Archive for May, 2009

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WSJ Ignoring Advertiser&;s IllegalBehavior?

May 28, 2009

Is the editorial side of the Wall Street Journal ignoring illegal behavior by LifeLock, one of the few full-page advertisers it can claim these days?  (LifeLock is best known for its CEO putting his social security number on display as a hacker&;s delight.) A judge recently ruled that LifeLock&;s fraud alert service is illegal.  But you wouldn&;t know it from the WSJ. which missed much about the financial crisis and where the often-porous &;Chinese wall&; between editorial and advertising appears to have been breached again.

Tags:Chinese-wall, LifeLock, Wall-Street-Journal Posted in Wall-Street-Journal | Leave a Comment &;

Life Magazine Visions ofYesterday

May 27, 2009

Cleaning my office, I&;m slowly going through a mound of obsolete papers (aren&;t they all obsolete?), my very own time capsule.  The cover is gone, but it&;s instructive to look at a 1989 Life magazine.  Although the theme is &;Visions of Tomorrow&;, it tells much more about yesterday. First, there was a Life magazine.  It&;s had many incarnations, but I don&;t see it coming back no more.  Maybe on the Web&;but that&;s not the same thing, is it? Second,  it was a time of abundance;  the magazine was printed in full color, 12&; x 10&; format, and the issue was nearly a half inch thick.  Four pages of Oldsmobile ads helped make it possible. Third, they were right about many things, such as  &;replaceable you&;, on switching body parts, and noting &;drivers will avoid gridlock by checking their routes on a computer&;dashobard navigation system&;&;  There&;s the usual prediction that tourists can book flights to Mars (this time by 2050).  What they predicted: the death of typewriters.  What they didnt&; predict:  a future without Life Magazine. and probably the death of all magazines.

Tags:death-of-magazines, death-of-print, futurism, Life-magazine Posted in death-of-magazines | Leave a Comment &;

LA Times: John Lennon Buying in HancockPark

May 25, 2009

No, it&;s not a descent into the world of the Weekly World News, merely a copyediting error in Hot Property  (below.)  In other words, not deliberate, just incompetent. When does the newspaper as public trust become a public joke? Hot Property

&;Reno 911&; actor John Lennon buys Hancock Park-area house for $2,175,000. Hot property photos

Tags:death-of-copyediting, John-Lennon, Los-Angeles-Times, Reno-911, sloppy-journalism, tabloid-journalism Posted in copyediting, death-of-newspapers, tabloid-journalism | 1 Comment &;

Cartoonists Squeezed by NewspaperDemise

May 25, 2009

Lalo Alcaraz Lalo Alcaraz did the above cartoon about cartoonists being squeezed out of newspapers.  As a freelance writer struggling to [continue to] find paying work, I hear you, man.

Tags:Cartooning, death-of-newspapers, death-of-print, freelancing Posted in death-of-newspapers | Leave a Comment &;

Drew Peterson, ManiacCop

May 22, 2009

&;I guess I should have returned those library books,&; laughed accused double wife murderer Drew Peterson.  He nodded at his handcuffs and added, &;How do you like my bling?&; The humor of a maniac cop.

Tags:Drew-Peterson, Maniac-Cop, Peterson-murderer, tabloid-journalism Posted in crime-and-punishment | Leave a Comment &;

Diary of Reggie, Alligator at Large, Entry

May 21, 2009

Oh my droogies, it has been a while between posting, but my WiFi access in this stinking zoo pond is, shall we say, intermittent. While I&;m online, I must warn you about an insidious threat to alligators everywhere: chicken.  Superman has kryptonite, we have chicken.  They play upon our weakness to capture us.  Just as I was lured, brother Texas gator was thrown in the pit of iniquity, brought down by the scent of a chicken, that he was not even allowed to eat!  Now he lingers in a wildlife facility, held for &;rehabilitation&;.  For what? The crime of alligatorhood? And in our Florida homeland, a young brother was broomed by a beast for smelling her cooking.  No chicken for him&;but at least he got a nice big bite of redneck.

Tags:alligators-and-chicken, kryptonite-for-alligators, Reggie-the-alligator Posted in alligators, animals-in-the-news, Reggie-the-alligator | Leave a Comment &;

Bye-bye BlackCard

May 19, 2009

I just shredded an &;exclusive&; invitation from Visa to accept their Black Card.  They insisted it was the card (made of highly desirable carbon graphite! limited to 1% of the population!) that would get you noticed.  But what I noticed was the $495 annual fee.

Tags:Black-Card, consumer-beware, credit-cards, Visa Posted in Consumer-Finance | 2 Comments &;

Obama Picks Jon Huntsman as Ambassador toChina

May 16, 2009

As something of a China hand myself, I applaud this bipartisan selection to one of the most important U.S. ambassadorships.  And congratulations to Politico, who beat both CNN and the Washington Post to the story and apparently even the news conference. It goes without saying that the appointment puts one of the GOP&;s rising stars far away and presumably unable to build a campaign organization But Huntsman will gain valuable experience in dealing with a rigid, calcified party bent on ideological purity&;the Republicans  Chinese Communists.

Tags:Barack-Obama, Chinese-politics, Jon-Huntsman, Politics, U.S.-politics Posted in CNN, Politics, Washington-Post | Leave a Comment &;

Pfizer Makes Hard Times HappyTimes

May 14, 2009

Just because you&;re out of a job doesn&;t mean you have to give up sex.  That&;s right, among the drugs Pfizer is offering free to the jobless is Viagra.

Tags:Pfizer Posted in publicity-stunts, Sex and Society | Leave a Comment &;

PR Pros and PressLists

May 13, 2009

For public relations pros, their press contacts are one of their most valuable assets.  Yet in packing up my office today, I threw out dozens of press lists and threw out an old Bacon&;s.  Why? Because:

Multimedia Systems Design, Network Magazine Electronic News Electronic Buyers News Internet Week PC World InfoWorld and the rest have been trashed, and their editors and writers with them.

Another thing I threw out: a note from a client on &;Long lead publications with a two to four month lead time. &;  The web has killed that concept too. It makes keeping that press list constantly updated a challenge, but a challenge that&;s more important now than ever.  Then there&;s the question of who is actually a reporter or editor these days&; Being inclusive is best.  I admired an old client who always treated the press equally, even the guys who&;d make up their own newsletter so they&;d be &;legit.&;  Unlike many PR pros who obsessively make and police A, B and C lists, he understood that today&;s C-lister could be tomorrow&;s Perez Hilton.

Tags:changing-media, death-of-long-lead-publications, Perez-Hilton, PR-tactics, press-lists Posted in Public Relations | Leave a Comment &;

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