When More "Killing" Is Good

Exactly What Took AMC So Long?

AMC has finally made it official, says The New York Times, and re-upped "The Killing." I'm thankful, but at the same time, duh.

First off, the show is doing very decent Nielsens, certainly on par with "Mad Men" if a tad short of "Walking Dead."

More importantly: it's a great show. Too many shows are all story, no character. With "The Killing," there are abundant helpings of both. Virtually every scene is flowing with ruptured souls, skeletons threatening to burst out of the closet at any given moment, and leaps for redemption that somehow fall short.

Yet, it's hardly morose, even if the producers overdo it with that blasted rain. Yes, we get it, it's supposed to be Seattle. But it's a city more prone to mist and drizzle than the monsoons "The Killing" ensemble often finds themselves in. Enough already. You'll catch cold.

After last week's episode, which went off the rails as Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos)--and priceless sidekick Holder (a great Joel Kinrahan)-- went looking for her wayward son instead of Rosie Larsen's killer, this past Sunday finished up with a delicious twist of which I'll say no more in case your DVR is cued up.

However, I will predict all is most decidedly not what it seems. Or not. In any event, looking forward to another 13 episodes of angst next year, though between this show, "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad" and "Walking Dead," it'd be nice if someone would crack a smile on AMC every once in a while.

When Reading The New York Times Online Isn't Enough

It's Harder to Sell the Drama of the Wildfire Online

Most of the top half of the front page of today's New York Times national section is covered by a stirring photo of the Arizona wildfire shot by Joshua Lott of Reuters. It's a winner, pure and simple.
You can see a smaller version of it here.
And that's the point. It looks good on the monitor. But it looks a helluva lot better at the top of a broadsheet.
Before you start dancing on a newspaper's grave, open up today's Times to page A-12. While the paper's been making this abundantly clear for a while, it's always good to be reminded that The Gray Lady knows a thing or two about color.

Don't Frack with Mark Ruffalo

Actor and a Bunch of his Celeb Friends Say "Shale, No" to Keep Hydrofracking Drilling from Wreaking Havoc Upstate

Sometimes, celebrities getting involved in social causes can be a little too hollow, overly precious. Good intentions will only take you so far beyond a six-second blurb on Access Hollywood.
Thankfully, Mark Ruffalo doesn't fall into that category. Ruffalo has been a steady but strident voice against moves by oil companies to ban hydraulic fracturing in the quest for oil embedded in ample shale reserves in upstate New York.
Ruffalo, who has a home in the Catskills, and his compadres are concerned that all that drilling will spell the end of the clean water the region is famous for (not coincidentally, it's the source of much of the Big Apple's water supply).
So, Ruffalo enlisted some of his celebrity buddies (Zoe Saldana, Ethan Hawke, Nadia Dajani, Josh Charles, Amy Ryan) to soft-pedal the anti-fracking message, and it comes at a time when Albany is considering a moratorium on hydaulic fracturing. Suffice to say, lobbyists for the energy companies are enjoying this big-time. And having to contend with a little movie-star firepower will only keep the needle moving on those billable hours.
Here's the ad:

Somebody Flunked Travel Marketing

Forgive Me If I Don't Drop What I'm Doing to Make a Reservation

The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York is spearheading an important fellowship for law students that will enable them to study professional identity and ethics by looking at the role lawyers and judges played in the Holocaust.

It's nothing if not a laudable project. But as Eric Muller on The Faculty Lounge blog noted, one of the hotels he (as a professor) and other participants will stay in for a couple of days is in Oswiecem, Poland, near the site of Auschwitz. Maybe a little too near, as the conference's hotel (above) is a little too pleased about its location.

How do you say irony in Polish?

All Crumpled Up: The Katie Couric Metaphor

Then CBS Will Make Sure the Door Hits Her on the Way Out

Katie Couric anchored her final "CBS Evening News" last night. And judging by the looks of this banner of her perky mug, which used to adorn the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th St., she won't be missed (thanks to my bud Kathleen Biggins for the snap).

Hell hath no fury than a network scorned.

This Story Stinks, But That's A Good Thing

Wall Street Journal A-Hed On Sewer Tourism Reeks of Cleverness

Rupert Murdoch was professed not to be a big fan of the A-hed, those indelible features on page one that are part of what makes the Wall Street Journal a must-read.
While the long feature that used to run down the left column disappeared, the main A-hed, whose prominence has been somewhat diminished below the fold, has soldiered on. We're all the better for it, as it allows editors and writers to showcase their finest wares.
A prime example comes today from this item about the growing interest in sewer tourism in Europe. Seems that if it smells, it still sells.
The headlines are brilliant:

It's Flush Times for the Darkest Stop on the Grand Tour—Europe's Sewers

If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Vienna or Paris; Love Among the Effluent in Brighton

Great stuff. But it'd be a shame not to read the story by Daniel Michaels, which is, um, flush with clever writing about a stinky subject. Think it's easy to be effusive about effluent? Try it sometime. Or, at least thank Michaels so you don't have to.

Charlie Rose--Globetrotter

A Man with a Plan, er, Plane

So there was Charlie Rose last night, interviewing Dan Abrams and Adam Gopnik about Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

After they gave their analysis about the the legal particulars surrounding the IMF big, Rose said he was going to play an interview about the case that he did with several journalists in Paris---"earlier today."

That's right, he conducted the interview at noon Paris time, then hot-footed it over to Charles de Gaulle Airport (who knows, maybe on the same flight Strauss-Kahn had taken on his ill-fated truo to New York) then trundled over to his studio at Bloomberg HQ to chat with Abrams and Gopnik, showing no signs of wear.

The interviews haven't been posted as of this writing. Maybe the webmaster has Rose's jet lag.

Spinning Katie

Why, or at least the CBS Explanation of Why, Couric Wasn't in the Chair for Osama Sunday Night

When news breaks in a big way, it's always a parlor game for media dweebs to see who's on the air where and when.
And so it was on Sunday night, when Osama lost out to Obama in a big way. Brian Williams was the only Big Three anchor in the chair when the networks started interrupting our regularly scheduled programming around 10:45.
Given that it used to be my former home away from home, I wondered where Katie Couric might have been, as I watched the eminently capable Russ Mitchell (the regular Sunday night anchor), QB the coverage before and after the president with his usual aplomb.
Nonetheless, that still begged the question of where was Couric. Never mind that she's on her way out. She was still in. But not on Sunday night. Broadcast & Cable put the Katie question to CBS News prexy David Rhodes. His response.

Russ [Mitchell] is the weekend anchor and was on the shortest string, so he had been in, he was suited up, so to speak. Events unfolded very fast. What the real strength last night for us was the Washington and national security coverage. We had Lara Logan, Bob Orr, Juan Zerate all part of the coverage because they were the ones pursuing this. It was basically a very tight timetable and we were able to get on the field with a very, very good team.

Yes, but....

Was she still traveling back from London at that point, or she just wasn't able to get in in time?

It doesn't really matter if she was able to get in or not able to get in. The thing that we were most concerned with as an organization was having the reporting that we had in there last night. If you look back from 10:45 up until the president did speak later in the 11 p.m. hour, we had more people on the story and more information about what was happening out there than anybody else.

Actually, it does matter. And Rhodes knows that. There's no way he would've spoken like that if Couric wasn't a lame duck. Answering the way he did gives the impression that she was indeed in New York, but they couldn't track her down or she didn't pick up the phone. That's not to say either of those scenarios is incorrect, but his response can turn perception into reality. Always better to say something than nothing.

Bin Laden Went Out a Coward, U.S. Says

Can't Wait to Read a Story That Says That, Right? Well, You'll Have To

Amid all the reporting, much of it excellent, on Osama The Day After, there really should be no hyperbole needed for a story of epic proportions. The Sacramento Bee feels otherwise.
On its home page, there was the above headline. But when you click through to the story from McClatchy's Jonathan Landay, it's the inside story on the raid.
Nothing about cowardice. In fact, since the story--in a somewhat different account than others--says "one of the raiders thought he recognized the leader of al-Qaida, and dropped him with a shot to his left eye," there was likely little time for Osama to do his Bert Lahr routine.
Something for the copy desk to consider going forward.

