Yikes!
BBC Chief Attacks U.S. Media War Coverage:

BBC Director General Greg Dyke said many U.S. television networks had lacked impartiality during the conflict and risked losing credibility if they persisted with their stance.

How embarassing! Greg must have seen CNN or caught Peter Jennings' act!

Er, wait a minute.

"Personally I was shocked while in the United States by how unquestioning the broadcast news media was during this war," Dyke said in a speech at a University of London conference.

"If Iraq proved anything, it was that the BBC cannot afford to mix patriotism and journalism. This is happening in the United States and if it continues, will undermine the credibility of the U.S. electronic news media."

Having listened to a few of the BBC's anti coalition screeds "reports" on NPR, I'd say Greg shouldn't be lecturing anyone.

A modern miracle
Cosas will burn prison if Winnie's sent to jail:

Johannesburg - The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) threatened on Thursday to do "anything" in its power to keep its honorary president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela out of jail even if it meant burning the prison holding her.
...
"We are prepared to do anything in our power to ensure that she is not in jail," Cosas president Julius Malema said in a statement.

"If it means burning the prison she is locked in, so be it."

OK! But I feel bad for the other prisoners.

"We are still convinced that Mama (Madikizela-Mandela) is innocent and she did not do anything wrong," Malema said.

Sorry Julius, but Mama is an inveterate crook and thug. The miraculous thing is that she got convicted in the first place and that, so far, the ANC and related organizations have abided by the legal results. More details by following the link.

Grand Canyon Alert!
The Dixie Chicks are appearing without clothes on the cover of next week's Entertainment Weekly:

Band members Martie Maguire, Emily Robison and Natalie Maines say they dreamed up the gimmick to defend themselves against the backlash over Maines' crack ...

Readers can indeed thank the usually corpulent Miss Maines for apparently bringing in a body double for the photo session.

Hmm, is that what they mean by gravitas?

Making a buck off the pervs
James Taranto at Best of the Web alerts us to the fact that The Independent is opening a peep show for a special clientele. Here's a preview of the featured act.



Which reminds me, Salon's stock price is down to a nickel a share.

(Hat tip to unknown graphic artist)

Get in the Rolls, it's time to go to McDonald's!
(Via Drudge) According to CNN, O.J. reality TV show in the works:

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- O.J. Simpson -- acquitted in 1995 in the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman -- is preparing for his debut as the star of his own "Osbournes"-esque reality show.

Fort Worth, Texas-based Urban America Television Network said it will distribute a 13-week series about the former football great to its 75 independent broadcast TV station affiliates starting in June, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter.

The series will chronicle Simpson's daily life in Miami using footage collected over several months of filming in 2001 and 2002.

That'll certainly be "must see" TV. Maybe he and Anna Nicole can get together a tag team.

Piker alert!
David Blair reports in the Telegraph - Memo from Saddam: We can't afford to pay Galloway more. What a cheapskate. Didn't he know Georgie had expenses?

George Galloway shared the same barber as Saddam's psychopathic son Uday, according to a newspaper report.

The MP used to hand over £200 in US dollars to have his locks trimmed, it's alleged.

He even had blond highlights done by Baghdad hotel barber Marwan Ali.

Marwan said Galloway became a regular after Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz's bodyguards introduced them.

He said: "I have cut Mr Galloway's hair maybe 10 times. He pays me dollars 300 for one haircut. Very nice man."

But Marwan claimed Galloway's wife Amineh was furious when he gave the MP blond tips.

Hey, you have to look your best when you're trashing the West.

And speaking of San Francisco
Terence Jeffrey at Townhall.com - Return of the San Francisco Democrats:

It ought to be a maxim of Democratic strategy: Never send your presidential candidate to San Francisco.
...
Nineteen years ago, San Francisco hosted the Democratic convention that nominated Mondale. His acceptance speech included a whining plea to replace President Reagan's policy of countering Soviet aggression with a renewed policy of appeasement.

"Every other president talked with the Soviets and negotiated arms control," Mondale told a crowd led by Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson. "Why has this administration failed? Why haven't they tried? Why can't they understand the cry of Americans and human beings for sense and sanity in control of these god-awful weapons? Why? Why?"

At the Republican convention in Dallas, U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, a Democratic hawk, gave Mondale what for. "When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues," said Kirkpatrick, "the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States. But then, they always blame America first."
...
Kirkpatrick's imagery stuck: San Francisco Democrats were the Party of Appeasement.

