Can't Tell The N.Y. Times Sports Staff Without A Scorecard

Updated 10/12, 11 a.m. ET

Constantly Shifting Beats Result in Confusion and Possibility of Missed Stories
The New York Times is the paper with arguably the most schizophrenic sports section in the country.
It employs a phalanx of compelling columnists like Selena Roberts, George Vecsey and Bill Rhoden. It also has young turks like Lee Jenkins and Tyler Kepner who know how to report and write with equal flair, while graybeards like Murray Chass provide valued historical perspectives while writing about today's players.
And Times sports writers are hardly pigeon-holed. One year, Damon Hack's covering pro football. The next year it's golf. Lynn Zinser's on the Giants beat? Nope. Now she's covering the Olympics. But wasn't that Jere Longman's bailiwick. Oh, he's covering the Katrina aftermath.

Not that what he's writing about has much to do with sports, but that's never mattered much at the Times. Remember one Richard Lezin Jones, who covered the Jets last season? Now he's on the front page of Wednesday's paper with a piece on New Jersey's failed child protective services program. The Times is rife with sports multi-taskers who transitioned to hard news, and good for them (Jane Gross, Robin Finn, Joe Sexton and Michael Janofsky, for starters).

There's nothing wrong with rotating beats every now and then so reporters don't get too cozy with their players, or despise them beyond the point of no return.

But too much shuffling means there's also the danger of losing out on the good story, even the outright scoop when you play musical reporters. One day Lee Jenkins is covering the Mets. The next day, he's at the Little League tournament.

Fortunately, for the Times, the Mets folded after a few fleeting moments of playoff grandeur, and didn't lose out on crucial storylines. Also, new guy Ben Shipgel from the Dallas Morning News did a more than workmanlike job covering the late-season swoon. But the danger remains.
At least the Times covered the team. Often, it has an annoying tendency to all but ignore some teams on non-game days. Can you imagine not a single story about the Jets when they had a game on Sunday? It happened last week.

And woe to the fan of the Nets, Devils, or Islanders looking for regular coverage of their team on off days.
If the Post and News can cover those teams, so can the Times. Don't cry crocodile tears about budget problems. Every newspaper has them, and these comments are being made with full knowledge that the Time is trimming newsroom staff through buyouts.
Still, covering local teams is part of a newspaper's mission. Just do it.

Hockey's Back At The N.Y. Times, Sort Of

The Puck Doesn't Stop At West 43rd St.

Updated 10/12, 11 a.m.
No doubt, the bean counters in The New York Times' sports department were elated when the NHL season was canceled last year. Fewer road trips, expense reports and freelancers to be paid add up rather nicely during the course of an over-long season.
Now that the Zambonis are once again in action, the Times is slow to wake from its hockey slumber.
To be sure, it had long ago relegated the sport to a distant fourth in coverage, even though it's had perennial Stanley Cup contenders The New Jersey Devils in their backyard. The Rangers get regular if perfunctory coverage. Jason Diamos is the only staff writer covering one of the three local teams. But he's often well ensconsed on the back pages, if at all.
In Wednesday's paper, there was not a single story on any of the three local teams, only a few hockey items in a wire-service roundup. It's a long way from the Rangers' 1994 championship season, but has it come to this? The Devils have won three Cups, one as recently as 2003. But it might as well have been a field hockey championship, the way they're treated in the Times.
Then there are the New York Islanders. Remember them? It's been a long time since their streak of four straight Stanley Cups ended in 1983. Since then, the team has mostly been toiling in mediocre obscurity in the Nassau Coliseum.
But it's still a local team in a still-major sport. The Times begs to differ. The paper had long ago stopped sending reporters on the road or used stringers for most Islanders and Devils road games. However, there have been warm bodies in the press box at home games. Alas, that was not the case for Monday's loss to the Florida Panthers, which the Times recounted with AP copy.
The Daily News, the Post and Newsday, all of whom have Islanders beat writers, were all there. When it comes to sports, the Times is the paper of record only when it feels like it.

