"There is no form of evidence which can be fully trusted."

USS Clueless | Notes on Press Bias
We citizens have to start thinking of news reporting as being about as reliable as advertising.

(See also previous entry.)

With friends like these, the Kerry Campaign doesn't need money

Weekly Standard | Michael Moore and Me
A FEW YEARS AGO Michael Moore, who's now promoting an anti-President Bush movie entitled Fahrenheit 9/11, announced he'd gotten the goods on me, indeed hung me out to dry on my own words. It was in his first bestselling book, Stupid White Men. Moore wrote he'd once been "forced" to listen to my comments on a TV chat show, The McLaughlin Group. I had whined "on and on about the sorry state of American education," Moore said, and wound up by bellowing: "These kids don't even know what The Iliad and The Odyssey are!"

Moore's interest was piqued, so the next day he said he called me. "Fred," he quoted himself as saying, "tell me what The Iliad and The Odyssey are." I started "hemming and hawing," Moore wrote. And then I said, according to Moore: "Well, they're . . . uh . . . you know . . . uh . . . okay, fine, you got me--I don't know what they're about. Happy now?" He'd smoked me out as a fraud, or maybe worse.

The only problem is none of this is true. It never happened. Moore is a liar. He made it up. It's a fabrication on two levels. One, I've never met Moore or even talked to him on the phone. And, two, I read both The Iliad and The Odyssey in my first year at the University of Virginia.

I don't know why anyone would be surprised by this. The only way to make the world look that simple, black or white, left or right, is to lie about it.

Which is not to say that Moore doesn't deserve the Palme d'Or. It doesn't mean he's right... but the fact that he's wrong makes him no less a skilled filmmaker.

I have just the person to look into Moore's lies and distortions. Al Franken has taken special interest in public liars, writing a bestseller called Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. Al, the Moore case is now in your court.

Yeah, that'll happen. Michael Moore is a Big Fat Idiot. I'll look for that on the bestseller lists by Christmas.

Game the system

Yahoo (Chicago Tribune) | Kerry may delay nomination
Sen. John Kerry's campaign disclosed Friday it was mulling the extraordinary step of delaying by at least a month the Massachusetts Democrat's acceptance of his party's presidential nomination, a move meant to keep President Bush from enjoying a fundraising advantage.

...His campaign is considering the delay because of a disadvantage having to do with the scheduling of the political conventions this year and federal campaign financing laws.

Those laws require candidates opting for public financing of their general election campaigns to receive their money from the U.S. Treasury after their party's nominating convention.

For Kerry, that means he would be eligible for $75 million in public financing following the Democratic Convention in Boston, scheduled July 26-29.

The Republican convention in New York is to take place five weeks later, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, after which Bush would get his $75 million in taxpayer money.

The Democrats are worried because the Kerry campaign would have to make its public dollars last five weeks longer than the president's campaign would.

In addition, the Bush campaign could keep spending the large sums it has raised from private contributors up through the GOP convention. As of the end of April, the Bush campaign had raised a record $201 million.

The Kerry campaign, for its part, has had unexpected success in raising campaign funds from private contributors. By April's end, it had raised $117 million. So it would prefer to raise and spend such contributions as long as it legally can.

That would be unique, for the presumptive nominee not to show up at his party's convention. I guess there's nothing in the rules that forbid that.

The Democrats will just have to reschedule their convention to the same weekend as the Republicans. They might as well: Their guest of honor won't be there. I mean, really, does this inconvenience anybody? It's not like conflicting schedules or venues are a problem: They're in different cities, and none of the same people will be attending both, unless you count reporters.

On the other hand, the Democrats have now laid the groundwork to spend the next four years whining again about how President Bush wasn't elected. "He didn't win the presidency, he bought it."

LATER: It occurs to me that the Bush campaign can ignore the deadline, refuse the $75 million in federal campaign funds, and still be able to outspend the Kerry campaign. Perhaps the Democrats' best tactic is to find a way to shame the Bush campaign into doing just that, in the interest of "levelling the playing field".

