** 7:15 PM UPDATE: Today’s peak electric power demand in California was over a thousand megawatts less than forecast. Meanwhile, it is getting to be about time to head in to dinner.
** David Geffen. Eli Broad. Ron Burkle. They all want the stumbling Times. Circulation is down in the high-growth LA Times area more than any other conventional media publication in America. The decline coincides with its absentee corporate ownership in Chicago. And with its former editor’s desperate and wildly unsuccessful attempt to destroy Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2003 recall election for governor of California. Despite what the Tribune Corp. says, the paper is in play.
Meanwhile, the paper has remarkably little cyberspace presence beyond the big brand name and consequently highly trafficked web site. Make no mistake, it is a very fine newspaper and California would be much the worse off without it. But despite its massive staff and budget, it is routinely beaten on stories of consequence. Its only name journalist to venture into cyberspace, a Pulitzer Prize winner, no less, got his ears boxed for fakery and ludicrous partisanship and is now a sports reporter.
** As I was saying, get used to heat storms in the greenhouse era.
** Continuous coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah War on Pajamas Media. Israeli forces have pulled back from a Hezbollah stronghold in Southern Lebanon. The U.S. and Britain are seeking a ceasefire agreement which would lead to the establishment of a buffer zone in Southern Lebanon and the disbanding of Hezbollah, mirroring the military objectives of Israel after those objectives were downgraded from the destruction of Hezbollah.
** Global and national energy price watch from Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have pulled back a bit with the U.S. becoming more involved in seeking a diplomatic resolution to the Israel-Hezbollah War.
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| Comments (41) |
CADTS Says:
CADTS wrote: July 28th, 2006 at 7:55 pm e
Why, oh why, can’t the car be a Maserati…for that reason alone I would go to the movie. A Ferrari is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 1980’s.
Oh wait, its Miami Vice…my bad.
As a sad reminder of the 80’s…I do recall one day in particular where my older brother ended up going on a date looking a lot like a BAD version of Don Johnson…white jacket, a bright sea green shirt and white pants. Everytime I think of that scene, I am both amused and disturbed by the whole era.
I’m not quite ready to do a little write-up on Miami Vice the movie because I actually am pulling back — as you can see with the first absence of a morning leader in 100 days — but for now there is this …
CADTS, the Miami Vice movie is present day. Pretty different from the TV series. Sonny Crockett does have a Ferrari, but it’s kinda silver and black as I recall, not the obvious white in the series. There are lots of other flash rides in the movie. No pastel outfits, by the way. Or flamingoes.
The first car was a black Ferrari Daytona Spider.
What happened to it?
Find out here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vK1TMw4rQ24&mode=related&search=
I always hate when that happens. This is how I roll when it does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hg7JP7OJuo&NR
Gospodin Bierko, your nefarious Russian intel is good, but it is not golden.
Here is the “Politics From The Inside/Outside” on that. The black Ferrari Daytona in Season 1 wasn’t really a Ferrari at all. It was a tricked out Corvette made to look like a Ferrari. The Ferrari people loved the attention the smash hit show brought to their brand but wanted a real Ferrari in the show. (Also that model doesn’t look especially like a “Ferrari,” which is why the Corvette underpinnings look so much like a, well, Corvette.)
So the producers came up with the plot device V. Bierko has revealed from early in Season 2. Which enabled Ferrari to provide Miami Vice with a real Ferrari, two of them, actually. Michael Mann decided that a white car would be better than the Season 1 black car because so much of the action takes place at night and the white Ferrari is more dramatic. Incidentally, there is a sleek white BMW that plays a key role in the new movie.
Anyway, Crockett ended up in a temperamental, expensive, quite spectacular Ferrari Testarossa. Testarossa being Italian for “redhead,” and also a nickname I have for a friend of mine.
Why is a car called Redhead? Because part of the engine is painted red.
Boys with toys.
Nah, just a nice, relaxed, weekend day.
More seriousness coming, soon enough.
CADTS, do you like the Maserati roadster or the Maserati Quatroportte?
