Janet Jackson's Breast: Still Public Enemy Number One

And the Supreme Court demands that a lower court take another look at it:

The Supreme Court today ordered a lower court to revisit the case of pop singer Janet Jackson's so-called "wardrobe malfunction" in which she inadvertently exposed her breast during the 2004 broadcast of a Super Bowl halftime show.

The Federal Communications Commission had fined CBS, the show's broadcaster, $550,000, and found that the show was indecent because it depicted a sexual organ for nine-sixteenths of one second.

Nearly 90 million viewers watched the performance of "Rock Your Body" by Jackson and singer Justin Timberlake. CBS challenged the fine, arguing that such fines by the FCC could chill the free speech of broadcasters.

Some days, it's tough to be a jurist.

And by tough, we mean AWESOME!

This could be the start of a new era in BROADcasting, amirite?

I better stop now.

The Exquisite Pain Of The Dwindling Bourgeosie Spreads To Willamette Week

The double-edged sword of modern times just keeps writing my blog posts for me.

For instance, a few posts ago, I mocked The Oregonian for their quaint, dear idea of what down-market means. I found it terribly, terribly dear ... in the way the mortal whistles as they pass the graveyard.

It shows a certain decadence amongst the decreasing members of the middle class that they regard some things ("staycations", economy packs, cheap beer and the like) as a big discovery when the underclass that supports them sees them as everyday life. It's like telling that awkward joke in the hopes of "identifying" with some "underpriviledged class" and makes them look, well, kinda silly.

I don't mean to take the piss out of them so much. It's tough in the newspaper biz these days. But its just kind of galling when you see people who voted for Republicans and waxed on their intellectual offal for years panic when the bill comes due and break their own arms patting themselves on the back for surviving so brilliantly when the shell game is a way of life for most everyone who hasn't even gotten their chances.

Nobody was ever poor before they were poor, you see. They're redefining poor. Poor people just ain't been doin' it right.

And that brings me to Willamette Week. I am very reluctant to kick someone when they're down (remember, they got layoffs and deep salary cuts very recently), but their latest interactive initiative just comes off as a little out of touch in the above ways, as well as simply cribbing something the New York Times is already doing.

Picturing the Recession is a call for readers to send in their photos of how everyone around them is coping. WW's version is called Shuttered Portland, and since people love being intarwebs-famous for at least two minutes, I'm guessing they'll get a good amount of photos (even though the NYT version already accepts photos from just about anybody), but the text punched the same buttons on me that The Oregonian's gently-condescending attempt at humor did.

Just because I'm an irritated curmudgeon, I'll cherry pick some rhetorical questions from the article and answer them, and maybe my point will become clear:

Are you playing Wii at home with friends instead of meeting them at bars? You can afford a Wii and friends? This is hard done by to you?

What’s in your refrigerator now? Leftovers, bargain buys from Food 4 Less, and stuff past its expiry. If we're feeling flush, we chill up some water (at the rate Portland bills us, it's pretty much a luxury anyway

What used to be there? See last question.

Has your favorite store closed? Food 4 Less? No, it's still open.

What’s become of it? It's gotten more crowded with middle-class people who never thought they'd be poor, and whose faces alternate between the self-congratulatory look of being brave enough to shop with the black, brown, and white proles and a momentary glaze of terror that maybe this isn't a temporary economic reset for them.

Is the store vacant? No.

If not, what moved in? See the answer two questions back, chump.

Okay, so I'm sour grapes and all, whatever. I never got the chances that some have gotten and all that, call me what you will. But this bizarre fascination with being Newly Poor and the strictly bourgeosie way of looking at it (by newsers that expect me to lend them crediblity) just sticks in my throat like a bone.

What I'd like to see from the news is more actual serious reporting on the deteriorating economy and the dwindling middle class (and consequently, the dwindling chances to become part of it) and more riding on the people pulling the levers to do the right thing and stop playing games, and less droll ironic commentary on what it's like to be poor these days.

I can save you a lot of tedious work.

