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 […]
RETRACTION: Let The Record Show That Joey Sweeney Was NOT Brian McManus’ Source When He Outed U-Outfitter Music Picker’s Conflict of Interest Thingee In PW & If You Don’t Know WTF We’re Talking About, We Envy You, But If You REALLY Wanna Know Ask Sweeney He Has The Screenshot And Is Apparently Sending It To His Lawyer
On 11/14/06 6:17 AM, “Jonathan Valania” wrote: CONFIRM OR DENY? Sweeney was your source for the Urban Outfitters/ Favorite Sons conflict of interest thing. I realize it’s a dick move to air private email, but hey, both you guys have MORE than earned it. Sweeney is — get this — threatening to sue me, claiming that he found out about\ it from you in PW. That I misunderstood your email, that your email was saying that it was Sweeney who pointed out the Phawker post about Urban Outfitters, not that he was the source on that. If I got that […]
MAILBAG: Reader Rejoices That Phawker Freed Killed PW Column From The Dustbin Of History; Also, Well-Earned Shit-Talk About The Sweenster
DEAR PHAWKER, “As the head big-shot in charge of asking for cash at XPN, thank you so much!” –DEB ASHMORE, WXPN No worries, just doin’ our job, stickin’ it to The Man –Ed. HEY PHAWKER, So, did you like, make [Sweeney] bleed from his anus when you left? This shit is like one of those psychotic ex-girlfriends who spray-paints your car and tells all your friends you have a micropenis. Whatta l’il bitchface. UNSIGNED IN SOUTH PHILLY Sure feels like it. Tho, let the record show that we never had sex, as neither of us is gay like that. –Ed. […]
BREAKING: Cartoonists Call Emergency Kegger
Philly Cartoonist Society: More Fun Than A Star Trek Convention And Only Half As Many Klingons
TRIBUTE: Ed Bradley, 215 Homeboy & GREAT AMERICAN JOURNALIST, Good Night And Good Luck, Sir!
Larry Mendte reports for Phawker CBS: (CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Over the years, Ed Bradley has won almost every major award in journalism, many, more than once. He began his award winning career right here in Philadelphia. Ed Bradley went from our hometown to all over the world; Russia, Cambodia, Washington. He grew up here in West Philadelphia. He started a teaching career, but also interned at WDAS radio. “I hung around the station and if Georgie Woods wanted sandwiches, I went to fetch them. I got albums for Del Shields and I just sat and watched and listened,” said the […]