The Democrats are going to severely tick off the press if their nominee doesn't intend to accept the nomination--unless that means the convention then gets to pick another nominee that will. Now that would be interesting.

LATER YET: I'm reminded that Dennis Kucinich is still running...

A prank? No! Do you think?

Yahoo (AP) | Porn Switched With School's Announcement
CHAMBLEE, Ga. - Some Chamblee High School students expecting to see the usual morning announcements instead glimpsed a hard-core prank Tuesday morning.

School administrators were trying to determine who swapped a pornographic videotape for the school announcements tape, sending the images out to several classrooms.

"Our children in our news class do a tape each morning of the Chamblee morning news, and they bring it to the media center, and our media center specialist puts it into the machine," said assistant principal Becky Chambers.

Before the program is broadcast, the media specialist leaves the media center and goes to the main office, to turn on an audio feed to two or three places in the high school that do not have closed-circuit televisions, Chambers said.

"In the seconds that it took her to walk out of her office and head up the hall, some student — we don't know who — took the tape out of the machine and inserted a very inappropriate tape," Chambers said.

"A couple of the classrooms — fortunately not all of them had it on — got a very inappropriate feed for a matter of some seconds before a teacher could fly up here and alert us and we could fly back down the hall and pull the tape out," she said.

One parent who complained characterized the tape as hard-core pornography, but Chambers said she didn't view the tape and couldn't confirm its contents. Administrators were watching security camera tapes to try to determine who made the switch.

Chambers said that with this being the last week of school, a senior prank "would be my best guess at this point."

Do you think they're trying too hard to convince the reporter that hardly anybody saw it anyway? I never saw people so determined to put distance between themselves and what happened.

Only a couple of the teachers bothered to have the morning announcement feed on?

The individual teachers have the capacity to turn off the morning announcements? No classroom I've ever been in had a switch on the speaker.

Where I've been

Those of you who know me in the Real World know (or can guess) some of it. Sick child, sick me, work deadlines, unpaid writing deadlines, the rush of school-related activities before the end of the semester, like that. I'm fine, though, and so is the family.

And this is news...how?

This is too easy.

The Independent | Moore accused of publicity stunt over Disney 'ban'
Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political censorship, the rabble-rousing film-maker Michael Moore has admitted he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it.

The admission, during an interview with CNN, undermined Moore's claim that Disney was trying to sabotage the US release of Fahrenheit 911 just days before its world premiere at the Cannes film festival.

Instead, it lent credence to a growing suspicion that Moore was manufacturing a controversy to help publicise the film, a full-bore attack on the Bush administration and its handling of national security since the attacks of 11 September 2001.

Of all the people in this world who do not need to manufacture controversy...

Moore told CNN that Disney had "signed a contract to distribute this [film]" but got cold feet. But Disney executives insists there was never any contract. And a source close to Miramax said that the only deal there was for financing, not for distribution.

Read the fine print, Mike.

A front-page news piece in The New York Times was followed yesterday by an editorial denouncing Disney for censorship and denial of Moore's right to free expression.

Sigh. Memo to the New York Times: As much as the Disney company may wish it otherwise, Disney is not the government. Moore's failure to sell his product to Michael Eisner does not constitute "censorship". Even if Eisner did make his decision for political reasons.

Miramax paid to make the film: no "plug" has been pulled. I don't doubt someone will make an offer to distribute it.

Mark your calendars

Anime News Network | My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa, Porco Rosso Release Announcement
Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Studio Ghibli proudly present three animated masterpieces from Hayao Miyazaki, the genius filmmaker of “Spirited Away,” the Academy Award? winner for the Best Animated Feature Film of 2002. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND and PORCO ROSSO will each be available for the first time on a 2-disc DVD on August 31. These remarkable films each include a brand-new, stellar English language voice cast and on DVD also feature the original Japanese language track; complete storyboards; featurettes that go behind the microphone and more, presented in a pristine digital picture for the best possible viewing experience. With a unique blend of entertaining storytelling, imagination, compelling characters and stunning artistry, each of these magical and mystical worlds will enchant and delight audiences of all ages.

Porco Rosso is the one that will blow you away.

