On the political spectrum, the safe bet is that I rank somewhere left of center. Even then, the demolition job Jon Stewart did when he handed Judith Miller her carcass at the end of a 20-minute interview two weeks ago made me a little uneasy.
Don't get me wrong - he was 100% right, he attacked with facts on things she wrote about and said, but being it's one of the two political issues he's most passionate about (with Veterans Affairs being a close second), he was versed in the subject matter as if he'd written it itself, and she never had a chance. She walked into a trap, except she was expecting a trap door and instead found a lion's den where the animals had been starved for a week.
Plus, with him having set his departure date to August 6th, he's leaving with a bang (interspersed with marshmallow-y small talks with long-time celebrity friends a couple of times a week; the he has circles to fill, and he looks like he won't leave any stone unturned.
If there was any time in History that Dick Cheney could be charged with war crimes, it seems like Stewart would want it to be now, and himself to be the perpetrator, like Hunter S. Thompson going after Richard Nixon.
It's beautiful and righteous, but it's also brutal and violent, calculated and without mercy. Good, because his opponents never pulled any punches themselves.
Canadian viewers can watch it here, American viewers can Google ''The Daily Show''.
Showing posts with label Journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Journalism. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Today's Darryl Sutter Quote
The NHL playoffs are awesome because it's the time of year where Los Angeles Kings head coach Darryl Sutter's forced to hold daily press conferences, and more attention is thrown at the league and journalists who wouldn't normally be on the beat get to ask stupid or obvious questions for a soundbite.
Spring must be nearer, because the ever-quotable coach came up with this beauty (fast-forward to 55 seconds in for just that part):
I mean come on, this is probably the most honest and best quote this week:
“You don’t have to do anything. Just try and win. There’s no such thing as a ‘must-win.’ Nobody gets locked up or thrown in the ocean or anything like that. I’m not into that. It’s just a game.”
Never retire, Mr. Sutter, I implore you.
Spring must be nearer, because the ever-quotable coach came up with this beauty (fast-forward to 55 seconds in for just that part):
I mean come on, this is probably the most honest and best quote this week:
“You don’t have to do anything. Just try and win. There’s no such thing as a ‘must-win.’ Nobody gets locked up or thrown in the ocean or anything like that. I’m not into that. It’s just a game.”
Never retire, Mr. Sutter, I implore you.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
A Tim Curry Time Warp
The are ''cult movies'', then there is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running (consecutive) theatrical feature of all time. And because of its cult following, all speaking parts in it (and some silent ones, including even a stuffed bird) are well-known and all actors recognized and worshiped, but none more so than Tim Curry, Frank-N-Furter himself in both the film and the stage show before it.
Here he is in a rare interview about the film, a topic he usually avoids nowadays. Notice how he looks like a humble Freddie Mercury in it (it's the mustache)!
Here he is in a rare interview about the film, a topic he usually avoids nowadays. Notice how he looks like a humble Freddie Mercury in it (it's the mustache)!
Monday, January 26, 2015
Strippers On Deflate Gate
Well, everyone else had their opinions about the New England Patriots' trouncing of the Indianapolis Colts with deflated balls (which, in this case, had nothing to do with steroid use), so, yes, Busted Coverage found something to talk about on their daily outing to Rick's Cabaret in New York City so they could charge their champagne room bill to the company as a business expense.
Go on the page to see quotes and stuff, and more pictures than the two below... if you need to.
Please, no sexist remarks about how your city has better/sexier/nakeder/curvier strippers than New York in the comments section - they will be deleted; this one (Kimmie, I think, judging by the article) has decent football knowledge and was smart enough to let the idiots pretend to be journalists while she was earning her living. She wins.
Go on the page to see quotes and stuff, and more pictures than the two below... if you need to.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Love And Monster Trucks
And banging each other's cousins.
Oh, and public drunkenness and terrible reporting.
Poor lady. The reporter should have let her go the minute he realized she was in no condition to be interviewed, and instead delved deeper into personal questions when he saw that her being drunk led to her being open and honest. And now the whole world will know her story.
I'm tagging this with ''stupidity'', but on the journalist's part, not the woman he's laughing at and putting down.
Oh, and public drunkenness and terrible reporting.
