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, October 25, 2008
Posted
8:01 PM
by Gene
(Via SeekingAlpha)
Posted
7:58 PM
by Gene
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7:41 PM
by Gene
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6:35 PM
by Gene
If the Democrats can temper their thirst for revenge and remember that at least a few of us didn't vote for their party, they could do well. If not -- let the comedy begin!
Posted
4:10 PM
by Gene
You're the Lord God PINCH. Do you smile or frown? We shall see when these stalwarts have to vote for something.
Posted
4:00 PM
by Gene
Palin's 'going rogue,' McCain aide says [DOMESTIC site lead] Briton, South African shot dead in Kabul shooting [INTERNATIONAL site lead with yellow "DEVELOPING STORY" banner] And the ROGUE story doesn't appear in the top International stories list yet. This proves two things: 1. American news hacks are trying to swing (to put it politely) the election; and 2. What is supposedly important to American Web surfers may not be important to the international kind...or at all.
Posted
12:07 PM
by Gene
SATURDAY ENDORSEMENTS Updated: Obama Picks in Hartford, Charlotte, St. Pete -- Cincy Goes for McCain Official: 40% of 'Star-Ledger' Newsroom Exiting Remember, GREG: it's THE DO-NOT-CALL LAW. P. S. The combined market cap of NYT, GCI, MNI, AHC and SSP is $4.81 BILLION. Remember THAT when you gloat the day after ELECTION DAY. Incredibly, GOOG is STILL worth about as much as DIS, TWX, NWS, VIA and CBS combined, and they're worth $114.93 BILLION, which suggests what the former Wizard of Oz called "froth" -- at both ends.
Posted
10:46 AM
by Gene
Photo errors can be worse than word errors because they stand out so much. The Post had two bad photo errors last week -- one a real howler. In Monday's Reliable Source, Amy Argetsinger wrote an account of the annual National Italian American Foundation gala. Post photographer Richard A. Lipski took the gala photos, as he had in 2006. One of the photos in the layout was of actors Mel Brooks and Alan Alda and of Jack Valenti, former chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America. Valenti died April 26, 2007. Several readers, including ABC-TV newsman Sam Donaldson, asked how such a mistake could happen since Valenti was so well known inside the Beltway. Here's how: A layout editor looking for the pictures in The Post's photo database picked three pictures and didn't notice that one was two years old. A copy editor wrote the caption, also failing to notice the date, and a copy desk supervisor failed to check the information on the printout of the photo. A proofreader failed to question whether Valenti was alive. One supervisor, upon seeing the page later, expressed surprise that Valenti was alive, but assumed the photo proved his suspicion wrong. Argetsinger said: "I'm absolutely sick about this. Obviously it was a terrible, terrible mistake -- one that jumped out at me the moment I saw the paper." Besides the fact that Valenti is dead, there was another clue -- Alda and Brooks were not mentioned in the story either. That was bad enough, but the photo of the Democratic candidate, Ashwin Madia, was about 10 times bigger than the picture of the Republican. Since the story focused on Madia as an unknown in a heavily Republican district, it made sense that he have a somewhat bigger picture. But it looked lopsided. The correction included a photo of Paulsen -- so small it's called a thumbnail. Such disparity feeds criticism that The Post is biased toward Democrats. [END OF ARTICLE]Well, let's put it this way, ombudspoop: WPO hit another new twelve-year low yesterday (it came back, unfortunately). Have you ever thought of shorting the stock? P. S. And because over HALF of WaPoCo's revenues now come from TEACHING THE SATs and the like this means for all practical purposes its media operations are worth close to ZERO -- an outcome richly deserved. By the way, we will no longer refer to WaPoCo; we will refer to KAPLANCORP -- and we are sorely tempted to call its diminishing "flagship" THE DAILY KAPLAN.
Posted
10:38 AM
by Gene
Friday, October 24, 2008
Posted
6:29 PM
by Gene
It might muss your looks.
Posted
6:24 PM
by Gene
We are, alas, waiting.
Posted
6:16 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:59 PM
by Gene
And possibly -- just possibly -- even the ad-blurbists are starting to catch on. P. S. at 6:28 p. m. And that was before we saw this one. Even David "From the Arthouse to the Porno House" Denby didn't quite like it.
Posted
5:04 PM
by Gene
This is bad news: It means our economy's in the toilet. This is good news: more people are riding on mass transit. This is bad news: because government's getting less gas taxes it may not afford it. This is good news: Fewer miles guzzled means cleaner air. This is bad news: That's because the economy's in the toilet. You pays your money and you takes your choice.
Posted
5:01 PM
by Gene
Posted
3:33 PM
by Gene
P. S. Entercom at 75 CENTS. Emmis at 60 CENTS. And CITADEL, Drunken Slob's unearther, at 27 CENTS. It's a GOOD THING you went private, LOUSY!
