Haiti disaster coverage hurts Haitians
January 26, 2010 by admin.
Note to the Detroit News (and its kin):
Food is scarce. Yet a major city like Detroit has sent teams of journalists to compete for limited resources in a disaster zone. Multiply that by the number of other major and mid-sized cities that have also sent teams of writers and photographers.
Honestly, is the local angle so important that teams of local journalists must be sent to tie up flights, hotels, food, water, rental cars, ports and roadways? Aren’t you really just hi-tech rubberneckers who tie up traffic at the world’s biggest accident scene? Is there something you at the News have done that the national outlets could not have fulfilled?
Charity begins at home. So should shame.
MagicJack number portability?
January 17, 2010 by admin.
A couple years ago I bought one of those MagicJack devices that connects to your computer and allows you to make and receive telephone calls for $20 per year (they actually charge a one-time fee of $20 for the device, plus $20 per year for service).
It worked reasonably well, but I did not renew for a second year for one simple reason: I wanted to move my home number to the Magic Jack (this feature is called “porting”). When I subscribed, they said they would allow this to happen “shortly.” I was looking forward to this eventuality. At the end of the year, they had not enabled this feature - but they promised it would be available “shortly” or “soon.”
I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now - a couple more years have passed, and they are still making the same hollow promise. Not only does this disappoint me when it comes to my own expectations and needs, but it causes me to question the sincerity of the company. Every other phone company allows porting of numbers, so we know it is technologically possible. Why, then, won’t MagicJack do it - incompetence, or dishonesty?
Getting Closer . . .
December 27, 2009 by admin.
The CDC has confirmed that America is fewer than 600 quilts away from solving AIDS.
Put your money where your dog’s mouth is
December 20, 2009 by admin.
During difficult economic times, the standard cliche portrays the elderly eating dog food instead of human food.
Personally, I always found a can of Alpo to be a rather expensive item. But the question must be asked, at least so investors know where to put their money: Do pet food sales rise during tough times?
Tiger Attacks Newspaper Reporter, Draws Blood
December 16, 2009 by admin.
The reason the media is reporting the Tiger infidelities so harshly and widely has nothing to do with whether the public cares. On the scale of 1 to 10, the public cares around “2,” and is intrigued around “5.” So why does this story get a “10″ on the Media Obsession Meter?
It’s simple to me. I do not feel betrayed because I never wrote an article or dedicated a magazine cover to Tiger Woods and his beautiful family life. I never told anybody he was a good role model for golf, for the black community, for interracial relations or for anything else.
But the media did. They invested heavily in his image and promoted it ad nauseum. So when he betrayed his wife, he also betrayed the media’s investment in the Tiger Cult. He didn’t betray me or my neighbors, so while we may crack a joke over the incident, we have not obsessed about it the way the media has. Even media coverage questioning whether it has covered it too much is obsessive!
And the funny part is that while the public will learn to quit having heroes, the media will attempt to plug new ones in where it has hauled Tiger down.
Free Press vs. Free Agency
December 2, 2009 by admin.
Golf and sports are not mentioned in the Constitution. The press is. Therefore, the public has a right to know which journalists are unfaithful to their spouses/domestic partners, but no right to pry into Tiger Woods’ lifestyle.
Although if this makes Elin a free agent, I’m all for it!
Guys, keep your sporting goods locked up!
December 2, 2009 by admin.
Elin = golf club
Carlita = baseball bat
Never saw it coming
December 1, 2009 by admin.
Channel 4 news had a story about the increase in thefts of GPS devices that are visible immediately when thieves look into a car. Naturally, they went to an area mall to talk to car owners.
One man was interviewed. He keeps his GPS on the top of his dashboard, plain as day, while he is away from the car. He said he never worried about theft because he had placed the device in a location where it “was invisible” and a thief “would have to look into the car to see it.”
The cost of information
November 30, 2009 by admin.
A Detroit Free Press columnist has taken the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office to task for charging $20 for each photograph it reproduces in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The columnist questions whether this extreme price shows that the M.E.’s office is trying to suppress information about an ongoing investigation into the shooting death of a religious leader who was accused of running a theft ring. The Free Press compares the M.E.’s prices to those charged by the local drug store.
After an extensive investigation, I have learned that the Detroit Free Press is also engaging in a cover-up, preventing people from acquiring key information in their lives. You guessed it - I checked the prices the Free Press charges for reprints of its photos:
| Size |
Unframed |
Framed |
| 10” |
$30.00 |
$100.00 |
| 14” |
$40.00 |
$120.00 |
| 20” |
$60.00 |
$140.00 |
| 30” |
$80.00 |
$200.00 |
‘Nuff said.
