Newspapers Looking For Love And Readers

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING! BUT ONE DAY YOU MAY ONLY BE ABLE TO READ ABOUT IT ONLINE

Gone are the days when owning the local newspaper was essentially a license to print money. The Internet and shifting readership habits saw to that.
Not to worry, the 1,450 daily newspapers in the U.S. are not on the fast track to extinction -- yet. With more than half of us reading some 58 million copies daily, there's still plenty of paper to recycle.
Still, those numbers keep slipping despite many papers' yeoman efforts to keep themselves compelling and relevant. Of course, that hasn't meant diddly to shareholders still feasting on the spoils from the glory days of earlier decades. Witness the cutbacks at the Los Angeles Times, despite winning seven Pulitzers in the last two years alone.
A lot of hand-wringing has been going on this week in San Francisco, at the annual conference for the Newspaper Association of America, where attendees have gotten used to hearing bad news. Among the latest nuggets: A report that newspapers could lose $4 billion a year to the Internet in classified ads within two years.
One NAA official took a glass-is-half-full approach: "It's not too late to recover, but the door of opportunity is closing quickly."
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=44826#
You can forgive those in attendance if they're not convinced about that. After all, how many of them have cut their newshole, staff and other expenses because the money doesn't just roll up to the door like it used to? Classified ads are virtually pure profit. If they go away, so does the holiday bonus, or worse.

Cardinals Bless The Media By Picking Frontrunner

REPORTERS BREATHE SIGH OF RELIEF AS FAVORITE WINS VATICAN HORSE RACE

No doubt correspondents at the Vatican had plenty of B-matter already written on Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he emerged from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica as Pope Benedict XVI. It would have been interesting if a dark horse had emerged as a consensus candidate, and reporters had to instead scratch their heads and scramble to write a few fresh grafs before hitting the send button.

But Ratzinger it was, which allowed The New York Times to hit the web at 1:35 p.m. ET. with a bylined article from Ian Fisher and Christine Hauser, whose name was swapped out for religion writer Laurie Goodstein in a writethrough 10 minutes later, and sent to the bottom of the story.
The Times took a wire-serviceish approach in the lead, allowing the context to follow later:

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope today, taking the name Benedict XVI, then telling a wildly cheering crowd from a balcony on St. Peter's Basilica, "I entrust myself to your prayers."

Perfectly serviceable, and not as dry as the Washington Post lead that followed 10 minutes later.

The Los Angeles Times, though, tried to set up right away what was to come, or not to come, from the Vatican, calling Ratzinger a "hard-line doctrinal watchdog."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-041905pope_lat,0,3525431.story?coll=la-home-headlines.

Visitors to the Chicago Tribune Web site were told the paper was putting out an extra edition this afternoon, which may explain why it used AP copy in its initial Pope dispatch.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-pope,1,2407790.story?coll=chi-news-hed. So did the Philadelphia Inquirer, although they trotted out an analysis of Ratzinger that was already in the can, where David O'Reilly notes the legacy of John Paul II won't be fading anytime soon.

Tradition and orthodoxy will surely be the hallmark of the Ratzinger pontificate. He not only condemns homosexuality as "an intrinsic moral evil" but has suggested that Catholic altars should face east, to Jerusalem.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/special_packages/pope/11433617.htm
To paraphrase The Who: Meet the new pope; same as the old pope.

Boston Globe readers had to go past photos of yesterday's Boston Marathon and click on a small icon for breaking news to find out about the pope, a curious omission given the number of Roman Catholics who live in the area. Early on, the Globe relied on the AP and didn't glom on to its corporate cousin, The Times.
USA Today might have been better off sticking with the AP, rather than cobbling together a staff-wire hybrid on its Web site that led off with this mess:

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a high-profile conservative, Tuesday was elected the 265th pope of the Catholic Church and chose the name Benedict XVI.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-04-19-newpope_x.htm
Holy Father, get me rewrite.

The Best Show on TV Can't Get "Arrested" By Nielsen

A bittersweet night on Fox yesterday, when the season (and please let it be just that) finale of "Arrested Development" aired.

The show was its usual hilarious self, but I couldn't help but be a bit wistful given that Fox hasn't decided whether "A.D." will be back for another go-round this fall. Right now, it's not looking good for the 6 million or so of us hopelessly devoted to the misadventures of the hapless Bluth clan.

Sure, the show's won three Emmys and a Golden Globe, yet it's caught in a time-slot purgatory and a lead-in from "The Simpsons" that doesn't deliver up enough devotees.

Fox launched a kill-the-show-in-order-to-save-it approach to A.D., cutting the 22-episode season order to 18. Then network big cheese Gail Berman said she was doing the show a favor so it wouldn't have even lower ratings during May sweeps. Gee, thanks, Gail. Sort of.

Fox says it doesn't want to deep-six "A.D.," so now it wants listeners to left-click their sentiments at http://www.getarrested.com/ in order for us to show proper fealty and get others of like mind to follow suit. Hey, whatever it takes, I'm on board. Barring that, I'm sure HBO wouldn't have a hard time finding a slot given that most of their shows are signing off or withering on the vine.

Which brings me to Kansas City Star TV critic Aaron Barnhart, whom I'm normally a big fan of. In his latest column posted on his TV Barn blog, http://www.tvbarn.com/archives/028745.php, Barnhart regrettably regards "A.D." as overpraised.

"Arrested Development” is a likable if not quite lovable program, solidly entertaining but more in the league of “Scrubs” than of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the two shows I think it would like to be when it grows up.

Ouch, Mr. B. I'm actually a big "Scrubs" fan, too. Dunno, but all the abusurdities, parodies, in-jokes and irony that pile up there and on "A.D." provide a good chunk of the laughs I'm able to dredge up on the network schedules (Cable is a whole different animal).

Giving the network credit for putting the show on the air in the first place and keeping it on the air despite mediocre ratings is no longer enough. Can Fox do better in "A.D.'s" time slot? Of course not. Does it matter? Ditto.

It's usually simpler to cancel a show rather than figure out how it can find an audience. How nice it would be for the gang in Murdochville to not take the easy way out.

Toiletmania---Thailand To Be Next Year's Porcelain King

A recent wire story picked up from the Bangkok Post told of how Thailand would be the host for next year's World Toilet Summit. What a pisser.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20050414/ap_on_fe_st/world_toilet_summit course, you might find an item about international experts huddling for what could be called Flush Fest (this year's will be held in Shanghai) unless you've happened to use a public toilet in many parts of Asia. Suffice to say, these guys have a lot to talk about.
A visit to www.worldtoilet.org shows what much of the world is up against:

Public toilets serve the male and female but it goes beyond that. What about the visually, physically and mentally handicapped, the child, the elderly, or people with babies, as well as certain religious and cultural toilet requirements? The female visits the toilet 3 times longer than the male; logically they need more toilet cubicles because of the absence of urinals.

And most women in the United States find that just about everywhere they try to pee in public is illogical.

To be sure, there are many places in the United States where the concept of cleanliness being next go godliness has not reached the bathroom. However, the U.S. affiliate for the World Toilet Organization is the Baltimore-based International Paruresis Association, whose reason for being is a disorder that prevents people from urinating in public places or in the presence of other people [not a good situation for Olympic athletes who have to pee on demand while some lucky soul gets to watch].

If you believe the claims at http://www.paruresis.org, 7 percent of the population has bashful bladders. The rest of us just hold our nose and hope for the best.

IN OTHER W.C. NEWS, UPDATED MAY 31.
In Finland, they don't have a problem holding it in, it's what to do after it comes out, thanks to a shortage of T.P. for the W.C.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1410062.html?menu=

Weekly Read-Out--"Trek" bit players have 15 minutes extended; making love the Green way, a really bad day in New Jersey and pizza wars

The Los Angeles Times found there are some who got to orbit in the "Star Trek" universe are getting their 16th minute of fame, thanks to lots of undersexed men who still live in their parents' basement.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-bitplayers8apr08,0,5077740.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Birds do it, bees do it, and so do a couple of environmentalists who have a found they can hug trees and hump each other for fun, profit and to promote a good cause.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/04/13/gree.DTL
Think you had a bad day? The Bergen Record's Rich Cowen reports on a couple of guys in New Jersey who can easily beat you in a game of "Can You Top That?"
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk0NSZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NjY3OTE1MSZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTM Ed Levine just put out "Pizza: A Slice Of Heaven," where he talks about where to find a slice that's a transcendent experience rather than a gloppy mess of sauce, tasteless cheese and rancid dough. Levine traveled the U.S. and Italy in search of that all-defining pie. One place that got the hook was Chicago, whose deep-dish pizza Levine called a good casserole, but certainly not pizza.
As you can imagine, Chicagoans don't like being left out of the pizza pantheon. And though Mike Thomas in the Chicago Sun-Times doesn't mention Levine by name, you can tell right away he has little use for him.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/food/foo-news-pizza30.html

Much About Mitch: Why Don't More Think There Should Be An Albom Cut At The "Free Press"

Maybe I'm missing something. Or perhaps the media have been so beaten down by the Jayson Blairs, the Jack Kellys and their odious ilk to muster sufficent outrage over the fact that Mitch Albom submitted an advance column about something that wound up never happening, but he penned it as if he was right there all along.

Albom made the mistake that even most pimply-faced cub reporters wouldn't attempt, let alone an award-winning, millionaire Friend Of Oprah columnist.

