Stop it! You're killing me!

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu May 02, 2002 3:53 pm

Seymour Hersh at the Lisagor awards ceremony in Chicago last week: "I was thinking of telling you when I got here that you all missed a great story because, actually it's a fact that John Ashcroft is outside, in Chicago today. He was announcing the arrest of three jaywalkers on Michigan boulevard." (Chicagomag.com)***Hersh is a superb reporter.***[ May 02, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 1:03 am

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) gave Washington reporters a look at "what life is really like inside the Bush White House" on Saturday, showing off his collection of "actual, never-seen-before photos."
One of the good things about life in the mansion is that his wife, Laura, is always on hand to help him out, he said displaying a photograph of the first lady standing with her hands on each side of his face.
"Here she is helping me pronounce Azerbaijani," said Bush, who is known to sometimes stumble over long words.
Bush and top members of his administration mingled and shared laughs with reporters and other Washington insiders at the annual White House Correspondents dinner.***Doesn't anyone else see that there's something terribly wrong with those things?***

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 3:15 am

If it's the job of reporters to act like adolescents hoping to sit at the cool table in their high school cafeteria, then i see no problem.Otherwise, there's a problem. <blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) gave Washington reporters a look at "what life is really like inside the Bush White House" on Saturday, showing off his collection of "actual, never-seen-before photos."
One of the good things about life in the mansion is that his wife, Laura, is always on hand to help him out, he said displaying a photograph of the first lady standing with her hands on each side of his face.
"Here she is helping me pronounce Azerbaijani," said Bush, who is known to sometimes stumble over long words.
Bush and top members of his administration mingled and shared laughs with reporters and other Washington insiders at the annual White House Correspondents dinner.***Doesn't anyone else see that there's something terribly wrong with those things?***<hr></blockquote>

tommangan · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 8:57 pm

Let's be real specific about what the problem is so everybody knows.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 9:16 pm

The problem i see (without asking blanp what he had in mind)is reporters getting chummy with the people they cover. You haven't seen spin until you've seen reporters grovel at the feet of officials who despise them but are excellent actors."Yeah, George Bush went out of his way to josh with me. He's a great guy after all -- real self-effacing. Maybe next time he'll give me a nickname. Maybe we're too hard on him." I've worked in Washington (National Press Building, for gosh darn sakes) and been inside the White House. Too many reporters in D.C. lose track of what their job is. They think they've made friends with the powerful, when all that's going on is that they're being used. But at least they get to ride the bus and get really nifty leaks if they behave. That's what jumped out at me when i read the passage. <blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
Let's be real specific about what the problem is so everybody knows.<hr></blockquote>

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 10:26 pm

Wayne summed it up pretty well. Also, it is a mystery to me why stories are written about those dreadful dinners.

AGoofy1 · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 10:29 pm

The same reason we received a 10 inch obit on Clinton's dog Buddy and stories about Bush attending church services.

tommangan · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 11:00 pm

Does anyone have the slightest illusion that the White House press corps is of any consequence to the profession as we know it? Hasn't it ever been thus? They go in thinking they've scored the plum of plum assignment and end up being tools of the White House spin machine. Watergate, Vietnam, Iran Contra, it all happened under their noses.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun May 05, 2002 11:45 pm

Not to pick on Jack Higgins, but when's the last time you saw a truly funny editorial cartoon for which someone didn't feel obliged to apologize?[ May 06, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]

tommangan · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2002 12:36 am

I'm not sure which you're commenting on, that ed page cartoons all seem lame or that they're funny only if they offend to an extent that apologies will be required.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2002 1:16 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
I'm not sure which you're commenting on, that ed page cartoons all seem lame or that they're funny only if they offend to an extent that apologies will be required.<hr></blockquote>Nearly all editorial cartoons are lame. Regarding the rash of apologies lately: Edit your newspaper, and stand by what you publish. Apologizing for an editorial cartoon because it offends someone is nonsense. Every cartoon will offend someone. I'm offended by the Higgins cartoon mainly because it's not funny. That the editorial cartoon is an exhausted art form was best demonstrated after Sept. 11 by the truckloads of weeping Statues of Liberty to which we were subjected.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Mon May 06, 2002 8:59 am

I DO think Clinton's dog Buddy deserved some news space, if not obit space (see previous Yahoo thread). I, too, get annoyed by newspapers apologizing for "offensive" editorial cartoons. However, I think there is still value to the art form, even tho there's a general dip in talent these days. And Jack Higgins of the Chicago Sun-Times, despite turning somewhat mean-spritited and reactionary in recent years (and, thus, a lot less funny), still has a decent batting average, and he made me laugh with the Clinton/Carson gag. I'm sure at least a few others chuckled, too.[Note: The Yahoo thread is HERE.][ May 06, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun May 12, 2002 2:07 pm

Jokes told at accountants' expense are predictable these days.
"The most common one is from clients asking if we have a shredder," said Denise Rivera, a certified public accountant and partner with Bloomgren Rivera & Co. in Great Falls. (Great Falls [Mont.] Tribune)***But I'll bet it draws guffaws every time.***

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Jun 04, 2002 9:52 pm

From an AP story on Woody Allen's case against his former producer: A longtime friend of Allen's, former television host Dick Cavett, came to hear his testimony on Tuesday. Outside court, Cavett quipped: "If the film companies open up their accounting, the courts will be full of people."***The quip helps explain why Cavett doesn't get much work these days.***[ June 04, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Fri Jun 07, 2002 6:57 am

Henry Chu of the Los Angeles times wrote of a story that ran in the Beijing Evening News that "it was lifted straight from The Onion, the satirical 'news' publication based in New York that has caused countless American readers to double over with laughter at its weekly spoofs on current events.***"Call the chiropractor, honey! The new Onion's out!"***

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