The Wonder Pets Save --- the A-Hed?

Murdoch's Making More Noises About Moving It To The Weekend; This is Serious!

We have a 2 1/2-year-old in the house with definite ideas about what to watch on TV. Which means we often spend time in the morning watching what he wants to keep the peace and our sanity.

One happy accident that's resulted from those circumstances is our collective viewing of "The Wonder Pets," on Noggin, the preschool and commercial-free version of Nick Jr.

In it, Linny the guinea pig, Ming Ming the duckling and Tuck the turtle are classroom pets by day, who after the final bell rings, turn into a trio who travel the world saving young animals -- and the occasional tree -- that are in trouble.

The animation -- the creators call it photo-puppetry -- is nothing short of brilliant, with each episode performed like an operetta complete with full orchestra. We'll save our gripes about Noggin taking its time not showing the newest episodes (I'm sick of saving the calf stuck in a tree, already) for another day.

For now, my hope is the Wonder Pets could temporarily veer away from the animal kingdom and turn their attention to a more dangerous place -- the newsroom.

Specifically, the one at The Wall Street Journal, which is being menaced by a creature named Rupert Murdoch. Which, of course, is especially unfortunate, given that he owns the place now.

Ol' Rupe was making noises about the Journal before he spirited Dow Jones away from the Bancroft family. And now he's apparently clamoring even more loudly about one of the Journal's star attractions, the A-hed, the feature that currently resides in the fourth column on page 1, which can be about just about anything, and often is.

It's not that Murdoch is against enterprise journalism. His beef is that the A-heds are just too darn long for his short attention span. True, they can run well north of 2,000 words, but they're usually worth the time investment, though the Jan. 2 piece on Dennis Kucinich's alleged close encounter with UFOs didn't qualify on that account.

So what does the A-hed have to do with the Journal's mission of being the prime source of business news? Absolutely nothing, which is why getting to write one is the fulfillment of a wet dream for many reporters on the Journal staff. It's the chance to flex the journalistic muscles and bore into a subject without being boring.

Yet, now comes word from the New York Observer that Murdoch and his minions seriously think people only have the time to read these stories on the weekend and want to shunt them off to the Saturday paper.

Big mistake.

The A-Hed is what helps make the Journal the Journal. And who is Murdoch to assume I have more time on my hand come the weekend? I get a lot of my WSJ reading done on the train. As for the weekend, well, I'm usually too busy doing things like watching The Wonder Pets.

Memo to Linny, Ming Ming and Tuck: Forget the pigeons, pandas and skunks. Save the A-Hed!

WGA and CBS News Strike A Deal --- Finally

Maybe it was the ugly spectre of the WGA having two strikes going at the same time. Perhaps it was the prospect of CBS being without 500 journalists during the peak of primary season.
Either way, the Writers Guild of America and CBS finally agreed to a tentative deal on a contract that runs through April 1, 2010.
Members would get a 3.5 percent raise upon ratification and another 3.5 percent next year. Full-time employees will also get a one-time payment of $3,700. Sounds nice, until you consider that the last contract expired in 2005, and that $3,700 represents -- on average -- only about 60 percent of the lost pay.
But the union held firm on jurisdictional issues the company was pressing, and fought off a two-tier wage scale where local radio employees would get smaller raises.
And it appears they rejected any attempts to encroach on the so-called "no-lunch" hour. Many shifts, particularly in radio, are for eight straight hours without a lunch. The eighth hour is paid at 2.5 times the hourly rate in compensation.
With each negotiation, the company tries to get the Guild to give up that money, which the CBS Guild negotiators have always firmly rejected (full disclosure: I helped negotiate the previous two contracts for the Guild).
Shockingly, ABC News writers represented by the Guild gave up the no lunch in exchange for a $25 payment and agreed to a two-tier wage scale where new employees will be paid less.
The ABC writers have always been a more-timid lot, and in agreeing to the contract they did, began engineering their own eventual demise.
I'm glad to see my CBS brethren didn't trod that path. At the same time, I hope they don't forget the bitter lesson from this contract: don't let a contract expire without first taking a strike authorization vote, which was not held this time until 2.5 years AFTER the contract expired. That meant management had absolutely no incentive to negotiate in good faith.
And they didn't, because no one forced their hand. The Guild leadership should have known better based on past experience. Because they did nothing of substance to move negotiations forward until now, they cost members thousands of dollars in lost wages.
It's a victory in the sense that CBS news writers don't have to endure what would likely have been a protracted strike. But they could have had a better deal and more money, had their union confronted the company a lot sooner than it did.

