Wed. April 6, 2005
Human Cannonball
Very cool. Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be blasted from a cannon sculpted into a 53-foot high fist in a public ceremony in August, his widow said Tuesday. Mr. Gonzo journalist was also a gun freak, and this was one of his dying wishes. Have a blast, Hunter!
Mon. April 4, 2005
Not Again
Will this man never just LEAVE!! Please, spare us any more agony and, if you can't gracefully wither away, die. Gore TV Network to Launch in August, Google Tie-In.
Fri. March 4, 2005
Real People Aren't Welcome
So the President is getting his act together on Social Security (in a manner of speaking) and taking it on the road in a 60-day, 60-stop barnstorming tour. His advisors say they want to get Dubya in front of real people, outside the Beltway, to talk up private savings accounts. Apparently, however, real people do not include folks who don't meet the White House profile. At Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, there were no general public tickets distributed for the Bush visit.
This, IMHO, is the ultimate hypocrisy. We all know that campaign events are exquisitely stage-managed to produce the sound bites and photo ops the political operatives want to be the message of the day. And it was somewhat disconcerting when the Bush-Cheney Campaign prevented non-supporters -- those who had not contributed or volunteered -- from attending campaign rallies. (The Republican National Committee even required event-attendees to sign endorsement forms that pledged their support for the re-election of President Bush.) But now, we are talking about the President of the United States, who is supposed to represent all Americans. It is just wrong to limit the audience to sychophants, but apparently only hard-core Republican Domers get to see Dubya at old Notre Dame.
Thu. March 3, 2005
No More Gonzo, No More News
Frank Rich has a wonderful article in the New York Times lamenting the death of Hunter S. Thompson. Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here. It captures perfectly why I liked Hunter Thompson (but not Dan Rather) so much as a journalist that I named this blog after him.
Thompson was out to break the mainstream media's rules. His unruly mix of fact, opinion and masturbatory self-regard may have made him a blogger before there was an Internet, but he was a blogger who had the zeal to leave home and report firsthand and who could write great sentences that made you want to savor what he found out rather than just scroll quickly through screen after screen of minutiae and rant.
Even better is Rich's lead, namely that "memories of that best work ... only accentuate the vacuum in that cultural category we stubbornly insist on calling News. What's missing from News [today] is the news." Hunter would be proud.
Wed. February 23, 2005
It Never Rains in California
Unlike the 1972 pop song by Albert Hammond, it's not true that "it never rains in Southern California." The media is all over the story of the recent storms in Los Angeles and Orange County, what with mudslides, houses falling off cliffs and other spectacular images. Deadly S. California Storm Rages Into its 5th Day [USAToday.com]. But the truth is that February is always rainy in California -- north and south -- something Easterners simply don't understand. They see pictures of the San Gabriel mountains, snow-capped around greater L.A., and think that's what the basin looks like year-round.
In reality, February is the time to bring umbrellas, ponchos and very bright headlights. Once, when I lived in Del Mar in North San Diego County, it was so foggy in the early evening (the "marine layer" never burns off in the winter) that I could not even find an exit off the freeway.
Now it's true that these rains are much more substantial than in the past 15 years. But it always rains in the desert in the winter. Things are just backwards in California. Winters are green, summers are brown, and Republicans are moderate. Welcome to California -- do not back up, severe tire damage.
Tue. February 22, 2005
You've Come a Long Way
The story was about a significant constitutional case concerning private property rights and eminent domain before the U.S. Supreme Court. But buried in the text was the observation that with the absence of Chief Justice Rehnquist due to illness and another Justice (Stevens) missing due to a travel snafu, that "created an opportunity for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the most senior remaining justice, to become the first woman to preside over an oral argument at the court."
The significance of this moment was its relative insignificance. Meaning that 20 some years after she became the first woman on the Supreme Court, O'Connor's assumption of the presiding role at the Court was not treated as anything extraordinary. That illustrates the extraordinary social changes wrought by the women's rights movement, which began with Betty Friedan and blossomed in the late 1970s. When I was in law school (1978-81), it was the first time that women made up nearly 50% of the student body. I remember celebrating Myra Bradwell Day, named after the first woman who was admitted to the bar as an American lawyer (after unsuccessfully appealing her initial denial to the U.S. Supreme Court) in 1870. Now it's no big deal to have female lawyers, women judges and even women presiding at the Supreme Court. The same Supreme Court, mind you, that wrote about Bradwell, "The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many occupations of civil life....The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign office of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator."
Holy revolution, Batman! John Riggins, of Washgington Redskins fame, once drunkenly quipped to O'Connor "Loosen up, Sandy baby." I think it's more appropriate, now, to say -- like the old cigarette ad (or the newer Fatboy Slim CD) -- "Sandy, you've come a long way, baby."
Thu. February 17, 2005
Bloggers Don't Do It Daily
Well it's 500 posts for me at Fear & Loathing since this blog was launched in March 2003. That's an average of 1.378 days between entries, or just a little under one a day (689 days since inception). Not bad for a part-time gig slotted into the busy life of a practicing lawyer, but also not the "do it daily" ideal -- for whatever that's worth -- of the blogosphere.
Wed. February 16, 2005
Brain Dead and Starving
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush of a decision overturning his efforts to force the husband of a comatose woman -- who has been in a vegitative state for 15 years -- to continue intravenous feeding. The Christian right has taken up the case of Terry Schiavo as a cause celeb, arguing that medical miracles cannot be discounted and that removing the feeding tube would be euthanasia -- murder.
