Here and There

For doing things like this.

I finally got the July 21, 2008, issue of the New Yorker that had so many bloggers, blog readers, and media types in a tizzy earlier this week.

I was outraged. And here’s why:

From the moment I saw the cover (Sunday night, I believe it was), I thought it was funny, if not hilarious, if not brilliant. New Yorker cartoons often take a moment to fully sink in and realize the hilariousness of. Ditto here, except that I was realizing how funny and awesome it was — what a great Fuck You to the legions of morons out there who believe any or all of the stereotypes so artfully portrayed by the artist.

But I was pissed looking at this cover, once I held it in my hands, because now all it does is remind me what an annoying little episode it represents in this never-ending campaign season.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’ll fade away into the depths of long-term, collective memory. We rarely talk of Reverend Jeremiah Wright these days, after all.

But maybe I’m right. Gee, that would make a great alternative title of this blog. Heh.

The New Yorker editor-in-chief speaks sanity to a non-story run amok.

Vanity Fair completes the circle, so to speak, that Fox News started when they embellished photos of a New York Times reporter and editor.

That, and this amazingly non-shocking, shockingly unshocking and typically smug, self-righteous error Bill O made on air concerning the Fox fix.

Christopher Hitchens agreed to undergo a demonstration of waterboarding.

He quit after about 15 seconds of the demonstration. In a corresponding piece for Vanity Fair, Hitchens says that, without any equivocation or doubt, the technique is torture.

What struck me was how sterile the demonstration was. There’s full lighting, probably air-conditioning, Hitchens has the comfort of knowing he’ll survive and go home to his belongings and loved ones. Those and other conditions are antithetical to what actual prisoners go through. And even given such “handicaps,” Hitchens is certain of the horrendous nature of the technique.

Srsly, when do we prosecute the people who gave and carried out the orders to do this?

None other than the Orange County Register.

Thx: Bill Walsh.

Read this now. The newspaper in its printed form may be on a slow-bleed track to certain death, but the need for clean copy may never die.

Get ready for a fuckload of motherfucking headlines with tons of goddam cuss words in them today, tomorrow, and the coming days. Weeks, perhaps.

That’s all. Back to work.

As a current web-headline copy editor, and former headline writer at a newspaper, I cringe in sympathy at the following:

The story concerns a fundraiser for John McCain in Texas hosted by former gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams, who once infamously said that because rape was inevitable, perhaps we should sit back and enjoy it (paraphrase is mine).

I would’ve added a hyphen between rape and joker, or otherwise avoided that awkward construction.

I’m still awaiting word on what exactly happened to Al Giordano’s The Field blog.

All I know is this: He posted this item sometime Friday, and by 9:30 p.m. EST, the blog was nowhere to be found. It was up again at this location, and Al says he’ll fill everyone in sometime today.

It involves being censored over a post about, you guessed it, how Obama won in the face of overwhelming odds.

Stay tuned.

I really kinda liked the guy. Thought he was a good journalist.

Russert died today, in case you haven’t heard.

No, not an approval/disapproval, but this:

Which is dumber: The “whitey” nonsense, or the fist-jab flap?

I’m torn.

Now that the Democratic primaries are over and Obama has won, should I lift my ban on The New York Times and Washington Post?

Vintage Colbert: