Friday, July 02, 2004

Conservatives have gained ground in the culture wars with a campaign for the humor salient, portraying their opposition as a bunch of PC prigs. That battle may be turning, as the outrage over Michael Moore's dark comedy shows. Now comes this thuddingly self-serious piece at OxBlog, pimped by no less than Instapundit, complaining about the political satire in The Onion. No, really. Check this out: "In the final analysis, the skewered vision of American politics presented by The Onion may be clever, but instead of educating its audience, it reinforces misleading stereotypes that embittered elitist use to justify their pessimism about America's thriving democracy." Man, The Onion could have a field day with this guy. "Embittered elitists," tut-tuts humble Rhodes Scholar David Adesnik at a weblog that uses the elite status of its authors as a branding device. He is deeply concerned for Onion readers in need of more edifying fake news stories. At Oxford, they spell the word "humourless." UPDATE: Hmm, wonder if this is properly edifying? 1:20:14 PM    comment []

A quick trip to NY yesterday for meetings at Ziff, then a languorous train ride back to Bay Head. When I lived in the city a million years ago, a big group of friends from NC shared a beach house for a couple of summers in Bay Head and Mantoloking. I have some fond memories of those times, and many other memories that would be fond if I could just remember them. 10:02:28 AM    comment []

If you must acknowledge that there are Democratic challengers to congressman-for-life Howard Coble, at least you can minimize the impact by doing so on the Friday before a holiday weekend... 9:33:51 AM    comment []

The News & Record reports a story you read here more than a month ago ... that a powerful local radio station, 101.1 FM, is switching to an all-talk format, with Brad Krantz manning the morning show microphone. A week after my scoop, the Business Journal picked up the story, citing this blog for breaking it, as is the custom in the news business. The N&R made no mention of the scoop in today's story. I guess after a month the statute of limitations had expired. The real issue, of course, is not the citation -- it's that the N&R ignored an important local story for a month. 9:29:02 AM    comment []