VIA BYKO: If They Did It: Here’s How Philadelphia Media Holdings Would Hire Scabs Nov. 21, 2006 Contact: Stu Bykofsky Philadelphia Media Holdings, the company that cries poverty while demanding devastating cuts from Guild members, seems to be gearing up to spend a fortune on scabs to produce our papers and drive our trucks. The Philadelphia Weekly reported today that an ad seeking “replacement workers” (aka scabs) was recently posted on careerbuilder.com. The mystery company seeks scabs to come to an East Coast city to work as reporters, photographers, graphic artists, news assistants and truck drivers in the event of […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
On Fresh Air today….actress PARKER POSEY. She’s currently co-starring in her fourth Christopher Guest comedy “For Your Consideration.” From NEW YORK magazine: What looks like wackiness to the untrained eye is actually, in the estimation of a certifiable comic genius like Christopher Guest, the spontaneity that is crucial to the success of his improvised films?the mark of the perfect supporting player, who knows when to yield a scene to other actors and who can just as easily elicit laughs without saying anything at all. “When someone acts like they’re listening and isn’t really listening, that’s what it looks like: ‘Look, […]
LEGAL LANDMARK: Bloggers Can’t Be Sued For The Secondhand Smoke of Libel
Wow, if this ain’t legal manna falling from the heavens ‘neath the robes of the California State Supreme Court, we’ll name our first born Stare Decisis: Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — The California Supreme Court said Internet publishers can’t be held liable if they post defamatory comments written by others, a victory for online companies like Google Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s America Online Inc. The court, in a unanimous decision, said those claiming defamation can only sue the original source of the allegedly offending comments, not publishers or distributors, even if the distributor is an individual. Internet users are protected […]
HOLLA: Yo A.D. Let’s Just Backdafucup Un Momento, And J To The Hova BRUTHAS AND SISTAS!
THE WOOK REPORTS: Hold, up Amorosi. Gimme that Webster’s-ready recap of Jay-Z‘s “Hangar Tour” again, will ya? “Titled the Hangar Tour, the event had Jay-Z fly cross-country in his G5 jet to play 30-minute sets in airports and intimate venues beginning in Atlanta at 6:30 a.m., then Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.” [From Sunday’s Inky] No offense, holmes, but last I checked, the Electric Factory was about as intimate as Mark Foley at a sorority mixer. Sure, Saturday’s show was in the early a.m., but just because you share morning breath with a thousand other […]
HOT DOCUMENT: New Inky/DN Owners Have Buyer’s Remorse, And Now They Wanna Make YOU Sorry Too, Says Sgt. Byko
For Immediate Release Contact: Guild Spokesman Stu Bykofsky, 267-REDACTED A MATTER OF SURVIVAL November 18, 2006 The new owners of the Inquirer, Daily News are having an acute case of buyer’s remorse. Philadelphia Media Holdings — a group of local investors with no prior media ownership experience — now realize it paid too much for the papers and Philly.com, outbidding its rivals. Sadly, the new owners now are targeting their own union employees — and particularly the workers — previously negotiated pensions, job security and sick pay, as the solution to their mistake. There is absolutely no justification for the […]
PARTY OVER: Universal Music Sues MySpace, Says From Now On It’s OUR FUCKIN’ SPACE
The record label accuses the social networking site of widespread piracy of songs and videos. The News Corp. unit calls the lawsuit unnecessary. By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Times Staff Writer November 18, 2006 Universal Music Group sued MySpace.com on Friday, alleging that the social networking site that bills itself as a source of “user generated” content instead trades on “user stolen” songs and music videos. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, described MySpace as a “vast virtual warehouse” of pirated works from some of the company’s best-known artists, including Mariah Carey, Diana Krall and U2. Universal […]
COVER WARS: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