The reaction of editors has been, to say the very least, puzzling. Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp recently polled a bunch of them at the ASNE convention, and only one came right out and said Albom should be canned outright.

"It is dishonest, and if you look at what we do, that is one of the things we cannot afford to do," said Rocky Mountain News editor and publisher John Temple, who nevertheless eqivocated on whether Albom should be ousted.

Then you have to wonder about guys like Bill Thomas, editor of the Record-Eagle in Traverse City, MI, who called Albom "sloppy," but praised him as "an accomplished writer who is entitled to one mistake."
Thomas is assuming there is just one mistake. But even if it's just this transgression, shouldn't that be enough when fiction masquerades as a column?

To be sure, Albom has engendered less sympathy in the trenches -- to a point. Aaron Bracy, who writes for the Courier-Post in suburban Philadelphia, took Albom to task for further widening the credibility gap between the media and readers, but said if this is a one-time offense, let it pass and have Albom and others learn from what happened. All well and good, but if Albom needs to learn not to deceive readers, does he really deserve his column?
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/sports/s041505l.htm

Fortunately, the blogosphere has no shortage of seeing this issue for what it is. Among them is Bill Gallagher:

He could have written the piece in a number of different ways or he could have chosen to write about something else. His editors would have taken anything Lord Albom deigned to submit. But it's clear he followed his appetite for mushy, feel-good stuff and fictionalized the scene accordingly.
http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/gallagher209.html

Then there are bloggers who think they know what they are talking about, but stumble badly when trying to spew out their tired left-leaning media conspiracy bromides to explain away Albom. Such is James Joyner's OutsideTheBeltway.com.

I would point out that columns and even straight news stories are written ALL THE TIME as if the story had already happened. It's not unusual to get a story from the wire services or major newspapers written several hours before, say, a presidential speech that already has the quotes (via advance copy) of what the president will say and, indeed, (via reactions to the advance copy) the reaction of Democratic opponents and Republican supporters.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/10026

Yes, and no. In his rush to make the facts fit his opinion, Joyner leaves out a crucial element. While the stories are written before the speech is delivered, they say so ("In remarks prepared for delivery tonight, the president said....."). There's no deception. The stories are advancers and everybody knows that up front. If the president deviated from the script, the story can be updated in later editions. Albom didn't provide himself any wiggle room, and when the events he described didn't pan out, he made himself and the Detroit Free Press look foolish.

Joyner then launches a non-sequitur missile when he argues what Albom did was akin to writing obituaries in advance of somebody dying. What he conveniently forgets, or maybe never knew, is that newspapers didn't tell you the pope died before he actually did. Writers of non-fiction don't assume.

In a conclusion that only someone who gives the impression that they've never set foot inside a newsroom could make, Joyner says what Albom did was "not unethical, unprofessional or unusual."

Let's hope Albom's bosses at the Free Press don't feel the same.

So Why Hasn't Mitch Albom Been Fired Yet?

There are the working stiffs in the newspaper business, and then there are the poseurs, the local legends, the star columnist who may actually be the reason, or one among many that people buy the paper. Mitch Albom is all of these.
Which is why he may actually survive penning a column about something that never happened, but made it seem like he was there the whole time.
If you're tuning in late, Albom wrote in his April 3, Detroit Free Press column about two former Michigan State hoop stars flying to St. Louis for the NCAA basketball championship to root on their former team. Only thing wrong? The players never made it to the game. But to hear Albom tell it:
"[I]n talking to both players ... it was a chance to do something almost all of us would love to do: recapture , for a few hours, the best time of their lives."
Albom rolled the dice, writing a Sunday column on Friday for an event on Saturday. Oops. Now his column is suspended, and Albom's on paid leave while the Free Press investigates what happened.
Maybe I can help them out: Mitch lied.
And he took the newspaper's credibility along his journalistic road to perdition. Not quite Jayson Blair territory, but scary close, don't you think?
But wait, you say. Doesn't Mitch have editors? And why didn't red flags pop up in the newsroom like the cherry blossoms come spring? Excellent questions both. If Mitch gets canned and/or caned for this work, then the editors who slotted for the early Sunday edition of the sports section shouldn't be spared.
One excuse has already emerged, namely they were blinded by Mitch's star power. After all, it's not every paper that has a columnist who also pens runaway bestsellers like "Five People You Meet On Tuesdays With Morrie In Heaven." And has a radio show. And appears on ESPN. Sometimes he even writes for the Free Press.
In the end, that's why we're still talking about Mitch's column in the present tense. Mere mortals would've gotten the boot and an escort from the building by a couple of moonlighting bouncers who'd ensure the door wouldn't hit us on the way out.
Mitch is a brand, and the Free Press needs all the help it can get to differentiate itself from the Detroit News, where the gloating marathon is no doubt continuing unabated.
So, what becomes a legend most may wind up being a trip to the woodshed rather than the woodchipper. And that would be a shame, especially given that the guilty party has been less than contrite and seems more sorry about getting caught than acknowledging his misdeeds.
Getting rid of Albom should be as easy a decision as it was to run his column without question. Payback's a bitch, Mitch.

No Call Waiting: Cell Phones Better Than Sex

A study by BBDO Worldwide finds an alarming number of people will stop in the middle of a sex act to answer their mobile phone.
Which may say a lot about their partners. Or, it may speak volumes about how cellphones are the new heroin. Verizon, Sprint and Cingular have us right where they want us.
Sex? Been there, climaxed that. But that new ringtone from Chingy's latest single? Now you're talking, baby. And it'll respect you in the morning to boot.

As Alice Cuneo notes in Advertising Age: The findings arrive as the wireless industry is aggressively ramping up its effort to promote the cell phone as a content- and advertising-delivering device to potentially rival that of TV or the Internet. Cynics, however, question whether most consumers will want to watch programming and ads on a screen hardly larger than the face of a wristwatch. Wireless content evangelists rebut that the emotional connection between individual consumers and their cell phones is an extraordinary one.

An emotional connection you scoff? See what happens next time you're in bed and it's the Motorola that's doing the vibrating.

http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=44753

Weekly Read-Out--A Pope Scoop, An Overly Erect Statue, Breastfeeding Tigers and a Not-So-Gay Wedding

British tabs are ruthless in being first on a story. But sometimes it's a happy accident when that happens, as one Daily Mail scribe found out when the Pope was shot in 1981.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1453353,00.html
Is that a statue or are you just glad to see me? A Dutch homage to the end of the German occupation is not what some folks have in mind.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1338901.html?menu=news.quirkies.badtaste
Sometimes, a short headline is all you need to click on the story. How about this one? "Woman breastfeeds tigers." Gotcha.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Unusual-Tales/Woman-breastfeeds-tigers/2005/04/04/1112489391612.html.
I just caught up to this series the Boston Globe put out last year on one family dealing with two weddings. Getting married is stressful enough, but when one is a gay wedding at a time when there was question about whether such unions would be legal makes for a compelling tale, not to mention that the family has enough back stories for a four-part series that's worth the time.
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/bestmen/
It's also interesting to note the Globe's long note on its reporting techniques for the story, including these revealing and refreshing sentences: Unless otherwise noted in the text, all direct quotes were either heard by a reporter or confirmed by two or more parties present when the conversation took place. When someone's thoughts or feelings are described, the source is that person.

Popepourri--All Sorts Of Spin And Sidebars From The Vatican

Here's a lead you likely won't see in any American newspaper, but a winner all the same. From The Australian:

In death, Pope John Paul II has achieved what he failed to in life - bringing the commander in chief of the world's superpower to his knees.

George W. Bush made history yesterday as the first American president to attend a papal funeral, kneeling in silent prayer before the Catholic leader who opposed US intervention in Iraq.

Over in the UK, The Daily Mirror, which usually never resists an attempt to bash Bush, instead had a dispatch from reporter Alexandra Williams, who stood on line for the Pope walk-by.

The look on John Paul II's face was pained. I could not help thinking that his final hours might not have been quite as serene as we have been told.

Peter Popham in The Independent noted that Bush may be seated close to Iran's president Khatami tomorrow at the funeral, putting Dubya remarkably close to one of his "evildoers."

And lest we forget, the Pope is nothing if not big bucks, at least for the landlords and others fleecing the media for prime Vatican views.

A television producer for a European company said that several years ago the owners of a prime building asked him to pay $200,000 for the peak coverage period.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-0504060239apr06,1,853641.story?coll=chi-homepagenews-utl

Pulitzers: Kudos Give Way To Reality In The Newsroom

Amid the popping of champagne corks, hugs, and high-fives in some newsrooms that produced winning Pulitzer Prize entries was the sobering reality that a news organization that could nurture great work would also take steps to ensure that such lofty journalistic heights would never be scaled again.
Exhibits A and B come from the Tribune Co., whose Newsday and Los Angeles Times won Pulitzers, which is nothing unusual for either paper.
Newsday shared the award for international reporting for Dele Olojede's four-part series on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide 10 years later. A worthy honor for a reporter who often shone because he was cut loose to do enterprise reporting across continents. But to bask in the kudos that flowed his way for the Pulitzer, Olojede had to make a special trip. You see, he was among the reporters and editors who took a buyout last year, not long after his series was published.
Newsday was cutting bodies to trim costs and let Olojede -- who had become Newsday's foreign editor -- walk. Not everyone who wanted the buyout bucks was as fortunate. Safe to say, it may not have been the way that Olojede wanted to leave the paper he joined as an intern out of Columbia J-School in 1988.
Would Newsday have barred the door if Olojede had won the prize earlier? Hard to say. Tribune's lately been run from its HQ free of sentiment.
The L.A. Times has learned this the hard way. It won the Public Service prize -- the Big Kahuna for the Pulitzers -- and the other half of the International award, for reporting from Russia by Kim Murphy.
The Times, which has won 37 Pulitzers, has suffered for its drops in circulation. The gang in Chicago continues to nip, tuck, squeeze and wheedle savings out of its largest property. So far, the product we see hasn't frayed even if it's in danger of showing signs of wear.
It is telling in the Times' Pulitzer article that it mentioned "Reporters and editors gave a loud and extended ovation to Publisher John P. Puerner, who has been seen as a champion of the newspaper's editorial operations in an era of cost-cutting. Puerner announced last month that he would take a "self-imposed career break" at the end of May, to be replaced by his protege, Jeffrey M. Johnson."
Being good is not good enough. Pulitzer Prizes don't sell papers. That's the problem. And a shame.

