Top 10 TV Shows Ever

The blogosphere's been bustling with Top 10 lists of favorite TV shows instigated by Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine blog.
Our contributions, and you're welcome to chime in with yours:

In no particular order:

Arrested Development--In two seasons, it has always delivered episodes full of loud, consistent laughs. Best watched on TiVo to catch all the jokes you missed in real time.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show -- The best ensemble comedy ever.
St. Elsewhere -- Rare is the show that can last as long as this one did, with as fair-to-middling ratings as it had. But there was a reason, with compelling, quirky characters and the best in-jokes anywhere.
Boomtown -- Brilliant show that highlighted the myopia that frequently inflicts network execs who cancel a show rather than trying to nurture an audience.
Northern Exposure -- Sure, it got dumb and borderline unwatchable toward the end, but at its height, the eccentric charm, humanity and humor of Cicely, Alaska, was a winner.
The Wonder Years -- If you were of a certain age, of a certain time, you knew this progam rang true. And even if you weren't, it was still a pleasure to watch.
The Prisoner -- Perhaps the best science fiction show ever, even if it never left the earth. Or did it?
The Bob Newhart Show -- What a tandem on Saturday nights with MTM. Lost a little steam in its final season, but only a little.
The Shield -- Bare-knuckled cop drama at its best, which hasn't stood still. Characters have come full circle to reveal new dimensions. And guest turns this year by Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson were nothing short of brilliant.
Hill Street Blues -- At its best, which was most of the time, you cared deeply about this often motley crew. Bochco recognized the brilliance of Dennis Franz, who after a guest turn as psycho cop Sal Benedetto, returned as schlumpy-but-compelling Norman Bunz, the antecdent for Andy Sipowicz.
http://technorati.com/tag/10shows.

Giving New Meaning To Ball Buster

Testicular tribulations for one man who endured a scrotum conundrum for a fortnight (and oh, what a night it was)
Either this guy lost a bad bet, got really drunk and did something stupid or is bucking to be enshrined in the Fetish Hall of Champions real soon. You could say he was having a ball. But we won't.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/08052005/news/56211.htm

New York Times Grammar Corner

Who's Modifying Whom?
From an NY Times story today about the Jim DeFede dismissal:

"Executives at The Miami Herald, which fired a columnist late last month......"

Shouldn't it be "who fired"? After all, it was the executives who did the firing, not the Herald, per se.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/business/media/08petition.html
Yes, the comma would trigger a "which." However, the sentence could just as easily have been written:
"Executives at The Miami Herald who fired...."

Of course, this is moot if the Herald has assumed anthropomorphic attributes we previously didn't know about. Being that we're talking about South Florida, anything's possible.

The Third Dimension of Magazine Ads

Or Trying to Find the Line Between Being Edgy and Just Plain Obnoxious
You'll often find me sifting through a Vanity Fair or GQ feeling smug that I've already made it to page 110 and I've barely read anything. Too many ads, telling me too little. I want an express ride to the next Christopher Hitchens or Alan Richman piece.
Of course, I'm not alone. Which means advertisers aren't going to leave me alone, according to this WS Journal piece that heralds (warns? threatens?) ads that will literally be getting in our faces.
If you're used to passive magazine ads, welcome to the new reality. Or call it the New Desperation sweeping Madison Avenue. And it's coming to a mailbox near you, assuming your magazine will still be able to fit in the mailbox.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112346384833807207,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature

Old Magazines Never Die, They Just Become Podcast

Tracks magazine to let listeners do more than just read about music
Like hundreds of its brethren, the music magazine Tracks bit the dust in April after three years, its ambitions to focus on the alt-country, Americana and AAA artists favored by boomers outweighed by too much red ink.
Alan Light put out a quality product, and the sampler that came from each issue didn't hurt. This week came an e-mail that Tracks was going to emerge in a podcast format, with interviews by Light, shorter features and music from artists the magazine pushed, such as Kathleen Edwards, Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine.
Can't tell you yet what I think of it, as the download came up empty. More importantly, Tracks eventually wants subscribers to pony up three bucks a month for its efforts, which puts it into uncharted podcast territory.
It's a risky strategy at best, given the paucity of successful, free Web content, and the plethora of free podcasts, even if most are devoid of the professional sheen that will accompany the Tracks effort. And Tracks' dilemma comes down to the most nagging question about podcasts: who has the time to listen to all this stuff?
Meantime, for those hungering for the latest on the likes of Lucinda Williams (the last Tracks cover girl), there is still Harp, which covers much of the same waterfront, and Paste, which arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and said they'd honor my Tracks subscription for up to a year.
The bi-monthly Paste, http://www.pastemagazine.com/, is slick and suprisingly thick, pushing 200 pages, filled with a melange of interviews, news and reviews for those of us a tad old for Spin or Vibe, and looking for more than the small amount of coverage this music gets in Rolling Stone.
Like Tracks did, Paste backs up its enthusiasm for the music it covers with an eclectic CD sampler that's great for the road if your car doesn't have XM or Sirius. The CD comes with a twist, namely a DVD on the flip side with one hour's worth of concert footage and music videos.
Given that it charges $7.95 on the newsstand, Paste makes it worthwhile to plunk down $26.95 for a subscription, though Tracks subscribers can sign up for $20 through Sept. 15.
Many of the artists these magazines cover don't sell scads of albums. But they often make up for it with small but fiercely devoted followings, which Paste and Harp need to latch onto

Short Attention Span Theatre--Ebert and Roeper Style

I recently noticed that Ebert and Roeper have started showing the running time of a movie when they first start showing a clip.
Hard to tell if that's to satisfy people who need to know when to tell the babysitter they'll be back from the multiplex. Or maybe it's for the old folks who don't want to or can't sit through a three-hour flick and have to make the early bird at the local seafood joint after the matinee.
Whatever the reason, it would be lamentable if more people chose movies solely on the basis of how much time they'd have to invest. There are three-hour plus movies where you never look at your watch (Dances With Wolves and Titanic come to mind), while there are 80-minute jobs that feel padded.
Given all the dreck Ebert and Roeper have to sit through so we don't, it's a safe bet the running time

Niger Making Cameo Appearances on U.S. Networks

Possible Starvation of Millions Starts To Be Noted, But Still Not Compelling Enough for Regular Treatment?
It was nice to see over the weekend CNN having a diplomat from Niger on live Sunday morning to discuss the famine that imperils his country. More so, it was startling to see later in the day on NBC Nightly News two reports on the situation, first a Q&A with an ITN reporter there, second a New York-based dispatch from Dawn Fratangelo on why aid is not getting there faster.
Networks nowadays traditionally relegate much of their foreign coverage to the weekends, particularly when nothing is stirring on the homefront, which is often the case during the summer.
When 3.6 million people are threatened with starvation, you'd think that should be the focus of more in-depth treatment. But of course the networks' coverage of anything in Africa is intermittent at best. Too expensive. Too hard to relate to. Too much time taken away from stories about Natalee Holloway. And so on.
True, no one said it's easy to cover a crisis in one of the world's poorest nations. The satellite phones may not work and there's no Marriott to retreat to after a hard day of witnessing untold misery. But that's news biz. Seems it would be hard to find a more compelling story right now. News organizations have no trouble parachuting in journos when bullets are flying on the Continent. Why not a similar treatment when a nation is weakened by a more pernicious enemy than greed or power?
Some interesting dispatches are getting out, including this one from the AP that highlights how food is available if you have the cash that few in Niger have ever possessed.
http://www.cleveland.com/enter/index.ssf?/world/plaindealer/index.ssf%3f/base/news/112306861424030.xml&coll=2
And if Niger's president is to be believed, the food crisis may actually be easing:
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1748154,00.html
Nonetheless, it's a story that won't go away soon, and as the Christian Science Monitor reports, is one that is an issue elsewhere in Africa and will continue to be so. Which means it demands our attention, and not just on Sunday.
http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2005/0801/p01s02-woaf.html

Caught On Tape Means Miami Herald Columnist Can Be Caught On Unemployment Line

Jim DeFede Fesses Up To Pressing "Record" Without Permission; Candor = Guillotine

Updated 7/28--9 p.m.---Blog formed calling for DeFede's reinstatement: http://journalistsfordefede.blogspot.com/


Anyone who reads this space knows I'm more prone to flog a journalist who screws up rather than find a way to defend him. It's so much easier that way, especially with the public viewing our ilk in much the same way as a telemarketer or motor vehicle department clerk.
Nonetheless, I'm more than a bit surprised that the Miami Herald gave the heave-ho to columnist Jim DeFede, who came forth and admitted he taped a conversation with disgraced politician Arthur Teele, just hours before Teele ventured to the Herald lobby yesterday and blew his brains out.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12241103.htm
Taping someone without their permission is a no-no in Florida. But as DeFede told the newsroom after his ouster: ''As Teele was becoming unglued [on the phone], I turned on a tape recorder because I could tell that he was distraught and bouncing off the walls..."
Not exactly the strongest rationale, but this was someone DeFede had known for a decade, who was facing dozens of felony charges and had been fodder for many a Herald story.
DeFede came clean after Teele pulled the trigger. He may have escaped with only a suspension. But he admitted to keep on rolling even after Teele said he was speaking off the record. That may have been what pushed the Herald brass over the edge, although their official position is DeFede sealed his own fate by merely taping the conversation, which may have been a felony, not to mention unethical.
Of course, being unethical has rarely been grounds for dismissal in the news business. Otherwise, there'd be a lot of empty desks in many a newsroom at any given moment. A felony? Perhaps. But who's pressing charges? Highly doubtful prosecutors would be proactive for a case like this, especially when the prospective star witness is in no position to talk anymore.