Identity Crisis At The Los Angeles Times

Or How Everything Old Is New Again Even If It Didn't Work The First Time
The Los Angeles Times is accustomed to getting a lot of Pulitzers, but not love from its corporate overlords at Tribune. Of course, that may be understandable when your circulation has slipped 18 percent in the last five years, while ads have plunged by 26 percent in that period, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Still, it remains a great paper, especially if you're looking for penetrating enterprise pieces, thorough foreign coverage, and entertainment coverage worthy of its location. But it's not enough.
So, now look for more coverage of Tinseltown, celebrities and, gasp, shorter stories.
We'll work from the assumption that editor Dean Baquet is smart enough not to dumb down the paper with reams of gossip and Lindsay Lohan sightings.
But maybe he's also throwing in the towel to concede that not everyone is reading all the way through a 3,000-word Column One piece, which no matter how well-written or reported, could wind up being the journalistic equivalent of cod-liver oil.
The key is striking a balance, no easy feat when you have frantic executives in Chicago pleading for more black ink, while you try to avoid sacrificing the editorial product at a time when the staff continues to shrink.
And those newsroom reductions come when the Times also wants to concentrate more on its sprawling backyard.
"We won't out-local the local papers. [But] I think you will see us placing bigger bets on regional coverage," publisher Jeffrey Johnson told the Journal.
Good luck.
Not only are the 16 dailies the Times goes up against not giving up without a vicious fight the Times can ill afford to wage, the paper has already been chastened in years past from editions that failed, such as the one for San Diego County.
Just because you are the better paper -- and for all its pullbacks the Times is the superior product in Southern California -- doesn't mean people will automatically plunk down their quarters at will. That's why The Register in Orange County, the Daily News, serving the Valley and The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, among others, are still in business.
They are perceived as the local papers, whereas the Times is the 400-pound gorilla from parts unknown, or at least parts where many prospective readers don't want to travel to.
Moreover, you can't siphon readers on the cheap. Sticking a few reporters in bureaus here and there just won't cut it. And don't think people will buy The Times and another paper. Most folks barely have the time or inclination for one, if that.
Given that the Times provides 20 percent of Tribune's revenue, there's a lot at stake here, not just for circulation and profits, but for a fiercely proud journalistic institution that has managed to maintain standards in the face of difficult odds.
There's nothing wrong with reinventing yourself so long as you remember what made you great and tenaciously hold on to that foundation. Dean Baquet is too good a journalist to forsake that mission.
Now, he just needs to convince his bosses to be a little patient while he figures out the right mix. The past has shown patience has been anything but a virtue with Times execs, however.
If Baquet doesn't get the time he needs, we should all fear what may happen next.

"SNL" On The Comeback Trail At the Expense of CNN

Surprise, surprise. The show was actually funny.
Taking potshots at "Saturday Night Live" isn't fun anymore. It's just too easy. The cast is too thin on talent, the writers fall back too often on characters who were never that funny to begin with, and "Weekend Update" is often a slog waiting for the few good jokes.
So, it was more than a pleasant surprise to see "SNL" open up season 31 with some laugh-out-loud funny sketches, including one focusing on celebrities lending a hand in New Orleans with Seth Myers showing more than a few flecks of talent with a dead-on impression of Anderson Cooper at his too-fast, staccato worst, while new featured player Bill Hader nailed Al Pacino big-time.
Later, a sketch on a passenger on that troubled Jet Blue flight where the passengers could watch their planes emergency maneuvers on their in-flight TVs was highlighted by Darrell Hammond adding Aaron Brown in all his laconic glory to his arsenal of impressions. Didn't appear that everyone in the audience realized who he was doing, but if you did, you knew it was brilliant.
And Kanye West killed with his numbers, but not before a hysterical reunion with Mike Myers, who just happened to be hanging out backstage. It's moments like that when "SNL" is at its best, taking broad swipes at our highest and lowest moments in pop culture.
The rest of the show, save for a fun "TV Funhouse," was on the humdrum side. And Horatio Sanz, as expected, laid a big-time goose egg subbing for Tina Fey on "Weekend Update."
"SNL" manages to resurrect itself every few years, and it's long overdue. This show offered some glimmers of hope. Still, with Fey -- and soon Maya Rudolph -- out on maternity leave, the show will have to do more with a lot less. And that's nothing to laugh about.