Can't Anybody Here Write About This Game? The Wall Street Journal's Baseball Illiteracy

More often than not, the Wall Street Journal does an eminenty decent job covering sports, even when it looks overly priggish when it uses courtesy titles with such items ("Mr. Matsui, nicknamed Godzilla....."), something even The NY Times dispenses with.
Still, somebody was asleep at the copy desk, or just plain clueless, while looking over Stephen Barbara's piece about the possible resurgence of my beloved Mets on the back of yesterday's Personal Journal section.
"More colorful advertising is on its way, with Ray Romano reportedly in talks to do a radio spot."
Actually, Steve, it was beyond the talking stage as of March 25, and you can hear the ad whenever you want on http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050328&content_id=979551&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym.
"I asked Dave Howard of the Mets marketing team if the Mets ownership will continue to buy expensive players..."
Technically correct, although it makes it seem like he's something less than what he is, which is Executive Vice President of Business Operations. If anything, Howard is the head of the Mets marketing team.
"[T]he Mets have hired Willie Randolph as their coach...."
Wrong-O, Steve-O. Sure, Willie was relegated for far too long as a coach while with the Yankees. But he's the manager now, Mr. Randolph to you.

The coach-manager thing is something Steve Hartman screwed up on "60 Minutes Wednesday" during his otherwise-fun piece on why the Detroit Tigers don't deserve his loyalty anymore. He called the team's manager Alan Trammell "coach" and nobody caught it in the editing room?
It was the only blip during a show that made a strong case for why "60W" should live long and prosper and not be sitting in Moonves Purgatory. The Anderson Cooper segment on football players and steroids rightly drew national headlines, and Dan Rather deftly engaged in some friendly sparring with Jack Welch, although the former GE chieftain had to clam up when asked about his ex-wife. A slip of the tongue there would not have accrued to his bottom line.

French-Kissing Cousins

The second time's the charm for two first cousins, who couldn't get married in Pennsylvania, but hopped over the border to Maryland, where such unions aren't frowned upon. Apparently, this is not a trend confined to Appalachia. Seems half the states allow first cousins to get hitched.
http://www.wftv.com/family/4326779/detail.html.

It's Safe To Say The Tattoo Doesn't Say "Mom"

Two guys in upstate New York are in jail for tattooing an obscenity on a teenager's forehead. Not exactly the conversation piece he had in mind.
http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=3133299.

L.A. Times: Don't Bury Tom Delay's Schiavo Moment In Time

Was catching up to the LA Times story on how Tom Delay's family pulled the plug on their father back in 1988 when a freak accident left him in a persistent vegetative state. Or, at least, was trying to catch up with what's a great story. The Times didn't include it in its Terri Schiavo archive, so you have to do a word search ("Tom DeLay" will do the trick) to get yesterday's article. Don't bury the lead!
And to save you the trouble, here's the story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-delay27mar27,1,1747897.story
As for what DeLay's hometown, badly scooped Houston Chronicle will say on this issue. So far, apparently nothing. So far, it was content to run the Times story and leave it at that.

The Weekly Read Out--Desperate Housebuyers, Other Victims of McGwire's Non-Testimony and a Real Fruity Ex-Cop

You thought buying a home was tough? You don't know tough!
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-deals20mar20,1,2960899.story
Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci reveals who were the other losers when Mark McGwire clammed up at the Congressional steriods hearing.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/tom_verducci/03/22/mcgwire.congress/index.html
Is that a banana in your pants, or are you just glad to see me? Actually, this time it really is a banana. Police in Connecticut were not amused.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/03/17/national/a161918S40.DTL&type=bondage

Barry Bonds Gets Knee-Capped By The Media

Some reporters might have a thimble's worth of sympathy for Barry Bonds. But the media's out of thimbles.
The inmate running his own asylum told us yesterday his rehab from knee surgery might keep him out for the whole season, or maybe it might force him to retire.
"You wanted me to jump off the bridge; I finally have jumped. You wanted to bring me down; you've finally brought me and my family down."
At last, the conspiracy's been revealed. The media was behind Bonds' slow recovery from surgery, the likelihood he used, unknowingly or not, steroids, and they goaded Bonds' ex-mistress into claiming Bonds used steroids and gave her cash -- that may have been unreported to the IRS -- from autographing balls.
You think reporters and columnists are enjoying the latest episodes of As Barry Turns? Well, yes. San Jose Mercury News columist Mark Purdy envisioned taking a trip through Bonds' head and came away empty.
"Even after all these years of exploring Mr. Bonds' brain, we still find it impossible to figure out the hell is happening in there."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/baseball/mlb/oakland_athletics/11203921.htm Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune says he didn't RSVP to Bonds' pity party. Instead, he hopes Bonds is going, going, gone for good.
"Well, it's fair to say the exasperation Bonds displayed Tuesday, caused as much by the continued revelations about his lack of character as concern about the right knee on which he has had surgery twice since Jan. 31, rang out more loudly than most of his 703 home runs."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-0503230268mar23,1,1608206.story?coll=chi-sportsnew-hed
In the past, Bonds has said he'd be content to not pass Hank Aaron and be number two on the home run list because Aaron was a black role model he admired. Or maybe, as the Bergen Record's Adrian Wojnarowski suggests, Bonds simply isn't up to the task of being a standard bearer.
"Finally, he's figured out that he probably isn't spiting baseball by chasing the final 52 home runs toward Aaron, but spiting himself."
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMDYmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2Njk3MDMmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2
In the end, notes Newsday's Jon Heyman, one winner out of all this might be Mark McGwire, who Bonds could wind up making lood good by comparison.
"One thing about Bonds is that he not only thinks he's a better baseball player than everyone else, he also thinks he's smarter than everyone else. He thinks everyone's swallowing his every word. He thinks we're all dummies."
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-sphey234187553mar23,0,256421.column?coll=ny-sports-headlines
One thing the baseball media may forget is if Bonds goes into rehab exile, there will be one less thing to carp about. They might actually have to cover, gasp, a real game.

NPR's Morning Edition's Confusing Priorities

Not the best of days for the usually sturdy and reliable "Morning Edition." The program normally runs live from 5-7 a.m. ET. However, in the wake of 9/11, NPR took steps to ensure it was nimble enough to get on the air with breaking news when the network had to scramble to get on the air with fresh news when the first planes hit.
So, it was troubling this morning when the 7 a.m. rebroadcast of the 5 a.m. hour was not topped with news that had broke about 6:25 a.m., namely that the judge in the Terri Schiavo case refused to order that her feeding tube be reinserted.
Instead, Renee Montagne's open only referenced yesterday's hearing. Was she already out the door that she couldn't have retopped a story that had broken while she was still on the air? It would not have taken much to provide the update and then intro Ari Shapiro's fine report on what happened in court Monday, which was still a valid story.
The hourly newscast did have the latest information, but that show had its own shortcomings, namely the approximately 10 seconds devoted to the Minnesota school massacre, which happened fairly late in the news cycle Monday and was likely news to plenty of people upon wake up.
Instead, the better part of a minute was devoted to problems in the Congo in a report filed from Dakar, which is clean across the other side of Africa. Which is not to say that the information wasn't of interest, especially for someone like me who's long decried the decline of foreign news reporting and has admired NPR's doggedly bucking that trend with frequently excellent reportage.
Still, the Red Lake shootings were justly on every front page and and at the top of every morning news show. Fortunately, we have not yet become a nation inured to school massacres, and this one, being the worst since Columbine, more than warranted a thorough treatment that NPR took a pass on.
Even on Morning Edition, Montagne's Q&A with a laconic reporter from Minnesota Public Radio could have been fleshed out with interviews or at least soundbites from people closer to the scene. No dice.
Spare me the screeds about the blue-state elitists on the coasts who run NPR. They just don't hold water. Still, you can't help but wonder if this happened closer to a big city and not on an isolated Indian reservation that this wouldn't have gotten better play this morning. NPR's never used a remote location as an excuse for not covering a story.
So, let's chalk it up to just plain bad news judgment and hope that it's not as glaring in the future. For the millions of listeners who count on NPR for a concise yet contextual summary of what's happening, they were left with something much less than they might have expected and certainly deserved.