Poor lady. The reporter should have let her go the minute he realized she was in no condition to be interviewed, and instead delved deeper into personal questions when he saw that her being drunk led to her being open and honest. And now the whole world will know her story.
I'm tagging this with ''stupidity'', but on the journalist's part, not the woman he's laughing at and putting down.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Heather Levia And Losing Your Job At McDonald's
The media and blogosphere jumped on a story last week about Heather Levia, a 23-year old mother of twins who had been working at McDonald's for 8 years and is putting herself through nursing school, who allegedly lost her job after paying for the meals of two fire departments' worth of firemen who had spent the night fighting fire on a neighbouring building.
She had reportedly asked her manager if the restaurant was going to foot the bill for the first crew, and upon hearing they wouldn't, opted to pay for their breakfasts herself; hearing of ''free food'', a second unit came in and were offered the same treatment.
She was fired when she came in to work the next day. The company claims the reason why they fired her wasn't that she made the company look cheap - or anything to do with that situation.
Personally, my thoughts on the affair go like this: on one hand, she was insubordinate, and should have been reprimanded because this could potentially open up a huge can of worms where public servants of every level would start expecting the same treatment, first when working near there, then at all times; first firemen, then policemen, then ambulance drivers, then the whole Village People crew.
On the other hand, she did a good deed and should be congratulated. Especially on a shitty McDonald's wage.
But that's where it starts not making much sense: she's a mother of two, working at close to or spot-on minimum wage. She has time to go to school and raise her kids on the side. She's a nice person, in 2014, in North America.
She cannot possibly exist. As described, I mean. And in the PR-led world we live in, McDonald's would have put up a statue of her in its parking lot - or at least named her employee of the month - to cash in on her actions, not risk alienating the last few people who still eat there.
Could it be she knew she was going to get fired for whatever reason and attempted one grand gesture to keep it?
Who the fuck knows. One thing's for sure, though: in the age of Twitter and Facebook, even a low-level manager at McDonald's knows better than to bring this much bad publicity towards their employer. And journalists should wait until having both sides of a story before sensationalizing it to the max and having it spread worldwide. In some reports, she is even made the store's manager (though they still stick to the claim that she texted her boss, would that have been the regional director?); in another, she just ''donates food''; some just mention she paid for $83 worth of food (which is just one of the two orders).
Something is fishy with this story, but it would help if it started with actual facts.
Also, word is she was offered many jobs since. Good. If she had been a bad employee, she can now change with the good actions he's made; if she really is pure of heart, she deserved better than to work at that shitty job for so long. She's a hero now, it comes with both perks and responsibilities.
She had reportedly asked her manager if the restaurant was going to foot the bill for the first crew, and upon hearing they wouldn't, opted to pay for their breakfasts herself; hearing of ''free food'', a second unit came in and were offered the same treatment.
She was fired when she came in to work the next day. The company claims the reason why they fired her wasn't that she made the company look cheap - or anything to do with that situation.
Personally, my thoughts on the affair go like this: on one hand, she was insubordinate, and should have been reprimanded because this could potentially open up a huge can of worms where public servants of every level would start expecting the same treatment, first when working near there, then at all times; first firemen, then policemen, then ambulance drivers, then the whole Village People crew.
On the other hand, she did a good deed and should be congratulated. Especially on a shitty McDonald's wage.
But that's where it starts not making much sense: she's a mother of two, working at close to or spot-on minimum wage. She has time to go to school and raise her kids on the side. She's a nice person, in 2014, in North America.
She cannot possibly exist. As described, I mean. And in the PR-led world we live in, McDonald's would have put up a statue of her in its parking lot - or at least named her employee of the month - to cash in on her actions, not risk alienating the last few people who still eat there.
Could it be she knew she was going to get fired for whatever reason and attempted one grand gesture to keep it?
Who the fuck knows. One thing's for sure, though: in the age of Twitter and Facebook, even a low-level manager at McDonald's knows better than to bring this much bad publicity towards their employer. And journalists should wait until having both sides of a story before sensationalizing it to the max and having it spread worldwide. In some reports, she is even made the store's manager (though they still stick to the claim that she texted her boss, would that have been the regional director?); in another, she just ''donates food''; some just mention she paid for $83 worth of food (which is just one of the two orders).