No Check, Please! N.Y. Post Bids Farewell To Restaurant Reviews

It might be a good idea, although it might just be a good way to trim the editorial budget
N.Y. Post restaurant critic Steve Cuozzo is out of a job, sort of. He says what he does makes no sense nowadays, given the blink-and-you'll-miss-it changes that occur in the kitchen. Chefs often have one foot out the door as soon as they arrive, while menus become the kind of ersatz experiments that you'd steer clear of in chemistry class.
So, Cuozzo says rather than try to keep track of it all, he'll keep track of none of it.
"Back when restaurants were smaller and more stable, a review might hold water for years, he writes in today's paper. "Today, once critics have moved on, the house mutates without any press attention."
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/54243.htm
Cuozzo is a tad vague about what he'll write instead, but maybe because that's still a work in progress, much like many of the restaurants he reviewed. But he promises that "we'll tell you what's happening at more than one place, in the kitchen or on the floor. We'll aim to give you more useful - and interesting - information than you'll glean from reviews that read like cooking courses and turn stale overnight."
Was that a shot across the bow at Frank Bruni? Not that the Post needs any encouragement to hurl brickbats at the Times, which you can rest assured will keep churning out reviews of places, many of which you won't be able to get a reservation or afford, or both.
Which is not to say that what Bruni and others like him do isn't useful. Often he's entertaining, well-informed and not afraid to slam star chefs for their excesses and shortcomings.
Still, Cuozzo may be onto something. Restaurants are often victim of their own hype, raising expectations that are part and parcel of the high prices many eateries vainly attempt to justify. As Cuozzo notes, in restaurants with large kitchen staffs, you don't know who's manning the flame the night you're there. It could be a transcendant experience, or it could leave you with the same kind of feeling after you watched your Enron stock tank.
However, I suspect restaurant reviews still serve a purpose, and not just as grand theatre when a critic is gleefully vicious. They capture a moment in time, one that may not be recaptured, but one we as diners aspire to latch onto nonetheless if it is particularly memorable.
Reviews can put restaurants on notice about where they're clicking on all cylinders and where they've stalled. You'd think that'd be painfully apparent to many restaurant owners, but many a disappointing dinner proves otherwise. They need to be called to account and if Steve Cuozzo won't do it, then we need others who will.

Being The New York Times Means Never Really Having To Say You're Sorry

Being A Noodge About Nudges
It's easy, often too easy, to take a slam at Geraldo Rivera. He practically begs you to roll your eyes when he straddles his high horse, be it drawing all-too-revealing maps in the desert sands of Iraq, or the toxic muck of New Orleans.
So there should be no reason to exaggerate when relating the latest episode of As Geraldo Turns, as Alessandra Stanley did in the Sept. 5 N.Y. Times when she wrote Rivera "nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety."
Rivera threatened to sue if he didn't get a correction, which finally arrived today in the form of an editors' note, which conceded "no nudge was visible in the broadcast."
But that admission, presumably from Executive Editor Bill Keller, came only after the note first proclaimed: "The editors understood the "nudge" comment as the television critic's figurative reference to Mr. Rivera's flamboyant intervention."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/pageoneplus/corrections.html
Huh?
Exactly how is a nudge figurative? Either Rivera laid his hands on the rescue worker or he didn't. The once-Gray Lady seeks to create a gray area where none needed to exist. It was too tempting to pummel Rivera, so the nudge was a nudge, whether it was figurative or literal.
Keller's sort-of apology comes two days after Public Editor Barney Calame ripped him a new one for refusing to admit the paper was wrong in face of overwhelming evidence, namely the videotape in question.
Based on the videotape and outtakes I saw, Ms. Stanley certainly would have been entitled to opine that Mr. Rivera's actions were showboating or pushy. But a "nudge" is a fact, not an opinion. And even critics need to keep facts distinct from opinions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/opinion/25public.html
Calame could barely contain his outrage over Keller's e-mail to him, which said as a critic, Stanley had "license" to label Rivera's showboating a "nudge."
I find it disturbing that any Times editor would come so close to implying - almost in a tit-for-tat sense - that Mr. Rivera's bad behavior essentially entitles the paper to rely on assumptions and refuse to correct an unsupported fact.

Exactly. Which demonstrates the level of conviction Keller wrote the editors' note. By dragging this out over three weeks, Keller, Stanley, et al., made this more than just a star reporter having a hissy fit. They even managed the impossible, having people who are not fans of Geraldo feeling sorry for him. And they didn't have to be nudged to feel that way.

Appropriately Named Ryan Church Shows Evidence Of Being Hit With Too Many Pitches

Nationals' Player Says He's Sorry For Unwittingly Being a Bigot

Today's baseball players are coddled beings, flown in luxurious charters to games, staying in fancy hotels and being paid an average salary north of $2.5 million a year while having anything and everything done for them during the season. That apparently includes thinking.

How else are we to view the ignorance and bigotry that came flowing out of the mouth of Washington Nationals outfielder Ryan Church, who's apparently infected by a bad case of evangelical zeal? In Sunday's Washington Post, he mentioned going to a volunteer team chaplain when asking for advice about his Jewish ex-girlfriend.

"I said, like, Jewish people, they don't believe in Jesus. Does that mean they're doomed? Jon nodded, like, that's what it meant. My ex-girlfriend! I was like, man, if they only knew. Other religions don't know any better. It's up to us to spread the word," Church said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092002093.html.

Cue the backpedaling.

"Those who know me on a personal level understand that I am not the type of person who would call into question the religious beliefs of others."

Even though that's what he did.

Church also apologized. The chaplain, whose day job is as an FBI agent, was suspended. Which calls into question the Nationals' judgment for not giving him the boot entirely.

To his credit, Church didn't take the weasel way out and whine like many athletes about being quoted out of context when they get diarrhea of the mouth and wind up in Chateau Bow-Wow. But you have to wonder if he's truly contrite, or lost in the reverie of imagining his ex burning in the fires of hell.

