UPDATE: The Trouble With Local News Is The Trouble With Local News
No, it is not what you think it’s going to be about. I do not comment on the current wave of local news headlines. I know some of these people, and I’m not going to judge. But what I will judge is what happens on air. And KTLA reporter Eric Spillman takes the cake this week. He was forced to apologize on air after trying to dehumanize people waiting in line to buy the new I-Phone in Burbank California. He was stunned when his “live” interview turned into a fairly intelligent put-down by a man he interviewed. When Eric asked him what was more important, people or machines, the I-Phone fan said, “That’s a jackass question… that’s journalism?” That’s not the end of the story. The episode was seen round the world on the internet, and Eric was forced to apologize, and he did not look happy. Her are the online comments of broadcasting legend Tom Petner, Editor/Senior Producer ShopTalk/TVSPY.com:
…”have you ever run across a story…video that makes you angry?
Here’s one piece that did the trick for me. KTLA reporter Eric Spillman makes fun of the folks standing in line for the new iPhone. I’m not an IPhone user or wannabe, but this guy is really over-the-top and demeans the people standing in line. They’re captive by the camera and the ‘live’ circumstances. What an embarrassment! What a guy! “
Tom is a Philadelphia native and one of the guys who helped us make Action News number one back in 1971. His fantastic website is WWW.TVSPY.COM
Back to the culprit: I’ve seen this guy Spillman at KTLA work on serious stories. He’s good, but this kind of “stunt journalism” is what gives the whole business a “stink.” It makes people turn more and more away from local news to get the important news that we all need in troubled times. I have no problem with fun and exciting news coverage. We need relief, but Eric didn’t realize that he was thumbing his nose at viewers with his attempt to be”creative” and funny. Well, it was an insult to viewers. Viewers get the stations that are trying to rip them off with misleading headlines and news that we don’t use. Viewers are a lot smarter than Eric, and the people who let him get away with this nonsense.
Our business has problems, not just TV. Some newspapers let their columnists run rampant without checking facts. Ditto for some national magazines.
We have “screamers” on local TV. I mean “screamers.” They scream so loud that they can wake up the neighborhood. We have local stations that treat politics like it doesn’t mean anything. I mean ten seconds of video doesn’t tell you what’s happening in the battle for the White House.
So the problem with local news are the problems IN local news – attempts to stand out that fail -a lack of respect for viewers, and an attitude that just because we are in the news business, we are somewhat superior to the rest of the population.
Eric Spillman became a household word on You Tube. But he has a lot of work to do to understand that people are much more sensitive to stunts than he thinks. At least he apologized.
Yet, in many places, there are people in the business who care, and they shine through the dark light of the malcontents who would rather exaggerate and scare the hell out of people than simply report the news.
Comments(88)
The problem with Corporate America is that the CEO’s emphasis is profit margin, marketshare and stock prices as they relate to the CEO’s multi-million $ bonus. Annual layoffs, manufacturing moves to cheap labor zones, management merry-go-rounds and general disruption of business result in the search to optimize the short term. The problem is the focus is on trying to optimize for the short term. We have become a “what have you done for me today society”.
The same can be said for the local news and its not limited to Philly. Its a national epidemic. The focus is on sensationalism. If there is no sensational story for tonight’s 6PM news, how do we create the illusion of a sensational story? The typical news cast is about 20 minutes long without commercials. 5 minutes for weather and 3 minutes for Sports. That leaves about 12 minutes for News. Every night we see the same incidents just different location:
Robbery
Shooting
Fire
Accident
They pick a story, no matter how routine, and try to sensationalize it. They send some reporter to the scene to do live remotes in the dark hours after the incident. They interviews eyewitnesses and neighbors. They find the most horrific footage to use. They play the race card when applicable. Anything to improve ratings. Its all about ratings. Focus groups and we as TV viewers have proven that is what we want to see apparently. Now we get what we asked for. Its all about ratings. It’s all about selling daily, local commercials. It’s pathetic. Personally, I stopped watching the local news years ago.
OOOJ, I agree with much of what you say. Local news is essentially trying to compete for “eyes” against a vast amount of entertainment product. Eyes=ad revenue=profit=reason stations are in business. So, instead of sticking to journalistic integrity, local news producers try to tart everything up. They thus reduce the local news to the worst tabloid content. It’s not enough to report a weather event is on the horizon. There has to be a lot of hand wringing about the potential devistation and havoc the winter storm will bring, etc.