Posted
3:04 PM
by Gene
Posted
2:59 PM
by Gene
Jonah, the young lady has now confessed to making up the story and is facing charges. As Talleyrand would say, this is worse than a crime; it's a mistake. This McCain volunteer's fake hate crime will get more coverage than a real assault would have. Congratulations to Michelle Malkin, whose instinct for these things is very impressive. I regret that I was among those (on the radio yesterday, having not seen the dubious pictures) who took the story at, so to speak, face value. 10/24 02:45 PM 1. What of your boss PILLHEAD? 2. She has that kind of instinct?
Posted
10:40 AM
by Gene
![]() 1. HERSELF. 2. THE LORD!!!!! Well, 1. isn't so new but she does have a way of renewing herself.
Posted
9:07 AM
by Gene
In your spare time, you're an avid reader. One of your all-time favorites is Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich by Kevin Phillips[*]. How come? I love history. I try to understand cycles, which help me envision where we are now and where we might be going. That book was a great recap of the rise and fall of great nations. The United States is a great nation. We are, in my opinion, peaking and preparing for decay. We have already been decaying. I found the book fascinating. He pointed out that, in peaking nations, we turn into paper shufflers. Young and hungry countries are mercantilists. They create and sell. But peaking nations shuffle paper. That's what we do here now in America. We shuffle Collateralized Debt Obligations and credit default swaps all over the globe. And this is what it gets us, this mess. We will not guess whether we're declining (though our culture certainly is) but undoubtedly America has reached a new high in paper shuffling. *The faux-conservative.
Posted
8:46 AM
by Gene
TRANSLATION: Lehman engaged in a Ponzi scheme. It is fashionable to squinch and ask whether the Feds should have saved Lehman. Perhaps there was nothing to save.
Posted
8:43 AM
by Gene
Quick decisions are unsafe decisions. --Sophocles As we can see in yet another quick decision to throw stocks out the window.
Posted
8:33 AM
by Gene
Why did Peggy BS's sudden two-faced multiple-sided off-mike "it's over" win her fans? By the way, BS, you write for a conservative liberal rag owned by a liberal conservative conservative moderate liberal conservative -- WHATEVER. Your two-faced character fits in well. (Via The Daily Beast. Much as we hate to admit to it TINA!!!!! has come up with something.)
Posted
8:32 AM
by Gene
P. S. "We are in a very, very serious situation," says veteran producer James B. Freydberg. That's because you very, very seriously run nothing but theme parks.
Posted
1:15 AM
by Gene
Meantime how's Your junk-bond-rated EMPIRE doing?
Posted
12:57 AM
by Gene
"Everybody talks about politicians - I don't do it because I do comedy already," he said, declining to comment on either Barack Obama or John McCain. "There's nothing fun about it." May you perform for another 82 years, Jerry Lewis. Thursday, October 23, 2008
Posted
5:59 PM
by Gene
In ZEITGEIST?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Posted
5:46 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:42 PM
by Gene
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5:39 PM
by Gene
Which did not keep The Wizard of Oz from being infallible and omniscient. ``If we are right 60 percent of the time in forecasting, we are doing exceptionally well; that means we are wrong 40 percent of the time,'' Greenspan said. That's still a winning percentage -- is it not, Wiz?
Posted
5:29 PM
by Gene
Now the people, in increasing scorn, should try to send him to a very rich honorary RETIREMENT.
Posted
2:45 PM
by Gene
Obviously Variety benefits richly from the awards season.... The understatement of the...awards season.
Posted
11:33 AM
by Gene
PEJ Survey: Voters Convinced Media Supports Obama
Posted
10:00 AM
by Gene
(Caveat: from The Mogul's Friend)
Posted
9:44 AM
by Gene
Greenspan says credit crisis is 'once-in-a-century credit' tsunami [SIC] He should know: he helped churn the waves.
Posted
9:40 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:31 AM
by Gene
When's the next novel, Anon? Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Posted
7:30 PM
by Gene
Posted
7:09 PM
by Gene
Well! That makes me hap-PY!
Posted
5:51 PM
by Gene
1. Make it two in a row! 2. The GRAWF quotes A "leading conservative", so we can be sure it doesn't know what it's talking about -- which never stopped news hacks.
Posted
5:42 PM
by Gene
Study: McCain coverage mostly negative
Posted
5:41 PM
by Gene
Our Manhattan superiors can still dream -- can't they?
Posted
5:38 PM
by Gene
Which, along with the burgeoning problem with endowments, raises the question: How long can HYER LURNING be a growth industry?