That Was Then, This Is Now: Columnists Skewer McGwire For Doing The Steroid Shuffle

Mark McGwire rightfully deserves all the scorn being heaped on him for yesterday's gutless appearance before the Congressional committee investigating steroids in baseball. He wouldn't say it ain't so. In fact, he said nothing much in between his crocodile tears. Watch the price on his rookie card plunge ever so fast.
Still, it's hard to watch our heroes take a fall. Even the surliest of sports columnists take a break from kicking a guy when he's down every now and then. Then there are the writers from the hometown papers who don't want to be flamed by furious fans and will keep the kid gloves on. They're gutless wonders in their own right.
Fortunately, Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch steered clear of that path today. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/bryanburwell/story/EE4E22381B91C4AF86256FC8001A4613?OpenDocument

[A]ll McGwire gave us were counterfeit tears and a rehearsed nondenial denial that would have embarrassed Dick Nixon.

McGwire first started launching taters for the Oakland A's, where the hometown Tribune's Monte Poole refrained from ripping into McGwire mano a mano. Instead, he took on the baseball establishment, which is arguably more deserving of a trip to the woodshed.

As for the executives summoned, well, they performed as expected. The folks who went after Pete Rose with considerably more fervor than they went after steroids not only will debate the color of the sky but also whether there is such a thing as the sky.

The knives were sharpened across the Bay at the San Francisco Chronicle, where Gwen Knapp didn't hesitate to call McGwire a coward.

[T]he beloved giant redhead who happily scooped up his son at home plate is gone. He didn't vanish because of the very strong probability that he took steroids that season. He disappeared because, as a heroic figure, he never really existed.

McGwire was credited, along with Sammy Sosa, for ushering in a new era of good feeling in baseball back in 1998 when they chased and passed Roger Maris' home run mark and erased the lasting sting left over from when a strike wiped out the 1994 season. His silence on Thursday put most baseball fans right back where we started. Forget asterisks. How about an eraser instead?

Let The Sunshine In

In case you forgot to mark your calendars, we're in the midst of Sunshine Week. No, it's not a paean to the coming of spring, but a battle by top journalism organizations to stem the tide of government secrecy.
It's a movement all the more important as the White House and Bush administration chant a collective mantra of "no" or an indefinite "maybe, maybe not" to many a Freedom of Information Act request. Governments on the state and local levels have taken that as an open invitation to end accountability as we know it.
And though there have been some troubling surveys where an alarming percentage of people believe the press has run amok and that maybe some aspects of the First Amendment weren't such a good idea after all, a poll conducted for Sunshine Week found many people are still concerned when the government willfully clams up.
http://www.sunshineweek.org/sunshineweek/survey
Though the week runs through Mar. 19, the Web site serves as a good year-round clearinghouse for open-government info and how the media is fighting back against officials who choose to duck and cover. Sadly, there is no shortage of material.
One example of why this week is sorely needed is highlighted by a bunch of articles in the Mar. 15 Journal News, which serves New York City's northern suburbs. Reporters fanned out to show how lame FOI compliance can be.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050315/NEWS02/503150302/1018

New Mexico Follies and Statehouse Reporters In Search Of A Living Wage

Having done some time in the press corps in the state capital in Albany, I've been witness to the silliness and outright stupidity that overtakes even the best-intentioned lawmakers. Those who toil in the statehouses often do it for little glory and even less money.
But that doesn't mean they should be excused for being lunkheads. They include those in the New Mexico House who last week voted to require newspapers to run death notices upon request. To prove there isn't much to do in Santa Fe during the winter, the measure was approved 40-15.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/xgr/apobits03-09-05.htm
I'll spare you the screed about the First Amendment, yada yada. Still, it's scary to think somebody came up with this idea, another person drafted the bill, which made it through committee and somehow made it to a floor vote, where it passed by a landslide.
We can take some solace in the fact that Gov. Bill Richardson will in all likelihood veto this sucker hard should the Senate be foolhardy enough to send it to him. This is a guy who makes sure his velvet glove is good and snug before he cozies up to the media. The feeling is apparently mutual.
An article in the latest American Journalism Review revealed that Richardson has hired 21 local journalists to serve in various posts in his administration. While some said they were simply looking for a new challenge or better hours, nobody complained about the extra dough flowing into their checking accounts.
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3817
Of course, this is nothing new. When I was in Albany in the 1980s, many of my colleagues on the third floor of the capital in Albany had it pretty easy. Their papers mostly sent them there more out of a sense of obligation rather than because they were compelled by what actually happened in state government.
Journalism salaries being what they are, it isn't hard to lure reporters with a solid paycheck, better hours [unless you worked for Mario Cuomo] and not having your stories relegated to B-6. Pangs of regret by those who left for flackdom -- and there were dozens -- were virtually nil save for those who likely wondered why they didn't do it sooner.
Still, 21 reporters, editors and producers making an exodus to Santa Fe en masse is a bit striking, especially in a relatively small media market like New Mexico. And don't think newspapers and broadcasters will sit up and take notice and raise salaries, having been stung by this talent drain. There'll always be someone else to fill the jobs and for less money, at least until the next media-savvy governor comes along.

A Rather Dumb Stunt: CBS Affiliate Caught Dumping Dan

Most local stations now have online polls to let viewers weigh in on various topics, as if the average person really cares if their neighbor thinks Britney's latest marriage will last or if we as a nation should allow cloned cats.
These polls allow the empty vessels that are many news directors and station general managers show they are "in touch" with their community. Right.
Which brings us to the yabbos at WWTV/WWUP-TV, the CBS affiliates in northern Michigan, where a recent online poll asked viewers whether the stations should air last night's retrospective on Dan Rather's career. Usually, that decision is made by pressing a remote in the living room. But no, the stations wanted to play Kick The Anchor When He's Down.
It was a dunderheaded maneuver that forced William Kring, the stations' general manager went into backpedal mode online:

We offered our online poll concerning the airing of the Dan Rather special as a way to let our Northern Michigan viewers voice their opinion.
Unfortunately, this simple act of broadcasting localism has been grossly misinterpreted. We were simply trying to maintain the great tradition of local viewer input that is the foundation of our modern day broadcasting system. It was never our intent to embarrass Mr. Rather or the CBS Network.

Maybe it would be more instructive to find out how many viewers want to watch "Yes, Dear" or "Still Standing." Test patterns have been found to be more amusing.

You'll be glad to know Kring suspended the poll and the program aired in its entirety. And we can all breathe a sigh of relief now that the station has gone back to more serious issues in its polls. Today's query: "How soon would you like spring to arrive?"

Dan Rather Not Reporting

"Courage."

The signoff was largely and justly derided when Dan Rather first used it on a newscast early in his tenure as an anchor. But last night, it somehow worked.

"To our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in dangerous places. To those who have endured the tsunami and to all who have suffered natural disasters and who must now find the will to rebuild.
"To the oppressed and to those whose lot it is to struggle in financial hardship or in failing health. To my fellow journalists in places where reporting the truth means risking all.
"And to each of you. Courage."

It was a subdued valedictory. But then again, it was vintage Rather. It wasn't about him. It was all about the story. His enemies, who look under every rock for liberal media bias and no doubt felt Rather had been taunting them for over 30 years, had to be chastened.

To the end, Rather averted the spotlight from himself and his own troubles, and made a dignified exit. That came as no surprise to those who knew him and worked with him, as I did on occasion. The same goes for viewers of the CBS Evening News for the last 24 years, at least those who tuned in for the news and didn't parse words trying to decrypt secret messages from the liberal cabal.

If Rather went out on a high note, it was the network that stumbled at the end. Rather and other correspondents went through the first 20 minutes of the show as if nothing unusual was happening. But when he signed off, there was a wide shot of dozens of staffers converging for what would be a 10-minute standing ovation.

Instead, CBS cut away from the reverie for the nightly Wal-Mart promo before returning to the applause. One thinks CBS could have given the folks in Bentonville a make-good and would not have caught flack for letting the eight-second read slide for a night. This was not just another newscast. This was news.

The Voices Of Summer Grow Faint

The passing of Baltimore Orioles announcer Chuck Thompson on Sunday meant that the true old guard of baseball broadcasting, those whose careers are older than most of their listeners, has shrunk to a precious few.

Herb Carneal, the original voice of the Minnesota Twins, and who worked five seasons with Thompson in Baltimore from 1957-62, will be spending his 50th year behind the mike at age 81. Carneal, who only works the first five innings of home games, has indicated this season will likely be the last.

Then the Los Angeles Dodgers have some guy named Vin Scully, who has managed to stick around painting the word pictures for 56 years. And even at age 78 and a reduced travel schedule, don't expect Scully to park himself on a fairway anytime soon. This 2003 interview with the Tribune-Review in suburban Pittsburgh doesn't sound like a man thinking about retirement.

I guess my body is my thermometer as far as interest in the game. I still get goose bumps when a good play is made. I still really feel the excitement. I think the day that I don't would be time to hang it up. It's been a long, endless love affair right up to this moment.

Millions of Dodgers fans across four generations feel the same.

Which brings us back to Chuck Thompson, as sure a Baltimore sports legend as Ripken or Unitas, both of whose exploits he chronicled for decades. The Sun carried five articles about his death yesterday to underscore just how much he meant to his adopted town. Even though he had left the booth in 2000, Baltimore is a city that doesn't forget its friends and in Thompson they found nobody more loyal.