''The public's trust is at stake as a result of Jim's actions,'' said publisher Jesus Díaz Jr. ``We have to make sure that the public understands that trust is the most important value that the community bestows upon us.''

Maybe, maybe not. Some of them just get the Herald for the coupons. But I digress. That the Herald would toss aside one of its stronger, more popular voices for such a transgression is surprising and distressing at the same time.
DeFede was trying to get it right, to capture a moment in time. Yes, he should have tried in a more sanctioned fashion, but to cast him aside without first suspending him or flogging him in public is harsh.

At least DeFede attempted to be accurate, unlike other columnists and reporters who've been nailed for not even bothering to do that (see Mitch Albom, Patricia Smith, etc.) Herald management determined he's no better than them. A shame.

Meantime, the Herald's Web site still has DeFede's recent columns posted, along with the article about his firing. Read them while you can.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/jim_defede/

Longing For The Days Of A Ho-Hum Shuttle Launch

Back in my days at CBS News Radio, we dutifully covered every shuttle launch. Between the disasters of Challenger and Columbia, the media and the public settled into a langour about the space program, regarding launches and landings as little more than routine.
A typical launch broadcast on radio would begin about a minute before launch, and quickly sign off three minutes or so later after solid rocket booster separation. Breathe a sigh of relief and now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
As Discovery took off this morning, the press trailers at Cape Canaveral are again fully staffed. It was nice for the media to be on hand for a launch that could not have been better. "This was as trouble free as I can remember and I've covered a lot of shuttle flights," said CBS News space analyst Bill Harwood.
I was first at Cape Canaveral for a launch in 1998 when John Glenn went up for his encore space visit. Hundreds of reporters, including all the network anchors, made the trip down. Three years later, I came back with CBS News Correspondent Peter King, who anchors the radio coverage, for another launch that was scrubbed because of weather. Those press trailers that were occupied were only minimally staffed, with the regulars who are there because you're supposed to have someone there, you know, just in case.
In a way, I preferred the latter visit. It meant that something so incredibly dangerous and daring had once again become routine. What could possibly go wrong. And so it was for dozens of missions until Columbia.
Here's hoping for a return to the days when my friend Peter, as able a broadcaster as he is, returns to his three-minute broadcasts real soon.

Not Dressing The Part: Correspondent Neglects To Beat The Heat

Baby, it's hot outside! But one reporter doesn't get the memo
Give NBC News Correspondent Mark Mullen credit for having a remarkable metabolism. Or maybe the guy's out to lunch.
Either way, it was a bit unsettling tonight to see him doing a standup in Phoenix during a report on the heat wave out west in front of a sign that said the temperature was 106 degrees, while wearing what appeared to be a black sports jacket. Get this guy a Dasani, quick!
As a bonus, Mullen didn't appear to be breaking a sweat either. Guess it really is a dry heat.

Scab-O-Rama: Columnist Waxes Nostalgic About Crossing Lines In Detroit

UPDATED 7/28: S.F. Chronicle reporters blink as they approve a "terrible" contract.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/28/MNG69DUL9D1.DTL

Leave it to the Detroit Free Press to employ one feckless columnist after another. First, it's the inimitable fiction-writing Mitch Albom about whom much has been written about here. Now, we turn to Exhibit B, one Susan Ager, who writes today about the bad old days 10 years ago when Detroit newspaper workers walked out in a bruising strike that ultimately crushed the union in a once-proud labor town.

When the temperature hit 90 in Paris last week, I put on a flimsy old linen tank top that I realized I'd also worn exactly 10 years earlier on a Detroit picket line.

OK, so we know she doesn't change her wardrobe that often. Thanks for sharing, Sue, who admits to being clueless about why she was on strike.

My head was full of questions. I'd never been on strike before, and that it happened took me by surprise. For a few days, until I learned the language, I couldn't have told you what it was about.

How about job cuts, wage freezes, a merit-pay system and cuts in health insurance, for starters. This, at a time when the once-struggling papers had recently made a $56 million profit. Yet, all that still doesn't jog Ager's memory about a bitter strike in which the papers hired thousands of scabs to ice out the strikers once and for all (For a view from both sides of the fence, check out this frank and fair analysis of the strike when it ended from Detroit's Metro Times --http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=1210).

Some of my coworkers stayed on the picket lines for many months, through the winter and into the next summer. But I could not, and I was among the first 20 or so to go back to work, as most of us from the newsroom eventually did, out of desperation or -- in my case -- disillusionment.

Disillusionment? True, the unions were outflanked and didn't martial enough support to win the P.R. war or any other war, for that matter. There's even evidence they spurned the help of other unions (see this interesting analysis from labornotes.org---http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2001/0201/0201b.html). But the unions faced an all-out assault from management intent on breaking them once and for all.

That Ager, like Albom, blithely crossed the picket line didn't have its intended effect beyond putting another warm body in the newsroom. The strike, in one form or another, went on 5 1/2 years. The unions were bowed, bent and bruised, but the two papers were estimated to have lost as much as $300 million, along with one-third of their circulation.

A decade later, I remember the heat of it all. I am aware that even remembering it in print will reignite both anger and grief.
Mostly I'm astonished that there are finally weeks when I don't think about the strike or my lost friends. .. It didn't heal all wounds. But for most of us, I have to hope, they no longer throb day and night.

Dunno. Sounds like Ager stopped throbbing a long time ago. It could be argued the same thing could be said about the Free Press.

Meanwhile, taking a page from the playbook in Detroit, looks like the San Francisco Chronicle is spoiling for a fight. Here are some of the proposals in a take-it-or-else offer to the Newspaper Guild:

Slashing pay from 1 percent to 24.4 percent for about 400 Guild employees. Journalists and outside sales representatives are excluded from pay cuts but virtually every other employee would see their paychecks shrink.
> Eliminating one week of vacation -- lowering the maximum to four weeks per year.
> Eliminating five days of sick leave -- cutting the current allotment of 10 days, which is common or even low in the newspaper industry, in half.
> Killing the popular program that allows parents of infants and toddlers to work part time until their children are in kindergarten.
> Reducing pension benefits, including freezing the lump sum (severance pay) component.
> Forcing all assigning editors into management positions, where they would lose job protections and overtime pay.
> Eliminating the birthday and anniversary holidays.

Not Your Father's New York Times--Big and Bold In the A Section

London Bombing Inspires Once-Gray Lady To Go Large With The Art
The Times hasn't been shy about large photo spreads in the feature sections. But outsize art in the news pages is rare. The London bombings changed all that, and maybe could serve as a primer for how to do it right for less tragic events.
If you haven't already, check out yesterday's double-truck layout on pages A12-13, with three shots of the wounded, including the one everybody used of the women with the towel over her face. On A-13 the entire above-the-fold space is of two badly injured people being attended to by passers-by. It was gripping journalism, and few other newspapers than the Times would have had the whereiwithal or the guts to pull it off like they did.
With the recent promotion of a photo editor to assistant managing editor status, Bill Keller has demonstrated the status of art in the Times.
It's an important and visible way to keep newspapers relevant in the years ahead, finding different and compelling ways to tell a story that needs to be told.

Chef On A Shoestring Gets Even Tighter

Miss A Few Weeks At The Saturday Early Show and You Miss a Lot
The wife and I usually turned on the Saturday Early Show on CBS to catch the Chef On A Shoestring segment, where a chef of some repute would cook a three-course meal using ingredients that cost no more than $40.
It's nice to watch for us wannabe foodies, if for nothing else to see portly weatherman Ira Joe Fisher practically storming the set at the end to chow down on the finished product.
In the past, the appetizer and entree was cooked in the first part, while they came back to do dessert after a break. But watching today's show, Laurent Tourendel, one of N.Y.'s star chef from BLT Steak, Prime and Fish, had to whip up all three courses in one segment. Not that this was meant to be a morning cooking school, but the more langorous pace suited the hour the show was on.
Since by that time of the show all of the latest news has been disposed of, there shouldn't be any need to cram more stuff in when you already have a feature popular enough to have spawned a book by the same name.
For those who missed it, here's what Tourondel was cooking up.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/08/earlyshow/saturday/chef/main707716.shtml
As baby recently made three in our house, we haven't been as regular viewers of the Saturday Early Show. Which meant we were thrown for a loop last Saturday afternoon while channel surfing and none other than Gretchen Carlson, who had been co-anchor of "SES" when she wasn't on maternity leave, was doing headlines on Fox News Channel.
Maybe the hours are a little better, even if the network is not. So far, no word on a replacement for Carlson to keep Russ Mitchell company.