Maybe Church should get some religion and break bread with the Jew who, for now, is the ultimate overseer of the Nationals franchise -- baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

Cutting Your News Hole To Spite Your Profit Margins

Tuesday Bloody Tuesday In Philadelphia Newsrooms
The latest newsroom reductions at the Philly Inquirer and Daily News are not of the nip/tuck variety. Rather, they're more from the slash/burn school.
Yeah, public companies are entitled to a profit, but the larger question of how much is too much in a down advertising market looms large.
Knight Ridder says the Inky and DN garner a profit margin in the low double-digits. Good, but not good enough for Wall Street. And yet the only solution is to eviscerate 16 percent of the already-shrunken newsrooms.
Cue the smoke and mirrors.
Sure, the Inky is far removed from its Gene Roberts glory days when long, enterprise reporting from far and wide was the norm, as the paper garnered prestige and prizes while becoming the 400-pound gorilla that followed its readers to the suburbs.
But fewer of those readers have appreciated those efforts over the years, giving the Knight Ridder brain trust fodder to get rid of reporters and editors with abandon.
It'll be interesting to see if readers will notice or care that there's less local news, more wire copy and fewer reasons to make either paper a must read.
But at least the papers will be more profitable, right?
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/12695181.htm

Unfulfilling Filler: The N.Y. Times Provides A Journalistic Pork Barrel

What's For Dinner? Answer better suited for "Lost" survivors than the rest of us
Nobody expects penetrating journalism to emerge from Men's Fashion supplements. But it wouldn't hurt if the copy that's strung between the ads would have at least some substance or relevance to some readers.
The N.Y. Times fails to understand this. Yesterday's male fashion book -- and it had enough ads to qualify as such -- was replete with pitches for clothing that even many Times readers either couldn't afford or wouldn't be caught dead in, assuming they weren't like the androgynous, underfed models who donned the duds in question.
But the supplement also featured ostensible lifestyle pieces, including a food piece that focused on eating wild boar, as if that was something available at the local Gristede's to whip up for the gang.
Even if you were going to schlep to a gourmet butcher for some boar, the recipe itself warns that it's not easy, will take hours to execute, and requires equipment most kitchens don't have.
So what's the point? Exactly.
How about putting in a recipe for something that even the above-average guy has a chance at pulling off? But that would be too easy. That's not in keeping with a fashion spread replete with $3,000 suits, $200 t-shirts and $500 ripped jeans.
Which can only mean the Times never had any intention for anyone to follow through actually making this gamey abomination, let alone expect anyone to read this unmasterful missive penned by someone named Oliver Schwaner-Albright except for his name-dropping a few celebs who enjoy a good hunt for their dinner.
And you can be sure they're not wearing any of the clothes featured in the supplement when they're blasting that boar to bits. Somehow, Ted Nugent and Versace in the same sentence just doesn't sound right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/style/tmagazine/TM1860MAN.html

Totally Unironic Headline Of The Day: I Saved My Dog With The Kiss Of Life

Another hurricane success story, but this one from Irene. Good to see they have a lot of slow news days in Bermuda:
http://www.bermudasun.bm/archives/2005-09-16/01News02

The Demons Take Over Sid Rosenberg Once Again

As expected, it appears Sid Rosenberg's departure from WFAN was of his own making, after not showing up Sunday for his stint on the New York Giants pregame show. While he "resigned," that was strictly a courtesy that station management extended, and likely did so grudgingly given Rosenberg's history.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/345770p-295169c.html
While no one's commenting officially, indications are Rosenberg was in the wrong place at the wrong time, namely Atlantic City, given that he's a recovering drug and gambling addict, as well as an alcoholic.
Given his scatalogical shtick, the temptation would be to say good riddance. But it's hard to kick a man when he's down, especially when he's fallen so far that he's all but impossible to reach.
http://www.nypost.com/sports/52702.htm

Sid Rosenberg "Resigns"; Foul-Mouthed Sports Talker Gives Himself Silent Treatment

The "Sidiot" pushes himself off the air before he is pushed
It took longer than we thought, but Sid Rosenberg is gone from WFAN. First, he was finally pushed off Imus's show as the wacky sports guy in May because of a crack he made about Kylie Minogue's breast cancer.
It was one of several "jokes" that had either gotten him in hot water or booted off the air for a while. Imus always took him back because he had a soft spot for the big lug and besides, he was edgy and spontaneously outrageous, something Imus's show had stopped being about 20 years ago.
But Imus flagship WFAN didn't get rid of Sid. It allowed him to keep his regular midday sports-talk gig. And so it went until today, when Sid's co-host Joe Benigno announced his partner had resigned for "personal reasons."
No word on what those might be, or is that code for "quit or be canned."
As odious as his on-air persona is, let's hope he's not back to his addicted ways, for him and his family's sake. Rosenberg's been treated for various addictions since 1997, so he could have relapsed in any number of ways. Or maybe enough was enough.
Sick or not, a change in venue was long overdue. WFAN failed to realize that just because you can say something doesn't mean you should. That goes for breast-cancer jokes. And apologizing doesn't cut it either. Sid could have been a jackass off-mike, but once he made that his shtick, he lost his usefulness as a broadcaster.
Don't bet on Sid (he's also a recovering gambling addict). Just wish him good luck. He'll need it.

