Results tagged “media>”

The idea here is obviously that demonstrating how to do self-breast exams in a clear and precise manner could help save lives. But of course, it's also the start of the fall sweeps period, so the station is catching some heat for the appearance of showing naked boobs just to get ratings.

Slate music writer Jonah Weiner has been getting a tremendous amount of ribbing on the internet for his latest counter-intuitive pop rock piece, "Creed is Good: Scott Stapp's nu-grunge foursome was seriously underrated." Weiner penned a similar defense of Limp Bizkit earlier this year, in fitting with his publication's overall reputation for being contrary just for the sake of it. For us, all of this is really just an excuse to link back to former DCist staffer Jason Linkins' classic Scott Stapp concert review, which if you've never read, you should do so now. Click here.

After just a year on the job, it's hard to say that Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli hasn't made his presence known.

Local blogger Ben Somberg writes in to let us know he's had just about enough of front page stories about Facebook from the Washington Post. And he's got the evidence to prove he's not just a big whiner: since September of 2006, the Post has now devoted A1 space to stories about the social networking site a total of 15 times, by Somberg's count. Today's story, penned by youth reporter Ian Shapira, focuses on those rare individuals who aren't too old for Facebook, but still refuse to participate. Says Somberg: "It's alright, though I don't see exactly what it adds -- I don't leave the story having learned much I didn't already know. It belongs inside, not on Page 1."

City Desk recently ran an item about how Street Sense, D.C.'s homeless newspaper, was one of the only local publications thriving during the recession. As a volunteer member of the board of directors of Street Sense, the piece made me cringe just a little bit, even though I get what reporter Chris Lewis was trying to say: more and more people are turning to jobs selling the paper, so circulation is up. But make no mistake, this has been an incredibly shaky year financially for Street Sense, just like every other non-profit in town. Grants and donations are down across the board, and the board has had to make difficult choices to keep the organization, which employs almost 100 area homeless men and women, afloat.

Click on over to www.washingtonpost.com/local to take a look at the new Washingtonpost.com 'Local' homepage, which launched in Beta at 4 p.m. this afternoon. Surprisingly enough, the design actually does look significantly different from the regular home page, a far cry from previous WaPo attempts to differentiate between the local and national editions of the paper by offering minor, barely noticeable differences for online readers with local IP addresses.

New trends and fads follow a predictable path in the Washington area. First there are pioneers, next come early adopters, then the general public and eventually, some time after that, the Washington Post. Once the Post gets around to publishing an article on the new trend or fad, you can bet that it's only a matter of months before it's completely over.

We've highlighted the oddball tendencies of WTOP's weekend web reporting in the past. But if you aren't reading this stuff over the weekend, you're missing out on a veritable goldmine of obscure and odd "news" -- some culled from the AP wire, others reported on in house, most of it good for a laugh. For example: did you know that the Maryland State Fair in Timonium is debuting a free arm wrestling competition this weekend? (Or that arm wrestling competitions have weight classes and that there is actually a national ranking system?) Rather than trudging out another long-winded story about unemployment figures, WTOP's weekend crew proactively gets out the word on opportunities: here's a comprehensive roundup of all the theme parks in the area that are hiring folks to wear costumes scare patrons at Halloween! (Hey, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.) Lest we forget the McDonald's blood cone story that we mentioned in today's Saturday Morning Post. WTOP: a must-read for the person in your life who feels the need to spout quirky stories throughout the weekend's social gatherings.

Last week, in our end of the day roundup, we linked to an NBCWashington.com story about that guy who had been standing at a busy intersection in Tysons Corner wearing a sign that read, "I CHEATED. THIS IS MY PUNISHMENT." Tailor made for local broadcast news, the story was picked by nearly every outlet in town, and ended up getting some national and international coverage as well. But, it turns out, the whole thing was a practical joke. FOX 5, the first TV station to actually interview the man who identified himself as William Taylor, reports this morning that Taylor was really a plant of Washington's Hot 99.5 Kane In The Morning show, who sent the sign-wearing philanderer out there just to see "how much media coverage it would receive." We can think of a few signs we'd like to see this Kane guy wear along the side of the road.

Another local radio format switch to announce. True Oldies 105.9 FM is no more, having been replaced this morning by 105.9 The Edge, a new classic rock station. The Edge is touting itself as "specifically designed for men who love to rock," because, we can only guess, women don't enjoy rocking quite so hard? Look for the likes of Van Halen, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Queen, The Black Crowes, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, etc.