The Least Surprising Media Story You'll Read All Day

Mediaweak, er, Mediaweek Loses its Nameplate after Absorption into Adweek

I actually enjoyed reading Mediaweek to get some quick updates on the business behind the media business. They had some veteran writers who knew their turf, like Anthony Crupi, Lucia Moses and Mark (Mr. Television) Berman.

But those updates were the problem. They were too quick. The publication had become Biafra-thin, usually topping out at 24 pages or less. It also cut back on its publication schedule. In the summer and winter, it was Mediaweek every other week or so.

Then ex-parent Nielsen got rid of most of the staff a couple of years back and a lot of the copy was shared with sisters Adweek and Brandweek and wholly irrelevant to those interested in print and digital media. There would be perhaps 4-5 pages of unique content. Tops.

Newest owner Prometheus Global Media has finally decided to put Mediaweek and Brandweek out of their misery, consolidate them into slightly less sickly Adweek and really go mano a mano with Ad Age.

"It's time for one conversation, not separate ones," is the spin from editorial director Michael Wolff. It might make sense, ostensibly. That is if you're not one of the journalists who are now out of a job. Synergies won't make your unemployment check any bigger.

And will it make Adweek any better?

A Flip Flop

Cisco Flips the Bird to Flip Users as Smartphones Continue World Takeover

First, the Flip camcorder essentially rendered our older camcorders as space hogs in our closets. They were handy, dandy and, yes, even fun. And they took damn good videos, to boot without all those pesky tapes to keep track of, and all for a relativ pittance, digitally speaking.

Soon, the Flip will be gonzo too, after Cisco announced today it'll pull the plug on the product. Start searching eBay now for closeouts.

By flipping the bird to Flip users, Cisco is doing some big-time, white-flag-waving. It shelled out $590 million to buy the Flip business just two years ago. But that was before Android phones joined iPhones in their quest to be anything and everything to their owners. Including video cameras. Not even $129 for a 4GB HD Flip was enough to sway the fickle masses. Sigh.

No dispute, my Droid Incredible captures eminently decent video. But I still find it a tad difficult to maneuver the zoom. With my Flip HD, I'm able to follow motion a whole lot easier, and I think the sound is superior as well. Plus, shooting video is a massive battery suck for phones that are already challenged to stay charged most of the day.

Obviously, I'm in the minority as Cisco has concluded it's pointless to even try and sell the business, though it'll continue to support online video sharing. Not exactly what I call a consolation prize. Still I expect to keep the Flip in active rotation. It'll be a while before it's residing in a draw next to my Discman and iPod Mini.

The Too-Early Show?

Even on the Dawn Patrol, It's All About the Details

Lots of little hiccups can add up to a big headache, especially on national TV. To wit, the Saturday version of "The Early Show" on CBS (a former employer of mine).

Suffice to say, not their best edition this morning. At the beginning of the 8 a.m. hour, co-anchor Russ Mitchell (who appears underwhelmed being back on the program he helped originate in 1997), threw to a live report from Tripoli and correspondent Elizabeth Palmer, an excellent reporter who may be getting worked a little too hard. Twice she called Mitchell "Jeff," Jeff being Jeff Glor the newsreader on the weekday "Early Show."

At the end, Mitchell simply had to say "I'll take it, thanks, Elizabeth." While reading the headlines a few minutes later, Betty Nguyen had an item about an earthquake in Chile. However, a graphic popped up with the country spelled "Chili." Must have been a spicy temblor.

About 20 minutes later, Mitchell, whose work I normally admire, was interviewing Bob and Suzanne Wright about Autism Speaks, a day after 1,000 buildings around the world were bathed in blue to mark World Autism Awareness Day. The Wrights have been prominent spokespersons for the cause since their 6-year-old grandson was diagnosed as autistic.

What Mitchell left out of the intro--presumably under strict orders--was any mention of the fact that Wright was the longtime chairman of NBC/Universal, a grievous oversight that Suzanne--a real force of nature--corrected in about three seconds to an abashed Mitchell. That wasn't what the segment was about, but it's still a part of the story.

Wright was able to use his stature in the media business as a way to elevate autism awareness and end what The New York Times called "internecine warfare" in autism research. He would not have been on the couch this morning were it not for that. It couldn't be ignored. Suzanne Wright knew better. So should CBS.

Cloudy With a Chance of Kosek

Accuweather Madman Slither Onto the Screen for a "Forecast" You know we love The Kosek. He just can't help himself. Sure, the weather is important. But let's face it, you don't need someone telling you the temperatures when they're already on the screen. Accuweather's Jim Kosek knows that. So, he delivers shtick as much as he does a forecast. Sometimes, much more than the former than the latter. It's a shame Accuweather doesn't showcase him more, or at least make it easier to find him. But he popped up a couple of days ago doing the New York forecast and delivered one of his classics, in homage to the now-captured cobra on sabbatical from his enclsoure in the Bronx Zoo. You'll never see Jim Cantore or even Al Roker do a forecast like this. And that's probably a good thing. One Kosek is more than enough. Trust me, that's high praise.

David Broder Crosses the Divide a Final Time

R.I.P. to One of the Biggest of the Big in Political Reporting

I never quite knew how I felt about David Broder's dual role as both a reporter and columnist. You could see the results of his indefatigable, wear-out-the-shoes approach to political reporting for decades on the front page of the Washington Post.
At the same time, Broder, who died today at age 81 from diabetes complications, wrote a column twice a week that was a lot more than his emptying what was left from his notebook. Potentially, the column could compromise the integrity of his reporting. This wasn't supposed to be the way you did things in the news business.
However, Broder proved time and again he was worthy of an exception. Post colleague Dan Balz showed why in a glowing tribute. Balz unhesitatingly called him "the best political reporter of his or any other generation. He defined the beat as it had not been defined before. He spent a lifetime instructing succeeding generations of reporters - never by dictate but always by example."
That's not just the stuff of eulogies. It's fair to say that anyone who froze their butt off covering the New Hampshire primary or lost track of which state fair they were at during the height of a presidential campaign would likely agree.

Some Fresh Air at NPR (Not the Terry Gross Variety)

After Vivian Schiller Walks the Plank, Now What?

NPR Prexy Vivian Schiller barely survived Juan Williams.

But Ron Schiller (no relation)? Nah.

After it was revealed yesterday that outgoing NPR fundraiser Ron Schiller was O'Keefed (as in conservative stingmeister James O'Keefe) and taped saying the Tea Party was racist and that NPR should cut the umbliical cord of federal funding (a humongous no-no), Vivian Schiller was ousted from her job, according to NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. The official word is she "resigned" and that the board accepted that decision with "deep regret." Yada, yada, yada.
Even if Vivian had nothing to do with Ron except a common last name, enough was most decidedly enough. The buck had to stop here, a view that Schiller concurred with in a New York Times interview, especially when the federal bucks are in danger of stopping as well.

NPR needed someone to clean up this mess pronto, and the board rightly decided that Vivian Schiller was lacking in the janitorial sciences. Now there's a big hole to fill at a watershed moment for NPR (the network, not the news operation, which still does top-flight work).

Finding a suitable candidate won't be the hard part. The hard part is identifying a suitable candidate who will want to take on what will be in the short- and mid-term a thankless job.