Reasons Why You Get Into The News Business

Weekend At Bernie's Redux -- Story About Corpse Going Into A Store To Cash a Check Livens Up New York Newsrooms

Let's face it, being a reporter nowadays just isn't as glamorous as it used to be.
Not that, as I can attest from first-hand experience, it ever really was that glamorous. But at least it perked up a few ears at parties when you said what you did. And it sure beat being a C.P.A. or the guy who stamps papers at the DMV.
Reporting also gives you a front-row seat to the world at large, no matter how tragic or comical it may get. Which can make the job as fun as it is frustrating.
Fun, though, is definitely the operative term for this item from the New York Daily News, about two dolts who wheeled a dead guy to a check-cashing store, and then tried to cash his Social Security check before being arrested.
At least the Weekend At Bernie's wannabe had died of natural causes.
This saga wasn't in my edition of the Times -- whose delivery to my door is ever more haphazard -- but it looks like their reporters also got to have some fun -- at least online.

McCain As Lazarus? New York Times Gets Caught Up in Maelstrom of Hype Following N.H. Primary "Upsets"

National Desk: Time To Brush Up On Your Bible

The New York Times lead on the New Hampshire results was bewildering, not to mention inaccurate.

"In the Republican primary, Senator John McCain of Arizona revived his presidential bid with a Lazarus-like win."

Lazarus, in case you never went to catechism, was the brother of Mary and Martha who Jesus raised from the dead. Which is hardly a description of McCain's prospects going into Tuesday's vote.

First off, McCain didn't campaign vigorously in Iowa and basically bet the house on taking New Hampshire, where he bested Dubya in 2000. True, it was supposed to be a close race with Mitt Romney, who desperately wanted to wrap a win around his New England coattails.

McCain's campaign had been on the ropes because of flaccid fundraising and a chilly reaction to his unwavering support for the war. But the fact that he didn't win in Iowa wasn't ripe for a Lazarus allusion in New Hampshire, where polls showed him at or near the lead. And when you're at the top, there's no way you can rise from anything, let alone the dead.

The Times should have saved its Biblical references, of course, for Hillary Clinton. But her victory was merely labeled a "surprise."

Which is true. Not even Lazarus was predicting she'd win last night.

ADDENDUM: To be fair, after writing this I saw how McCain told The Wall Street Journal that he was marveling at his "Lazarus life," which is certainly true of his campaign if you look back at the last six months. But I still believe the Times left the impression they were referring to New Hampshire, rather than the overall campaign. Not a biggie, I realize. But still.

What Does The Future Hold For Alycia Lane, Now That It Doesn't Include KYW

Not to Worry. People -- Particularly Desperate News Directors -- Are Willing To Give Second Chances, Especially When You Look Like This

Now that KYW-TV, the CBS station in Philadelphia has given the boot to popular anchor Alycia Lane -- who's facing felony assault charges involving a police officer in New York -- come the questions about whether she has a future in the news business.

All indications are the answer should eventually be a resounding yes, and not because she's threatening the station with a wrongful termination suit for ending her contract, which had four years left at more than $700K per.

We'll work from the assumption that despite allegedly hitting a female officer in the face and calling her a "fucking dyke," she'll avoid jail time if not the enmity of GLAAD.

Conceivably, that could be smoothed over by lots of apologies, maybe even a visit to the homophobe rehab facility Isiah Washington felt compelled to visit.

If a dinosaur like Imus could be resurrected by the damage wrought by his big mouth, then so can Lane, who at 35, has the looks and the journalistic chops to go with them. In other words, an unbeatable combination for a news director looking to goose the ratings.

Forget the snarky comment The Philadelphia Inquirer got from nonpareil quote whore Robert Thompson, who chirped "I don't think Fox is still doing celebrity boxing."