"He Felt I Had Become Too Emotional." But New Orleans Radio Reporter May Have Been First of Many

When Trying To Keep Calm Just Isn't An Option
Dan Barry's piece in the N.Y. Times today on how New Orleans radio powerhouse WWL has served as the lifeline for its beleaguered region showed how quickly events overtook its reporters and perhaps forever changed how they do their jobs. Others are bound to follow suit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/national/nationalspecial/09radios.html

Back at the downtown studio, many employees managed to flee by car or, eventually, by helicopter. Others, including the morning news anchor, David Blake, and his family, got stuck for several days, so he reported what he saw from the broken-window studio - namely, the infamous chaos at the Superdome, where crushes of people waited and withered.

His early reports had to be redone before they could be broadcast, he recalled.
"My news director said I sounded angry and frustrated," he said. "He felt I had become too emotional."

Of course, Blake's approach became the rule rather than the exception, but his experience highlights just how hard it was for journos to grab onto the extent of Katrina's devastation.

The news director Blake refers to is Dave Cohen, an extremely capable newsman, whose passion for his city has long been reflected in the freelance reports he files for CBS News. Cohen's voice betrayed a mix of exhaustion and resignation, as if he felt betrayed by Mother Nature for laying waste to his town. But outright emotion was not evident. There would be time for that later.

Cohen had no choice but to focus on the story at hand albeit one that would have been impossible to comprehend just days before and was all but impossible to fully grasp even days after the levees breached. This wasn't supposed to happen, right?

Peering out at the Superdome from what was left of WWL's downtown studios, Blake was in much the same position. If he slipped a bit from the detached observer mode that was his usual M.O., that made him no different from the rest of New Orleans.

Syndicate Gets Anal Over Dilbert Strip

So Exactly Who Was Going To Be Offended By a Porpoise Going Medieval On a Lawyer?
Scott Adams didn't get Dilbert into 2,000-plus newspapers by being offensive. Funny has long been more than good enough.
But there's an alternate version of today's panel http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20050906.html because his depiction of a vengeful porpoise venturing up a lawyer's behind might be too graphic for some newspapers, in the view of Dilbert syndicator United Media.
Adams worked up another version without a fuss.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001055186.
It was totally benign, of course, although it continues a tradition of newspapers and syndicates being Nervous Nellies about certain strips they feel might veer too far over the line, whatever the hell that is (Doonesbury, Boondocks and the late, lamented Bloom County come quickly to mind).
But give Adams props for working up an alternative version so as not to offend those who want to see porpoises used for more erstwhile endeavors, although it would've been fun to watch PETA attempt to mount a protest over a comic strip, and then have Adams respond in kind.

Memo To Kanye West

Dude: Your passion is admirable, and you may even be right. But you're a musician, big guy. In your business it's all about the timing. And dog, your timing sucks.
But telling the world "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during a telethon for hurricane victims only narrowly eclipses Mike Myers' deer-in-the-headlights look as you departed from the cue cards and Chris Tucker's bug-eyed as they cut to him almost as quickly as they dumped out of you.
If your publicists just slit their wrists, it won't be too hard to figure out why. They decided to commit hari-kari before your career did.

Charitably yours,

Steve
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/aptv_story.asp?category=1401&slug=Katrina%20NBC%20Telethon

Katrina's Not Necessarily A Big Deal Once You Leave The U.S.