The worst of it is that much of the sensationalism is in the vein of pandering to fear reactions. One of the segments OOOJ forgot is “What Common Household Product/Foodstuff/Behavior May Lead to Your Imminent Death?” More at 11.
One of the best programs I’ve seen that hits at all of this is the Canadian show The Newsroom, which is a satire of the workings of a Toronto news station. When they have to choose between lead stories and the options are a story about their new federal budget and its effect on the majority of households and a story about a prize dog that’s disappeared from a dog show, guess which one always wins? The hypocritical news director is always talking about journalistic integrity, but he always plays up the worst elements of any story. It’s a clever program. Look for it on DVD, especially the second season.
By the way, I haven’t seen the clip Larry’s talking about because I don’t do The YouTube on the internets, but I don’t see what’s wrong in satirizing a bunch of idiots who camp out to buy an electronic gee gaw. It’s stupid behavior, and they should be called on it.
p.s. Larry, have you ever seen the clip of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog visiting Star Wars fans who camped out before the release of one of the new films? Classic! Look for it on The YouTube. There should be more reporting like that. Perhaps the news should add a regular “Dumbasses of the Week” segment. Maybe then people would stop doing such stupid things in public.
Larry, the local news directors have been calling me and want to know what it takes to get you on the air in late August to be a special election correspondent. We’ve lost Tim Russert and Tony Snow…. There’s a window for your last big hurrah on the local network news… call me and we’ll get a deal done!
LB, you are correct. I forgot to mention the “Health” and “Fighting for the Consumer” segments. Thanks for reminding me. Instead of a daily heavy dose reminder that smoking, drugs and heavy drinking ultimately kill more Americans than any obscure Salmonella on lettuce or tomatos, pesticides on fruit from Chile, etc. It’s the alert du jour. We all feel better about ourselves.
I would like to make it clear that some good reporting and some pertinent stories actually do bubble to the top of the news. They do offer a public service. It’s the editorial side that loses the news and creates the sensationalism… Don’t get me started on Weather…
Where have all the pirates gone?
Pete Seeger
Peter, Paul and Mary
Respect. It’s that simple. When the people on television loose respect for the people who watch television- game over.
I don’t watch local news,I’ve seen enough fire coverage to last a lifetime.I did,however,have the misfortune of seeing Vernon Odom in action.He thought he was supposed to make the news,not report it.
That’s all from the “original Pirate”.
Local news should report substantive and well-researched stories that are actually important to people in their broadcast areas. Forget the fire/robbery/shot cop dramas and sagas. Forget the stories about pandas being too stupid to reproduce in zoos, etc. Forget all those things that Thoreau pointed out long ago really have nothing to do with us or our lives. Drop the chatter and the “watercooler” stories. Blech.
Also, the news has done a poor job of reporting the connection between global temperatures that have been rising since the 18th century and the corresponding decrease in the pirate population. Global warming is wiping out pirates, and it’s happening right under our noses.
Somolia seems to have quite a few Pirates.
When you control the news you control INFORMATION!!!!!
Or was that the other way around?
Newman, don’t you have mail to deliver?
Seinfeld should have dealt with you 10 years ago…
Larry, what really makes me mad is all these local newscasters making sure they say “down the shore” instead of down at the shore or down on the shore. Several years ago they made a big tadoo out of the way locals referred to the Jersey shore. We’d say, “Are you going down the shore?” Or “I’m down the shore.” The local news “shows” ran with this and made sure that any on air personality always said “down the shore” when they reported any Jersey shore news. I know this seems trivial to you but the whole thing is so phony. it curdles my blood every time I see some reporter say “this is so in so reporting to you from down the shore……..”
Newman! The Philadelphia Inquirer uses the same inane terminology as a section on the site called something like “down da shore” Another similar pet peve is Philly. Yes that’s our nick name but its used like its our name in the press and by city leaders. Its minor but another reason why we are in the shadow of New Yorky, Bostony, and Washingtony. Its absurd, we have a well deserved inferiority complex and it can change if we start calling ourselves by the name our founding fathers gave us! I know Larry doesnt go by Lawrence, but that’s his choice. However, would Benjamin Franklin or William Penn be as esteemed if we officially called them Billy and Willy?
You’re on to something Newman, the dumbing down of Philadelphia hurts us all and now its up to us to turn the tide! One blogger at at time, can I hear a Alleluia? Amen!
