Update: MSNBC does have its very own terrible stupid sportsbar to broadcast from Denver in. Though we're not sure if they tricked it out like CNN and Fox did theirs. "Morning Joe" was live today from a place called "Sam's No. 3 Grill and Bar." It is a "USA Mexi Grill and Bar" that serves "comfort food with an attitude." UGGGHH. We put a stupid video of this after the jump because why not. It takes place at a strip club so click!! [Observer]
It's time for the Democratic National Convention in lovely, boring Denver! Are you psyched? Journalists are! Because they're going to be drunk for a week, thousands of miles from home! Just two of the many venues in which hardworking journalists will be getting their drink on the over the next few days are the bars taken over by the cable news networks. Fox's hip FOX Experience and the down-home CNN Grill. Which one looks more like the worst possible place you could ever get drunk? Let's see!
The most commonly misspelled word in the English language is "supersede," according to some survey quoted in London's Daily Telegraph, which opines that perhaps the root of our most common misspellings is simply that some people are too "clever." Ummmm, if by clever you mean American…colour me impressed! [But click for evidence that, on this matter at least, those clever Brits have not "superceded" us yet.]
It's about time that the paper of record started covering the happenings in McCarren park, the ragged dirt patch that is home to the Brooklyn Hipster Kickball League, that den of sociological intrigue so ably chronicled by our own Sheila McClear. What with the legal drama and fundamental instances of human love associated with the hipster kickballers, it's no stretch to say that they are the demographic group most worthy of media coverage in NYC or anywhere else. But in an article today that is lightly reported to a comical degree, the Times attempts to deny the BHKL-ers their rightful place at the top of our minds!: As you would expect, the reporter starts off the article by telling you that she has been in Williamsburg for a decade-way before all these gentrifiers got here. But in her discussion of McCarren Park and the accompanying photo slide show, the kickballers receive only a passing mention in a photo caption! Instead, the reporter's single source for the story of the park's rich variety is a 64-year-old Ecuadorean hot dog vendor. What does she know about Bloc Party? Sheesh. [NYT. Note to hipsters: the last McCarren Pool Party is today and I walked by earlier, and there is no way you're getting into that motherfucker. Seriously, take up basketball instead.]
Ha ha, the New York Times ran a story about how all Brits are drunken louts and when they go on vacations to Greece they fight and vomit and drink and cuss and cross-dress so much that Crete is like, wanting to ban British citizens altogether. Ha, unruly people. But for Times reporter Sarah Lyall, all this drunken madness coverage is familiar territory. We must ask, in all seriousness: has Sarah Lyall spent her entire career on the "Drunk-ass English people" beat? Look at this: NYT stories by Sarah Lyall, a selection: 6/2/06 "It's Springtime for Soccer, And For Rowdy England Fans" 1/11/06 "Ever Since Falstaff, Getting Sloshed Is Cricket" 7/22/04 "British Worry That Drinking Has Gotten Out of Hand" 9/2/02 "What is it About British Men? Cheap, Drunk, and Stiff-Lipped." 5/1/00 "Later Pub Hours? Europe Tells Britain It's Time." There's more!
A Wisconsin couple bought four lottery tickets-all with the same numbers, for the same drawing-and won. AP headline: "Wisconsin couple each hit lottery - twice." Same story on WNBC.com, headline: "Has Couple Found Formula To Win Lottery?" Same story on Drudge, headline: "Couple Finds Formula To Win Lottery; Rakes In $700K This Week!" This is why America is losing.
