A big new contract in San Diego, a big new scandal in New York, a big bridge in West Virginia's new national park, and a big old jackass bids Earth adieu.
What makes you so sure the Federal Press money wouldn't go to Bezos or Murdoch or Sinclair or the ones who own local media anyway? There will have to be standards or it goes to every QAnon racist with a podcast. Which means established papers/radio/TV stations. Which means owned by Sinclair, or Alden Global Capital, or Murdoch. Which means NOT some innovative podcast like Serial, or the citizen journalists analysing photos from the Capitol riot to find out who was there.
I don't like this. First, the US already has NPR and PBS, but more importantly, if the government is the only funding source, that affects coverage and neutrality. Canada is trying something like this. A fund that legacy media can apply for. They didn't count new media, blogs, podcasts. Just traditional newspapers and magazines.
The existence of extended NPR won't prevent Rush and FOX because they aren't news, they're entertainment. Real news is expensive and time consuming and mostly boring.
I don't think the Mets owe me anything, any more than any corporation does. But they do owe the women who work for them and the women who work with them answers. It's both clear and not surprising that even in the sexist world of baseball, the team run by known sexist Jeff Wilpon looked the other way as much as it could. It's shameful, but I don't trust the new owner or the old team president to fix things without a nudge from MLB. And that isn't happening.
The Tatis contract is nuts. There must be some opt-out clauses in there somewhere. Because if not, I expect someone to be very unhappy at the tail end of the deal when other players are paid more or when he's gotten old and can't produce. But nice money if you can get it.
I mean, he locked in multi-generational wealth for his family a year before he was arbitration-eligible. Most deals signed at 2 years of service time guarantee a tenth of what he got. This is valuing his FA years at $28-$30MM/year or so, and yes, that will look low by comparison (heck, it’s lower now than what the elite guys get), but I think one would be hard-pressed to say Tatis will be disappointed in this deal. He could have signed something that would have bought out his arb years and maybe a couple FA years and hit the market in his late 20s, but he chose to just lock it up right now instead.
And one positive out of the Tribune sale - the Baltimore Sun and the local papers it owned are being sold to a Maryland-based foundation led by a local wealthy person who seems like he doesn't completely suck. So there's hope for The (Baltimore) Sun, at least.
I may have made this comment before, but I'll make it again for the benefit of the freeload...er, visitors today.
In the 1990s, in a small CMass town called Ware, the entire Board of Selectmen was recalled after some shenanigans came to light, with some help from the newspaper that I used to write for while I was finishing up my undergraduate degree.
The point is that this little newspaper--which was a *weekly* and had an editor, a reporter, and maybe two stringers--was able to break this news because *someone* was watching and paying attention. As little as ten years later, I doubt it would have been noticed because even then, it took the larger, local daily paper (30 miles away) to give the weekly some cover by picking up the story for its regional edition.
Covering the outlying towns is almost always one of the first cuts to any daily newspaper, assuming an area *has* a daily newspaper. There are several major cities now without one, and plenty of large suburbs with as many weekly newspapers as Young Republicans without trust funds.
Which begs the question: If sh!t like this happened when there was someone watching, what's happening now that no one is?
This is the biggest problem, and I have no words for the disgust I feel that the biggest names in media spend all their time screaming about "cancel culture" because one millionaire pundit criticised another millionaire pundit, meanwhile local journalism (newspapers, radio, and tv) is dying and no one can figure out how to save it.
Journalism is an expensive product. It takes people a long time to learn how to report, to cultivate sources, to learn local politics and industry. The Epstein story? We know about it because a good local journalist spent literal years reporting on it. But no on wants to pay very much for it. Knowing what happens at a small town budget meeting matters to democracy. Knowing a city councillor's brother in law got a low bid contract to do garbage collection, matters for democracy. And it's the first thing to go, as the big chains close their smaller bureaus. And people pay for commentary. And the goal is to make yourself a brand.
Wow. Talk about falling far from the tree. Kubrick, of course, wanted to do a film about the Holocaust called Aryan Papers but ceased work on it after seeing Schindler's List because he thought the themes were too similar. Every few years someone says they'd like to take on the project but I haven't heard any concrete plans about a possible film.
I appreciate the attention paid to the issues in baseball stemming from the stories about Jared Porter, Mickey Callaway, and Ryan Ellis. This does frame the problem as a Mets one, however, instead of a wider cultural issue in baseball and a problem of the perception of women in general society. This is not a Mets problem, and while they (of course!) need to evaluate their processes in hiring and Human Resources and more, every team and the league’s central offices need to do more and do better.
The Tatis deal is exactly the kind of thing Cleveland should have done with Lindor 2-3 years ago. Way too many Cleveland fans are buying into the whole “small market” excuse, but clearly it’s all a load of crap based on what the Padres are doing. (This wing of the Dolan family is worth $4B+, fwiw...)