Also, I have a long straw and want to drink all of your milkshakes! LArry you’ve gotta rent “There Will Be Blood.” I thought Daniel Day Lewis was Irish, but he’s half English, and half Jewish! One great Thespian who I thought was from my tribe- but I still like him!
Never fear George, I have always assumed I was descended from the Roman tribe unfortunately or fortunately I have traced my roots back to Ireland. Stephen Moylan the Quartermaster for G Washington was my 5th great uncle, and Commodore Barry adopted my 5th great grandfather. I also have German, Swedish and Indian ancestors but they were all unknowns, except for my 5th great uncle on my mother’s side who was a drummer boy at the Battle of Germantown. They still have his drum somewhere in Carpenters Hall in PHILADELPHIA!!!!
Newman is always 5 generations away from greatness. Get a SEPTA pass and ride the city of Philadelphia.
It’s all about doing or saying what they think is popular. Like pandering politicians looking for every last vote, so goes the media. The newspapers are struggling for relevance (and survival). By the time the babyboomers pass on, the newspaper will be something kids read about in the history books. The internet and on-line “papers” will replace those rags.
Perhaps it has to do with the short attention spans of adults, the desire to have everything now and keeping up with the Joneses. The want to feel connected to the ones with places at the shore. They don’t realize most of the homes there are 2nd or 3rd generation Philly (sorry guys) owners and commuters. Homes bought in a kinder, gentler and cheaper time.
Jersey, we sold our place at the shore several years ago. Taxes, municipal costs and traffic turned the whole family off. Basically we felt the developer gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse. I don’t regret it but I miss it. 2nd and 3rd generations are leaving at a rapid pace.
What about that Jesse Jackson using the so called N-word,a.k.a Nigger? It’s amazing Fox was so retrained in not showing that at first, but it’s good to know because it really fills out Jesse Jackson’s creditials as a race hustler who is simpply trying to tell any brother who will listen that Obama is Uncle Tom. It doesn’t get any richer than this, and he even served it up on Fox News in audio and video, and they of all networks, were retrained to not nail him at the outset. How could his use of that word not mattered? Larry, I dare you to even discuss this in a news flash, I know you want to work again in this town, but how is it that you chastise the local crap newscasters, but don’t examine something so big and meaningful in natiional politics on your blog? Or, why is Michelle Obama being put to pasture with the children? I’ll tell you why, because she has become the “Amorosa” African queen character from the Trump Apprentice show and was starting to scare the hell out of mainstream Americans. Nobody, black or white, likes a domineeering persoanlity like Amerosa, its fun to watch on reality TV, but damn scary as first lady!
Come on Larry, serve up some substance and take an edge! Newman, you’re fun, are you new or Leo morphed into a new kinder gentler persona?
A different topic ladies and gentleman: As long and Islamic woman are willing to sacrfice their childen in the spirit of killing Jews we have a problem. If they loved their sons and daughters more than killing Jews its unlikely we’d have a problem in Iraq or in the Middle East.
In America we kill our sons and daughters through abortion. Perhaps if we respected life differently (maybe taking a note from PETA) we would understand) the importance of Life and respect for it; we would better respect what our Islamic brothers and sisters were sacrificing when they try to kill us.
George, I was thinking you were onto something by suggesting that Newman was actually a kinder, gentler Leo in disguise. Perhaps we should ask Seinfeld or Kramer. They’d know for sure.
I’m not sure how you got to this killing children thing or where you are going but I sure I don’t want to follow.
How did we get from Ron Burgundy to Abortion Clinics?
Why does the media allow itself to perpetuate the myth that is Al Gore. His 15 minutes of fame should have run out several years ago after his global warming movie craze and Nobel Prize. Never has a politician fought so hard to remain relevant. Well maybe Jimmy Carter. Please go back to Tennessee and write your memoirs…
Global warming has had little effect on Pirates.The real story is that their all emigrating to Somolia because of that country’s lax census reporting.That,and reports of FREE AIR & well,we all know what that means.
YAP, as always you are correct and sum things up nicely. Thanks for bringing us back on track.
Larry will not be happy if there is another infestation of pirates in Philly (oops) Philadelphia. Down to shore okay, but not Philadelphia.