What a stupid and tragic case in which to decide the rights of individuals to die. There's no dispute that this woman expressed a clear desire not to be a vegetable. There is also no question that is what she is today, unable to move any limbs, speak, respond, acknowledge vistors, register emotions, etc. Her husband, for God's sake, is the one who after 15 years wants to end her suffering, but her evangelist parents -- backed by the state -- want to take that decision away from him.
You know, the United States has prosecuted Christian Scientists for felonies when they refused medical care, on religious grounds, for children who needed emergency treatment. That's a classic instance of the right to life and the right to freedom of religion clashing. But it's been settled for decades that the right to life includes the right to end one's life -- at least by refusing "extraordinary measures" and imposing a "do not resusicate" requirement on doctors -- if done knowingly. That's what living wills ("advance medical directives") are all about.
Too bad that Terry Schiavo was not up-to-speed on that concept on Feb. 25, 1990, when a chemical imbalance possibly triggered by an eating disorder caused her heart to stop beating and cut off oxygen to her brain. She's been brain-dead ever since and is now a pawn of religious zealots trying to impose their own view of miracles on a (rightly) reluctant husband and court system.
Sun. January 30, 2005
Little Boys
Michael Jackson says "Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court. I deserve a fair trial like every other American citizen. I will be acquitted and vindicated when the truth is told," he added. Jackson Protests Leaks, Predicts Acquittal [USAToday.com].
That's what Scott Peterson claimed, too. And this time there's no fishing alibi, because the gloved one from Neverland admitted on national television that he likes to have little boys sleep in his bed. Sadly, the next time we see this M.J. it will be when they handcuff him after his conviction for child molestation.
Posted by glenn at 03:08 PM
Wed. January 26, 2005
Liberal Bias or Alzheimer's?
Conservatives and Republicans love to rant about the supposed "liberal bias" in America media. I think it's the opposite -- that the right has so intimidated journalists that they afraid to do real reporting and point out the obvious.
Take today's story in the Washington Post about the President's new budget, which includes a record $427 billion deficit. A big part of that is another $80 billion for the Iraq war, bringing the total from 2003-2005 to $277 billion. "That $80 billion would come on top of $25 billion already appropriated for the war this year, pushing the total cost of fighting to $105 billion, up from $88 billion in 2004 and $78.6 billion in 2003." Record '05 Deficit Forecast.
That's not so bad. What is astounding, however, is that nowhere in the news story or the commentary does the Post point out that in the 2004 election debates, Bush-Cheney excoriated the Kerry-Edwards ticket for saying that the war would cost "$200 million." VP Cheney roundly chastized Edwards on October 5, 2004:
CHENEY: Well, Gwen . . . [w]ith respect to the cost, it wasn't $200 billion. You probably weren't there to vote for that. But $120 billion is, in fact, what has been allocated to Iraq. The rest of it's for Afghanistan and the global war on terror. . . . So your facts are just wrong, Senator.
Same thing in the last (October 13) presidential debate.
Well, the facts were NOT wrong. The United States spent $166.6 billion on the Iraq war in '03-'04 and is spending another $125 billion this year. That's way more than $200 billion, but no one in the "liberal" media has the cohones or gray matter to point it out. They're not biased liberals, they're forgetful cowards.
Fri. January 21, 2005
Banana Republic
Last evening on ABC's World News Tonight, commentator George F. Will said that the unprecedented security surrounding the presidential inauguration made America "look like a banana republic worried about a restive tank regiment at the edge of town. It was unworthy of the occasion." (Too bad they don't post transcripts on the ABC Web site.) It is really scary not only what 9/11 has done to liberty in America, but also that Will and I (once again) agree.
Mon. January 10, 2005
Rooney's Ass
Fox is refusing to air a commercial on the SuperBowl in which octagenarian Mickey Rooney -- in an ad for an over-the-counter cold remedy -- briefly shows his ass while in a sauna. Fox says that its "standards and development department" concluded that the commercial should be "deemed inappropriate for broadcast television." But that euphamism does nothing to disguise the simple fact that Fox is afraid of the FCC's unprincipled "indecency" campaign that started a year ago with Janet Jackson's "nipplegate" affair. That a major national broadcast television network cannot distinguish a breast from buttocks and titilation from advertisement is a sad testament to the terribly coercive media self-censorship resulting from the lack of any predictability to the FCC's politically motivated enforcement policies.
Thu. November 18, 2004
Top 500 Rock Classics
OK, so what sort of an insane "top 500" list for rock and roll would put The Eagles' Hotel California at number 49 and place The Who's My Generation -- admittedly, a masterful early rock anthem of youthful rebellion -- above their classic, powerful and clearly best piece, Baba O'Reilly? Rolling Stone Names "Top 500 Songs". And to top it all off, you can read about the list in news reports, but there's absolutely nothing on the Rolling Stone web site at all.
Rolling Stone used to be a great magazine. Since they started putting provocative sex kitten photos on the cover, however, I think Jan Weiner and company have just lost it. This list proves they're living so far in the past they don't even remember the '70s. A sad end to a once-proud legacy.
Thu. November 11, 2004
I Wasn't Kidding
Yesterday I warned that the FCC's outrageously political "indecency" campaign would result in self-censorship by broadcast networks afraid of a mercurial and unpredictable regulatory response. Well, today that fear became a reality. ABC is airing Stephen Speilberg's Oscar-winning film, Saving Private Ryan, but nearly 65 local affilates -- including in such metropolitan areas as Boston -- have refused to broadcast the film, citing the FCC. The network has shown the movie on Veterans' Day for two years, without incident, but now it's being replaced by re-runs of The Andy Griffith Show.