I love that it's the Padres doing it. In the same division as probably the most dominant team right now, made it to the last 3/4 WS, would have won all 3 if the other team didn't cheat, and the Padres are still going all in.
Even with the Dodgers as my secondary rooting interest, I am excited about the Tatís signing. Competition is good for the game which is why this sport needs a league minimum payroll in the next CBA. Look what it’s done for the NBA.
Oh, and I’m back on my bs again but eff the Mets. I feel sorry for their fans but maybe this is a sign the league needs harassment policy with teeth behind it.
Lots of angst in Nats land this morning about what the Tatis deal means for Turner and Soto long-term… I would like to think the Lerners will be as proactive as the Padres’ owners but I guess I will have to buy a ticket to see them both in pinstripes in five or six years. Sigh.
I was just looking at the New River Gorge website last night. Was trying to plan a camping trip where I meet a friend in the middle, and Beckley turns out to be the midpoint between Richmond VA and Columbus. Turns out he probably won't be able to pull it off this summer but I think I'm still going to book a campsite and go with my wife in late July. I've spent the night several times in Beckley as when we drive back to Indiana we usually leave after work and drive 4 hours to Beckley, spend the night, then get into Indianapolis around 2 PM the next day.
I don't know why but it literally just hit me, as I look at the snow outside, that this is the second summer in a row all plans are cancelled, including my friend's wedding. Which should have been last year.
Maybe I'll try a solo weekend camping trip this year.
We did 30 nights in our small camper last summer and fall. Campgrounds are about as safe a place to be as there is. Naturally socially distant, and you aren't in the bathhouse long enough for it to really be much of a concern. However, I think we'll start to see things normalizing this summer once we get 65% of the county immune via a previous infection and/or vaccination. At that point the virus won't be able to cause widespread havoc, it'll be more like a constant flu season with people still dying but not a rate that stresses our healthcare infrastructure or even causes news. Assuming the new variants don't blow it all back up...
Wouldn't Congressional oversight of such a Federal Press Service just be asking for it to be turned into a political weapon?
What makes you so sure the Federal Press money wouldn't go to Bezos or Murdoch or Sinclair or the ones who own local media anyway? There will have to be standards or it goes to every QAnon racist with a podcast. Which means established papers/radio/TV stations. Which means owned by Sinclair, or Alden Global Capital, or Murdoch. Which means NOT some innovative podcast like Serial, or the citizen journalists analysing photos from the Capitol riot to find out who was there.
I don't like this. First, the US already has NPR and PBS, but more importantly, if the government is the only funding source, that affects coverage and neutrality. Canada is trying something like this. A fund that legacy media can apply for. They didn't count new media, blogs, podcasts. Just traditional newspapers and magazines.
The existence of extended NPR won't prevent Rush and FOX because they aren't news, they're entertainment. Real news is expensive and time consuming and mostly boring.
I can barely reach my feet.
I don't think the Mets owe me anything, any more than any corporation does. But they do owe the women who work for them and the women who work with them answers. It's both clear and not surprising that even in the sexist world of baseball, the team run by known sexist Jeff Wilpon looked the other way as much as it could. It's shameful, but I don't trust the new owner or the old team president to fix things without a nudge from MLB. And that isn't happening.
The Tatis contract is nuts. There must be some opt-out clauses in there somewhere. Because if not, I expect someone to be very unhappy at the tail end of the deal when other players are paid more or when he's gotten old and can't produce. But nice money if you can get it.
I mean, he locked in multi-generational wealth for his family a year before he was arbitration-eligible. Most deals signed at 2 years of service time guarantee a tenth of what he got. This is valuing his FA years at $28-$30MM/year or so, and yes, that will look low by comparison (heck, it’s lower now than what the elite guys get), but I think one would be hard-pressed to say Tatis will be disappointed in this deal. He could have signed something that would have bought out his arb years and maybe a couple FA years and hit the market in his late 20s, but he chose to just lock it up right now instead.
Kudos for not holding back on Limbaugh. Your eulogy was spot on.
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
And one positive out of the Tribune sale - the Baltimore Sun and the local papers it owned are being sold to a Maryland-based foundation led by a local wealthy person who seems like he doesn't completely suck. So there's hope for The (Baltimore) Sun, at least.
I was coming down to mention this. That's pretty much the ONLY good thing, but it is a good thing.
I may have made this comment before, but I'll make it again for the benefit of the freeload...er, visitors today.
In the 1990s, in a small CMass town called Ware, the entire Board of Selectmen was recalled after some shenanigans came to light, with some help from the newspaper that I used to write for while I was finishing up my undergraduate degree.
