Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Podcasters hate this one weird trick!

Monday, October 1st, 2018

Or, how to get me to stop listening to your podcast:

The rest of this season of Crimetown will be available exclusively on Spotify.

This is a shame: I liked the first season of Crimetown. I’ve even written about it here previously, since (as you know, Bob) I have an abnormal interest in Rhode Island politics.

But if you can’t put your show into an RSS feed, like “Gimlet Media” did with the first “season” of Crimetown, I’m not interested. I’m not signing up for yet another account, even if I can get a Spotify account for “free” (translation: give up your personal data), just to listen to your damn podcast.

(I would point out that “Gimlet Media” is losing my potential advertising views as well by going this route. But since “Crimetown” season one had some of the worst podcast sponsors there are, since I fast-foward through podcast advertisements whenever I can, and since I make it a policy never to buy any product advertised on a podcast, technically, “Gimlet Media” isn’t losing anything from me.)

(Also: podcasts do not have “seasons”. Stop saying that. If you want to do a block of thematically related episodes and take a break between them, fine: just don’t call it a season. TV shows have “seasons” and they have seasons because they take a break between spring and fall for ratings and demographic reasons. Podcasts are not TV shows and do not have to follow that model. Calling your block of episodes a “season” makes you sound like maroons, as far as I’m concerned.)

The Washington Post makes me testy again.

Thursday, August 2nd, 2018

Headline:

The provocative Mike Daisey is a straight-shooter in his solo show about guns.

Dear WP:

The words you were looking for in that headline were “known liar“. “Known. Liar.

You’re welcome.

Obit watch: May 21, 2018.

Monday, May 21st, 2018

NYT obit for Joseph Campanella.

Billy Cannon, running back for the Houston Oilers. Noted here for “compare and contrast” reasons:

HouChron obit by John McClain. Note that this obit discusses his legal troubles in one two sentence paragraph, and that close to the bottom of the article.

NYT obit. Note that this obit basically headlines and leads off with his legal troubles, and devotes the better part of six paragraphs to them and the fallout from his conviction.

First…

Wednesday, March 28th, 2018

they came for the gun magazines, and I didn’t say anything: because I wasn’t a gun owner, and it’s not censorship if a private business does it, amirite?

Then they came for Cosmopolitan, and I said, “Hey! Wait a minute!”

(Semi-related.)

(More seriously, my First Amendment absolutism is really coming into conflict with my “sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander” philosophy, as well as my desire to see the gun-grabbers at Cosmo get theirs good and hard.)

Obit watch: January 29, 2018.

Monday, January 29th, 2018

Mort Walker, creator of the “Beetle Bailey” comic strip. NYT. WP “Comic Riffs”.

Brian Walker said that the strip will continue, and that he and his brother Greg had been working on it with their father for decades.

Quote of the day.

Thursday, December 7th, 2017

The Los Angeles Police Department has advised drivers to be wary of following navigation apps that direct them through areas that are on fire.

(Previously on WCD.)

Headline of the day.

Tuesday, November 28th, 2017

‘It Was a Blood Bath’: Freight Trains Kill 110 Reindeer in Norway

Early morning drinking.

Tuesday, November 28th, 2017

Shot:

White men who fear poverty are more attached to their guns, Baylor study finds

Chaser:

(Warning! Slideshow!)

A photographer documents heat-packing women and the guns they love

(Warning! Slideshow!)

Headline of the day.

Monday, November 13th, 2017

These crabs can grow up to 3 feet, but did they eat Amelia Earhart?

I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.

Tuesday, October 31st, 2017

Cox Media Group announced plans today to put up the Austin American-Statesman for sale.

I’ll bid $5.

(Subject line hattip.)

Oh my God, it’s a Mirage…

Thursday, October 5th, 2017

Interesting article from Topic: “The Story Behind the Chicago Newspaper That Bought a Bar”, an oral history of the Chicago Sun-Times Mirage investigation.

I know I’ve written about this before, but briefly: in 1977, the paper and the Better Government Association bought a bar and secretly recorded city employees taking bribes to ignore violations.

Zay: The payoff parade began before we opened. The health inspector, when he inspected us— I mean, the basement just had maggots glistening on the floor. Upstairs it was no better. He shook us down for a few bucks and passed the place.
Pam: I think one of the things that amazed us is that these inspectors sold out public safety on the cheap. They were not taking huge amounts. We were told to leave $10 for one inspector, and $25 for another inspector.

The paper published the results in 25 parts starting in January of 1978.

Obit watch: October 2, 2017.

Monday, October 2nd, 2017

Monty Hall.

“Let’s Make a Deal” became such a pop-culture phenomenon that it gave birth to a well-known brain-twister in probability, called “the Monty Hall Problem.” This thought experiment involves three doors, two goats and a coveted prize and leads to a counterintuitive solution.

I’m not so sure about the “two goats” thing. But I also think that part of the problem with the “Monty Hall problem” is that people aren’t precise in stating the terms of the problem, and that leads to “counterintuitive solutions” based on what people think the terms are.

See also.

S.I. Newhouse, magazine publisher.

Obit watch: September 28, 2017.

Thursday, September 28th, 2017

For the record: Hugh Hefner.

I feel like Lawrence pretty much said everything I would say.

Even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes.

Friday, September 8th, 2017

The almost completely worthless (ever since they fired Jim Romenesko) Poynter.org republishes Martin Merzer’s memo to Miami Herald staffers on how to cover hurricanes (aka “The dreaded Merz hurricane note”).

Don’t stand in standing water. Let the other idiots get electrocuted — we don’t need them anyway. You, we can’t replace because we’re in a hiring freeze. Also, if you die, we need to fill out a lot of messy paperwork.

(Hattip: Vera Bergengruen‏ on the Twitters.)

Headline of the day.

Friday, September 1st, 2017

Principal in Park Slope is Cleared of Communist Organizing

Berlin 1936? Los Angeles 1952? Nope: New York City, 2017.