The press release lists some of the cast, but not who's reading what. IMDB to the rescue. Michael Keaton is Porco Rosso, the Italian aviator who has "resigned from the human race" and become, literally, a pig. (Jean Reno did the French-language release: If only they'd got him for this one.) Susan Egan (Megara in Disney's "Hercules", Lin in "Spirited Away") is Gina, the woman who loves Porco, if he'd only let her. Cary Elwes ("The Princess Bride", "Robin Hood: Men in Tights", "Liar Liar") is Curtis, the rival American pilot who also has eyes for Gina. David Ogden Stiers is Grandpa Piccolo, who owns the shop where Porco's plane is repaired after his first run-in with Curtis.

But then, the disc will also include the original Japanese with English subtitles, so if you don't like this cast you don't have to listen to them. You'll want to see this either way.

Meirav was two

From Yourish.com (via Lileks).

Interesting use of the word "launch"

I had no idea it meant "buy."

CNN Money | Al Gore launches cable TV network
Former U.S. vice president Al Gore announced Tuesday that he and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt plan to launch their own cable television network by buying cable television channel NewsWorld International from Vivendi Universal for an undisclosed sum.

Gore is expected to be the chairman of the NWI board, while Hyatt will be running the company as the new cable network's chief executive officer, the company said.

... Newsworld International is a 24-hour channel broadcasting international news produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC). It is distributed to about 17 million subscriber homes.

The programming on NWI will continue to be provided by CBC.

Al Gore and Joel Hyatt. There's a match made in heaven. Not a gnat's eyelash of charisma between them.

So, the programming won't change, only the ownership will. This reminds me of George Carlin's riff on an incurable disease with no known symptoms.

First Tab, then Diet Coke, now C2

RedNova | Coke and Pepsi to Face Off in Carb Battle
Coke and Pepsi, trying to put more fizz into their soda sales, are about to launch new brands that taste like their flagship drinks but contain half the sugar, carbs and calories.

... The new sodas are targeted at people who don't like the calories in regular colas but are dissatisfied with diet versions.

... The new drinks contain the standard high-fructose corn syrup that sweetens regular soda but in smaller amounts. The corn syrup is supplemented with Splenda, a no-calorie, no-carbohydrate sweetener made from sugar.

Yes, but will it come in de-caf?

LATER: Perhaps I should explain that Splenda is the Dreaded Purple iced tea and cereal sweetener of choice, and has been for almost two years now, and yes, a particular traumatic medical event had a lot to do with that. I can also recommend Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate, whose sugar-free product is sweetened with Splenda. (Sponsorship deals open to negotiation.)

Unasked-for advice

And remember, it's worth every penny.

Senator Kerry:

Bush/AWOL: It just plain makes you look disconnected to reopen the discussion at this late date. It's been pretty well documented by now that nobody is hiding anything about this issue. Nobody wants a disconnected President. Heck, nobody wants a disconnected Senator.

Ribbons Over the Fence: You're slow to get this particular clue, so I'll spell it out. It's a three part clue, so get an intern to help you take notes. (1) The issue has been present, but dormant, for as long as you've been in the public eye, not just this particular campaign. The person who re-opened it is you. Nobody else. (2) I think I understand the distinction you're drawing between throwing your ribbons over the fence and throwing your medals over the fence. I think a lot of people don't: I think you're not presenting it well. It makes you look like you can't pick a story and stick to it, and your campaign doesn't need that. (3) I don't care. I don't think anybody cares. It doesn't matter to me if you threw your medals, ribbons, or uniform over the fence. I don't care if you threw your boat over the fence. What you say, here and now, matters to me much more than what you did thirty years ago. So say something good. Quit addressing old, tired pseudo-controversies and tell me what you intend to do.

If you dare.

If you know.

PS. Meet the Press. Video: You in 1971, saying how ashamed you were of what you did in Vietnam. Russert, now: "You committed atrocities." You, now: "Where did all that dark hair go, Tim? That’s a big question for me." What were you thinking? Who did you imagine would be amused by that? Is that how seriously you take this?