Posted
5:28 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:20 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:17 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:08 PM
by Gene
Tough call -- unless The Lord divorces His wife, then we'd have a God and a Goddess -- as if we didn't already. PREDICTION: She won't take the demotion, but that won't stop Him, Her or Them from pontificating.
Posted
5:04 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:01 PM
by Gene
Posted
3:00 PM
by Gene
Wachovia takes huge write-down ahead of Wells deal The good news -- in the subhed: Goodwill impairment of $18.8 bln may mean fewer losses in future for Wells PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!
Posted
2:58 PM
by Gene
AP poll: Candidates running nearly even POLLING IMBECILES!
Posted
8:54 AM
by Gene
"Let me warn the nation against the smooth evasion which says: 'Of course we believe all these things. We believe in Social Security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them; we will do more of them; we will do them better; and best of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.'" Come to think of it -- wasn't that how Dubya worked?
Posted
8:50 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:30 AM
by Gene
(Via MediaBistro) Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Posted
5:46 PM
by Gene
"Star Wars" is hyperspeeding to an even longer time ago. The next chapter in George Lucas' ever-expanding franchise will be "Star Wars: The Old Republic," a massively multiplayer online game set thousands of years before Darth Vader was born. Maybe if LUKE SPIELBERG hyperspeeds fast enough into the past we won't have to countenance His rotten Buck Rogers remakes again.
Posted
5:41 PM
by Gene
As their relationship went into meltdown the musclebound singer insisted on sticking to her strict FOUR-HOUR daily exercise regime DESPITE Guy’s pleas they should spend more time together. It meant the film director went 18 MONTHS without having sex with his wife. I don't know -- If I'd been Guy I might have been happy. And on the rare occasions when they did make love, he has told pals it was like “cuddling up to a piece of gristle”. LIKE I SAID....
Posted
5:37 PM
by Gene
Honorary Three-Term Mayor Mike says: LET THEM EAT BALLOTS! P. S. I just typed Bloomberg in Twitter search and got ten Bloomberg.com links. So much for the people.
Posted
5:28 PM
by Gene
(Via IWantMedia)
Posted
5:24 PM
by Gene
It shouldn't; it's BIGMEDIA's job to get polls wrong.
Posted
5:17 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:14 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:10 PM
by Gene
Is there anyone we WON'T help?
Posted
5:06 PM
by Gene
Next year, you may find me writing whole columns about McCain's courage on immigration...or some other issue, although I think the verdict of history is in on the guy and I believe his behavior should not be forgotten: he has run a dishonorable campaign. Next year, too, you may find me disagreeing with Obama about this or that. You may want to kick me off your plane. TRANSLATION: Yes, I was in love with SLICK. FURTHER TRANSLATION: NOT BLOODY LIKELY. By the way, he says he's "paid to have opinions." But hasn't that been true of most of People Inc.'s organization men since 1923?
Posted
5:01 PM
by Gene
Or is this what his primary industry would call GAMING?
Posted
9:52 AM
by Gene
Posted
8:26 AM
by Gene
That said, if we were petty and small-minded, we might ban him from our plane too. P. S. UPDATE: Campaign spokesperson Michael Goldfarb responded that "we don't allow Daily Kos diarists on board either." Them's fightin' words! (Via MediaBistro) Monday, October 20, 2008
Posted
5:56 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:53 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:47 PM
by Gene
Hey but if you go by shorter time frames -- say, four days -- and you believe in Wall Street's fairies the answer can only be yes.
Posted
5:44 PM
by Gene
![]() Usually when teddy bears and candles sprout in the ghetto, so does NO SNITCHIN'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankfully, not this time.
Posted
5:35 PM
by Gene
Hardware: Oil-Immersion Cooled PCs Goes [SIC!] To Retail
Posted
5:14 PM
by Gene
Posted
3:15 PM
by Gene
This is not news to those who must consume it.
Posted
2:28 PM
by Gene
(Via the usual Romy)
Posted
10:51 AM
by Gene
And why did WaPo bury this on A12? P. S. 81 on September 5.
Posted
9:58 AM
by Gene
Posted
9:41 AM
by Gene
Let's hope St. Warren folds the rag before he has a chance to be the next JACK KROLL!
Posted
9:29 AM
by Gene
[I]t’s a little jolting to realize that a starring role on Broadway is no longer synonymous with stardom in the celebrity sense of the word. Who needs celebrities with all the roustabouts?
