Is ABC’s Nightline Committing Mortal Synergy?

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

What’s the deal with Nightline and Animal Planet? If they’re not Disney kissin’ cousins, they sure are doing a good imitation of ’em.

Exhibit A: Tuesday’s Nightline feature on animal hoarders, which was a virtual infomercial for Animal Planet’s upcoming program “Confessions: Animal Hoarding.”

Just for good measure: Promo on Nightline’s website.

Watch “Confessions: Animal Hoarding” premiering on Animal Planet Wednesday, July 21 at 9 p.m. ET

That comes hard on the heels of last month’s Nightline piece on Animal Planet’s “River Monsters” host Jeremy Wade.

(ABC’s entire Animal Planet ouevre here.)

The hardsearching staff has combed the web for links between Disney and Animal Planet and has yet to find anything definitive, but you gotta wonder:

Is ABC’s Animal Planet attraction a coincidence?

An editorial convenience?

Or something more?

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Media Mattis

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Tuesday’s dead-tree New York Times piece about new CentCom commander James Mattis:

Petraeus’s Successor Is Admired on Front Lines, but Known for Impolitic Words

WASHINGTON — To those who have served under him, Gen. James N. Mattis is the consummate Marine commander, a warrior who chooses to lead from the front lines and speaks bluntly rather than concerning himself with political correctness.

But General Mattis, President Obama’s choice to command American forces across the strategic crescent that encompasses Iraq and Afghanistan, has also been occasionally seen by his civilian superiors as too rough-edged at a time when military strategy is as much about winning the allegiance of local populations as it is about firepower.

Too rough-edged for the Times as well, which cites examples that are linguistically, well, politic.

“You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap around women for five years because they didn’t wear a veil,” General Mattis said during a forum in San Diego in 2005. “You know guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway, so it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”

Okay, but you need to check out The Weekly Standard for the 90 proof stuff.

From last week’s Scrapbook:

♦ Advice to soldiers and Marines: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”

♦ Speaking to tribal leaders in Iraq: “I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f— with me, I’ll kill you all.”

Now that’s impolitic.

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Local Live Coverage You Can’t Count On

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

It is the great misfortune of WCVB-TV that the hardworking staff of Campaign Outsider generally chooses to watch its newscasts over the other Boston stations’.

What follows, however, could be said of of virtually all local newscasts.

YOU’RE NO LONGER LOCAL!!!

The “local live coverage you can count on” that ‘CVB endlessly flogs is actually “elsewhere canned coverage you could live without.”

Take Monday night’s NewsCenter 5 at 11. (Alright. Please.)

Three of the newscast’s stories were straight off the satellite feed:

• A “Billboard Battle in the Bible Belt.” From the ABC News website (WCVB is Boston’s ABC affiliate):

Deep in the heart of the Bible Belt, a dispute over God and country is being waged very publicly.

It all started when an atheist group decided to remind people of the history of thePledge of Allegiance by putting up six billboards around the state of North Carolina, in honor of the July Fourth holiday. One was placed even on Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte.

The signs read “One nation indivisible,” a reference to the Pledge of Allegiance but deliberately omitting the words “under God.”

(clip)

In Asheville, N.C., where one of the billboards stands, the Rev. Ralph Sexton, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, is fighting back — with his own billboards and help from the church coalition We Still Pray.

The predictable rumpus ensued.

• A breast feeding ruckus in Kentucky. (Local newscast story here.)

• A car chase that ended with the suspect crashing into a Detroit TV station. (Sorry, no video here.)

But you could see it on a Boston TV station. The question is, why?

I know, I know – times are hard, budgets are tight, satellite feeds are attractive.

Even so, those stories ate up valuable airtime and meant nothing to Boston residents. They qualify as interesting, not important.

As Neil Postman said 25 years ago: Run that stuff all you want. Just don’t call it news.

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Obit o’ the Day (Hello! Edition)

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

From Sunday’s New York Times:

Eduardo Sánchez Junco, Founder of Fawning Magazine, Is Dead at 67

Lede:

If you want to be the subject of a stunningly flattering profile in Hello magazine, one of Britain’s most widely read celebrity weeklies, all you really need are a title, a castle and a pen with which to endorse the handsome check that will surely be sent your way — or, in a pinch, if you are untitled but sufficiently boldface, just the pen.

