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 […]

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 […]

THAT’S COMCASTIC: FCC To Enforce ‘Net Neutrality’

NEW YORK TIMES: In a move to make good on one of President Obama’s campaign promises, Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, will propose Monday that the agency expand and formalize rules meant to keep Internet providers from discriminating against certain content flowing over their networks, according to several officials briefed on his plans.While the communications industry does not like more regulation, it has generally not found it difficult to comply with the existing four principles, lobbyists said. But there are a few areas where opposition is expected. In 2005, the commission adopted four broad principles relating […]

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 […]

Q&A: With Jesse Thorn, America’s Radio Sweetheart

BY JONATHAN VALANIA Jessie Thorn has been dubbed “America’s radio sweetheart” by, well, Jessie Thorn. It started as a joke, but each week it comes closer to self-fulfilling prophecy courtesy of the thoughtful and illuminating interviews Thorn conducts with underground rappers, indie-rockers, and edgy comedians as part of The Sound Of Young America, the nationally-syndicated public radio talk show Thorn tapes in the spare bedroom of his apartment in Los Angeles. Heard locally on WHYY Friday nights at 9PM, The Sound Of Young America has morphed in recent years from an unpaid hobby dating back to Thorn’s college years into […]

OFF THE RECORD: Obama Calls Kanye A ‘Jackass’

During an off-the-record portion of an interview with CNBC, ABC reporter Terry Moran overheard the president call Kanye West a ‘Jackass’  — for storming stage and grabbing the mic from Taylor Swift in the middle of the country star’s acceptance speech — and immediately Twittered it, along with the snarky zinger “now THAT’s presidential”. ABC quickly pulled the tweet and apologized, but the damage was already done — ABC’s Twitterstream has a million-plus followers and Obama’s remark was immediately screencapped, retweeted ad nauseum and then picked up by the MSM, becoming the latest much ado about nothing to burn up […]