So the lesson is that to comply with the FCC's views on "community standards," we're now retreating to the social standards of the 1950s. Booyah, what a step backwards. It's not even "Father Knows Best," but "Washington Knows Best." Veterans groups, Sen. John McCain and even the parental organizations that complained about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" are up in arms, but once unleashed the scourge of censorship is damn hard to stop. Way to go, Mike!@!
Wed. November 10, 2004
Indecency and the Consitution
A good sound bite from your faithful author. Viacom to Take "Hard Line" Over FCC Fines [Chicago Tribune]. As I've blogged before, the blatantly political use of indecency regulation only highlights the First Amendment risks -- censorship and all that -- which are inherent in an ad hoc approach to whether risque content passers muster on the airwaves. The courts, including the Supreme Court, will be hard pressed to justify this outrageously vague and selective enforcement, let alone the entire "scarcity" doctrine under which network TV is regulated but satellite and cable programming are not. Red Lion may finally have met its match. (If I post George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" here, will Mike Powell come after me?)
Thu. October 14, 2004
Shock Jocks and Free Speech
"When Howard Stern is the nation's leading defender of the First Amendment, you know something has gone horribly wrong." That's what Brian Chin says about the FCC's indecency rules in arguing that the agency has outlived his usefulness. Buzzworthy: Fadeout for FCC? [seattlepi.com].
Well, he's right and he's wrong. What is horribly wrong is that the FCC's indecency campaign is a transparently political effort to legislate morality on a steadily declining segment -- broadcasting -- of the media market. Hence Stern's move to the satellite-radio provider Sirius to escape government censorhip. But what is perfectly right is that it has always been folks like Stern -- and Lenny Bruce and many others before him -- who pushed the envelope of political speech.
Civil liberties in America exist to protect everyone, but it is only a few bold people among us, sometimes vulgar, who actually have the nerve to test the limits of the First Amendment. America has relied on the Howard Sterns of this world for more than two centuries to maintain the principles of free speech. Like him or not, his battle with the FCC is a classic paradigm of civil liberties. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's precisely what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Wed. September 22, 2004
Costly Nipple
It's bullshit, of course, but today the FCC levied a fine on CBS and its owned-and-operated stations of $550,000 for the Janet Jackson "nipplegate" affair during the Super Bowl. TV Stations Fined for Janet Jackson Breast Flash [Reuters.com]. (You can see the not-very-indecent photo here.) So if one breast is worth half a million, how much would a Full Monty of Miss Janet cost? With her hot new bod, it's most likely very expensive -- but well worth the price.
Tue. September 7, 2004
Long Live Floppies
Like the penny, the floppy drive is hardly worth the trouble, computer makers say. Dell stopped including a floppy drive in new PCs in spring 2003, and Gateway has followed suit on some models. Floppies are available on request for $10 to $20 extra. Floppy Disk Becoming Relic of the Past [Yahoo.com].
Well, tell me something new. Apple stopped using floppy drives way back in in 1999 with the original iMac. Tiny USB drives have made floppies, Zip catridges and all sorts of external storage devices all but irrelevant. The march of technology goes on. Floppies are dead; long live floppies.
In many ways this is history repeating itself. Twenty years ago, PC users laughed at Mac users about those tiny, incompatible 3.5" floppy disks. "Still no 5.25" floppy drive." And they laughed about SCSI, which wasn't as "standard" as all those MFM and RLR drives and proprietary hard cards known in the DOS world. Eventually the Windows world embraced the 3.5" floppy. And many of the best performing PCs of only a few years ago used SCSI for best throughput, not the poky old IDE drives that had become dominant on less expensive clones.
I think they just don't like change -- especially if Apple invents it.
Sun. September 5, 2004
Lucky Man
This is the lead to an article in Xinhuanet, a Chinese online publication from the Xinhua News Agency, the official state and worldwide news agency in China.
Probably the most sympathetic, informative and human coverage of this story in any media outlet. This heart disease stuff really can and does strike without warning. Bill is indeed a lucky man. And even communists have a sense of humanity from time to time. Maybe it's the flip-side of their political cult of personality, but they do care about people in a way that the mercenaries in U.S. media don't. Most media here just wondered whether Clinton's recuperation and inability to campaign for John Kerry woud change the presidential elections. But wonder of wonders, even Dick Cheney has a heart.
Wed. August 18, 2004
24/7 Reality
David Meier writes in Fool.com about News Corp.'s announcement that it is launching a 24/7 all-reality televsion network, "I abhor the whole reality-TV concept." I just don't get it. TV is about entertainment, and reality television is about as entertaining as web-cams. Who gives a shit about a naked Richard and other losers getting "voted off the island"?
This is sick stuff. If reality TV is America, then we're all Neros watching Rome burn around us. It's a sure sign of a bankrupt society. Just that instead of barbarians at the gate, 1,600 years later we've got them on the tube.
Mon. August 16, 2004
internet Goes Down
Starting today, Wired News will no longer capitalize the "I" in internet. At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net. It's Just the 'internet' Now [Wired.com].
Wired explains that "in the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television."
I don't disagree, but changing conventions here is far more revealing than Wired lets on. While the Internet (before) was revolutionary, the internet (now) is just part of everyday life. Coupled with today's somewhat contradictory news that a majority of people still do not use internet search engines for information retrieval routinely, I think this development means that the first phase of the internet's development is well and truly over. Most pundits felt that phase ended in 2001 with the dot.com meltdown, but this small change in punctuation is actually far more significant. Or at least symbolic.
Thu. August 5, 2004
Gag the Courts
I for one am getting sick and tired of courts in this country issuing "gag orders" that prevent parties, witnesses and lawyers from talking to the press. The judge in the Kobe Bryant rape case widened his gag order yesterday to cover the victim's lawyers and colleagues of the trial lawyers. What this means is that, once again, the media will not be permitted to talk to the folks who know best what's going on in the case.
