BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Friday, August 29, 2003
Competition for USA
Today? Reader JM today sends along an e-mail that clearly
looks like spam. But is it? Here is a press
release I found for the
USA Times that is similar to the e-mail, and it obviously
doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Apparently it's going to be sold
through some multiple-level-marketing system, sort of like
NuSkin.
Says the press release:
This will be the first
nationwide newspaper in 21 years! You Know How Huge USA TODAY is,
so you can imagine the potential! The newspaper will be promoted
by MLM. This is going to be a very big deal and their 5 level
commission plan is awesome!
Hmmm.
The press release directs you to
this
page at a site called
newsbucks.com, which describes the USA Times as "THE LARGEST
VENTURE IN THE HISTORY OF NETWORK MARKETING!" It continues: "The USA
TIMES is poised to take the nation by storm with a new kind of hard
hitting journalism that people will want to see on their doorstep
every day of the week!"
So is it real? I did a "whois"
search, and it turns out that the domain name newsbucks.com and
theusatimes.com are registered with the same owner, which is a good
sign, I suppose. It appears to be based in Miami.
And there is a classy-looking
website
for the USA Times that claims the paper will launch on January
1.
I wouldn't want to bet that the
USA Times will ever come into being, but it's worth keeping an
eye on.
posted at 11:14 AM |
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Today's news today. The
Globe's website has now been updated.
posted at 7:48 AM |
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The wayback machine. I keep
trying to tell myself that the Boston Globe's redesigned
website isn't as bad as it
looks. But it's 7:10 a.m., mid-morning for some of us, and
yesterday's paper is still up.
Okay, it's the week before Labor
Day. I'll let them call this the beta if they'd like. But come
Tuesday, they should be prepared to convince us all that it doesn't
suck.
Meanwhile, off to the
New
York Times
...
posted at 7:18 AM |
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Thursday, August 28, 2003
Conflicts and ethics. A
couple of weeks ago I
wrote about the Boston
Globe's decision to pull one of its freelancers, Gail Spector,
out of Newton. Spector had been covering the Newton school system for
the Globe West section even though she served on the state-mandated
advisory council of her child's elementary school.
It was an open-and-shut case.
Unfortunately, Spector -- who I'm sure is a nice person who was
trying to do a good job -- still doesn't get it. In the current
Newton Tab, she gives her
side of the story,
attributing her demise to "a three-year vendetta" by the conservative
Newton Taxpayers Association. She writes:
Questioning my ethics --
particularly for being an involved parent -- is a dirty tactic. My
integrity is what I am and it's what's made me a successful
reporter. I was, and still am, a fair, honest journalist, and I am
proud of my work.
Come, now. Spector wasn't
questioned for being an "involved parent." She was questioned for
serving in the very same government that she was supposed to be
covering. Here's a section from the Society of Professional
Journalists' Code
of Ethics:
Journalists should be free
of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to
know.
Journalists should:
- Avoid conflicts of interest,
real or perceived.
- Remain free of associations
and activities that may compromise integrity or damage
credibility.
Spector also writes, "I would have
resigned but the editor who hired me thought it was unnecessary." If
that's true, then the Globe ought to schedule a seminar in
Ethics 101 as soon as possible.
It is unfortunate that this lapse
of judgment has handed a victory to an anti-school group whose
leaders include Brian Camenker, a homophobic
crank. But as the saying
goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Camenker is right rather less often
than that. But he's right in this case.
New in this week's
Phoenix. Joe Conason's new book, Big Lies, is the
latest sign that liberals are mad
as hell and aren't going to
take it anymore.
Also, the Globe deletes a
crucial paragraph -- and makes a state rep look like a
vengeance-seeking
monster. And the BBC
engages in a mind-blowing bit of Israel-bashing.
posted at 9:09 AM |
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Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Get in the back and no one gets
hurt. You won't find a more bizarre story today than
this
one, buried well inside the
New York Times.
Headlined "Fear of Air Bag Sends
Children to Back Seat, Saving Many," the article, by Matthew Wald,
reports that parents have been properly terrified by stories that
exploding air bags have decapitated and maimed babies and small
children sitting in the front passenger's seat.
