[Photo by Rollogrady] PHILLYBURBS: His comedy, which doesn’t hide his left-leaning views, is satiric and visceral. Cross, who often appears on HBO’s free-wheeling “Real Time With Bill Maher,” pulls no punches. Unlike many of his comedic peers, he isn’t afraid to offend anyone. The independent rock-loving Cross has verbally drubbed Creed frontman Scott Stapp for creating aesthetically unpleasing post-grunge albums. “I say what I believe,” says Cross. “I don’t believe in holding back whether I’m performing in front of an audience or during an interview.” Cross’ wars of words have yet to get him in trouble. Last year, he played […]
HOT DOC: The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Flow Chart
MEDIA MATTERS: Glenn Beck’s affinity for chalkboard diagrams charting out the frequently illusory “connections” in the growing liberal conspiracy to undermine America is well-documented. In that spirit, Media Matters for America has explored Beck’s links to the extremist, unhinged, and sometimes paranoid people and groups that inhabit the world of right-wing political activism and laid them out in a Beck-style chart, but with two key differences: these connections actually exist, and they were spell-checked. MORE [Click chart to enlarge] EDITOR’S NOTE: We strongly urge you to click thru and read all about it RELATED: In recent days, Glenn Beck has […]
The Yes Men Punk The Chamber Of Commerce
YES MEN: In a dramatic announcement at the National Press Club today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reversed its position on climate change policy, and promised to immediately cease lobbying against the Kerry-Boxer bill. Not. Within minutes of the announcement, it was revealed that the “Chamber spokesperson” was an impostor, and the press conference an elaborate hoax designed by activists to draw attention to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fight against public interest on climate change. At the close of the news conference, real Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Eric Wohlschlegel barged into the room visibly rattled, and declared the event […]
New York Times To Slash 100 Newsroom Jobs
MEDIA DECODER: The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs — about 8 percent of the total — by year’s end, offering buyouts to union and non-union employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday. The program mirrors one carried out in the spring of 2008, when the paper erased 100 positions in its newsroom, though other jobs were created, so the net reduction was smaller. That round of cuts included some layoffs of journalists — about 15 to 20, though The Times would not disclose the […]
D’OH: Shepard Fairey Lied About ‘Hope’ Image Source
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Shepard Fairey’s claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his famous Barack Obama “HOPE” poster became a widely watched court case about fair use that now appears to have nearly collapsed. By Friday night, his attorneys – led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University – said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material. Fairey himself admitted that he didn’t use The Associated Press photo of Obama seated next to actor George […]
TRUTH IS OUT THERE: Was Balloon Boy A Fraud?
[Artwork by Chris Toumanian] ASSOCIATED PRESS: The disappearance and sudden discovery of the boy have raised questions about whether it was all an elaborate attention-getting stunt orchestrated by the Heenes or simply a bizarre case of a child who ran away and hid after getting spooked by a scolding from his father. Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said authorities do not believe at this point if it was a hoax but he would meet with investigators Friday to decide whether to look into the matter further. Asked during an impromptu news conference outside his house whether the incident was a […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
HOT DOC: Inky/DN Go Up For Auction Nov. 18th
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 3:15 PM To: All PN, BSCN and PHILLY.COM Employees Subject: Bankruptcy Update/Schedule As many of you may have now seen based on the reporting in The Inquirer and Daily News, the company filed papers yesterday in federal district court to appeal last week’s ruling on credit bid rights. We continue to believe it is in the best interests of the company to have an auction process in which all potential bidders are treated equally and that giving the lenders the right to credit bid will hinder the willingness of other bidders to get involved in […]
DUH: Masked Lout Steals Phillies World Series Rings, Leaves Behind His Name And Home Address
[Photo by ELIZABETH ROBERTSON] INQUIRER: After three World Series rings where stolen yesterday from a Phillies office, police arrested a mask-wearing fan who was kicked out of the game earlier for being rowdy. Matthew Mervine, 22, of Berlin Borough made detectives’ work easy, because, not only was he videotaped stealing the rings, he had just left his real name, address and phone numbers on a job application, police said. Apparently, Mervine, who wore a rubber skull mask to yesterday’s game against the Rockies, found his way to the Phillies offices after being kicked out of the game with other fans […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and […]
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With Rock Critic Jim Derogatis
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Jim Derogatis is the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, co-host of public radio’s rock talk show Sound Opinions, the definitive Lester Bangs biographer and author of five books, including the just-published and altogether beautiful The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side. Derogatis got his start in the rock crit biz back in 1982 when Lester Bangs agreed to sit for an interview to satisfy Derogatis’ high school journalism class assignment requiring him to interview one of his heroes. Two weeks later, Bangs was dead at the ripe old age […]