And the Award for Best Crocodile Tears Goes to.....

NORTH KOREA!!!!!!

Vecsey (Don't Call it A Retirement) Departure Shouldn't Be Excuse for Times to Can Sports Column

What Made Sports Section Distinctive Shouldn't Be Abandoned



The New York Times brass has shown themselves indifferent, if not downright hostile, to the sports column. Maybe it's because the stars who pen the column cost too much. Maybe it's easy to discard when the news hole shrinks. Maybe it's just plain dumb.

George Vecsey penned his final regular column on Saturday (that the Times would not showcase such a lamentable occasion in the Sunday paper tells you a lot). That means only Bill Rhoden is the only regular "Sports of the Times" columnist left.

Yes, there is pointed analysis about a particular sport without it verging into a full-fledged column, e.g. Tyler Kepner "On Baseball," etc. And this is not to say the section, for whatever its flaws on coverage of local teams, is not well-written.

With the likes of Ben Shpigel, Mike Tanier, Jere Longman and Bill Pennington, among others, cranking out copy, writing is the least of the Times' problems.

But a column is destination reading in a sports section. If you operate on the premise, as the Times does more aggressively than any other major paper, that many readers need less game-day coverage, then a column provides those points of differentiation that may be the only thing saving the section from irrelevance (that massive takeout by John Branch on the death of hockey goon Derek Boogaard is another way).

It was bad enough that the Times booted Harvey Araton from his column in 2009 after 15 years, briefly reassigned him to do features elsewhere in the paper, then brought him back to write for the sports pages. He's done a lot of extended enterprise pieces, and a lot of those On (fill in the sport), er, columns. But the lack of hubris is apparently too much to overcome for the Times to put him back as a columnist. Sports editor Joe Sexton would do well by taking this step, and finding a brash third voice as well (Wallace Matthews, anybody?).

As for Vecsey, it was a great ride. That he will still be writing for the Times on occasion is cause for comfort. But I'm sure that he is the last person who views himself as irreplaceable. The Times needs to prove him right.

CNN More Lucky than Good for Broadcast of Herman Cain Campaign Implosion

When Bookers Get Lucky

Michael Calderone on HuffPo has the scooplet on Herman Cain's appearance yesterday on CNN. Cain was initially portrayed as rushing to the network's Washington studios to pre-empt Ginger (my 15 minutes are almost up) White's accusation that she and Cain did more than exchange pleasantries over pizza for 13 years.
Taylor was interviewed by WAGA-TV in Atlanta and Cain parried with Wolf "Blitz" Blitzer on "The Situation Room" that he's known White for a long time, just not in, you know, that way.
Well, CNN had actually booked Cain on Sunday to appear the following day. Calderone reports:


[D]uring a commercial break Monday after the first of three segments, CNN producers began to see tweets referencing an upcoming story by Atlanta TV station WAGA that included an interview with the woman making these new allegations. Producers then contacted a Cain staffer in the network’s greenroom, according to Washington DC bureau chief Sam Feist. While seated during the commercial break, anchor Wolf Blitzer asked Cain about the forthcoming Atlanta report. The candidate acknowledged that his campaign had been contacted about it and would be willing to discuss it on air.

Getting the go-ahead, Cain and The SitRoom became one.

The Blissful Ignorance of Fox News Viewers

Turns Out, They May Know Fewer Facts than the Hosts

Not that watching Fox News Channel causes brain cells to leak out, or at least I don't think so, but here's a fun fact emanating from a poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
Seems that the average Fox viewer is likely to know less about crucial current events than someone who doesn't watch any news.
Can I get a "Duh"? Or, because it's Fox, how about a "D'oh!"
Granted, the poll confined itself to asking about the Middle East. But those who watch Fox, according to the pollsters, were 18 points less likely to know that the Arab Spring that sprung in Egypt overthrew Hosni Mubarak, and 6 points less likely to know that Assad was still in charge in Syria.
In contrast, according to FDU: people who report reading a national newspaper like The New York Times or USA Today are 12 points more likely to know that Egyptians have overthrown their government than those who have not looked at any news source. And those who listen
to NPR are 11 points more likely to know the outcome of the revolt against Assad.
Duh, indeed.