New York hedge fund Atalaya Capital Management were the winners in a bankruptcy auction in Tampa today to see who would control the Creative Loafing newspaper chain, owners of the Washington City Paper and other alternative weeklies, reports the St. Petersburg Times. Atalaya was Creative Loafing's largest creditor by far, and they took control of the company by significantly outbidding a partnership made up of now former Loafing CEO Ben Eason and another hedge fund creditor, BIA Digital Partners. Atalaya offered $5 million, while the Eason group opened with $2.32 million.

From WTOP: "We'll go and literally tune into your heart, your brain and your blood vessels and harvest the minute amount of electricity the body produces 24-7". Wait, what? When will this be happening? Who will be responsible for this? The government? Malevolent visitors from another planet in search of resources? Will they be doing this systematically throughout the District? Will District residents need a D.C. One card to gain access the harvest point? What about Virginia and Maryland -- will they be subject to this complete takeover of our bodies for electrical power? All important questions. But good luck finding any of that seemingly vital information in the story -- the only thing that comes close is a quote from Jim Ostroff of the Kiplinger Washington Letter, a business publication, touting the powerful attributes of Body Area Networks. (Isn't this exactly what powered The Matrix?) Better prepare yourself: apparently, these networks are "on their way." Quite the bang-up reporting job, there, WTOP. (Don't fall asleep, trusty readers.)

WAMU's Diane Rehm wasn't behind the microphone for her regular 2-hour Friday slot of The Diane Rehm Show today, because she was reportedly injured in one of those bizarre accidents that seem like only happen on TV sitcoms. Filling in for the host, Susan Page of USA Today reported that Rehm was running across the street on Thursday when her heel got caught in the leg of her pants. As a result, Rehm tripped, and she managed to break her pelvis during the fall. Talk about bad luck. She'll now be out for at least a few weeks while she recuperates. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Awesome story from the AP's Matthew Barakat about how disgraced former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair has set up shop as a Certified Life Coach in Ashburn, Va. You can find Blair's bio on the Ashburn Psychological Services web site here, which makes no mention of his famous fabrications, but does allude to his autobiography on the subject. Blair's famous schmoozing skills apparently translate well to his ability to help people figure out their career and personal problems, according to his boss. The former reporter also has his own web site promoting his life coaching business, which he began sometime after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

One of the silliest local internet traditions has come to an end. On Friday, D.C. media watchblog Fishbowl DC announced it was killing its annual "Hottest Media Types" contest. Which is all well and good, considering every version for the last several years was won by whichever nominee benefited from the best automatic voting bot. In its place, however, we're getting the Fishbowl DC Summer Superlatives, which come in the form of these ten categories: Most Likely to Take a Job with the Administration, Biggest Heartthrob (so, the Hottest?), Class Clown, Most Mysterious, Biggest Rebel, Most Ambitious, Cutest Couple, Most Competitive, Hardest Working, and Most Likely to Become a Headline.

We heartily heart Fishbowl DC for digging up these sweet 1970s-era spots for local television news channels. Here's one for WJLA in 1976:

If you're a regular customer of Street Sense, D.C.'s only homeless newspaper, but have been frustrated over the years with its lackluster online offerings, be sure to check out the paper's recently redesigned web site, StreetSense.org. (Full disclosure: I'm a volunteer member of the board of directors of Street Sense, and consulted just a little bit on the design process of this site).

"Nationals' Unexpected Success Sends Washington Post Into A Fugue State"

Hating on Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza's recent failed attempts at making humorous online videos for washingtonpost.com has been a popular pastime of late, but comedian Andy Cobb has served up the best rebuke to date (via AMERICABlog). Brutal, and unlike the Milbank/Cillizza efforts, actually funny.

Some time ago I asked the DCist writing staff to avoid using the term "hipster" whenever possible. It's a word we all hear and say plenty, but I'm never quite sure what different people really mean by it. Is it just someone who wears skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors? Is it people who compost and keep chickens in their urban gardens? Is any man under 35 who has unusual facial hair a hipster? What's the difference between a scenester and hipster? Are you talking about these people? Or these people? Until I figure out some satisfactory answers, I prefer our writers be more specific about what they really mean. Using "hipster" just seems lazy and vague.

Oh right, we meant to link to The Hill newspaper's 50 Most Beautiful 2009 feature, aka the annual "Hill Hotties" list, which hit the stands earlier this week. As is tradition, we turn to DCist alum Jason Linkins, aka DCeiver and now of the Huffington Post, for the crucial analysis:

What makes The Hill's annual listicle is, frankly, The Hill itself. With their oddball fixations, strange beauty metaphors, and bizarre photography decisions, the keepers of this list have always been one of the main attractions. Sadly, this year's list is not nearly as bizarre as last year's was. I like to think that maybe The Hill is working hard to deprive me of material. Sounds arrogant? Maybe. But the alternative -- that our government is getting less beautiful -- is just too difficult to contemplate.