The rationale always given for these kinds of restrictions is that they are necessary to a "fair trial." Yes, trials must be fair. But if there really are people who would decide a case based on TV and media reports, then they should be kept off the jury in the first place. Every survey I have seen says that juries are extremely conscientious and almost always come up with the right result, regardless of what the media circus reports.
There's no conflict between fair trial and the First Amendment. Only between luddite judges and the First Amendment.
Fri. July 30, 2004
George Will and WMDs
Conservative pundit George Will remarkably writes today that President Bush:
At least Will is rather consistent on this point. In June 2003, just a few months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, we wrote a piece saying that the "doctrine of preemption -- the core of the president's foreign policy -- is in jeopardy" because of the "failure to find or explain the absence of weapons of mass destruction that were the necessary and sufficient justification for preemptive war."
The problem with this analysis, as I have pointed out before (in fact, around the same time that Will first took his stand), is that Bush is in fact arguing that human rights justified the war. Without WMDs and the al Qaeda threat in Iraq, all that is left to justify taking out Saddam is that he was a bad guy. Bush can't utter the words "human rights" because that would concede that his boys ginned up the intelligence to make a fake case for war, that today rests on the leftiest of all liberal justifications.
Mon. July 26, 2004
Bourne Again
It's a fast-moving drama with lots of car chases. Very entertaining. The Bourne Supremacy topped worldwide box offices this weekend, twice as big an opening as its 2002 original. Like all movies drawn from spy novels, of course, it cannot hold a candle to the book. But who cares. This one was even better than the first!
Thu. June 24, 2004
Media Concentration
Court Rejects Rules On Media Ownership [WashingtoPost.com]. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today reversed an effort by the Bush Administration to liberalize rules allowing for increased broadcast media consolidation, including common ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same market. I was privileged to argue the appeal for Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America. A big win in an important case.
Fri. May 21, 2004
Beheading Revulsion
Last weekend I found the video of Islamic terrorists decapitating American Nick Berg on the Internet, and watched it. Two Held Over Berg Beheading [ITV.com]. The video is revolting, but the rest of the world has seen it. Let's hope Islamic law, with rapid, brutal execution by stoning, is applied to these folks accused of the crime. And if not, that the US government finally begins to understand that guerrillas and insurgents fighting against an occupation army will always win in the long run.
Wed. May 5, 2004
Gore Kids TV
After teasing for a year, former VP Al Gore's new television network is going to be "an all-news network for young people," not a political channel. Gore: Cable Channel "Not Going to be a Liberal Network."
Thank goodness. I have ranted about Gore's television plans and am already tired of his (now pudgy) face back in the news. And I'm sure this will be just as much as bust with kids as was Gore's 1980s effort to censor music lyrics.
Mon. May 3, 2004
Prisoner Abuse
For all its pissing and moaning over the Geneva Convention when it suited U.S. purposes, it turns out that the Bush Administration has been covering up atrocities like torture, electrocution and sexual abuse inflicted on Iraqi prisoners of war. Headlines like these and and photos like these are filling the Arab media. This is a very bad thing and a very bad time in the world today to be an American.
Tue. April 20, 2004
Conning London
Kevin Spacey, who in my opinion is absolutely one of the best actors of the last decade, has recanted his claim of being mugged in a London park, admitting he was conned by a teenager into giving up his wireless phone. [SunTimes.com].
So Kevin, what in heaven's name are you doing walking a dog at 4:30 a.m. in Kensington Park? And how can you injure yourself by "tripping over Mini, [your] Jack Russell terrier"? Even the London tabloids are being somewhat restrained in lambasting this incredible story, saying that visting Kensington in the wee hours is a "slightly eccentric thing to do." Others point out that Spacey, who won Oscars for his work in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty, has always denied rumours that he is gay.
Frankly, I don't care either way. Just get your butt back to bed until the sun comes up, Kevin, and no more cavorting with the London pigeons in the middle of the night.
Tue. April 13, 2004
No News Conference
The president who has held fewer news conferences than any other president in the modern era goes on TV tonight to defend his Administration's handling of the Iraq reconstruction and the 9/11 attacks. Bush to Address Media Amid Iraq, Terrorism Scrutiny [CNN.com]. High stakes politics here.
Fri. April 9, 2004
The Real Political Risk
Well, Condi got rave reviews in the press, which reflects the fact that television is a medium in which how you look is more important than what you say. But the real political risk of the 9/11 Commission was unrecognized, and is far greater than the "rebut Dick Clarke" objective Rice appears to have achieved.
As Spencer Ackerman writes for the New Republic:
You can see this in arch-Republican Fred Fielding's observation to Rice that he did not see that the so-called "strutural" reforms the Bush Administration has accomplished to date -- principally the Department of Homeland Security -- are anywhere near enough. So even if the 9/11 Commission does not concude that Bush was asleep at the switch, he's got a lot of exposure here.
Shock Jocks
The post-Janet Jackson, pseudo-moralistic FCC is now fining Clear Channel Communications some $500,000 for carrying the Howard Stern show, on grounds of indecency. Clear Channel Appeases Radical Right [morons.org]. This is such crap. We're not talking even George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" here, which in the late 1970s was the basis on which the Supreme Court upheld indecency regulation in broadcasting, grounded in fear of exposure to children.
But today, with hundreds of cable and radio channels, kids are all hooked on Nickelodeon and all a listener has to do is use the remote to never be offended.
There's no reason today even for public airwaves to be regulated to the lowest (or highest) common demoninator of decency. If you don't like Howard Stern -- and I personally can't stand his schtick -- don't tune in!!