Harassment Not on the Menu at National Restaurant Association

Bad Day to be Flack as Dining Lobby Takes Flak from Cain Harassment Allegations

So, Herman Cain fessed up to being accused of sexual harassment, just not having harasssed anyone.
In fact, he says he's been "falsely accused," following the weekend bombshell report from Politico, citing two women who accused Cain of inappropriate behavior when he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.
Politico said the women received "five-figure payouts" in return for their silence. What say, you Herman?
“If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn’t even aware of it and I hope it wasn’t for much. If there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other officers at the restaurant association."
You might wonder what the restaurant association (sorry, can't say NRA) has to say about all this. Keep wondering. If you go to its online press room, the lead story is Restaurant Performance Index Rose Above 100 in September, as Sales and Traffic Levels Improved. In other words, the type of story they'd rather be commenting about, not the one people want to know about.
Fun fact: Three of the top four leadership positions at the association, chair, vice chair and president/CEO are filled by women. Who must really be loving this story now.

Another Morning Reboot at CNN

Maybe They Should Call the Show "America Yawning"

Had a bit of a chuckle reading today's report in The New York Times about how CNN is going back to the drawing board yet again to figure out how to get someone, anyone, to watch its morning programming.

Again? Yes, again.

Not that the current offering "American Morning," is bad. It's not, but it's never been a category killer. And with the 800-pound Lauer and Co. keeping NBC solvent, the Fox & Friends comedy show and other comers, well, it's just too damn hard for Nielsen to give you a hug that time of day.

But CNN soldiers on. "American Morning" will apparently be sacrificed on the "we tried" altar. And now for something new or, at least, newish. From 5-7 a.m., Ashleigh (I'm Still Here) Banfield and Chicago import Zoraida Sambolin will anchor a block for the bleary-eyed, followed by a 7-9 a.m. program headed by American Morning alumna Soledad O'Brien (above) and "an ensemble," as Broadcasting & Cable puts it. O'Brien will also continue doing her well-received documentaries, her primary role since being kicked offf the dawn patrol in 2006.

So, I'll ask the $64 question: how will these shows be markedly different from American Morning? I know, damn good question. CNN isn't answering, at least not yet. But I wouldn't get tied up in a knot contemplating the possibilities. Granted, I don't have the answers either to what may be an unsolvable riddle.

When there are only so many eyeballs to go around that time of day, many of whom are tuned to top-rated local shows, CNN, without a defining personality to create destination viewing, is destined to be an also-ran when there is no breaking news.

It's a question I'll no doubt have to think about more, while I have a cup of Morning Joe.

Don't Fear the Reaper at CVS

Hopefully, Just the Spirit of Halloween and Not Reinforcement of Warning Labels

Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, N.Y., like to think of themselves as Halloween Central. With good reason.

After all, T-town is where Washington Irving resided and drew his inspiration for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," where the saga is retold in The Old Dutch Church--which figures in the story--by master storyteller Jonathan Kruk.

Phillipsburg Manor--a local historic restoration--has a scare fest called Haunted Hollow, which got greedy and supplanted a more sedate affair that included a headless horseman riding around on a big-boy black horse. Kruk used to tell his story as part of the festivities there. But now he's a separate admission, and Phillipsburg Manor is no longer a place for kids, you know, the ones for whom Halloween matters the most, to go this time of year. But that's for another rant.

It doesn't take much for other locals to get into the holiday spirit, including the local CVS. I did find it a bit disconcerting, though, that when you walk in the door, greeting you is a full-sized grim reaper. Enter if you dare. Actually, it was a bit of foreshadowing, as I had a nightmare of a time trying to get a prescription filled there because of computer glitches and clerical incompetence.

Fortunately, the guy with the scythe should be gone by tomorrow, replaced by more optimistic signs of the times, namely the ones offering 50 percent off bags of Halloween candy. Three Musketeers to the rescue in the nick of time.

Financial Times Not on the Job with Jobs Death

What Happens When a Paper Goes to Bed in London and Nobody in New York Can Wake it Up

I don't know when the edition of the Financial Times that shows up at my door six mornings a week goes to bed.
Actually, now I have a pretty good idea. It's way before the first bulletin about the death of Steve Jobs first started clearing the wires around 7:30 p.m. ET.
Not to worry, dear chaps, I understand the FT is a British enterprise even if it is printed in 23 cities across the globe. It appears the basic guts of the paper remain the same, at least in print whenever they wrap up for the day in London.
Ordinarily, that would not be a problem, except when it is, like when breaking news hits relatively late in the U.S.
To be sure, the FT has a sizable editorial operation on this side of the pond and an outsize influence and presence in relation to its circulation. But there apparently is no way for anyone here to remake a front page before the U.S. press run.
Yes, the FT is playing catch-up online as we write. However, major events like the Jobs death point toward the need for a more-nimble print product as well. When you charge $2.50 at the newsstand, readers are entitled to more than what you were able to get into the paper before the editors in London called it a night.