Lane, after a self-imposed exile following the end of her trips to court, will live to see another day behind an anchor desk. But she'll probably have to relocate and maybe take a paycut in the process.

The spotlight may have gotten too bright in Philly, where her love life and failed marriages are topics of conversation. And since she mixed it up in the Big Apple, that's also a no-go. Maybe Miami? That's where Lane made a splash was working before KYW. Or perhaps TMZ.com, which has labeled her a "news vixen." She could be made to feel right at home there.

A Lawsuit That's Not About Nothing

Vegetable Plagiarists Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld Sued By "Nut Job" Cookbook Author Who's Not Crazy About Her Ideas Being Lifted

Missy Chase Lapine's got hand.
Lapine is a cookbook author who's suing Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld, the former for allegedly stealing her idea for a book on how to disguise nutritious foods; the latter for being the good hubby and publicly attacking Lapine.
Lapine might have avoided the litigation route and merely embarrassed Jessica Seinfeld publicly for coming out with a book that was a little too similar to one she'd put out. But what may have prompted a trip to court was comments from the Bee Movie Bad Boy.
Seinfeld was heard on Letterman (click to see clip) in October calling Lapine a "woodwork wacko," while denying his wife ever heard of Lapine.
"She accuses my wife and says 'you stole my mushed-up carrots' ... it's vegetable plagiarism." He kidded, sort of, that Lapine could be an assassin. Har, har.
Sounds like a recipe for lining the pockets of a few lawyers.

Clear Channel Clears Out Last of the Legacy DJs at New York's Lite-FM

UPDATE 1/24/08: After running out of air staff to get rid of, looks like Jim Ryan fired himself. He's leaving Lite-FM to start a consultancy, whose first client will be --- wait for it --- Lite FM.


With "Mixed Emotions," Valerie Smaldone Gets An Offer Too Easy To Refuse

WLTW-FM, 106.7 Lite FM, has long been the perennial ratings leader in the notoriously fractured world of New York radio, with its adult contemporary format.
Program Director Jim Ryan has managed to stay on top by constantly tweaking the music mix and stretching the bounds of a format to capture an ever-fickle audience. It was enough to capture an estimated $68.5 million in revenue in 2005, more than any other station in the country.
But it's apparently not enough.
While few people have turned to Lite-FM for their deejays, the station at one point helped burnish its dominance with an air staff that provided listeners with a familiar, reliable sound. WLTW, at one point, had the same announcers in place for 13 years before overnight host Robin Taylor passed away in 2003.
It was comfortable and predictable, but in a good way.
The deejays were not superstar jocks with seven-figure salaries, but pro's pros who earned an extremely decent wage by radio standards. But it was apparently more than the hard-of-hearing bean counters at Clear Channel could stomach.
In 2005, Stephen E. Roy, who had been at the station since 1983, got the boot. He was followed a year later by morning man Bill Buchner and evening personality J.J. Kennedy, who had worked a combined 34 years at WLTW.
This fall heralded the end of the tenure for mid-morning jock Al Bernstein, who had been with the station since its inception, which meant the silky-voice Valerie Smaldone, who also joined the station in its infancy 24 years ago, would likely be close behind.
That prediction sadly came true. Radio & Records reported on Dec. 31 that she had left her afternoon shift at the station. Ryan said in a statement that it was with "mixed emotions" that Smaldone had decided not to renew her contract.
Translation: We're going to let her stay if she takes a big pay cut. Smaldone likely said a few words she couldn't say on the air.
And mixed emotions? Please. Why were they mixed, Jim? Because you decided to effectively force her to quit rather than outright can her, like you did with the other jocks?
Why would there be any ambiguity over your emotions when you're casting out the deejay who had been number-one in her daypart for a gazillion Arbitron books?
True, Lite-FM will soldier on and will likely remain one of New York's top stations now and in the future.
Ryan and the Lite have succeeded for never taking the audience for granted. In getting rid of all the voices listeners have heard for 24 years, that's messing with a formula that didn't need to be changed, all for the sake of a few more dollars for the bloodsuckers in San Antonio.
You get to be number one for a reason, and when you stay at the top for so long with the same jocks at the mic, it's lame to suddenly deny they played any role in your success.