British Press Tells Chirac To Piss Off After He Disses UK Food

How do you say "I know you are, but what am I" in French?
When a Paris daily overheard French President Jacques Chirac making jokes about mad-cow disease and telling fellow leaders the British have some of the worst food in Europe, well, you can just imagine how that was viewed by the British media. Actually, you don't have to.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8470933/
Never mind that British restaurants are now regarded as some of the best in Europe, and that some of its star chefs, like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay are foodie superstars on this side of the pond. Or that some French chefs have been losing their Michelin stars faster than you can say croque monseiur.
Suffice to say, The Sun, whose editors are foaming at the mouth on a good day, were not amused, bannering the front page with "Don't Talk Crepe" and calling Chirac a "plonker," a uniquely British way to call someone a fool or an idiot. Actually, The Sun may be on to something here.
It harped on Chirac's quote in reference to the Brits that “You can’t trust people who cook as badly as that. After Finland, it’s the country with the worst food.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005300769,00.html?sectionID=2
Which would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that, as The Sun noted, Finland has two votes on which city, including London and Paris, gets the 2012 Olympics. We'll see if the Finns have a sense of humor, although that's not one of their better-known attributes.
Sister paper The Times was a bit more restrained, at least by British standards with this lead:
President Jacques Chirac's ill-timed jokes about British cooking came back to bite him on the derriere today as he arrived in Singapore to press Paris's case to host the 2012 Olympics.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4662-1681137,00.html
The Times did attempt some perspective in a sidebar, noting that the Finns may have already been leaning toward London in the Olympic voting, even though it relished the possibility that Chirac's food faux pas could cost Paris its status as favorite.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4662-1681162,00.html
But who needs perspective, when you could instead have The Mirror, which helpfully offered "Ten Things You Need To Know About Jacques Chirac."
My favorite is number two, which noted that Chirac imbibed in a popular French pastime, cheating on his wife. "His nickname among female staff when he was Paris mayor was 'three minutes, shower included."
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15700564%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=10%2dthings%2dyou%2dneed%2dto%2dknow%2dabout%2djacques%2dchirac-name_page.html
In contrasts, The Guardian weaseled out of the controversy, relegating it to five paragraphs to the bottom of its main Olympics story that instead featured a last-minute campaign by David Beckham to woo the IOC.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/olympics2012/story/0,14174,1521783,00.html
Somewhere in the middle stood The Independent, which took time from its usual Bush-bashing in advance of the G8 summit to attempt a little kindness toward Chirac, but reported Chirac should not have been caught by surprise as he knew microphones were nearby while he kibitzed with Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schroeder during a weekend meeting in Kalingrad.
President Putin objected to M. Chirac's suggestion that British cuisine was the lowest of the low. "What about hamburgers?" he asked. "No, no," M. Chirac replied. "Hamburgers are nothing [by comparison]."
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article296896.ece
Now he's dissing hamburgers, too? Sacre bleu! Get me some Freedom Fries pronto!

The View Not Viewed By Meredith Vieira's Kids?

Mom's on opposite one of their favorite shows. TiVo to the rescue?
Taking off a few days around a holiday gives you a chance to catch a breather along with some daytime TV. Which is how I've once again stumbled upon "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," now hosted by Meredith Vieira.
A delicious bit of irony emerged on the show that aired yesterday, where the correct answer was "Bob Barker." The contestant remarked how "The Price Is Right" was one of her favorite shows. Later, Vieira said her kids loved the show too.
Which is all the more interesting given that Vieira's other job is co-hosting "The View," which airs opposite Barker and his correct prices.
So, does that mean Mom TiVos "The View" so they can watch her yenta-fest at their leisure? Or do they get their Meredith quota watching "Millionaire?" Or maybe they see enough of her at home and actually do something else besides watch TV.
Now, that would be something worthy of discussion on "The View." Too bad the kids wouldn't see it.

Bloomberg Hate Fest On Hiatus

Disgruntled Bloomberg Employees Either Too Beaten Down or Burnt Out To Bitch About Their Bosses Anymore
One of the things reporters like to do almost as much as cover the news is whine. Management gives them plenty of ammunition. They're too cheap, mercurial, Mussolini reincarnated, or just plain stupid. And so on.
While reporters usually conduct their hate fests over pitchers of cut-rate beer, it's rare for their enmity to be available to all. Which is what had made www.ourbloomberg.com such a guilty pleasure.
The site is sponsored by The Newspaper Guild, which is trying, so far in vain, to unionize employees in Bloomberg newsrooms. Reporters get to anonymously vent against management, which has provided plenty to bitch about.
Chief bitchee is Bloomberg news czar Matt Winkler, who is accused of varying degrees of hypocritical behavior and the reckless disregard of employees' lives, who complain of such indignities of being called at all hours of the night by second- and third-guessing editors trying to avoid Winkler's wrath, spending all their time matching the competition's stories rather than breaking their own and Winkler caving in to the subjects of unfavorable stories.
Ourbloomberg.com has also chronicled the alarming exodus of a talented crew of reporters, many of whom were tempted to work for the company by solid wages, even-better benefits and the ability to be a major player in financial journalism.
But a dip in profits hit even Bloomberg and the cost-cutting began. Those who had drank the company's Kool-Aid were suddenly spitting it up. With the Winkler reign of terror running unchecked, especially when Bloomberg the owner became Hizzoner, the Guild started sniffing around.
So far, not enough takers to force a vote. And lately, not enough outrage either.
The last posting was on May 15, preceded by one on March 4. In fact, after a steady stream of rantings in 2004, just 11 poor souls are urging their brethren to stop the insanity.
Bloomberg has either won the war, or its vassals are too busy or tired to rise up. Either way, getting rid of the status quo is a no-go.

Dan Rather Not The Savior Needed By CNN

Newsday TV writer Verne Gay's trenchant observations about the tube are usually on target. But he lost his way yesterday campaigning for ratings-challenged CNN to lasso Dan Rather into its fold pronto.
Don't get me wrong, I like the guy. His reporting credentials are unquestioned (the Bush National Guard memo stink notwithstanding) and as he approaches age 74 he's still in a position to bring instant gravitas into any employer (Full disclosure: I wrote some commentaries and radio newscasts for Dan).
Gay postulates Rather would be more than a novelty attraction at CNN. Which would be true -- for about a week.
Let's not forget that Rather on the CBS News was not only in third place, but was a distant third. True, some of that could be chalked up to poor lead-ins in major market (e.g. Oprah helps many ABC stations kick daytime butt).
However, there were times in places like Chicago where Rather was the sixth-place show, meaning sitcom repeats were valued by more viewers than the news, at least the version rendered by CBS.
In other words, Rather could well find a home on CNN, but don't look for him to deliver it from the wilderness since Fox and its red-state denizens decreed who ruled the cable-news roost. And given that CNN appears to be trending more toward a shorter, peppier and, yes, younger approach, is there really room for a high-priced tarnished star to come on in?
Lots of intrigue. Lots of anguish. As Dan might be heard saying again someday: "Courage."
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/nyc-ettel4321627jun27,0,899231.story

How Not To Get A Job--Maybe You Shouldn't Rob The Joint Before You Start Work

You'd think filling out an employment application and going for a job interview would be easy enough. You'd be wrong.
Exhibit A: Two geniuses in the Bay Area apply for a job. Maybe the money wasn't enough, for they were foraging in a nearby office for cash and credit cards. How they got nailed is even a better story than how stupid the two of them are:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/23/BAapplicants23.DTL
Exhibit B: Memo to would-be robbers: Don't fill out a job application before you empty the cash register. Another loser in Las Vegas.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jun-22-Wed-2005/news/26761515.html

Pirates In Vermont? FCC Gets Tough On Radio Outlaws

Authorities Rattle Brattleboro Over Tiny Station That Was A Big Pain In The Butt
So, the FCC finally got around to raiding a pirate radio station in Brattleboro, VT, just over the border with Massachusetts, one that had become a virtual fixture in the community.
The question is what took it so long, given that complaints first surfaced in 2003.
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~2934641,00.html
Of course, pirate stations are nothing new. But with increasingly crowded airwaves, they often interfere with legitimate signals. Maybe the FCC is too busy with other stuff to go medieval on these rogue signals. Or perhaps they keep popping up in enough different locations that it's hard to pin them down. Or both. The bottom line is they're a pain, even if they might broadcast something you might want to hear.
The New York Radio Message Board is rife with stories about pirates in Brooklyn broadcasting Caribbean and Jewish programs albeit on different frequencies.
And at a time when commercial radio is locked in what could become a mortal struggle with its satellite rivals, anything that diminishes the ability of people to tune in is enough to set off waves of panic in the sales office. But is the FCC listening?

Wall Street Weenies? Not Working Six Days At The "Journal" Makes You A Wimp

"The idea is to allow people to relax with the Wall Street Journal," notes Journal publisher Karen Elliott House in today's NY Times article about the Saturday Weekend edition to grace newsstands and front porches starting Sept. 17.
It's nice Elliott wants people to be relaxed reading the paper. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for her reporters and editors, even though House told the Times having the Saturday paper would somehow be easier on the staff.
"People won't be working six days a week. But any of the real stars of the Journal work a six-day week now."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/business/media/20journal.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1119295050-ayS62nBPsMGBN1IXZeCxWQ
So, are we to take from that comment that anyone who has the temerity to have a life away from the newsroom and perhaps spend some time with their family is akin to some civil-service clockwatcher who's using valuable oxygen that the 80-hour-a-week warriors desperately crave?
While it's doubtful House meant to imply she had a newsroom full of slackers, it was no doubt a dig at the newsroom's union and its chieftains, with whom she has had frosty relations, at best.
Indeed, House's comments were read with gusto at the union, who reminded its members that more work, equals more pay, regardless of whether the Journal sees it that way.
http://www.iape1096.org/
As far as the union's concerned, the real wimps are the ones who don't put in for the overtime they work.

XM Gets Really Weird

XM Satellite Radio has managed to carve out enough music channels to satisfy those of us who've been disenfranchised by the stultifying safety of commercial radio. But while there's something for just about everyone, there's such a thing as too much narrowcasting, even for XM.
That's where it can help to also spend time listening to them online, which is the only place you'll find channels devoted to Retro Lounge, Southern Gospel and especially Heavy Metal. But my favorite of the online-only offerings is the Special X channel, which is billed as "Just Plain Weirdness."
True enough.
It's sort of like a Dr. Demento show on warp drive, lots of stuff you've never heard, totally forgot about, or never should have been recorded in the first place. It also makes for some unique segues. Where else would you hear Liberace playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" followed by Frank Zappa's "Stevie Spanking"?
A few other samples from recent listens:
William Shatner--King Henry V (he reads Shakespeare, sort of)
Kurt Russell--Sugar, Sugar (Yes, the Archies tune)
Lee Marvin-Wand'rin Star (Makes Shatner seem like Pavarotti)
Surf Punks-Klo-Rene
Jack Kerouac reading lots of his poetry

And so on. You'll leave with quite a buzz. But it's a lot cheaper than getting stoned.

