties and you hardly have an audience -- the same blight facing the recorded...SOUND trade. With recorded music the new technologies of the forties made distribution easier; today's technology threatens a platform for everyone, which in practice has already become a platform for no one. And with niche programming today's small audiences will only get smaller. Rather than make the best product possible THE CONSPIRACY is looking for the best platforms possible, completely oblivious that with excellence platform doesn't matter. And because new-oldmedia may defy profits the biz is emphasizing costs; never mind it helped bring on the problem by paying millions to the scribblers who now plead poverty. The Millionaires' Strike will be difficult to solve precisely because, unlike with the record biz of the forties, technology no longer aids the moguls, it hinders them -- and not so coincidentally, except in the spreadsheets and for the synergies, because show-biz' best days are distantly behind it. (Slightly revised 5/9/2009)
Posted
9:22 AM
by Gene
Writers’ Talks Collapse Amid Acrimony STRIKE! STRIKE ! Strike long, strike hard, strike acrimoniously! Strike until you've so broken the industry we don't have to put up with your rotten movies and worse television! March into HELL for a -- DEVILISH cause! Friday, December 07, 2007
Posted
2:34 PM
by Gene
Let us not forget ol' SPAM directed the filmization of ANONYMOUS'S NOVEL, which was a epochal smash hit.
Posted
1:58 PM
by Gene
Posted
11:13 AM
by Gene
Rick Rubin, who’s being paid millions and has done nothing so far, gets to stay. The last we heard about Rick he was taking Lynn Hirschberg around in Los Angeles shopping for expensive new office space. No word on whether he found it. When he does, the joke goes, there will be no one left to sit in it. [Link added] And what's a good recorded-SOUND outfit without publicity people? The effective end of the PR department has already been felt. This week, I tried to get a copy of Wyclef Jean’s excellent new "Carnival II" album for review. Since no one is left, I simply downloaded it from a Russian Web site. So much for that. Of course, given the genius from the recorded-SOUND biz these days, maybe it's best Sony BMG keep quiet.
Posted
10:21 AM
by Gene
Obama Needs Stadium for Oprah [Emphasis added] Who's running for president?
Posted
9:18 AM
by Gene
Okay -- what can Mozilla do to help stifle free expression?
Posted
9:06 AM
by Gene
Wouldn't this undercut his moral authority a little?
Posted
8:57 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:54 AM
by Gene
And then give some of it back to the subscribers.
Posted
8:46 AM
by Gene
(Via MediaBistro)
Posted
8:43 AM
by Gene
GEKKO KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!
Posted
8:29 AM
by Gene
We would say "oh the humanity!" but we're tired of it even more than anyone else. And where would we be without the courageous truth tellers of the ASSPress?
Posted
8:26 AM
by Gene
And painting it with illegals? Labor doesn't vote for Republicans anyway!
Posted
8:19 AM
by Gene
(Via the usual ArtsJournal)
Posted
8:15 AM
by Gene
Why do the same people who must molest us with their First Amendment stratagems always elect KINGS to rule themselves? Thursday, December 06, 2007
Posted
2:23 PM
by Gene
Fed totes up housing woes $128 bln equity down drain Yeah but think of how much STOCKS have gone up!
Posted
1:50 PM
by Gene
1. The Internet's middle name is CRANK. 2. What a delicious irony -- the huge diamond in the center of science's tiara is a breeding ground for morons.
Posted
12:57 PM
by Gene
![]() Hey Cheapie Marketwatch CEO of the Year JIM SKINNER! I got an idea from FUN TIMES® with RONALD McDONALD®: Let's go to...RUSSIA! WOW, that's OLD! Saint Basil's Cathedral was finished in 1561. That makes it 446 years old! Well we figure in another 446 years the MICK will be what, about 500 YEARS OLD, and it'll be the exact same company then as now, selling fifth-rate slop at first-rate margins! Anybody see a QUINTILLION-DOLLAR COMPANY? When I grow up I want to be an architect. I love unique buildings, which is why I want to go to Moscow in Russia. They have some awesome buildings there. My favorite is Saint Basil's Cathedral [great minds think alike! -- ED], I [SIC] like the colors and shapes -- it looks magical! Jonathan, age 10 Well JIM SKINNER must be a pretty good architect himself! We'd bet he's been in the Kremlin dozens of times to beg Belly Kisser to let him build thousands more MICKS from Moscow to Siberia! All we know is Jim, we hope Belly Kisser's been obliging -- and that OIL keeps going upupUP! Oh and CEO of the Year -- don't forget to pay your TAXES! Otherwise you'll get an F on your Belly Kisser report card! A stale Double Quarter Pounder and non-working credit-card terminals will do this to you.