Wed. April 7, 2004
Rush Limbaugh and the ACLU
So Rush Limbaugh -- fighting a legal and poltical battle against Florida prosecutors investigating him for money laundering and doctor shopping in connection with his addiction to painkillers -- argues to an appellate court today that the government's seizure of his medial records violates his 4th Amendment constitutional right to privacy. And liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union are taking his side. (You can watch the hearing on his Web site, too.)
Thank goodness for those card-carrying ACLU pinkos when you need them, huh, Rush? Roy Black, Limbaugh's lawyer, says these are not strange bedfellows because the case is not political. Oh, but it is, it is. We've got the most prominent conservative media pundit relying on those he and his right-wing colleagues have lambasted repeatedly in the past to defend his own rights. It's entirely political; just that politics looks a little different when you are staring at a set of handcuffs and criminal prosecution. As the ACLU itself boasts, it:
Yeah, this is not a political case!! Right.
Tue. April 6, 2004
Screw Pravda
Pravda.ru, the old Soviet mouthpiece, is running an online story titled Exposing Bush the Liar, the Mass Murderer, the War Criminal. There, Timothy Barncoft-Hinchey (a Brit) writes that in Iraq, George Bush "hijacked [his] country, democracy and the world on a murderous ecstasy of assassination and destruction, just because of corporate greed."
What a fertile imagination. While it is true that the Bush Administration has given many Iraqi reconstruction contracts to supportive companies like Haliburton, there's no evidence at all that America started the War in Iraq as a commercial enterprise. Indeed, note that the old Islamist complaint that the West really wants to nationalize arabic oil wealth has proven totally false! And as far as a "mass murderer," come on, whatever the level of civilian casualties, not even the Iraqis are saying that the U.S. has intentionally targeted large civilian populations or committed genocide.
The American political right labels Democrats all the time as soft on defense and not willing to "stand up for America." Well, on these scurrilous Pravda charges, all Americans should agree that we all hang together. The United States may sometimes do bad things internationally, but it does not and has not engaged in anything like the crimes against humanity that Saddam Hussein launched against his own people. Pravda's complaints sound like Adolph Hitler charging that America ran the concentration camps. Something only psychopaths could seriously believe.
Sun. April 4, 2004
Hey Einstein!
I've been reading The Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene, an excellent overview of the advances made in modern theoretical physics over the past 50 years. All of which actually started earlier, when Einstein proved that gravity travels at the speed of light by warping the spacetime continuum, debunking Newton. (Both of whom had autism, interestingly.)
And thus my amazement at a story in today's BBC News about a long-delayed gravity probe to be deployed by NASA with the caption: "Einstein's theories about space have not been proved." Now, if that's not bad enough -- experiments decades ago proved Einstein right by measuring warping of light by the sun during solar eclipses -- but the story ran right next to a sidebar that listed other BBC articles about Einstein. And the most recent one, titled "Einstein Proved Right on Gravity," reports that "The speed of gravity has been measured for the first time, revealing that it does indeed travel at the speed of light. It means that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity has passed yet another test with flying colours."
This is far worse than an inability to master fact checking, it's plain idiotic. A writer at least has to have a basic understanding of the subject in order to write an intelligent story. The lesson must be never to accept scientific stories in the general media. But since we get political, international and business news from these same, highly respected but plainly disfunctional journalistic yo-yos, perish the thought how they are probably screwing that up blood well too.
Thu. February 19, 2004
Media Hubris
The political press should take a hard look at itself in light of William Greider's caustic critique in The Nation of the media's treatment of Howard Dean.
Fri. January 9, 2004
A Trial For Osama
Conservatives have had a great time the past month lambasting Howard Dean for suggesting that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be put on trial and that his guilt should not be presumed. Well, just so happens that President Bush himself said the same thing -- about the tyrant Saddam Hussein -- in a December 15 news conference:
You're not supposed to pre-judge.
QUESTION: Yes. I'm just counting the years.
OK, good.
QUESTION: Do you believe that the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 should be included, as well as his assassination attempt against former President Bush?
That'll all be decided by the lawyers. And I will instruct this government to make sure the system includes the Iraqi citizens and make sure the process withstands international scrutiny. But we'll let the lawyers handle all that. And, as you know, I'm not a lawyer. And I delegate. And I'm going to delegate this to the legal community which will be reviewing all of this matter.
So, where is the conservative anger when their own man makes the same "slip"? And why has the media not picked up on this, despite the Republican insistence that the media are a bunch of flaming, Democratic-leftie liberals?
Tue. January 6, 2004
Morrow Is Dead
When CBS paid Michael Jackson to do a fawning "60 Minutes" inteview, I commented that Edward R. Murrow must be turning over in his grave. Well now CBS is denying that it paid Jackson, apparently hiding behind the euphamism that having its entertainment division "sweeten" the deal for a prime-time special by $1M if Jackson did the 60 Minutes interview is not paying for the interview.
CBS Charges "Times" Printed "Colossal Lie" [USAToday.com]. "CBS shredded whatever remained of its news division's ethical standards," wrote Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times. "Checkbook journalism is a pretty dirty term, but it somehow seems inadequate to describe the arrangement. All that's missing is a wire transfer to a numbered account in the Cayman Islands." But again, a million dollars distributed from this budget or that budget doesn't necessarily taint CBS or the, uh, venerable CBS News any more than they have already tainted themselves by simply serving as Jackson's de facto marketing arm.
Maybe we should just all give up the pretense that there's anything left to journalism today. Morrow is dead and buried. He's never coming back.
