Saturday, February 12, 2005

Busted Drawing Arm

Cartoonist Garry Trudeau, maker of Doonesbury, broke his collarbone while skiing in Aspen on Thursday. Looks like us followers of his strip may be in for a month or two of reruns. Here's a bit more info.

• Posted at 10:02 PM · LINK

TiVo Tips

Here is an excellent primer on the new TiVo to Go. I've yet to receive the software upgrade that contains it, but I have the feeling I'm not going to be using it very much, if at all. Much easier to just record shows on my Pioneer DVR with the built-in DVD burner.

• Posted at 2:51 PM · LINK

More Bad Reporting

I have to keep this brief and get back to work, but I wanted to mention the apparent outrage the other night on ABC's Primetime Live. We've already discussed how 60 Minutes Wednesday on CBS recently missed a big part of the story when they covered Stan Lee. On Thursday night, the ABC show devoted itself to a profile, somewhat approving, of a faith healer in Brazil. In this case, they didn't miss one side of the story...they simply declined to include it. The show interviewed the expert debunker of such things, James Randi, who provided extensive evidence that the guy was a fraud. If they'd used any decent-sized chunk of that footage, they'd have had no story...so Randi was limited to around twelve seconds. Radio strongman Paul Harris is all over this story...and even if you don't care about religious/medical con artists (or even if you believe), you might want to listen to his interview with Randi. It's a terrific example of how the news media hears what they think will sell newspapers or get ratings, and discards whatever gets in the way of those goals.

• Posted at 1:13 PM · LINK

Throat Talk

Several folks have e-mailed me with more Deep Throat speculations, mainly that the man in the garage was Ben Stein. The main evidence for this seems to be that Stein, who was a Nixon speechwriter late in that administration, was a childhood friend of Carl Bernstein. Arguing against that is that (a) Deep Throat met with Woodward, not Bernstein; (b) Stein did not go to work for the White House until after D.T. had begun supplying the reporters with info, and (c) Stein, to this day, speaks well of Nixon and asserts that there was no Deep Throat. He says that Woodward, for whom he has little respect, just made it up.

One might point out that Stein once denied he'd written the article for GQ magazine that prompted a libel suit from Joan Rivers. He eventually had to admit authorship when the magazine settled with Rivers...so he has, in a way, been an anonymous source. He also was the son of a high muck-a-muck in the Nixon administration so he could have had info to pass on before he got his job in the White House. Still, I just don't think he's the guy. It's possible, I suppose...but I think it's another example of reaching far to make it be someone we've heard of.

• Posted at 1:00 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone says that the military draft is coming back.

• Posted at 1:39 AM · LINK

Licking a Problem

Is your computer screen dirty? Here...let a cute cat clean it for you.

• Posted at 12:55 AM · LINK