A top independent journalist looks at the good, the bad and the outrageous in the media.
Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:43:43 +0000
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/2011/03/08/reggie-the-alligator-cute-cuz-captured/
/2011/03/08/reggie-the-alligator-cute-cuz-captured/
Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:42:42 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1268
The size of a cocker spaniel? That&;s what they said about my cousin, captured in Hemet in the low-rent desert, pockmarked with a few Florida-like artificial lakes. But he didn&;t get out much; it&;s a miracle he stayed as &;healthy&; at four feet and 50 pounds as they claim he was.
They took him away and put him at &;Forever Wild&;, some kind of crazy alligator sanctuary in another desert shithole, Phelan. He&;s going to join 70!!! of our cousins there that they took out of people&;s houses. I know we&;re cute and lovable, but come on people&;we grow up to be big gators with healthy appetites! What part of that don&;t you understand?!
The sanctuary worker, Joel Almquist, said &;It wasn&;t nasty, it was very well mannered.&; Good manners are certainly native to cunning gators, buddy. And cocker spaniels are for eating, my friend, and a tasty snack they are.
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encinoman
/2011/02/03/anarchy-la-rules-again/
/2011/02/03/anarchy-la-rules-again/
Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:33:55 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1264
Our beloved LAX led the nation last year. In flights? Passengers? Revenue?
No&;in lasers pointed at aircraft! A whopping 102 reported incidents! Let&;s hear it for LA&;home of anomie, disaffection, and, like, whatever.
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encinoman
/2011/01/28/parade-plays-softball-with-queen-latifah/
/2011/01/28/parade-plays-softball-with-queen-latifah/
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:35:24 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1259
The January 2, 2011 issue of Parade featured a cover story on Queen Latifah, her life as a role model, her hosting the People&;s Choice Awards and of course a plug for her cosmetics line. What makes the 7-page (cover plus 6) story remarkable is what&;s not there&;any discussion of her personal life, beyond the vague comment that in 10 years, the 40-year old Queen expects she&;ll have &;a couple of kids under my belt&;&;
Latifah is widely believed to be a lesbian, not even that deep in the closet. She&;s been photographed hugging her reputed long-time girlfriend.
So why didn&;t Parade ask her about her personal life&;the readers would certainly like to know. Was it a ground rule established by Latifah&;s &;camp&;&;no questions about the &;L&; word? Or a cowardly editorial decision by Parade&;not to ask in return for access? Would women stop buying her cosmetics if they thought Latifah was gay?
More importantly, did both underestimate their audience? Americans have shown they can &;embrace&; gay stars like Ellen DeGeneres and Elton John, or gay heroes like Daniel Hernandez. Latifah isn&;t a leading lady with romantic roles &;in danger&; if she comes out (a fear that&;s reputed to keep leading men like John Travolta and Tom Cruise in the closet) so why the fear?
It all reminds me of how the Enquirer and its ilk used to play ball with Rock Hudson, despite its muckraking reputation. For almost 30 years, the tabs, the studio and Hudson&;s people manufactured stories about his &;latest romance&; (with women) to keep the readers happy, no gay revelation that would shatter reader illusions and kill the cash cow.
Everyone played ball&;until AIDS brought out the inconvenient truth.
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encinoman
/2010/12/24/publish-and-be-damned/
/2010/12/24/publish-and-be-damned/
Fri, 24 Dec 2010 19:27:18 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1239
&;Publish and be damned!&;
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, when courtesan Harriette Wilson threatened to publish her memoirs and his letters
Yes, it&;s funny that Bank of America bought up more than 400 &;derog&; (to put it in credit scoring terms) domain names. And yes, it&;s funnier that they can&;t get them all, like this one or &;BrianTMoynihanWetsTheBed.com.&; Like the proverbial broken clock that&;s right twice a day, even Henry Blodget (who probably belongs in jail, not influencing investors ) rightfully heaps abuse upon the hapless guardians of Bank of America&;s &;reputation.&;
But it&;s also sad, too, that Bank of America executives, who in any case seem to be running a single-minded bad publicity campaign (taking this person&;s bird and the ashes of this one&;s husband), are quaking in their non-Wellington boots at the threat of a WikiLeaks document dump.
We know what the Duke of Wellington would have said to this third-rate Die Hard villain (if he didn&;t challenge Julian Assange to a duel first). Bank of America clearly doesn&;t believe in the success of its own campaign to win back the hearts, minds and wallets of American consumers.
Otherwise, they would have told Assange &;Publish and be damned.&;
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encinoman
/2010/11/20/somewhere-osama-bin-ladin-is-laughing-his-ass-off/
/2010/11/20/somewhere-osama-bin-ladin-is-laughing-his-ass-off/
Sat, 20 Nov 2010 17:06:59 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1237
For years, the idea of &;flying naked&; to show security folks you weren&;t a terrorist was a joke. It&;s not a joke anymore, as the TSA (and more importantly, the political powers above them) feels justified in invasive search, groping and near-sexual assault to &;prove&; passengers aren&;t carrying bombs stuffed up their body cavities.
I&;m no Sarah Palin fan, but this tweet &;TSA: it’s politically incorrect 2 “profile” anyone when natl second is issue?We profile individuals/suspects in other situations!Profile away&; actually seems right on.
Asking people questions and watching their reactions seems much more sensible (and works for the Israelis) rather than what Bruce Schneir calls &;security theatre.&;
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encinoman
/2010/06/14/joan-rivers-is-not-77/
/2010/06/14/joan-rivers-is-not-77/
Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:26:46 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1227
Last week, according to the local &;paper of record&;, the LA Times, on June 8, &;Joan Rivers turned 77, an age that makes her shudder. After all, for years, the comedian has put a lot of money and effort into trying to look younger.&;
Certainly the latter half of this statement is all too demonstrably true, as Rivers has in her campaign to not become Phyllis Diller became the poster child for repeated plastic surgery. But along with erasing lines, Rivers has erased her birthdate&;and the Times is complicit with this.