Madison Police Goon Squads Not What They Appear to Be

Lawmaker Says Cops Really Didn't Go Wilding When They Saw Him Walk Through the Door

At first blush, the item on Yahoo News looks rather ominous: a Democratic lawmaker in Wisconsin is tackled by police as he tries to enter the Capital in Madison
Cops have been trying to limit access, but you'd think they'd let in someone who actually works there. Apparently not, as the raw footage captured by WISN-TV shows.
So, it's easy to leap to the conclusion that Republican Gov. Scott Walker has unleashed the goon squads on the opposition after getting really, really cheesed off about the budget standoff. Not so fast.
The Yahoo item actually spends most of its column inches giving a broader brush of the Wisconsin impasse and actually spends precious little time focusing on tackled House member Nick Milroy.
So, if you want to find out more (and you should), there's a bit of a surprise when you go to the WISN site, where a follow-up story quotes Milroy as saying he was "aggressive in trying to enter the Capitol, and they were aggressive in trying to stop me."
Oh.
"It may have looked violent on the video, but I had a puffy jacket on."
Double oh.
Now, questions do need to be answered as to why police turned him away after he showed I.D. So far, radio silence. So, Milroy, who took off the puffy jacket for a news conference, will have to do.
"I wasn't putting anybody to a test. It's been a long couple of weeks for law enforcement officers; it's been a long couple of weeks for me."
As Milroy told TPM, he doesn't blame the officer who took him down. Instead, he blames Walker and whomever made the decision to disable the Capital's keycards.
He has plenty of company.

News Trend Alert: When States Go Wild

All of a Sudden, the States Don't Like Being States

Hey, newsies: I'll throw a trend out there before the Tea Party or Bill O'Reilly can lay claim.
Seems the wild and increasingly wacky West is also where governors are choosing to ignore federal laws that they don't feel like enforcing. No matter that that's not the way our system of government works. But don't let the Constitution stand in the way of a populist revolt.
Exhibit A: Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said he'll defy federal protections for gray wolf packs that he says have been hurting elk herds. He's cheesed off that the wolves haven't been knocked off the endangered species list even though their numbers have grown. So, he's encouraging livestock owners in the northern part of the state to shoot away, federal laws be damned.
That might be that kind of rabble-rousing you'd hear from a rancher, which Schweitzer also happens to be when he's not allegedly running his state. But his day job, for now, is governor. You'd think he'd lead by example. Suffice to say, this won't be a case study in local civics classes.
Ironically, Schweitzer received kudos from groups like the Greater Yellowstone Coalition for an order he signed Tuesday that blocked the importation of bison from Yellowstone National Park to Montana slaughterhouses. As the Associated Press reported:

The Democratic governor told The Associated Press that he was worried the shipments could spread brucellosis to Montana livestock. And he said he was sending a message to federal officials in Washington, D.C., to rein in a diseased bison population that regularly spills out of the park and into Montana.

Caught off guard by the governor’s action, park administrators scrambled Tuesday to craft a response. Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash noted that the slaughter plan was agreed to last month by the Montana Department of Livestock and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. He said past bison shipments did not lead to brucellosis infections in cattle.

You have the sense Schweitzer's falling off the holiday card list at the Department of Interiorl

Then there's Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, who said today he won't enforce the federal health care reform law. A judge in Florida last week struck down the law as unconstitutional and Parnell says he considers that the law of the land.
It appears, though, that Parnell's thought processes are suffering seasonal affective disorder. What Parnell doesn't know or is conveniently ignoring is that the judge in Florida Roger Vinson, said the law remained in effect while the ruling goes through the appeals process. And heaven forfend that Parnell would even look at two other federal court decisions that said the law passes constitutional muster.
Of course, Alaska was one of 26 states that was party to the Florida lawsuit. It's nice to be vindicated. Except when you're not. Parnell is not.
Next up: what will the Obama administration do about all these gubernatorial ne'er do wells? And will others join their club? Bear in mind that the only beverage served in these clubs is tea.

A Lump in the Throat Comes with the Scores in NYT Sports Section

George Vecsey Profile of Bill Russell Offers a Stunning Vignette

With his usual lyrical prose, George Vecsey stepped away from his New York Times column in Sunday's paper for an excellent profile on Bill Russell, on the eve of Russell receiving a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
As Vecsey notes, Russell is about a lot more than being the best center in basketball history, though that would be enough.
Russell was a shotblocker against all others must be measured now and forever. But as ferocious as he was on the parquet floor of the old Boston Garden for so long, there was a tender side Vecsey was able to reveal when talking about Ruseell and his third wife Marilyn:


He and Marilyn were invited to the Obama inauguration in January 2009, but she was dying of cancer in Seattle. She urged him to go, but when he landed in Washington, he heard she had taken a downward turn, and he got back on a plane.

“We held hands and watched the inauguration,” he said. “We sat there all night, and then I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to take a shower, now wait for me, I’ll be right back,’ and she said she’d wait. Well, as soon as I left she died. So I said to the nurse, ‘She promised she would wait,’ and the nurse said this happens quite commonly. A lot of people don’t want their loved ones to see them die. And so it was like we shared this moment together and she did not want me to see her die.”

If Russell choked up telling this story, Vecsey does not tell us. Suffice to say, more than a few people reading this article must have.

Justice at the Grammys

Arcade Fire Wins Album of the Year for All the Right Reasons

Maybe Grammy voters were feeling generous tonight and wanted to spread the wealth. Or, maybe they just decided to give an award to the group that was most deserving. I know, shocking. Especially at the Grammys.
Whatever. Arcade Fire won best album, for "The Suburbs," much to the bewildered shock of Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson who presented the awarded and clearly had never heard of the group before.

Based on how the evening was going, you had the feeling Grammy was going for tried and true, and have one group run the table, as Lady Antebellum did by snagging Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Need You Now."

Then there was also Lady Gaga, Eminem (both of whom won statuettes earlier) with Katy Perry thrown in for good measure. So, it was a shocker, maybe even to the band. Get over it.

It didn't matter. "The Suburbs" was my go-to album last year, and it's compulsively listenable. I've yet to see the group perform live, but their infectious peformances on "The Daily Show," "SNL" and the Grammys show they can bring it. Moreover, when you hear them interviewed, they seem remarkably unaffected by all the praise that's been heaped upon them. They just want to rock and let you join in on their fun.

And tonight we did.

What's More Amazing, This Column Or The Fact It Got Printed?

Gannett Management Is So Blind, It Doesn't Even See When an Editor is Flipping It the Bird

Gannett Blog printed today a scathing farewell column from Frank DiLeo, who for the second time in two years has been laid off as the sports columnist for The Daily Record, in Parsippany, NJ.
You have to read it on the blog, because the paper didn't post it on the website. No big surprise there, with such passages as:

Those of you who know me well know that I don't put much stock in emotion. But I can't help but to feel like a rube on the midway for thinking that someone as young, talented and loyal as I was would be able to stick with a company after proving time and time again that there was nothing I couldn't or wouldn't do for the good of the corporation.

I've worked through pneumonia many times, bronchitis, pleurisy, broken ribs, migraines, a gallbladder that stopped functioning for six months and many other ailments that I ignored doctors orders to stay home. All for the good of the company. This is where it got me.

Somehow, that made it into the paper. Quite a feat. Either that, or someone screwed up royally. Either way, thanks for fighting the good fight, Frank.

All Gannett papers have had staff reductions, but the company's New Jersey properties have really taken it on the chin. Last month, it was announced that newsroom staff at the DR, the Courier-News in Bridgewater, and the Home-News Tribune in East Brunswick would have their newsroom staffs cut in half. This, after being whacked a couple of times already in the last year, with most copy and design functions being shipped down to the Asbury Park Press.

So, even with the desiccated news holes and lonely newsrooms, there were still dedicated working stiffs like Frank DiLeo who soldiered on. They're pretty much gone now. I suspect the few readers left will notice the difference. Not that Gannett really cares. Why should it start now?

