Today's Cool News

TV Station Threatens Blogger for Calling an Anchor "Hot"

I just wonder how the doofus GM in Richmond thought this was going to end?  Did he really think he would intimidate Jack the Bartender or imagine that this childish e-mail would remain "private"?

Jack the bartender,

I have just reviewed your blog site and I want to request that you immediately remove the false, damaging, and salacious statements you’ve made about WTVR/WUPV Anchor/Reporters Ric Young and Lee Mahaffey. If this material is not removed in 24 hours (by 500pm Thursday, October 1, 2008) I will ask our attorneys to prosecute you and your web hosts to the fullest extent of the law. If you have any questions about this request, or WTVR’s intent, contact me at the number below.

(Name Redacted) General Manager CBS 6 WTV

The posts in question focus on one anchor who showed up at Jack's bar and allegedly undertipped the wait staff.  The other simply refers to anchor Lee Mahaffey as "hot" and as someone he would like to convince to "make some bad decisions."

Leaving aside the obvious fact that TV stations consider the appearance of anchors (believe it or not, sometimes more than his or her journalistic qualifications), what part of being a "public figure" does WTVR GM Peter Maroney not get? 

You would think MSM operations would be thrilled to get attention from bloggers, especially ones in a key demo that don't watch TV much anyway.  I could understand if the posts were threatening but this blogger is just snarky and so far the law, let alone common sense, doesn't prohibit snarkiness.  If it ever does, reach me at the Snarky jail...

Home from A 14 Hour Olympic Torch Relay Workday

But here are a few screen grabs of the video I shot as the torch made an unexpected jaunt past KRON 4 on Van Ness.

Oh Yes, Jesus Right There, oooh

Robert Anton Wilson used to say the worst thing about being an atheist is what do you say during sex, "Oh random chance, oh random chance."??

Now it appears the British government is ready to solve this problem, at least in part, when it repeals the blasphemy laws and allows the release of "Jesus porn"

From the Guardian:

A landmark decision to ban a film showing Christ being caressed on the cross on the grounds that it was blasphemous could be reversed after almost 20 years.

The 1989 ruling by the British Board of Film Classification to refuse a release licence for Visions of Ecstasy, a low- budget film depicting the 16th-century Spanish mystic St Teresa of Avila caressing the body of Jesus on the cross provoked a national furore.

While the film's director, Nigel Wingrove, believed he was making art, the board, under its heavily censorious director James Ferman, took a different view and said its mix of pornography and religion risked upsetting the Anglican Church. Now, however, in a sign that Britain's social mores have moved on, Craig Lapper, of the board's examining body, has invited Wingrove to resubmit the film for classification.

The invitation comes ahead of the repeal in June of the blasphemy law, which has long been a source of anger for those working in the creative industries who complain it is an archaic piece of legislation that stifles art.

(snip)

Wingrove, now a distributor of horror movies, said the suggestion he should resubmit his most notorious work had come 'completely out of the blue' and that he was in two minds about whether to agree. 'If I made the film now I would make it very differently,' he said. 'I was exploring areas of dark eroticism, but I had worked chiefly in prints, not films. People say I should put it out, but on a personal level I have reservations. If I did release it, I would need to put it into context and perhaps release a documentary to accompany it.'

(snip)

It would not just be anti-censorship campaigners who would welcome the film's release. 'I was in Soho recently and bumped into the guy who played Jesus,' Wingrove said. 'He said he'd never seen the film and asked if he could have a copy.'

Feel Free to Borrow from Charlie

You may think of Charlie Manson as an icon of the 60's but America's favorite mass murder conspirator (he didn't kill anyone himself) is living firmly in the modern world of copyright law.

It seems Charlie is putting out another album of desultory music from his studio/cell in Corcoran.  But unlike his previous work, Chuck wants you to share in his creativity... because he's releasing the album under a creative commons license.