One question. How do you change the color of the font to red? Inquiring minds want to know…
It’s been a slow week for mail. I usually check my box at least once a week. Circulars, ads and bills, who cares? I do care about these news helicopters though. 6 am this morning outside my window it sounded like the beach attack in that movie where the actor liked the smell of napalm in the morning. I switch on the news figuring all hell was breaking loose. You guessed it a fender bender on a Blue Route ramp.
Do we really need pictures of a couple of cars having a bad day? A waste of time and fuel. And a big interruption to people who want to sleep in a bit longer.
newman-im doing a remake of that movie and i need someone to play an important role.are you interested ?
“Apocalyse Now” for those playing at home.
TTC, perhaps you should reshoot a sequel to “Network” starring Larry (and his faithly lapdog JR). I can see Larry screaming from his plush but not overly ostentatious third floor condo overlooking Rittenhouse Squsre, “I’m mad as hell and I can’t take it anymore!” Is his rant about sensationalizing the local news or about the outrage over 50 cents for air? We’ll let the viewers judge.
I sense another pirate infestation coming if this stale blog does not change quickly…
oooj-sorry,but im kind of busy right now,re-writes,casting you know the drill.plus,philly (ha) has all sorts of union issues,so i’ll pass.maybe some of those art students that hang around rittenhouse would be interested.
Look at all the “sock puppets” on your blog, Larry. I think you should check the IP addresses of those posting here so you can determine whether there are really more than three of us. I sort of doubt it.
Now, maybe you can give us the real news behind the local news. Why did CBS3′s newsroom fall apart after you left? As you say, you know these people. That’s why you’re in a unique position to give us what your blog blurb on philly.com promises: insider information.
At least tell us if you’ve seen the bikini pictures.
Pirates spotted at Penns Landing!
oooj-That’s just me & some friends.That will be the last sighting for a bit because the Original Pirate is outta here.I’m off to a remote cove that not even Insider Info is aware of.I suspect no wi-fi so have fun in my absence.
Larry,what is your problem with Action News and Jim Gardner?
The local news is what it is,but channel six is the very best in the bussiness.
The world news is not much better it is filled with infomercials for private medical companies and plugs for network programs.
YAP, have a nice vacation. Come back tanned, rested and ready to blog.
Blog record: no JR postings in a week. That’s longer than when he left for good…
Perhaps we should send Leo out to his house to make sure JR is okay.
jr is wallowing in crapulosity. He got too much grog off’n one of those pirate ships and went after Blackbeard’s peg leg, if you know what I’m saying.
LB, scan his hard drive while you’re there. JR is obviously disconsolate. Maybe Larry should gather the othe members of his Team Viagra Cycling Team and go visit. Perhaps the pirates should join him. Maybe it will take a visit from the man himself, Barry Obama, to rekindle JR’s spirit.
APB — looking for a white 2004 Lexus LS — PA vanity plate “LUV HIL” — bumper stickers “The Clintons: American Royalty” and “My other car is a Schwinn” — reported missing — may be rabid — treat with caution — last seen in yellow UPS bicycle shirt and black spandex shorts — could be dangerous
A middle aged man resembling the description in PPD APD earlier today was spotted on pirate ship “Da Booty” in Delaware River. Please advise how you want us to handle. Over and out.
Larry, would you PLEASE spell check your blogs before you post them? When they come from a journalist, typos are sloppy and unprofessional, and you should know better. If this was the first time, I’d give you a pass, but it seems like your blogs are infected with them.
Well,the secret cove went Wi-Fi so I can give you a report from the 10th annual Int’l Brotherhood of Pirates convention.The overall Pirate population has not been affected by global warming.There has been,however,a rather significant paradigm shift.A decline in European Pirates,especially the French,and a rise in African Pirates,especially the Somoli’s.The French Pirates are sort of the Jean Lafite in exile type,if you get my drift.Their instincts for young swashbucklers are rivaled only by Catholic priests.The Somoli’s are a weird lot.No time for Pirate happy hour,lots of time for the prayer mats.Vague talk of some caliphate.I’ll be back with any breaking news.-YFAP
YAP sighting in Provincetown on Cape Cod. Name changed to YBP.
Ahoy Maties, Hook here.
This blog needs a swashbuckler to change the theme, and I don’t mean the type of swashbuckler that YFAP was referring to.
Did anyone see Conan Obrien’s parody of the Jesse Jackson incident from Fox? Perhaps the funniest thing I’ve seen in years. He dubbed on to the scandilous take vaious Jessism rhymes with regard to what Jesse wanted to do with Obama’s testicles. It doesnt get anyt better than this!