Nina Totenberg's Musical Interlude

Dowager of the Supreme Court Press Corps Flees First Street for Fascinating Piece on Pablo Casals at the White House 50 Years Ago

"Morning Edition" thrives on NPR because not everybody needs to have traffic and weather together running in the background on a continuous loop.
It has the second-highest radio audience nationwide (behind only Rush Limbaugh) because it gives the listener some credit for actually having a brain and the attention span to listen to something different while communing with a bowl of Cheerios or stuck on the interstate.
Today's report by Nina Totenberg, mainly about the remarkable story behind cellist Pablo Casals playing at the White House is a perfect example. Running 7:18, it's a compelling narrative about a special moment likely unknown to many listeners, including me.
The larger theme of Totenberg's report is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of JFK's inauguration by the D.C. performing arts center that bears his name. As Totenberg notes, before the Kennedys, there was little in the way of regional arts companies and no such thing as the National Endowment for the Arts.
That all changed under Kennedy, a part of his legacy not as well-known or appreciated. The Kennedy Center's gala on Feb. 6 will change that. Meantime, Totenberg's piece is a fine primer. Well worth the listen. You'll have plenty of time to check on the traffic later.

Well, We Do Control the Media

Who's the News Director at WLKY, John Birch?

Just When You Thought Gannett Couldn't Suck More...

Readers in the Queen City Should Mount a Palace Revolt

In case you needed to get depressed, check out this doozie from City Beat in Cincinnati (hat tip: Gannett Blog) about how The Enquirer, the unfortunate daily paper of record in those parts, has a new editor with a checkered history of sending articles out for prepublication review--to the companies that are the subject of those articles.
As if it wasn't already bad enough in Cincy (and we're not talking about the just-concluded Bengals season), the Enquirer has as its business editor the son of Kroger's ex-CEO, who's a major domo in the city's business establishment.
This, from a paper that has historically been limp-wristed taking on the business powers that be. New editor Carolyn Washburn is likely to make a bad situation worse.
Yes, The Enquirer is a Gannett paper. Yes, that is why you're not surprised this is happening.

Recipe for Disaster, or at Least Morbid Obesity

But Maybe Julia Child Wouldn't Have Minded

Got a chuckle but, fortunately, not a heart attack from a recent recipe in The Wall Street Journal that the paper was forced to correct:

Preparation of a blood orange tart described in a Dec. 18 Off Duty article about citrus desserts requires a half pound of butter. The recipe incorrectly called for a pound of butter.

Oopsie.
But what's four sticks of butter between friends---and their cardiologist?

You Mean Wayne Barrett Was Still at the Village Voice?

You Mean the Village Voice Was Still Being Published?

Yes, it really is a big deal when star investigative reporter/bulldog/politicians' pain-in-the-ass Wayne Barrett gets the heave-ho from the Village Voice. And then fellow Voicer Tom Robbins added an exclamation point when he quit in protest.
Barrett was at the Voice since 1973. You could probably find his mug next to muckraker in the dictionary. But being a part of the furniture going on 38 years also means you're making a certain salary, and Barrett's six-figure check was a little too rich for the fast-fading Voice alternative-weekly empire.
So, while his exit is a blow, let's put it into perspective. The Voice stopped being relevant sometime in the mid-90s, when it had a greater preoccupation with the porn ads in the back than with the content in the front.
The tone became more frothy. Iconoclasts were quiety shown the door. Its once-formidable roster of critics was gradually winnowed down to a B-list of less-compelling scribes.
Through it all remained the likes of Barrett, but when you're mired at a place like the Voice, even his best work could amount to one-hand clapping. So, his departure is the end of an era, but little else.
However, it could also be viewed as an opportunity, even for one of the bottom-lined-challenged dailies to pick up a thorn in the side who can still bring it at age 66. True, it's anything but a sure thing Barrett would be a good fit. After all, the Jack Newfield era at the Post was hardly one for the ages. But it's worth a gamble to show readers what they missed by not reading the Voice. Which was wasn't much, except for Barrett.

Soon, Gannett Will Charge Its Employees to Work There

Enough Really is Enough

So, word came down that Gannett wants to again prey on its beleaguered employees and prop up its profits (yes, the company is still very profitable), by making just about everyone take an unpaid one-week furlough.
Again.
There were furloughs last year. And the year before, to accompany several rounds of layoffs.

"Our top line revenues, however, while improving, remain short of where they were a year ago," said Bob Dickey, head of the community publishing division and head purveyor of crocodile tears.
"This is compounded by a still challenging and uncertain economy, as well as increasing expenses. To help us manage through these challenges, we have made the difficult decision to implement a furlough across USCP during the first quarter. This was, quite frankly, an option I had hoped we could avoid. Furloughs, while difficult, do allow us to protect jobs."

Oh, please.
As Gannett Blog's Jim Hopkins points out, Gannett's board awarded $4 million in executive bonuses last year for savings achieved in 2009 because of furloughs.
It's not that the company is losing money. It's just not making enough money as it perceives institutional investors want it to make. Maybe it's a reason why the stock was up as I write this on Wednesday afternoon.
Judging by my local Gannett paper, The Journal-News, (a long-ago former employer of mine), it's obvious every day that the company long ago stopped caring about putting out even a pale imitation of a newspaper.
With the latest furloughs, Gannett shows it cares even less about its employees.

A Groupon Too Far?

Nothing Wrong with Trying, But....

Semi-full disclosure: I'm a fan of Groupon, have even seized on a few deals. It and a half-jillion other social shopping sites now clog my in-box daily. No big whoop. Thrill of the hunt and all. But you have to wonder if some of Groupon's 3,000-plus sales force is trying, too hard. Or, maybe, not hard enough.

Exhibit A: Today's Manhattan offer is for a weekend stay at a Days Inn. In the South Bronx. It's touted as being near Yankee Stadium. Too bad we're over four months from Opening Day. Now there has been a trendlet in the lodging industry in the New York area toward more motels being built in the boroughs, some in places you might not think to stay in or really want to rest your head. But the thinking is, people still come to those neighborhoods to visit friends and family. Or, are just suckers for a good deal and don't mind a little adventure.

But a Days Inn? In the South Bronx? Good luck with that, hopefully better than what the Yankees had with Cliff Lee.

As of this writing, four people had seized on the offer, 11 shy of the 15 needed to make it active. But before you take the plunge, bear in mind that New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day are blacked out. Because nothing says love like an evening stroll on Brook Avenue.

Why is Henry Freeman Smiling?

Sure, It Didn't Help That He Worked For Gannett, But He Did Preside Over a Paper That Imploded on His Watch

When the news came down that Henry Freeman would be retiring/pushed out as executive editor of The Journal-News, the newspaper by default in New York's northern suburbs and a long-ago employer of mine, it was hardly a shock.

After all, the paper is a daily exercise in extreme mediocrity. Not that it was ever a great paper--few in the Gannett stable can ever hope to be when corporate is squeezing every pore for profits at the expense of the product--but at least it made an attempt to cover its territory. Every town had a reporter assigned to it, while high school sports received blanket coverage. Even most of the pro teams had beat writers.

Suffice to say that train left the station a long time ago. The train analogy is actually more than apt. Freeman, according to the article/quasi-eulogy about his departure, is a big rail buff, and will soon embark on a 7,500-mile trip. It'll be one where he'll never have to read The Journal-News. That'll mean he'll have a lot in common with people in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.

I did a little poking around for some old circulation figures and stumbled upon the ABC Fas-Fax numbers from March 2006, when daily sales were over 141,000. Fast forward to the latest tally from the end of October, and the J-N has dipped below 80,000. That's nearly a 47 percent decline--in three-and-a-half years.

Of course, the newspaper industry has been reeling for much of that time, so Freeman can't get all the blame for that drop. But he also didn't do anything to ameliorate the situation. On his watch the news hole shrunk. So did the physical size of the paper.

There was less room than ever for copy, yet Gannett had the cojones to raise the newsstand price. Meanwhile, the slow-to-update lohud.com website remains, at best, an afterthought. It's just like most other Gannett papers, which have the same desultory, cookie-cutter design online.

Meanwhile, the staff has suffered one round of cutbacks after another. Except when there is breaking news, reporters are now only covering parts of the counties where the J-N still sells papers. Otherwise, you're out of luck, though it seems every stabbing in Yonkers and Mount Vernon is dutifully recorded. The J-N is doing the local weeklies and Patch a deep favor while digging its own grave one shovel full of dirt at a time.

