By Steve Rhodes
1. One more reason to hate Fall Out Boy, and especially glam boy Petey Wentz.
2. A groovy impeachment poll.
3. Readership surveys must show that the Sun-Times gets a return on its investment in Jay Mariotti.
4. What tends to happen when the Cubs go 20 games over.500.
5. Has McDonald’s Found Its Jared?
6. “The winner of a controversial Chicago Park District contract that’s now under federal probe promised to help City Hall pay for the prized proposed 2016 Olympics here if it was awarded the pact,” Crain’s reports.
“Official bid documents made available to Crain’s indicate that Westrec Marina Management Inc. told the district that it and two partners could ‘potentially fund all of the harbor improvements necessary to host the Olympic Games’ and even perhaps lock in ‘sponsorship of the boating events in the Olympics.'”
7. Please make the stupidest and most unfunny press releases in the history of Corporate America stop.
And memo to Kim Johnson: Your co-workers are all thinking about your rack today.
8. “Now convicted of federal crimes, Rezko – a close associate of Gov. Rod Blagojevich – also met several times with Giannoulias as a banking customer, Giannoulias told the SouthtownStar’s editorial board,” Kristen McQueary writes.
“Before being elected state treasurer, Giannoulias was vice president of his family’s North Side bank, Broadway Bank. Rezko was a client. In addition to at least one loan secured through the bank, Rezko held a checking account there. Rezko is accused of writing nine bad checks from the account totaling more than $400,000 to Las Vegas casinos, Nevada authorities revealed last month.”
9. Bensenville’s Ghost Town.
10. Plfeger: “I’m Not Changing.”
So, do you believe Hillary Clinton is a bigot or not? Maybe Obama can post your answer on his new Fight The Smears site.
11. “In Superstation Mess, City Sinks To New Low,” Crain’s says.
But it’s the price we pay for a “can-do” mayor.
12. Obama’s New Church?
13. The Crosstown Classic: A Beachwood Preview.
14. Segment of Chicago Tonight last night that I skipped: “Mancow Muller with thoughts about how the media covers itself.
15. Rick Kogan said on the show’s segment about the crumbling newspaper industry that there were at least 40 people in the Tribune newsroom who – he put it kindly – weren’t doing the kind of work commensurate with their salaries.
Name those 40!
16. As I’ve said before, the presence of deadwood doesn’t mean a paper’s newsroom is “fat”; you can never have too many reporters. It means a paper’s newsroom is mismanaged. If three players on a baseball team’s roster aren’t producing, you don’t cut the size of your roster, you replace the crappy players.
17. Irony: Better players leads to more wins which generates more revenue. Get it?
18. Rep. David Miller comments on “Rezko International Airport.”
19. Tom Turkey Tunney.
20. Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky vs. Fran Spielman and Gary Washburn. Discuss.
21. “Something’s gotta be done to change newspapers,” Kogan said. “Change or die.”
I’ve been hearing that since I was in college in the 1980s. And newspapers don’t look or operate much different today than they did then.
And you know what? Those of us who, you know, had some ideas about how to change newspapers were, um, you know, unwelcome . . .
22. “Is news delivery on the Internet journalistically solid?” Elizabeth Brackett asked.
Do you think she’s referring to Eric Zorn’s click polls and Neil Steinberg’s Joke of the Day? Or to anonymous commenting about an alleged pedophile and the S-T’s photo galleries?
23. Kogan says you’re not going to see a great investigative reporter like Maury Possley lose his job because he doesn’t produce more stories, and I certainly hope not. But tell that to John Conroy.
24. Former Medill dean Loren Ghiglione expressed concern at the lack of gatekeepers on the Web.
A) You mean Michael Cooke doesn’t edit the S-T website too?
B) I know! I mean, who’s going to stifle dissent the next time we’re preparing to fight a war based on lies?
25. Oh, look, a press release was accidentally published as a news story in the Sun-Times. I guess the gatekeepers were . . . at Starbucks.
THIS JUST IN: From reader Garry Jaffe: “Sneed wrote the following garbage today, but Radar Online wrote yesterday afternoon that it was a totally false rumor. The time listed is Eastern, so both Sneed & the ST copy editors [as if there are any] certainly had time to find out the truth.
SNEED: “$$$$ . . .
“Author J.K. Rowling was not only the world’s highest-earning celebritylast year, raking in about $300 million . . . but her Potter cast is doing pretty well too.
” . . . Translation: Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the Potter films, reportedly just signed a two-year contract worth about $6 million to be the face of a Chanel perfume.”
RADAR: “Watson Won’t Smell For Chanel. By Hailey Eber 06/17/08 2:30 PM
“Yesterday the Daily Mail reported that Harry Potter’s Emma Watson would be taking over for Keira Knightley as the new face of Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle. However, her rep tells Radar that was just a false rumor spread by the British papers. Watson is not set to be the new face of the famed French fashion house, and her reps thinks Chanel is sticking with Keira. A Chanel rep tells E! Online that talk of a $6 million deal with Watson are ‘just a rumor’ and ‘false.’ There was no immediate comment from Keira’s camp.”
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I think what Garry is trying to say is this: Can news delivery on paper be journalistically solid?
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Change you can believe in.
Posted on June 18, 2008