Hello! in other words is a first-rate example of reverse checkbook journalism.

As The Daily Telegraph of London wrote in its obituary of Mr. Sánchez Junco on Friday, “The magazine quickly earned a reputation for paying hefty fees for treacly interviews with the rich, royal or famous; its fixer and star interviewer, the Marquesa de Varela, a Uruguayan socialite, was said to travel the world laden with cash stuffed into designer suitcases to clinch her deals.”

Sample cover, featuring Rupert Murdoch at his daughters’ baptism:

Regardless, just shoot me if the headline of my obituary contains the word “fawning.”

Then again, I wouldn’t mind running into the Marquesa de Valera sometime.

If only to carry her suitcases for a bit.

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NPR Drives Anchor To Drink

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

It all started a couple of weeks ago with a piece about salmon vodka. All Things Considered anchor Michelle Norris, during an interview with vice president of Alaska Distillery Scotti McDonald, brought in some folks to do a taste test.

NORRIS: Now, since I have it here, it seems like it’s a shame to just talk about this vodka. I’ve brought in two taste-testers to sample some of your salmon-flavored vodka. I’m just opening up the bottle while we do this, and I’ll introduce both of them.

Ms. MCDONALD: Sure.

NORRIS: Loren Jenkins is not only our foreign editor – can you get that, Loren?

LOREN JENKINS: Yeah.

NORRIS: He’s not only our foreign editor but he’s also a discerning connoisseur of fine beverages. I believe that, Loren, you provided the glasses for this taste test. And we’re also joined by Katie Daugert. She’s a research librarian, and she knows a thing or two about salmon. She actually worked on a commercial salmon fishing boat. So you’re both going to take a quick test. Loren, can you do the pouring for me?

(Soundbite of glass clinking)

NORRIS: Okay. All right. That’s a full glass there.

(Soundbite of glass clinking)

NORRIS: Okay. And Scotti, now – you note that this is best enjoyed in a Bloody Mary. But we decided that we wanted to keep this pure, simple.

Ms. MCDONALD: You know, it’s kind of like a good gin. You don’t really just drink gin by itself. You have, you know…

JENKINS: Oh, some of us do.

NORRIS: But there are many people who drink…

(Soundbite of laughter)

NORRIS: You’re talking to newshounds here. There are many people who…

Ms. MCDONALD: Okay. All right. All right. Well, go for it.

NORRIS: Okay. Loren, you first. What do you think of that?

JENKINS: Well, surprisingly, I like it. You do taste the smoked salmon. It tastes good.

NORRIS: Um-hum. So, thumbs up from Loren Jenkins. Katie Daugert, what do you think?

KATIE DAUGERT: It’s very unusual. I think it’s actually not bad. I didn’t expect to like it at all. And I think it’s not bad. It’s kind of fishy. I can see how it would be really good in a Bloody Mary.

NORRIS: And Scotti, that’s the way you say it should best be enjoyed, in a Bloody Mary, yes?

Ms. MCDONALD: That’s right. We’ve done lots of road shows, and we have the exact same response from people, you know, when they go to taste it. They hold it in their hands, they kind of mull over what they’re about to do and when they finally, you know, plug their nose and down the hatch, they are pleasantly surprised. Sometimes we garnish it with asparagus or, you know, give a little bit of a shot of pickle juice in there to give it a little extra, tangy flavor.

NORRIS: I’m sorry. You had them until you said pickle juice.

Cut to: Saturday’s Weekend All Things Considered.

After a piece about the ancient Chinese beer Jiahu – which Delaware micro-brewery Dogfish Head has recreated – anchor Guy Raz participated in the taste test.

Apparently, NPR now stands for No Proxy Rumpots.

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Martha Coakley Is Not Going To D.C.

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

A couple of weeks ago the hardworking staff was first in Boston to note that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley was on the short list to become director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Turns out that was the long short list.

The short short list, according to the New York Times:

A three-person short list includes Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor whose proposal to create the agency was embraced by Mr. Obama and who is the favorite of liberal advocacy groups.