So, again I ask, why is Henry Freeman smiling?

Winners and Losers in The Early Show Shuffle

But After All is Said and Done, Will It Amount to Anything?







Now that CBS plans to give the umpteenth makeover to "The Early Show," it's a good time to look at who over on West 57th St. is having a good day after today's announcement, and who needs a hug.

First, the soon-to-depart:

Harry Smith: He's been a good soldier and then some, toiling away on the show since 2002, with a steady parade of co-hosts. Of course, he's been down this road before, when he was on "CBS This Morning" from 1987-96. So, now he gets to sleep in, while serving as a national correspondent and the primary fill-in on the "CBS Evening News," "Sunday Morning" and "Face the Nation." Pretty sweet deal, and he may just be biding his time until June, when Katie Couric's contract expires. There's little doubt her tenure as "Evening News" anchor will end then, and she'll be in a drastically different and less-remunerative role at the network should she stay.


Maggie Rodriguez: She's also been a fill-in anchor at "Evening News," but too low-profile to get the chair full-time. As of now, she will be reassigned, though to points unknown. Since she's been an anchor, hard to believe she'd go back in the field. In this business, you save face above all else.


Dave Price: He broadened his portfolio to go beyond weather, and became sort of a wacky features guy as well. To wit, a repeat of his stunt from last year where he gets plunked in Alaska, and then has $50 and his resourcefulness to find a way home. The CBS press release said he'd slide into a new, undefined role. But it's doubtful there's one there for the taking to match his skill set.


Chris Wragge (above right): He's been doing "The Saturday Early Show" for a while, displaying a remarkable amount of spunk for someone who'd been doing the 11 p.m. news on WCBS-TV just hours before. But he's shown his versatility at channel 2, having first arrived as a sportscaster and did well enough to be the star anchor.


Erica Hill (above left): She had teamed with Wragge on Saturdays, and the chemistry was there. Hill's a gamer, and can be as credible interviewing a senator as she is deft handling cooking segments. Now sliding over from the newsreader position to co-anchor, it's a transition that should prove seamless.

Marysol Castro: Upgrade. She's been toiling for years as the weekend weather gal on "Good Morning America Weekend." Now she finally gets a weekday gig, more bucks and not have to leave her husband to deal with their kids on weekend mornings.


Jeff Glor: He takes over as weekday news reader. Indications are he'll get out of anchoring the Saturday "Evening News," though they may call on him to take one for the team and anchor holidays, like he did on Thanksgiving.



A few questions: Will all this shuffling make a difference? In a word, no.
CBS is averaging 2.7 million viewers in the morning, compared to 4.3 million at ABC and a whopping 5.3 million for the gang at the money machine known as "Today" on NBC.
There's nothing wrong with freshening a show's look and feel, but nothing is being put on the table that will a meaningful dent in the Nielsens.
The new, um, cast can do a workmanlike show and not embarrass the network or themselves. But, for now, they offer no reason for someone currently watching one of the other shows (or a local breakfast show, or "Morning Joe" or "Fox and Friends") a compelling reason to defect.
The strategy may be to concede third place, but make it a more respectable third than it is now.
CBS will also now have to find another anchor for the Saturday "Early Show" as well as a high-profile anchor for WCBS-TV. Those have also been positions that have been anything but stable over the years.

Somewhere, Captain Kangaroo is having a good chuckle.

Winning Headline of the Day

For a front-page refer in The New York Times about police cracking down on locals playing chess in an upper Manhattan playground:

Police! Drop the Pawn!

Curiously changed online to:

'Police! Step Away From the Chess Table'

First attempt was check and mate.

Ex Times-Picayune Photographer Offers a Troubling Word Picture

What Happens When You Get Too Close to Your Sources

Alex Brandon, who worked for the New Orleans Times-Picayune post-Katrina, testified yesterday in a federal trial for five current or former NOLA cops accused in the death of a man in Algiers in the days after the hurricane's mayhem.
Brandon was embedded with the police department's SWAT team when he came upon an incident with two men on the ground in handcuffs jawing at police. One of the cops on trial told him not to take a picture, and Brandon obeyed. "It was, for lack of a better term, an order."
Putting aside the wisdom of following the order, what troubles me is this graf from the Times-Picayune story on the trial:

As a Times-Picayune photographer for 10 years, Brandon was well known (sic) for his extensive network of police contacts. He was also close to many police officers, a fact he testified to on Wednesday, saying he considered many of the SWAT officers to be "good friends."

Brandon now works for the AP in Washington, so the big stink he would have set off in the T-P newsroom from that statement was averted. Or could Brandon have returned to his office odor-free? Maybe Brandon's editors knew he was cozy with the cops, and exploited that so he could get up close and personal during Katrina's desperate hours. Perhaps the thought is in situations like this that expediency trumps integrity every time. Nonetheless, it does take some of the sheen of the T-P's yeoman coverage five years ago.

There's nothing wrong with being cordial, civil, even avuncular with the subjects you cover. Go ahead and like them. Hell, even admire their accomplishments. But whatever you do, don't become their friends. Then you're done as a journalist, as in stick-a-fork-in-you-because-you're-done done. You just don't do it. Or it really is end of story. The A.P. might want to remind Brandon of that going forward.

Untruth in Labeling

Original Butter? That's Just Un-Wise, Wise

Amid the kids' Halloween booty yesterday was a snack-sized bag of Wise popcorn with "Original Butter." Because you wouldn't want your butter to be accused of being a copycat.

Turns out "Original Butter" is something else entirely, as right under that label on the package is the disclaimer "artificially flavored."

That means "Original Butter" is something else, as the nutrition label indicateds. But there's no butter. Not even close.

So, it appears the FTC allows a company to call a product whatever it wants, as long as it's upfront about what it's not. "Original Butter" is just a name for a flavor. Despite common sense, it doesn't connote that there's actual butter, just the appearance of such. It's not dishonest, just disingenuous.

New York Post Should be Sacked for Cheap Tease on Eli Manning

It's One Thing to Get Readers to Turn the Page. It's Another to Have Something There When You Do

I'm not a regular reader of The New York Post print edition, but if someone decides to leave a copy on the train, I'm only too happy to pick it up, me being a foe of litter and all.
That happened to me on my home Friday night. Uncharacteristically, I work my way back to the sports section instead of my usual vice versa. Most of page 3 is taken up with a photo of Giants QB Eli Manning and his wife Abby, who the cutline tell us are "young rich and famous." Duh.
It goes on: "They are sports royalty in demand for social and charity events. He led the Giants to the 2008 Super Bowl championship, and she's the beautiful cheerleader who's been by his side since they were kids. It would seem that they've got it all, but do they?"
Uh, oh. This is a Page Six exclusive!!!!! It was almost Halloween, after all, so time to cue the skeletons to come out of the closet. A breathless dash to page 14, that day's home for Page Six, which reveals that Eli may be throwing Hail Mary's into a Diaper Genie before long. If all goes well, baby will make three in the spring. Mazel tov.
So, the answer to the above question is a resounding yes. The Post wanted us to believe otherwise, but we had little choice to fall for it hook, line, and screen pass. Still in all, they should be whistled for a journalistic cheap shot, even by the Post's shaky standards.

Barron's Bearish on Its Integrity

Just Because You Call It An Ad Doesn't Make It Right

While thumbing through this week's issue of Barron's, a curious and disturbing site awaits on page 21 below a short item about a possible successor to Warren Buffett: an ad.
Not just any ad, but one for a company called FirstHourTrading.com, a firm that plies its wares to the alpha dogs known as day traders.
It's not the product that's being sold that's problematic. Rather, the ad--notwithstanding the fact that at its top has the disclaimer "paid advertisement," looks like an article with the exact font and typeface Barron's uses for its own articles.
Of course, advertorial designed to look like regular copy is a time-honored ploy. But graphically, it's almost always dissimilar enough for even the most-casual readers to figure out that The New York Times didn't just do a gushing profile on Amish heaters.
Barron's, however, is calling signals from a different playbook. Even if it doesn't hide the fact the space has been paid for, the ad still leaves a big stink. It's the kind of questionable tactic you might read about in a publication, say, like Barron's.
Well, maybe not anymore.