The response -- sticking them in
the back -- may have saved hundreds of lives in recent years. That's
good, of course. But it's unclear why this is better than getting rid
of deadly air bags and instead re-engineering the front seat so that
it's safer.
Or, conversely, since the incentive
appears to be arming the front seat with a lethal weapon, why not
just take a cheaper approach, and mount an AK-47 in the glove
compartment of every new car? If the rider is four-foot-10 or
shorter, blammo!
I am no libertarian when it comes
to auto safety. I'm all in favor of mandatory-seatbelt laws, for
instance. But air bags are a proven mistake, and government efforts
to justify their continued use only compounds the mistake.
For a laugh-out-loud example of
bureaucracy run amok, check out this
pamphlet from the National
Traffic Highway Safety Administration (NTHSA) on what you have to go
through to get an on-off switch installed so that you can disconnect
your air bag.
Air bags have been a hot issue for
years in Little
People of America, the
leading organization for dwarfs and their families. It's an issue for
drivers more than passengers: because most people with dwarfism are
roughly the same size as everyone else from head to hips, they do not
appear unusually short when sitting. In the passenger seat, the air
bag isn't a problem -- or rather, it's no more deadly for them than
it is for the rest of us.
But because their arms and legs are
disproportionately small, a driver with dwarfism tends to sit much
closer to the steering wheel. And that, as even the NTHSA concedes,
is dangerous.
Sensible advice on Iraq.
Newsweek's Fareed
Zakaria, as you might
expect, has some excellent suggestions for solving the chaos in
Iraq.
Zakaria supported the war, and thus
underestimates, I think, the degree to which the entire world
suspects the Bush administration's motives and resents its thumbing
its nose at the international community.
Still, Paul Bremer and company
would do well to ponder Zakaria's outline of heavy international
involvement and a long-term commitment. His conclusion:
The fundamental purpose
behind the invasion of Iraq -- more important than the exaggerated
claims about weapons of mass destruction -- was to begin cleansing
the Middle East of the forces that produce terror. Were America to
quit, it would give those armies of hate new strength and resolve.
A failed Iraq could prove a greater threat to American security
than Saddam Hussein's regime ever was.
Of course, it would have helped if
George W. Bush had told us what the "fundamental purpose" was
ahead of time instead of mindlessly repeating his aides' lies about
weapons of mass destruction.
Good news, bad news.
Boston Herald columnist (and former Boston city councilor)
Tom
Keane writes today that the
Massachusetts Convention Center Authority has managed to overcome its
hack origins and reinvent itself as a lean, mean, convention-snaring
machine.
Even so, it appears that the only
way it's been able to book any business has been to steal shows from
the privately owned Bayside Expo Center and World Trade
Center.
A well-run boondoggle is still a
boondoggle.
posted at 8:43 AM |
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Tuesday, August 26, 2003
A lying what? With
what? The size of what? You are hereby commanded to
read Russ
Smith's "Mugger" column in
the current New York Press. Yes, you may read the whole thing.
But do not bail out until you've read his advice to John
Kerry. It's in the second-to-last paragraph.
Wow.
Eric
Alterman has some thoughts
on Kerry in his Altercation blog, too. Alterman heard Kerry speak at
an off-the-record fundraiser. His conclusion: Howard Dean may have
passion on his side, but Kerry -- despite "zero personal charisma" --
would probably make a better president.
posted at 7:36 PM |
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The end of Ozone. Most of
the time, when someone screws up he's given a second or even a third
chance. Sometimes, though, a screw-up forces management to reassess
-- to decide that the person who committed said screw-up isn't the
right person for the job after all.
That's what happened to former
New York Times executive editor Howell Raines, who was forced
out not because of the Jayson Blair scandal but because, in its
aftermath, it became clear that Raines had fostered an atmosphere of
fear and favoritism that allowed a con artist like Blair to
thrive.
Not to compare WRKO Radio (AM 680)
with the Times -- or John "Ozone" Osterlind with Raines, who
is, despite his flaws, a great journalist -- but that's apparently
what happened to Osterlind yesterday when program director Mike Elder
let him go.