Asian Media, In Particular, Don't Feel Inclined to Share Gulf Coast Pain
Rare is the U.S. media outlet that gives more than a few paragraphs to typhoons in places like Bangladesh and India, even when hundreds perish. It happens often enough, and to people who don't look like us or speak our language, that the media rarely pays them much mind.
The tsunami was a different story, of course, but even then it happened a world away and it was hard to truly get a grip on the devastation. We no longer have that luxury, of course. But do the media in other countries care? It depends on where you're reading.
Not a problem in the U.K., where The Guardian has been going heavy with coverage from the start. This morning's online edition has nine links to the main story and sidebars, including angles American media still covering the breaking story have not turned to, including how erosion caused by human activity left the Mississippi Delta vulnerable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1560764,00.html
The Daily Telegraph included a selection of increasingly desperate and angry blog entries from all over. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/01/ukatblogs.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/01/ixportaltop.html
The Times of London has a couple of correspondents in the hurricane zone, including Chris Ayres in Biloxi, who got this saucy quote from a survivor:
“Well baby, here in the South we’ve been through this kind of thing before,” she said. “We just clean up and get on with it. I know that God will take care of me.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1759669,00.html
But the media is much more blase in Asia three days after Katrina. The home page of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post instead had a snap of Typhoon Talim battering Taiwan, and only mentioned Katrina in reference to out-of-control oil prices. Katrina's also disappeared from the World Headlines of Asahi Shimbun.
Bangkok's The Nation is focused on its nation, not ours. The New Straits Times in Kuala Lampur used copy from AFP, but it was the last item in its World Section roundup. Instead, the lead story on the home page was about a film festival in Deauville, France. It's as if the Asian media had done its due diligence reporting on when the hurricane hit and is now moving on to other pursuits.
Turnabout is apparentlyfair play.

People vs. Customers: Getting The Numbers Right When Disaster Strikes

A common media mistake is confusing the number of utility customers who lose power during a storm or disaster with the number of people affected. Sometimes, it's local officials who facilitate those mistakes, but more often than not it's a case of sloppy writing or reporting.
Often times, "customer" and "people" will be used interchangeably, when one customer is actually a single bill-payer, but could be the head of a family of five. So, that means six people in that one house are affected, even though it's only one customer, as far as the utility is concerned.
One utility in the New Orleans area, Entergy, says all of its customers, about 750,000 people, are without power, according to the Times-Picayune. Presumably, not all of them pay a bill, but its customer base accounts for 750,000.
It's important to provide the proper context for these numbers. Suffice to say millions of people in three states are without power. And judging by what officials are saying, it could be a month or more when they can say otherwise.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news/index_mail.shtml?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-30-2005/0004096566&EDATE=

By the way, the latest dispatch from the Times-Picayune might be the last one for a while. An item posted on www.nola.com at 9:40 a.m. revealed the staff was evacuating its building while they still could. Meantime, the .pdf version of today's paper, with photos that are nothing short of stunning, is available at http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/.
The staff has our thanks and our best wishes.

UPDATED 4:50 P.M. ET

This Reuters story makes it clear the customers are who the utilities are trying to get to, and has the full scope of the story in its sights.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050830/us_nm/utilities_katrina_outages_dc.
Meanwhile, the Times-Picayune remains on the run, but James Varney managed to file this compelling slice of life as Southeastern Louisiana now knows it.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#075161.

Walk All Over Jeff Probst

"Survivor" Host Floored By Latest CBS Promotion
Throughout the north corridors of New York's Grand Central Terminal are large ads for the CBS fall lineup, with various airbrushed cast members for new shows smiling away (pre-Nielsens you'd smile too) as well as posters for some of the sitcom warhorses who would have been put out to pasture had not reality shows sapped network programmers of any creative thinking ("Yes, Dear" I'm talking about "King of Queens").
Anywhoo, all of the ads were along the walls, except for the one for "Survivor," which is on the floor at a busy spot in the terminal. That means thousands of people daily are stepping on Jeff Probst's face without giving it much notice.
You'd think Probst would get more props given "Survivor" is a major reason CBS is at the top of the ratings roost. But no.
In the end, though, expect Probst, Mark Burnett and the next fat naked guy who wins an immunity challenge will still be smiling at the end of sweeps, just like they have ever since the gang on the first show in Borneo was caught grilling rats.
You could say they'll walk all over their competition.

Now This Is More Like It! Post and the News Have Big-Time Hissy Fit Over Gotti Cancer, Or Whatever It Is Today

Tabloid Tsarinas Get Extra Bitchy
Yesterday, the Post took a swipe at a front-page exclusive in Sunday's Daily News that Victoria Gotti had breast cancer. But while the News got the story right, that didn't prevent the Grown-Up Gotti from backtracking, clarifying and stupefying to the point where the only thing now clear is that she's nowhere near death's door.
That was cannon fodder for the Post yesterday, who took square aim at Gotti, a Post columnist from 2001 to 2003, who now toils for the Star when she's not yelling at her sons on TV. Gotti felt sufficiently chastened to give a bizarro-world interview to Post columnist Andrea Peyser, where Gotti literally bares all to prove she's no model of health even if she's not due for a round of chemo.

Victoria Gotti unbuttons her charcoal jacket and in structs me sternly, "I want you to feel this."
Now, I realize that for many men on this planet, and at least some of the women, I'm in an enviable spot.
But standing there wearing a pair of gray hotpants, nude from the waist up, in her sumptuous Old Westbury, L.I., house, Victoria is determined to make me feel her pain.