In Cablevision-Fox Spat, Newspapers Come Out the Winner

Rupert Murdoch Helps Contribute to the New York Times' Bottom Line

Now that Cablevision and Fox are about to enter their fourth day of a standoff that's resulted in 3 million cable customers in the New York area without local channels 5 and 9--it's beginning to get a little tense (though not in my house, where all is harmonious with DirecTV).
This has become a big-time hissy fit over retransmission fees with nobody winning the PR war. But both sides sure as hell are trying. And spending a fortune on full-page ads in the process. Collectively, they've dropped a healthy six-figure sum at The New York Times alone. The local tabs and Cablevision-owned Newsday have also gotten their share.
That means Fox grand poobah Rupert Murdoch is dumping valuable cash into the arms of his competition--remember, he also owns the New York Post, while the cable blackout rages on.
That's may be why you don't see any editorials calling on both sides to go to binding arbitration to ensure Cablevision homes can watch the World Series, especially if the Yankees can make it past the Rangers.
Because, hey, there's always the radio. And tomorrow's newspaper to read all about it.

Break Out the Tourniquets: Ax Starts Swinging at Newsweek

A Reduced Staff to Go With a Reduced Magazine


The media landscape was on fire today.
Or maybe, that's just fired up, after double bombshells of CNN's big cheese Jon Klein's employment being canceled by the network. Ditto, more or less, for one-time NBC wunderkind Jeff Zucker's imminent departure from NBC (way to work the shoe leather, Bill Carter).
Of course, a reported $30 million kiss goodbye from Comcast will salve his wounded pride.
As it happened, this was also the day Newsweek owner Sidney Harman was scheduled to hand out pink slips, as Dylan Stableford at The Wrap reported.
True to his word, out the door they are going, with about 25 percent of the staff expected to be lopped off the masthead by sundown. They are involuntarily joining a lot of high-profile colleagues who bailed out over the summer.
We'll soon see if there's much a magazine left to put out by those who are left.

UPDATE: Via Business Insider, a Newsweek spokesman says the final number of pink-slips won't be all that bad. Unless, of course, you're among them.

Ding Dong, the Witch is...Fired

The House (Of Scorn) Finally Falls on Daily News Features Dominatrix Orla Healy

I worked for my share of jackasses, bullies and lunkheads during 20 years in the news business, which isn't unique in having dullards in charge, only that they can be more colorful and outrageious in the pain they inflict on others.
All the more reason, then, I am grateful I never had to cross paths with Orla Healy, who was in charge of features at the New York Daily News.
I say was, as the Village Voice is reporting Healy got the heave-ho today, which no doubt has set the corks a poppin' over on West 33rd.
Talk about hate. Here's how one source variously described her to the Voice: "a window into fascism in the world," a "sadist" and part of a "gangster regime that took root."
Holy, Anna Wintour, Batman!
At the same time, the Voice was told Healy wasn't fired for being a bitch, just merely a lackluster editor who wasn't doing much to pump up the lifestyle and entertainment coverage, despite those nifty presses that can print color on every page. In other words, little sizzle, even less steak.
In the end, that's the great equalizer in the news business. If you can produce results, you can be the biggest shitbag who ever turned up on a masthead. If not, then you're just another schnook who will have to pay 50 cents to read the paper, just like the rest of us.

Tumbleweeds Aren't Rolling Through Newsweek's Office. Yet.

Exactly Why is Sidney Harman Bothering?

In an interview in Media Matters, Newsweek's Howard Fineman, while explaining why he's decamping for The Huffington Post, predicted, his journalistic home for 30 years would no longer be in print by 2015.
I think he was being rather charitable.
It's not just that Fineman, Evan Thomas, Michael Isikoffk, Fareed Zakaria, Jon Meacham and just about all of the other big hosses at Newsweek have unhitched from that once-invincible wagon train.
True, these guys were big deals, and they could still bring it with eminently decent journalism. The cover story two weeks ago by Thomas and John Barry on Robert Gates was a grabber, as have other top-line enterprise pieces in recent weeks. I'm sure I'll get to the piece on the threat to traditional masculinity in the current issue real soon.
But about that current issue, and the bigger problem. It's all of 64 pages. You don't make it to 2015 when you're 64 pages.
Nor do you when a lot of the magazine looks downright ugly. The fonts and text look like an experiment gone bad circa 1975, sort of a cross between The New Republic and U.S. News and World Report at its wheeziest.
Sure, it's no longer a digest of the previous week. Like Time, it focuses now on trends, analysis, point of view. But too much of it is simply stuff you can get elsewhere in one variation or another. There's nothing wrong with it. However, there is not enough that is truly distinctive to make it a value proposition. I'm only seeing it because a 6-month subscription started showing up in our mailbox. If I had to pay...let's just say, I wouldn't. I have a hard enough time digesting two papers a day minimum, along with the other 15 magazines that pile up at home.
There's not enough there there to give up something else whose time spent reading I would devote to Newsweek.
So, as the magazine's new owner Sidney Harman prepares to affix his stamp, not to mention his checkbook, it will be intriguing to find out how Newsweek will be reinvented yet again. However, it should be telling to Harman and just about anyone else when Fineman, et al., know better not to find out.
But if this Newsweek thing doesn't work out for Harman, I'm sure there are a few newspaper publishers who would be eager to take him out to lunch. Pronto. They don't want to wait for 2015 either.

When The Subways Don't Suck

TBS Takes Over the Shuttle to Push Baseball Playoffs and Maybe Usher in a Paradigm Shift for Ads

Part of my regular commute involves taking the subway shuttle between Grand Central Station and Times Square and back. It's a quick ride, unremarkable on a good day. Except when it's not.

The shuttle trains have become a breeding ground for innovative ad campaigns that effectively do a full body wrap around the cars, inside and out, with a single theme that basically takes over just about every inch of real estate save for the windows.

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the local zoos, HBO, for a "Deadwood" campaign, and HGTV have taken the plunge. These has been increasingly common on buses, but it's more striking when three or four subway cars are tricked out all over.

Now, TBS has one-upped with a full-wrap that includes TV screens to promote its baseball playoff coverage. Even depressed Mets fans, like your faithful correspondent, know when to say wow. Four screens in each car (on the shuttle that runs on track 3, for you subway geeks) are showing random baseball clips. But the cool part comes when the playoffs get cranking, and they'll show highlights from the previous night's games. It won't be anything you couldn't catch on SportsCenter, but it'll give you someplace else to look when the panhandlers come through.

Given the usual desultory state of subway ads (excepting you, Monroe College) that often mirror the quality of the service, one can only hope for more of the same on other lines.

Dr. Zizmor and Zoni Language Center? Yer, out!

R.I.P., Paste

From Our Too-Bad-But-Hardly-A-Surprise Department

Especially in the publishing business, a loyal subscriber base, street cred and a distinct market niche can mean jack squat in the fight for survival.

Such is life, or the end of it, for the print version of indie music mag Paste, which made it official yesterday that it's gonzo.

I was one of those who coughed up some bucks to help save the magazine back when it was on life support a couple of years ago. It was one of those feel-good, grassroots stories, you kind of expected Jimmy Stewart to come out and deliver a homily about angels getting their wings.

But the patient remained sick. The subsequent issues were painfully thin. The record labels were hurting and all those small labels just didn't have the dough-re-mi to let Paste whistle a happy tune to its bankers.

This leaves people interested in keeping up with what's hot and fresh for the artists who depend heavily on Americana and Triple-A radio airplay (e.g. Sufjan Stevens, The Hold Steady, Okkervill River) that much more difficult, especially with the apparent demise of the samplers that were available with each issue. I know that I purchased CDs after hearing sampler tracks, and I trust that I wasn't unique in that regard. With that pipeline shut off, bands are going to have to hustle that much more for attention, not to mention concert bookings and album sales.