The other candidates are Michael S. Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary who helped shepherd the legislation through Congress, and Eugene I. Kimmelman, a former consumer advocate who is deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division of the Justice Department.

This time, the smartworking staff won’t even bother checking Coakley’s Twitter and Facebook pages for an update on Martha’s list-less condition.

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If You Ever Plan To Motor West

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Well the Missus and I took a spin out to the Berkshires to examine the artwork currently on view there and this is what we saw:

• The Clark’s landmark exhibit “Picasso Looks at Degas,” which brilliantly traces the lines that connect the tectonic Spaniard to the iconic Frenchman.  (Splendid Wall Street Journal review here.)

One example:

This show is worth every mile.

• No less than six exhibits at MASS MoCA, all of which are a gas. But the Petah Coyne retrospective “Everything That Rises Must Converge” (tip o’ the pen to Flannery O’Connor) is absolutely eye-popping.

A sample:

And that’s not even the best of them.

• The always captivating Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio, home of Park Avenue Cubists Suzy Frelinghuysen and George L. K. Morris.

Inspired by Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius on the outside, and infused with the couple’s work on the inside, their house is a wonder of architecture and art.

A taste:

You really can’t visit too often.

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A Galluccio By Any Other Name . . .

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

From our There But for the Grace of God Go I desk:

WCVB’s NewCenter 5 at 11 ran a story Wednesday night about Mr. Not-So-Ultra Brite Anthony Galluccio:

A former Massachusetts state senator who blamed toothpaste ingredients for failing alcohol screenings was released on parole Wednesday after serving about half his sentence for a 2009 hit-and-run crash.Anthony Galluccio was freed Wednesday from a parole office in Quincy after leaving the Middlesex House of Correction in Billerica.

Except the NewsCenter 5 at 11 piece repeatedly called him “Joseph Galluccio” and also keyed him Joseph Galluccio.

Of course the hardworking staff has heard about people getting in shape or getting religion in the sneezer, but not so much getting a new first name.

Oddly, in his standup after the piece, veteran WCVB reporter Jorge Quiroga did call him Anthony Galluccio, stressing the “Anthony.”

Really – if you’re going to cop to a mistake, cop to it.

Either that, or change the track and the key.

But as it turned out – for one night anyway – WCVB stood for We Can’t Verify Basics.

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The Green Mon$ter

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

Smart piece in the Wall Street Journal about (squandered) public funding of Major League baseball parks, one notable exception being the lyric little bandbox in the Fens.

The Green Monster Goes It Alone

Baseball fans will be tuning in for Tuesday’s All Star Game, but as taxpayers they should be fuming. Nearly every one of the teams represented has gone to its local government and asked for hundreds of millions of dollars to build a gleaming new stadium.

One of the few exceptions: the Boston Red Sox, who have taken Fenway Park, which turns 100 in 2012, and transformed it into one of the most fan-friendly ballparks in the country. Moreover, they’ve mostly done it within the historic confines of the original ballpark, kept ticket prices affordable and haven’t taken a dime of taxpayer money.

What the Journal report doesn’t say:

There’s no way in hell the Red Sox are getting actual dollars from the City of Boston (although the organization has been allowed to annex adjoining streets), so the owners sort of had no choice but to foot the bill themselves.

Still, there’s no question that Fenway is a far better ballpark than it was ten years ago, not to mention a far better location than its potential replacement on Boston’s forever underdeveloped waterfront.

But taxpayer dollars?

Is to laugh.

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Y, Oh Y?

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Campaign Outsider

The Young Men’s Christian Association, universally known as the YMCA, has decided to outstrip the acronym-minded folks at KFC, AARP, and – most recently – NPR by stripping down to one letter.

New York Times headline:

Y.M.C.A. Is Downsizing to a Single Letter

According to the Times piece:

One of the nation’s most iconic nonprofit organizations, founded 166 years ago in England as the Young Men’s Christian Association, is undergoing a major rebranding, adopting as its name the nickname everyone has used for generations.

“It’s a way of being warmer, more genuine, more welcoming, when you call yourself what everyone else calls you,” said Kate Coleman, the organization’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer.

Warmer? More genuine? More welcoming?

Three of the Village People just got laid off.

From now on, YMCA stands for Young Men’s Castoff Association.

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