Hey, Mac! Wanna Buy A Paper Cheap?

Remember When Owning A Newspaper Was A License To Print Money? So Do Many Publishers. Unfortunately, You Can't Pay The Bills With Nostalgia

You knew things were bad in the newspaper industry. But Alan Mutter shows us just how bad, at least in the view of Wall Street.
Bad, as in publicly traded newspaper companies losing 42 percent of their market value since 2004. That's not a typo.
And the carnage would have been even worse, if you discount the premium Foxy Murdoch paid for Dow Jones' stock, which jumped 65 percent.
One persistent thorn in the side in newsrooms has been that until very recently, investors didn't give a crap about increased competition and lower circulation. They were accustomed to 15-25 percent returns, and even if that meant bringing in some trained seals and outsourcing your sports coverage to Bangalore, by gum, that's what they were going to get.
Now such returns are all but unattainable at most companies. The question remains, do investors care anymore? Judging by the market values, it looks like so many have headed to the exits that now publishers can focus more on treading water than appeasing shareholders.
Of course, treading water has never been a solid business model. So, now may come a few spare moments to figure out what to do next.
There are no easy answers. For now, let's just hope there are some answers, period.

Thanks And All The Best

The blog's been a tad quiet during the holidays, though for the most part, so was most of the media I take time to laud and lambast.
I'll catch you on the flip side of next year, but just wanted to take the time to thank the thousands of you who've stopped by to read, ruminate and respond.
May we have a happy healthy and anything-but-boring (but for the right reasons) 2008.
Take it easy but take it.

Snark, Australian Style

Proof That Foreign Journalists Have Even More Contempt for Our Celebrities Than We Do -- Thanks a Lot, Jamie Lynn Spears!

Watch how this Australian reporter from 7 News almost drowns in his sarcasm. Not that it's unjustified or anything, but he's loaded for bear and loving it.

Do They Fact-Check Frommer's Guidebooks, Or Are They Just Plain Lazy....

....Not To Mention Deceptive and Woefully Out-of-Date

In planning a just-completed trip to Walt Disney World (a super-swell time was had by all), I turned to Frommer's as one of the two guidebooks I'd use to plot our travels.

Over the years, I've often turned to Frommer's as a reliable information source, providing a range of choices of attractions, hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. The books are usually filled with commentary written by seasoned travelers who are not hesitant to highlight the shortcomings of a destination as well as its virtues.

But in communing with The Mouse, the Frommer's Walt Disney World and Orlando 2008 came up woefully short, and highlights the need to not rely on a single guidebook for a trip. Fortunately, we had also brought the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2008, the Big Kahuna of WDW books that provided information that was not only more useful but refreshingly current.

Ironically, both books are put out by Wiley, which has a variety of travel imprints under its corporate umbrella.

But when it came to the Frommer's version, somebody isn't minding the store and lays waste to the claim that the book is "completely revised." Because it's not.

If it was, then author Laura Lea Miller wouldn't tell readers that one option to get to Orlando would be taking Delta's subsidiary, Song Airlines. Which would be difficult, given that Song ceased operating as a distinct entity in May 2006, a fact that Delta first announced in October of 2005.

The Soarin' ride at Epcot receives extremely scant mention, even though it's been open since 2005, and is one of the top attractions at WDW.

Things are even worse at the Frommer's Web site, which lists daily admission to the parks at $59.75, and parking at $8 (it's $71 and $11, respectively). And it provides links to rides and attractions that don't exist and none that those that do -- including the aforementioned "Soarin," and the best show in all of the parks --"Finding Nemo -- The Musical."

You know going in that some items in any guidebook will be dated by the time it gets to the printer, let alone bookshelves. You take that for what it's worth and plan accordingly. But there's scant evidence that Frommer and Miller have updated this guidebook in any meaningful way over the last two to three years.

The book boasts that Miller, a freelance writer whose name appears on other Frommer's Disney and Florida books, makes several trips a year to Central Florida.

The question is, where is she going once she gets there, as it sure as hell doesn't appear to be Disney World.