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Cookie Monster

Good Pickup by Network to Nab the Big Bird, er, Cheese at Sesame Workshop

The NPR board of directors showed it was adept at swimming against the tide when it scooped up Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell to lead the network.

Knell is cut from the mold of former ABC News prexy David Westin, a lawyer without news experience, but who, as one NPR board member said could "gain the respect of journalists."

We'll see about that, but Knell could be a propitious choice at a perilous time for NPR, what with the Republican sharks on Capitol Hill smelling blood where NPR's funding still resides safely in the federal budget.

As someone well-schooled in non-profit broadcasting, Knell necessarily blends the pragmatism and often tight-fisted fiscal management that such a job requires, while having a deft hand schmoozing deep-pocketed foundations and left-leaning trust-fund babies for checks with many zeros tacked on for good measure.

Having been at Sesame Workshop for two decades, Knell knows that the product must be the last thing sacrificed when times are tough. Sure, there aren't nearly as many original "Sesame Street" episodes produced as in years past (just 26 a year, compared to north of 100 in the show's early days). And its unholy alliance with the PBS Kids Sprout channel, laden with inapproprite commercials (Gerbers insurance for children, anyone?) is regrettable if potentially lucrative.

But overall, Sesame Workshop remains a solid, laudable enterprise whose good intentions are usually matched by its output. That NPR can say the same should make at least one aspect of Knell's job easier.

I Know It's a TV Show, But...

"Person of Interest" Has a Disinterest in New York Geography

I finally caught up tonight to the pilot for "Person of Interest."

I'll be back, and not just to see what other alumni from "Lost" besides Michael Emerson might show up (CBS has become quite the resting place for "Lost" alumni, with Daniel Dae-Kim and now Terry O'Quinn hanging ten on "Hawaii Five-O").

The show hummed along, even taking into account my lightning touch with the FF button on the DVR. Having the likes of J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan at the reins will do that for you. And having Jim Caviezel and Taraji P. Henson in the cast doesn't hurt either.

My beef: the show has the budget to flaunt the fact that it's filming in New York. And with so much of the plot depending on tiny details, you'd think the producers would at least attempt some verisimilitude, even if the premise of the show--a billionaire hires a former special forces op to stop murders he knows will happen--is incapable of same.

That's why we don't want to see a Manhattan D.A. getting out of the subway at Rockefeller Center to go to her office, when the real office is downtown. That's why we don't want to hear about a prison inmate in "county lockup."

County lockup in Manhattan? Fuhgeddabout it.

And when we see Caviezel's character riding the 6 train and is menaced by a bunch of hoodlums, anyone in the Big Apple knows that it's virtually impossible to be alone in a car at virtually any hour. But at least there was a Death Wish-esque payoff to the scene.

I know. It's a TV show, get over it. Well, at least it's not like "Law and Order" habitually giving addresses that would actually be in the Hudson River. At least not yet.

At least try to keep it real, though I'll give them a pass if the Dharma Project shows up in a future episode.

South Park Creators Split on Which Episodes Were the Crappiest

They Hate The First Three Seasons, But With an Exception

The current issue of Entertainment Weekly has a take-out on the 15-year anniversary of South Park, which cleverly includes creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone rating their favorite episodes and those they say had the biggest sucking sound.
In the latter category are 53, count 'em, 53 episodes, at least in the eyes of Parker. That's the sum total of the first three seasons.
"Okay, we were like 26, 27. But it's like Really? We thought that was funny? We thought that was well-written? Oh my God, this is terrible."
On the other hand, in rating the 15 best episodes, Stone cites the first episode of season two, the classic "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus."
"I love that episode. It's so f...ing weird, and it's so different, and the fact that nobody else really liked it makes me like it more."
For those who need their Stone-Parker fix, the pair have said there will definitely be a "Book of Mormon" movie. In the meantime, I'll settle for the show, though my tickets won't get me in until April.