Glum in Guam Over ESPN.com Cheap Shots

ISLAND LEADERS LASH OUT OVER BEING PORTRAYED AS TROPICAL BUMPKINS IN COCKFIGHTING STORY; CONTRITE CHIEFTAINS IN BRISTOL PULL THE STORY

Apparently, it's easy to take swipes at local customs and portray residents as backward savages when they're not part of your core demographic. Or so ESPN.com thought.
Freelancer Mike Ogle wrote about going to a night of cockfighting, which is legal in Guam. But Ogle wasn't content in his May 24 article (since pulled by ESPN, but you can find it cached if you look it up on Google) to give his up-close-and-personal account of an evening watching roosters being gored by each other. But instead of merely offering up an offbeat slice of life, he also felt a need to throw in a few racially insensitive remarks for good measure. To wit:

Evidently, this is what the locals do to pass the time on this 341-square-mile island (about three times the size of Washington, D.C.) stuck all by itself in the middle of the Pacific. Truly, the middle of nowhere. Entertainment options are limited.

Oh, you mean he came for the nightlife? Oops. Actually, he probably could've killed an hour or two at the island's KMart, the world's largest. Never mind. Ogle was just getting started.

Guam, though, is not exactly Manhattan (23 percent live below the poverty line), and the crowd was not exactly the upper crust of the population. They say if an American man walks through a particular poor village in Guam, families will offer their daughters.

Ogle doesn't tell us, though, if he got laid that night.

It appears it took a while for Guam elders to catch wind of the article, as they first complained to the network on June 14. A few days later, ESPN got around to saying it's sorry. So far, Ogle remains mum. It could be argued, he's just plain chicken.
http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050618/NEWS01/506180303/1002

Give Me An S! On Second Thought....

THE POSITIVELY TRUE ADVENTURES OF THE TEXAS CHEERLEADERS WHO PUT POOP ON PIZZA
Hey, we cover all the news, including this item about a really shitty prank. Literally.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/states/texas/northeast/11908121.htm

Wall Street Journal In Need Of A Roadmap

WHERE THE HELL IS POMPANO BEACH, ANYWAY?
If you're doing a story headlined "The Hottest Vacation House Markets," it would help to have a handle on where those places actually are.
In today's Wall Street Journal, June Fletcher and her copy editors could use a remedial cause in map reading.
While touting Pompano Beach, FL, Fletcher placed it as the "southernmost settlement in newly fashionable Palm Beach County." Only problem? It's not. Pompano's actually in the northernmost part of less-than-fashionable Broward County.
Of course, residents trolling in their seven-figure waterfront mansions and condos in Boca Raton and Delray Beach might be surprised to learn they were newly fashionable.

Imus Still Apologizing for Sorry Sid Rosenberg

I-MAN MAY BE TRYING TO PREEMPT A LAWSUIT FROM TOM CRUISE FOR "HOMO" REMARK

Sid Rosenberg got the boot from the Imus In The Morning show two weeks ago for a disgusting joke about Kylie Minogue's breast cancer.
So even though the Sidster's finally been silenced -- at least on Imus -- it seems the I-Man is still cleaning up after his former sports guy's mess, according to the New York Post's John Mainelli. http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/47790.htm
The latest transgression involved Rosenberg calling Tom Cruise gay. Just kidding, Imus told his listeners yesterday.
Nobody's talking about why Imus first got around to being contrite weeks after he let the remark go by without much of a peep. But you don't need a lawyer to point you in the direction this one was heading.
Cruise hasn't been shy in the past about marching into court, as the UK tab The Express found out the hard way in 1998 when Cruise and then-wife Nicole Kidman sued over an article that said their marriage was a sham.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/203779.stm

Kvetching About Kvetch, Or Evidence The New York Post Copy Desk Doesn't Have A Clue About Jews

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A REPORT ABOUT ANTI-SEMITISM IS GUILTY OF SAME

I caught up this morning to Saturday's New York Post, which had a bad case of the copy desk run amok.
It contained a Marsha Kranes dispatch about a 13-year-old human rights case, where a rabbi was subjected to anti-Semitic remarks in an East Side restaurant. He had asked for a coffee in a paper cup instead of a china cup in accordance with kosher law, which doesn't allow for non-kosher dishware.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042005/news/regionalnews/47712.htm
The rabbi was finally awarded $500 for his mental anguish.
A good story, ruined by the headline: Coffee Kvetch.
Now we know the Post is known for its catchy headlines, which usually succeed in hitting their mark. But being cute and accurate should not be mutually exclusive.
Kvetch is a Yiddish word that can be used as a noun for somebody who's a whiner or complainer. It's an uncomplimentary term, which in no way should be part of a story about a rabbi who was called in public the most filthy four-letter word you can say to a Jew.
Someone who stands up for his dignity should never be mistaken for a kvetch. And in a city that has more Jews than Jerusalem, the Post should have known better. And if it did, but for the sake of expediency went ahead and ran with it anyway, shame on them.

O'Brien Mania at CNN: Miles and Soledad Getting Hitched In The Morning

BILL HEMMER BIDDING BYE-BYE TO CNN AFTER FINDING THE PROSPECT OF BEING FED TABLE SCRAPS BY SCOTT MCLELLAN LESS THAN APPETIZING

Despite being low on the radar, CNN's American Morning is more often than not a decent rendering of the night before and the day ahead. It manages to sufficiently steer clear of propping up too many talking heads and drowning in its own gravitas, although it avoids the froth of the other network's morning shows. In other words, a Jeannie Moos piece and uncanned banter among the anchors instead of a Faith Hill concert and a cooking segment.
But CNN would dearly love for more viewers to show American Morning some love. Which is why Miles O'Brien is being shipped up from Atlanta to spend three hours next to Soledad O'Brien in New York.
Out goes Bill Hemmer, who thought better of moving on to become CNN's senior White House correspondent. Too many hours spent doing too many standups for too many programs probably helped Hemmer take a pass. Look for him on a rival network near you in the near future.
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/cnn/0605/07cnn.html?UrAuth=`N_NUOcN[UbTTUWUXUTUZTZU\UWU_UVUZU`U\UcTYWYWZV
CNN also unveiled new details about its three-hour afternoon block, brilliantly enumerated by Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post this morning, who noted American Morning's Jack Cafferty will be part of the rogues gallery:
"[H]e will join Happy, Dopey and Grumpy -- otherwise known as former "Crossfire" banterers Paul Begala, James Carville and Robert Novak -- along with a slew of political analysts, a former terrorism adviser to President George W., a former defense secretary, a former Homeland Security inspector general, an ex-acting director of the CIA and a sprinkling of generals, for a fun-filled three hours anchored by Wolf "Look, the Paint -- It's Drying!"
Blitzer."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601826.html
What should give CNN viewers pause is President Jonathan Klein calling the personnel moves changes in the "cast" of American Morning. The O'Briens should take no comfort in finding out they are performing for us, although for the sake of ratings maybe it wouldn't hurt for an anchor every now and then to come from the Yale School of Drama instead of the Columbia School of Journalism.

News Flash: Jon Pareles Actually Has An Opinion

TIMES ROCK CRITIC SPEWS OUT GALLONS OF SAVED VENOM AT NEW COLDPLAY CD

Nothing like the imminent release of a blockbuster CD to get a rock critic's blood boiling. For the new Coldplay album "X and Y" will sell millions of copies no matter what any critic says about it, good or bad.
That must get the goat of New York Times chief rock critic Jon Pareles, who trashed the CD in yesterday's paper.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/arts/music/05pare.html?
What's more remarkable, though, about Pareles' review isn't his assessment -- which I don't agree with -- but the fact that he was as strident with his opinion as he was.
Pareles has too often been afflicted with Show-Off Syndrome in his reviews, preening in his copy to show readers how much he knows about music theory and composition, every variation of world beats -- Bhutanese throat music, anyone? -- and his know-it-all attitude about rock history, that he often forgets to tell you how he actually felt about a concert or record. Witness this passage on a Kraftwerk concert, which just came out on June 3.

Just as video games have evolved from Pong to "Grand Theft Auto," Kraftwerk's music has also gained dimensions. Its timbres have thickened and deepened; its harmonies have moved beyond major and minor chords; its rhythms have evolved from steady-ticking eighth notes to dance-floor syncopations, drawing on the ideas of the disco, house and techno producers who were inspired by Kraftwerk in the first place. The contrast between songs from the 70's and more recent material was still there, but in both old and new pieces, Kraftwerk had pop reflexes, making its hooks clear and its choruses distinct. As a band that has always loved repetition, Kraftwerk is still in sync with dance tracks that layer patterns above a sparse beat.

But did you like it?
Readers never found out, and Pareles' editors apparently didn't care either way. It's a review, Jon, not a dissertation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/arts/music/03kraf.html

Perhaps the newer culture domos at the Times, first Jonathan Landman, now Sam Sifton, finally put a cattle prod to Pareles to remind him about a crucial ingredient of a review, namely an opinion. For there's no shortage of one when it comes to Coldplay, whom he labels the "most insufferable band in a decade."