Thompson could be an expert, no-nonsense storyteller and every bit the homer as well, although that's something fans in most cities don't seem to mind even if TV sports columnists do. Unlike Harry Caray, who could be his team's top booster and venemous critic at the same time, seldom was heard a discouraging word from Thompson, as these clips from Orioles flagship WBAL can attest:
http://wbal.com/stories/articlefiles/28893-Chuck-Tribute.mp3

Even if Thompson's legacy is burnished with the patina of excess nostalgia, so what? Looking back allows you to slip back into a moment in time when basebal l was different somehow, more accessible, more innocent, more fun. And Chuck Thompson was a part of all of those moments.

The Weekly Read Out--A Tarnished Sea Biscuit, a Bitchy Bachelorette and The Airlines' Airlies

Far be it for New York Daily News columnist Vic Ziegel to tarnish the legend that is Sea Biscuit. But his greatest triumph may not have been all that it appeared to be.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/col/story/285738p-244620c.html
New York Times TV critic Virginia Heffernan is at her best skewering the worst offenders in TV Land. Which means she has a lot of material to work with. She generously dipped into her supply of venom to slap around The Bachelorette.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/arts/television/02heff.html
Joe Brancatelli is one of the most wise and wizened scribes when it comes to business travels and the many follies perpetrated on us by the airlines. Always an entertaining and informative read, Brancatelli turns away from the airport and back to the newsrooms where he finds a dreadful shortage of reporters holding the airlines accountable for their many misdeeds. The truth squad is either on holiday or stuck on an airport security line.
In his latest column, he takes on the media for falling woefully short
http://joe.biztravelife.com/joe.html

XM Wants To Bleed A Little Less; That Means You Pay More

For those of you who asked the question of how XM satellite radio can provide 150-plus channels of programming for just $9.95 a month, XM now has an answer: It can't.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050228/dcm030_1.html
As of April 1, the rate jumps to $12.95 a month, matching rival Sirius. To cushion the blow, XM's also going to provide access to 70 channels online -- something they now charge $3.99 a month for -- and unleash morning bad boys Opie and Anthony on all subscribers without having to pony up an extra $1.99 a month.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050228/xm_radio_rate_hike_2.html
The last development is rather curious. When Howard Stern announced last year that he'd move to Sirius starting in 2006, he said he had also spoken with XM, but didn't want to be on a premium channel. From the outset, Sirius had said Stern would be available to all.
So is XM now giving its 3.6 million subscribers more value or has O&A bombed as a pay attraction? Nobody's saying out loud. But even though XM stock is trading north of $32, more than six times the value of Sirius shares, it's clear that both companies are still bleeding red ink by the bucket-full and that the current business model had to be a goner.
Still, for anyone who's spent any amount time listening to satellite, even $12.95 is a small price to pay for a stunning array of music -- all of it commercial free -- to go with a wide spectrum of news and talk.
For those of you who have long been disenfranchised from terrestrial radio because of its stultifying playlists, unimaginative programming and incessant commercials, XM is Shangri-La. You won't go back. Perish the thought.
I often find myself listening to four or five of XM's rock channels where they don't just play deep cuts, they're practically tunneling underground to find tracks you can't hear anywhere else. It's amazing when they get on a cut you may not have heard since college, although not as amazing as actually remembering the words 20-plus years later.
It's radio like it oughta be and except for a few particularly inspired nights I spent as a college DJ, likely never was. To get that feeling back, $12.95 is a bargain.

Dissing Dan A Rather Popular CBS Pastime

Nothing like kicking a guy when he's down. It's not enough that Dan Rather will sign off from the CBS Evening News on March 9 a year earlier than he wanted after getting ensnared in the Bush Air National Guard story.
Now in The New Yorker, no less than Mike Wallace, Walter Cronkite and Don Hewitt say they'd rather watch another channel come 6:30.
Wallace complains Rather's not as easy to watch as Peter Jennings, while Uncle Walter -- who's admitted to more than a few pangs of regret for vacating the anchor chair for Rather when he did -- says Rather's "showboating" by acting more like a reporter.
Meanwhile, Hewitt took note of Rather's longtime lock on third place to reflect that nobody likes a loser.
Of course, you can look at this as nothing more than a bunch of crotchety -- if still somewhat vital -- old men grousing about things because that's what guys in their 80s are particularly good at. But they may also have a point.
Still, what Cronkite may not want to acknowledge is that Rather's reportorial chops have for decades been second to none. They don't call him Gunga Dan for nothing. Which is why his comeuppance for the Memogate scandal was that much more bewildering. Even a confirmed newshound like him got tripped up by a producer who so desperately wanted a story she worked on to be true, she conveniently ignored all the red flags practically thrown in her face.
Even now, Rather is putting loyalty ahead of common sense. As he tells Ken Auletta:

"To people who have been so loyal and true, I'm not going to give up on them. If I had to move this afternoon on a big story, one that had the potential of being controversial, I'd be very happy to go on that story with the same people, each and every one."

Maybe Rather can find some level of redemption as he dons his reporter's fedora full time at 60 Minutes. Let's hope so. His legacy deserves better.

The Weekly Read-Out--George Will's Version of Payola, Ties Are For Wimps, And Pickpockets Stoop To New Lows

Did George Will receive an honorarium? Payola?Or was he just the right guy in the right place at the right time?
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000817846
Georgia lawmakers apparently like a little certainty in their high school football. Ties on the gridiron are apparently the stuff of wimps, so they may be legislated out of existence. Good thing they're worrying about the important things down south.
http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0205/26footballbill.html
And if you're looking for new variations on pickpocketing, this one's a real loo-loo.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1301142.html?menu=

D.C. Anchorwoman Played Spoiler For Miracle On Ice

There are few things in life that feel better than goosebumps. I just finished watching ESPN Classic's showing of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's Miracle On Ice 25 years ago this day.

You know what's going to happen. Still, you scream when every goal is scored. You're still willing the team to win. And suddenly you step back a quarter-century and remember how much the nation needed this result. No nostalgia is necessary. It's a moment that still matters and always will.

I was in college at the University of Maryland watching the game on WJLA-TV. ABC showed the game on tape delay. Many of us who had been caught up in the U.S. march toward the Soviets avoided hearing the result. We didn't count on Rene Poussaint.

Poussaint was one of WJLA's weeknight anchors and one of the better-known faces on Washington TV news. As is custom, she came on during a station break with one of those teases before returning to the Olympics. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except for her tease at 10:30.

"U.S. Beats The Soviets! At 11!'

Only problem: As far as we knew, the score was tied 3-3 at the time. Rene Poussaint: Party Pooper. She came on at the top of the news and profusely apologized. Not heard was a producer, who obviously let her read the tease live rather than pre-tape, which often happens.

Sports anchor Tim Brandt helped Poussaint lick her wounds by telling her even if you knew what happened, it was still exciting. Funny thing: He was right. Miracles have a way of doing that.

Lorena Bobbitt, What Have You Spawned?--Alaska Woman Hits Beau Where It Really Hurts

On the next Jerry Springer: Kinky sex, a niece doing it with her uncle and a knife that went south, along with a happy ending, at least for some microsurgeons in Anchorage.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/6199773p-6074109c.html

And So It Begins--Race For The White House Bulldog Edition

Those of us squirreled away in that media bubble known as New York don't get a chance to see and hear from Mitt Romney, Massachusetts governor/matinee idol on a regular basis.
So, he definitely got our attention a couple of weeks back on one of the morning shows chatting about the snow in New England. He wasn't just another politician spewing out boilerplate babble between ribbon cuttings.
No, this was a guy who looked like he could, or should, be right on the couch with Katie, spooning out the sound bites smooth as silk in a friendly yet authoritative tone. In fact, it was just enough gravitas that we've come to expect from our network anchormen (Andrew Heyward and Less Moonves, are you listening?).
But the Mittster appears bent on not introducing the film at 11, he wants to appear on it regularly. Last night he was in South Carolina, and not just to get away from the latest storm. Never mind that Romney hasn't said whether he's going to run for the GOP nomination. Everyone thinks he doth protest too much. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=4&u=/ap/20050222/ap_on_re_us/gop_romney.
The Boston Globe, perhaps used to this thing already, didn't drum the White House angle to the top of its story, but did note the reliably centrist Romney took a tilt to the right with his rhetoric in Spartanburg. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/02/22/romney_talks_right_on_social_issues_in_sc/.
The righty Boston Herald spent more time parsing Romney's statements opposing gay marriage and an apparent flip-flop on civil unions http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=69748 that could come back to haunt him come New Hampshire.
Still, as the Spartanburg Herald-Journal revealed, however charming Romney may be, he's a long way from home and has a long road to hoe to get some street cred down South.

Indeed, some in the audience gasped when he told them that only 12 percent of Massachusetts voters were registered Republicans.Indeed, some in the audience gasped when he told them that only 12 percent of Massachusetts voters were registered Republicans.

http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050222/NEWS/502220322/1051

NHL On Ice: No Tears Shed In The Newsroom

It was all but inevitable. Still, when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman officially pulled the plug on any hopes for a hockey season, it was treated as big news by most newspapers. Which is supposed to happen when a sports league, even one a distant fourth like the NHL, for the first time cancels an entire season because of a labor dispute.
The New York Times put the lead story on A-1, and had two inside sports pages devoted to the cancellation. Worthy and meaty coverage from a newspaper that doesn't always send its beat writer to all Rangers road games -- instead relying on freelancers and stringers -- and occasionally has even used AP for Islanders and Devils home games.
How much coverage the NHL's hari-kari received depended on where you sipped your latte. Big-city papers with teams in all sports, like the Chicago Sun-Times and Miami Herald had dutiful and thoughtful coverage, three or four stories and columns that are split on who to blame. The Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti was especially venemous ripping into Black Hawks owner Bill Wirtz for his rose-colored, clueless view of the lockout. http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay17.html.