When Your Business Model is Held Hostage by ESPN

Dish Network Crying Foul Instead of Uncle

Cable and satellite TV companies take a perverse pleasure in bitching and moaning about how much they have to pay to carry the ESPN suite of channels, which is already nearing five bucks a subscriber. And that's without the $15.2 billion in additional coin the gang in Bristol will fork over to the NFL for the rights to Monday Night Football through 2021.
Since Disney doled out the cash for less-than-altruistic reasons, there's every expectation that subscriber fees will be jacked up once again to pay the pigskin tab.
Now, the New York Post reports Dish Network doesn't want to play ball and may pull the plug on the Worldwide Leader in Sports. But can it?
I mean, it could, but is that the satellite equivalent of hari-kari. This is ESPN, not the Cooking Channel or Current TV. It's ESP-friggin-N, as in no way can you not have it as part of your channel offerings.
Actually, Dish's threat has a proviso. It would reluctantly pay the presumably higher fee if it could put the ESPNs on a higher-priced sports tier and not as part of its basic cable package. It's obvious why ESPN wouldn't want that. But would it risk losing access to Dish's 13.5 million subscribers? On the other hand, would Dish suffer mass defections if ESPN wasn't on its roster?
The company may take that chance. It already took a hard line against regional sports networks, which is why you don't see YES, MSG or SNY--and why Dish probably doesn't have much penetration in the New York area.
But ESPN? C'mon. Dish may have to suck this one up. If it doesn't, you know DirecTV will be ready with open arms---and satellite dishes of its own beaming down ESPN. Sure, it won't be cheap, but not having the network will be a lot more pricey.

Why Ben Bernanke Should Not Cancel His New York Times Subscription

Story Placement Shows How Fed Chief's Claims That Consumers Doth Protest Too Much Ring Hollow

On the front page of today's Business Day section of The New York Times, there's an article headlined Fed Chief Describes Consumers As Too Bleak. Ben Bernanke gave a speech yesterday in Minneapolis, where he said, sure, there are reasons to be depressed about the economy, for all of the obvious reasons. But as sort of a bizarre coda, he tacked on: "Even taking into account the many financial pressures they face, households seem exceptionally cautious."
You think.
The way Bernanke sees it, consumers are in panic mode and hoarding cash. They believe the sky is falling, when clouds are merely darkening.
He's entitled to his opinion, but being as trenchant a student of economic history that he is, Bernanke should also know that perception definitely bleeds into reality.
As evidence, the article at the bottom of the same page headlined Customers Hurting, Wal-Mart is Bringing Back Layaway. Seems enough customers have given up on credit cards and used up their gift cards.
As Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising officer told the Times: It just tells us the customer's still struggling, as they tell us about their concerns with energy prices, housing prices, the job security .... it tell us that this is a fragile economy and the customer needs our help."
I don't know how many Fed chiefs have ever stepped foot in a Wal-Mart. Bernanke could sure use a visit.

Yahoo Sports Unleashes a Tsunami on the Hurricanes

The Once-Mighty Miami Herald Scrapes an Omelette Off Its Masthead Playing Catch-Up

Check out this big-time, kick-ass story from Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports about a college football booster gone rogue.
In this case, it was a convicted Ponzi schemer named Nevin Shapiro, who over eight years lavished dozens of University of Miami football and basketball players with gifts, entertainment, rides on his yacht, and a healthy supply of hookers. Not surprisingly, all of this is a no-no under NCAA rules.
Seems that Shapiro got all cheesed up over the fact that a lot of his "friends" suddenly lost the ability to return a call after he got in trouble with the law, and decided to spill the beans to Robinson, after abandoning the idea of a tell-all book.
Robinson spent 11 months reporting the story, including 100 hours of jailhouse interviews with Shapiro. In addition:

"In an effort to substantiate the booster’s claims, Yahoo! Sports audited approximately 20,000 pages of financial and business records from his bankruptcy case, more than 5,000 pages of cell phone records, multiple interview summaries tied to his federal Ponzi case, and more than 1,000 photos. Nearly 100 interviews were also conducted with individuals living in six different states. In the process, documents, photos and 21 human sources – including nine former Miami players or recruits, and one former coach – corroborated multiple parts of Shapiro’s rule-breaking."

Kudos. The sweat equity paid off in dividends. It's a great read.

