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Showing posts from June, 2007

The Lede To Beat

From the tuaw.com liveblog at the iPhone line at the 5th Avenue (NYC) Apple store: 4:18. The line goes back to Madison Avenue, all the way around to FAO Schwartz. Stretching from one expensive toy store to another.

What's Your Name Again, Honey?

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P ut aside the considerations about free speech and commercial political speech. Recognize that there are no losers when enemies from opposite ends of the political spectrum mud wrestle. By the way, the clearest winner is always the feral beast , of course. Score one for MSNBC , which cracked the Ann Coulter lightning and stole a lot of thunder from CNN's get of that other tabloidly blond . The question is: will you have any impact when you "politely ask" a leopard to change her spots? Should you even bother? (remember, we're putting aside commercial political speech. It always make sense to raise money by demonizing your enemies.) The best-case scenario for accountability zealotry is that everyone will then know Coulter for what she is. Trouble is, her fans already know, and love it. We Can't All Get Along? OK. Some people can't be ignored because of the damage they may do. But Elizabeth Edwards v. Ann Coulter isn't Joseph Welch v. Joe McCarthy. Reuters

What Am I Missing Here?

J eff Jarvis makes note of the new AOL news , now in beta, which takes on a blog format. Not a big deal, he says. Not news. "Can we stipulate that the blog tool is just a publishing too and it's not news when somebody uses it," he says. Before we get too excited, or not excited enough, remember that the purpose of a news site is to inform, not to make sure we all get along or participate in some kind of social experiment about equality. Seconds before this writing AOL News fills its page with the news — from just after midnight, though updated 20 minutes ago — that Paris Hilton has been released from jail. It assures me about the importance of this event by placing it under a banner that says: “Top Stories Right Now” (I digress, but isn’t the “Right Now” part redundant, This is news, and it isn’t good a little shout of unneeded emphasis that tries to convince me of something we both know isn’t true?) And yes, I see on AOL the tiny list of “latest headlines” to the right

Power, Abused

O urs is a nation of spectacular ironies. The greatest democracy on Earth, the greatest democracy ever, anywhere, does not directly elect its president, gives its vice president virtually no constitutional responsibilities and leaves it to the three branches to work out any differences in opinion about where the lines are drawn. One of the greatest strengths of our republic, and potentially one of the greatest weaknesses, is the freedom we have to do what want, more or less. Oh sure, there are laws and conventions and politeness but it is in our DNA to be "free." I cannot possibly relate, born and bred on these shores as I am, but it must be this, above everything except perhaps the near certainty to make a living wage, that makes this nation a magnet for people from just about everywhere else. We are a laissez-faire society, built on a covenant that we each will exercise an appropriate level of self restraint. Whatever that is. The president has awesome power, we learn in el

Is Paris (or Rome) Burning?

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T he New York Times' Bill Carter has done some amazing reporting in the past few days on the fits, starts and apparent dead stop of ABC and NBC to get the first post-jail interview with Paris Hilton. The Hilton family has been portrayed as prostituting their celebutante daughter (imagine that), with a hefty cash offer from network #1 only emboldening them to squeeze network #2 for more. This one jumped off the rails quickly. The $100,000 ABC was reportedly willing to pay was used to try to negotiate a much larger payday from NBC, which even gave the potential Paris interview a code name -- Rome -- to thwart enemy code-breakers. But even some insiders have had enough: TV Newser has a picture of a very professional sign displayed at the Today/GMA softball game that said: "For $1 million, we'll let you win!" (Today beat GMA 8-7, and there are no reports of money changing hands apart, perhaps, from a few side bets or victory rounds at the bar). This is an moment-in-tim

Free Scooter?