Tue. December 30, 2003
Murrow Need Not Apply
Sunday night's "60 Minutes" interview with Michael Jackson was a charade, a ratings ploy with no journalistic integrity. CBS anchor Ed Bradley never challenged Jackson's story that Santa Barbara police had "manhandled" him during booking for child molestation, dislocated his shoulders, burned his arms and locked him in a bathroom covered in feces for 45 minutes. That Jackson was surrounded by his lawyers and security detail at the time never seems to have occured to Bradley. And now, CBS runs a story on its Web site-- teasingly titled Injury Claims A Sham? -- that is just too little, too late.
Instead of pandering to this whacko and pretending it was conducting an objective interview, CBS should have abandoned any pretense of having principles and given Jackson his own prime time special. Oh, they have done that was well. One month ago, CBS said airing a Jackson special would be "inappropriate," given the "gravity" of the charges" against the singer. Which we now know is just a euphemism for "after giving CBS News an exclusive interview denying all charges."
These guys have no honor, they have no pride, they have no principles. And they could certainly use some cohones. Edward R. Murrow, the iconic radio correspondent who launched CBS on its news leadership in the 1940s during WWII, would be ashamed of how his legacy has been tarnished.
Mon. December 29, 2003
Mainstream Or Warning Sign?
The Internet Becomes Mainstream. So says a Pew Research Center report, released last week, which finds that 63% of the adult U.S. population regularly uses the Internet. While Pew found "increasing reliance on the Internet in everyday life and higher expectations about the way the Internet can be used in matters both mundane and mighty," the report also warns that "[d]espite this growth in activity, the growth of the online population itself has slowed. There was almost no growth over the course of 2002 and there has been only a small uptick in recent months." And it is even more problematic that "[a]bout a quarter of Americans live lives that are quite distant from the Internet –- they have never been online, and don’t know many others who use the Internet." So while the mainstream media, like the New York Times, headlined "The Growing Web," we may actually be seeing warning signs that the Internet is reaching its peak.
Mon. December 22, 2003
Kissing Cute
So Joe Namath apparently said on the air yesterday, during a sideline interview with ESPN's Suzy Kolber, that he'd like to kiss her. That has led to some great headlines this mornning, like this one from the Indianapolis Star. Ex-Jets Great Namath's Sideline Pass is Incomplete. Could have been the drinks, since he seems to have been at least a little smashed, but if Broadway Joe thinks Suzie's cute, maybe she really does deserve a second look!!
Fri. December 19, 2003
What A Day
I was watching World News Tonight on ABC last evening, and could not help but notice the tremendous diversity and importance of the stories in the news these days. The intelligence consequences of Saddam Hussein's capture for infiltrating the Iraqi resistance (and vice-versa), two rulings by US courts declaring unconstitutional the detention of US citizens, and foreign captives at Guantanamo, as "enemy combatants" without due process, the conviction of Lee Malvo (the teenage Washington sniper) for terrorism-murder and rejection of his insanity defense, the indictment of Michael Jackson for child sexual molestation, and a new strategy of "disengagement" from the Palestinians by Israel in response to the collapse of the Bush "Road Map" to peace.
Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. December 18, 2003 may not be a day to live in infamy, but with some more like this the world is going to continue to be a very exciting -- and dangerous -- place
Thu. December 18, 2003
Warm and Fuzzies For Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain Evokes Grand Comparisons [BBCNews.com]. Eight Golden Globes, Oscar buzz and wonderful reviews. It this movie is nearly as good as the book was, it should be wonderful.
Mon. December 15, 2003
Not Done With Saddam?
Bill Safire wites today, in an op-ed piece teasingly titled From the "Spider Hole," that we're not done with Saddam Hussein yet.
I think we've seen the end of Saddam. One trial, string him up and close the books on this sorry episode in international human relations. At least I hope we're done with him. And that Saddam's not as smart as Safire.
Mon. December 8, 2003
Teach the World To Sing
Coca Cola's television commercials used to say that it "would like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony." Now, 30 years later, Coke has announced it will begin offering a digital music download service for the UK. [Reuters.com]. This time it's hardly idealistic, though, as this more recent initiative is just a belated reaction to Pepsi's deal with the Apple iTunes Music Store, in which the arch-rival soda maker will give away 100 million free song downloads. So put those love beads away and take the flowers out of your hair, people!!
Sun. December 7, 2003
Bad Boy Cat
The Universal Studios release of Mike Myers in The Cat in the Hat is quite funny. The film, which topped the USA cinema list last week, also has its share of detractors. Some, like Mary Pols of the Contra Costa Times, complain about the movie's double entendres (erections, "dirty 'hoes'" and more) and other "crude humor" that she labels "abhorrent." Others say that as a film it is just "weak and flat" or a "misguided adaptation" of the Dr. Suess story.
Well phoey on you all. I like it. Myers is as funny as in his Austin Powers series, and the "crude" humor was designed to go over the heads of little ones. My 12-year old didn't get half of the jokes anyway, but liked the film just as much as the 4-year olds in the row behind us. The movie could have used a bit more rhyme, but going from 223 words to 1 1/2 hours is a tribute in itself to the great Suess. You know, I bet they said the same things in 1934 about what The Wizard Of Oz did to L. Frank Baum's book. Get over it.
Thu. November 20, 2003
Warner-EMI Deal
IHT: Time Warner Weighs 2 Bids for Unit. This story ran today in both the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times, quoting me on the antitrust viability of an acquisition of EMI by Warner Music.