As for the Miami Herald, well, you can only imagine the cursing emanating from the sports department. So, the main story today gives credit where credit is due and basically gets reaction to a story that cleaned the Herald's clock. Columnist Greg Cote also weighed in pondering the tenuous future of the high-profile football program in Coral Gables.
The Herald can play catch-up. But the damage has been done. Robinson has left town.

Revisionist Journalism--20 Years Too Late

Ari Goldman's Mea Culpa for Times'--and His--Crown Heights Riot Coverage

During the time he spent as a religion reporter at The New York Times, I rarely found fault with the work of Ari Goldman. He knew his beat, especially on Jewish matters, and made the most of the space he was given, usually in the Saturday editions.
In the latest Jewish Week, Goldman recounts what it was like covering the Crown Heights riots 20 years ago, precipitated by a black youth fatally struck by a car, which led to an Australian yeshiva student being stabbed to death.
It was an ugly episode in New York City, which spilled over into how it was covered by the local papers. Goldman writes about how he was among those who covered the riots, but was dismayed to find his dispatches ignored or rewritten. Goldman said much of the violence was driven by anti-Semitism. Yet, he says, the Times' initial coverage portrayed it as a full-on race riot.

I was outraged but I held my tongue. I was a loyal Times employee and deferred to my editors. I figured that other reporters on the streets were witnessing parts of the story I was not seeing.
But then I reached my breaking point. On Aug. 21, as I stood in a group of chasidic men in front of the Lubavitch headquarters, a group of demonstrators were coming down Eastern Parkway. “Heil Hitler,” they chanted. “Death to the Jews.”

Yet, he held his tongue. Apparently, he was a good company soldier who liked his job a little too much. But he had a change of heart:

“You don’t know what’s happening here!” I yelled. “I am on the streets getting attacked. Someone next to me just got hit. I am writing memos and what comes out in the paper? ‘Hasidim and blacks clashed’? That’s not what is happening here. Jews are being attacked! You’ve got this story all wrong. All wrong.”
I didn’t blame the “rewrite” reporter. I blamed the editors. It was clear that they had settled on a “frame” for the story. The way they saw it, there were two narratives here: the white narrative and the black narrative. And both had equal weight.

So, the Times eventually straightened out the narrative, at least to Goldman's satisfaction. But many Jewish Week readers were left wondering why Goldman waited 20 years to tell his story? He's been a former Times employee for well over a decade, and yet only now we're first hearing about this--a potentially important teaching moment for journalists now and in the future.
As one commenter noted:

Mr. Goldman should have the necessary courage to name the pusillanimous editors he is castigating with his recollection. There is no corrective measure better than public shaming. Blaming an institution in this generalized way is a weak tea for a story that is 20 years old.

Goldman harshly questioned the motives of his editors. Now, it behooves him to provide answers for his silence two decades later.

A Hail Mary Pass for Football On The Radio

Jets Broadcasts Jet Westward

SportsNewser has an item about how regular-season New York Jets games will also be heard on 710 ESPN--in Los Angeles.
In some respects, the decision is a no-brainer, rather than a display of a lack of brains. The Jets' QB is Mark Sanchez, the former USC golden boy who decamped for the NFL draft and is now among the richest denizens of the Meadowlands.
Still, this is L.A. Are there really enough fans out there?
”There is tremendous passion for the NFL here in LA, and this partnership with an elite franchise will further energize the Southland’s sizable population of football fans, who continue to express excitement about the potential return of an NFL team to the region,” chirps station GM Scott McCarthy.
Yeah, maybe.
After all, this was a town that couldn't hold on to either the Rams or the Raiders. What's changed? And if listeners were truly interested in what the Jets were up to, aren't they the ones more inclined to pony up for the DirecTV NFL package? Even if they didn't, at least six games will be on national TV, and several more, including those against the Raiders and Chargers, will likely wind up on L.A. stations.
So, where does that leave 710 ESPN. Essentially in a no-lose situation. Listenership would likely be light anyway on a football Sunday. Bulking up on game coverage means not having to pay a host or run irrelevant syndicated shows. And the Jets are already on ESPN in New York.
Sure, this is an out-of-market stretch you rarely see. But the revenue from a few extra local spots will cover up those stretch marks in a hurry.
And if you have guys in Tarzana and Redondo Beach screaming J-E-T-S, so much the better.

