HeadlineUpdate

Newspapers: Tactile or Virtual?

    I had an interesting conversation recently with a New York Times reader who wanted my views, as a Washington insider and part time pundit, on why they were making him pay for Tom Friedman.  Newspapers are scared to death of the Internet, I opined.  "I read him a lot less often now,"  he said. I've heard this a lot lately.  Is Times Select the new New Coke?

    More proof of the fear lurking in the news business is found at Washingtonpost.com, where online versions of Post stories include links to carping bloggers like me.  Word has it the Post did a focus group and asked the coveted younger demographic what it was that kept them from reading newspapers.  It was the way they tended to pile up in the house, they said. News executives are sure they're hearing the voice of doom.  Even Michael Kinsley, perhaps embittered by his recent eviction, says he won't bother getting the real paper in front of his house if it's more than 10 feet away.

    I, on the other hand, love to hold newspapers, turn their pages, serendipitously find stories I wouldn't find by scrolling down a list of headlines.  I used to love to buy the Guardian, even though I could get all the same content on line, and luxuriate in it's over-sized pages, finding news stories that the U.S. press wouldn't discover for a year.  (Notably the one about that little translation error about the virgins in the afterlife on offer to suicide bombers)  But they stopped shipping the real paper to the States a couple of years ago, replacing it with a faxed version that's as reader unfriendly as a utility bill. Now I pay twice as much for a digital version which I read far less often, and always less completely than I used to. I used to at least glance at every page of the paper, now days go by and I don't even look at it.

    A surgical resident in a New York City hospital told me once that the gloves they used were called "New York Times" gloves, because they were designed to protect from the Old Gray Lady's seepage. All those in favo(u)r  of printed newspapers please comment below.

    One more thing.  The inscrutably named Jennifer 8.Lee has a surprisingly wonderful article in the Times about Chinatown life.  Is there still such a thing as the New York Times Style book, and if so, does it say anything about punctuating numbers in surnames?

Is this the end of Gorgeous George?

"Love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal," sang Phil Ochs.  But some liberals make it so hard to love them.  Take that scalawag George Galloway, M.P. from Bethnal Green and Bow and currently cut off from contact with the outside world as a resident of the "Big Brother" house on British reality TV.  According to the Guardian, Galloway may be facing a criminal inquiry based on all the nasty things Norm Coleman said about him. 

HeadlineUpdate reader LeRoy Hartle saw this coming, when he emailed us this picture

View this photo

of Galloway cavorting in a tight red leotard on the Big Brother show.  As much as it pleases the mind to consider, say, Rick Santorum in a similar get-up, it's probably best if American politicians don't start cross-dressing in public.  (Two words:  Dick Cheney)

The Meaning of Messages

    A favorite topic of this space is the way words are turned into messages--persuasive language intended to motivate people to do hard things like giving money or voting.  Today's Washington Post brings an update from the Democrats, who as previously noted here have been lumbering towards cohesiveness with the grace and subtlety of an elephant.  First they're days away from announcing their new campaign theme; than they're not.  First Nancy Pelosi finds a guru she trusts, then he's out.   According to the Post, announcement of the Democrats' latest national agenda has been "pushed back and no hard launch date has been chosen."  I can only imagine how many drafts they've been through and consultants and writers they've fired.

    Words matter.  Years ago, when I was learning the art of political propaganda from a very smart media consultant named Arnold Bennett, he showed me a neat move we used in a Florida Congressional race. In those days, radio and TV spots had to include the spoken words of the campaign "authority line" which was invariably something generic like "Citizens for Trotsky" or "Friends of Bebe Rebozo."  But Arnold saw an additional propaganda opportunity in the authority line, and named the committee "Senior Citizens and Working  Families for George Sheldon." 
     Now, federal candidates have to say "I'm Monty Python, and I approved this message," which takes the fun out of that trick completely.

   

In praise of Gorgeous George **Updated**

He came, he saw, he conquered --then he went back home and made a fool of himself.  British MP George "Gorgeous George" Galloway, who socked it to the Senate last year, is currently locked in the "Big Brother" house on the British reality TV show of that name.  Told to act like an animal, Galloway, according to the Guardian, "got on all fours and pretended to lick milk from the cupped hands of the once-famous television actor Rula Lenska. She rubbed the "cream" from his "whiskers" and stroked his head and behind his ears."

Transcript is at the end of the story linked above, don't miss it, or these pictures.  Looks like George Galloway is more Al Sharpton than Tony Benn.  I guess if I want a leftist hero, I'm going to have to stick with Hugo.

(Originally posted July 2006) No, I'm not talking about the "original showman of professional wrestling."  I refer instead to the newly elected M.P. for Bethnal Green and Bow, George Galloway, who after being kicked out of Tony Blair's Labour Party for being too anti-war, booted the Labour incumbent and came back to Parliament as an Independent.  Listening to him lose his cool on election night was one of the joys of watching BBC coverage on C-Span; his delicious Scottish burr soaring to new heights of invective and lows of bitterness. 

The rest of America got a chance to meet Galloway after Senator Norm (going to get his butt kicked by Al Franken) Coleman charged Galloway with aiding and abetting Saddam Hussein, charges Galloway has already beaten in Britain.  Galloway leapt at the chance to testify in Washington.  He came, he saw, he conquered.  Now, he's cashing in with a U.S. speaking tour where he'll make more money than he ever could have squeezed from Saddam.  As Margaret Thatcher said, "it's a funny old world."

Sometimes politics is great theater.  Sometimes, as Michael Waldman writes in his book/CD of great Presdiential speeches "My Fellow Americans,"  it "gives us the chance to hear for ourselves how,in our best moments, our leaders have challenged our ideas, stirred our hearts, and moved our nation."

The Hammer Gets the Axe

    I've had it in for Tom DeLay since 1994, when I turned the bug man from Sugar Land's own words against him in a direct mail package I created for Public Citizen.  I had an artist create a landscape of smokestacks and pollution, and quoted DeLay's view that DDT is "not harmful." I alerted fans of Ralph Nader about the forerunner of the K Street Project, a group of businesses, trade associations and PACs he called "Project Relief."
    Now the GOP is relieved of the albatross they used to call The Hammer.  I still maintain the man is dumb as a box of rocks.  If the Republicans are smart they'll decide on a new leadership team and do what Republicans do so well, stage a coronation.  But it will be more fun if they continue to eat their young.

Jack Abramoff's Shoe

My favorite story is breaking in all sorts of wonderful ways. While we wait for the shoe to drop, we can speculate and revel in what's to come.  A HeadlineUpdate reader was kind enough to forward this quote:

"Words will not ever be able to express my sorrow and my profound regret for all my actions and mistakes," Abramoff said, addressing the judge. "I hope I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty and those I've wronged or caused to suffer."

More from me later.  Remember, the bottom line on this scandal is how quickly it will grow to include other lobbyists. Does anyone believe that Abramoff was the only one to cosy up to Members of Congress, and their wives?  People who own skyboxes in sports stadiums are quaking in their Versace tonight...