Folks subscribed to WMATA's emailed press release service were treated to dozens of news alerts today - except they were from 2003, and full of very, very old news. The errant emails were the result of "technical difficulties," according to Metro spokesperson Angela Gates, and the transit agency's IT department was working to discover the source of the problem. We luckily noticed the 30 or so press releases we got from Metro today seemed funny right away, but the Washington Post's Get There blog wasn't so lucky: they quickly posted a story about how SmarTrip cards weren't going to be available for a couple of months, only to have to pull it down and replace it with an explanation about the press release having been from 2003. Chief Metro spokesperson Lisa Farbstein was able to joke about the snafu later in the afternoon, after the bad alerts had finally stopped. "Well, at first we were feeling nostalgic," Farbstein quipped in an email.

If you didn't already spend your lunch hour, like we did, listening to the series of voicemail recordings, leaked to the Washington City Paper, that Marion Barry left for ex-girlfriend and alleged "stalkee" Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, we can verify that they make for fairly fascinating listening. The tapes (and the Loose Lips column that goes with them) have even started to become a bit of an internet sensation, if the WCP's Twitter feed is any judge: "Marion Barry killed our web server :'( ... we're working on bringing it back to life," they updated earlier this afternoon. The web site and the tapes are both back up now though, so take a gander, or if you can't listen in your office, they're also offering some typed up partial transcripts.

If it were up to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, American citizens would still pay taxes and homage to Queen Elizabeth II. Think we're kidding? We're not. In a chat on the Post's website yesterday, Carlson inveighed against District voting rights and sided with taxation without representation. From the transcript:

Katy, Tex.: Non Palin question. Considering that the Washington, D.C., crowd continues to elect Marion Barry to publicly paid posts, why does anyone think it is a good idea to let them elect a full-fledged representative to the House?

Continue reading "Tucker Carlson Laments Independence from Britain"

In case you haven't seen it yet, make sure to read Mike Allen's pretty amazing story over at Politico, which exposes a new business plan being put together by The Washington Post that would offer lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to high ranking government officials at "Post Salon" dinner events in exchange for huge cash payments, starting at $25,000 a pop. The really astonishing part of the story is already being walked back (sort of) by The Washington Post newsroom, however, as a flier obtained by Politico insinuated that access to the paper's own reporters and editors was also potentially for sale. Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and spokesperson Kris Coratti told Politico that the newsroom would not participate in the first scheduled event, which will focus on health-care reform, because it would be inappropriate, but left room for the possibility that other Post Salons might feature editorial staffers. UPDATE 12:38 p.m.: Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth has just announced that she's canceling all the dinners. What a mess.

Progressive radio network Air America will finally debut in the D.C. market tonight at midnight, broadcasting as WZAA 1050 AM. The daily schedule will include such well known personalities as Rachel Maddow, Ron Reagan, Ana Marie Cox, Montel Williams, Lionel, Arianna Huffington and Carlos Watson. Special guests will also appear on the station tomorrow to mark the D.C. launch, including Helen Thomas, Chris Matthews, and Sen. Bernie Sanders. “We plan to utilize our new Washington, D.C. broadcast facilities to originate nationwide programming with our talent,” said Bill Hess, senior vice president of programming of Air America Media. “Now that we’re in our new D.C. home on Idaho Avenue, we’re also producing regularly-scheduled local programming.”

Or so Tony Kornheiser of PTI fame described his replacement, Jon Gruden, on ESPN’s Monday Night Fooball. Gruden perfected his tan as head coach of the Tampa Bay Bucanneers for seven years and won one Super Bowl with the franchise before being fired this offseason.

For the food nerd set, the James Beard Awards are akin to the Oscars. Sunday night, media awards were handed out, and The Washington Post was the winner of the best newspaper food section this year. Tonight, the winners of the restaurant industry portion will be announced. You can follow the announcements as they happen on The James Beard Foundation's Twitter feed starting at 6 p.m.

Not technically D.C.-related, but given that this may actually be the best local TV news story we've ever seen, there was just no way we could pass on it. WLWT in Cincinnati reports on the "growing trend" of "real-life superheroes" in this piece of pure comedy gold. Make sure not to miss the interaction between Cincinnati's top superhero, "Shadow Hare," and a Cincinnati cop about halfway through. Absolutely brilliant.