Hurry Up And Spit!

By Bob Norman Wed., Mar. 12 2008 at 11:21 AM

I usually don't point out typos and such in the local papers (regular Pulp readers have an idea why). Unless it's funny. On page 13B of today's Sun-Sentinel, there's an AP story about the hallucinogenic plant salvia divinorum. The Sentinel's subhead on the story:

"Bill makes possession of Saliva a felony."

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Want to see a sad example of a comment board run amok? Look at the obviously unfiltered commments on sun-sentinel.com's story about the disturbances over the Boca Raton housinf vouchers. Why would a large daily newspapaer allow its reders to spew such bile, complete with references to ebonics, illegitimatye children, and ethnic and racial stereotypes? I'm all for free speech, but this is just pathetic.
Bob writes- which is really all newspapers have to distinguish themselves from the raving pack of tongue-flappers on the Internet I resemble that remark. Bob should know, we met in person in Oct. 06.(He might not recognize me now due to my hair and weight loss. The chemo diet does wonders) Cheers, Bill PB County Tongue flapper since Feb 05
Hey, Pulp: How come you haven't written anything about the S-S moving a good number of its West Palm-based reporters back to Delray Beach to cover vacancies in South County? Hasn't "Ellen Dalton" been filling you in?
You all disgust me.
Well, sure. Except for "all news" stations, radio makes no pretense toward journalism, for the most part. And newspaper ad execs are a much classier bunch, right? Right? (SFX: crickets)
I wasn't speaking of Abrams personally. Just the general vibe I get from the radio business (aside from NPR): asshole salesmen who don't give a shit about journalism (which is really all newspapers have to distinguish themselves from the raving pack of tongue-flappers on the Internet).
Abrams is far from an asshole. He may have screwed up freeform progressive radio by limiting its playlist and applying Top 40-like rotation of songs, but he made it thrive financially. The Tribune owns TV stations, websites AND newspapers (plus one radio station, WGN. If newspapers are to flourish (or just survive), all of that stuff needs to work together. There's a better chance that someone like Abrams can do that than anyone in the current regime. There's no guarantee, of course, and Randy Michaels can be a real bozo, but Abrams will put some intelligence, energy and innovation into the enterprise. That's my 2�, anyway. Your mileage may vary.
Listen, Zell may turn out to be a monumental flaming ass clown, but the fact is that the S-S is in its current situation from the previous corporate management. Zell hasn't made a single substantive editorial decision affecting this paper other than not firing the current management. Nada. So, if on one hand I have the guy who came up with AOR and XM Radio (which is pretty damn good by the way--lots of smart, serious content) and on the other I have the clowns who put Maucker and Gremillion in charge, whose stocking the website with mindless video twaddle, where am I supposed to put my faith? Zell isn't the reason they aren't putting hard news on their website. Zell isn't the reason they're missing stories. Zell isn't the reason they have an M.E. who has absolutely no rapport with staff. Zell isn't the reason they have a generation of cowering monkeys who no longer question any editorial decisions. Zell isn't the reason they shuffle people around with actually no rhyme or reason or attention to their experience and expertise. And Zell isn't the reason they sit around and stroke each other during the morning meetings without even talking about what's in the competition. Nope, Zell hasn't done any of that. That's all on them.
No time for insight and brilliance today, Thom, though I thought I pretty much said it all. Care to give us your take?
Sorry, Bob. I'll lower the bar for you. Better now? (Great, incisive analysis, too.)
Thom is referring to Tribune Co.'s hiring of Lee Abrams from XM radio as its "chief innovation officer"? What do you want me to say, Thom? That Tribune Co. is getting taken over by a bunch of assholes from the radio business? Done.
That's just adorable, Bob. In the meantime, the Lee Abrams story is a little more significant, no? (Guess not.)