Coldplay has verged on self-parody. When he moans his verses, Mr. Martin can sound so sorry for himself that there's hardly room to sympathize for him, and when he's not mixing metaphors, he fearlessly slings clichés.

And on it went. The Times thought enough of Pareles' prose to put it above the fold in the Sunday Arts and Leisure section.
Maybe Pareles is feeling the heat of colleague Kalefeh Sanneh, who will never be mistaken for a shrinking violet. Maybe he's been numbed by all the mediocrity that passes for popular music nowadays. Whatever it takes to make sure Pareles gets on his soapbox and stays there.

Deep Throat Got It All Wrong, Sort Of: John Dean Chimes In

STILL TRYING TO CLEAN UP THE MESSES NIXON LEFT FOR HIM WHEN HE WAS WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL, DEAN SAYS FELT IS FAR FROM FLAWLESS

Give John Dean credit for at least this much. Instead of reflexively becoming an attack dog when assessing Mark Felt like clown-felon G. Gordon Liddy and White House lackey Pat Buchanan, he puts Felt's impact and legacy in proper perspective, in a column that appeared today on www.findlaw.com.
"It is time to learn from what happened, not refight battles Nixon has, for good reason, lost," Dean writes.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20050603.html
Which is not to say Dean is riding shotgun on the Felt bandwagon. He notes Deep Throat may have been a worthy whistleblower, but one who was far from perfect. In fact, he's still a bit puzzled over how much Felt told Woodward was misleading or, in his perhaps jaundiced view -- dead wrong.

Given the complexity of Watergate, it is not difficult to understand how Felt made some mistakes when meeting with Woodward in the dead of the night. Yet in other instances, it is not easy to comprehend how the No. 2 man in the FBI could have provided such bad information, knowing it could become public. And why has Felt let this bad information sit on the historical record for the past three decades?

Felt's outing prompted Dean to return to "All The President's Men" and offers an appendix to show instances where the book is wrong, based on what he says are Watergate documents he's reviewed as well as his own, considerable knowledge of what went down.

Interestingly, Dean looks beyond Felt to tip his hat to who he says is the real hero of Watergate, none other than Ben Bradlee "who not only supported Woodward and Bernstein, but had the trust of the Post's owner, Katharine Graham ... Although The Washington Post never "cracked the case," their keeping the story in the news within the Beltway had a great influence on the Congress, making it an important story. Had Bradlee not done so, history might have been much different."

Deep Throat TiVo Alert: McGovern and Buchanan Tell How They Feel About Felt

Give The History Channel credit for going beyond newsreels to tackle "Deep Throat," on its HistoryCenter program, though the initial broadcast this Sunday at 8:30 a.m. ET is a tad on the early side for those of us on late-night baby-feeding duty. Thank you, TiVo.
On the docket is former Nixon speechwriter and apologist Pat Buchanan, alongside George (I even lost my home state in 1972) McGovern and historian Robert Dallek, whose next book is about Nixon.
While it's no secret where their sentiments lie, if Buchanan and McGovern get into it, you might not need that extra cup of java for your Sunday morning jolt.

Op-Ed Rumble At The Times; Krugman vs. Okrent In a Public Public Editor's Tiff

AS DANIEL OKRENT WINDS DOWN AS PUBLIC EDITOR, PAUL KRUGMAN GETS IN A PARTING SHOT. BUT IT'S NOT THE LAST WORD. (6/1/05--Update below)

This could get interesting.
In Sunday's Letters to the Editor in The New York Times, the final letter came from none other than Paul Krugman, who objected to getting less-than-star treatment in Daniel Okrent's final column as public editor.
Okrent accused Krugman of selectively using stats to bolster his argument in his Bush-bashing column that is ostensibly about economics but has come to mean something much more in stridently liberal precincts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/weekinreview/22okrent.html?ex=1117684800&en=461b88a9bd5590e7&ei=5070
Krugman called the criticisms "simply wrong" and wrapped up by proclaiming "This should be the end of the story."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/weekinreview/29publicletters.html?pagewanted=2
But it's not.
An editor's note at the bottom promised Okrent and Krugman will be going at it again on new public editor Barney Calame's blog later in the week, www.nytimes.com/byroncalame.
It's not the nature of the Times to have feuding columnists air out their spats in public. It conjured a whiff of nostalgia to the Village Voice of the 1970s, when columnists and writers would regularly snipe at each other or their employer in the letters page rather than yell at each other in the office.
It was alternately sad or amusing to see the likes of Howard Smith, Nat Hentoff and Richard Goldstein get all in a huff over some calamity (Robert Christgau only gave the new Pere Ubu album a B-minus? Horrors!) while those who may have actually paid for the Voice -- back when such a thing was mandated -- were allocated less space to rant.
You felt like shouting at them "Take it outside, guys." Which is pretty much the purpose a blog serves nowadays. Which will make the Okrent-Krugman steel-cage smackdown a must-read.

JUNE 1 UPDATE:

Here's the link to the online slapfight:
http://forums.nytimes.com/top/opinion/readersopinions/forums/thepubliceditor/publiceditorswebjournal/index.html?

Not Such A Grand Old Flag At The Detroit Free Press

WITH FRONT PAGE REPLACED BY AN AD AND MITCH ALBOMGATE, ONCE-MIGHTY PAPER SEES ITS CREDIBILITY SLIPPING AWAY
Go to the Detroit Free Press Web site and click under ethics policy. The first line nobly proclaims: "Credibility is the franchise of journalism."
http://www.freep.com/help/ethics_policy.htm
Darn right.
Yet, while the missives set forth in the ethics policy are obviously devoted more to newsgathering, those five words also apply to the newspaper itself, whose publisher and editor Carole Leigh Hutton conveniently forgot them.
How else to explain yesterday's front page that largely contained a flag. What may have been initially viewed as a Memorial Day tribute was actually an advertisement for Marshall Field's.
Not to be outdone, the Detroit News, which has a joint operating agreement with the Freep, went even further with its version of the ad and labeled what would usually be the front page A-3.
But given the recent fiasco with Mitch Albom fabricating events in a column last month and getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist from his bosses, the Freep newsroom is looking at a steep optometrist's bill with all the eye rolling that must be going on.
I'll at least give the Freep credit for running letters lambasting this lunkheaded decision to desecrate the front page.
http://www.freep.com/voices/letters/efrontpage26e_20050526.htm
If similar objections were raised at the News, it's not apparent from the letters posted on the Web site this morning. Maybe the editors are too busy shopping at Marshall Field's.

Sid Rosenberg's Heat Too Hot For Imus -- Morning Drive Attack Dog Muzzled

SID TOO VICIOUS EVEN FOR IMUS OR HIS MANY BOSSES
The usually reliable New York Radio Message Board is reporting that Sid Rosenberg has been banished for good from "Imus in the Morning" after making a crack about Kylie Minogue's breast cancer that stepped over the line, even by that show's low standards.
No word yet whether it was the I-Man who showed the Sidster the wrong end of one of his cowboy boots, or whether the suits at WFAN, or MSNBC, which simulcasts Imus, were tired of rolling their eyes and making excuses for his malicious malingering at the mike.
Rosenberg will still be co-hosting his regular midday sports talkfest on the FAN, though he reportedly makes most of his radio dough from the Imus gig. All of a sudden tumors aren't so funny anymore, right Sid?
UPDATED WEDNESDAY: LINKS TO ARTICLES ON SID'S SKID:
New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/312693p-267443c.html
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/47135.htm

WFAN Looks Like It May Shut Up Sid Rosenberg For Good

CRACK ABOUT KYLIE MINOGUE'S BREAST CANCER MIGHT BE ENOUGH FOR BOSSES TO KEEP HIM OFF IMUS AND GIVE THIS JOCK A SHOCK

As we noted last week, it's one thing to be a radio bad boy. It's another thing to simply be a schmuck. Sid Rosenberg is a schmuck.
The sports guy on the "Imus in the Morning" show made a crack last week about what Kylie Minogue would look like after breast-cancer surgery, as part of his attack-dog routine. In the process, he crossed the line from being merely outrageous to full-out disgusting, all the more galling as he makes most of his living being on a show whose host runs a camp for kids with cancer.
Since then, the bosses at WFAN have pulled Rosenberg from Imus, though he continues to co-host his regular midday sports talk show with Joe Benigno.
The Sidiot -- as the New York Daily News' Bob Raissman is fond of calling him -- is trying to make nice, by being contrite on the air, donating a week's salary to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and doing everything but wearing sackcloth in public to show he's just a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who makes a living saying dumb things and deserves a fourth and fifth chance at redemption.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/col/braissman/
No word, though, on whether that'll be enough to get him back in morning drive, even though WFAN may not want to tinker with talent -- and we use that term advisedly -- who helped it bill $52.5 million, the fourth-highest in the New York market.
But even if Rosenberg does get back with the I-man it'll be only a matter of time before we start gagging on his gags once again. This could be the right time to get rid of Sid.