Kerry, the current Democratic frontrunner, had a San Francisco moment just before the war.

A decorated Vietnam veteran, Kerry had earlier adopted optimal positioning for a Democratic nominee. He blamed President Bush for failing to restore a boom economy, but voted to authorize Bush to use force against Iraq.

"By standing with the president," said Kerry, "Congress will demonstrate that our nation is united in its determination to take away Saddam Hussein's deadly arsenal, by peaceful means if we can, by force if we must."

But a room full of San Franciscans was too great a temptation for Kerry.

In a March 13 speech to the Commonwealth Club, he avoided direct discussion of the impending war. But while advocating alternative energy sources, he let loose this applause line: "In the decades to come we should not ever have to have young Americans sent to any part of the world to defend and die for America's gluttony on fossil fuel."

Excuse me? Was Kerry inferring the war he voted for was about oil?

Maybe it's all the fog?

And speaking of boobs and tubes
Bill Carter in the NY Times reports on Strong Ratings for 'Mr. Personality':

Just when viewers who hate reality television shows were praying that the list of flops since January might kill the genre and make it safe to remove their hands from their eyes, Monica Lewinsky and 20 young guys in masks turned up on the Fox network Monday night, and, in the jargon of the business, popped a number.

Er, popped a number?

"Mr. Personality" brought in more than 12 million viewers, which placed it in the front ranks of Fox's lineup of shows. More important for Fox, it proved an especially strong draw with younger adult viewers, the group preferred by many advertisers.

Much blather about "reality" shows and then:

Then there's the Monica factor. "I think some people probably wanted to see what Monica was up to," said Mark Stewart, the executive vice president and director for strategy and channel planning at the big media agency Universal McCann...

Dang, I guess I missed it. But all this reminds me of an email I got recently:

Due to the popularity of the Survivor shows, Idaho is planning to do its own show, entitled "Survivor - Idaho Style."

The contestants will start in Bonners Ferry, travel to Sandpoint, Coeur d'Alene, Worley, over to Orofino, Lewiston, Winchester and Grangeville, down to Cascade, Boise and Glenn's Ferry. They will then proceed to Hailey and Pocatello, then on to Driggs, over to Rexburg, Soda Springs and Blackfoot. From there, they will proceed to Dubois, Salmon and finally back to Bonners Ferry.

Each will be driving a pink Volvo with a bumper sticker that reads "I'm gay, I'm a vegetarian, I voted for Al Gore, George Strait sucks, Hillary in 2004, Protect the Wolves, and I'm here to confiscate your guns."

The first one to make it back to Bonners Ferry alive wins!!!!

Hmmm, doesn't sound very PC. They'll probably have to change the setup to contestants driving around San Francisco in an SUV with a "Nuke the Whales" bumpersticker.

Isn't that special?
The AP enlightens with Malvo Freely Confessed, Even Laughed, Prosecutors Say:

Prosecutors say the teenage suspect linked to a string of sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C. area, willingly confessed to some of the shootings during a police interview last fall.

In legal briefs made public Tuesday, prosecutors say Lee Boyd Malvo laughed as he recalled shooting an FBI analyst in the head and chuckled about the reaction of a boy he shot at and missed.

I wonder how laughing boy is going to like "Old Sparky"?

It's the boob tube
Jose Martinez in the NY Daily News - Anchors riding Iraq airwaves:

Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather hit the Iraqi airwaves this week as part of a U.S.-led effort to use television to educate Iraqis about democracy.

Freed for the first time in decades from state-controlled television, Iraq can now receive a nightly dose of "Iraq and the World."

"It's not the kind of media they're used to seeing," said Norman Pattiz, chairman of the federal Broadcasting Board of Governors.

The initial two-hour broadcast included news clips from ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS translated into Arabic. Fans of Fox news can get their fix with clips from Brit Hume's "Special Report" - but sorry, no Geraldo.
...
"Iraq and the World" is financed by the U.S. government, which is using military cargo planes to beam the commercial-free broadcast into Saddam Hussein's former stomping grounds.

The show isn't likely to be a ratings hit - only 10% of Iraq's 24 million people own a TV. And critics are questioning how Iraqis will take to American programming that might be viewed as propaganda.

"Might be?" Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, and PBS are propaganda. Just not American.