Media

November 16, 2005

I Like You! Do You Like Me?

Long before Sacha Baron Cohen arrived at the MTV Europe Music Awards earlier this month in a fake Air Kazakh plane piloted by a one-eyed man holding a vodka bottle, his Borat character had been raising the hackles of Kazakhstan's foreign ministers. With a song about throwing Jews down wells and extended riffs about the pleasures of rape, urine, and "animal liquid explosions," Borat, the clueless television presenter, entertains HBO audiences at the expense of the central Asian republic. On Monday, though, Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev shot back, suggesting that Cohen could be working with rival politicians and stating that, "We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."

Media

November 14, 2005

Plush Toys and Jungian Archetypes

After getting burned earlier this year for spotlighting a specious social phenomenon on its front page (see Gelf commentary here and here), the New York Times went back to the well on Sunday, giving A1 treatment to a story about stuffed animals tied to the front of trucks. This time, though, the editors made sure that they had the evidence to answer that most important of questions: Why are the toys there?

Media

November 11, 2005

On Eating a Horse

In a column for SI.com, Frank DeFord makes a plaintive case for the horses that are killed in American slaughterhouses—65,000 of them last year alone, he claims. DeFord is skilled at tugging on the heartstrings; his appearances on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel generally contain equally large helpings of pathos and redemption. But in this latest missive, DeFord manages to miss his mark entirely, and somehow turn a tale about America's weird relationship with its domesticated animals into an ignorant and xenophobic screed.

Media

November 10, 2005

Ninety Years of Prostitutes

What should an enterprising reporter title his review of Gabriel García Márquez's newest book, Memories of My Melancholy Whores? The slim novel is about a writer who has slept with more prostitutes than he can remember, and who, on his 90th birthday, decides to treat himself to a 14-year old virgin. It has gotten generally good reviews.

Media

November 2, 2005

Forbes Does Blogs

The vitriol spewed about bloggers in this month's cover article for Forbes Magazine, entitled Attack of the Blogs, is so biased that after a few reads, it seems like the blatant conflations of truth and fiction must be willful. The article claims that blogs as a whole exist to smear companies and people, and uses poorly reported anecdotes to back up its thesis. Gelf envisions Forbes editors sitting around discussing ways to improve online readership and hitting upon a strategy: Publish a (free) story that pisses off bloggers so much that they feel compelled to complain, and in doing so, direct their streams of readers to the Forbes site. Indeed, a similar strategy of angering listeners has made Rush Limbaugh a must-hear for many of the country's liberals. Gelf is more than happy to play along.

Media

October 31, 2005

Falling Faster than Bad Soufflé

In our third Gelf Cliché Watch, we have compiled even more of the assorted random pop-culture references that journalists like to sprinkle on their prose. (The first two are here and here.) One of our favorites has to do with the upcoming Israeli elections, but there are plenty more after the jump.

Peres will win the primaries on November 9 like a knife going through pâté de foie gras—Ha'aretz, Oct. 21.

Media

October 29, 2005

Clinton vs. the Free Press

Does the media give Bill Clinton a free pass, even nearly five years after he left office? Clinton spoke Thursday at an event also featuring New York's Republican mayor, Mike Bloomberg. Clinton has endorsed Bloomberg's opponent, Fernando "Fit to Be Routed" Ferrer, but is friendly with Mayor Mike. Here's the New York Times's light-hearted take on the apparent Clintonian position that the press has no business covering a public encounter between two public figures:

Media

October 28, 2005

Bush Says Scooter Libby Is a Man

Press advocates defend journalists' right to protect anonymous sources as a way to ensure that whistleblowers have a public forum to come forward. The irony of the CIA leak probe is that the reporters whose anonymous sources' identity were sought weren't being sought out by whistleblowers, but by manipulators. Too often, unnamed and named sources alike capitalize on journalists' desire for an exclusive to leak tendentious information, knowing that many people we consider reporters act more like stenographers. How appropriate, then, was coverage of President Bush's reaction Friday to indictments handed down against a top aide to his vice president.

Media

October 25, 2005

The Onion's Gag Order

Today the New York Times reported that the White House had sent a letter to The Onion, asking the satirical newspaper not to use its seal. (The article contained this Onion-esque quote from a White House spokesman, in reply to a question about how the staff learned of the Onion's use of the White House seal: "Despite the seriousness of the Bush White House, more than one Bush staffer reads The Onion and enjoys it thoroughly. We do have a sense of humor, believe it or not.") Gelf asked Todd Hanson, a member of The Onion's writing staff, to comment on several aspects of the case. Hanson's reply:

Media

October 23, 2005

A Smarter TimesSelect

Some New York Times columnists aren't happy that the paper is now charging readers for online access to their work. "I'm sad to lose an awful lot of readers, and a lot of readers in places like China and Pakistan who don't have credit cards or the ability to sign up," Nicholas Kristof tells Editor & Publisher. Says Thomas Friedman, "I have a lot of international readers in places like Egypt, where $50 could be their college tuition for a while." But it turns out there's a way for the Times to keep its global prominence while preventing Americans from freeloading on insights from Kristof, Friedman, et al. There's a precedent set by another newspaper called the Times, across the pond in London, that could be flipped on its head to provide access to New York Times fans in China, Pakistan, and Egypt.