Since my work history at the local alternative weeklies has somehow become a matter of public interest, I feel obliged to set the record straight: I was NOT “shitcanned” from the PW last week. That happened TWO YEARS AGO, and really, that was a matter of them being just as tired of me as I was of them. If I can blow my own horn for a moment, only a month prior to my dismissal I had swept a couple entire categories at the Keystone state journalism awards and walked away with a buncha First Place plaques from the Society […]
Ding-Dong The Witch Is Dead: CLEAR CHANNEL MONOPOLY SOLD OFF FOR SPARE PARTS
The $18.7 billion deal is one of the biggest among recent acquisitions of public firms by cash-rich buyout groups. SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation’s biggest operator of radio stations, said yesterday that it had agreed to be acquired for about $18.7 billion by a private-investment group. The transaction would be one of the biggest deals in which a publicly traded company has been taken private, and it showcases the vast sums that buyout groups have been able to assemble for acquisitions. […] Clear Channel’s shares jumped $1.24, or 3.6 percent, to $35.36 on the New […]
LISTEN CLOSELY: And You Can Almost Hear Sweeney’s Panties Bunching Up
Well, we heard talk of this, and somebody finally sent us a link, seems we made the short list of essential Philly media on WXPN’s listener survey. Not bad for only a month outta the womb. Again, we could not be more proud or horny! *? 11.?How often do you read the following local publications? Never Occasionally Regularly ” + labelText + “ Philadelphia Inquirer LibertyNet Philadelphia Philly.com CityPaper Philadelphia Magazine Philadelphia Daily News Philadelphia Weekly Philebrity.com the Metro Philadelphia Style Magazine Philly Edge Phawker.com ?WXPN: Not Just For Marxist Lesbian Folk Music Anymore
STOP THE PRESSES: Rumblings From The Smoking Volcano Of Fear And Loathing That Is 400 North Broad
READERS IN THE KNOW REPORT: Sounds like the ugliness is about to begin. Just heard that Business Editor Bob Rose is leaving to take a job at Smart Money magazine. This morning, the talk in the newsroom is that Mark Frisby, head Gannett-bot publisher of the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, is coming on board as — get this: Vice President for Acquisitions. Frisby is one of the acolytes of former C-P publisher Robert T. Collins, who oversaw Gannett’s slash-and-burn takeover of the Asbury Park Press in the 1990s. During the first year of Gannett’s ownership of the Press, the newsroom underwent […]
Early Word: DO THE MONSTER MASH!
Wednesday November 22nd @ The Starlight Ballroom! 460 North 9th Street Philadelphia $5 9pm Steven Bloodbath, John Redden, Ian St. Laurent, Finger on The Pulse Dj’s
Don’t Tell Germany: US Terror War Architect & TORTURE PROPONENT JOHN YOO Appeared On Radio Times This Morning And Spoke At Constituition Center Tonight; By The Way, Yoo Wanted Man In Germany For War Crimes
Join former presidential adviser John Yoo, author of War by Other Means: An Insider’s Account on the War on Terror, for a look at the Bush administration’s response to the 9/11 tragedy. This event is being produced in collaboration with the Federalist Society. On September 11, 2001, while America reeled from the day’s cataclysmic events and the majority of officials in Washington, D.C. — including most of the Justice Department — struggled to leave town, John Yoo and a skeletal staff of the Office of Legal Counsel of the Justice Department stayed behind. The day’s attacks called for a response […]
MAILBAG: Nothing Stuffs The Mailbox Like Another Round of Sweeney Vs. Valania; YOU PEOPLE ARE JACKALS! But Thanks For Writing Just The Same
DEAR PHAWKER, If memory serves, Sweeney was sort of shitcanned from The Weekly, too. Well, not shitcanned in a direct way. PW’s usual passive-aggressive style is to make life so miserable for you that you quit. I remember that they slashed his pay as a columnist (which couldn’t have been very much anyway) so that it wasn’t even worth his while and they killed a final column where he interviewed himself. Dude has pretty much burned his bridges for every outlet in town he’s written for, so doing the blog is really all he can do. And whatever happened to […]