Crybabies at the Journal Editorial Page

News of the Weird, Let Alone the World

Much has been written about the bizarro, those-who-live-in-glass-houses-shouldn't-throw-stones editorial in today's Wall Street Journal that gets all righteous on the anti-Murdoch minions over the News Corp. hacking scandal.
Suffice to say, all the WTF comments from the likes of Jay Rosen, Staci Kramer and Keith Olbermann are predictable if justified.
The editorial is weird, even by WSJ standards. Sure, it's nice to stand up for the old man and his company who issue your paychecks. But the grapes peeled on page A12 aren't sour; they're putrid rounds of multi-colored mold.
To wit:

In braying for politicians to take down Mr. Murdoch and News Corp., our media colleagues might also stop to ask about possible precedents. The political mob has been quick to call for a criminal probe into whether News Corp. executives violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with payments to British security or government officials in return for information used in news stories. Attorney General Eric Holder quickly obliged last week, without so much as a fare-thee-well to the First Amendment.

Of course, it's the Journal, so the "political mob" is code for Democrats, though Journal fave Peter King has also whispered about the need to check out whether News Corp. was hacking phones of 9/11 victims.
Fare-thee-will to the First Amendment? Please. The problem isn't just what was written. It's with how that information was obtained. And even, as the editorial suggests, the "foreign-bribery law has historically been enforced against companies attempting to obtain or retain government business," so what?
There's nothing wrong with prosecutors getting creative to prosecute a felony so long as they have the law on their side. This has nothing to do with the First Amendment. This priggish self-righteousness is beyond the pale, even for the Journal editorialists, who make one last gasp in saying:

Applying this standard to British tabloids could turn payments made as part of traditional news-gathering into criminal acts. The Wall Street Journal doesn't pay sources for information, but the practice is common elsewhere in the press, including in the U.S.

No sale. And that's what this is about anyway. If journalists want to engage in checkbook journalism, that's their business, however sordid it might be. That's not forbidden. But if that information is illegally obtained, then it's go time in the criminal docket. It's all too easy to wonder whether the Journal would get as uppity if the name in the spotlight was Sulzberger instead of Murdoch. All too easy indeed.

News Of The World Demise Proof the Old Man Has Mellowed

Murdoch Puts His Prized Tab in Dry Dock

Wow. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Destroying the village in order to save it. Find your analogy, and somehow it'll fit with word that News International will shutter the News of the World tab after a sordid run of 168 years.
Never mind that the Sunday paper is the largest-selling English-language newspaper in the world. Rupert Murdoch--through his surrogate, son James--simply had enough after the phone-hacking scandal that threatened to blow back on his media empire big-time. James Murdoch wrote in a letter to staff that was published on NoW's website:

So, just as I acknowledge we have made mistakes, I hope you and everyone inside and outside the Company will acknowledge that we are doing our utmost to fix them, atone for them, and make sure they never happen again.

Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper.

This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World.

And to show the Murdochs are horribly, truly contrite, all profits from this weekend's final edition will go to "good causes.'

Any advertising space in this last edition will be donated to causes and charities that wish to expose their good works to our millions of readers.

These are strong measures. They are made humbly and out of respect. I am convinced they are the right thing to do.

You have to think that a younger Rupert Murdoch would've flipped the British establishment the bird if he he had found himself in a similar situation. But this is the 80-year-old version, worried about legacies, ignominy and, oh yes, stock prices.
Still, wow.
This was an immensely profitable paper, with a 2.6 million circulation, to boot. But fear not, Britons: your weekend dose of filth will not disappear entirely. The Guardian reports The Sun, the nation's leading daily tabloid distinguished by its buxom--and always topless--Page 3 girls, is readying for a Sunday launch.
It'll soon be safe to gag on your Weetabix again while having your morning coffee.

Pirate's Booty

You Knew Johnny Depp Was Good, But This Good?

Caught up a bit belatedly to this item from the wrap that Johnny Depp may have reaped as much as $360 million from playing Jack Sparrow in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. Of course, Disney's pooh-poohing that sum, and it may actually be a tad smaller.

Still, that's a lot of galleons. The funny part: it may actually be chump change, given that the movies have plundered $3.7 billion from the box office alone. That's right, that munificent sum doesn't include DVDs or merchandising.

So, if you see Bob Iger walking around the office with an eyepatch, a bottle of rum and bellowing "Avast, ye maties," for no particular reason, you can forego the call to the funny farm.

And if you think Depp is flush with doubloons now, just wait: The Wrap also reports he's in negotiations for a fifth Sparrow go-around.

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.