Suicide Bombers: When Muslim Woman love their sons more than they hate Jews it will stop!
Coast Guard-Negative.Mrs Yankee will back me up.
YFAP, I’ll vouch for yer manhood, matie!
The stories I could tell Mrs YFAP! It would make her blood boil. Arrrrrrgh
Thanks for all your entries. I do think Newman is Leo. Can’t stay away.
In answer to one question: I do think Gardner and team do a really good job.
As far as spelling, broadcasting makes you terrible at spelling, because you say it, you don’t write it. Thanks for pointing that out.
LK
Larry, maybe you can get Pat Meehan to come out of retirement to investigate all of these “sock puppets” on your blog! And he can figure out why the Cumberland Farms station at Wynnewood and Lancaster Pike charges two cents less per gallon than the CITGO station across the street. It’s price gouging, and there’s no FREE AIR!!!
Larry, i did “out” Leo as Newman fist, but I must say I’m not sure because a computer nerd like Leo wno is so dogmatic in his verse is unlikely have the creativity to cover himself in that way. I accused “Newman” as being Leo to see what the response was, and Leo is clearly Not Newman, Newmnan is much smarter.
LB, George firing shots over your bow. Larry doing same albeit more subtlely.
They are trying to bait you into a rant.
LB-Larry using the old “divide & conquer”.Pirates have to deal with this all the time.The French Pirates love it.Et tu,Leo ?
Does this Pirate thing, which I think has been beaten into the ground along with free air, have a homosexual subtext? I know pirates spend a lot of time at sea and next thing you know they are engaging gay sex. Are the pirates on this blog gay? (not that there’d be anything wrong with that.)
George, the fundamental problem is that there is about 8 hours of good blogging after Larry changes the topic. After that, this blog digresses into personal attacks and “cleverness”. Blame Larry for the free air thing. He mentioned it at least twice. If Larry would change the topic daily there would be far less nonsense.
As far as the pirate thing goes, YFAP has recently linked it to a thinly veiled homosexual theme. Butt pirate would be the operative term. I don’t think we have any actually gay pirates on the blog but who knows.
Glad to see this post, Mr. Kane. I’ve long agreed with your constant refrain about how local news coverage has devolved (notably, the lack of local political news coverage).
I work in college student aid administration and we’ve experienced the abysmal lack of “fact checking” in stories on student aid, student loans, and the promoting of a perception of a crisis in ethics based on the unfortunate actions of a few people. Student aid is confusing enough for the general public (and sometimes even for us administrators) that it doesn’t need to be any more muddied. At to this the fact that reports on this subject tend to get buried as “style” or “consumer affairs”, or occasionally, “business”, and it doesn’t help matters.
Then reporters don’t even gets facts right. For instance, a newspaper in metro NY recently reported on the change in student loan interest rates, per recently passed federal legislation, but failed to note that the reduction in interest rates was only for undergraduate students. It’s going on three and a half weeks and I’ve been unable to get a letter to the editor published, or a contact to an editor in general, or even an email to the reporter acknowledged. Meanwhile, that incorrect info lingers for anyone who searches on that newspaper’s web-site or researches the article…
You should think about focusing on the student aid issue for your CN8 program. Although a Philadelphia transplant now in the DC area, there are many fine colleagues of mine who could speak truth to power for you on this…
Finally, keep doing what you’re doing! Although I admired your work on TV news, this column, and your interview program, which I do see down here, are terrific work.
regards…
George,
If I could understand your post, I’d respond. However, your grammar is worse than Larry’s is.
Everyone knows that the pirates here are simply people who copy CDs. Therefore, the slurs regarding sexual orientation are misplaced. Right, YBP?
The real goal is FREE AIR. Until local news shows us how to get it, we are all impoverished. People cry out against the oppression of gas station owners who want to charge fifty cents or a dollar for AIR, yet our local media do nothing. In the 19th Century, this would have given rise to a political/economic school of thought that would have stopped the capitalists from keeping the worker down. Today, it results only in our meek protests in this corner of cyberspace.
Perhaps the station owners would give us FREE AIR in exchange for something of value to them. That could be bikini pictures of a local newscaster who goes through men the way a rototiller goes through well-composted soil. If only there were someone here who had access to such pictures . . . .
LB, if your theory is correct and there are only 3 sock puppets, who is George?
