lullaby pit

Sony Agrees to $10M ‘Payola’ Settlement 07.25.2005, 11:41 AM One of the nation’s biggest music companies, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, agreed Monday to pay $10 million and to stop paying radio station employees to feature its artists to settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The agreement resulted from Spitzer’s investigation of suspected “pay for play” practices

The deaths of four Boy Scout leaders at the annual jamboree in Virginia make for an incredibly sad story, to be sure, and nothing about this next comment should be taken as minimizing the tragedy. But: it’s been awhile since I was confronted with something that’s quite as ironic as four Boy Scout leaders electrocuting themselves while setting up a

You know how I always do my “Best of” list for the year’s CDs? And how sometimes the write-ups come in a little late? Well, thanks to a variety of factors, not the least of which is my own slackitude, I set a new record this year, finally posting my 2004 year-end review this evening. Yeah, I suck. But the

It’s about time somebody set the record straight. Our hats are off to the Rowboat Veterans for Truth. [THX: Norm T at the Cleveland Rocks! Desk.]

Well, Pat Buchanan is mad about Bush’s SC nominee. As a general rule, if Pat is unhappy, I at least consider the possibility that I ought to be tickled silly. So maybe I like the Roberts nomination more than I thought I did?

It takes an incredible athlete to even ride the Tour de France. I can’t imagine what it would take to actually win one (although having the Discovery Channnel team around you would help). Especially after nearly dying with testicular cancer. And if I recall, nobody had ever won more than five. Today Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour in a

Let’s accept one thing: regardless of what happens to the Roberts nomination (and it looks like we can expect some hot air early, followed by a sunny confirmation, and a zero percent chance of filibuster – so bluster, but no buster) and the eventual retirement of Rehnquist (which didn’t happen this year, but probably will before 2008), George W. Bush

In evaluating the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, we need to remember that the GOP is comprised, if I might overgeneralize a bit to make a point, of two groups.

Today’s question is for HP CEO Mark Hurd: LP: Mr. Hurd, you just announced that HP will be firing 14,500 employees, which will bring the body count since May of 2002 to something approaching 30,000 workers. Since it’s now clear that Carly Fiorina’s bold butchering of 15K jobs three years ago somehow didn’t launch HP to a position of market

Bush is apparently close to nominating Sandra Day O’Connor’s replacement on the Supreme Court, and there’s lot of speculation surrounding Judge Edith Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Maybe, maybe not – we might know later today. In any case, here’s what we can expect.

This commentary originally appeared in the Editor & Publisher online edition. – Reporters are obligated to the truth, and allowing themselves to be pimped by those who would use them as tools against the truth is a crime against the profession and the society it serves. Protecting that which you are bound to expose is malpractice. (July 18, 2005) —

Today’s question is for the as-yet-unnamed Reuters editor who wrote the headline on Patricia Wilson’s Treasongate story this afternoon: LP: A couple years ago President Bush and his beleaguered mouthpiece, Scott McLellan, made clear that if any White House employee were found to be involved in the outing of a CIA operative that person would be fired. In a story

Ooh, ow. This is funny unless, you know, you like Karl Rove.

Today’s question is for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D-NY): LP: Sen. Clinton, despite the red herrings and artificial distractions of faux issues like our endless quagmire in Iraq, Karl Rove’s treasonous betrayal of the American intelligence community, the recent terrorist bombings in London, a spiraling Federal deficit, the prospect of the neo-Puritan Right getting to appoint two justices to the

I got word today that a guy I used to work with killed himself yesterday.