Archives: July 2005

The Fishies love blog synchronicity, which we have previously defined as occurring when you mention something totally randomly on your blog twice in one day. Today that happened with Pink Floyd (because who rocks harder than the Fishies?) and also with the word “twinkie,” in the context of Britney Spears’ voracious appetite and, funnily enough, Lachlan Murdoch, about whom we received an anonymous email. Our tipster wondered what was next at the New York Post “now that the Tattooed Twinkie is jetting off to Oz.” We think “Tattooed Twinkie” is an awesome nickname. And, we didn’t know he had a tattoo. Where is it and does anyone have a picture? Mmm, Twinkies are fluffy and delicious. In any case, we skipped the Fishies last week and we’re sorry, so that means we’ve got a special double issue for y’all coming up over the weekend. We’ll be back Monday with lots of good stuff, as we like to think we always are. Did that sentence make sense, and do we care? Of course not! It’s Friday! Whee! Have a great weekend.

Update: Fishies, fishies everywhere, or at least after the jump.

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Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

…actually, no, you don’t, but unfortunately that’s where FishbowlNY is at right now: we’ve developed a touch of carpal tunnel and various doctor-types and chiding friends have advised us to go a little easy on the keyboard. Sorry that posting has been lighter than usual – it’s only temporary! Please don’t leave us, we can’t bear to be alone.

In the meantime, check out the handy link below for information on carpal tunnel syndrome and repetetive stress disorder. Forewarned is forearmed – and who couldn’t use four arms? Especially when two of them are all gimpy.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Fact Sheet

Related: “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” in music:
“I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” (Sung by Fishbowl’s Arm-Nerves) – Cutting Crew
“Love Can Move Mountains (But It Sure Helps To Have Arms That Work)” – Celine Dion
“Doctor! Doctor! (Do I Really Need To Wear This Geeky Arm Brace?)” – Thompson Twins
“Love (Of Blogging) Hurts” – Nazareth
“These Arms of Mine (Are Starting To Feel Kind of Tingly)” – Otis Redding
“I Wanna Hold Your (Wasted, Useless) Hand” – The Beatles
“Comfortably Numb” – Pink Floyd

Tucker Carlson becomes the second MSNBC stalwart to be displaced by Rick Kaplan’s new favorite Rita Cosby as the network announces that “Rita Cosby: Live and Direct” will be premiering on Monday, August 8th at 9 pm – Tucker Carlson’s timeslot. Ouch. “The Situation With Tucker Carlson” will be moved to 11 pm, bringing MSNBC’s total of first-run primetime programming hours to six. Per the press release, Rick Kaplan’s excited about bringing a live show to the West Coast’s 8pm audience; we can assume that Tucker’s excited about going head-to-head with “The Daily Show” and reruns of “The O’Reilly Factor.” Or not. After weeks of critical reviews and dire predictions (Alessandra Stanley, anyone?) – not to mention a pretty impressive advertising juggernaut (including commercials for Tucker during “The Daily Show,” which was pretty bold), this is not a vote of confidence for team Tucker. Then again, the show’s been running for a grand total of a month and a half. Anyone remember when Jon Stewart played opposite Gillian Anderson and a large fluffy dog in “Playing By Heart?” Point being, these things take time. Rita Cosby will be bringing a fan base to her show, and frankly it would have been cool to see what a woman could do with that late-night slot. I would have guessed that people would have tuned in specifically to see it, and “Scarborough Country” viewers would have stuck around to check it out. Instead, Kaplan panics and yanks a fledgling show, dumping it in an end-of-day timeslot up against two juggernauts, and puts all its money on Rita. Yeah, mid-August is a good time to see how that one plays out.

Update: Tucker and everyone else at MSNBC disagrees with me. Okay then.

Harvard-educated fact-checkers notwithstanding, this week’s New Yorker was not that innocent of goofing up a fact in its “Talk of the Town” piece, “The Britney Option” by Adam Green. Fortunately over at Lindsayism, not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman Lindsay Robertson is a Slave 4 your fact-checking purposes and couldn’t help but notice the error:

…my eagle-eye was drawn immediately to a glaring factual inaccuracy. However, my superior knowledge of the topic is not something about which any New Yorker reader would want to gloat:

“By selecting a link embedded in each message, subscribers would be led to a recorded message, either from Spears herself…or from one of the members of her entourage, among them her personal assistant, Alicia, and her bodyguard, Big Rob.”

Britney Spears’ personal assistant’s name is “Felicia”, not “Alicia.”

To Brit’s credit, she’s also not named “Jessica Rodriguez,” which I think we can all agree excuses any number of Twinkies she may consume. In the meantime, New Yorker, don’t be sad. We all make mistakes. Chin up, you’re stronger for it.

Family drama alert! Lachlan Murdoch, son of and heir-apparent to media scion Rupert Murdoch , has resigned his position as deputy COO of the Fox-and-Post-owning News Corp, effective at the end of August. This means that younger brother (and more under-the-radar) James Murdoch, the head of UK stellite outfit BSkyB, is now poised to step into the top spot when the 74-year old Rupert steps down.

According to The Guardian, Rupert was very “saddened” to see Lachlan, 33, go. Wonder what the conversation around the dinner table was like around that. The NYC-based Lachlan plans to head back to Australia with his wife, Aussie model Sarah O’Hare (who did some very good pratfalls in that movie about models with Freddie Prinze Jr.) and their son, Kalan.