What did you do to JR? Did you have his typing fingers broken? He has disappear off the face of the earth.
BTW, I think that disproves your 3 sock puppet theory. Unless you think George = JR, there must be at least 4 sock puppets.
I go away for the weekend and come back to the same blog. Can we get a new topic?
Larry, staying with the pirate theme, there appears to be a mutiny aboard your blog. No one is blogging until you change topics.
Let’s try to predict what the next topic will be. I think Larry talks about Obama’s trip to Middle East and U.S Financial Crisis, then wraps it up with some VP buzz, namely Tom Ridge and then mentions Chriss Dodd as good for Obama, but for that below market Coutrywide Loan he got for being a friend of Angelo Mozzilo- so Doddd the straight talking populist is probably now off the list.
Larry will go on to mention Barney Frank and what a great job he is doing on the Finance Commtitte and perhaps it’s time for an openly gay VP; this would be a wink to some of the Pirates on his blog as well as a fun thing to just throw out there.
Larry, the acting US Attorney–not investigating price differentials at local gas stations–has announced that she’s about to charge Larry Mendte with a violation of federal law.
Do you have any theories on why the federal government would want to go after a newsreader? Does he know something that we’re not hearing about? Or is this just because he looked at bikini pictures?
What’s the “insider info”? Will he work as a reader again?
Obama Orgy
By JOSEPH W. MCQUAID
New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher
The blatant bias of the major national news media toward Barack Obama is now so overwhelming that it would not be worth noting, except that the election of a President of the United States is involved. It is a propaganda blitz that would make the Kremlin blush.
By election day, we fully expect John McCain to be vilified as a Vietnam-era war criminal and worse. But that is only if the networks and other major media can tear themselves away from their Obama orgy.
A recent report found that since June the nightly newscasts of NBC, CBS, and ABC combined have spent 114 minutes covering Obama. McCain got 48 minutes.
But that was before this week.
The three major television networks are all scheduled to send their nightly news star “anchors” to follow Obama on his trip to Iraq and the Middle East.
When was the last time you saw ANY of the networks do this with Sen. McCain?
If you can’t recall, it is because it hasn’t happened. McCain, who knows and understands and is intimately familiar with Iraq and Mideast issues, has been there many times, with little fanfare. It is because he understands these issues that he was able to argue so effectively for the surge that has dramatically improved the Iraqi situation.
The outrageous imbalance in the major media’s coverage of the candidates means that the American people are going to have to work doubly hard to make the right choice in these perilous times.
FAFL, that article is insipid.
Not only doesn’t it describe what the coverage of Obama consisted of–New Yorker cover maybe?–or whether it was positive or critical coverage, but it also fails to look at the fact that McSame is benefitting from the lack of coverage. The media is following Obama to the Middle East, and it’s taking the focus off of McSame’s utter lack of a coherent plan to address economic problems at home, as well as his longstanding ties to Phil Gramm, who, speaking as McSame’s economic mouthpiece, recently signaled the campaign’s total failure to comprehend how the current economy is affecting the little guy.
There are benefits to flying under the radar. McSame knows that when you show up on radar, you can sometimes be downed behind enemy lines and forced to undergo brainwashing techniques.
LB, apparently not insipid to most. There are more blog responses, pro and con, on the UL website for this today than any of Larry’s blogs after 5 days of drying on the vine.
I do agree that the more exposure McCain gets, the more people learn to dislike him.
I suspect the same effect may be happening to Obams as well. Now that he is trying to explain his vision and put some tangible plans behind it, he may get exposed as well.
I see. Popularity of an article that parrots BS proves that it’s well written. I’ll have to remember that.
LB, please don’t put words in my mouth. You called article insipid. To you it may be insipid. It has set off a fire storm on the UL website. That was my point.
I’m just trying to change the blog topic here as it is inconvenient for Larry. SEPTA must not have a hotspot.
Fair enough.
Perhaps Larry was trapped during the El construction last week. No doubt he was trying to check out the new paint he’d recommended that SEPTA put on the trains when he slipped on a plate of chicken bones and a spill of some kind of beer and was incapacitated.
We have to remember the Larry is just a drive by participant. Just a name to sell ads and catalyst to set off people. Not sure he’s doing either.
LB, one thing that we both agree upon. The #1 problem facing America today is 50-75 cent charge for air compressors for filling tires.