To show how troubled the music business is, Paste was unable to survive even though it was the last mag standing in this genre, after Harp folded in 2008, following the lamentable path of Tracks and No Depression.

For now, there is at least pastemagazine.com, which will remain active. It's something, true. But for indie artists and their fans, it likely won't be enough.

Why You Need to Appreciate Winning Headlines Now More Than Ever

Search Engine Optimization Threatens to Suck the Lifeblood Out of Copy Editors

It's no secret that a headline that grabs you while scanning a newspaper and one that aims to accomplish the same thing online are often mutually exclusive.
After all, many folks find their way to a story through a Google search. Hence, if a paper wants their story to be on the first page of the search results instead of page 38, it is "optimized."
At best, the practice is a necessary evil. We live and die on page views, after all. When done right, online headlines are inevitably more basic, matter-of-fact. Nobody tries to be clever entering search terms. Concurrently, headlines are often written to match. And a cottage industry, of sorts, has even sprung up to show editors and bloggers how to optimize optimization.
Too bad. That means a lot of creative thinking gets left on the printed page, or isn't fully appreciated in its fuller context.
That came to mind this morning, while looking at the front page of the Home section of The New York Times. The cover story, about the makeover of the Oval Office, was headlined "The Audacity of Taupe." Simple. Clever. A real winner.
Now, it should be noted that you will see that headline if you go to the online version. Credit the Times for sticking to its guns on most of its web pages. But my unscientific survey has found many other papers who drain the juice from the print heds (I'm talking to you, Washington Post).
Again, necessary evil. But it doesn't portend well for other parts of stories, including photos and the copy itself. And even with the intact Times version, you don't fully appreciate the sweep of the story, lending even greater credence to why the headline matters.
On the front page, the Oval Office photo takes up most of the space above-the-fold. That makes you appreciate the headline all the more. Online, the image is a respectable 600 x 353 pixels, but it's just not the same. You might glance at the story but will you read it? Maybe. But its presentation is essentially indistinguishable from any other main story in that section.
But will I read the printed version? You bet. Even if Home is not a normal go-to section for me, it became one today.

Ethan Bronner Rants Instead of Writes in New York Times Coverage of Gaza Mall

Provocative Article Reads as an Analysis Piece but Wasn't Labeled as Such

You'd think The New York Times would have the drill on Mideast coverage down cold by now. After all, the dispatches from its reporters in Israel, Cairo, and Beirut, are arguably parsed more carefully than any other news organization.
Jewish groups--and I've seen this first-hand--like to pounce on anything remotely critical of Israel as anti-Zionist bias, while many Arabs typically believe the Times is in the tank for whomever is holding their tenuous sway over the Knesset that week.
So, a dispatch from Ethan Bronner (left) in Monday's paper undoubtedly further raised already-arched eyebrows.
It concerned a mall of sorts, which sprang up in Gaza City. Bronner's writing was anything but objective, more critical than observational. True, he put the mall in its proper context and sorted through the rhetoric on both sides about its significance. The problem: the tone in his writing was more strident than what should appear in the front of the A section and read like something that belonged more in the back, where the op-eds and columnists are. To wit:

To the commentators who have never been here, certain points need to be cleared up. To those who contend the mall is proof that Gaza has construction materials: the building is 20 years old. To those who have described the mall as “gigantic” and “futuristic”: it is small and a bit old-fashioned. To Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, who wrote that the mall “would not look out of place in any capital in Europe”: it would.

This is commentary, not reportage, plain and simple. Again, Bronner may be on target with his observations. The problem is in how they are presented. And this:

But the broader point many of these advocates are making — that the poverty of Gaza is often misconstrued, willfully or inadvertently — is correct. The despair here is not that of Haiti or Somalia. It is a misery of dependence, immobility and hopelessness, not of grinding want. The flotilla movement is not about material aid; it is about Palestinian freedom and defiance of Israeli power.

Says who? Says you?

In the above passage, Bronner has not only tipped the balance, he's teetered over the edge to pure opinion. A reporter shouldn't be telling us when something is correct. That's for us to decide. And however you feel about the flotilla mess--and many American Jews are deeply conflicted over this--there remain two sides to this issue. By not acknowledging that, Bronner has compromised himself as a reporter. Then again, this dispatch indicates he's grown tired of that job. However, the front of the A section is no place to audition for a spot in the back.

Stop The Insanity. Then Go Back to Sleep

Does New York Need Four Local 4:30 a.m. Newscasts? Does It Need Any?

New York TV stations will soon get to really find out just how many insomniacs, early risers, and stoners are out there, with word that WABC-TV, the Nielsen news king, will join the scrum jockeying for droopy eyelids with a newscast at 4:30 a.m.
Bear in mind that channels, 4, 5, and 11 are already squaring off at that unholy hour. The question is why.
The easy answer is that the infrastructure is already in place. The talent is already in the building. Just bring them in a half-hour earlier, recycle packages from the 11 p.m. cast, and, poof, instant show.
If you thought the anchors were too perky at 5 a.m., just wait.
Stations get to keep all the moola from spots sold. In contrast, channels 4 and 7--home of WABC--have to forego some of that with the network shows now on.
But how many people really are out there? I first encountered the 4:30 phenomenon in Los Angeles a couple of years ago, when I had to get up way early for a flight. KABC was chugging along. But out there, it's a tad more understandable. People commute from insane distances because it's otherwise too expensive. And those commutes start early and last a while.
I doubt, however, the number of denizens on the pre-dawn patrol is as large in New York. Granted, train lines have added more service before 6 a.m. to accommodate demand. But still. It's a small slice of TV pie, at that hour. Not to mention that WPIX, channel 11, will now bump up its start time to, wait for it, 4 a.m., which will give it a five-hour block of morning news and a lot of pissed-off staffers.
As for me, I'm fine with "Morning Edition" on NPR, thank you, eternally grateful that the stellar crew there wakes up in the middle of the night and I don't have to.

The Steven Slater Blowback Has Begun

Just When You Thought You Found Your Latest Folk Hero, His 15 Minutes May Be Going Down the Chute Faster Than He Did

OK, I'll admit it, I was ready to anoint Jet Blue flight attendant-gone-bonkers Steven Slater my fave guy of the week in that Howard Beale-esque way of his. We all need a little flair of the dramatic now and then, especially when he got to fulfill the fantasies so many of us have had. And grabbing two beers while he alit from the back of the plane. Classic. Just classic.
But not so fast, thanks (or thanks for nothing, killjoys) to the Wall Street Journal, which found passengers who said Slater instigated the confrontation that led to his big-time hissy fit and was a douche to another woman who asked for help cleaning up coffee someone had spilled on her seat.
Yes, yes, two sides to every story, and we've more or less heard Slater's version. It got him liked in a big way on Facebook. But it may not be the only version. Or the correct one. And anyone who's ever been treated rudely by a flight attendant (fortunately, few and far between for me, but those few have been doozies) can understand why.
Given the cattle-car nature that typifies flying nowadays, you can also understand how someone like Slater could boil over. But that doesn't mean we have to applaud him in the process.

Thank You, Daniel Schorr

A Real Legend Dies at 93

I realize NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr was 93, but I just really never thought of him as old. Or someone who would no longer have such interesting talks ever Saturday with Scott Simon on "Weekend Edition."

He was always there. He always seemed to know just about anything about the events that mattered the most in national politics and world affairs that week. He was still a force. Who happened to be 93.

With his passing, we lose a vital link to some of the grander, noble traditions of journalism. And we lost a helluva reporter. Thanks, Dan. Go in peace.

Digital Revenue at New York Times May Finally Signal a Real Paradigm Shift

Now We're Talking the Kind of Numbers That Really Matter


From yesterday's New York Times story about its parent company's 2Q earnings report, this paragraph screamed out for attention, as well it should.

