EDITOR’S NOTE: The following statement was circulated last night to Newspaper Guild employees of the Inquirer/Daily News/Philly.com inviting them to sign it before it was made public today. Public statement from journalists at Philadelphia Media Network As the only business mentioned in the Bill of Rights, newspapers serve more than private ends. The news we publish is crucial to civic life, to holding the powerful accountable, to democracy itself. That information must be gathered and printed without fear or favor. As The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com have gone up for sale once again, we watched with dismay […]
RAWK TAWK: Five Tough Questions For The Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society
The Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society is: Charlie Hall, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who has played with Jens Lekman, The War on Drugs, Windsor for the Derby, Tommy Guerrero, and others; drummer Patrick Berkery, who has played with Danielson, Pernice Brothers, Bigger Lovers, Photon Band, Mazarin, and others over the years; Birdie Busch, a Philadelphia-based singer and songwriter with several wonderful solo albums to her credit; bassist Dave Wayne Daniels of The Capitol Years; and vocalist/keyboardist Eliza Hardy Jones and vocalist/guitarist Brandon Beaver, both members of the highly regarded band Buried Beds. Reprising their standing room only performance of Fleetwood Mac’s […]
Philly.com Unveils The Express, For Those Who Like A Little News With Their Advertising — Very Little
Dear Philadelphia Media Network, There is no nice way to say this: you suck at the newspaper business. Please sell off all your Philadelphia media properties as soon as humanly possible and don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. Sincerely, The People Of Philadelphia PREVIOUSLY: NEW YORK TIMES ASKS: WTF Is Up With The People Running The Inquirer/Daily News? PREVIOUSLY: Who’s Trying To Buy The Inquirer/Daily News & Why Can’t We Read About It On Philly.com? PERVIOUSLY: When The Cover-Up Is Worse Than The Crime
Comparing GOP Candidates To Hitler Is Way Over The Line — Unless We’re Talking About Santorum
CROOKS AND LIARS: Two bloggers from Gay U.S.A. attended a rally for Rick Santorum in Tacoma on Monday evening to see what the GOP presidential contender had to say about the same-sex marriage bill signed into law by Washington state’s governor earlier in the day. Three protesters were arrested at the event, including the two bloggers, and another protester who was arrested later in the evening for glitter-bombing Santorum. Other reports tie the protesters to the Occupy Tacoma group. Here is a snippet of their account of the evening: . About four police officers approached the group. Nathan left the […]
NEW YORK TIMES ASKS: WTF Is Up With The People Running The Inquirer/Daily News?
NEW YORK TIMES: The new owners installed Mr. Osberg, who had been the president and publisher of Newsweek magazine, but the financial picture has continued to decline. According to sales documents obtained by The New York Times — marked as “highly confidential” — the company had a 13.9 percent drop in advertising revenues last year and earnings were less than $5 million. On Wednesday, the company announced a round of buyouts and potential layoffs that will eliminate 37 positions. MORE MEDIAWIRE: Philadelphia Media Network executives announced at a meeting with Guild leaders today that they will reduce the newsrooms of […]
When You Die, Mormons Will Baptize You & Give You Your Own Planet, Whether You Like It Or Not
CNN: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has apologized for “a serious breach of protocol” in which the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons. The church also acknowledged that three relatives of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel were entered into the genealogy database, though not referred for baptism. Asher Wiesenthal and Rosa Rapp were baptised in proxy ceremonies in temples in Utah and Arizona, according to the database records discovered by researcher Helen Radkey in Salt Lake City. The Wiesenthal baptisms violated a 1995 pact in which the church agreed to stop […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To Portlandia Live!
Yes, that’s right we have a pair of tix to give away for the second show of Portlandia The Tour at the Troc on Sunday. Why? Because we love you! How to win them? Easy, just send the correct answer to this question — What is the name of the Chicago-based indie-rock band Fred Armisen played drums for back in the 90s? — to FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the phrase PHAWKER IS SO MUCH FUNNIER THAN PORTLANDIA in the subject line. Include your mobile number for confirmation. Good luck and Godspeed! Look for our our interview with the Mayor of Portland later […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Devil You Know
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY The best part about creating this fantasy face-off was coming to the realization that determining its outcome wasn’t going to be the slam dunk this old-school liberal had anticipated. As you would no doubt agree, discovering where a politician actually stands on a given issue (as opposed to where they say they stand) can be a pretty eye-opening experience, sometimes revealing previously arrived at conclusions to have been ill-informed rushes to judgement unsupported by facts on the ground. Although I regard this as by far the “best available” match-up for the discerning American voter, the chance of a real-life Presidential […]
The Great Steel Pier Horse Diving Revival 86’d
DAILY NEWS: The owners of Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, facing pressure from animal-rights groups, have scrapped a plan to bring back the diving-horse act that made the boardwalk venue famous for decades. “Instead of trying to rekindle the past, we’re going to preserve history and nostalgia in a new way,” said Anthony Catanoso, Steel Pier’s president. Diving horses began plunging off Steel Pier platforms into pools in the 1920s. Animal-rights groups put an end to the show in the 1970s and again in 1993, when Catanoso briefly brought the horses back. MORE ASSOCIATED PRESS: He had envisioned the Diving Horse […]
EXPECT US: Anon Hacktavists DDS Pennsyltucky Tear Gas Maker For Exporting Repression Abroad
NBC PHILADELPHIA: The website of a U.S. company whose tear gas has been used against demonstrators in Egypt is the latest to be broken into by the Anonymous movement, hackers claimed Tuesday. In a statement posted to the Internet, hackers accused Combined Systems of being war profiteers who sell “mad chemical weapons to militaries and cop shops around the world.” Anonymous has claimed a series of Web attacks worldwide and has increasingly focused on security companies, law enforcement and governmental organizations. The group has often worked in tandem with the Occupy protest movement in the United States and has expressed […]
TONY BENNETT: Cold, Cold Heart
The charming Valentine’s Day ‘doodle’ on Google’s splash page. RELATED: Valentine’s Day 2012 is celebrated with a video-animation Google Doodle that also showcases the tender crooning of Tony Bennett at age 25, sweetly hitting the high notes of “Cold, Cold Heart.” The song was written by country boy Hank Williams, who said on “The Kate Smith Evening Hour” in a 1952 appearance that “Cold, Cold Heart” had “been awful kind to me and the boys,” providing them with “quite a few beans and biscuits.” It was a moneymaker. And it also was kind to Bennett. His version, with an orchestral […]
SIDEWALKING: Mac Sans Cheese
Love Park, Monday 2:12 PM by MEREDITH KLEIBER