Just trying to help

IMAO | Frank Suggestions to Improve John Kerry's Campaignt
Yes, I want the Democrats to lose, and to lose so big it wipes out their "Bush was selected not elected" delirium. So big that they cry. So big that they actually follow through on their threats to move to France. Still, I just can't stand idly by and watch a train wreck, so here are my ideas to help the Kerry campaign:

* Get Rid of the French-Lookingness: This is a hard one, but essential. Instead of a suit, wear a leather jacket and sunglasses. Mess up that thousand dollar haircut of yours. Then, grow some stubble. If you can't grow stubble because of that Botox stuff, then have a Hollywood makeup artist give you some.

Maybe a mustache. A big, bushy Tom Selleck mustache.

* No More Mentioning That You Served Vietnam: Okay, dude, we all know you served in Vietnam and are getting tired of you bringing it up, but there's a better way to mention it. Instead of saying, "By the way, I served in Vietnam", phrase instead as "I've killed people before." Said in a low, menacing voice, it's also a good dodge to questions.

And maybe a scar across one cheek.

"You're assuming that you represent the public."

Ah. I should have been paying attention back in August.

...a reporter said to him: Mr. President, is it really true you don't read the press or watch us on television? And he said no. And the reporter then said: Well, how do you then know, Mr. President, what the public is thinking? And Bush, without missing a beat said: You're making a powerful assumption, young man. You're assuming that you represent the public. I don't accept that.

I followed the link back from Instapundit to PressThink to WNYC. You can too.

It occurs to me (and it seems not to occur to anyone else) that "I don't accept that" doesn't mean that the press never represents the public, words many pundits seem eager to put in the President's mouth. It means that it can't be assumed that they do. It means that each question they ask must be judged on its own merit.

It should be remembered that the White House press corps talks mostly to each other and the White House Press Secretary's office. They're no more experts on what The Public wants than the President is.

(Tangent: The side trip to PressThink also brought me to this tribute to Neil Postman, who died last year.)

Weekend Update

Whittier Daily News | PETA to unleash activists in protest
EL MONTE -- Will animal-rights activists bark up the wrong tree today?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is planning a "snarl-in' protest today at noon in front of House of Pets, 3836 N. Peck Road.

The action is designed to convince consumers not to purchase Iams pet food. Iams mistreats dogs and cats in its laboratories, PETA activists say.

But House of Pets does not carry Iams products, said store owner Myra Larkin.

"We never have and never will,' Larkin said. "For the same reasons as (PETA) believes.'

Never let the truth get in the way of a good photo op.

WSOC-TV | Gang Concerns Prompt School T-Shirt Ban
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle school has banned students from wearing solid color T-shirts.

The principal at Northridge Middle School sent a letter to parents on Thursday saying that groups of students have begun wearing white and pink T-shirts that could be a system to identify different gangs.

"We're not saying there are gangs at the school, but we are saying there had been some rumors and there were some students who were concerned and some discussions about not coming to school because they didn't feel safe," said CMS spokeswoman Jerri Haigler.

CMS brought in extra police and extra campus security officers to ease concerns.

Students were checked for solid color T-shirts as they entered the building and officials say they found several students in violation of the policy.

The students were given a school T-shirt to wear in class.

They're banning any solid color shirts? And they're giving away school tees to offenders? Is this a security measure or a promotional gimmick?

The time has come to start a new movement: Naked School.

Missed opportunities

Careful what you ask for...

ScrappleFace | Bush Admits Mistakes, Apologizes
I have made mistakes during my time in the White House. I frittered away months trying to convince the United Nations that it should free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator who never fulfilled the terms of surrender from the Gulf War and who continued to fire upon Coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone.

... I'd also like to admit that it was a mistake to think that I could make friends with the Democrats by pouring funding into their top political agency, the National Education Association, or by creating a huge new medicare prescription drug entitlement. I can see now that no matter how often and how much you feed an alligator, he's always looking past the food in your hand and hankering for your arm, your heart, your head. My mistake...and I'm truly sorry.

Missed one. "And, of course, it was a mistake to expect straight questions and fairly reported answers from the White House press corps. I assumed they saw themselves as observers and ombudsmen rather than as an openly hostile fourth branch of government. This I regret deeply."