Posted
9:03 AM
by Gene
(Via MediaBistro)
Posted
9:00 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:35 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:29 AM
by Gene
IF WE'RE GOING TO PLAGIARIZE SOMEBODY CAN'T WE BE A BIT MORE SUBTLE?
Posted
8:11 AM
by Gene
This is another facet of RENDELLISM: that advertising support of government endeavors is justified because it "holds down costs." This is like the excuse for lotteries. When government gets a hold of more money, it always manages to spend it. Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Posted
6:37 PM
by Gene
Posted
6:34 PM
by Gene
![]() Camden may never have jobs again, and its residents may never aspire to anything higher than scum, but thankfully it has "odd, quirky and delightful" AHT.
Posted
6:30 PM
by Gene
The loss of 3 million manufacturing jobs early this decade means there is little room to cut more positions.
Posted
6:14 PM
by Gene
Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus' Web privileges after it found out the automated elf it created for kids to instant message with was talking naughty, not nice.... Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn said the company's engineers tried to clean up Santa's vocabulary, but even after making changes to the software, the company wasn't comfortable keeping him online. "It's not like if you say, 'Hello Santa,' he's going to throw inappropriate stuff at you," said Sohn. Sohn said Santa's lewd comment was sparked by someone "pushing this thing to make it do things it wasn't supposed to do." Like GEKKO pushing the economy? Sorry to obsess over that imbecile, but he's the sort who could have tragedy all around him and he'd break out in a smug grin because his damned stocks went up.
Posted
6:11 PM
by Gene
Dow Jones to be replaced by GameStop in S&P 500
Posted
5:44 PM
by Gene
Of course the idiot GEKKO "GRASSO" KUDLOW had to choose TODAY to say we're in AN AGE OF PERMANENT PROSPERITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! again, presumably after this latest outbreak of smallpox with guns; combined with such calamities, he makes us wonder why God puts up with us. Incidentally, we still remember the MASSACRE RALLY, when the idiot GEKKO and his friends idiotically sent stocks into TulipLand before the non-bust in the housing biz and the non-problem with the credit markets mysteriously brought them down, which makes us wonder what sort of a man GEKKO would be if he didn't have MONEY.
Posted
12:20 PM
by Gene
Posted
11:16 AM
by Gene
Let me guess: TAX$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!
Posted
8:49 AM
by Gene
![]() We understand why the continuing saga of "Bonnie and Clyde" exerts such endless fascination. They are, after all, the sexy types EDDIE!!!!! has been trying to lure to our city for years, to help create all those waiter and janitor and dishwasher jobs for the 21st-century economy. Despite their -- slight dishonesty they personify all the young upscale Center City clones with their look-alike hipness and their sound-alike lives, who seem to spend so much of their time socializing and restauranting you begin to wonder if they ever work. More to the point, they signal the rot in their culture, these false fronts of a city that's forever screaming it's coming back, whose idea of back is to plop down more cubic-zirconia condos and boutiques when the town's eighty-percent ghetto, and likely to stay that way. Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Posted
5:13 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:11 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:05 PM
by Gene
And "respectable" outfits like the ASSPress are part of the problem too.
Posted
4:52 PM
by Gene
![]() If we weren't talking supermillionaires we'd almost sympathize with Jennifer. It isn't her fault she gets the kind of exposure MM got in her day, and which clearly she doesn't deserve. True the studios were in control then, and no one is now, meaning when vaguely attractive (or in some cases unattractive) actresses wear outfits they shouldn't be wearing, the whole world knows it. And there's no place for Avedon even if he existed, which might deflect the paparazzi; besides modern photography is vastly unforgiving. That said, there'd be no market for such unflattering photos if fatuous editors lacked the desire to run them, and especially if they hadn't coached their readers to demand every last idiotic factoid about uninteresting people who happen to be overexposed, in more ways than one.