For Joan Rivers to be 77, she would have been born in 1933. This would mean she wasn&;t quite 21 when she graduated from Barnard College in NY in May of 1954. This is barely possible, but unlikely, especially as she was a transfer student.
More than 15 years ago, when I was employed by the National Enquirer, I did a &;clip job&; on Rivers, going through printed clips on her at AMPAS, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library in Beverly Hills.
According to these aged clips, Joan was actually born in 1931, meaning she is now in her 8oth year, a prospect she no doubt finds far more insufferable than &;turning&; 77 (again).
I have to hand it to her; she&;s worked really hard to get the later date out for years, and short of pulling her birth certificate a la &;Kenyan alien&; Barack Obama, it&;s hard to prove.
Does it matter if a woman shaves a couple of years off her age? Probably not; I know someone who&;s half-seriously attempting to shave 9 years off hers. What&;s not OK is for the Times to just print it. What ever happens to &;If your mother says she loves you, check it out?&;
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encinoman
Joan Rivers Tickets
/2010/06/11/1220/
/2010/06/11/1220/
Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:27:44 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1220
Gary Scott reports that the LA Times, after three years, is actually bringing back the Television Times weekly listing section. Cutting it was yet another bad decision for the Times, as with a universe of hundreds of channels broadcasting 24 hours a day, (and no Cable Guide for your $100 a month) one has little ability to determine what one wants to watch or record days ahead.
The Times seems to have realized that telling readers to create and print out their own listings was a non-starter.
The impenetrable prose of the press release claims that starting June 13, in a &;tiered roll out,&;&;newstand and eventually subscription readers (wrong order of things, Times) will get a &;44-page tabloid section&;with 24-hour daily grid listings spanning morning, afternoon, primetime and late-night programming, four pages of alphabetized TV/cable/satellite movie listings, a full-page cover story, a TV-related crossword puzzle, episode highlights and synopses, and a dedicated sports programming page.&;
Did they admit they made a mistake when they killed the section 3 years ago and left thousands of angry subscribers? Nah&;
But then, the barely alive print TV Guide apparently had to be shamed into putting back the daytime (&;I want my stories!&;) listings, so stupidity loves company.
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encinoman
/2010/06/08/reggie-the-alligator-my-cousin-in-middle-school/
/2010/06/08/reggie-the-alligator-my-cousin-in-middle-school/
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:24:27 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1215
They caught my cousin Simple in middle school the other day, and disgracefully tied him up with a stick before they no doubt made a pocketbook and matching belt out of him.
Why would an alligator go to middle school?
Simple: The students are still young and tender.
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encinoman
/2010/05/14/the-problems-with-newsweek/
/2010/05/14/the-problems-with-newsweek/
Fri, 14 May 2010 22:01:52 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1210
Newsweek has changed. Mostly, they&;ve given up on covering news, and now just have long, occasionally reported, think and profile pieces.
Now they&;re getting unwanted publicity for being the news, not reporting it. One of their writers says being gay and out is a career killer for actors, as no one will buy a gay or lesbian making out with someone of the opposite sex. Entertainment Weekly (which won&;t admit that it&;s slagging a competitor) describes it as a journey &;back to 1952.&; Indeed, when I was at the Enquirer, we played ball with the likes of Rock Hudson to buttress his straight reputation for our {largely female} readers and his {largely female} fans. But as Lily Tomlin once said, you don&;t have to be straight to play straight.
On the other hand, another Newsweek writer says we should stop talking about Elena Kagan&;s sexuality. Back to the 50&;s, indeed.
And sadly, that&;s their audience. I didn&;t buy my Newsweek, get it from the library or read it at a newsstand (another dying breed.) Instead, my 82-year old mother insisted on giving her subscription copy to me.
Their advertising problems track their demographics.
I counted 12.5 pages of advertising in the comic book-sized (not graphic novel sized) 56 page Newsweek (60 pages if you count the covers) of May 3. Of that, the msnbc.com ad was obviously a house ad, my guess is the ABC Good Morning America ad was a trade-out (perhaps they use Newsweek reporters or give Newsweek a shout-out) and the half-page SPDR/WSJ ad was probably one too. So we&;re left with 10 pages of advertising in a 60 page magazine.
That&;s weak. The type of advertising is even weaker; would anyone under 40 &;brew&; up a cup of Folger&;s instant coffee?
It&;s no wonder that this once multi-million seller is for sale. Each magazine&;s death diminishes me, to paraphrase John Donne, but when it goes, people won&;t miss it very much. The 50&;s are long over, and the people who still remember them are going fast.
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encinoman
/2010/05/13/elena-kagan-softball-playing-lesbian-according-to-journal/
/2010/05/13/elena-kagan-softball-playing-lesbian-according-to-journal/
Thu, 13 May 2010 16:17:53 +0000
encinoman
/?p=1203
Why did the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) put a photograph from 1993 of Elena Kagan, President Obama&;s Supreme Court nominee, on its cover on May 11? Was it to show her athletic ability? Her &;aw-shucks&; Americanism?
Or was it a gay-baiting smear to firmly tie her to the &;lesbian softball player&; meme for their readers?
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encinoman
Innuendo? A 1993 photo of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, provided by the University of Chicago Law School, that has provoked a gay row after the Wall Street Journal ran it on its front page