Must-see TV. I don't think so.
http://www.nypost.com/commentary/27377.htm

Meanwhile, News gossip doyenne Joanna Molloy, who got the original scoop, launched a fresh set of missiles toward the Post and Gotti.

How embarrassing for the New York Post to have yet another wildly inaccurate front page yesterday with the story "Victoria Gotti never had breast cancer" - even as Victoria Gotti told the nation she did on "Good Morning America."
Gotti told GMA host Charlie Gibson, "What I have is considered by most to be cancer.
"They refer to it as noninvasive cancer.
"I like to say it is not, because I don't want to be labeled as having cancer. Not that there is anything wrong with it."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/340354p-290534c.html

Peyser and Molloy! In the steel cage! A slap fight for the ages! Be there!

Don't Tell Scott McClellan About This

A buzz in Bangkok when the PM holds court with reporters
Thailand's prime minister has a new way of letting reporters know he's not pleased with some of their questions, you know, the ones that actually question his policies. Democracy Fever. Catch it.
http://www.albany2go.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=STRANGENEWS&storyID=392159&BCCode=2SN&newsdate=8/25/2005.

Hurricane Cantore

It's Never A Good Thing When This Guy Hits Town
Weatherman as rock star? Believe it, when it's Jim Cantore doing live stand-ups in the hurricane zone du jour. He's got fans, even though if you see him on a beach or street corner near you, that's not what we in the business call a good sign. But it makes for good TV. The Miami Herald caught up with Cantore as he spends his day courting Katrina.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/weather/hurricanes/12470130.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_hurricanes.

News Of The World Admits It's Not 'N Sync With The Truth

That Means A Big Payday in London court for Justin Timberlake
One of the banners on the home page for British tabloid king News Of The World, www.newsoftheworld.co.uk promises "We Pay Cash, Big Money For The Top Stories."
Of course, that's standard practice for the tabs on the other side of the pond, who then find themselves hurtling down a slippery slope of their own making.
Which is how NOTW cozied up to aspiring model Lucy Clarkson, who told the tab last year she boinked Justin Timberlake. That especially got tails wagging because of his longtime, public relationship with Cameron Diaz. Timberlake was not amused, and sued Clarkson and the paper.
Today, the defendants were in court, with their lawyers falling over each other in court trying to issue the most profuse apology, thanks to the UK's severe libel laws, and admitting the story was lies, lies, all lies.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1555440,00.html.
The Guardian's account of the court proceedings was restrained, and free of gloating. At least there was an account. And in a real shocker, no mention of what happened at NOTW's Murdochian brethren, The Times and The Sun. The truth is out there. Sometimes it's just hard to read about it.

NY Post Suffers A Case of Gotti Amnesia

Not That Being Selective With The Facts Ever Bothered Ol' Rupe
The Daily News and Post dispense of tons of ink annually belittling and berating each other, especially when one of them may have made a mistake. Usually, the Post stores all its venom on Page Six, arguably the paper's most-read feature.
The latest contretemps involve Victoria Gotti, who the News reported on Sunday in an exclusive interview with gossip columnist Joanna Molloy was battling breast cancer.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/339249p-289736c.html.
Not so fast. As Page Six gleefully reported, Gotti was bobbing and weaving with the "real story" on Monday, saying she only had precancerous cells that she chose to have aggressively treated. A little different from a malignant tumor, eh?
Molloy uncharacteristically spoke to her bitter rivals about Gotti's new tune, conveniently timed for the third season of "Growing Up Gotti."
"Don't tell me Victoria is shape-shifting the truth again. She told us in January she had breast cancer, and that's the reason she took a leave of absence from Star magazine. She told us again last week, and we recorded it."
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix.htm.
While Page Six drove a Hummer through Gotti's credibility gap, it, not suprisingly, left out one crucial fact about Gotti that leaves the paper bloodied by association: She used to work for the Post as a columnist.

The Economy's Confused, According To The New York Times

Sometimes it pays to read more than just the headlines
On A-1 today, the head reads: Economy Shows Signs Of Strain From Oil Prices.

But then we have on the front of Business Day: Healthy Housing Market Lifted The Economy In July

A little confusing, no?

The first story highlighted how inflation surged due to oil, and how consumers are finally responding in kind.
"Across the country, families are trying to figure out where to cut corners so they can afford gas...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/business/17oil.html
OK, but then the second story highlights how while oil prices are a drag, the economy is still expanding because of housing and consumer and business demand.
"Outside of energy, the consumer is fine," said Anthony Chan, a senior economist at JP Morgan Asset Management.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/business/17econ.html
Outside of energy? When you've just paid $50 to fill up your tank for the second time this week, there soon won't be much outside of energy.
True, the lengthy jump on C5 [the whole article is not printed verbatim online] tries for some context, but is too prone to waffling. To wit:

Forecasters still expect economic growth to remain healthy for the rest of the year ... But the high cost of oil already appears to be curbing growth, translating into unusually modest gains in employment and pay.

