we're back from vacation! (sorry, we forgot to tell you we left)...more of the usual

10:20 AM Manny: tyhe boston globe has to take a 23 percent pay cut

10:30 AM Manny: shame

they were so smug about working there

like the Times people

18 minutes

10:48 AM me: word. but they already have their comeuppance

10:49 AM Manny: yes, goading them won't help

10:50 AM there is no bigger douche in journalism though, than this guy

http://www.keithob.com/

10:51 AM me: How do people like him get paid?

Manny: dunno

10:52 AM me: Basically the paper's like, sure, roll around like an asshole and do stupid things, write about them, and we will publish it

no priorities whatsoever

10:53 AM Manny: for a while, that was the future of journalism

10:54 AM me: well, if that's what you're doing, why do you need editors?

They shouldn't pay the reporters less, they should just fire all the editors

Manny: we were all supposed to write long "narratives'' about "ordinary people.''

10:55 AM me: boy, there is almost nothing I want to read about less

10:56 AM Manny: if you ask me "narrative" is the source of most media lies

me:word

I agree that narrative is a big part of the problem

it's where the reporter pretends to be an ethnographer

10:57 AM ethnographers aren't even good ethnographers

Manny: indeed

Urban raccoons (no joke, for real raccoons)

8:37 AM Manny: raccoon invasion!

8:41 AM me: oh no!

8:42 AM Manny: I was all beatin' on the dog until I saw the screen window.

8:43 AM me: are you joking!

?

Manny: I wish

I been up since 5

8:44 AM me: wow

that's fuckin crazy

did it eat the cat?

Manny: the animals did not notice, apparently

8:45 AM they suck at the guarding

me: are you sure this isn't like the other day when you told me about the invasion that didn't really happen?

8:46 AM Manny: it dumped the garbage, ate a bunch of rolls

me: and it wasn't named dog?

8:47 AM Manny: not unless the dog ripped up the screen too

it also ate the cat food up on the counter, and took a crap on the stove

8:48 AM me: uugh. that's horrible

crazy urban racoons

that's what you get for living near the park

Manny: they're like gang members

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWqb2U8KnvM&NR=1

8:51 AM me: that's hysterical

Manny goes on a rant...Surprise! It's about the news media

2:51 PM Manny: "Memo to my remaining daily print colleagues and their nostalgia club: Get over it and get over yourselves. It’s not that the Internet is Mr. Wonderful. Much of it mimics the same bad qualities that drove the public away from daily newspapers. You lost the public to us because - there's no nice or sugar-coated way to say it - you guys really suck at what you do. In your arrogance, you established calcified “rules” of “journalism” and false “objectivity” that neutered and spayed all of your reporters, domesticated so they would never again afflict the comfortable or comfort the afflicted. When you took the honest advocacy out of reporting you emptied it of all passion and reason to exist. It was a nice ride on your profit ledger sheet during the recent decades when you turned your rags into propaganda arms for the wealthy and powerful, but a funny thing happened on the way to the ATM machine: You lost the trust of your readers, half of whom have already given you the finger and pursued alternate routes to inform themselves of current events. And the rest are on the way through the same EXIT sign." (From the below link...)

2:52 PM http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/black-and-white-and-dead-all-over

2:54 PM Me: Now that is a diatribe

Manny: Giordano's a pissed off dude though

kinda always

2:55 PM me: so are you

I like this: "I grew up reading a New York Times that no longer exists: Tom Wicker reporting from the Attica prison truthfully and in solidarity with the rebelling inmates, Max Frankel ordering expensive investigations into government wrongdoing, the publication of The Pentagon Papers leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, and I’ll never regret following music critic John Rockwell down Bleeker Street to The Bowery and through those graffiti-covered doors into the future that we inhabit today. "

I'm nostalgic for a time I never knew

The great media cave in

1:30 PM Manny: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/affirmative-action-for-conservative-at-the-philadelphia-inquirer.php

smart man

1:32 PM me: I've been saying that for years! Headline: "Sustained right wing attack causes media to abandon jobs in favor of becoming talk show hosts"

1:33 PM Manny: this is why you and I have no sympathy for the times

but why M gets mad at your dissing them

me: ?

1:34 PM Manny: actually, i don't know why M gets mad when you diss them

1:35 PM but it IS why I don't give a crap about my own industry

1:36 PM me: I told him to post why he gets mad himself, so I'm not going to speak for him, but I agree, this is why the whole industry is suspect.

1:38 PM Manny: I spend half my life typing excuses that I know to be untrue into stories.

here is a story from bloomberg yesterday:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=afWvIdZWi5bo

1:39 PM Now read the second post "spy vs. spy" on this site

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php

which one is truer?

5 minutes

1:44 PM me: I feel you

Idealogically alligned?

10:21 AM Me: So I got the following email today. Can you pick out the problem?

------------------------------------
Good morning Gabriel,

My name is Fred, and I am currently in the principal's certification program at University. JB suggested I contact you. One of my cohort peers, Brandy, and I are very passionate about starting a charter school. We are excited by the excellent results some model charter schools, such as the KIPP and IDEA schools are producing with respect to student achievement and college preparation. As the idea for us is only a seed currently, Judy mentioned that you were interested in starting a charter school and could probably share some valuable information with us.

Perhaps you could share some essential readings you've done, advice on moving forward, or just some of your thoughts on the issues of entrepreneurial education ventures. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Fred

10:22 AM Manny: the shout-out to KIPP?

me: You got it!

10:23 AM If you are reaching out to me for help building a school like KIPP, you are clearly confused. And I'm not even questioning their "results"

10:24 AM Manny: It's like someone writing to me and saying they want to start a news channel that's a combination of FOX and TMZ.com

me: exactly

10:25 AM Manny: I think one could make moneey that way, I just wouldn't want to be that guy

me: you can obviously help them with journalism, but you aren't so interested in promoting their horrible lies

10:26 AM Manny: indeed

getting paid to play with some financial papers

1:26 PM Manny: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE0D91331F935A25756C0A9619C8B63

michael kinsley is funny

11:32 AM me: love the finance article you sent me yesterday

it's amazing how much people get paid to play around with paper

57 minutes

12:30 PM Manny: I know, right?

This is what they teach at biz school

me: how to play with paper?

16 minutes

12:46 PM Manny: I assume

And how to steal

12:47 PM me: Dude, it's not called stealing. It's called creative shuffling

12:50 PM Manny: Yes and I'm using the actual words

12:54 PM me: I think they should test swine flu vaccines on financiers

19 minutes

Swine Flu

(just as a note, we're both Jewish)

11:03 AM me: are you scared of swine flu?

Manny: pretty sure I'm getting over it right now

didn't some of our relatives go to mexico before seder?

11:06 AM me: I have no idea, but pigs are dirty dirty animals. I do not want their diseases

Manny: pigs are actually very clean

11:07 AM http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_pigs_clean

11:08 AM http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081201024135AAiN9sF

me: I actually new that

I was just conforming to my American norms. Blame the victim! Blame the victim!

Kill the pigs!

11:09 AM Especially the communist pigs!

11:12 AM Manny: yes please. And also the Jews

11:14 AM me: That's right! Down with jews and swine. We've always been birds of a feather anyway. Oh yeah, and DOWN WITH BIRDS!

(they have flus too, just like jews)

Manny: oh, birds are sketch

11:15 AM can't argue with you there

their beady little eyes never look right at you