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It's a little hard watching law-and-order types contort themselves to argue that "Scooter" Libby shouldn't do time. Talk about jury tampering. Here's a great quote from an article at The Politico : A well-connected Republican whose views have reached Bush’s inner circle said that if Libby goes to prison, "It would be seen by the religious and policy conservatives as the president abandoning his loyalty virtue for the hedonistic pleasure of political expediency." Wow. So respecting a jury verdict and enforcing existing laws -- you know, the ones movement conservatives always say are enough to deal with immigration, gun control, marriage -- is a weakness, a fix for a pol. Real men are ... loyal. Libby Has To Go To Jail A respite wouldn't upset me, with a Sword of Damocles still hanging by a thread above him. Once he's in the slammer there's much less chance he'll be inclined to cooperate. On the other hand, it is downright fun watching Pat

They've Been Polled -- And We All Know How Painful That Is

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J ay Rosen writes an amusing piece about the seemingly endless trumpeting of election polling data by the press which, he argues, substitutes for substantive reporting on issues. The " Master Narrative ," Rosen says, tends to be about who is ahead today or this minute or in that state. This narrative drives the news, fuels the pack and deprives the voting public of red meat. It's nice to know that Mitt Romney has pulled ahead in New Hampshire, seven months before the primary voting. Thanks, Bill Schneider! Let me ask you something: Who's ahead in addressing a broken health care system? It’s fascinating to realize that Hillary Clinton, a woman, is ahead among women . Thanks, Washington Post. In the race to protect the people against terrorism and maintain a free and open society, would the Post know who’s ahead? Could it possibly find out and tell us, then check back in a month or so and tell us again? There is a lot of polling and a lot of is dumped on the public, t

Tony Blair, Media Critic

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W hat a shame that Tony Blair picked the same week as OJ Simpson (and Paris Hilton , for that matter) to lecture "the media" about its priorities. Dan Rather is now sounding almost sage-like as he decries the “dumbing down” and “tarting up” of his old network’s evening news broadcast — but it's a dead heat in the sore loser department. The truth of the matter is that reporters and publishers these days are more restrained and more inclined to let facts get in the way of a good story than they were even a few generations ago. The age of yellow journalism -- when only newspapers mattered and they really were concentrated in the hands of a powerful few -- was replete with slash and burn and lies and pandering, with no transparency or empowered crowd to see right through it all. We have short memories. We are led to believe the Internet has whipped a malleable public into lowering their standards of what is news when, in my mother’s day, there were dozens of cheap, cheesy

A Rather Odd Fight

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So Dan Rather is shocked, shocked at the "dumbing down" and "tarting up" of the CBS Evening News? Courage, Dan, Courage. Rather has been at both ends of a tough transition on the anchor desk of the CBS Evening News. Walter Cronkite, who Rather replaced, wasn't pleased about being shown the door for Rather. Rather himself was the object of more scorn than perhaps any anchor in the history of television and left under a cloud over story the news division withdrew. After a year of temporary service by Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Scheiffer, Rather was officially replaced by "Today" show host Katie Couric -- whose intro is read by Cronkite, back from oblivion. Couric's numbers have been at historical lows , a distant third amnng the Bog Three with about six million viewers, sometimes fewer. Producers have more to do with what we see on the air than anchors, even when they are, as is usually the case on the networks, also managing editor of

It's All About the Perks

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"I've never craved the job of president, but I want to do some things that only a president can do." -- Fred Thompson, on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" T op 10 things that only a president can do: 10. Get down with the First Lady 9. Call anything I'm flying "Air Force One" 8. Tell Secret Service detail "no one needs to know about this, right boys?" 7. Get my very own library -- even if I don't have a library card 6. Declare war -- on my agent! 5. Get $5,000 to pose for pictures with strangers instead of paying through the nose for head shots 4. Pardon that turkey every year 3. No waiting when I get the urge to bowl 2. Suppress giggle when I tell movers to put boxes in the corner of the Oval Office And the number one thing that only a president can do: 1. Retrieve newspaper on White House driveway in my bathrobe

The Dems Settle In

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M aybe the biggest remaining problem -- besides lack of time -- is the self-consciousness of the moderating and questioning process. There were four (count'em four) people involved in the questioning tonight at the CNN Democratic debate, and their collective irrelevance (apart from network branding) was belied by a failed mic which required moderator Wolf Blitzer to re-read another reporter's inquiry off a piece of paper he was already holding, apparently for just such a contingency. Can't we just get some spelling bee champion to read these things? And what was with the "stand up, sit down" exercise at the half-way point (an opportunity to give astonishingly-equal face time to yet three more CNN talking heads as we watched the studio re-arranged on a split screen). Podiums ( and a platform for Hillary ) during the grilling by the pros, red chairs and occasional tables as the common folk took their shots -- I'm suprised the candidate didn't take off their