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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?
Sports
September 29, 2006
Who Cramped in Here?
"The doctors said there's nothing wrong with my brain, but I'm having brain farts out there," Ben Roethlisberger said about his poor start this season, after an offseason motorcycle accident in which he wasn't wearing a helmet. But thanks to the press, our children have been protected from flatulence in the sports pages: The Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette both rendered "brain farts" as "brain [cramps]," as spotted by Dave's Football Blog. The media better stay extra-vigilant with some of these methane-fueled athletes:
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:
Sports
September 24, 2006
Sportswriters Say the Darnedest Things
Sometimes the pressures of writing passionate screeds about games can make otherwise calm journalists go batty. Consider a few recent examples:
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.
Sports
September 21, 2006
React First, Read Later
Pro athletes have a reading problem. Perversely, they'll talk at length publicly about a published article without having read it. Or worse, they're claiming not to have read it, only they really have, but failed to understand. Exhibit A: Sports Illustrated's cover story this week about Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
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:
Sports
September 14, 2006
Freedom of the Press to Promote Superstition
Chicago White Sox pitcher Freddy Garcia retired the first 23 Angels batters he faced Wedensday night, putting him four outs from the majors' first perfect game in more than two years. Then, his bid ended—not, as you might think, because of the bat of Adam Kennedy, who lined a base hit. No, the culprit sat in a broadcast booth above the field, and swung no bat. Instead, he spoke words Garcia never heard.
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.
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