New York Post sportswriter George King just can't get enough spanking! A tipster with plenty of time on his hands went back through King's baseball coverage and found that he takes every available opportunity to relate how the Yankees or Mets were "spanked." It's his favorite word! Just today King wrote about the "14-3 spanking administered by the Blue Jays." But that's just the beginning of his spankfest:
Yesterday we wrote about the redemption of Scott Beauchamp, The New Republic's discredited "Baghdad Diarist" whose missives about running over dogs and mocking mutilated women were semi-retracted by the magazine after a right wing shitshow. Today we are back with two clarifications courtesy Beauchamp belle Elspeth Reeve, who you'll recall is not only the wife of the young soldier, but also his fact-checker. The first is that a lot of Beauchamp's details about his fellow soldiers' coarse behavior might seem more credible in light of the fact that as our buddy Leon pointed out a few weeks ago it is Beauchamp's army company that produced those four soldiers charged with conspiracy to commit murder. And clarification #2 has to do with my suggestion that TNR editor Frank Foer retracted the columns because he was "fundamentally a pussy." Reeve pointed out that some TNR editors are actually somewhat badass!While Reeve pointed out that there was "indeed a disconnect" between Scott and his editors at the magazine — when Scott would be two hours late for a scheduled conference call because, say, his friend had driven his Bradley into a canal and he had to pull him out, Foer would panic and be "like, 'OH MY GOD WHERE WERE YOU?!?!'" — she says that the editors did their very best to communicate with her broad-shouldered beau "on his level." How'd they accomplish this? In emails and IMs with their soldier correspondent, she explains, they littered their exchanges with phrases like "yeah man" and "fuck that d-bag" and also "we're gonna nail that guy's balls to the wall." In addition, says Reeve, one editor revealed to her husband — and also, the TNR office — that he had come "thisclose" to joining the Marines 10 years earlier. (Another ex-TNR staffer, corroborating this story, added that this particular editor, is also "given to wearing" motorcycle boots along with jeans and french-cuffed shirts to work.) Another editor told Reeve he "very seriously considered joining the IDF" right after high school, but didn't because he "knew someone like Ariel Sharon could be elected." (Hey guy: Marty Peretz resembles that remark!) Reeve added that she is considering pursuing a graduate degree for which she will write a thesis about "manliness and how it ruins everything." How Soccer Explains The World: An Unlikely Theory Of Globalization
Former LA Times editor Andres Martinez's new lawsuit is a sad story of betrayal that should convince any journalist never to date a publicist, unless she can somehow find one who is not crafty and constantly scheming to leverage the relationship. Martinez left his job editing the editorial page amid scandal. He tried to have film producer Brian Grazer guest edit his section even though his girlfriend Kelly Mullens was flacking for Grazer. Dirty and stupid and unethical, right? Well, hold one one second: Martinez says in his suit that Mullens promised him she had recused herself from working with Grazer, a client of her firm, at least on this one project. This turned out to be an awful awful lie. Writes Matt Belloni at the Hollywood Reporter:
A Columbia grad student using Philadelphia newspapers as a lens through which to view the collapse of the industry has reached a startling realization: the whole time the (once-respected!) Philadelphia Inquirer and (once slightly less respected) (I can say that because I used to work there!) Philadelphia Daily News were grappling with declining circulation and unending job cuts, someone was making a lot of money off that! (Most notably this guy and a few south Floridian clients.) In fact, the smaller the newsroom staff got, the higher profit margins soared! By 2000 margins reached 19%. So then-owner Knight-Ridder cut some more jobs and got even higher!Yes well that is how this "market" thing works, folks. Though the commenters don't have to think it's fair! It sounds like "Reaganomics," they say. ("Also known as neo-liberalism.") On the other hand, as Inquirer business reporter Joe DiStefano points out. all the money former Knight-Ridder CEO Tony Ridder made certainly makes him look a lot smarter than any of his journalists wanted to give him credit for back when they were complaining about his stupid business strategies! Which brings up an important point: if anything good comes of the death of print journalism — no seriously, fuck trees — maybe it will be that more journalists finally grasp basic market principles. The grad student writes:
So. Yesterday, Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones died. And just about every news outlet you can think of reported as much. Fine so far, right? Except that when they all reported it, she wasn't dead. And then once everyone corrected, she died, for real. It was all pretty macabre. CJR tries to explain the whole weird incident with another criticism of media practices-anonymous sources and me-tooism or something. What no one (we think?) has pointed out is that the news probably came from her own staff ("Based on information from a reliable Democratic source and stories from other news outlets..."). Which is a pretty unimpeachable source! Until it turned out that they were wrong about their own boss's death. And then they weren't, a bit later. Awkward. [CJR]
Emily Brill, the daughter of media mogul Steve Brill and the "hardest" "working" heiress on the interwebs, is simply exhausted! Commenters made some snide remarks about her latest blog post on the edgy, underground world of rich kids trading their meds with each other. You anonymous online detractors just don't understand the drama of Emily's life. Try to imagine surviving her grueling schedule-the nonstop stress of being a professional blogger. Narrate for us, Ms. Brill:
Something called the Project for Excellence in Journalism has just completed a decade-long study on local television in America. You may be shocked to hear that this study, conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, found that people wanted more excellence in their journalism! According to their report, "the more local TV invests in quality reporting, the bigger its audience tends to be." Oh, "quality reporting" apparently does not mean "crime news and celebrity news," though where on the spectrum skateboarding dogs or tanning bed-related health scares is not specified. Hey, wouldn't you know, their methodology is flawed. As CJR notes, the study's claim that "hard news with high journalistic standards attracts viewers" doesn't take into account the cost of quality journalism, which may outweigh the benefit in audience size. Also, there is the correlation versus causation conundrum that (ironically!!!) bedevils pretty much all local tv "reporting" on "health" and "science." Like, maybe networks with large audiences and therefore high revenue can afford to do more and better reporting! And if their ratings drop they cut the budget and then can not longer afford real reporting. But the Project for Excellence in Journalism wishes very much that there was actually a market for Excellence in Journalism. Maybe there is! People always say they want better news. People also say they hate negative campaign ads. People also say they're totally going to eat better and work out.