Three words: being poor sucks. There. Your job's done for you.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take pix and send them to WW. Hell, why not? Sounds like fun anyway.

(Hat tip: Carla "The Unimpeachable" Axtman at BlueOregon)

First, The Willy, Now, The O

I'm late to the party here, so just put this down to jotting this down in this, my public political self-education notebook, but I'm jolted to find out what's going down at The Oregonian: staff reductions, pay cuts, unpaid furlough days ... oh, boy.

I've had my seasons of unhappiness at the management of The Oregonian before, as I have with the WW, but I can't deny their putting skin in the game: they're taking 15% off their salaries, which is going to hurt a bit when you make as much money as they (I guess) do.

But if you think things are bad here, it's worse elsehwere in the Advance constellation: The Ann Arbor News is going down. Last issue–July.

At least we still have a daily. I'm still fond of The Oregonian, even with its (rather unignorable) flaws.

Goodbye, P-I

That's all, folks. We are sad to hear that after 146 years, 117,000 subscribers, being Seattle's oldest business, and having the gee-darned coolest rooftop sign since the Daily Planet, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (which is also the frigg'n coolest name a paper could have, in our opinion) will publish its last issue Tuesday.

That's it. That's all.

Seattle, don't despair. You'll get by being a one-pape town; we here in Stumptown have been one since our version of the P-I ... the Oregon Journal ... folded back in 1982. Life does go on, even in a one-pape major town.

I mean, the Sonics left town and the Space Needle didn't fall down. Go through the stages of grief. You'll get through this!

But a few years down the way, you'll remember how interesting it was to have two papers in town, and one an afternoon daily, and you'll despair just a little bit.

As we do.

We're there for you, Seattle.

We care.

(PS: Image nicked from the P-I's front page today, because it's cool, dammit!)

Now We Know What That Big WW Meeting Was About ...

... and it wasn't pretty, as we all suspected.

I've mocked WW in certain circles, because for a long time now it's seemed more concerned with style than substance. I will give the pape its due here, thought because even though staff have to take an 8 percent hit on salaries, the big butts, Richard Meeker and Mark Zusman, are taking a 25 percent hit on thier pay.

Good on them. You are our heroes today, man.

Newspaper Death Row: The 10 Most Likely To Be Next

In passing, and with an eye cast toward the struggles of not just the the Post-Intelligencer and The Oregonian, here's a much-linked artcile from the site 24/7 Wall Street that takes a guess at the next ten major dailies that may go dark or go digital.

The list reads:

1. The Philadelphia Daily News
2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune
3. The Miami Herald
4. The Detroit News
5. The Boston Globe
6. The San Francisco Chronicle
7. The Chicago Sun-Times
8. The New York Daily News
9. The Fort Worth Star Telegram
10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Some of those I think we can do without–the NY Daily News gave us the famous "Whose-going-to-write-the-stimulus-bill-now-we-killed-a-rabid-monkey-but-we-certainly-arent-using-a-racially-charged-symbol-to-refer-to-President-Obama" cartoon and is the closest thing I can think of to a craniorectal inversion in print.

But the SFChron? The Sun-Times (who gave us the greatest movie reviewer ever–Roger Ebert, the only movie reviewer ever to win the Pulitzer)?

If the Plain Dealer goes down, where are we going to get our newspaper prop the next time we see Rocky Horror over at the Clinton?

It's dark times, my friends.

The Oregonian: Dropping Comics? Did We Say That?

The Oregonian can cut staff, merge the Monday Metro into Section A, give sections goofy names like "How We Live" (apparently "Living" was too vague), and nobody complains.

Threaten to dump comics, though, and the villagers line up with torches in front of 1320 Southwest Broadway:

The response: more than 9,500 votes in our comics survey, almost 1,000 e-mails and about 400 letters. Your votes and your letters reaffirmed the importance comics have in the newspaper and how much you depend on them for a few moments of levity in these difficult times. Thanks to all who participated, and thanks for the heartfelt and thoughtful responses.

