Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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I See by the Papers

Rich Galen

Monday March 7, 2005

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From Bradenton, Florida
Manatee County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner

The Sunday New York Times costs $5 when purchased at the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport. The front page tells us it is "Printed in Lakeland, Fla." and so includes, in the upper right-hand corner, the Florida weather forecast.

In yesterday's edition, a poet must have been on the weather desk because the first portion of the weather reads: "A few high cirrus clouds will dim the sun at times �"

Dim sun? Aren't they those dumplings � oh, no. I see my mistake, now.

It is a significantly different experience to actually handle a newspaper than it is to read it on-line. You don't flip through the paper on-line. You point-and-click. Way different.

In yesterday's paper there was a front page piece headed "Unexpected Whiff of Freedom Proves Bracing for the Mideast."

In a classic example of burying the lead, it isn't until the third graf that reporter Neil MacFarquhar writes:

The entire Middle East seems to be entering uncharted political and social territory with a similar mixture of anticipation and dread. Events in Lebanon and Egypt, following a limited vote for municipal councils in Saudi Arabia and landmark elections in Iraq, as well as the Palestinian territories, combined to give the sense, however tentative, that twilight might be descending on the authoritarian Arab governments.

The word "Bush" doesn't appear on the first page at all. After the jump to page A-13, occurs only as "Bush administration."

Nevertheless, we take our victories where we find them.

Flip � flip � flip.

On page A-21 there is an article by Sam Dillon about the State of Utah trying to get around the "No Child Left Behind" act which, according to the piece, "punishes schools where even small groups of students fail to make sufficient progress."

Uh, hello? What does the phrase, "No Child" or more precisely "NO Child" mean in Utah?

Later in the piece Dillon quotes a woman named Patti Harrington whom he describes as "an experienced teacher and school administrator" as saying "We have our own ways of running Utah's schools."

Uh, hello? Can we interest Dr. Harrington in a bound copy of the 1954 classic: Brown v. Board of Education? Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama (to name but a few) had "their own ways" of running their schools, too.

Flip � flip � flip.

Here in the Arts & Leisure section, the terminally cranky Frank Rich figures out a way to tie the death of Hunter Thompson to the Jeff Gannon fiasco.

I had a long chat with a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dick Pohlman, about the Jeff Gannon foolishness the other day. I said that the White House correspondents were complicit in allowing "Gannon" to hang out in the briefing center day after day.

The daily White House visitor's badge - which this "Gannon" character had to wear - is very, VERY different from the standard assortment of press creds which real reporters have hanging around their necks.

It is an investigation of someone with far more discipline than I to ask the real reporters on the White House beat why no one complained that "Gannon" was allowed in there every day.

Flip � flip � flip.

Finally, in the "Sunday Business" section there is a piece by John Motavalli who shares this astonishing bit of information: "The cable business channel CNBC contributed more than $250 million to the coffers of [its parent company] General Electric." It provided a quarter of a billion to GE while "attracting a tiny audience which is at best just over 200,000 viewers."

Wowzers.

No wonder Roger Ailes, the head of the Fox cable operation, is planning to start a Fox business channel. [Armstrong Williams disclaimer: Fox doesn't pay me squat to appear about 800 times a week. It did, however, pay me to appear during the Republican National Convention].

My money is on Roger. Even if his money is not on me.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the articles above; a Mullfoto from the Sarasota County Lincoln Day dinner; and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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