Here's the Washington Post accidentally reporting a Congresswoman's death four hours before it actually happened. Whoops! Guess they got burned by their "Democratic source." So did the Associated Press. The Post is the paper that so distrusted the National Enquirer's reporting it refused to even discuss John Edwards' affairs in its pages. The AP is the news service whose "trusted, authoritative voice" would set it apart in "a realm in which gossip and innuendo abound." Both publications are arrogant and stupid, but points to AP for writing a story about its arrogance and stupidity instead of trying to blame the Cleveland Plain Dealer like the Post did, The End. [AP]
Josh Wolf is a blogger who spent 226 days in jail for refusing to hand over his footage of a San Francisco anarchist protest in which a police officer was injured. That's because not handing over evidence like that is contempt of court, which we know thanks to the case of Judith Miller and that glamorous spy lady. But at the time Josh did not get as much credit from the "mainstream media" because he was just a blogger, and also possibly someone who hangs out with anarchists, and with the exception of Mumia Abu Jamal journalists generally try to avoid anarchists. Anyhow, Josh is now a free man, and get this…part of the mainstream media! Which is to say, he is a Real Mainsteam Journalists. And he has a message for his critics, according to the San Francisco Chronicle: "If the haters who said I wasn't a real journalist, are still lurking, I hope you don't have too much indigestion after eating your words." Ha ha yeah, Corrections. We'll let you grab a Nexium before we share the details of his important new gig.He is a cub reporter for the Palo Alto Daily Post. (We'd link, but it doesn't maintain a website!)
The supposedly liberal news media hired talking heads like George Stephanopoulos and James Carville from Bill Clinton's presidential administration, but they were even more eager to Hoover up "talent" from the conservative Bush White House two elections later. In the image at left, our Photoshop wizard Steve Dressler shows which top Bush staffers have landed job as commentators, and with whom. Hint: It's not just Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page hiring these Republican operatives. Click through to see the full-sized image.
After frequent guest and guest-host appearances on Keith Olbermann's left-leaning Countdown, political commentator Rachel Maddow will get her own MSNBC show as everyone predicted, replacing Dan Abrams' Verdict 9 pm weeknights. The Times' Brian Stelter writes that "Ms. Maddow will almost certainly be a closer ideological fit with Mr. Olbermann's," reinforcing our earlier point that, despite its protestations, MSNBC will inevitably become basically the Fox News of the left as it moves to hold on to the young viewers Olbermann has attracted. Judging by the comments attached to Stelter's blog post, this should be a popular decision. Maddow, at least, is un-Fox-like in one way: She hasn't been afraid to smack down her MSNBC colleagues. After the jump, no fewer than three videos of Maddow doing so, with Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan.
Weightlifting is a relatively obscure sport. But all the intellectual media types love Olympic weightlifting! Slate! The Times! And more of the Times! Today we applaud German Matthias Steiner, who became the World's Strongest Man with a clean and jerk of 569 pounds and a snatch of 447 pounds. By comparison, I once permanently injured my shoulder snatching a 50 pound dumbbell. Which is to say, the media is scared of being beaten up.
Ha ha ha, the nation's second largest newspaper made an embarrassing basic tech fuckup! In an email to subscribers this afternoon, the Wall Street Journal included one of its signature market-moving stock market columns, published at 5:04 p.m. Wait, but they usually embargo "Heard On The Street" until morning! Well, it's pretty clear from the headline, "TEST TEST Duke Hits A Ditch," that the story wasn't quite ready for the proverbial prime time! But the subhead is clearly written: "The troubles at Duke are mounting. Is it too early to buy?" Did the Journal just send lucky subscribers a sneak preview of tomorrow's advice?Um, judging from this here chart, Duke's troubles started "mounting" awhile ago. But from what I hear of morale over at the Journal these days you could probably find another financial reporter willing to tip you off every day for about thirty grand. Just remember, cubs, you aren't allowed to profit off the confessional memoir when you do that so… probs better off just getting into crack.