More than a little confusing? Yes, indeed.

Wetting Yourself To Get an iBook

Atypical AP lead captures computer frenzy. But why is local paper using wire copy?
Perhaps by necessity, wire leads are more utilitarian than artful. Here's one that's both and is a winner:

By KRISTEN GELINEAU
Associated Press Writer
RICHMOND, Va. - A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

Full story: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784470261&path=%21news%21vaapwire&s=1045855935241.

Only one thing wrong with that link: It's from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which then begs the question of why it's relying on the AP for what is surely the story everyone in the area is talking about.
Or are incidents like this a common occurrence in Richmond?

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.
"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,'" the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

Nice when a wire reporter can actually take the time to think about what she's going to write, before it's written. For us "deadline every minute" scribes who sometimes felt like stenographers instead of reporters, it's a damn good feeling.

Missing The Story In Your Backyard, While Getting Your Butt Kicked by the Times

8/13/05--UPDATED AT BOTTOM

Pharmacy fraud story in Westchester reveals homefield advantage for The Journal News means nothing when most essential details of the story are left out
Gannett's The Journal News, like so many of its corporate brethren, has long been interested in style over substance. The only daily covering New York City's tony suburbs in Westchester and Rockland counties, it has consistently underachieved compared to other metro suburban papers such as Newsday and The Bergen Record (full disclosure: I worked at the Journal News and The Record in the late 1980s and early 1990s).
Still, The Journal News does serve its purpose, providing much of the local news the New York dailies won't bother with except when there's a sensational death or something of that ilk.
Which brings us to a story yesterday about a pharmacist charged with $4 million in insurance fraud. The story grabbed my attention as the drug store is in my hometown, and the accused was a supposed pillar of the community who had persevered despite having a CVS a few doors down while a mega Walgreen recently opened nearby.
The Journal News put the story on the bottom of page 1. So far, so good. But the headline was a clueless "Tarrytown pharmacist says he is not guilty." Of what?
The subhead told us Neil Norwood is accused of fraud, but provided scant detail of just how widespread it might be. Instead, the story focused on his pro forma arraignment and tussle over his bail. Who cares.
The real story was found in The New York Times on B4 headlined "Westchester Druggist Held in $4 Million Fraud"
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/nyregion/04scam.html?
The article by Anahad O'Connor details how Norwood allegedly overcharged customers, shorted their prescriptions, substituted generic drugs and billed insurance companies for brand names, and in several instances withheld fertility drugs from women trying to get pregnant.
The Journal News article from apparently stretched-thin veteran reporters Jonathan Bandler and Liz Sadler alludes to some of that in the lead, but then barely touches on it in the article. And the best part of the story, the fertility drug angle, is totally missing.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050804/NEWS02/508040353/1018.
A bad day for Neil Norwood. Not much better for The Journal News.

UPDATE:
While I neglected to note that The Journal-News had a story on the arrest the day before The Times, the point remains that with a second-day lead, that's when you have a time to develop the story further and elicit the more juicy details that a deadline may not afford a reporter. In this case, The Journal-News stumbled badly, choosing to focus on an arraignment rather than zeroing in on details freely offered up by a media-friendly D.A.

Mad Hot Bleeping Ballroom--How American Airlines Shields Its Passengers From History

Is it possible to be too sensitive about 9/11?
It had been a while since I had been on a flight with a movie, let alone one with a movie that I actually wanted to watch. So, it was a pleasant surprise Wednesday when my American Airlines flight from New York to Dallas had the documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom" on offer, a winning film about a ballroom dancing competition in New York City public schools.
It's rare that a documentary would be a featured film on a plane, but this one was engaging and harmless, though not harmless enough for American.
In the beginning, the principal of an elementary school near Ground Zero expressed reservations about her school taking part in the competition, which began in 2002, "just after 9/11." Except that "9/11" was bleeped out. At first, I thought it was a glitch in the plane's sound system, but quickly enough realized the context of the statement.
Taking into account that American lost two planes that day, I nonetheless had to wonder what the hell they were thinking. Would passengers start breaking into uncontrollable sweats or have anxiety attacks at the mere mention of 9/11? Would the sky marshal seize the tape?
Studios have a long history of bleeping out, excising or re-editing anything that might push a film beyond PG so airlines can show it to everyone without fear. "Mad Hot Ballroom" has no such concerns.
Nearly four years after 9/11, I think it's time to give airline passengers a little credit lest they miss out on a poignant moment in a special film that they unexpectedly get to see.

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.