• When Queerty posted the above video of kids playing parkour soccer, we didn't really get why. Then we watched it and realized it's awesome.
• Germany unveils another polar bear to be destroyed by human interest in the cute. CONTINUED »
"Since when is it considered unprofessional for a journalist to take a drink?" That's Jack Shafer's response to the Cincinnati Post's official ban on alcohol in the newsroom. Apparently, "As hard drugs are to the hard-rocker and tattoos are to the NBA player, so booze is to the journalist—even if he doesn't drink." That is, to be a creative, functioning journalist, one needs some top shelf around. Hell, a plastic bottle of $6.99 vodka will do. Just ask Shafer's fellow Slate scribe Christopher Hitchens, who'd be out of a career with a policy like that. [Slate]
Hey, guess what’s starting to seem a lot like high school? The New York Times’s fight with the World Health Organization.
For those who haven’t been following (for shame), the New York Times published a 60-word summary of a WHO report on measles. But in so doing, accidentally broke the WHO’s embargo on the study.
So the WHO bitch-slapped the Times with a two-week suspension from their media list. It was sort of like when the unpopular girl your only friends with because you’ve known her forever tells you she’s not inviting you to her party because you didn’t talk to her in gym, and in your head, you’re like, “sweet, that party was going to sa-uck.”
CONTINUED »
Yesterday, Franklin Foer kept it real with himself and New Republic readers and admitted that the Baghdad Diarist was on the Stephen Glass side of truth.
And it wouldn’t be a real media controversy without Jack Shafer weighing in. His opinion? The New Republic took a chance on a young, embedded reporter, BFD:
The take-home lesson of Beauchamp isn't that young or novice writers should never be given a chance. … Experienced writers whose lengthy résumés include awards and credentials can swindle their editors every bit as fast as a kid.
Just goes to shows that Jack Shafer is unafraid of taking risks or using bold. That’s just the kind of editor he is.
ON A HIGH At last, Slate media crit Jack Shafer finds a mainstream media story about drugs that he likes. And you've got Jann Wenner to thank for it. [Slate]
Don't pity the poor pitiful striking screenwriters—let the major daily newspapers do it for you.
Perhaps not since the air traffic controllers' strike of 1981 has the big press lavished such intense and generally sympathetic coverage on a labor dispute. Both the Washington Post ("it hasn't been easy for movie writers") and the New York Times ("my greed is fair and reasonable") have run op-eds by screenwriters demanding that the entertainment industry compensate Writers Guild of America members for digital use of their work on the Web, iPods, cell phones, etc., the sticking point of this strike.
Given the number of stories it has run on the clash, the Los Angeles Times must think the Writers Guild strike is to it as Hurricane Katrina was to the Times-Picayune.
–Jack Shafer can't help but notice that the purportedly objective mainstream media is unequivocally siding with the writers. [Slate]
Although we can’t seem to shake the nasty habit of writing in the royal we, occasionally one of our editors decides to shake off the cloak of anonymity to write a short, pithy statement long, rambling diatribe about a topic of their choice. Today, Debbie Newman is that editor.
Earlier, we told you how Jack Shafer ranted and raved about Fark founder Drew Curtis' new book ("It's Not News, It's Fark") praising Curtis for raising critical awareness while carefully making sure to use the word "Fark" as often as humanly possible. And while the sometimes-verbose Slate editor had a fair amount to say, we believe the following excerpt accurately sums up Shafer's opinion of the book's most provocative contribution.
Instead of urging journalists to raise their standards—the typical tack taken by the press-guardian-industrial complex—Curtis puts the onus on readers, insisting that they become better news consumers.
'Interesting!' we thought. 'Now, suddenly, it's the readers' responsibility to separate fact from fiction and make sense of their agenda-fueled morning newspapers, all without spilling piping hot coffee all over themselves* on their morning subway commute!'
"The educated reader's top enemy is the "filler" of non-news, he argues, which the mass media pumps out whenever there's not enough hard news to complete a newscast or fill a newspaper." That's Jack Shafer belated summary of Fark.com founder Drew Curtis' book It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries To Pass Off Crap As News. "Through this crack come the inaccurate, fear-mongering stories about germs, earthquakes, and potential terrorist attacks; the worthless formula stories hooked on changing seasons, hot-weather spells, shark attacks, and holiday traffic patterns—the media events generated by PR firms that reporters translate into news stories."
What ever could he be talking about — reporters letting PR firms dictate their news items?
In unrelated news, here's a recent story from ABC news: "Let's Eat at Delta Tonight!: Airline Opens a New York Lounge to Show Off New Cuisine, Sans Air-Sickness Bags."
Have you heard about the concept for MTV's latest reality show? It's an 8-episode look at what goes on behind the scenes of something interesting a high school newspaper!*
"Paper," set at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., will go behind the scenes at the highly regarded Circuit, spotlighting students early in their journalism careers," chirps the Hollywood Reporter.
Which means it will be amazing in a voyeuristic "see nerdy overachiever types placed in predictable high-stress situations" sort of way!
Ever fondled a child? Been incorrectly pegged as a size 16? Lied about your alma mater to get your wedding announcement in the Times? If so, there's an excellent chance your life is already as good as over. Either that or Clark Hoyt is just short on material this week.
"The more I graze the Web for news, the less compelling I find the four daily newspapers that land on my doorstep," writes Slate's always-opining editor, Jack Shafer. "Horrible as it may sound, on many days the newsprint front page tastes of already chewed gum."
Gross!
Fortunately for Shafer, Slate would never stoop to producing anything resembling so-called "ABC Gum."