For now, we're not changing a thing.

For my money, the good news is that Portlanders showed taste in voting up Pickles, Cul-de-Sac, Bizarro, and Non Sequitur. We are baffled that fewer people liked Ziggy and Cathy than Close To Home, which, in our books, is far and away the worst-drawn and least funny comic in synidication today. While we aren't surprised that Ziggy and Cathy scored low, we were surprised they scored that low, and we don't understand why so few people like Edison Lee ... it's like Pearls Before Swine with you guys.

Anyhow, it occurred to me that they could have saved themselves some strife. After all, every time they've vouchsafed rethinking the funny pages, they've always had the villagers at the door and near-riot conditions in Portland.

Well, you know what they say about people who don't learn from history. I'd also remind that the second time 'round history repeats itself, it's as farce ... which would be appropriate.

I'll let P.Bhat, Tha Oregonian's editor, have the last word:

And if we ever bring this up again, just feed us to the crocs in "Pearls Before Swine."

Consider it done.

The rest of you: Just be thankful this isn't the Post-Intelligencer.

Paul Harvey Has Turned His Last Page

Paul Harvey, "The Voice" at noon around the country for millions for what has seemed an eternity, has signed off at 90.

"We didn't realize he was still alive", said everyone you know.

You Know Times Are Bad When They Cut 1/3 Of The Comics

... but, they're going to be in color. Peter Bhatia at The Oregonian's editor blog:

Like many other businesses, The Oregonian must cut expenses because of the economy. Regrettably, we will reduce the number of daily comic strips we publish from 33 to about 23 in order to save newsprint and the cost of purchasing comics. At the same time, we will begin publishing the daily comics in color, which we hope adds to your enjoyment of the comics page.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, yes.

The Oregonian has always been rather generous with the comeeks. While the lineup has changed over the years, it's been a two-page spread in a world of 1-page comic spreads since the old Oregon Journal folded; the Journal comics were simply folded into it and it was a two-page party ever since.

Or, as my spouse said "I remember the gas crisis of the 70's. I remember the recession in the 80's. It never got this bad." My spouse, I've said to others, ought to write editorials. Tends to hobbyhorse some issues to death, but few minds are keener.

So take an unfunny look at the funny page (for me, starting with Close to Home usually does it), figure out which ones you can do without, and vote here. It's a best three/worst three sort of thing (the URL is http://biz.oregonian.com/comicsurvey).

Oh, by the way, there's already eight who are coming into Oregonian Survivor: Comics Island with an immunity challenge. They are:

1. Adams' Apples
2. Dilbert
3. Doonesbury
4. Get Fuzzy
5. Mother Goose and Grimm
6. Pearls Before Swine
7. Stone Soup
8. Zits
   

Good luck to the rest o'yall's.

Sam Adams: Havin' Trouble Gettin' It Done

What some of us suspected was going to be the problem about The Trouble With Sam:

Wyden and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley were in town to announce Portland's share of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. They called a news conference and invited elected leaders from around the region to share the spotlight. Adams wasn't among them.

"The senator was very clear about the need to focus exclusively on Oregon's economic recovery and not get distracted by side issues," said Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff.

Merkley also has kept his distance, saying Adams "broke trust with the residents of Portland" and that rebuilding that trust and being an effective mayor "will be a difficult task."

Our Mayor has become a joke. At an important media opportunity, the chief executive of Oregon's largest city has become a distraction–a side issue.

Thankfully for him, the recall advocates are an even bigger joke.

Obama Against Fairness Doctrine: Conservatives Search For Something Else To Whine About

FOXNews.com, just because I like the asymmetry:

President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday. 

The statement

is the first definitive stance the administration has taken since an
aide told an industry publication last summer that Obama opposes the
doctrine -- a long-abolished policy that would require broadcasters to
provide opposing viewpoints on controversial issues. 

"As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated," White
House spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com. 

Time to go find something else to whine about, people. Remember, people still respond to the word "socialist". And it drips so sexily off Britt Hume's lips.