Wed. November 5, 2003
Not A Bad Sound Bite
The press stories on yesterday's appellate arguments in the Microsoft antitrust case focused on snippets from the main actors -- Robert Bork for CCIA and SIIA and Brad Smith for Microsoft -- but I managed to land one sound bite of my own. I think it captures what the appeals court will be grappling with as it decides this landmark case. Microsoft Penalties: Tough Enough? [cbsnews.com]. Problem is, though, that most people, perhaps even judges included, have the impression that the case is dead and buried as a result of the government's 2001 settlement. Not true, but a hard public perception to overcome, nonetheless. As Dan Gilmore wrote,
He's right about the attention span, wrong about the "last gasp," and plainly right that the case still matters.
Mon. October 20, 2003
Nuts Even To Ask
So it seems that Caterpillar not only sued Disney but had the chutzpah to go for a TRO -- "temporary restraining order" -- trying to block release of "George of the Jungle II." The federal court today showed some sanity and denied the motion, saying that there is no sign Disney sought to "somehow poach or free ride" on Caterpillar's trademarks to drive up sales of the movie. "It is incredible for this Court to imagine a consumer’s decision to purchase Caterpillar’s primary product line of heavy machinery and equipment, costing substantial sums of money, being affected after watching this film," wrote Judge Joe Billy McDade.
Can you believe this crap? A children's comedy becomes the basis for a trademark infringement lawsuit when a manufacturer does not like the light in which its product is cast. Even Hormel never sued Monty Python for their "spam" skit. At least the judge has a sense of humor, though, describing George in his opinion as "a noble man of nature" who "possesses an unusually thick and durable cranium" and whose "speeches are admirable for their laconic directness and economy of words."
Wed. October 15, 2003
The Most Criticized Man In Washington
In an article titled "Soldier's Ethic" Guides Powell At the FCC [TechNews.com], the Washington Post calls Michael Powell -- Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission -- "the most criticized man in Washington ... faulted by Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals, feminists, gun owners, big media companies, columnists and lawyers." It is ironic that someone who professes to be so tuned in to market and technological trends can turn out to have a completely deaf ear to politics. Especially when his father, the old general and current Secretary of State, is fairly good at that as well.
Powell is pretty sharp, as when he said today in a speech to a Las Vegas trade group -- from whom he was lambasted earlier this year for accepting $85,000 in free travel perks -- that the FCC is at a major crossroads. The Telecom Act of 1996 "will break, if it isn't crumbling already, and it will need to be replaced," Powell observed. Since I wrote the same thing here, and have been making that prediction for seven years, I've just got to agree with this most perceptive public servant. :-)
What that means, of course, is that when Powell blows it and reaches a decision that makes no sense, he is fully aware that he is twisting the rules to achieve the result he wants politically. That's bad. It's doubly bad that he is oblivious to the fact that the results he is producing are politically unpalatable to most of those he is charged with pleasing! Gotta know your audience, Michael.
Wed. October 1, 2003
Gore TV Redux
As reported here three months ago, former Democratic presidential candidate -- and totally superficial, unprincipled political bore -- Al Gore is indeed committed to starting his own cable TV network. Former VP In Talks To Buy Cable News Channel [yahoonews.com].
Gore says he wants to counter the pundits on Fox and other conservative networks, but all he'll end up doing is further tarnishing the fading star of liberalism in America. Where is Ariana Huffington when we really need her? Let's have some more profiles in spinelesness with which she's lambsted the quivering cowards who make up today's Democrats. Al, we hardly need thee!!
Mon. September 15, 2003
Another One Bites the Dust
John Ritter, television comedian and star of ABC's "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter," died last week from an undetected heart ailment that caused a massive tear in his aorta. [ABCNews.com]. Also star of the 1970s-era "Three's Company" a generation ago, Ritter had a talent for delivering hilarious lines with absolutely no affect and specialized in gender-related comedy. And his comeback last year was massive. More than 25 million people tuned in to the 2002 debut of 8 Simple Rules to see Ritter's return to TV comedy. It was ABC's largest audience in the time slot with a sitcom since the debut of Roseanne in Fall '88. The network, of course, cynically says that the current show -- the top sitcom in ABC's line-up -- may not be cancelled. Well, maybe "the show must go on," but Tuesday nights will not be the same, that's for sure.
Mon. July 28, 2003
Johny English
He's dumb in the way that Peter Sellers was in the Pink Panther series, but the film Johnny English is a real side splitter. Watch out for the scene with the muscle relaxants.
Mon. July 7, 2003
Guerrillas On Page One
Today's above-the-fold story on the front page of the Washington Post says that recent developments in Iraq "raise the specter of the U.S. occupation force becoming enmeshed in a full-blown guerrilla war." The Administration is clearly in trouble when Donald Rumsfeld's denial that the U.S. is now engaged in guerrilla warfare lasts less than one week.
Thu. June 26, 2003
Who You Gonna Sue?
Wired News: Are You in RIAA's Cross Hairs? That's the question of the day, as the recording industry says it will start investigating individual Internet users who offer "substantial" amounts of music online over peer-to-peer networks then file "hundreds" of copyright infringement lawsuits beginning in August. Scare tactics, for sure. But they just may work. More than 70% of P2P users are "free riders" who share no files, and the system would break down if everyone just downloaded and blocked uploads. That's the RIAA game plan.
Thu. June 19, 2003
Tilting At P2P Windmills
Having won its case forcing Verizon to reveal the names of ISP customers, the RIAA has now sent "cease and desist" letters to five people it says are unlawfully offering copyrighted music via peer-to-peer Internet technologies. [MTV.com]
Hey, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Even MPAA, the movie industry association, has never sued individuals for taping broadcast television or DVDs. There's millions of P2P users on the Internet, and RIAA can't sue them all. What a wild goose chase they've embarked upon.