From Limewire:

CC is a special license that allows anyone to download, share and mix other people's music as long as they give proper credit. Recently, Nine Inch Nails released their album under a Creative Commons license, and it has been a great success!

Good old Charles Manson of the Tate and LaBianca murders has done the same thing.  His recent album, "One Mind" is licensed in a way that allows anyone to share it with others, remix it and use it for non-commercial uses.

So feel free to mix and slash for Charlie...

Hi, This is Hillary!

It's always nice to know who you're interviewing, particularly if it's the potential President of the United States.

From The (Warren, Ohio) Tribune Chronicle:

It was incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s Tribune Chronicle that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton answered questions from voters in a local congressman’s office.

Reporter John Goodall, who was assigned to the story, spoke by telephone with Hillary Wicai Viers, who is a communications director in U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson’s staff. According to the reporter, when Viers answered the phone with ‘‘This is Hillary,’’ he believed he was speaking with the Democratic presidential candidate, who had made several previous visits to the Mahoning Valley.

The quotes from Viers were incorrectly attributed to Clinton.

Advice from Uncle Binnie

Current affairs got you down?  Tired of hearing the same old tired opinions from the blowhard pundits about Obama's preacher or Geraldine Ferraro or Eliot Spitzer or any of the other names in the news these days?

Well you're in luck because soon we will be enjoying the wit and wisdom of Uncle Binnie.  Not sure if we'll be saying "Hey Man, Ayman"... but this is a message you'll want to see and not hear whateverthefuck that means.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is expected to release a new message within the next two days, the U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service SITE Institute said on Wednesday.

The message is entitled, "The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear," SITE said in a release.

It said an announcement of the pending message was posted on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, by the administrator of the al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Ekhlaas Internet forum.

       

This is more exciting than getting a sneak peak at John Hagee's next rant.

Whatever happened to Ayman's offer to answer our questions?  It seems he doesn't want to be rushed.

Horton Hears a Who Cares?

The one time I met Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, I asked him a rather political question about why kids who read his books when they're young end up borderline illiterate by high school.  He said to me, "You've opened up a whole can of peas there and I would rather not get into it."

That exchange makes more sense to me today in light of the quotes from Ted's widow in this piece about Anti-abortion rights wackos showing up at the premiere of Horton Hears a Who. 

From Kim Masters in Slate:

Your Hollywoodland correspondent attended the glamorous premiere of Horton Hears a Who! last Saturday and was present when protesters started yelling shortly after Horton uttered his famous motto: "A person's a person, no matter how small."

We could not understand what was being shouted and thought perhaps that Seth Rogen or one of the other many vocal talents in the film was expressing love for Dr. Seuss' elephant and his signature line. But as you may have read elsewhere, anti-abortion activists had infiltrated the theater. Afterward, they handed out fliers designed to look like tickets.

None of this sat well with Audrey Geisel, widow of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), who attended the screening. So did Karl ZoBell, the lawyer who represents her and who has represented the interests of Dr. Seuss for some 40 years.

(snip)

ZoBell says it would be nice if these people came up with their own material. But if they don't go too far—by copping the illustrations, for example—they can use a line like "A person's a person, no matter how small," even if it wouldn't have pleased Dr. Seuss. And it wouldn't have. The Geisels were opposed to using the Dr. Seuss books for any political agenda.

Some anti-abortion Web sites claim that Audrey is a supporter of Planned Parenthood. ZoBell says he's never discussed the issue of abortion with her and can't confirm that.

Headlines from the Lesbitarian News Network

In this immediate post-Spitzer era, everyone's looking for a niche in the news marketplace.

No doubt the folks at Girl-on-Girl News have discovered a profitable one:

This will be a very different kind of news show for two reasons.

1. Fun, Funny, Fast Paced.

2. The girls will get hot and nasty with each other at the end of the 2 minute broadcast!

We promise you - you’ve NEVER seen anything like it before - you’ll wonder how you ever got your news before…

While that was first posted in January, it appears they've hired, er, umm, talent.

