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Category Archives: Stupid Media Tricks

Looking for a media career in a growth industry?

Layoffs got you down? Hey, the Navy’s got your number. “What will I do?” you might ask? Well, the job posting on HotJobs replies, “As a videographer with a combat photography unit, you might develop a training video for an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team. As a Photojournalist, your images of a humanitarian-relief operation in a […]

Stupid Media Tricks: Hyperion Books

Where I’m staying for August the browser is set to boot to ABC’s news site. I noticed yesterday that the headline news was about a book about September 11th. The headline is still there today. Curious, I thought; why is this particular book making such a splash? There’s lots of books about September 11th out […]

Credibility

The life and death of a community newspaper editor.

Good Creativity and Bad Information

Yesterday I set out late in the workday to arrange the printing of our Ethnic Press Directory, and managed to come back with the most unbelievable loot. Not to imply I was slacking; I made sure the designer got through the last corrections, and took his file to the platemaker, and went to see the […]

The Horse In The Living Room

Last year the Kentucky Derby was won by a horse named Fusaichi Pegasus. A striking name, not so much on its own terms as it is for its inclusion of a Japanese neologism. (It doesn’t really mean anything; it’s the name of the owner, Fusao Sekiguchi, combined with the number one.) The ranks of Derby […]

What Goes In The New Yorker — A New Feature

It arrives at my house every Tuesday, and I ought to ignore it. The subscription is free, replenished yearly for my absentee landlady by some unknown donor who seems to think filling her friend’s vacation house with unread copies of a weekly magazine is a thoughtful thing to do. I’m too lazy to find other […]

A Reason To Call For The Separation of Church, State, and Entertainment

Am I the only one to whom the song Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote and which he is apparently trying to force his staff to sing bear more than a passing resemblance to “Eyes of a Child,” the final credits song from the South Park movie? This coincidence might be eerie (John I-don’t-want-to-hear-nuthin-bout-not-birthin-no-babies Ashcroft watched […]

Jesus Christ, this is news?!

I can’t believe this story on AOL’s news ticker. Yes, Nixon wanted to nuke North Vietnam, but this isn’t “news” — I sat in the Hampshire dining commons four years ago and listened to Daniel Ellsberg tell us the exact same thing; it’s not new, it’s not a revelation at all. If that’s news, the […]

Comedy and Liberty

They told us to get back to work… but there werenÂ’t any jobs available for a man under his desk in the fetal position… which I gladly would have taken… –Jon Stewart I’m sitting here listening to the Daily Show as I type. Jon Stewart gave an unhumorous, bewildered, tearful opening monologue for their first […]

the day before, I was watching TV….

all the ads — all of them — were for political hopefuls — for mayor, for city council, for public advocate, for comptroller for g0d’s sake, democrats and republicans, everyone talking about how they stood up to the mayor or fought for more cops or to keep incinerators out of Brooklyn; I Fight For You, […]