Update: Just a week after this post, RIIA announced it will starting bringing lawsuits against individuals for file sharing.
Gore TV
Al Gore is apparently mad at conservative talk show hosts and wants to start his own liberal television network. Gore, Enter Stage Left? This quip by Fox is a particularly good rejoinder:
Hey, bad enough that he's on Apple's Board of Directors. Now we're going to be bombarded with "Gore TV"? Not on my screen, Mister!
Wed. June 18, 2003
The Moose Is Loose
Moose Resigns as Montgomery Police Chief [washingtonpost.com] During the Washington sniper crisis of October 2002, Charles Moose, Mongomery County police chief, became a media star with his daily press briefings, especially his coded communications to the snipers. Then the County ethics board nixed his contract to write a book, saying it is unethical for a public employee to "profit" individually from his official duties.
What a bunch of crap. These sorts of things have been going on for decades, from Vincent Bugliosi and the Tate-Labianca (Charles Manson) murders to Marcia Clark and the O.J. Simpson trial. It's a little different from "Son of Sam" laws, that confiscate royalties earned by convicted murders on books about their crimes. And the consequence here is that the public has lost a valued career officer. Bad result.
Sun. June 15, 2003
Safire's A Closet Liberal
William Safire, New York Times op-ed columnist and erstwhile Nixon speechwriter, has weighed in against the recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission to lift caps on media concentration in America. Regulate the FCC [NYTimes.com]. I don't think this really makes him a liberal -- more likely a libertarian -- but it once again illustrates the old maxim that politics makes strange bedfellows. Another example is the current alliance between New York Sen. Charles Schumer and the Christian Coalition on an anti-spam bill. A tangled Web indeed.
Thu. May 29, 2003
Convergence Is Not News Anymore
OK, so Sprint has started replacing some of its circuit-switched local loops with newer packet-switching technology, like that used on the Internet. Sprint Begins Converting Network [InformationWeek]. But convergence between telecom and the Internet has been a reality for years. I've been representing clients and speaking on that topic since at least 1996. So there's nothing new here at all. Maybe a little in scale, but hardly a newsworthy event. Reveals the power of the Press Release, apparently.
Tue. May 27, 2003
Thriller Broke
It's gotta be hard to blow through $500 million, but Michael Jackson seems to have done it. E! Online News - King of Pop Going Bust? So he'll have to finance his plastic surgery on credit from now on. It's a shame. And shameful. A waste of what once was a real talent.
Fri. May 23, 2003
The PVR Revolution Is Real
When they burst on the scene three years ago, digital video recorders, also known as personal video recorders (PVRs), were a novelty that many said could not last. But now that TiVo has far exceeded market expectations and is aproaching cash-flow positive performance (TiVo Exceeds Estimates as Loss Narrows), there's good reason to believe that a fundamental shift is occuring in entertainment. Just as iTunes and MP3 players have changed audio from an album-based business to a playlist-based business, so too has TiVo made it possible to watch only the shows one wants when one wants to watch them. 
There's no such thing in a PVR world as "tuning in" to a particular show, as everything you want is on the hard disk. Advertisers say they don't like it, but I think that, like VCRs, this technology will increase viewership by making the broadcast schedule irrelevant. If you watch more shows because you don't need to be tied to the clock, you will inevitably watch more commercials, too.
Fri. April 11, 2003
The TV War
All War, All The Time. What began as a fascinating experiment in real-time war television turned into a lesson in repetion, drudgery and superficiality. At least until the fall of Baghdad. As New York Times critic Charles McGrath observes:
The Iraq War, in short, was basically a TV bomb!!
Fri. April 4, 2003
English.Aljazeera.net Back Up
After a week of battling hackers, a distributed denial of service attack and the cancellation of its hosting contract by Akami, the Arab satellite news network Al-Jazeera has finally gotten its english-language Web site back up.
This is really offensive. Not their coverage, which may or may not be accurate, but rather that hackers -- surely Americans -- would use their technology skills to prevent other Americans from getting news and information with other viewpoints from around the globe. We live in a pluralistic world, and whether you agree with the Iraq War or not, all Americans should decry any attempt to restrict the ability of our citizens to have free access to news and information on the Internet from any media source worldwide. Yet in spite of being mostly knocked offline, the Al Jazeera Web site of was among the most sought-after last week. So there is some intelligence in the universe after all!
Sun. March 30, 2003
Forensic Testing On Uniforms?
The first real-time televised war and the first major US combat scenario since the explosion of the Internet is having a perverse effect on American journalism.
The war in Iraq, now 11 days old, is an odd affair. Being the first real-time televised war and the first major US combat scenario since the explosion of the Internet, people can follow -- and become fixated on -- the moment-by-moment developments. There is no fundamental problem with the objectives of the war, but the degree of jingoistic nationalism pervading the American press is disturbing. CNN reported tonight on four bloodied US uniforms "discovered" in a hospital secured by US forces. It is known that wounded US soldiers were treated at the hospital, yet the uniforms are being flown to Texas for "forensic testing."
What's going on here? The obsession with American casualties is revolting. It's not a discussion of the burdens of war or the scope of casualties anticipated. It is, rather, a focus on the so-called "human" face of war. But more than that, it is a sign that the basic rationale for the war itself may be flawed. Having as yet found no evidence whatsoever of Weapons of Mass Destruction ("WMD" in war-speak), the Army is desperately searching for some telltale of war crimes with which to paint Saddam. Maybe they will find some. In the meantime, applying forensic testing to uniforms is not going to show anything, certainly nothing that Europe and the rest of the world would accept. And if even if did, why is this story now? The search for patsies has begun!