Someone should probably sit down with Conrad Black and tell him that he's actually like, for reals, seriously going to jail in 30 days. Do not pass go. Do not collect a damn thing. The onetime newspaper baron and current felon has been denied bail while he appeals his conviction in the mail fraud case that last month earned him 6 1/2 years in prison. [NYP]
The most enlightening part of last night's Clinton-Obama debate (besides Senator Clinton's awkward dissembling on her war vote suddenly becoming a positive for her after Wolf Blizter's hamhanded followup led to a chorus of boos) happened shortly after it ended, when CNN cut back to Anderson Cooper in... well, we're assuming it was the Situation Room. He asked his panel of pundits for their reactions to what they'd scarcely had time to digest. Gambling-addicted former Drug Czar Bill Bennett began with a lame joke about hippies, then praised Obama's performance. He got halfway through the word "articulate" before catching himself. "Artic—well-spoken" (or something along those slightly less offensive lines) he said, remembering the fate of poor Joe Biden. Which raises the question: can stuffy old white people find ways of complimenting Barack Obama that don't sound condescending and borderline racist? Answer: not really! But not for lack of trying!
Everybody knows The New York Times' newly-erected skyscraper home has been plagued by falling glass, ice and vermin. In December, the Department of Buildings dropped by the place to investigate after what we thought was the third time debris was reported to have fallen from the building. Not so! A look at records kept by the Department of Buildings shows that people have been complaining about flotsam and jetsam raining from the Renzo Piano building since construction began in 2005-18 of the 33 complaints on record about the building are related to material flying off of it. Screwdrivers, bolts, steel, glass, i-beams, what have you. There was the time that wet concrete fell on to some NYPD cars below. Oopsies! And the time an entire window fell from the sky onto a car below. Then there's the succinct complaint from July 31, 2007: "Something fell off the building." You don't say? Yikes. After the jump, peruse the records.
So—Karl Rove is going to be a Fox News contributer! What an exciting and unexpected move. We hope it goes well for them! It probably won't, though. Because Karl Rove, that Machiavellian Boy Genius, is terrible on-air and also not even particularly adept at analyzing politics. He's a great smear campaigner, sure! But he's not even Lee Atwater's equal in that dubious regard. The man micromanaged one of the least popular presidencies of the last hundred years, parlayed untold goodwill and love into worldwide scorn, and also lost two of Bush's most important elections. Namely the 2006 midterms and, oh right, Bush's initial election itself. The only people who still think Karl Rove is some sort of brilliant political mind are semi-literate Kos commenters. And Roger Ailes, apparently. Even Keith Olbermann thinks Karl is only the third worst person in the world! See for yourself, after the jump.
Remember the story of the terribly racist "humor" column in the Hamptons Independent last week? It upset famed blogger Alec Baldwin! Baldwin wrote about the column earlier this week (and then again!) as an example of "how the Obama ascendancy is playing out in Small Town America." Leaving aside the fact that the Hamptons are "small town America" only if you are a time traveler from the 17th century, the column was idiotic and well worth piling on. BUT! Maybe Alec had an ulterior motive for singling out this particular piece of regrettable small-market bullshit for a very public flaying! Maybe Alec has some personal beef with the gentleman that wrote the column—the paper's editor, Rick Murphy. Maybe because Baldwin is involved with the East Hampton Democrats, who don't particularly get along with Murphy! Maybe Murphy mocked Alec's letters to the editor! And maybe Rick Murphy's wife left a long comment to that effect at HuffPo—a comment which mysteriously failed to appear! After the jump, Alec Baldwin's "Small town" Hamptons intrigue.
TruTV—it was, until this month, Court TV—just unceremoniously canceled (or they "mutually agreed to cease production" of) noted lawyer and former View co-host Star Jones Reynolds' show (called, apparently, the Star Jones program). Last episode is tomorrow! The email from Tru TV's GM to Tru TV staff is attached.
You're pretty glad you work at a newspaper or a network that doesn't have mice running every which way, like the New York Times does, aren't you? Not so fast! We took a look at Department of Health inspection records available for employee cafeterias at media companies over the last year, and some of you better lift up your feet, quick. The chart above shows the combined number of violation points each organization earned in 2007. Time, CBS and NBC all earned a failing score of over 28 on one inspection, which triggered at least one additional inspection, which they all passed. Eventually. Interestingly enough, though the Bloomberg cafeteria reportedly earned a disgusting 55 on its February inspection, the record available through the DOH's website says it landed itself a flying-colors score of 2! Now we wouldn't accuse Mayor Bloomberg of screwing with statistics on the city's website to favor his own ginormous company. Nor would we suggest it might be easy to get a mulligan on that nasty inspection if the company's CEO happened to also be the city's mayor. Someone else might suggest that, but certainly not us.
Hillary Clinton bought an entire hour of The Hallmark Channel for a "town hall event" the night before Super Tuesday. If she's really after the Jean Teasdale vote she should just appear on QVC. I'm sure they'll give her an hour for free! As it is, Hill will just upset everyone looking forward to Monday night's 7th Heaven repeat. [AdAge]
Eric Boehlert predicts that Fox News is basically fucked. While the liberal Media Matters senior fellow's job is to criticize and decry Fox News, that network's continued relevence will ensure that he keeps that job. So it is presumably with both glee and secret dismay that Boehlert presents a portrait of an epochal force in news presentation on its sad decline.