Radio Free America

Chicago Tribune (requires registration, sigh) | Liberal talk radio must find new Chicago station
It was on, then it was off, then it was on again, and now it will be off again.

Air America Radio, the recently launched liberal talk-radio network that became embroiled last week in a financial dispute with the owner of its Chicago and Los Angeles stations, will broadcast over WNTD-950 AM in Chicago for the last time on April 30, the network said today.

The network also said it will remain off the air for the time being in Los Angeles, where it was yanked off its station there, KBLA-1580, last week by owner Multicultural News Radio.

The announcement settles an acrimonious legal and public relations battle between Air America and Multicultural. It also means that Air America must seek new homes in the nation's second and third-largest markets less than three weeks into its short life.

"We are pleased that we reached a negotiated settlement," said David Goodfriend, executive vice president and general counsel of Air America, in a terse statement. No Air America executives would comment further.

I'll bet.

Well. That was fast. (See the Smoking Gun for details of the lawsuit they're no longer pursuing.)

There are three ways to get a radio show on the air. One is to convince your affiliates to pay you for it. That's extremely difficult to pull off, and generally requires a track record. Only the biggest names are in enough demand to get away with it.

The second is a barter system, where the syndicator provide the station with programming for a share of the advertising time: The station sells their minutes, the syndicator sells theirs, and each keeps their money. That's how ARTC did it, in the good old days of the "Atlanta Radio Theatre Hour" on WGST.

The third way is for the program provider to just flat-out buy the whole hour (or three) from the station. The syndicator gets to keep all the advertising revenue...if they manage to sell any. It's a great way to lose your shirt if your sponsors let you down (which, faced with the dearth of information coming from Air America, I can only assume is what happened).

SmartMoney | Liberal Radio Network Yanked
Arthur Liu, owner of Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. (MCRBI.XX), which owns Air America affiliates WNTD-950 AM in Chicago and KBLA-1580 AM in Los Angeles, said Air America bounced a check and owes him more than $1 million, the paper reported.

According to the Tribune, Liu said his company had entered into an agreement with Air America in which the network essentially was renting Multicultural's airtime.

Liu declined to say how much Multicultural is owed but did say he is holding $1 million checks that Air America has asked him not to cash, according to the report.

Air America Chairman Evan Cohen was quoted as saying the allegations are an "outright lie."
... The network used its other radio stations as platforms to attack Liu, the paper said.

According to the Tribune, Air America Vice President and General Counsel David Goodfriend appeared on the network to accuse Liu of essentially stealing from Air America by reselling airtime on KBLA to third parties that the network had already purchased.

Goodfriend was quoted as saying that he learned last week that Liu and Multicultural had been "double-dipping," selling the same airtime to others. As a result, the Tribune reported, the network declined to make payments for KBLA unless Multicultural credited Air America for the extra money Multicultural made. Goodfriend was quoted as saying that Air America didn't bounce any checks.

The key to Air America's problems, I think, lie in Smartmoney's description of the organization as a "start-up network." The Demon Limbaugh, the Anti-Christ Hannity, and the rest of the hated conservative voices on national talk radio didn't just happen: They had plenty of experience running talk shows in local markets (Limbaugh makes no secret of his Sacramento roots and his Missouri home: Hannity, in fact, used to be here in Atlanta), getting a feel for what people like to listen to and how they like to be treated, before WABC offered them to a national audience. There's a lot more to it than being able to talk for three hours straight.

Please note that I'm not criticizing the content. I can't: I haven't heard it. They're not on the air here. Franken and Garafalo are not idiots. (Well, not usually. Taking this gig wasn't one of their smarter moves.) Had Air America gone about it a little differently--say, focused on a single three-hour show, co-hosted by Franken and Garafalo (the network's most recognizable names), with the other hosts as daily or occasional correspondents--they could have produced something unlike anything else on the dial. What I'm thinking of is sort-of a talk radio version of Comedy Central's "Daily Show". Heck, I might have listened to that. Get Paula Poundstone to do the occasional interview with a newsmaker or two and I definitely would have.

