"Gubernatorial" Gone, so is the Print Media

I am a regular reader of Jim Romanesko's daily media column on Poynter Online, and two items recently caught my eye. First, from the Sacramento Bee, let's dumb it down for the folks and quit using the word "gubernatorial". Dan Weiser, news boss for KCRA television wants his reporters to write in a way that people speak, and said in a memo, "Nobody says 'gubernatorial.' They say 'candidate for governor' or 'running for governor.' I prefer keeping things as easily understandable as possible." Well, perhaps it is not used in everyday conversation, but most people understand the meaning. This dumbing down of the language can only hurt society in the long run. Besides, I won't be able to use my favorite election joke - the one I invented back when George W was running against Ann Richards for governor of Texas (Of course Bush won the gubernatorial election. He was the biggest goober in the race.).

The other item sent me straight to Howard Altman's article in the Philadelphia City Paper. Apparently, Howard went to cover the Philadelphia appearance of John Ashcroft and was told by secret service agents that Mister Ashcroft was not speaking to print media - only television. The speech was well controlled, and his people made sure that the patriot act website address was prominently displayed. No doubt they are also counting on the "distortion by compression" inherent in television. There is only enough room reduce the message to sound bites and visual images - certainly no room to provide any kind of analysis or study. Just the way the administration likes it.

A Fair and Balanced Verdict: Franken Wins!

Satirist Al Franken won his case as Fox News' trademark infringement lawsuit was thrown out of court last Friday (Aug 22). Susan Saulny's article in the New York Times describes the scene and the laughter from the audience as Fox tried to present its case. According to the article, US District Court Judge Denny Chin said the motion was without merit and that a person would have to be "completely dense" not to realize the the cover of Franken's book was a joke, and that it was unrealistic to apply trademark protection to the words "Fair and Balanced" since they were so commonly used. In a telephone interview, Mr. Franken was quoted as saying that he "never really had any doubt" and that the ruling was "a victory for satirists everywhere, even the bad ones." He concluded by saying, "In addition to thanking my own lawyers, I'd like to thank Fox's lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I've ever seen in my life."

Judge Chin called Mr. Franken's work "fair criticism", and said to Fox, "Of course, it is ironic that a media company that should be fighting for the First Amendment is trying to undermine it."

Fox is contemplating an appeal, and Franken's book, Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right has moved to the number one spot at amazon.com. The publisher has printed an extra 50,000 copies.

The Rigors of the Presidency

I stumbled across this quote from the "Quote of the Week" in the Austin Chronicle.

I think he is in even better shape now than when he was governor. Most women I know think he is very attractive. A few have even told me they have crushes on him. -- Madeline Collier, vice chair of the Harris Co. GOP, quoted in the Houston Chronicle.

Remember to set your computer to "hibernate" before you go off to vomit.

The Houston Chronicle article that the quote was taken from was not cited, but that's not relevant for my comments. Have any of you noticed that George Bush seems to be the only president in history who is actually getting more fit while in office? Look back at his predecessors' "before and after" pictures while they were in office. The immense strain of the responsibilities of office clearly shows in their faces which seem to age at a far greater rate than the common man. Not so for Gearge W. The staggering responsibility hasn't bothered him in the least. Maybe it's because he has access to health care far superior to ours. More likely it's all the relaxing he does at his home in Texas. The Crawford ranch is being called the "Western White House" to make it sound like real business is being done there, when in actuality, instead of taking care of the economy, he's playing with his dogs and eating barbecue. (I spend all of my time eating barbecue and playing with my dog as well, but then again, I've been umemployed since December.)

No, the reason is that there really is no strain in his life. The grave decisions and the constant burden of how they will affect the lives of millions of people worldwide simply do not bother a man who sees the world in black and white. At least he is able to sleep soundly.

We Now Return You to Continuing Coverage of BLACKOUT 2003! Where do I begin? I rolled my eyes at the coverage so many times that night that I am now having trouble keeping my eyes down at the computer screen to write this. I tolerated everthing, the parade of "experts" speculating on cause and effect, the endless footage of streets packed with pedestrians, even the specially designed "Blackout 2003" logo and theme music. The final straw for me here in Texas came during a teaser for the local 10:00 pm news: The East Coast Blackout - How Does it Effect us?. (Simple answer - it doesn't really)I don't mean to trivialize the blackout. It was serious, and for a while, we didn't know if it was an act of terrorism or not, but I have this serious "beating a dead horse" pet peeve about the constant reporting of non-news in an attempt to sensationalize an event. Just do a bulletin, and interrupt as needed as new facts come in. The Poynter Institute for Journalism has an interesting article on how various newsrooms covered the event along with other relevant links (One un-effected news station sent a reporter to broacast from their local power plant just to tell people that everything was okay). In a new wrinkle in news reporting, there is also a moblog (mobile weblog) page that documents the blackout with photos and comments from victims who took pictures with their camera phones.