Slate's Jack Shafer notices a disturbing trend that has more or less saved the ass of every single Gawker editor ever on slow news days: wacky headlines at CNN.com. The tabloidization of CNN.com has Shafer, well, mildly concerned. All the stories are about babies being mauled by tigers and sex offenders setting kindergarteners on fire! "Nuns-and-nude ad upsets Catholics!" Ladies in peril! "CNN.com's, MSNBC.com's, and Foxnews.com's celebration of and reliance on stories like today's "Human Tongue Accidentally Served Up in Hospital," which are explicitly designed to momentarily rouse and titillate the Web audience, says worlds about how the site thinks of us. Life is a freak show, the Web sites instruct, and we viewers just another bunch of freaks." So true, Jack. Life is a freakshow, and CNN just wants to hand you a free ticket. To illustrate: after the jump, Gawker's vast and rich archive of embarrassing CNN.com screengrabs, available in one place for the very first time. Watch it now!Click to view
If you work for Martha Stewart, you probably already entered "The Big Idea," a company-wide contest "that gives staff the opportunity to share their own ideas for the future of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia." Already proposed: a "special publication about collecting." You can help decide who wins. The world of Martha Stewart is not very democratic, as you can "vote as many times as you'd like over the next week." What kind of ideas—just how big are we talking here?
"But this is a recognition of your life's work," the reporter argues.
We totally missed this little gem in a Saturday's Times story about the oft-ignored plight of the rich New Yorkers forced to downsize in our current economic straits. A screenwriter interviewed for the piece describes her reaction to the sitch: "I'm a freelancer, so I'm like, ‘Oh, my God.'" Seriously. What else are people giving up? "The newspaper," says one guy, "I never buy it anymore." Why bother, really, when your neighbor's will do just fine? Far more moving though, are the sacrifices of this disposably-incomed damsel in distress: "Now she gets manicures at a less expensive salon, meets her friends at California Pizza Kitchen and sends her sheets and towels to a laundry service instead of the dry cleaner." We ourselves mostly just leave the linens to Olga and Maria. Did she say California Pizza Kitchen? Sakes alive.
Over 1,000 lucky MTV Networks contractors are being converted to staff from their previous freelancer status, we've been told, in a move to appease angry contractors upset over December benefit cuts. "In the HR meeting they had yesterday with the middle- to upper-management peeps that have the honor of conveying this (mostly good) news: They paused early on in their presentation to say, "By the way, this is not about the writing and the Gawker...these discussions have been going on for a long time," an MTV source said. We're sure it had nothing whatsoever to do with all those people chanting in the streets, either. And introduced by a definite article? We've arrived. Congratulations on the benefits, kids. Go nuts at the orthopedist's.
Earlier: Memo: Judgment Day On Permanent Jobs For MTV Freelancers
The time has come for MTV Networks beleaguered slavey permalancers to learn their fate. Brand-new human resources lady Catherine Houser issued a memo an hour ago to the Viacom subsidiary's contractors, announcing they would learn if they were among the lucky group whose positions will be converted to staff jobs, as promised in December. On what basis will a permalancer earn job security and benefits? Among the benchmarks: "The position would be staff if there was headcount." Uhh...what? "The position transcends a specific project or show," is another. Considering that a key issue in the uproar over Viacom's benefit cuts last month centered around the frequent rotation of workers (which made it hard for them to accrue the required time needed to qualify for benefits), it sounds like MTVN has given itself a whole lot of leeway with that one. So you've been an MTVN cameraman for nine years? As far as Viacom is concerned, you only spent four months at a time on Pimp My Ride and Cribs, so you're shit out of luck, pal. God be with you, and also with you and you. Let us know how it goes. After the jump, the memo in full.
A "shocking video" of Heath Ledger "snorting what appear to be drugs off a table" at noted Hollywood drug haven the Chateau Marmont has "surfaced." Entertainment Tonight bought it for $200,000, teased it, then backed away from playing it. Same with The Insider. Not, according to the Daily News, the case with Australia's Channel 9, which will play the tape tonight. Expect to be shocked! Shocked to see an actor attend a party, after an awards show (2006 SAG Awards), and snort a line of coke! Ledger expresses "remorse" at his life of habitual drug-taking, saying he used to smoke a lot of weed. "'I'm going to get serious s—t from my girlfriend,' Ledger tells his companions. 'We just had a baby three months ago.'" Does this seriously sound like a man in the grip of, according to today's Post, a major drug habit?
As has been documented again and again and again, there is a mouse problem as the fancy new headquarters of the New York Times. So, when Gawker videographer Alex Goldberg found himself at an event attended by some of the architects responsible for that new Times building, he knew his muckracking mission: corner one of them and demand answers.
Slate's TV Club was worried about a scene from The Wire in which an editor is chastised for cursing in the newsroom. Is that even possible? (It's getting that you can't even tell a female coworker she has a nice rack anymore!) Romenesko solicited swearing-in-the-newsroom tips, and reporters and former copyboys everywhere responded. What the fuck did they say?