Or would? they
"Listen to the victorious Rupert Murdoch weep over the way the world has been treating him," writes Slate's Jack Shafer, in response to Murdoch's complaint that he's had to endure "criticism that is normally leveled at some sort of genocidal tyrant."
"Not even the dozen Murdoch pieces I've written since the announcement of the Dow Jones offer compare Murdoch to Pol Pot, Hitler, or Mao," Shafer continues. "I have cataloged his various crimes against journalism and called him a 'rotten old bastard' a number of times, but that term of endearment couldn't have possibly penetrated his coarse hide. Or did my offhand comment that 'any comparison of Murdoch to Stalin was unfair to Stalin' upset him?"
Nah, we're guessing Rupert's grumblings have less to do with something Shafer wrote and more to do with the fact that evil megalomaniacal types generally tend to be sorta cranky.
• Tom Snyder dies, and with him dies the legacy of the funny late-night comic.
• The Bancroft family still divided on whether or not to sell their company to an sinister old man who has deep pockets and no soul.
• Redstones continue to hate, sue and publicly debase one another.
• In moving to CNN, Campbell Brown becomes one of only three women currently hosting her own primetime cable news show, and joins the illustrious ranks of Greta "Legs" Van Susteren and Nancy "Crazypants" Grace.
• Less than a week after getting publicly lambasted by Bill Keller of the NYT for shoddy reporting, Slate's Jack Shafer wonders whether disgraced journalists should get a second chance. How topical!
Jack Shafer finds himself in the awkward position of having to apologize for one of his columns. Even worse: He's forced to admit Arthur Sulzberger is right. [Slate]
• Michael Moore, chubby liberal nutjob or marketing genius?
• "Newspapers read like they're put out by terrified bureaucracies," writes Columbia Journalism Review. Um, that's because they are, says Dean Starkman (a.k.a. "Obvious Guy.")
• The new TVNewser reveals his top-secret identity! Oh no, wait—we already knew that.
• Jack Shafer fought Bill Keller, and Bill Keller won. Easily.
• Internet video advertising costs projected to reach an estimated 4.3 billion over the next four years, thanks in large part to CNN.
• WaPo praises Steve McPherson for having "great programming instincts" and a "low hooey threshold." Which explains why the guy can't stand Ben Silverman.
If there's one thing Jack Shafer hates to see, it's media outlets jumping on imaginary trends, especially of the drug use variety. But if there are two things Jack Shafer hates to see, it's reporters editorializing in their supposedly objective copy. Which is why he's tired of seeing the word "loophole" show up so often, especially in political reports. "It's a loaded, partisan word," says Jack, "one that implies wrongdoing and scandal where none exists, and inserting it into a political argument gives the inserter the upper hand. When loophole creeps into news stories, they start to read like editorials."
Clearly, not many papers feel the way he does (in what looks like a column topic that's been shelved for a few weeks). Rags with titles that include "New York," "Boston," "Times," and "Tribune" all allow the use of the "extra naughty" word. We know what you're thinking: Somewhere, in the history of journalism, there must have been a major loophole that allowed this.
As we mentioned yesterday, when people of questionable morals and lifepaths die, the press does handstands, cartwheels, and backflips to ensure you remember the positive things about them. We thought it only held true for gossip columnists. Turns out, first ladies get the same treatment. CONTINUED »
"I originally encountered the 8-and-1/2 by 11 publication last year in the whirlpool room of a Michigan health club," writes Jack Shafer of TimesDigest, the mini version of the New York Times that some hotels offers to guests. "At first sight, I mistook the photocopied, stapled, and soggy thing drooping on the towel rack for a New York Times novelty wash cloth, and my instinct was to either trashcan it or use it to lather up a bar of soap. But as a devoted reader of everything from cereal boxes to the Yellow Pages, I gave TimesDigest a chance, and I'm glad I did. The shorter New York Times, set in the same fonts as the newspaper, is the perfect brief news read, provided you're 1) not near a computer and can't download the Times Reader; 2) unable to get the regular Times; 3) extraordinarily pressed for time; or 4) in a mood to make only one hand available for reading (such as when you're in the whirlpool)."
That's got "sexy" written all over it.
• Laura Albert didn't invent the pseudonym "JT LeRoy" because she was trying to defraud her readers, the publishing company or the film production company that bought the movie rights. She did it because she's really, really crazy.
• Chris Matthews blames his exec producer for that awkward 10-second outburst Tuesday night.
• If Jack Shafer has anything to say about it, no one will get a free iPod mini this year. Or ever again.
• What would Nancy Grace, the overzealous victims' rights activist have to say about Nancy Grace, the crazy lady who yells at people on the brink of suicide?
• NYT is raising its newstand price for the first time since 1999, meaning it will now cost you $4 to completely bomb the Sunday crossword puzzle.
• Vogue Living is the magazine that just keeps on giving! [Ed: Actually, it's the magazine you thought folded years ago, but inexplicably still exists.]
• LA Times columnist Joel Stein to co-teach an oral sex workshop later this month because he feels "it's time to give back after taking so much." Ew?
• YouTube to co-sponsor Democratic presidential debate with CNN. The debate is scheduled to take place on July 23 in South Carolina, but organizers promise that the candidates' awkward verbal gaffs will be available on YouTube for perpetuity.
• Angelina Jolie instructed publicists to ban Fox News from the red carpet of her A Mighty Heart premiere.
• Sixteen years after inventing the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee finally gets his achievement recognized by the Queen of England.
• Wall Street Journal to raise its weekday newsstand price from $1 to $1.50, outraging rich stock broker/hedge fund owners everywhere.
• Slate's Jack Shafer did not like Tony Blair's critique of the media. He did not like it at all.
Editorial Director