Murdoch has six children, with three involved in the family business; his daughter, Elisabeth, lives in London and is responsible for scouting out “American Idol.” Clay Aiken, say thank you.

Lachlan will remain a director of News Corp and will continue to advise the company in various areas (presumably newspapers, where James doesn’t have much expertise). No word on what Lachlan will be doing back in Australia, although who knows what may be – his dad started News Corp from the bud of The Adelaide News, bequeathed to him by his father. And he wasn’t starting out with Lachlan’s salary of $1.8 million (with a $2.34 million bonus) last year.

In the meantime, we will bring you all the speculation on the Murdoch succession as it happens. For now, we wish Lachlan, Sarah and Kalan – the family with the most “A”s in it ever – the best of luck back down under. Wear sunscreen.

Lachlan Murdoch resigns from News Corp [Guardian]
Murdoch heir quits [The Age]

Background:
That old succession [The Age]

Update:
Lachlan’s Farewell Note to News Corp Staff [MediaMob]

…to know that this one was by Gina Kolata. Sigh.

Study Says Echinacea Has No Effect on Colds [NYT]

Related:
Gina Kolata: Everything you think you know is WRONG [FishbowlNY]

This week, Time Out New York’s got Bob Woodward on the back page, talking about “The Secret Man” which came out on July 6th, though the big news that spurred its publication happened well over a month ago. It’s always interesting to see what Woodward has to say, especially in light of the ever-thickening plot of Plamegate/the Rove-Libby-Russert-Whoever-It-Is-This-Week affair. Still, it might have behooved interviewer Howard Halle to cast his eye about a little prior to the interview as there are some real clunkers in there: “How do you feel about the Plame affair? Interestingly, nobody seems to have affixed a -gate to it yet.” Er, Howard? You might have given that one a whirl on Google. A few people have thought of it (like, oh, CBS News, WaPo, Wonkette, NPR, the NRO, and our esteemed cousin at FishbowlDC, to name but a few). Another eyebrow raise: “After the story came out, there were all these Watergate actors – G. Gordon Liddy, Chuck Colson – going on the cable news shows, saying that Mark Felt was dishonorable, and no one was saying, “Hello! You guys are the criminals here.” Once again, that point was made, although it’s true, those exact words in that exact order were scarce to be found. Halle also asked if Woodward thought the Watergate story could break today “with the GOP controlling all three branches of government.” May we humbly suggest that Halle catch the Daily Show every so often, or even better, keep his eye peeled to FishbowlNY – Woodward and former cohort Bernstein addressed that one last week.

Halle did get some cool stuff out of Bernstein: no one ever tried to get the Deep Throat secret out of Woodward with booze or drugs (though Slate‘s Timothy Noah is now kicking himself for never trying it);he doesn’t read any political blogs; and he’d happily serve Judith Miller’s sentence for her, even if she was keeping mum to protect her own complicity (as has been alleged). Says Bernstein: “You don’t reveal confidential sources, period. Not under any kind of pressure.” We’ve heard him say that before, too, but you know, that one doesn’t get old. Norm?

Sorry to be tough on you Howard; it’s only because we care. We loved your FOB column on Harry Potter and the Uncanny Relevance to Current Events, even though we didn’t finish it because there was a spoiler. Anyone who loves Harry is all right with us. But seriously, you didn’t make up “Plamegate.”

A suspected militant wanted in connection with the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was captured yesterday in Gujranwala, Pakistan. Suspect Hashim Qadeer is suspected of having arranged the meeting between Pearl and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the ringmaster in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Pearl in Karachi in 2002. Sheikh was subsequently sentenced to death, three others involved were given life sentences, and two were killed by Pakistani security forces last year. Four others are still at large.

It feels very strange for me to be bolding these names like so many lunchers at Michael’s. What happened to Daniel Pearl was absolutely horrendous, and unfortunately that kind of danger is still very much present for journalists working overseas in embattled regions. To all of our colleagues overseas or getting ready to go, we really hope you stay safe and protected and pray that you will return home unharmed.

Pearl killing suspect arrested [Guardian]

Us Weekly ran this picture of Angelina Jolie and brand-new baby Zahara with the question, “What’s Zahara wearing?” Not that infant togs aren’t very important, but we thought the question “What’s Zahara reading?” was far more germane to a discerning media audience. The answer? Scott McClellan’s favorite magazine, Newsweek! We think this is a good first step in developing Zahara’s cognitive skills. Adorably enlarged version after the jump.

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…don’t bother coming in on Sunday. People working in the ever-expanding hallways of the Journal empire tell Fishbowl that until recently, journos there have been griping about being leaned on to crank out that vaunted new Weekend Edition, a.k.a. That Damn Extra Day A Week We Lose With The Kids, which pops on Sept. 17. Solution: WSJ acquired both CBS MarketWatch and, more recently, hip Brit financial column breakingviews.com – the latter of which is editored by Winston Churchill’s great-grandson Hugo Dixon and will appear in the new weekend paper.

Now WSJ journos are tweaked that the new tenants are stealing their thunder and that they should be cut in on the new action. Hey, guys, which is it? Are you in an overworked Gulag, or are you jealous of your new fellow inmates? Can’t have both.