FAFL, I had another thought. Larry might be deep undercover in D.C., investigating what the Supreme Court Justices are doing on their summer “vacations,” trying to make sure we get maximum value out of those appointed public officers. In any event, I hope he checks in soon so that we know he hasn’t been buried in a concrete pillar at 63rd Street in the Market-Frankford El construction of the past several days. I’m concerned that maybe Larry Mendte was afraid Larry was going to “talk,” if you follow.
Supreme Court Justices have retired to Ashville, Newport and Hamptons for the summer. Their staffs are feverishly working on opinion s for free air case: Lukoil vs Kane.
Larry could be a ‘down the shore’ guy but can’t see him in a speedo. More like shorts with black knee socks and sandals, sombraro and water bottle walking the boardwalk.
JR have you heard the rumor that Barry Obama has promised Hillary Clinton the first available position on the Supreme Court?
George, here is Larry’s next blog title:
“The Trouble with Larry is the Trouble with Larry”
FAFL, the Union Leader is the counter to the NY Times. You know what you get going in the door. It has been a conservative stalwart for a looooooong time. It would (should)not be surprising to see conservative positions and feedback from the paper and its editorials. The reference to the electorate working hard to make a decision is comical. The American electorate is so poorly educated about their government,it’s a disgrace. The voters have been making ridiculous choices at all levels of voting for years. And, they swing back and forth unable to find the center of political gravity. This election will probably have a very low turnout with more people voting against a candidate than for one. These are the candidates that the people wanted – and now everyone’s complaining. we get what we deserve.
FJ, no arguments on any of your points.
Further, it has all come down to name recognition. Who have they heard of? Who is spending the most on advertising? Who are the networks aligning their support behind?
The average American today has far less leisure time. Demands of work often have people working at night. Less time to read. Less time to become informed. Not an excuse, a fact.
Then there are the extravagent vacations. We work hard and play hard. It is no longer acceptable to go to the family cabin or Grandmas for vacation. We go to Cancun, Aruba, Disneyworld, etc. The longer we are gone and the more we spend the better.
Sad commentary.
FAFL, yes indeed. There’s still too much laxity in the minds of the people, though. You make a great point – name recognition is the key. Not always substance – just get the name out there. To tie two points together (Yours and LK’s), I have a family member who changed careers. Had a job in the news department of one of the majors in the area – a job out of college that others would have killed for.
She said that it was all about the style and little about the substance- just getting the name and face out there. She burned out very quickly and went into something completely different. Another sad commentary.
BTW – I just came back from the shore. It was a very simple vacation. I read and even checked this site once – it was dull and I loved it.
“Consensus” on Man-Made Warming Shattering
By Dennis T. Avery
http://www.MichNews.com
Jul 21, 2008
The “consensus” on man-made global warming may have received a mortal wound.
Physics & Society, The journal of the 46,000-member American Physical Society, just published “Climate Sensitivity Revisited,” by Viscount Christopher Monckton. Monckton is an avowed man-made warming skeptic, and former science advisor to the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. (If you want to see the science, go to http://www.APS.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/monckton.cfm)
Viscount Monckton contends that the climate alarmists have mistakenly pre-programmed their computer models with equations that overstate the earth’s sensitivity to CO2 by 500 to 2,000 percent—thus creating a senseless First World panic that itself threatens the future of society.
Physics & Society says: “There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution. Since the correctness or fallacy of that conclusion has immense implications for public policy and for the future of the biosphere, we thought it appropriate to present a debate within the pages of P&S.”
The journal then offers both the Monckton paper and a response by David Hafemeister and Peter Schwartz, of the California Polytechnic Institute. P&S also issued an open invitation to “further contributions from the physics community.”
It had to happen. Too much evidence has mounted against CO2 as a cause of the modern warming. Sea ice is expanding globally, not retreating (especially in the Antarctic). The oceans have stopped rising, and actually started to fall; that might be because they “stopped warming 4–5 years ago” according to NASA, based on data from the 3,000 new Argo floats now scattered world-wide. The number and intensity of hurricanes, cyclones, and tornadoes hasn’t increased. Rain has returned to Australia, reminding us again it is naturally the driest continent on earth.
The crowning blow: After nine years of non-warming, the planet actually began to cool in 2007 and 2008 for the first time in 30 years. The net warming from 1940 to 1998 had been a miniscule 0.2 degree C; the UK’s Hadley Centre says earth’s temperature has now dropped back down to about the levels of 100 years ago. There has thus been no net global warming within “living memory”!