The latter is a fabulous sedan which competes with and undercuts the Mercedes S-Class, Jaguar XJ. BMW 7-series, Audi A8. And oh yeah, the Toyota/Lexus such as the vehicle poor Mel Gibson got busted in for his DUI yesterday.
Quatroportte, in Italian, means nothing more than four-door, but it sounds much cooler in Italian.
I test drove one, and someone we know is eying it for his next vehicular adventure/purchase with the family … LOL. Though a certain someone wanted to have him purchase a Maybach.
AACK.
There is one problem with the Maserati vehicle, the gearshift is remarkably jerky for a very expensive luxury vehicle. They are apparently fixing that in the next iteration. So you may want to hold off on your freshly derived fortune accordingly.
Bill, you should post a link to the KNBC-TV show with you and the Angelides and Schwarzenegger for Governor campaign managers when you find one that works.
I will.
Meanwhile, comment on the future of the LA Times?
It doesn’t seem to me that any of the above-named potential purchasers of the LA Times will be willing to do what I believe it would take to turn the paper’s fortunes around.
Why is that?
The Tribune has been beating the shit of the LA Times because they insist on a ridiculously high rate of return.
Say what you will about John Carroll, but he’s a great newspaperman, and in his 5 year tenure the LA Times won 13 Pulitzers. Since then, it’s been beat down.
I’d like to think the Times has as good a future as it has a past – at least the last 40 years – but I’m afraid it, like a lot of other big-city papers, may be like dinosaurs. I’m not sure what kind of newspapers we’ll see in 20 years. I think the idea of local ownership of the Times is great, but I’m not sure those 3 guys are the trio to do it – whether they’re working together, or working apart. The problems of the Times may be bigger than just the Times. But I sure hope it can be resurrected. For a long time, it was one of the gold standards….
I used to work at A.P. in Los Angeles – everyone wanted to work at the Times, because it had the resources to do good journalism and it was willing to use those resources, at least under the Chandler regime…
The last two editors were disasters — Pulitzer Prizes notwithstanding (you should take an actual look at that work sometime, including the poor soul who exposed himself as a blogger) — and the paper is going down faster than any other big daily newspaper in the US.
Well for one thing, just because John Carroll is gone, the editorial policy of the Times appears to me to stil be partisan. I believe that Michael Hiltzik was not disciplined for being a hyper-partisan reporter, but rather, because he got caught in fakery. If anything, I would guess that editors and reporters in the newsroom winked at his partisan brinksmanship even as they mentioned that they had to take him off the political scene until things cooled down. I just don’t think that the suitors are interested in turning over staff to the extent that they would fire the partisans, which seem to reside mostly in the LA newsroom. But it is possible they have the interest in modernizing the web presence of the Times, which is good. I just think it will take more than that.
yes, it is. but a major problem is that people who want news no longer need papers like. For example, with the web, I have access to all the political and policy news in Calif. I need – Bill does some of the best reporting around and with this site, and RTumble, I don’t need to buy a newspaper to find out what’s going on in politics or Sacramento. Or to follow the Giants, either for that matter(they suck, but hey, that’s not news)
I’m off to see the new Woody Allen moving – Scoop…
sorry, typo – I meant, new Woody Allen movie…
It should be Eli Broad …hopefully, it will be
Let us remind of the pathetic nature of LA Times political coverage during the 2003 recall.
1. Despite enormous efforts PERSONALLY directed by then editor Jon Carroll, the paper came up with nothing more than a refried beans version of the Premiere Magazine story of 2001 about Schwarzenegger and women other than Maria Shriver.
2. The LA Times “Poll” was consistently and wildly wrong. Completely out of phase with other polls, including the Gray Davis private polls, as I reported contemporaneously.
3. Schwarzenegger, who Jon Carroll by all accounts thought was some kind of muscle-bound moron, knew instantly what was going on and denied access, and credibility, accordingly. The Times reporters were accordingly nowhere, so they bought into the Mike Murphy view of things, since he, as a good opportunist, knew they needed material. And provided it, making himself look, falsely, as the total savior of the Schwarzenegger campaign.