"Digital advertising revenue grew 21 percent, while the decline of print revenue slowed to 6 percent, leaving the company’s overall advertising revenue essentially flat. As a result, online advertising became a larger share of the company’s overall advertising revenue, climbing to 26 percent of the company’s total advertising take."

That number is quite the revelation, given the conventional wisdom that online ads typically accounted for only 10 percent of revenue. That may still be the case elsewhere, but the Times has shown it's possible to move off that number in a meaningful way.

Of course, that's significant when circulation for the print editions continue their swoon, even if the actual total number of readers when you figure in digital is actually quite robust. Hopefully, that can translate into publishers not getting the itchy finger to slash away at budgets for the core product, thereby leaving little to read for the online edition. Too many newspapers have tragically forgot that part of the equation, which is all the more annoying when they want to impose some kind of pay wall. First, they cut staff and content, while raising newsstand prices. Then they want to charge for access to a website with a desiccated product.

That the glue to fix the broken newspaper business model may finally be found in cyberspace is a big deal. The Times has shown that a good website--in other words, a distinct product that's more than just a slick repackaging of the newspaper--is not only a good idea, but it makes good business sense. Finally.

A (Glenn) Close Call: Damages Gets a Two-Season Pickup

But There's a Catch: New Episodes Will Only Air on DirecTV

It looked like we'd be leaving Patty Hewes for good on the pier outside her house in the Hamptons at the end of the third season of "Damages."
The show was critically lauded, gushed over by the brass at FX, but it just wasn't getting enough love with the Nielsen families. Too bad, they didn't know what they were missing.
As delectably played by Glenn Close, the ruthless--to put it charitably--lawyer Patty Hewes had enough issues to have kept Freud and Jung working overtime. She knew how to bring adversaries to their knees, but her personal life was a royal mess, one that she often made. It made for great TV. And Emmy nominations.
The season just concluded was arguably the best of the three. A big reason for that was the startling but fully satisfying casting of Martin Short as a scumbag lawyer for a family whose scion made Bernie Madoff look like a striver. Short got an Emmy nomination for his troubles, along with Close and Rose Byrne, right, whose Ellen Parsons was alternately Patty's, mentee, confidant, nemesis and would-be murder victim.
"Damages" has always been good like that. Darrell Hammond, of all people, played a hitman in season 2, while Lily Tomlin had a prominent role this year. Throw in the likes of Ted Danson, Zjelko Ivanek, Keith Carradine, and Michael Nouri, among others wending their way through keep-you-guessing-till-the-end plotlines, and you have a most-satisfying hour of TV.

And despite the ratings, "Damages" lives on. DirecTV says it will bring back "Damages" for two 10-episode seasons starting next year, and relieve FX of the burden of canceling the show. The catch: unlike "Friday Night Lights," another ratings-challenged reclamation project, "Damages" will only air on DirecTV's 101 channel.

That alone might not be the best reason to dump cable for DirecTV, like I happily did six years ago. But it's pretty damn (Glenn) close.

When Is Long-Form Journalism Too Long?

Washington Post's "Top Secret America" Might Be Too Much of a Good Thing

My first thought after seeing the opening salvo in the Washington Post's on the unwieldy national security and intelligence apparatus was wow. Simply wow.

First off, look at the front-page layout above from today's paper. The story is basically the front page. But that's just the intro. The real saga--the first of three parts--starts inside and goes on for four open pages. Four.
Granted, there are graphics, sidebars, links, refers and other stuff of 21st-century newspaperdom. And I've committed to reading it. Honest. If the Post can spend two years putting together this mastodon-sized piece of Pulitzer bait, then it behooves me to see what they can do.

But therein lies the rub. I'm a newspaper dweeb. Always have been, always will be. But the question is, how many like me are out there. If you're crammed onto the Metro on a Monday morning, are you going to start chewing on a massive enterprise piece, no matter how worthy?

To be sure, if you are not one of those people, the story's website does a more-than-adequate job of bringing the story to life. You can then digest it at your own pace. And you should.

My first question is, why try to cram this behemoth into three days? It seems you could just as effectively tell the story in five or six days as you would three. The yeoman work put in by reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin would have resonated just as loudly. But faced with four open papers to sift through, I fear a lot of readers will simply skim or give up, rather than dive in.

That might have been different if the Post had started the series on Sunday, when people have more time. Which leads me to my second question: why didn't it start then, especially when the Post has a much-larger circulation, 798,000 compared to 578,000 during the week?

One answer came from managing editor Raju Narisetti, who told The New York Times that news sites see dramatically more users during the week than on the weekends. "In my view, it's the first project done at The Post where the power of the project lies online," he said.

Ah, so. It makes eminently perfect sense. Yet, print is still wagging online's dog when it comes to revenue. The Post didn't take up the better part of five pages just to provide fodder for an online venture. Or, maybe it did. If all those extra page views turn into bigger ad bucks, then we'll know the real back story.

And it won't be a secret.

Dave Kindred's "Morning Miracle" About the Washington Post Without the Sugar Coating...

But Maybe A Dollop of Empty Nostalgia Instead

I'm looking forward to getting my mitts on Dave Kindred's book "Morning Miracle," his paean to the Washington Post subtitled "A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life."

Indeed, it's not the paper it once was. Then again, no paper is.

The book, which hits stores July 20, was favorably reviewed in the Post yesterday by American Journalism Review editor Rem Rieder.

Rieder affirmed this was a book worth reading for lapsed news scribes like myself, or anyone who gives a damn about what happened to journalism and what can still be done to right the ship.

The only troubling note was a sentence Rieder quoted, where Kindred waxes: "I love the smell of newsprint in the morning, and my favorite time of day is thirty minutes to deadline."

First off, when's the last time Kindred smelled newsprint? The Post and most other papers are printed on offset presses that produce smudge-free papers. Long gone are the days when you had to wash your hands or wear gloves after reading the Post or Times.

As a cub at the UPI Albany bureau, I would go down to the mailroom as the Times-Union was coming off the presses and got a few copies to take up to the bureau. I don't remember much of a smell. What I savored was the crisp, folded paper in my, yes, smudged hands. A morning miracle indeed, or at least an 11:15 p.m. miracle when the T-U's bulldog edition came out. But a smell? Meh.

Still, Kindred remains a print guy through and through. In that sense we are, um, kindred spirits, and I'm sure to soak up his dispatches from the front of what is hopefully a winnable war, at least in D.C.

Getting the Facts Straight About the Mets

Fox Gaffes Show When Producers Need to Step Up to the Plate More Aggressively

While watching the Mets on Saturday against the Washington Strasburgs, the usually reliable Joe Buck got tripped up a couple of times. At least, I know he got tripped up. If he knew, or if anyone in the Fox truck knew, they kept it a secret.

No one expects announcers to get everything right all the time, but it's not too much to ask that when they do screw up, that they at least make some version of a correction.

First, Buck mentioned Mets reserve catcher Josh Thole, who started Saturday's game. After Thole got a hit, Buck said Thole was now "3 for 7 in his Major League career." All well and good, except that wasn't true.

Those were Thole's stats for 2010. But he had 53 at-bats in 2009.

Buck actually made reference to Thole's "career" stats twice. So, why did nobody in the Fox production truck, which surely has access to anything and everything put out by the Elias Sports Bureau, not know that what Buck said wasn't true, or if they did, whisper something in his earpiece so he could correct himself?

You might think I'm getting overly lathered about a remark over a third-string catcher. But when you're broadcasting a game that's being seen in New York, you're talking to a lot of knowledgable fans who know Thole is relatively new, just not brand-new. There's nothing wrong with getting it right, hubris be damned.

Buck dug his hole a little deeper later in the game when he talked about the once-precarious state of Mets Manager Jerry Manuel's job, and how he had gone to see the "Broadway musical Fences" and was told by Denzel Washington to hang in there.

August Wilson's "Fences" is indeed a Broadway classic, But it is decidedly lacking in hummable tunes, which is why it won the Tony last month for Best Play Revival.

Might be time for Joe Buck and his producers to take in a show next time they're in town.