Brian Lambert Already a little light in the reporter-body department, KSTP-TV lost another one when Ross Kirgiss, a 13-year vet, abruptly cleaned out his desk, apparently over the New Year’s weekend, and vacated the Hubbard ranch. Colleagues who have tried to contact him since say they’ve heard nothing back. I’m told Kirgiss had several months to go … Read more
Difficult decision tonight. Watch the premiere of the new series, formerly titled, “Let’s Rob Mick Jagger”, (now known as “The Knights of Prosperity”), or catch a screening of the Judi Dench-as-crazed-repressed-lesbian flick, “Notes on a Scandal”? I hear Jagger is actually pretty funny in the former, but, damn, I’m a sucker for psycho grand dames. … Read more
As someone who never tired of railing at copy editors sucking the life — the precious bodily fluids — out of my copy, I realize this blogging thing has the downside of requiring me to re-re-read my own stuff. Brutal. But I’ll do my best to keep the corrections coming, promptly. “Par” Ridder. Not Parr.
Is it me or has the eulogizing of Gerry Ford now gone on longer than his presidency? Let enough be enough or at least let someone on the air who attempts to put Ford in some kind of rational perspective. By the 24 hour mark after his death, I was maxing out on the “decency” … Read more
The surprise sale of the Star Tribune to a recently-formed private equity partnership has left reporters and other mid-level employees in a full churn of speculation, almost none of it good. There just isn’t handy model for these things improving the service to community or the professional/personal lives of working stiff journalists. Nick Coleman got … Read more
According to conventional mythology a new blog is born every second, each with an average readership of … one. I hope to do better than that, if only for the sake of Rake publisher, Tom Bartel, who, after months of brutal negotiations has finally consented to attach my idle, crackpot meanderings to his otherwise sober-minded … Read more
There are several vital tricks to surviving life at a daily newspaper, like I did at the Pioneer Press for fifteen years. One is a developed affinity for list-making, especially end-of-the-year list-making. So, Rake readers, as my first act in this space, a list … of the best and worst in media for 2006. The … Read more
Those familiar with glossy nine-dollar magazines might think they know what to expect by now: hundreds of pages featuring cadaverous European models draped in preposterous clothes and posed in surreal lighting, all presented with an editorial attitude that falls somewhere between the court of the Sun King and a Chelsea heroin rave. Experiences with that … Read more
**Note: See the July 20th NYTimes Magazine cover excerpt from Carr’s forthcoming book, The Night of the Gun. Carr discusses the book August 14th at Magers and Quinn Booksellers and August 18th at Common Good Books.** David Carr is slouched against the sweaty door of a cab whose shock absorbers long ago lost the battle … Read more
If you’re a shareholder, the money is still pretty good, but in almost every other way this is a rough time for the middlebrow, mainstream media. Judging by all the hand-wringing, navel-gazing, and gloomy, self-flagellating punditry you’d think the mainstream news media–the “MSM,” as bloggers love to peck—are at the fiery brink as a consequence … Read more