Then there was the Columbus Dispatch, which had no less than 12 stories devoted to the cancellation, not surprising when the only major-league team in town is shuttered. However, if this went down during Ohio State football season I suspect it might have been relegated to a brief on B7.

And surprise, surprise, Canadians en masse are not laying prostrate outside the Hockey Hall of Fame bemoaning their fate. Much to their amazement, life marches on, even if the nation's puckheads still long for their heroes to be on ice instead of iced. Still, The Toronto Star's Damien Cox says the season that wasn't is a case of destroying the league in order to save it -- in a good way. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1108595412173&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes.
Less sanguine is the Edmonton Sun, which warned that all the shrugs of indifference by fans yesterday could translate into a lack of fannies in those expensive seats if and when this thing is ever resolved. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Edmonton/2005/02/17/933757.html.
Indeed, the prevailing sentiment in the Great White North is a pox on both of your houses, perhaps best expressed by Jack Todd in the Montreal Gazette:

Now one season is down the drain and the league itself teeters on the brink. There is more than enough blame to go around. No matter how they try to spin it, both sides made enormous, perhaps fatal miscalculations. Both thought the other would buckle under the threat of losing a season or more; both thought they could come out of a prolonged and vicious dispute with a good deal.
Both were wrong.

http://www.canada.com/sports/hockey/labourdispute/story.html?id=b7ed1ad2-226d-437a-85e7-a67fda923350

Spring training arrived in the nick of time.

The Naked Truth From Jose Canseco

Looked like Jose Canseco was doing a full-frontal confessional on "60 Minutes" tonight. In the intro to the piece, there was a picture of the well-chiseled HGH poster boy behind Mike Wallace sans modesty and clothes.
The photo gave every indication Canseco was letting it all hang out, but it appeared someone at CBS didn't do that good a job of cropping out Jose's, um, midsection. Hence, we were treated to either a poorly placed shadow or a smattering of Jose's pubes.
CBS may have a graphic design malfunction on its hands.
As for the report itself, Canseco spent a lot of time explaining how he and several baseball superstars were "butt buddies" with him, taking turns injecting each other with steroids and human growth hormone. Whatever happened to just going out for a beer after the game?
It's interesting to note that Mike Wallace told The New York Times on Saturday: "I believe some of what he said, and some I find a little far-fetched."
However, not so far-fetched to prevent Canseco from being on another segment on "60 Minutes Wednesday."

Brilliant But Canceled? Fox Setting Up Arrested Development For A Fall Instead Of Fall Schedule

By now, you've heard volumes about how Arrested Development is one of the most brilliant, funny and original shows to get on TV. All of it is true.
Rare is the show that provokes gales of laughter, giggles and sheer pee-in-your-pants moments episode upon episode. But despite Emmys, Golden Globes and other accolades stacking up like so much cordwood, all of that hilarity has been lost on much of America, save for 6 million or so loyal viewers.
To its credit, Fox brought the ratings-starved show back for another season, realizing a laugh-trackless comedy that used handheld cameras to track multiple plotlines in 22 minutes needed time to grow. The network moved it to 8:30 on Sundays, to benefit from The Simpsons lead-in. It hasn't worked.
The Nielsens are still in the Dumpster, and now the ides of May are coming to haunt A.D. Instead of finishing the season in a blaze of glory during sweeps, only 18 episodes instead of 22 were ordered. In comes American Dad, the lots-of-potential cartoon that did well after the Super Bowl.
Could Fox be ready to proclaim a bold experiment has failed, and that two seasons was a good-faith effort to reverse fortunes? Could be. But such a move would be horribly short-sighted, given the hole Fox is in from 8-9 p.m. ET going up against Cold Case and Extreme Home Makeover.
Beyond the need to counter-program, sticking with A.D. can demonstrate to top Hollywood talent it's committed to trying something new beyond the standard sitcom, a format with which it has generally failed miserably at since Married With Children (to the extent the show can be considered a success).
Having A.D. top honchos Ron Howard (also the show's narrator) and Brian Grazer of Imagine in your camp might go a long way toward getting first looks from other film types looking to mine video gold. And there's no doubt that A.D. has stuck around for as long as it has, in part, by wanting to stay in the good graces of Howard and Grazer. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
At the very least, if Fox gives the heave-ho, let's hope a network like HBO or Showtime will keep A.D. from being on the next installment of Brilliant But Cancelled, and not just so we can hear the curse words Fox bleeps out. A.D. would also be right at home on Bravo or A&E. Would more people watch Growing Up Gotti than A.D.? OK, don't answer that.
For now, just watch and laugh. A lot.
And if you'd like to get your one-and-a-half cents in to save the show, an online petition has been started at http://hoos.a-girlthing.com/.
If you've never been goaded by a friend or relative to watch Arrested Development, here's more on what the fuss is all about:
http://www.tvtome.com/ArrestedDevelopment/
A visit to the Fox Arrested Development site is worthwhile, not just for the many interactive features, but for a note from the network insisting that the show has not been canceled and that they "love" Arrested Development. But Fox says what it would really like is for more Nielsen families to start feeling the same way.http://www.fox.com/arresteddev/

The Passing Of A Broadcasting "Giant"

Lesley Stahl rightly calls George Herman a "giant" of broadcast journalism. His 43-year career at CBS News spanned the radio newsroom to the far reaches of Asia to the moderator chair at "Face The Nation."
To those who appreciate the history of broadcast journalism and the authority and grace of a seasoned correspondent at the top of his game, there was no one better.
CBSNews.com provides an adequate obit of Herman, once you find it in the entertainment section after a story about the Robert Blake trial. Suffice to say, he deserved a better send-off from the network he served so well.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/08/ftn/main672541.shtml
One crucial aspect of Herman's career -- its unceremonious end -- is conveniently left out of the CBS obit, and is left to The New York Times to recount. Herman was laid off in 1986, but offered a chance to resign. The long-time union supporter's reply: "Put me down as one of the fired."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/nyregion/09herman.html?pagewanted=all

Maybe These Penguins Should Move To Massachusetts

A German zoo wants to scare its gay penguins straight and we're not talking about taking away their Liza Minnelli albums:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1275591.html?menu=

Satellites Killed The Radio Star, But Then Again....

A JP Morgan survey found most people turn to satellite radio for the lack of commercials and not because it offers original content.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6928444/
But that shouldn't be taken as bad news for those of us who've been disenfranchised by "terrestrial" radio and have embraced XM and Sirius for delivering salvation from the calcified remains of the airwaves.
On the one hand, broadcasters have only themselves to blame for the growth in satellite radio. Industry consolidation and fear of innovation have led stations to put songs on only after they have been researched, consulted and focus grouped to death. Most deejays, at least those who are live and not doing voice tracks, are scared robots reading cards who only dream about being creative.
But while Clear Channel and Infinity and the like have sucked the fun and wonder out of radio, they also continually added commercials, to the point where sometimes over 20 minutes an hour would be handed over to spots. Not only did you hear shitty songs, you heard fewer of them.
Recently, Clear Channel admitted its advertisers were victims of their own wretched excess and announced it would reduce spot loads in many markets --- though it also raised rates for advertisers "lucky" to get on the air.
Still, it's apparently not enough for many listeners who've scaled back or essentially eliminated the time spent listening to commerical stations. JP Morgan forecasts XM and Sirius will have 35 million customers by 2010.
Yet, as delightful as a continual flow of music is, it's hard to believe the absence of spots is the main reason millions of people are willing to shell out $10-$13 a month for satellite. Could Sirius have made a serious $500 million mistake betting on Howard Stern to lead them to the promised land, or at least their first profitable quarter?
Doubtful.
It's also hard to fathom a nation that only wants to hear the Top 40 played over again without benefit of Clearisil and Budweiser ads. All those satellite channels means there's bound to be something for everyone. And what a something it is.
Among XM's offerings are adult alternative channels The Loft and XM Cafe that sound awfully like modern-day versions of the freeform progressive stations from the 60s and 70s, when buying a transistor radio with FM cost extra. You felt part of something special, and it was.
Not that their modern offspring aren't carefully thought out and programmed. But the range of music they offer, giving credit to listeners who want to hear things new and different while playing deep cuts that unearth tracks long since relegated to distant memories makes for compelling radio.
Another XM channel, called Fred (there's also Ethel and Lucy), focuses on the New Wave vanguards from the late 70s and early 80s. Only on satellite could the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" still segue into "Blank Generation" from Richard Hell and the Voidoids. It's the same kind of I put on music I put on while residing in the utopia that was high school and college radio twentysomething years ago. It's not just nostalgia that's in play, just some damn good tracks that deserve a good home.
Simply put, XM and Sirius offer radio for people who hate radio.
However, don't expect Clear Channel to be running scared anytime soon. JP Morgan expects satellite to eat into only 3.5 percent of the terrestrial audience over the next five years. But the report also noted that those who have satellite spend two-thirds of their listening time with XM or Sirius.
But if, or more likely, when that percentage starts to inch upward, don't be surprised to see commercial broadcasters looking to the sky and cursing their rivals, when all they have to do is look in the mirror to find out what went so horribly wrong.

