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Media
October 8, 2006
'Putridly Written, Directed, and Acted'
In this week's edition of Blurb Racket—the Gelf feature in which we take a close look at those critic blurbs that are a fixture of ads for movies—see breakdowns of blurbs for The Last King of Scotland, The Guardian, The Departed, and more. This week's Bogus Blurb of the Week comes in an ad for A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints:
Media
October 3, 2006
WaPo's Kurtz on WaPo's Foley Coverage
On Friday, House Majority Leader John Boehner told The Washington Post that he had told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert about Mark Foley's page problem, and that Hastert assured him "we're taking care of it." The Post printed the quote. Later Friday, Boehner called back the Post to say he couldn't remember whether he'd spoken to Hastert, so the Post yanked the "we're taking care of it" quote from the final version of the article, as noted by Daily Kos. Since then, Boehner appears to have returned to his original version (TPMmuckraker). Perhaps the Post editors should have listened to their own press critic, who has some sage advice on how to deal with a flip-flopping politician.
Media
October 3, 2006
Winning the Party, Losing the Point
Ole Miss is known for being a party school that can't quite cut it when it comes to Southeastern Conference football. Some Rebel alumni, in fact, are so resigned to losing that they tend to focus more on their tailgating spreads than they do on the action on the field. That attitude is reflected in a saying that, perhaps once pithy, has been repeated so often as to become cliché: "We may not win every game," it goes. "But we've never lost a party." If you're from the South, that saying has become as tiresome as a Jeff Foxworthy joke. According to the New York Times, though, it's worthy of a front-page article in the Escapes section of the Friday paper.
Media
October 3, 2006
Foley Foxtrot
The Foley Congressional-page scandal came in two parts. The first, a set of friendly but ambiguous emails between the Rep. and former pages that ABC News publicized after the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times had decided to pass, created a stir and sparked the second stage: Someone sent ABC News an instant-message chat allegedly between Foley and a former page, and when this was presented to Foley, he immediately resigned from the House. So this IM exchange made news. Why are many outlets not reporting it?
Media
September 26, 2006
Covering Racist Speech
In the great race to determine which newspaper can be more awkward in its efforts to shield vulnerable readers from naughty words, the New York Times and the Washington Post recently reached new lows in their coverage of George Allen's mouth. Virginia's Senator Allen, it seems, said something weird and racist to a visitor to his farm in the early 1980s. Referring to the turtles in his lake, Allen allegedly said something along the lines of, "Around here, only niggers eat 'em." Here's how the papers covered the news:
Media
September 24, 2006
How Very Punny
Zach Braff, the star of NBC's Scrubs, is also appearing in the movie The Last Kiss, and his character in the movie is a bit less "adorable" than his J.D. of the small screen. Do you see the op-pun-tunity here? If so, you, too, can be the writer of groan-inducing headlines. Here are a few that would make even Joel Siegel (or his ghostwriter) proud.
Media
September 18, 2006
"An Amazingly Sloppy Movie"
In this week's edition of Blurb Racket—the Gelf feature in which we take a close look at those critic blurbs that are a fixture of ads for movies—see breakdowns of blurbs for The Wicker Man, Beer League, The Protector, and more. This week's Bogus Blurb of the Week comes in an ad for Al Franken: God Spoke:
Media
September 8, 2006
Bert Fucks Up
Continuing Gelf's ongoing coverage of how the press reports on profanity without using profanity, we've examined how the press handled former pitcher Bert Blyleven's fuck-up, when previewing a Yankees-twins game. After stumbling through some tidbits about A-Rod, Derek Jeter, and Joe Mauer, Blyleven said, "We're going to do this fucking thing over again, because I just fucked it up." Oops, he was live, as his broadcast partner, Anthony LaPanta, informed him. The former 287-game winner was suspended for five games.
Media
September 5, 2006
Gelf Gets Married; Paparazzi Kept at Bay (Bridge)
If you'd like to congratulate Gelf writer and editor David Goldenberg on his wedding Sunday to Sara Thierman, you'll have to get in line behind the roving pack of reporters and the many Goldenberg-Thierman fans. Well, not really. But the happy couple did get their Warholian 15 minutes—the time it would take to read the Chronicle article that started it all, listen to the radio-news clips, and watch the video of two local TV stations (NBC and ABC affiliates) that covered the notorious nuptials. Surprisingly, all the hoopla wasn't due to Sara's medical mastery nor David's Gelf affiliation; instead, the wedding provided some much-needed color for reporters trying to put a human face (or two) on the terrible toll of Bay Bridge construction.
Media
August 31, 2006
When Reporters Make News
Among the highlights of this week's edition of Oops, Gelf's quasi-weekly round-up of media corrections: To move a story along, one journalist files a complaint to the government, then writes about it; Salon can look at child porn, after all; and "Big Bill" and other inventions from Norway. Here's one of our favorite corrections this week:
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