Something is fishy with this story, but it would help if it started with actual facts.
Also, word is she was offered many jobs since. Good. If she had been a bad employee, she can now change with the good actions he's made; if she really is pure of heart, she deserved better than to work at that shitty job for so long. She's a hero now, it comes with both perks and responsibilities.
Sochi On Tinder
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how athletes in Sochi had the technological advantage of Tinder to hook and and have athletic sex amongst themselves and use up the 100,000 condoms provided to them on-site.
Well, technology works both ways, and when you mix it up with bad reporting, social media, blogging and the general lack of privacy inherent to our times, what you get is a webpage whose sole reason for existing is to expose the athletes who have used the app, Sochi On Tinder.
Not just that, but it is still being updated today, 4 days after the closing ceremonies, which leads me to believe the Sochi Games were just the beginning of the intrusion into these athletes' lives.
Upon first glance, I was surprised to find that the men were far more likely to take their clothes off and display their goods in their introductory pictures than the ladies, especially considering that 'friending' someone on Tinder is pretty much the equivalent of buying them a drink a decade ago...
There were some disturbing ones, i.e. all of those who show their wedding pictures in their profile pics:
Either AZ Central's 12 News traffic reporter Emma Jade will have some explaining to do when her husband realizes what she likes to do when she's half a world away (she also went to the Beijing, Vancouver and London Games), or she's that good of a reporter, always willing to go under covers for the hard-hitting stories. Pulitzer Prize, anyone?
(See what I did there? I criticized a website for going too far, then did some investigative journalism myself and pushed the envelope a little further, but mine was less voyeuristic and more sleezeball/who-cares-how-many-lives-I-destroy-as-long-as-I-get-to-The-Truth, no-conscience journalism. Pulitzer Prize, anyone?)
(See what I did there? I made the same joke as in the previous paragraph.)
Well, technology works both ways, and when you mix it up with bad reporting, social media, blogging and the general lack of privacy inherent to our times, what you get is a webpage whose sole reason for existing is to expose the athletes who have used the app, Sochi On Tinder.
Not just that, but it is still being updated today, 4 days after the closing ceremonies, which leads me to believe the Sochi Games were just the beginning of the intrusion into these athletes' lives.
Upon first glance, I was surprised to find that the men were far more likely to take their clothes off and display their goods in their introductory pictures than the ladies, especially considering that 'friending' someone on Tinder is pretty much the equivalent of buying them a drink a decade ago...
There were some disturbing ones, i.e. all of those who show their wedding pictures in their profile pics:
Either AZ Central's 12 News traffic reporter Emma Jade will have some explaining to do when her husband realizes what she likes to do when she's half a world away (she also went to the Beijing, Vancouver and London Games), or she's that good of a reporter, always willing to go under covers for the hard-hitting stories. Pulitzer Prize, anyone?
(See what I did there? I criticized a website for going too far, then did some investigative journalism myself and pushed the envelope a little further, but mine was less voyeuristic and more sleezeball/who-cares-how-many-lives-I-destroy-as-long-as-I-get-to-The-Truth, no-conscience journalism. Pulitzer Prize, anyone?)
(See what I did there? I made the same joke as in the previous paragraph.)
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Oh, Sochi
If Russia doesn't break you, it will break itself around you.
Apparently, international journalists aren't impressed with the accommodations so far, a day before the Games begin...
These are going to be a fun read over the course of two weeks...
Apparently, international journalists aren't impressed with the accommodations so far, a day before the Games begin...
Some journalists arriving in Sochi are describing appalling conditions in the housing there, where only six of nine media hotels are ready for guests. Hotels are still under construction. Water, if it’s running, isn’t drinkable. One German photographer told the AP over the weekend that his hotel still had stray dogs and construction workers wandering in and out of rooms.
These are going to be a fun read over the course of two weeks...
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Russians Fight Back With A Kiss
As I mentioned in the previous post, it would take the world of sports to pass the first very public message of dissent against the Russian anti-homosexuality-propaganda law...
... unless that was just a Russian kiss, like the hockey players would give themselves after each goal during the 1972 Summit Series. For seemingly immutable peoples, Russians display glee in stoic-yet-affectionate ways Westerners aren't used to - like cold Sicilians.