The Weekly Read-Out: A Prom Gigolo, Bad Vibrations, No Swimsuit Competition, Taxing Semen & Trashed Books

I didn't go to my senior prom and have made it through life thus far without being scarred by the trauma of a big tux and limo rental bill and the futility of finding a date to get past second base with. But here's a guy who's been getting good at proms, a little too good:http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5223314.html.

The New York Times is commonly positioned by itself and those on Broadway as the first and last word on everything theatre. That may be the case when it comes to reviews and sober profiles of the auteur of the moment. But they're commonly left in the dust when it comes to breaking theatre news by the Post's cheeky theatre columnist Michael Riedel, who can be as vicious as he wants to be without fear or favor. For those of you who haven't caught up with his gleeful skewerings, his latest offering: http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/39836.htm.

Would any of us miss Miss America? As Carolyn Starks reports, it could be an ugly end to beauty pageants in the Chicago area.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0502040188feb04,1,7037350.story?coll=chi-news-hed.

It's not every day that the AP has a story slugged SemenTax. And we're glad about that. But what prompted that has a lot of farmers in Maine angry, as Bill Nemitz relates in his no-bull (sorry) column in the Portland Press Herald.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/nemitz/050204nemitz.shtml

And Gwen Florio in the Rocky Mountain News reports First Lady and former librarian Laura Bush's seal of approval wasn't enough to convince some small minds in Colorado to round up copies of an award-winning book and send them to the local landfill. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3522696,00.html.

Dear Prudence, It's The Headline Of The Day

It's nice to know not every media outlet has written off anyone over a certain age (OK, 40). The NY Times headline about the tamer Super Bowl halftime show featuring Paul McCartney was a winner for those of us who wore out the grooves on our copy of the White Album: "At This Halftime, Prudence Will Come Out To Play."
Too bad the Buffalo Bills aren't playing Sunday.
Bonus quip: In the Richard Sandomir piece about the show, McCartney noted: "I don't have a wardrobe to malfunction."
Sir Paul's loyal subjects are no doubt grateful.

Networks Go Wacko For Anything Jacko--Katie Reluctantly Says Hi To Geraldo

Now that the Michael Jackson trial is off and sort of running, the networks are so desperate for anything and everything Jacko they'll even flog a rival's scoop for some fresh face time.
To wit, Geraldo Rivera's appearance on "Today" to talk about his interview with Jackson that'll air tomorrow on Fox News Channel, which is apparently the official network of the Jackson defense team (an hour before Mike's Mom speaks to Rita Cosby and tells the world her boy doesn't like boys in, you know, that way).http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146352,00.html.
It should be said that Katie Couric looked none too happy on this morning's "Today" to be sitting across from Geraldo, whom you may remember was within the fold of The Peacock with a five-year $36 million deal hosting some of his "investigative" specials along with a regular talk gig on CNBC that was well-rated, at least by CNBC's meager standards. Oh yes, he also was a semi-regular on "Today."
Despite all that, he was hardly a favorite in the news division. Many eyes rolled when he went to China for "Today" to cover a trip by President Clinton. That meant veteran foreign affairs honcho Andrea Mitchell was bumped from the trip (More on Rivera's NBC days can be found in a thorough New York magazine article by David Brock from 1998. http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/1715/index.html.
But NBC newsies wouldn't give Geraldo any love from the get-go. Despite all those awards, including a Peabody and a piece of 10 Emmys, he was viewed as long on swagger and short on substance. So he decamped to Fox, where it's OK to wear your heart on your sleeve and he's thrived, more or less, ever since as a war correspondent and host. Yes, there was that incident in 2003 when Rivera "voluntarily" left Iraq, after he was accused by the military of revealing details about an operation, but who hasn't done that once or twice? http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/01/sprj.irq.geraldo/.
The fact is, Geraldo's a trophy on the network the other networks love to hate. Still, there he was on the number-one morning show getting a coveted segment just after 7:30. Not only did he run some innnocuous clips, but came to Jackson's defense, calling the King of Neverland's accusers "grifters" and said the prosecutor was more interested in publicity than the truth. Geraldo made sure we didn't forget he was a former assistant D.A. in a past life in order to give his perspective some patina of legitimacy. He predicted Jackson would be found innocent.
Not so are Today's producers, for letting the FOX into their henhouse.

Reality Bites Back On The Beach

We're going to try and beat out the blizzard and head to the tropics for a couple of weeks. More masterful missives starting Feb. 4. Stay warm.

Fun With Geography On "Law And Order"

"If that's her address she's living in the middle of the East River."

Heard on a rerun of "Law And Order SVU."

I'm not a regular viewer of Law and Order or its 14 spinoffs, due more to TV fatigue than anger over production crews clogging Manhattan streets at any given moment.

One thing that did always bug me about the shows is address fiction. Every time they go to a new scene and show the address on the screen, it's often for an address that's not only doesn't exist, but if you go by how streets are numbered in the city, if it did exist would be in some body of water, which is actually pretty easy to do in Manhattan (860 West 118th St?).

You'd think they'd get some hapless production assistant to scout locations to ensure a building sounds real, but no. It's easier just to have some co-op floating on the Hudson. Whether the "SVU" writers on the rerun I caught last night on USA used this as an inside joke albeit one that's a little tacky given it centered on a girl nearly beaten to death, I don't know. But such is life -- and near-death -- when your show is done in New York and your writers are sunning themselves in LA.

Watching "SVU" also made me realize how much I missed "Homicide: Life On The Street." Richard Belzer's character John Munch on the latter seamlessly transferred to the former with a tad fewer wisecracks and a slightly softer shell.

For a "Homicide" homey, it was quite a revelation to see him choke up when answering why he pushed so hard on this case. He recounted seeing a neighborhood girl beat up and he did nothing. One day her mother threw her through a plate-glass window.

"I felt like I was letting her down again," the Belz tells a bewildered Mariska Hargitay. The episode closes with him reading to the latest victim, still comatose in the hospital. Therapy, perhaps, and a quality TV moment, though I'm sure John Munch I would have joked his way around the angst.

The Weekly Read-Out--Mudslides, Wayward Goats, Dumb Caddies and Hopeless Hockey

Location, location, location. If you looked at the pictures from the La Conchita mudslide and wondered if some of those deaths could have been avoided, you're probably right. But not for the reasons you may think.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-realestate14jan14,0,783095.story?coll=la-home-headlines.

Of course, a good deal is not the only reason people will take a chance on where to plant themselves. LA Times columnist Steve Lopez found that includes people who ought to know better.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez14jan14,0,1721179.column?coll=la-home-utilities.

Train driver suffers from PTGS, that's Post-Traumatic Goat Syndrome to you and me, after he hits a billy who wound up on the business side of an express.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005020261,00.html

OK, let's try and figure this one out. You're the caddie for Vijay Singh, the top golfer on the planet. Which means you get to travel the world making a seven-figure sum for basically holding his clubs and whispering sweet nothings about nine-irons. And yet you didn't enjoy your work and had to get away from the fairway rate race?
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/golf/story/0,10069,1388353,00.html

News Flash! No hockey in Buffalo. Life goes on! And despite the fact the Sabres announced a cut in ticket prices before the lockout and locals sports-starved after the Bills closed up shop for the season, not many are pining for pucks. Which could bode ill for the NHL across the land if they ever play again.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050114/1060000.asp

How Do You Say Me So Horny In Swedish?

Gonna have some afternoon delight....

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SWEDEN_NOISY_LOVEMAKING?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Harry The Nazi and Other Royal Clangers

Prince Harry may have seen The Producers one too many times in deciding that a Nazi desert uniform would be a swell thing to wear to a costume party.
Ah, the tabloids live for moments like this. Just when Becks and Posh are laying low and Tony Blair isn't bobbing and weaving over Iraq, the royals manage to save the day. "Harry The Nazi" blared The Sun, which had an exclusive picture of the shirt. Its sister Murdoch paper, the newly tabbed Times was content to run a photo of someone reading The Sun, while running a poll asking readers whether Harry stepped over the line or if it was just a case of princes being princes, something Britons have gotten used to with this bunch. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1438439,00.html.
The Mirror has Harry uttering a brief but brilliant understatement: "It was a poor choice."
The Times quotes the head of the Reform rabbis in Great Britain saying the apology should be accepted, but The Guardian instead led with calls from The Simon Wiesenthal Center for Harry to visit Auschwitz the next time he's on holiday. http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,2763,1389624,00.html.
All this comes at a time when his grandmother is set to commemorate later this month the Holocaust and 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by having a reception at St. James's Palace for survivors of the Nazi death camps and British soldiers who freed them.
That should be enough to keep her in the news, but she caught a case of the foot-in-mouth disease that runs rampant in her family. She doesn't chat much with her lowly subjects, but when the old girl does strike up a conversation, she makes sure it's a doozy.
Many in the UK are not amused she predicted Paris would get the 2012 Summer Olympics and declared (decreed?) that most Londoners don't want the Games. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005020524,00.html. No doubt, Olympic organizers in London, which last had the Olympics in 1948, would like to crown the Queen right about now.