Suzanne Malveaux: White House Correspondent Turned Drama Queen

Much of Suzanne Malveaux's face time on CNN is spent doing stand-ups on the White House lawn parroting whatever a "senior Bush administration official" is peddling that day, or the day before, as she's often working weekends.
But she was actually liberated from Pennsylvania Avenue to cover Laura Bush's Mideast trip. Good for her. Until she blew it. On a report I caught early this morning, Malveaux wanted more than just the spotlight. She craved being a part of the story herself.
The report in questions was about some ostensibly tense moments when the First Lady entered the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to pay her respects at the Muslim holy shrine. Malveaux went in with her, head scarf and all.
There were a few protesters nearby as they were ushered in, but between the Secret Service and Israeli security, nobody was getting near. Still, Malveaux breathlessly worded a report as if she was about to be branded an infidel and have her limbs ripped asunder. She unforgivably slipped into the first person twice while recounting events.
A pleasant encounter? Hardly. But even CNN's cameras had trouble mustering images of more than a few Muslim protesters. Malveaux's dispatch made it seem like Mrs. Bush was in danger, which was never close to being the case given the numerous guys with earpieces and automatic weapons.
There were louder protests from Jews when the First Lady visited the Western Wall, but Malveaux gave them shorter shrift. Maybe it was because she didn't have to wear a head scarf, just like when she's back on the White House lawn.

What A Dick

AS MEN ALL OVER SAY OUCH, "JOHN DOE" GETS SCREWED BY COURTS AFTER HE SUES EX FOR DAMAGING DONG DOING THE MATTRESS MAMBO
It's always interesting to see how the AP approaches stories like this. In this case, it was right down the middle, without having to resort to euphemisms. Not that you really need any in a case like this.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/16/national/a183807D42.DTL&type=bondage

Outrageous Radio Funny Man or Garden Variety Douchebag?

SID ROSENBERG THINKS KYLIE MINOGUE'S BREAST CANCER IS A GOOD JOKE

As the sports guy on Imus In The Morning, Sid Rosenberg knows he's paid to be outrageous. He called George Steinbrenner a "fat pussy" and Venus Williams an "animal," remarks that got him fired and then rehired (For a full version of that witless exchange, go to http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/4389/view/print.
OK, so he's a stooge for Imus, which means he's supposed to be edgy and out for blood. Of course, that could be accomplished with some semblance of taste. But then again, we're talking about Sid Rosenberg.
In riffing on Kylie Minogue's announcement that she had breast cancer, he proclaimed: "She won't be so pretty when she's bald with one titty!"
[Cue laugh track].
Yes, it's a free country. No, you don't have to listen. And as one poster on the New York Radio Message Board cogently observed, Rosenberg should be pitied not pilloried, in part for being a heartless prick, for thinking that somebody would find this funny, and for being devoid of empathy. Laugh to keep from crying? You need material to laugh at first.
Rosenberg returned to the airwaves last month after spending a month in rehab trying to clean up problems with crack addiction, booze and gambling. Looks like he got out too soon.

"60 Minutes" Stops Ticking On Wednesday

MOONVES SAYS IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RATINGS, NOT THE CONTENT; ANOTHER KICK TO CBS NEWS WHEN IT'S DOWN

It shouldn't come as a shock when a show is canceled when it has more viewers who familiar with Geritol than Gerber's. But when it's "60 Minutes Wednesday" that gets canned, it should send a shudder through anybody who's ever worked in a broadcast newsroom.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/media/18cnd-media.html?hp&ex=1116475200&en=3afe439a3a59e589&ei=5094&partner=homepage
CBS head honcho Les Moonves says it's all about the ratings, not the content. If you can't get enough affluent 18-49s to watch, your program's a goner. Indeed, "60W" may have been a victim of CBS's success.
"The reality of the current television marketplace is that as CBS has become increasingly strong every night of the week over the past few years, the bar for inclusion on the Network's primetime schedule has been set higher and higher," CBS News prez Andrew Heyward penned in a memo to news division employees today.
In other words, it doesn't matter if your show was a reliable bastion of high-quality storytelling, no matter the occasional stumbles such as the botched story on President Bush's National Guard service that hastened Dan Rather's exit from the Evening News anchor chair. Still, even that was not a factor in "60W's" fate, if Moonves is to be believed.
CBS was no longer content to treat "60W" as a high-quality placeholder while the network had its clock cleaned by "American Idol" and "Lost."
That may be sound business decision, but do you mean to tell me that a place can't be found on the schedule for a program that has consistently delivered and won as many awards (two DuPonts, four Peabodys and 10 Emmys) as "60W?" Given time, the junior edition could have been retooled to focus on topics perceived as more ratings-friendly, without having to descend to the depths of a "Dateline" or "20/20." In other words deliver the steak and sizzle.
Heyward delivered one consolation prize -- that CBS has approved some "60 Minutes" primetime specials. But most of the existing staff won't be around for that. Today, according to a source there, they held a long meeting, punctuated by tears and hugs -- some of them coming from Rather.
The CBS eye becomes ever more bloodshot. As those who work in the business are constantly reminded, just being good isn't good enough.

Putting Some Pith In The Sith

NY Times chief movie critic A.O. Scott found a clever and not-too-cute way to assess the latest and last entry in the "Star Wars" saga:

Would my grown-up longing for a return to the wide-eyed enthusiasm of my own moviegoing boyhood - and my undiminished hunger for entertainment with sweep and power as well as noise and dazzle - be satisfied by "Revenge of the Sith"?
The answer is yeth.
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/movies/16star.html?

Two thumbs up, A.O.

The Lights Go Out on John Simon at New York magazine

ACID-TONGUED CRITIC SHOWN THE DOOR AFTER DECADES OF SAVAGELY ATTACKING MOST OF WHO DARED TO WALK A STAGE

When John Simon started his 37-year run as New York magazine's acidic theatre critic, Jeremy McCarter was a long way off from making his debut.
But now Simon's being pushed off the masthead to make way for the New York Sun theatre critic. All of 28, McCarter gets his chance to play on a bigger stage with his writing than his current perch at the conservative five-day-a-week daily that continues to amaze its critics by its continued existence.
Similar sentiments have been expressed about the tart-tongued Simon, never shy about spewing his venom at many a hapless actor, one of whom once dumped soup on Simon's head.
New York magazine editor Adam Moss, perhaps to make nice with Broadway or maybe just wanting his own guy on the aisle, fired the 79-year-old Simon, whose profile had grown more slight ever since Moss came over last year from The New York Times Magazine.

At times it was something of an event when Simon actually liked a production. Usually, though, he lobbed grenades toward the proscenium. When deserved, he could be wickedly funny. From a recent review of the revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" it was Kathleen Turner's turn to be raked over the coals:

She has a voice like a baritone sax issuing from an oil drum, and hams even with her silences. Your standard-issue college president’s daughter can only aspire to being such a foulmouthed fishwife, and no younger history teacher, however hell-bent on climbing the academic ladder, would have married this anti-sexual, castrating slattern.
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/theater/reviews/11667/

But how do you really feel John?

In all fairness, something often in short supply in a Simon review, he could do more than muster enthusiasm for a show that met his approval. He could turn into a press agent's dream. Simon kept falling over himself conjuring up adjectives only he'd use in praise of a Lincoln Center production of Henry IV.

And how thaumaturgically Jack O’Brien has directed! Everywhere you attend there are masterly touches, ranging from the microscopic to the all-encompassing, such as you have never seen before, could not have imagined, and are magically caught up in.
http://nymetro.com/nymetro/arts/theater/reviews/n_9543/index.html

Maybe Moss got tired of looking up words like thaumaturgically, the adverb form of thaumaturgy -- the working of miracles or magic feats (no, I didn't know what it meant either).

Suffice to say, McCarter, regardless of whatever enthusiasm, erudition or wit he brings to the job -- will have the Maestro of Mean's shadow hovering over him for some time to come. For now, you can still read Simon's archived reviews at www.nymetro.com.
If you want to see what to expect from McCarter, you'll have to subscribe. The always-slim Sun is parsimonious handing out freebies at www.nysun.com.

They Could Never Get Away With A Lead Like This At The "Times"

The New York Post has many deficiencies as a newspaper. But at least it's never boring. And occasionally, it lets its outlaw self leave you laughing instead of rolling your eyes.

An example is the Friday lead on the runaway bride story:

May 6, 2005 -- Bolting bride Jennifer Wilbanks was chaste away — by her fiancé's insistence on abstinence, friends of the sex-deprived couple claim.

And the Post has not let its location stand in the way of trying to own this story. Witness today's dispatch, which told of how Jennifer Wilbanks ditched another fiance eight years ago.
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/43738.htm

In comparison the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was content today to rehash, preferring a voluminous article that offered little or nothing in the way of new information -- hardly a way for the top metro paper in the area to bigfoot a story.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/0505/08bride.html?UrAuth=`N\NUOcN\UbTTUWUXUTUZTYU^UWU_UVUZUcU`UcTYWYWZV

Meantime, this story fell below the fold in the hometown Gwinnett Daily Post, with a ho-hummer about whether the Duluth City Council will hit Wilbanks for the tab for her search.
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=32&url_article_id=1913&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

Good Night And Have A Pleasant Tomorrow: Remembering Herb Sargent

BUT THE NEW YORK TIMES' OBIT GUILTY OF OVERLOOKING MAJOR CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF THIS KING OF COMEDY
It was nice to see Tina Fey last night pay tribute to Herb Sargent during "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live." After all, it was Sargent who was the writer/producer mainly in charge of "Update" during the 20 years he spent at "SNL" as the eminece grise among all the comedy newbies who learned at the feet of one of the masters.
As prolific and just plain damn funny as he was, Sargent attended to more sobering matters as the president for the last 14 years of the Writers Guild of America East, where I had the chance to meet him in 1999 when I was on a WGA committee negotiating a new contract with CBS News. He stopped by to offer us encouragement and a few jokes.
Despite his stature, Sargent was never above it all. He was one of us, even though he was more talented than most of us.
It was disappointing to say the least that The New York Times, in its obit today, chose to ignore this part of his life.
It was nice, in un-Timesian fashion, to have fleshed out the obit with what were fresh quotes from Lorne Michaels and Al Franken. That may have been the case of not having much in the can and having to start from scratch, instead of dusting out some chestnut written a decade before with generic biographical information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/07/arts/television/07sargent.html
But for a man who dedicated so much time to making sure writers got the proper respect at networks and in Hollywood, his WGA legacy deserved at least a line or two.
Those who knew him or who benefited from his leadership and dedication, won't forget him anytime soon.
http://www.wgaeast.org/features/2005/05/06/sargent_obit/

