Month: May 2005

Matt has it right.

You don’t get to blog.

Got to Grand Rapids much too late to do anything but quickly check email.

Until tomorrow…

I’m in meetings all day then on the road this evening to Grand Rapids, MI. I’ll check in later.

Buddy Guy

I’m in Chicago, and my business associate said he wanted to go find some blues. So, we headed over Buddy Guy’s “Legends” bar, a place owned by Buddy. Well, you know how these things go. Famous people who own their own restaurants, or hotels, or casinos, or whatever…they NEVER show up there. Or they hardly do. The last thing I expected was for the Blues King to appear.

He did.

It was very cool.

As the fallout over the Newsweek story retraction continues, Pakistan dismissed the apology and retraction by the magazine as inadequate.

The report in the magazine’s May 9 issue sparked protests across the Muslim world, from Afghanistan, where 16 people were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Gaza.

“The apology and retraction are not enough,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters.

“They should understand the sentiments of Muslims and think 101 times before publishing news which hurt feelings of Muslims.”

I’ve got a breaking news report for all the Muslim world – Newsweek doesn’t get it. They didn’t get it before and they don’t get it now. The drama that played out yesterday was a public relations move, pure and simple. It was not the beginning of new reporting policies. It was not a confession from any of the ‘professionals’ there. In other words, it’s business as usual for many at Newsweek.

The Main Stream Media (MSM) is not an easily turned vessel. It will take more than a few mistakes by a few reporters to adjust this institution. As we know, they didn’t change after Rathergate, and nothing changed after the Jason Blair affair. It is naive to think that any major change will happen over this misaligned Newsweek story.

It will take time, but things will change. Just don’t set your watch by it.

So for now, take a breath, relax. The blogosphere can easily beat this horse into oblivion. Don’t. We should move on and await the next goof by the MSM. It will happen, and the bloggers will be there to expose it and demand changes. One by one, these milestones will result in a reformation of the MSM. The metamorphosis will not be hurried along.

I made it to Chicago. The trouble is, when you come from the west coast, and your flight doesn’t leave until after 12 Noon, you pretty much shoot the whole day travelling. By the time I got out of the airport, then to the rental car, then to the hotel, then through check-in, then out to eat dinner, it was 10:45 PM.

Now it’s 11:35 PM and I’m thinking about tomorrow’s meetings and how I should get some sleep.

Blogging to continue in the morning.

I’m off to Chicago in the morning. I’ll be there til Wednesday, then I drive up to Grand Rapids for a couple of days. I’m due to fly back to Seattle on Saturday. I’ll have the hotel WIFI (thank you Lord) but blogging might be lighter than usual. We’ll see…

I’m thinking about visiting Buddy Guy’s in Chicago on Tuesday night. If you’ve been there, or know something about it that I should know, please, do share.

Likewise, if you know something special about Grand Rapids (I know…the chances are slim), please send me a tip. Thanks.

Newsweek = Idiots.

Michelle Malkin covers the debacle.

Come on Bill…tell us how you really feel.

Good Lord. A shiver went down my spine when I read number 6.