The Buck Doesn't Stop Here At CBS

Don't expect the report on the infamous "60 Minutes Wednesday" segment on President Bush's National Guard service to be the last word on who gets tossed from CBS News.
No doubt, CBS Chairman Les Moonves wanted to appear strong and resolute in getting rid of four top dogs in the news division to show how the network is serious about erasing the notion that it ignored facts that got in the way of a good story.
Let's look at how far and wide Moonves traveled on both sides of West 57th St. to find both scoundrels and scapegoats after the report was handed down.

Mary Mapes -- As the story producer, everyone knew she was a goner. Still, you just can't help but marvel at how one of TV journalism's most dogged and fearless reporters (remember, it's the producers that do most of the work at newsmagazines) has had her career snuffed out. Her scoop on Abu Ghraib, among many others, meant a level of trust accorded few others in the business. Take her name off the story and it's doubtless the story would have been held up. Mapes had the street cred to back up her powers of persuasion. But ultimately, a lethal combo of the fear of being scooped, sheer bravado and the lack of hubris did her in. Which is why she was the only one unequivocally fired by Moonves yesterday. The rest were merely asked to resign.

Josh Howard -- This one's a shame. First off, he's a nice guy as well as a solid newsman, two qualities that don't necessarily go hand in hand. I briefly met him during my time at CBS, and he was someone who was quick to inspire confidence. After serving for so long in Don Hewitt's shadow at the "60 Minutes" mothership, he finally got his executive producer gig at the Wednesday edition and had this dumped in his lap. One could argue Howard was guilty of not asking the right questions to Mapes, or enough of them. But maybe he did, and just didn't get the right answers. Shortly after this scandal blew up, Howard had joked to his staff that maybe he should have gone to dental school. No word on what he told the staff during his goodbyes yesterday, but The New York Times reported he was shaken by the dismissal. Too bad.

Mary Murphy -- As Howard's deputy, she was the one who got her hands dirty as the main overlord of each segment's production. That meant she was the one who had to get out the fine tooth comb for all of Mapes's sources and documentation. But Moonves found Murphy was too quick to defer to Mapes and "did not perform her important supervisory function." Fair enough. You could argue either way whether that transgression was sufficient to get canned. But it wouldn't look good for CBS to merely fire Mapes, as she was hardly a lone wolf. And since Murphy's judgments carried sway with Howard, then their guilt by association made it easier for Moonves to send them packing. Which brings us to....

Betsy West -- No doubt waxing nostalgic, right about now, about her 23 years at ABC, the Senior VP in charge of prime time news was put in charge by News President Andrew Heyward to ride herd on the story to ensure it was a slam dunk come air time. But West's undoing, Moonves said was "defending the segment even when it was becoming increasingly apparent that it was flawed." While a Senior VP is not normally hands on with a typical segment, this was anything but typical. So West walks the plank.

But if you let the dominoes fall where they may, why does CBS News chief Andrew Heyward escape relatively unscathed? Heyward issued marching orders, according to Moonves's statement, to West and Howard not to let the "60 Minutes Wednesday" staff "stampede us in any way." He also ordered a close look at the sourcing behind the story after it appeared at a time when everybody and their grandma at CBS was standing behind the story. Despite his plea for new information, none was forthcoming. In other words, Heyward's underlings essentially ignored him. Moonves concedes that raises questions about accountability, which he says will be addressed by "Heyward and me." For now though, he labeled Heyward "the right person to be leading CBS News during this challenging time."

We'll see for how much longer.

And then there's Dan Rather, who Moonves said was guilty of little more than being too trusting of Mapes, with whom he had worked closely for years. Rather didn't hesitate to take at face value what Mapes told him because he never had any reason to. While the report found Rather played a somewhat "minimal role" in the production of the piece, it's easy to conclude his fate would have been different had he not already announced his intention to step down in March as CBS Evening News anchor. That he will remain with "60 Minutes Wednesday is hardly a source of comfort for some, though. http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-na-rather11jan11.story .

What may ultimately have done in Mapes is that her accounts to the investigative panel differed markedly from what other CBS staffers said. Still, The Washington Post quoted Mapes as saying she was up front with the panel and was shocked by what she called "vitriolic scapegoating" by Moonves, who she said was motivated by "ratings rather than journalism." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62690-2005Jan10?language=printer.

Sometimes, though, it's hard to tell the sloppy reporter from the scapegoat. And sometimes it just doesn't matter.

Counting Tsunami Dead: The New Math

With tsunami media coverage thankfully still going at full tilt, the media may find itself circling back to what mattered most after the waves retreated.
First, it was coming to grips with the sheer level of destruction and the hard-to-truly-comprehend number of dead. Then it was on to the brittle task of recovery, at once tenuous, tedious and nearly impossible.
But as time goes on, more journalists may need to return to the numbers. The official tsunami toll is past 146,000 at this writing, but it's easy to believe that number is wildly conservative, given what The Australian witnessed in Bandeh Aceh.

Amid mud that stinks of sulphur, debris stretching as far as the eye can see and ruined concrete shells of what once were large homes, stands Darma, a Medan businessman.
At his feet is the drowned family rooster. Across the way, 50m from what was a lawn, is his brother; his corpse floating bloated and black in a lagoon. "Everyone is gone," he said. "Everyone."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11873293^2703,00.html.

Moreover, the Indonesian health ministry has all but guaranteed that thousands more are dead and as-yet unaccounted for all over Sumatra.

But there may be other reasons in play for why accurate numbers are hard to come by, all the more reason for the media to be watchful about who is spouting figures and why. Thai officials could be playing a numbers game to spin the damage in Phuket and keep the tourists flocking to the island, reports The Age in Melbourne. http://www.theage.com.au/news/Asia-tsunami/Body-count-not-kept-low-says-Thailand/2005/01/06/1104832236841.html.
Tragically, merely surviving the tsunami will not be enough if fears of cholera and dysentery are realized. The United Nations appears to be preparing for the inevitable. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=9005729.

The Weekly Read-Out

He long ago became the only reason to still watch That 70s Show. Now Topher Grace keeps showing why he won't be appearing on The Surreal Life anytime soon.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6777693/site/newsweek/

From the More Proof That Carbs Are Bad For You File:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1234027.html?menu=

We're just hoping they don't start jumping up and down at the same time:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11873423^2703,00.html

And maybe the third time will be the charm for this guy in the Czech Republic:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1105000741489B222

Out Go The Waves, In Come The Jackals

The tsunami is the ultimate human interest story. Be it the Sri Lankan fisherman who lost everything except his life, or the fat Swiss tourist on a Phuket beach who chugs a Singha musing about how life goes on, reporters don't have to roam far to find good copy.
So much has been written about helping hands and heroism. Now come the tales about the scum that rises from the earth following such disasters.
The entrepeneurial spirit may be at its ugliest in Thailand, according to the New Zealand Herald: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=9005554
A world away from the disaster we are reminded that criminals are avid readers of the obituaries, which has forced Swedish authorities to take drastic measures:
http://www.sr.se/rs/english/
And the chicken hawks have wasted no time circling over the tsunami zone, as The Straits Times reported: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/sub/topstories/story/0,5562,293773,00.html
With so much cruelty abounding amid the misery, some good news is in order. As Mark Burnett has demonstrated, everybody loves a Survivor. He might want Malawati on the next edition. Richard Hatch wouldn't stand a chance.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/Frontpage/20050104074326/Article.

Is That A Hot Dog, Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

One hot dog truck in Baldwin, NY, gave a new definition to customer service.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6769075/

Tsunami Bad Enough Without Media Having To Create Sympathy

It's heartening to see NBC has fully grasped the scope of the tsunami disaster and sent not only a cadre of correspondents, but no less than Nightly News anchor newbie Brian Williams to Aceh to develop some street cred and shake off the rep that he's great behind a desk but still finds ill-fitting those ubiquitous vests that journalists on foreign assignments wear to indicate they're reporting from some far-flung locale.
Williams was on the phone when he filed this morning for "Today." We'll see tonight whether he shakes off the jet lag from 30 hours of flying, and eminently confident he'll be well coiffed to go live, unlike his colleague Kevin Sites, who over the weekend not only didn't bother brushing his rock-star hair, but failed to brush his face as well. This was apparently a way to show empathy with the locals struggling to survive.
That should be easy enough to do given the bottomless supply of tragic stories in the tsunami zone. So why did "Today" producers feel a need to put music behind Ann Curry's package about a Sri Lankan man who lost his wife and daughter? Nobody needed help getting a lump in their throat as he described holding his daughter's hand in the final seconds of her life. Sure, it's early in the morning, but give us a little credit.
One of the great foreign correspondents in front of the tsunami story is CBS's Barry Petersen (full disclosure: I once worked at CBS News Radio, where I was on the receiving end of many a Petersen dispatch). During his long tenure roaming the world, Petersen has seen his share of strife, death and destruction.
It was refreshing for him to remind us that journalists are human too. Sure, you're supposed to remain apart from a story so you can give a clear, lucid account of what's unfolding. But Petersen's dispatch on "Sunday Morning" showed how hard it is in Thailand, revealing that he couldn't help but cry hearing tale after woeful tale about decimated families and viewing photos of smiling, beautiful children forever frozen in time.
Of course, you don't need pictures to have your heart rendered. On yesterday's "All Things Considered" Jennifer Ludden interviewed a blogger in Singapore, who spoke of a brother-in-law who lost at least 50 relatives in Aceh.
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=02-Jan-2005&prgId=2.
Ludden kept her composure, but you could tell it wasn't easy. As these and other stories continue to unfold, you'll grow suspicious when correspondents don't shed a tear.