According to coverage today in the
Herald
and the Globe,
Osterlind is stunned that he has been dropped from Blute &
Ozone, the morning-drive-time show. And he denied to the
Herald -- as he has from the beginning -- that he ever called
for the entire Arab race to be "eradicated."
Osterlind was initially suspended
for two weeks following reports that, on August 12, he called for the
"eradication" of the Palestinians. The sequence of events that led to
his suspension began when I received an anonymous tip that Osterlind
had advocated the Palestinians' "extermination."
I asked Elder about it, and, after
he listened to a partial tape of the show (he said a full tape didn't
exist), he told me that he'd heard Osterlind say "eradicate," which
was apparently close enough for Elder. (Disclosure: I'm paid to blab
about the media on WRKO's Pat Whitley Show every Friday at 9
a.m.)
The suspension was reported
exclusively
on Boston Phoenix Media Log
later that afternoon, with the Globe and the Herald not
having the story until the next day.
When I interviewed Osterlind
shortly after he'd learned about his suspension, I couldn't help but
feel bad for the guy. He obviously didn't get it, and I can
understand why. He'd been paid to be as outrageous as possible, he is
not someone who's particularly well-versed on the issues, and he'd
just gotten nailed for doing pretty much what he always does. On a
personal level, I don't think he's got a mean bone in his
body.
But you certainly can't blame Elder
for taking advantage of the situation to elevate the tone of his
station. Now let's see if he'll do something about his venom-spewing
afternoon star, Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, and
syndicated host Michael Savage, the hate-mongering right-winger who
holds down the evening shift.
Ten to 15 years ago, WRKO was a
model for what great talk radio could be, with first-class hosts such
as the late, great Jerry Williams, Gene Burns, Janet Jeghelian, and
Ted O'Brien. Osterlind sneers in today's Herald that Elder
apparently wants to turn 'RKO into NPR -- yet, with the exception of
Burns, the station's stars of yesteryear were every bit as populist
and occasionally outrageous (especially Williams) as today's fakers
like to think they are.
Can the old formula work today?
Well, David Brudnoy is still the ratings king on WBZ Radio (AM 1030),
so clearly there is a market for intelligent talk. And Osterlind's
dismissal of NPR aside, public station WBUR Radio (90.9 FM) pulls
down good numbers while broadcasting hours of talk each
day.
So maybe it's time for WRKO to try
quality. It's certainly tried everything else.
A remarkable look at an unfit
mother. If you haven't been reading the Globe's series on
Barbara Paul and her sons, you can catch up by clicking
here.
Reporter Patricia Wen and
photographer Suzanne Kreiter have done a remarkable job of
documenting the life of a mother who neglected her children, and yet
who loved them -- and still does. Paul gave up her parental-custody
rights under pressure from state authorities.
One minor quibble: I would have
liked to see a stronger point of view. After all, it was Wen and
Kreiter who spent nine months with Paul, not us.
But their even-handedness is a
strength, too. We find ourselves emphathizing with Paul and yet
understanding why social workers concluded that she was an unfit
mother.
posted at 9:01 AM |
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Monday, August 25, 2003
Catching up on the news.
What could be better than coming back from a three-day weekend and
finding more than 220 e-mails, nearly all of them spam? Good grief.
I'm still catching up with the news, so pardon today's minimalist
Media Log.
Of all the unanswered questions
surrounding the murder of former priest John Geoghan, the one I find
most intriguing -- if perhaps among the least important -- is why his
accused killer changed his name from Darrin E. Smiledge to Joseph L.
Druce.
The Globe
and the Herald
don't know why. So what is the story? Is there a character in some
neo-Nazi or white-supremacist fiction named Joseph L. Druce? Was he
trying to pull a scam? Perhaps we'll find out soon.
It's time to start listening to
Scott Ritter. Actually, we should have listened to the former UN
weapons inspector before the war in Iraq, but I -- like many
observers -- thought his flip-flop on Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction made him less than credible. And
then he was silenced.
Today he has an
op-ed piece in the New
York Times in which he asks a devastating question: why -- if
former Iraqi officials are to be believed -- did American troops
allow looters to destroy records pertaining to the weapons
program?
It's a question that demands an
answer.
posted at 10:16 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