Philly Anchor Finds New York Isn't City of Sisterly Love

Alycia Lane Won't Be Getting Invited To A Gay-Pride Parade Anytime Soon

KYW-TV Anchor Alycia Lane is in hot water for allegedly ripping a New York City police officer a big one and, in the process, calling her a "dyke bitch."

I don't really have a horse in this story, but just wanted a good excuse to print her picture.

UPDATE: The Philadelphia Daily News, which broke the story of Lane's arrest, is reporting that she won't be appearing on the air anytime soon, despite the end of a three-week "vacation." That uncertainty's been enough to prompt Lane to hire a lawyer -- to salvage her professional future. Presumably, she also has one for her possible future in the criminal justice system as well.

Dates Disappear Next to Datelines at New York Times

Another Anachronism Bites The Dust

See what happens when you take a week off, and you barely look at a newspaper during a vacation?
The New York Times has dispensed with another vestige of its past, telling the date a story was filed next to the dateline, assuming it was not in New York City.
On the one hand, this tradition was quaint, given that you could assume most stories in the paper were written the day before.
But sometimes it provided the ability to boast, like when a late-breaking story from one of the Asian bureaus could make it to the late editions. Then, editors would insert the actual day as well as the date to let you know the news still had its fresh-story smell.
Dates were also kept on even when the story was several days old, especially if a correspondent had two stories in the paper that day. That way, you wouldn't have to figure out how a reporter could have researched and written stories from Omaha and Houston on the same day. Times reporters may be good, they're just not that good.
Perhaps this is a concession to free up even an eeensy bit of space since the paper slimmed down its page width earlier this year.
But it may also be another sign of bringing the paper even further into the 21st century, as when the Times also eliminated the "Special to The New York Times" bug under all out-of-city dispatches.
Indeed, the front page took another bold leap today with its front-page feature picked up from the Times-0wned International Herald-Tribune on Laotians hired by the CIA to fight during the Vietnam War who are still being hunted by the Laotian government.
The story took up four columns at the top of the fold, and took over the space on the right rail where the lead story ordinarily resides. The Times has often splashed features on A-1 during slow news days, but never at the expense of the lead.
But it was a good package with which to try something different and roast another sacred cow at a newspaper that has rigidly stuck to the same diet for too long.

Saturday Early Show on CBS In A State of Flux --- Again

Ugly Stepchild of News Division Loses Its Only Permanent Anchor -- and Ira Joe, We Hardly Knew Ye

It's not enough that the "Saturday Early Show" on CBS is in the ratings basement, which is in keeping with its weekday brethren.

The show's Web site is buried well within CBS News.com, no surprise given that the news division regards it as both an afterthought and pit stop for its anchors.

In the last year or so, Russ Mitchell (who needs his Web site bio updated) and Tracy Smith, the most recent anchors have decamped to other duties in the news division. Indeed, they are worthy of bigger and better things. But the network kind of forgot, or chose to forget, to replace Mitchell.

After a succession of guest anchors, WCBS-TV's Chris Wragge has more or less stepped into that breach, but has not been named a permanent host.

Smith was replaced in June by Maggie Rodriguez, who will now get to watch the program, as she ascends to the weekday "Early Show" to take over for the departing Hannah Storm next month.

No word on who gets Rodriguez' slot.

Then there is the curious tale of the Saturday Early Show's venerable weather reporter, Ira Joe Fisher (above), who has apparently been booted from the show, although if you drill down to the Web site, you still see him listed as being part of the team, which he has been since the show's inception in 1999.

Fisher is apparently still on the payroll, though now he is only heard doing commercial voiceovers on the weekday "Early Show."

Despite Fisher's banishment (which has irked more than a few readers of this blog), new weather guy Lonnie Quinn, also from WCBS, has not been formally anointed.

The suits at West 57th St. are extremely bullish about Quinn, whose arrival pushed WCBS weekday weather guy John Bolaris to weekends.

Bolaris took that hint, and will return to Philadelphia, where he had last worked before New York, to be the chief meteorologist at the local Fox station.