"...our new duo auditioned very well. While they may have had some stumbles over some of the big words - their vocal projecton and stage presence was terrific."

Rate Your Cop

The next time you're tooling through Gilbert, Arizona at 4:00 a.m., slow down.  Officer Dave Bush might be lurking around that next cactus.  Depending on your point of view, Officer Bush is a "dickhead", who may look like "Gargamell", but if you're a fellow cop you may find Dave the sort of fellow you would want at your 6 if your booty was in a jam.

How do I know so much about Officer Dave?  He's among the top five officers rated at RateMyCop.com which is now back live on the Internet.  I should also thank the police industry and GoDaddy.com for pointing out this useful site to me.  That's because GoDaddy pulled the plug on the controversial service with no notice to the Culver City company that started it.

Wired News reports:

Visitors to RateMyCop.com on Tuesday were redirected to a GoDaddy page reading, "Oops!!!", which urged the site owner to contact GoDaddy to find out why the company pulled the plug.

RateMyCop founder Gino Sesto says he was given no notice of the suspension. When he called GoDaddy, the company told him that he'd been shut down for "suspicious activity."

When Sesto got a supervisor on the phone, the company changed its story and claimed the site had surpassed its 3 terabyte bandwidth limit, a claim that Sesto says is nonsense. "How can it be overloaded when it only had 80,00 page views today, and 400,000 yesterday?"

(snip)

...the site went live on February 28th. It stores the names and, in some cases, badge numbers of over 140,000 cops in as many as 500 police departments, and allows users to post comments about police they've interacted with, and rate them. The site garnered media interest this week as cops around the country complained that they'd be put at risk if their names were on the internet.

(snip)

Since undercover officers aren't in the database, and the site has no personal information like home addresses, that fear seems unfounded. Chief Jerry Dyer, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, voices what sounds like a more honest concern: that officers will face  "unfair maligning" by the citizens they serve.

Sesto says police can post comments as well, and a future version of the site will allow them to authenticate themselves to post rebuttals more prominently.  Chief Dyer wants to get legislation passed that would make RateMyCop.com illegal, which, of course, wouldn't pass constitutional muster in any court in America.

(snip)

A GoDaddy spokeswoman says the company can't comment on the RateMyCop takedown due to its privacy policy. Sesto says he's already arranged hosting elsewhere, and hopes to have the site online Tuesday night.

Thanks GoDaddy for bringing this site to my attention.  The site is back up... although it's a little creaky this morning.

The Price of Stock Footage

Ever wonder how political campaigns turn around commercials in a matter of days if not hours?  After all, doesn't it take time to script and shoot a piece featuring a family home in bed while a phone rings in the White House?

Of course not.  You just dial up Getty Images and get some stock footage on the spot.  A little editing, a little VO, and you've got a spot.

Unfortunately, in a political campaign, the actors in the stock footage can be all grown up... and supporting the other guy.

From KING-5 Seattle:

Thursday night, the Knowles family of Bonney Lake, Wash., watched the John Stewart Show and saw the ad for the first time.

"I looked and saw a girl that looked like my sister and we rewound it and sure enough it was my sister," said Brady Knowles.

The first girl in the ad is young Casey Knowles. It's stock footage from 8 years ago when she worked as a TV extra - footage owned now by Getty Images and used by the Clinton campaign.

But they couldn't have picked a more unwilling star.

(snip)

"I've been campaigning for Barack Obama for a few months now," she said. "I was actually a precinct captain at the caucuses a few months ago. I attended his rally a few months ago and I'm a very, very avid supporter."

The Knowles family admit they have no control over how the footage is used. And while they see the humor of it all, they are mildly annoyed.

"I think it would be really wonderful if me and Barack Obama could get together and make a nice counter ad," she laughed.

Interesting the whole family first saw the ad on John Stewart...