Where do I begin? I rolled my eyes at the coverage so many times that night that I am now having trouble keeping my eyes down at the computer screen to write this. I tolerated everthing, the parade of "experts" speculating on cause and effect, the endless footage of streets packed with pedestrians, even the specially designed "Blackout 2003" logo and theme music. The final straw for me here in Texas came during a teaser for the local 10:00 pm news: The East Coast Blackout - How Does it Effect us?. (Simple answer - it doesn't really)

I don't mean to trivialize the blackout. It was serious, and for a while, we didn't know if it was an act of terrorism or not, but I have this serious "beating a dead horse" pet peeve about the constant reporting of non-news in an attempt to sensationalize an event. Just do a bulletin, and interrupt as needed as new facts come in.

The Poynter Institute for Journalism has an interesting article on how various newsrooms covered the event along with other relevant links (One un-effected news station sent a reporter to broacast from their local power plant just to tell people that everything was okay). In a new wrinkle in news reporting, there is also a moblog (mobile weblog) page that documents the blackout with photos and comments from victims who took pictures with their camera phones.

Who Owns "Fair and Balanced"? A Fair and Balanced Look at New Litigation

In yet another story that bends the very fabric of space and time with the sheer mass of it's immense GALL, Lawyers for Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Network have filed suit against Al Franken to attempt to silence his forthcoming book, Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by claiming that Fox News OWNS the words "fair and balanced" as a trademark for it's news, and Franken's use of it in the title of his book would "blur and tarnish" the words for use as a description for their news. They also used the occasion to disparage Franken in the lawsuit (read the NYT article). We're too busy spitting nails at the blatant tactic here at the Monkey to write a cogent op-ed, but Jack Balkin, professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School, has written a good assessment in the L. A. Times. Lest you think that such a naked attempt to squelch unflattering speech will never succeed, remember that Bill Maher's television show, Politically Incorrect was taken off the air after he made a politically incorrect comment. We'll watch this one.

Arianna for Governor

You've heard a lot from the media in general and conservative pundits in particular about the possibility of Arnold Schwartzenegger running for Governor of California, but how much have you heard about the possibility of Arianna Huffington taking a run at it? Some, mostly California outlets have made mention of the possibility (Matier and Ross column in San Francisco Examiner for example).

Ms. Huffington will officially announce on Wednesday, Aug 6 at 10:30 at A Place Called Home in South Central Los Angeles (a center for at-risk children - she's a board member). We'll keep tabs on how the media reacts should she decide to go. If you have questions or comments, contact her at arianna@ariannaonline.com.

Media Objectivity a Thing of the Past?

The September issue of the Atlantic Monthly doesn't hit the newsstands until August 12 (see preview of the issue here), but ctnow.com (The Hartford Courant) has this preview of an Atlantic Monthly article by James Fallows.

In this age of delegulation and competition between news outlets, stations will continue to tailor their news to specific (increasingly conservative) political audiences - it's all about demographics. You will increasingly see news organizations be more open about their political persuasions and drop the illusion of impartiality. God help us. Our prediction is that the dropping of objectivity can only result is a deeper ideological polarization of society, in which those outlets with superior money and resources control the message.

The Anti-Coulter

Unlike Ann Coulter's book, Treason, The Red and the Blacklist by Norma Barzman (read a description at Nation Books, or buy it at Powells) is an insightful memoir of the McCarthy era from someone who was actually there. We have it on our Capitalism page as well - which reminds me ...

Here is the link to Hillary Clinton's Living History. We've been getting EMAIL asking why her book was not included on the Capitalism page. Her book is not included because we felt that it did not really keep with the objective of this website, namely politics, media, sociology, and how they all interact. We felt that Ms. Clinton's recollections of her white house years did not really fit.

Regarding Ms. Coulter's book, we will be reviewing that as soon as someone here reads it. When will that be? As soon as one of the following occurs:

a) We get a review copy from the publisher.
b) We find the book at our local library.
c) One of our friends gets a copy (not likely).
d) We get a copy as a donation.
e) We find the paperback or remaindered hardback at our local used book store (for less than $6.00)

We'll keep you posted.

Electronic Voting Suspect

You thought the 2000 election was bad, well, you were right, but if you think the federal money spent on upgrading the electoral system will help fix it, think again. Read Paul Boutin's Webhead column in Slate -Hack the Vote - How to stop someone from stealing the 2004 election. That's right, Diebold's new touch-screen ballot is vulnerable to hackers.