Later on, Times coverage of the disastrous Pat Clarey chief of staff tenure was very positive, as she, too, as the key Murphy ally, provided lots of “material.”
Thank you Bill. When I read the fawning feature story about Clarey, which of course came at the time that the disastrous policies and poilitical moves she had wrought had grown into a full tsunami in the governor’s office, I was dumfounded that anyone could get it so wrong, let alone the once great LA Times.
That was a classic “access” piece by an LA Times reporter dutifully doing what was needed for the paper to retain its pipeline to very bad “inside” info.
Bill, are you seeing British Prime Minister Tony Blair tonight?
At the moment, I am smoking a small Monte Cristo cigar on a San Francisco street, in accordance with my beloved hometown’s various regulations …
What would Freud sat about that?
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar … in light of …
Bill, slightly off-topic question: with all of this ridiculously hot weather, why is Angelides still MIA on the solar homes initiative? Seems really crazy not to support it at this point.
He is the anti-Arnold.
AS in PB and BB in SF…this could be interesting.
Tony Blair is in Pebble Beach..my horse is in Pebble Beach too right now at a horse show!!!!…I think they should take Tony Blair to the PebbleBeach horse show to see Chance! I am leaving shortly to spend the week there.
TOMMY BOY! I just got a big check for some project of mine and guess what I am going to buy!!!!! “TOMMY BOY” at Pebble Beach!…and my Tommy Boy , is an Arabian! Toodles Carole, Tommy Boy HAP, and CADTS hold the fort until I get back and Mr. Bradley keep writing as I will be reading …Toodles!
Barbara,
Once upon a time, I borrowed a horse named Casey and rode with the Rancho “Santa Fe Hunt Club” on a race meet course that wound through one of the PB golf courses. My Casey was hotel’ing at the PB eq center. The next day was a Hunt with the Los Altos Hunt Cub. Ahh…The good ole days. I am envious beyond belief because any woman knows that a fine horse can beat a Ferrari any day. Have fun and Tally Ho!
…oh and heels down, eyes up and wear your helmet…:)
Carole,
Thank You! Don’t worry there is not a woman on this earth with better BALANCE than me!…I have what you call in riding a “great seat”!…even my enemies agree! Toodles!….
Bill, I like the Quattroporte (the Executive GT version is better than the Sport GT) because it is a four-door, has a nice V8 engine and for me, it has a modern look which is not gaudy. The interior seems, to me, is very functional. But ya know, I just think that Quattroporte is just a beautiful car…plus, it looks even cooler on “Entourage.” Although that might be the Sport GT…I am not sure.
That is a very elegant and stylish car.
The LA Times is a complete mess that is ripe to be taken over. Their circulation should be at least 1.5-1.7 million. They need to start tayloring the paper to the english reading audience and not the illegal alien/hispanic one that only reads La Opinion. I mean the paper has truly been a walking disaster the last couple of years. They’ve been hemmoraging subscribers at a breakneck pace. Even though the paper has a liberal bent to it, it used to be a must read fishwrap. These days it’s turned into a cruel joke of a paper. Someone needs to rescue that sinking ship.
Powder Blue Report
re: “They need to start tayloring [sic] the paper to the [sic] english [sic] reading audience and not the illegal alien/hispanic [sic] one that only reads La Opinion.”
Ok, let’s see your examples. I read the Times everyday and have never seen an article that wasn’t targeted towards an English reading audience.
I realize your comments are meant to inflame but come on! At least try to make your dumb comment look smart.
The newspaper business is interesting. From the little I can tell, the Times (and newspapers in general) doesn’t come close to maximizing its internet potential and paper circulation is falling. The paper remains profitable (bigger than 12% margin) but has been cutting the things that made it special. The paper’s management is stuck in an old business model. They should stop worrying about circulation and printed classifieds and turn their website into an interactive money maker IMO.
I understand where you are coming from. Ive been a fan of Mel Gibson for years but with his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva coming out and saying she feared that he might really hurt her during a fight they had in the news today its hard to know what to think. Anyways good post.
Awesome,I love The Heat! They are the best team in the NBA! We will never see another 3 headed monsterteam like this again! Go D Wade!