The current cooling doesn’t mean another Ice Age is looming. There is massive global evidence of a 1,500-year warming cycle, going back 1 million years. It may be driven by the slightly varying distance between the earth and the sun. The sunspot index has had a 79 percent correlation with the earth’s thermometer record since 1860, during this time, the temperature correlation with CO2 is a dismissive 22 percent.
NASA’s Jason satellite tells us the Pacific Ocean has entered a cool phase. Historically, these have lasted 25–30 years. After that, there may be some additional warming. However, the 1,500-year cycles typically shift abruptly; we should already have most of this one’s warming. When we’ll get the inevitable cooling? Probably centuries from now.
The warming debate is far from over, but an actual debate looks likely. Reputations and huge bundles of cash have been bet on man-made warming, including billions in government funding for climate research. The UN’s reputation—and perhaps its future—are on the line.
The American Physical Society itself has issued a statement: It stands by its belief that human-emitted CO2 is “changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the earth’s climate” and notes that Physics & Society is not peer-reviewed. Nonetheless, the debate is finally and openly joined, after 20 years of the Greens proclaiming humanity’s guilt for wrecking the planet as beyond sane discussion.
Now, we look forward to a full-scale exploration of the science. We have heard quite enough from the computers.
The next thing we’ll be hearing is that Al Gore really didn’t invent the Internet…
Larry, when you go on hiatus, people start using your blog to broadcast right wing talking points. Please change your blog topic.
LB, Larry’s new MO is to check in on the weekend and change blog mid-week. It’s not a hiatus, it’s just lack of interest.
Larry, when you display a lack of interest, people start using your blog to broadcast right wing talking points. Please change your blog topic.
Come on guys, Larry is busy with his new novel, he still loves us.
You wonder what Larry Mendte was thinking, it’s so sad that people lose sight of reality like that. On Fox last night Keri Lee broke the story, then cut to John “the big storm is coming” Bolaris (who candidily went on record to harsly criticize Mendte) then he tossed it to Dawn Stensland, Mente’s wife. I know Larry Kane watched this because it doesnt get any jucier in the newsroom. I thought Dawn would take the night off, but I had to respect her courage to go on with the show and stand by her very flawed husband. She deserves better, but hopefully Mendte is sorry for his actions, its doublful he’ll ever work in TV news again. Maybe he’ll excell in charible work as he does his penance. He was a poor kid from Landsdown who made good but never became fully secure in his abilities. A skeptic might also think that all the over the top charible work was something he did to cleanse his dark sinful sole- a very sad situation.
George, why was his sole dirty? Did he step in something?
Kerri Lee didn’t break the story. She read the story. And was thankful the TelePrompTer didn’t have “embed” in the story, which she pronounces “emmmed.”
It’s a shame when the “talent” is all in appearance and almost never in substance.
Kerri Lee is way too cute to critize, and she’s actually pretty good. Larry Mendte did a very cowardly thing, it reflected a sickness and level of jealously that was very dark and dirty, if you don’t beleive in soles, which is likely since you don’t beleive in God, it is still a very disingenuous way to treat colleagues who you pretend to like publically. All the while, he kept up a false good guy image; look at me, I’m so charitble and religious. Leo, this type of hypocracy should be right up your alley. Too many people have spoken out against him for there not to be some truth to the fact that he is two faced and will stop at nothing to aggrandize himself. Now he’s been stopped and the Philadelpia news market is better off. In religious terms, it was sinful, however, he should be forgiven if he is truely sorry for what he did.
George re: Kerri Lee, the talent is all in appearance. She can’t even read well. That’s probably why she’s languishing on UHF dial news.
Just how much Senate experience does Barack Obama have in terms of actual work days? Not much.
From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That’s how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.
After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan.
143 days — I keep leftovers in my refrigerator longer than that.
So this blog has digressed to arguing the merits of KLH?
I’m with you on the aesthetics, George.
AP
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” on Monday when he apparently meant “Afghanistan”, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition.
Just in the past three weeks, McCain has also mistaken “Somalia” for “Sudan,” and even football’s Green Bay Packers for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise: foreign affairs.
McCain will turn 72 the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts his party’s nomination for president at the age of 47, calling new attention to the sensitive issue of McCain’s advanced age three days before the start of his own convention.
But McCain’s mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office?
I’ll tell you what: nookulur war controlled by Asian brainwashing overlords.
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