Revisiting The Legacy Of Ernie Pyle 60 Years Later

By all accounts, Ernie Pyle acted, felt and wrote like an Everyman, which is what made his dispatches from America and World War II battlefield so compelling for millions of readers. Cut down by a Japanese sniper's bullet on April 19, 1945, his legend and legacy were polished in the ensuing decades and hardly diminished over the years.
As proof, he's part of a frightfully small fraternity of journalists who adorn a postage stamp.
Pyle's just-folks approach is remembered fondly in Dana, Indiana, near where Pyle grew up. It's home to the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site, that's as much a homage as history lesson. Charles Howard, writing for Scripps-Howard News Service, tells why it's worth the trip.
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=ERNIEPYLEMUSEUM-05-03-05
By the way, Pyle roamed the world for Scripps Howard, and he was nothing, if not prolific, says Chuck Woodbury. http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/erniepyle.html. In fact, Pyle cranked out a column six days a week from wherever he was. Sometimes that was Albuquerque, home to the Ernie Pyle Memorial Library, housed in the only home he ever owned. The public Pyle never betrayed a troubled private life, marked by his alcoholism and a wife who twice tried to kill herself.
On the 50th anniversary of Pyle's death David Andrews in Stars and Stripes Pacific, wrote about how Pyle would likely wash out of the modern newsroom, identifying perhaps too closely with the troops, often forgetting to identify a soldier and at times being overly provincial or sentimental. Yet it was also that style that brought the war a little closer to home for millions. http://www.toad.net/~andrews/pyle.htmlWith one simple sentence about the death of an Army captain, Pyle erased any illusions about the glory of war.
"You feel small in the presence of dead men, and ashamed at being alive, and you don't ask silly questions."
http://www.kwanah.com/txmilmus/36division/archives/sanpiet/ernie.htm
It was such dispatches that elevated Pyle to a media superstardom as bright as any network anchor could aspire to then and now. Rare is the correspondent whose death would be felt by so many, so deeply (the untimely passing of David Bloom in Iraq comes close albeit for different reasons).
As James Tobin noted in his 1998 book "Ernie Pyle's War":

The bulletin went via radio to a ship nearby, then to the United States and on to Europe. Radio picked it up. Reporters rushed to gather comment. In Germany General Omar Bradley heard the news and could not speak. In Italy General Mark Clark said, "He helped our soldiers to victory." Bill Mauldin, the young soldier-cartoonist whose warworn G.I.'s matched the pictures Pyle had drawn with words, said, "The only difference between Ernie's death and that of any other good guy is that the other guy is mourned by his company. Ernie is mourned by the Army."

It's hard to imagine too many Pentagon higher-ups getting worked up over the death of a reporter today.
Pyle famously wrote: "War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth."
Fortunately for us, there was nothing routine about Ernie Pyle.

From Rehab Into the Arms of Dr. Phil: Pat O'Brien's Sweeps Shock Therapy

TOO GOOD TO PASS UP FOR SWEEPS, OR IS IT A SIGNAL MOONVES WANTS TO GIVE JUNIOR "60 MINUTES" EDITION THE BOOT?

Since we still haven't moved to a 52-week TV season and ad buyers still look to sweeps to justify ponying up billions to the networks, a prime-time special on Wednesday where Dr. Phil interviews "The Insider" co-host Pat O'Brien about his stint in rehab for being a drunk and about some salacious voice mails he left appears to be a no-brainer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/business/media/02rehab.html
But that can't be viewed as good news in the BMW Building on West 57th St., where "60 Minutes Wednesday" is bunkered.
The show is not exactly a ratings darling, going up against "Lost" and "American Idol." It also attracts some of the oldest demographics of any prime-time show, which translates into lower spot rates.
CBS head honcho Les Moonves hasn't decreed the program's fate yet. But the silence is getting increasingly deafening, and he may be off in some back room burnishing his machete. Keeping it off for a week during sweeps doesn't exactly help 60W's chances. Or does it?
60W can rise to the occasion for three weeks of its top-shelf material and make its case for survival. At this juncture, CBS may be looking for nothing more than a respectable showing, and some evidence that at least a few people ineligible for Medicare are tuning in.
Or, it could be a ratings Catch 22 to set 60W up for a fall. I can see it now. The show was canceled because it didn't get enough ratings. But it wasn't on enough to get ratings in the first place.
Of course, it doesn't make sense. You'd think that 60W would be eminently capable of interviewing Viacom-mate O'Brien without having to involve Dr. Phil, who just happens to be, like O'Brien, under contract to Paramount Television. But somehow I don't see Scott Pelley or Vicki Mabrey being inclined to give O'Brien some tough love and make him cry.
And, of course, they don't have a syndicated daytime show named after them on which, not coincidentally, O'Brien will make another appearance, this time with guests to discuss rehab.
Now it makes perfect sense.

He's Baaaack! But Is Mitch Albom Really Sorry?

HE CLIMBS DOWN FROM HIS CRUCIFIX TO SORT OF APOLOGIZE AND RIP HIS CRITICS A NEW ONE, BUT IN A NICE WAY

His Royal Albomness finally re-emerged over the weekend, after being exiled by the Detroit Free Press while it conducted its "investigation" of last month's column, where he wrote about an event that never happened to meet a deadline for an early Sunday edition.

The latest column was a mixture of forgiveness and giving the finger to his many critics, while nonetheless offering to turn the other cheek. Thanks, St. Mitch, you are so the man. If you missed his missive, let's deconstruct the most salient portions to see what he said and what he really meant.
http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm3964_20050430.htm

The last three weeks have been the darkest yet most enlightening of my professional life. The dark part is obvious. I made a careless mistake in a column. It wasn't malicious. It didn't harm the subjects. But it was factually incorrect in four paragraphs. I assumed something would happen that didn't. That was wrong.

So far, so good. But wait.

I apologized to my bosses. We were going to run a correction. Then we decided to go further. I apologized on the front page of the sports section, something unprecedented, but indicative that we took it seriously.

The April 7 mea culpa was actually a three-paragraph note, in which Albom did use the word "apology," but spent most of the rest of his space rationalizing how he screwed up and offered his early deadline as one excuse for a mistake most cub reporters know not to make.
http://www.freep.com/sports/albom/mitch7e_20050407.htm

And then, as Dick Enberg says, "Oh my!"
A volcano erupted. An explosion that mixed the criticism I deserved with a lava flow of anger, hate, self-righteousness and people who once called themselves friends preferring to act as my judge and jury.
I went from sorry, to shocked, to saddened, to silent. I didn't want to lash out. I felt terrible for the mistake, terrible that my newspaper had to take heat, terrible that my editors were besieged.

Is this where we're supposed to be grateful to Albom for not lashing out? What snappy retort would we be treated to?
"Hey, I sacrificed my credbility and that of my newspaper by writing a column that turned out to be fiction? But so what? I'm filthy, stinkin' rich and Oprah returns my calls. I won't be meeting you in Heaven, sucka!"
Albom is no dummy. He kept his mouth shut because the wagons kept on circling ever tighter and there was still no guarantee the Free Press would take him back, though in hindsight that was a no-brainer given Albom's marquee value, something in short supply at the Freep.

Time passed. Lumps were taken. And people moved on. I have been slow to return to this column because a lot has been said and done, and a lot seems changed. The boundless joy I always felt for this newspaper business has been socked in the stomach.

Now you know how we feel.

If I ever needed a humbling reminder to slow down, something I've struggled with for years, here was that lesson again. That column was filed in a hurry on a day when I wrote another column right after it. Too fast. Too dangerous.

Don't forget, he also does a radio show, appears on TV and writes books. A column is very tempting to turn into an afterthought. Slow down? Don't count on it. The money's too good. And what a crushing blow Albom would deal to his ego if he admitted that maybe he really can't do it all.

And if I ever needed to learn the stinging irony of this business, I've had my chance. In the race to report on my journalistic error, you could barely count the mistakes and falsehoods that were committed. From a TV station that called me a Pulitzer Prize winner (I'm not) to a major sports magazine that chastised my column on two players who weren't at the Final Four, then got it wrong by saying I wasn't at the Final Four.

This is Albom's way of saying, "I know you are, but what am I?" Falsehoods? Please. That's a word you see in briefs filed for a libel suit. Grow up.

So it might be easy to go from sorry to screaming. Hate people back. But to what end? Having asked for forgiveness myself, I can do no less than give it.
So I will not swipe at those who swiped at me. It was my mistake. I'll own up to it. Besides, in 20 years of doing this column, I have never written for those people.
I write for you.

Some have argued that Albom doesn't fall into Jayson Blair and Janet Cooke territory because he didn't willfully fabricate an event -- that he wrote about something that was supposed to happen, but never came off for various reasons.
But it was still dumb, reckless and toying with one of the few tangible commodities a newspaper has with its readers -- telling the truth. You take it on faith that when a columnist writes about two Michigan State alumni at the Final Four to root on their school, their fannies were in the seats doing just that. But when they were not, and Albom indicates otherwise, how seriously can you take him as a columnist, or the newspaper that continues to employ him?
Every journalist has made a mistake here or there. Fortunately, most don't rise to a firing offense, which is what printing fiction in a column would be for anyone with the less-exalted status that Albom enjoys.