Still, the mostly-male-dominated Western media had a field day (and possibly a hard-on) at the sight of Kseniya Ryzhova and Yulia Gushchina kissing on the podium, though it wasn't the first kiss (as can be attested in the video, Tatyana Firova, far right, was the first recipient, kind of like how at the 2003 MTV VMAs, people remember Britney Spears making out with Madonna but forget that Christina Aguilera got Mrs. Ciccone's first tonguing).
If Toyota were an American brand, all four of these ladies would have had a brand new car waiting for them outside the locker room. Had the athletes been men and this would have happened in the U.S., an army of hard-line Christians would have been there picketing.
Whether it was a statement or not, this will probably end up being the Picture Of The Year, barring some unforeseen natural disasters of epic proportions, a Presidential murder, or a nuclear war.
... unless that was just a Russian kiss, like the hockey players would give themselves after each goal during the 1972 Summit Series. For seemingly immutable peoples, Russians display glee in stoic-yet-affectionate ways Westerners aren't used to - like cold Sicilians.
Still, the mostly-male-dominated Western media had a field day (and possibly a hard-on) at the sight of Kseniya Ryzhova and Yulia Gushchina kissing on the podium, though it wasn't the first kiss (as can be attested in the video, Tatyana Firova, far right, was the first recipient, kind of like how at the 2003 MTV VMAs, people remember Britney Spears making out with Madonna but forget that Christina Aguilera got Mrs. Ciccone's first tonguing).
Whether it was a statement or not, this will probably end up being the Picture Of The Year, barring some unforeseen natural disasters of epic proportions, a Presidential murder, or a nuclear war.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
The (Cute) Face Of Terror
Big uproar in the social media (and media in general) regarding Rolling Stone's front page, showing Boston bombings suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev...
Critics are saying they make him look glamourous, like a ''rock star'', comparing it to their covers featuring The Doors' Jim Morrison:
Sure, if dying in your bath is what passes for glamour.
Funny how no one batted an eye when the New York Times featured the exact same fucking picture on their front page:
I know the concept of ''innocent until proven guilty'' has taken a beating of late, and how there are innocents on death row and George Zimmerman walks free...
But to call for a boycott of one of the most important publications of the 20th Century because they dared show that appearances can be deceiving, that a popular kid who is a good student can veer from the straight path, that not all terrorists are disgruntled old men with long beards - is completely missing the point.
Shit can happen, and can spiral out of anyone's control. Not all troubled teens turn downright ''evil'', not every honor student becomes a killer, but the ''perfect storm'' of circumstances can bring a home-grown threat to life just as much as blindly waging useless wars abroad, or blindly supporting countries that get on other countries' nerves on purpose.
I say ''kudos, Rolling Stone''. Instead of putting Maroon 5 or Bruno Mars on your cover for a vapid, 3-page piece on how hard it is to do your own shopping when you're a superstar, you strapped your balls on and went ahead with the main article of the summer.
Then again, you also put Charles Manson on your cover once...
Critics are saying they make him look glamourous, like a ''rock star'', comparing it to their covers featuring The Doors' Jim Morrison:
Sure, if dying in your bath is what passes for glamour.
Funny how no one batted an eye when the New York Times featured the exact same fucking picture on their front page:
I know the concept of ''innocent until proven guilty'' has taken a beating of late, and how there are innocents on death row and George Zimmerman walks free...
But to call for a boycott of one of the most important publications of the 20th Century because they dared show that appearances can be deceiving, that a popular kid who is a good student can veer from the straight path, that not all terrorists are disgruntled old men with long beards - is completely missing the point.
Shit can happen, and can spiral out of anyone's control. Not all troubled teens turn downright ''evil'', not every honor student becomes a killer, but the ''perfect storm'' of circumstances can bring a home-grown threat to life just as much as blindly waging useless wars abroad, or blindly supporting countries that get on other countries' nerves on purpose.
I say ''kudos, Rolling Stone''. Instead of putting Maroon 5 or Bruno Mars on your cover for a vapid, 3-page piece on how hard it is to do your own shopping when you're a superstar, you strapped your balls on and went ahead with the main article of the summer.
Then again, you also put Charles Manson on your cover once...
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