But somebody in this organization decided that being a modest success with room to grow wasn't enough.

And the key is under the mat

Security Pipeline | Will Trade Passwords For Chocolate
Almost three quarters of office workers in an impromptu man-on-the-street survey were willing to give up their passwords when offered the bribe of a chocolate bar.

... Some 37 percent of workers surveyed immediately gave their password. If they initially refused, researchers used social engineering tactics, such as suggesting that the password has to do with a pet or children's name. An additional 34 percent revealed their passwords at that point.

The company said: "Of the 172 office workers surveyed many explained the origin of their passwords, such as 'my team - Spurs,' 'my name - Charlie,' 'my car -minicooper,' 'my cat's name - Tinks.' The most common password categories were family names such as partners or children (15%), followed by football teams (11%), and pets (8%). The most common password was 'admin.' One interviewee said, 'I work in a financial call center, our password changes daily, but I do not have a problem remembering it as it is written on the board so that every one can see it.... I think they rub it off before the cleaners arrive."

You think?

And then there's the ever-popular "password".

Forget it, AJC

I'm probably the last to learn this: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution now requires registration to see anything older than today's paper online. When you try to go to yesterday's front page, it asks you for your first name and an e-mail address. Well, fine. How much harm can they do with that? Especially since I keep a junk e-mail address to give to people I really don't want to hear from. Fine. It's annoying, but fine. I give them that and move on.

The next screen is where my resentment boils over. It asks for the same information again... plus a last name, plus a password, year of birth, sex, household income, home address, home phone, "How you use the Journal-Constitution" (which is to say, which subscription option do you use), interests, and opt-ins for nine e-mail newsletters.

I have no idea what the next screen says.

I'm not opposed to registration per se, but I already get far too many subscription soliciations from the AJC. If I fill this thing out, it'll almost certainly count as permission to call me. (Why else would they ask for a phone number, unless they intended to use it?) They have been losing subscribers steadily for years, and rather than actually make the paper better, they're pushing their sales staff harder. This is not a business model I care to encourage.

LATER: I guess I should have poked around more. The AJC now stops you at the main page: Without registration you go no further. There are much better newspapers on the web that require much less information to let you in. Even the local alternative weekly, Creative Loafing (now 1/3 owned by Cox, the same monopoly that owns the AJC), doesn't say a word. But then, being free, they never pretended to be anything other than advertiser-supported. The AJC still allows its readers to cling to the illusion that they matter.

Headed for the mountains?

Montana Standard | A call in the wilderness: Cell phones are showing up in national parks, places people go to get away
When Sean Morrissey scaled California's 14,491-foot Mount Whitney for the first time a few years ago, he couldn't wait to take in the view. A woman who made the climb at the same time couldn't wait to dial her cell phone.

"This one woman was making call after call," said Morrissey, who is from Los Gatos, Calif. "It seemed very out of place. It seemed out of place to go through all that effort to make an outbound call."

Cell phones have long been virtually unavoidable on city streets and in shopping malls. But they now are showing up in some of the very places people go to get away from it all: national parks.

For park managers, this is a challenge. Officials with the National Park Service say they want to meet the needs of visitors and provide for their safety. But they also must protect the park and the visitor experience. And there is no set policy on how to strike this balance.

As luck would have it, I am headed for the mountains this weekend. As further luck would have it, I already know my cell phone doesn't work where I'm going. Isn't that just too bad?

LATER: Shows what I know. Apparently T-Mobile built a tower since I was there last.

War crime

Yahoo (AP) | Kilt-Wearing Marine Plays Bagpipes in Iraq
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Amid the clatter of gunfire and explosions that regularly rock this city, an unexpected sound rises over the front line — bagpipes.

Dressed in Marine fatigues with his gun at his side, 1st Sgt. Dwayne Farr, 36, blows into his set of pipes. The plaintive wail is carried by the wind that whips across this dust-blown, war-torn town.

"Playing on the battlefield — I never thought that would happen," Farr said.

Haven't the people of Iraq suffered enough?