I know there are kids who read this newspaper. I know there are kids who read my column. Some teachers even use it in schools.
Well, you kids need to know that what I did was a mistake. It was careless, and you should learn from it. Be better than I was on that day. Know that you can't assume something is going to happen, even a sunrise, because the one time you write it as if it happened, the sun might not rise. Nobody's perfect. But that doesn't mean you don't try. And if you mess up, say you're sorry, as I am saying again here.

Quick! Call the podiatrist. There's a columnist in Detroit who requires a foot extraction from his mouth. Albom shouldn't have to write a smug journalistic primer like above. It was something so simple, so basic, yet it was expedient to simply hope what he wrote about would go down. After all, he's Mitch Albom! What could possibly go wrong?

The sermon concluded thus:

And know this: Just as you can't assume the future, you also can't assume human nature. It won't always be kind. It won't always be fair or friendly. But if you want to grow into good, balanced journalists, the thing you should most remember is the thing that was most forgotten these last few weeks:
Perspective.
Protect it. Cherish it. And you -- and I -- with God's grace, will be fine.

Words to live by. We'll see if he has that perspective if he ever feels tempted to question the manhood of some middle linebacker who missed a crucial tackle.
Kids, here's a better lesson: Take those last few paragraphs to heart. Just ignore who wrote them, as the author has a long way to go to figure out what they really mean.

"Heaven" May Be A Ripoff, At Least The Movie Version

ANOTHER GO-ROUND FOR RESTON'S PLAGIARISM CLAIMS AGAINST RIDLEY SCOTT AGAINST HIS CRUSADES EPIC "KINGDOM OF HEAVEN"

The Associated Press finally got around yesterday to airing James Reston Jr.'s claims that Ridley Scott ripped off the first 100 pages of one of his books as the basis for Scott's latest cinematic bloodletting starring Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson.
http://www.manyonline.org/AboutBoard.htm
That means most of the rest of the media is finally getting around to picking up a story that first made its rounds in The New York Times on March 28, although most of the backbiting has been confined to the trades.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/movies/29king.html
Fox says Reston's claims are baseless, and Scott claims never to have read Reston's book "Warriors of God: Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin in the Third Crusade."
At the very least, "Kingdom of Heaven" is a catchier title.
If Reston does go ahead and sue -- he'll probably take a gander at the box office first -- good luck, especially since he wrote about historic events. While Scott will never be confused with a biography maven, he is an old hand at planting a foot in the past, real or imagined (read: Gladiator).
Since Reston's book had been pitched to Scott for a movie in 2001, he's claiming it was a bit too much of a coinky-dink that a Crusades movie just happened to come out with Scott's name attached after he took a pass on a screenplay based on Reston's book. It all sounds like a lot that's open to interpretation. Translation: Only the lawyers will come out winners if Reston takes to the courts.
One revealing nugget came from variety on April 19, which reported Reston would love to be included in any stories or features about the film, even though he may sue. Just a hunch: Scotty Jr. shouldn't expect any help from Fox publicity toward that end.

Murdoch To Newspapers: Drop Dead

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Not All Critics Juiced By New Bruce

STILL, MANY ARE BEWITCHED BY SPRINGSTEEN'S "DEVILS AND DUST" AS THE BOSS SHOWS HE'S BORN TO DO A LOT MORE THAN RUN IN THE U.S.A.

Sorry, I couldn't take off work to scoot down to Tower Records to get my copy of "Devils and Dust" this morning. Not worth the schlep when you can get it four bucks cheaper online. No offense, Boss. He still challenges, delights and enraptures me like no other musician. It's just that I can get by for a couple of days on downloads of the title cut and tonight's VH1 Storytellers meditation on his 13th album.

For the critics who have gotten the full listen, there is a mix of hosannas and ho-hum. Some genuinely love the brooding tracks, others suspect they've heard this before and done better, no less.

Sean Daly in The Washington Post encapsulates the conflicts felt by many a Springsteen fanatic. They're happiest when he's a rockin', but then there are those slow, quiet songs. Fear not.
"[T]he blue-collar bard has managed to make an album that is both personal and accessible, good news for fans who feel guilty that "Tom Joad" was listened to once and never again."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/25/AR2005042501567.html.

But Jim Farber in the New York Daily News is among those who find those ghosts still linger, which can make "Devils and Dust" an endurance test more than a musical monument.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/303148p-259531c.html

Unfortunately, "Devils & Dust," like "Tom Joad," mainly finds Springsteen in a murmuring rut. While other players appear on the CD, the focus remains on Springsteen's rickety guitar and broken vocals. Both seem so weighed down by their dire subject matter, they're often squashed.

Jeepers. I guess that mean no trips down Thunder Road in a Pink Cadillac for us.

The AP's David Bauder is more blunt. He says the album is just plain "boring" and a blip at best in the Springsteen canon that can be easily forgotten.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1675&dept_id=18179&newsid=14414969&PAG=461&rfi=9

Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times noted it's easy to see how these meditations can be akin to taking foul-tasting medicine for some fans. But he found the album "pleasantly inviting," even though "songs give us the bare bones Boss croaking like a guy from Jersey imitating a guy from Oklahoma over a sad and naked acoustic ."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/cst-ftr-bruce26.html

In Detroit, where Springsteen kicked off his latest tour, the Free Press' Brian McCollum noted the album title may have helped inspire a dose of old-time religion in Springsteen.
[I]it's been a spirituality of the opaque sort: the perpetual hunt for redemption after the fall, or for catharsis amid the muck. Here he gets direct, calling straight out to God..."
http://www.freep.com/entertainment/music/sjlede24e_20050424.htm

In what was more of a homily than a review, Michael Riley in The Asbury Park Press -- Springsteen's hometown paper -- took the album's spiritual themes maybe even further than the Boss himself intended. Which may not be much of a reach for Riley, given that he's also an ordained Baptist minister.
"The broken souls in "Devils & Dust" pray hard and often, even if they don't realize it, even if they give voice to those prayers in wishes and vows. "
Amen to that, I think.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050424/ENT04/504240322/1031/ENT

Dan Aquilante of the New York Post liked the album, sprituality and all, but seem disappointed that Springsteen, a loud John Kerry supporter, has made an essentially non-political statement with "Devils and Dust."
"Even the title track, inspired by the invasion of Iraq, isn't political, it's personal. The songs opens with Springsteen plaintively singing, "I got my finger on the trigger, but I don't know who to trust ... I feel a dirty wind blowing devils and dust."
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/45151.htm
Which obviously leaves his Democrat-chewing bosses at the Murdoch-owned Post crestfallen.

Golden Boy Mitch Albom Tarnished, But Gets To Keep Job

GUTLESS MANAGEMENT DECIDES FICTION IN THE "FREE PRESS" NOT SUCH A BAD THING AFTER ALL, AS LONG AS IT'S WRITTEN BY A SUPERSTAR COLUMNIST

The Detroit Free Press brass had their chance to take a stand. Instead, they cowered under their desks for fear of what might happen if they canned columnist-superstar Mitch Albom for penning a column about something that never happened but written as if he was there.
Albom's been on paid leave since April 7, the newspaper launched an "investigation" into what happened. Over the weekend, Free Press editor and publisher Carole Leigh Hutton wrote in a note to readers that Albom and four editors would be disciplined, and that the column would return.
"We took into account many factors, including the seriousness of the offense, the importance of our credibility, the history of those involved and Albom's 20 stellar years at the Free Press," Hutton wrote.
Which meant she left many questions unanswered, and still has. She clammed up when quizzed by Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp. Pressed on why Albom wasn't fired for writing about something that didn't occur, she said only "I didn't think that was the appropriate discipline in this case."
And that's about all Hutton would offer, except to promise that the Free Press would publish an article at some point to explain what happen.
Then again, this was the same paper that spiked a bad review of Albom's latest book "Five People You'll Meet In Heaven," so don't get your hopes up.
And remember, Hutton is editor AND publisher. It's not just about the integrity of the news product, especially when your bottom line could fall through the trap door. And in a city like Detroit, whose two papers have since precipitous circulation drops, you can't lose whatever edge you may have.
And one of the few the Free Press may possess is Albom, who by all accounts has a genuine following and has justly built his street cred as a revered media titan in the Motor City. Until now.
The Free Press doesn't want to find out the hard way if giving Albom the boot will siphon away even more readers. After all, what's the use in having credibility if nobody's reading the paper, right?
The Free Press assumes most of its readers are in forgive-and-forget mode. And they may be right. So it really should come as no surprise the paper will welcome back Albom with open arms, or at least make sure the door doesn't hit him and his outsized ego on the way back in. But it's sad and pathetic all the same.
Look for Albom's next column and see if the words "I'm sorry" appear. Now that would be something worth reading about. Assuming, of course, it was true.

The Weekly Read Out---Internet Hunting, Icebergs 101, and a Tax On Chewing

Everything you wanted to know about icebergs, but were too cold to ask, courtesy of Daniel Engber at Slate:
http://www.slate.com/id/2117097/
You'd think gun-lovin' Texans would have no problem with Internet hunting, that is controlling a gun from a computer to blast away at varmints. But the Lone Star State apparently wants you to do your killing up close and personal, as Nancy Vogel writes in the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-liveshot21apr21,0,4157569.story?coll=la-home-headlines.
Singapore's saying I told you so: Now it's Liverpool that wants to make life difficult for chewing gum manufacturers.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/news/0,8368,1466659,00.html.