When Ratings Get In The Way of Journalism: A Cautionary Tale Out Of Boise

And We're Not Talking About Larry Craig; "This American Life" Report Shows When "Exclusive" Stories Should be Excluded From a Newscast

"This American Life" may be one of public radio's darlings, but here in New York, we have to work a little harder to join in the love fest. WNYC airs it at 4 p.m. on Sundays, when you are likely to have other things to distract you besides appointment listening on the radio.
Sure, you can get the show on podcast, but you know how those have a way of piling up.
Fortunately, I found myself in the car last Sunday when Ira Glass & Co. unfurled their streams of consciousness.
Both segments are worth catching up to, but the one I'd especially recommend is, in Glass' parlance, Act 2, a 23-minute essay that recounts how Boise TV stations decided to cover -- or not cover -- a story about how a registered sex offender was working at a city ice rink refereeing kids' hockey games.
It sounded lurid, until some reporters dug a little deeper and found the story wasn't all it was cracked up to be. But that didn't stop one station, KIVI, desperate for ratings glory, from pulling out all stops to splash the story on its newscast and, in the process, letting sloppy packages get on the air when both reporters and their bosses should have known better.
The station's news director, Scott Picken, to his credit, consented to be interviewed. Good for him, even though he isn't portrayed in a flattering light and his decision to run as hard as he did with the story is dubious at best.
Picken claims on his blog that he has not heard the piece by Thanh Tan. It's time he did. Ditto for the rest of his staff.

News Flash: Greenpeace Has A Sense of Humor

A Bunch of Assholes -- But In A Good Way

Here's one PSA you're not likely to see on the telly in the U.S. anytime soon. So, we have to leave it to the Brits to show they have a literally cheeky sense of humor when it comes to saving energy.

Impressive Oil Drilling Spread by New York Times Shows How Newspapers Can Bridge Divide Between Print and Online

Starting To Redefine The Newspaper of the Future With More Explanatory Reporting

Features have, of course, long been part of the Business Day section of The New York Times. Sometimes, they are employed to fill space during a slow news day. On other occasions, they follow up to provide crucial and intriguing angles on a story that's dominated the news.

Then there are others that simply tell a yarn worth spinning. Such is the case with today's takeout by oil reporter Jad Mouawad about tensions that stem from Royal Dutch Shell wanting to drill off Alaska's north coast, and fears by the natives about how that could jeopardize their traditions, most importantly, whaling.

Mouawad and photographer Damon Winter traveled to Barrow for a fair and thorough look at the conflict between Shell's thirst for oil and how those efforts could scare off the bowhead whales, a major source of food for the Inupiat people in those parts.

The piece takes up most of the front page of Business Day and, unusually, the section's entire back page. Seven photographs, including a gorgeous mountain shot (above) that made it to A-1, were devoted to the story, which is augmented by an online slide show narrated by Mouawad.

Yes, this is something that's becoming more de rigueur on more media sites, but here is one instance where it was carried out with a lot of thought and deliberation, not just for the sake of doing it.

As we come to rely on newspapers less and less for a look back at the previous day's top stories, such packages may be the only way for newspapers, even the Times, to offer up a value proposition for readers.

The Wall Street Journal has gradually shifted in this direction, an effort that may only be hastened if WSJ.com, as expected, becomes free and needs to differentiate itself from the bevy of other financial sites.

In the end, both readers and reporters win out. It gives us a chance to read stories we might not otherwise get to see. And it gives reporters a chance to get out of the office, away from their comfort zones and examine what's really happening on their beat.

For Mouawad, Barrow is a long way from Gray Lady HQ on Eighth Avenue, or the comfy environs of an OPEC meeting in Vienna. But he and Winter evidently relished this assignment, and its shows in the end result.

Fox's Couch Potato: Jim Knox

Maybe FSN reporter Jim Knox and his producers thought it was a good idea to try and deliver a report while leaping onto a couch.
Maybe he should rethink that decision.



What's next, Jim? Beer Pong during halftime?

Baseball Digression: No Longer Milledge Time in Flushing

Lastings Packed Off To the Nationals, Mets Make Nice Pickup in Brian Schneider and Ryan Church -- Who Could Be in Need of Some Religion in New York

At last, New York Mets Omar Minaya showed some signs of life leading up to the winter meetings, trading outfielder/showboat Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church.