Posted
9:16 AM
by Gene
"Since when do you guys lean right?" (Via the usual Romy)
Posted
9:11 AM
by Gene
Ka-CHING! And apparently the ASSPress was so excited at this Force of Truth and Justice getting a job that the spelling error appears all throughout the news food chain! A specially misspelled NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD to ASSPRESS! Sunday, October 19, 2008
Posted
6:44 PM
by Gene
``OPEC is going to try to prevent some of the price decline,'' Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities research at Merrill in London, said in a Bloomberg television interview. ``It's going to be very difficult to stem a price fall.'' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Falling oil prices dent Hugo Chávez's clout Commodities prices overall are slipping, generating new concern in a region heavily vested in exports of soy, copper, and crude. But it is Chávez who could stand the most to lose: a new report from Deutsche Bank says that Venezuela needs prices to stay at $95 a barrel in order to balance its budget. Coupled with production declines, Chávez's days as the ultimate benefactor could be coming to a close. See? Not all the economic news is bad.
Posted
6:37 PM
by Gene
![]() And here we thought the election had just about deep-sixed everyone's sense of humor. Happily this does not appear to be so.
Posted
6:22 PM
by Gene
Posted
5:01 PM
by Gene
![]() And on my way back from the not-so-great A I beheld as always this landmark in the sky, and today I couldn't help reflecting what it once stood for: Philadelphia National Bank. In twenty years it's gone through four mergers and four name changes, the first three accompanied by layoffs (and I suspect writedowns): first CoreStates (sic) Financial, then FirstUnion (sic), then Watchoverya; now it's the Federally-pastored shotgun wedding with Wells Fargo. If this bank had stayed local it might not have been better managed; then again had it hewed to local lending and sound, conservative principles it could have been a true public servant, a feather in our civic cap, and very profitable, and no one would talk about new lows, or RUNS. Walkoverya had planned to get rid of the letters but now, it appears, they'll stay forever, like the ones on the currently Loews hotel. I would not wager though that Wells will pay full price to keep a name on the sporting Taj Mahal for rich people. It would show true principle to abandon it to the prima donnas and their losses. Then again, if their execs can find a way to put their feet on the luxury-suite railings maybe they will.
Posted
4:56 PM
by Gene
And lately the several A&Ps where I have to shop for groceries have taken to playing seventies foreground Muzak. I am convinced it's a malevolent inside joke -- especially as the A seems to have gone on a price-hiking spree, perhaps to pay for buying Pathmark. What sort of idiots do they think we are? Yet there is no changing either company; both live on captive customers.
Posted
2:56 PM
by Gene
This is not to say rightists can't spin. We saw that when NRO's effete snobs tried to turn the airhead SARAH!!!!! into a goddess. But this is to say so long as people like Jonny and Mark can talk down to their readers with impunity we should do everything we can to see their employers' share prices get closer to zero, even though Jonny and Mark are likely to be among the LAST to lose their jobs.
Posted
1:14 PM
by Gene
Will someone tell the BUTTMAN INSTITUTE-DOW 36,000-BARNEY-FAG ARMEY CROWD, the more business practices UNFETTERED CAPITALISM, the more likely it is to BRING ON STATE SOCIALISM and NATIONAL-NANNYISM? BUTTMAN INSTITUTE, by the way, was my reference to one of a certain Glibertarian think tank's finest supporters.
Posted
1:03 PM
by Gene
[C]reating a single viable biotech company with 10 to 20 employees takes as long as 10 years and as much as $100 million in cash infusions over those years, Eli Lilly start-up specialist Joshua Salisbury estimated. By that rough measure, replacing the state's 133,400 lost factory jobs with the same number of knowledge workers would require amassing $670 billion to seed 6,700 new tech firms employing 20 workers each. Is that doable in Indiana? Well, Dubya helped the investment bankers -- so anything's possible!
Posted
12:36 PM
by Gene
And we might add the more The Lord widens His lead in endorsements the less likely the climb back up gets any easier.
Posted
10:07 AM
by Gene
That can only mean one thing: the DEMOCRAT party (or is that DEMONCRAT) will so thoroughly destroy America we can start from scratch! But remember Capo, they had help. Or maybe he's just looking forward to getting all the spoils again.
Posted
9:49 AM
by Gene
Why just this economy?
Posted
9:45 AM
by Gene
Or do you snooze because this old bozo was auditioning for a job? Fortunately not so many people watch Deke the Press as when ST. TIM was on. P. S. at 12:33 p. m. REPUBLICAN Colin Powell endorses Obama [Overemphasis added] We wonder how many hacks are playing this gag. Oddly the "domestic" Web site didn't do it. Perhaps they're being careful. (CNN -- careful?!?)
Posted
9:33 AM
by Gene
Does he still write those cloying editorials for Useless News? He could double his pleasure! Well see Barack -- Mr. President, I have all these real-estate investments, and....
Posted
9:22 AM
by Gene
Thanks a lot, BABBITTS and Baby Einsteins.
Posted
9:13 AM
by Gene
No, not that state down south.
Posted
9:03 AM
by Gene
It might have been more than poor people, PILL.
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