Posted
10:59 AM
by Gene
Yep, Eddie, who needs industry when we have -- TOURISM! and CASINOS!!
Posted
9:44 AM
by Gene
This may help explain why the word "feminism" has the same clothespin-on-the-nose-inspiring pungency as, say, LIBERAL.
Posted
9:26 AM
by Gene
Posted
9:19 AM
by Gene
Posted
9:17 AM
by Gene
And prices are falling, as well they might, given how so much of media is overpriced to begin with.
Posted
9:04 AM
by Gene
Indeed below the link on the BizWeek front page: Plus: Tricks in the Climate Debate? Nothing but, from all angles.
Posted
8:17 AM
by Gene
What's a "sellout" when the sale price is so high? Every fraud who gives JERNALISM a bad name is always welcome. Monday, December 03, 2007
Posted
7:43 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:35 PM
by Gene
STOYSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Police said a Somerset County man fled a traffic stop, went home, shaved his mustache and changed his clothes, and reported the truck he was driving as stolen.
Posted
5:22 PM
by Gene
Good luck!
Posted
4:56 PM
by Gene
Why didn't somebody think of that before? Perhaps because when someone thought of it before it didn't work. And now that somebody's thought of it it probably still won't work.
Posted
12:00 PM
by Gene
Posted
11:43 AM
by Gene
BREAKING NEWS: Bowie Kuhn and Walter O'Malley elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.Is there any way we can get these cable news networks to tone down THEIR Web-site NEWS ALERTS!!!!!?
Posted
10:49 AM
by Gene
Nope, no connection. (Via the usual ArtsJournal)
Posted
10:17 AM
by Gene
Posted
9:25 AM
by Gene
With any luck this is a long goodbye, which can't be short enough. Sunday, December 02, 2007
Posted
9:14 PM
by Gene
Care to stay on, Foot Tapper?
Posted
8:16 PM
by Gene
Brian? I'm an afisha, aficka, I'm a real fan of surfer music. Yep, that's one thing ya learn about a president, he's human. "Walk, Don't Run", ya know, da da da daaaaaaaa da da daaaaaaa da da daaaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaaa...of course people say I've been surfing too long without a helmet, or surfboard, or whatever ya surf with. Ya know Dana Rohrabacher? Marty, Taxi Driver's one of the greatest movies of all time. It really is. Course I don't know that I've seen it but if Steve here says it's great then it must be. Right? Money talks, ya know. Course I've heard ya made some sort of anti-religious picture. Ya didn't? Well I'm glad to hear that; one thing we don't want in America, intolerance. Steve? Loved those pratfalls you did on Saturday Night Live. Course that was before I really had respect, true respect for Gerry. Diana? Ya know what my favorite, uh, rhythm, er, soul record is? "The Loco-Motion." Mr. Fleisher? Nice meetin' ya! Don't know I'd ever heard of you before but -- wait a second, yes I have! You made those Popeye cartoons! No relation? You play the piano? With your left hand? That ought putya in the Guinness Book or somethin'. Ya know "Blueberry Hill"? Fats Domino did it. Love to see ya play that with your left hand. We don't say Dubya would say such things; then again, we don't say he wouldn't.
Posted
5:53 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:44 PM
by Gene
A NEUHARTHISM OF THE MONTH AWARD (Fidel division) to WILL!
Posted
5:07 PM
by Gene
Two mouthpieces of The $10 Million Man?
Posted
2:29 PM
by Gene
Posted
2:19 PM
by Gene
Although before the SuperIvies rule 23 universes they'll likely collapse under the weight of their own hubris -- or spending; when MIT invited STARCHITECT to its campus it merely granted itself the right to sue him.
Posted
1:13 PM
by Gene
If BEEEE-OOOOH MOJO is correct attendance for this HISTORIC YEAR is VIRTUALLY FLAT -- which won't prevent PAUL DRECK from treating the ASSPress like a neighborhood barkeep, or the barkeep from transcribing his every word.
Posted
10:06 AM
by Gene
And of course LALA gets the story wrong: Vivendi, a French water company.... [SECOND GRAF] The "French water company" has been out of that business for years. But what do you have to know when you're reporting on SHOW-BIZ?
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