Look for Schneider to be the Metsies' number-one catcher, which augurs an extremely short tenure for the recently acquired Johnny Estrada. And in Church, you've got an everyday player, reliable and solid if not spectacular.

Church, though, may have some growing up to do. Or at least get a few more clues when he gets to the Big Apple, if an incident I wrote about two years ago is any indication.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Church recalled going to a team chaplain and asking about how to view his Jewish ex-girlfriend.

"I said, like, Jewish people, they don't believe in Jesus. Does that mean they're doomed? Jon nodded, like, that's what it meant. My ex-girlfriend! I was like, man, if they only knew. Other religions don't know any better. It's up to us to spread the word."

Oy.

Church practically twisted himself trying to be contrite after his remarks were published. But that he had to do so was troubling in and of itself.

Ironically, Church will likely replace in the outfield Shawn Green -- you guessed it, a Member Of The Tribe.

Of course, all will be forgiven if he gets a few clutch hits. As the Mets showed in September, they can use plenty more of those.

ABC News Writers Throw In The Towel With New Contract, And Maybe Throw Away Their Future In The Process

Deal Could Make it Even Harder for CBS Staffers Represented By The Writers Guild To Get A Decent Contract Without Striking

First things first. In another life, I was a shop steward for the Writers Guild of America East while working at CBS News. I helped negotiate two contracts, including the one that's remained in force because the WGA and CBS have been at loggerheads since 2005 over a new deal. And I am still a WGA member, though my status is inactive.
So, it's from first-hand experience that I can state unequivocally that the deal agreed to by ABC News staffers represented by the WGA has a big stink, no matter how the union spins it.
The 250-person bargaining unit has been without a contract since Jan. 31, 2005. Like CBS, ABC was in no hurry to change that. Make no doubt about it, the network got the better of the deal. By far.
At first glance, it doesn't seem that way. There will be annual raises of 3.5 percent, and a one-time $3,700 bonus. Sounds good, except when you do the math and realize that's about 60 percent of the pay staffers have missed out on by not getting annual raises since 2005.
But then come the real concessions. First, the WGA gives up an hour when staffers could be paid a 15 percent bonus for working late at night.
Then come two whoppers: first, the Guild agreed to a reduced payment for when staffers are asked to work a full shift without a lunch hour, which amounts to a pay cut. Editors and writers who have such shifts over the course of a week could lose $5,000-$6,000 annually, more than eating away any salary increase.
Most egregious is agreeing to a two-tier wage scale that would pay new employees at a lower rate if they work in operations, i.e. those who do the interviews and edit the sound you hear on radio newscasts.
CBS Guild members have always viewed the time-and-a-half paid for the no-lunch hour as sacrosanct, even though the company always puts it on the table every three years. It's no longer regarded as the basis for a serious discussion. That the ABC unit would even broach the subject is unfathomable.
Similarly, CBS is demanding a two-tier wage scale, where employees at its local radio stations covered by the contract to have smaller pay increases. That has bogged down talks, precisely because it is one of those Pandora's Box clauses that could mushroom into something more onerous down the line.
But the ABC Guild members are on the verge of creating their version of Animal Farm -- yes, you're all entitled to be represented by the union. No, you're not entitled to all be paid the same, even when you're doing the same job.
CBS negotiators must be giddy over what ABC has wrought. You can practically hear them screaming in unison "Me, too." They smell weakness. The CBS unionistas must prove them wrong.
WGA contracts at ABC and CBS have been rife with concessions over the years, as the networks and the unions adjusted to changing market conditions. But the existing contracts have no fat left. So, it's inexplicable that the ABC rank-and-file would choose to get a cleaver and whack at the muscle.
Plain and simple, this is a bad contract, setting the table for future agreements that will only be worse.
By not taking more aggressive steps to reach a more-equitable agreement and essentially hand the network a large cash windfall, the ABC negotiating committee has made one thing easy for its members -- voting no on this debacle.
This was a deal made out of desperation. Common sense, courage and a firm resolve had long since left the building.