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Media
August 15, 2005
Pyramid-Scheme Profiling
Mike Wagers knew the couple in his taxi weren't telling the truth, and that led him to call in a tip to police that ended a manhunt for a fugitive couple. Wagers's passengers turned out to be the Hyattes, a couple on the run since Jennifer Hyatte allegedly shot and killed a police officer transferring her husband, George, in Tennessee (CNN). Wagers, though, didn't think he was transporting suspected murderers. He just knew he wasn't carrying Amway reps.
Media
August 14, 2005
Playing Defense
This week's edition of Oops, Gelf's quasi-weekly round-up of media corrections, is so chock-full of goodness that it comes in two parts. Among the highlights: A newspaper fires an extremist writer, then blames bloggers; plagiarism as journalism's fig leaf; a fictional hockey career; and a newspaper protects readers from a comic strip.
Media
August 14, 2005
Fucking Newspapers
In Gelf's continuing look at how newspapers handle profanity (see this gelflog post about the ubiquitous phrase "barnyard epithet"), we now have this coy entry from the New York Times, about the New York International Fringe Festival: "this is only one of two Ibsen-theme shows in the Fringe. The other imagines heroines from three different plays—Nora of 'A Doll's House,' Hedda of 'Hedda Gabler' and Mrs. Alving of 'Ghosts'—living under one roof. A sort of 'Real World' for drama geeks, it has the best title of the festival, but sadly, that title is not publishable in a family newspaper (for those looking online, it starts with F)."
Media
August 10, 2005
Biggest Zip Code Ever
Gelf recently questioned Metro International's bona fides; could a company with free commuter daily newspapers in some 80 cities really know those cities like a local paper should? We found that the New York paper didn't seem to know that New York has five boroughs. In response to our criticism, Metro New York has started running a feature called "Cool in Your Code," which is produced as a page in the paper and also a local TV show. The idea of the feature is to spotlight a New York City zip code's shopping, cultural attractions, and food. It's a respectable idea; too bad Metro lost its map again.
Media
August 10, 2005
'I Bought A Diploma' Underwear
In this week's edition of Zooming In, Gelf's quasi-weekly round-up of undercovered local stories from around the world: Korea's Genitalgate; a revolutionary's son with a capitalistic bent; a noodle fight; and steeplechase's new king and queen. One of our favorite stories this week concerns an extraordinary Russian website.
Media
August 9, 2005
Mad(de)ness
Memo to companies, in re: A foolproof formula to get free publicity from American journalists. Prepare a new product, or new version of your product. Spread the word to your quirky, obsessive fans. Get stores to open up at odd hours to sell the new product. And then stand back and watch the uncritical coverage. (Krispy Kreme rode this formula to uncritical media coverage and stock-market riches, as the American Journalism Review noted.) Following that formula, some company introduced an NFL videogame whose name we forget (something to do with a sportscaster's name, maybe). And ESPN.com sent two reporters to two cities' videogame stores to tell its readers what a special day it was for the fans queued up.
Media
August 5, 2005
On Bullshit
One of the best ways to compare media outlets is to look at the way that they handle the same nugget of news. It's not normally as black-and-white as, say, Fox News displaying a picture of a flip-flop sandal onscreen while the talking heads discussed John Kerry's voting record. Usually, it's about maintaining the tone of the publication, all the way down to the style guide. So when Bob Novak blew up at frequent sparring partner James Carville and host Ed Henry on CNN's Inside Politics show (it's still unclear why), Gelf saw it as an opportunity to share with our readers how different publications deal with profanity.
Media
August 4, 2005
Hustled
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, books, and more—takes on Hustle & Flow, Bad News Bears, Thomas Friedman's books, and more. This week's winner of the Bogus Blurb of the Week award comes in an ad for The Island, the new Michael Bay flick:
Media
August 3, 2005
Sinking Faster than Tom Cruise's Credibility
Now that editors have mandated that all clichés used in newsrooms have to mean something (no more occult hands, thank you very much), journalists have had to start looking for other similes to sprinkle on their prose. In this profession, the possibility of sneaking in well-worded and slightly absurd imagery into an otherwise boring piece is almost enough to make up for the lack of respect, poor pay, and heavy drinking that invariably accompany the job. Most recently, this has manifested itself in the form of random pop-culture references. Here are a few of our favorites:
Media
August 3, 2005
Strangers in a Strange Land
Wonder what happens to news when a Luxembourg-based company starts writing your local paper and those in 80 other cities? What should be a savvy guide to your city starts sounding like a lost tourist. Consider this recent item in the free commuter-daily Metro New York: "Tell us about where you live. If you live outside Manhattan and commute into the city, we would like to hear more about your life outside New York City and profile your home. … write us at home@metro.us"
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