The point is that this little newspaper--which was a *weekly* and had an editor, a reporter, and maybe two stringers--was able to break this news because *someone* was watching and paying attention. As little as ten years later, I doubt it would have been noticed because even then, it took the larger, local daily paper (30 miles away) to give the weekly some cover by picking up the story for its regional edition.
Covering the outlying towns is almost always one of the first cuts to any daily newspaper, assuming an area *has* a daily newspaper. There are several major cities now without one, and plenty of large suburbs with as many weekly newspapers as Young Republicans without trust funds.
Which begs the question: If sh!t like this happened when there was someone watching, what's happening now that no one is?
This is the biggest problem, and I have no words for the disgust I feel that the biggest names in media spend all their time screaming about "cancel culture" because one millionaire pundit criticised another millionaire pundit, meanwhile local journalism (newspapers, radio, and tv) is dying and no one can figure out how to save it.
Journalism is an expensive product. It takes people a long time to learn how to report, to cultivate sources, to learn local politics and industry. The Epstein story? We know about it because a good local journalist spent literal years reporting on it. But no on wants to pay very much for it. Knowing what happens at a small town budget meeting matters to democracy. Knowing a city councillor's brother in law got a low bid contract to do garbage collection, matters for democracy. And it's the first thing to go, as the big chains close their smaller bureaus. And people pay for commentary. And the goal is to make yourself a brand.
"Hey, you're only young once, but you can be immature forever." - Larry Andersen (1988)
"I’m probably too old to swing off it, though." - Craig Calcaterra (2021)
You know you want to...
Wow. Talk about falling far from the tree. Kubrick, of course, wanted to do a film about the Holocaust called Aryan Papers but ceased work on it after seeing Schindler's List because he thought the themes were too similar. Every few years someone says they'd like to take on the project but I haven't heard any concrete plans about a possible film.
I appreciate the attention paid to the issues in baseball stemming from the stories about Jared Porter, Mickey Callaway, and Ryan Ellis. This does frame the problem as a Mets one, however, instead of a wider cultural issue in baseball and a problem of the perception of women in general society. This is not a Mets problem, and while they (of course!) need to evaluate their processes in hiring and Human Resources and more, every team and the league’s central offices need to do more and do better.
When you bully someone, you show the world you are either too lazy or too stupid to motivate in any other way. Good riddance, Limbaugh.
The Tatis deal is exactly the kind of thing Cleveland should have done with Lindor 2-3 years ago. Way too many Cleveland fans are buying into the whole “small market” excuse, but clearly it’s all a load of crap based on what the Padres are doing. (This wing of the Dolan family is worth $4B+, fwiw...)
I love that it's the Padres doing it. In the same division as probably the most dominant team right now, made it to the last 3/4 WS, would have won all 3 if the other team didn't cheat, and the Padres are still going all in.
Even with the Dodgers as my secondary rooting interest, I am excited about the Tatís signing. Competition is good for the game which is why this sport needs a league minimum payroll in the next CBA. Look what it’s done for the NBA.
Oh, and I’m back on my bs again but eff the Mets. I feel sorry for their fans but maybe this is a sign the league needs harassment policy with teeth behind it.
Lots of angst in Nats land this morning about what the Tatis deal means for Turner and Soto long-term… I would like to think the Lerners will be as proactive as the Padres’ owners but I guess I will have to buy a ticket to see them both in pinstripes in five or six years. Sigh.
Good piece today on the death penalty from Liz Bruenig that echoes some of your points: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/opinion/federal-death-penalty.html
And I think it's not only acceptable but preferable to speak ill of the dead who spent their lives speaking ill of humanity. Good eulogy.
I was just looking at the New River Gorge website last night. Was trying to plan a camping trip where I meet a friend in the middle, and Beckley turns out to be the midpoint between Richmond VA and Columbus. Turns out he probably won't be able to pull it off this summer but I think I'm still going to book a campsite and go with my wife in late July. I've spent the night several times in Beckley as when we drive back to Indiana we usually leave after work and drive 4 hours to Beckley, spend the night, then get into Indianapolis around 2 PM the next day.
Let me know when you go. I can give you some things to do/see or answer any questions about the area you may have.
I don't know why but it literally just hit me, as I look at the snow outside, that this is the second summer in a row all plans are cancelled, including my friend's wedding. Which should have been last year.
Maybe I'll try a solo weekend camping trip this year.
We did 30 nights in our small camper last summer and fall. Campgrounds are about as safe a place to be as there is. Naturally socially distant, and you aren't in the bathhouse long enough for it to really be much of a concern. However, I think we'll start to see things normalizing this summer once we get 65% of the county immune via a previous infection and/or vaccination. At that point the virus won't be able to cause widespread havoc, it'll be more like a constant flu season with people still dying but not a rate that stresses our healthcare infrastructure or even causes news. Assuming the new variants don't blow it all back up...