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U.P.-Why?
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
The Sun-Times runs a few short stories every day from the United Press International under the heading "UPI INSIDER". These UPI stories tend to portray a reality different from the one we hear about. That is to say, opinions and news angles that aren't part of the mainstream press seem to be plucked from UPI and collected here. On Wednesday, something odd caught my eye and made me conclude that the Sun-Times should drop the UPI crap and replace it with the ever-so-much-more relevant and socially important "News of the Weird".
Wednesday's UPI Insider included a story about how an increasing amount of younger Palestinians are having second thoughts about statehood, an interesting tale of a Russian politician railing against his colleagues who prefer alcohol over the library--unlike US lawmakers, a story of the Chinese cavalry being dismantled, and then I ran across a tale that began:
"China has come up with its own version of Viagra -- but it's for women. Until recently a blue-colored drink called Nexcite was on sale for Chinese women. The potion was originally named Niagara, to capitalize on Viagra, which is also marketed in China. But the name was changed to Nexcite when the product failed to move..."
This product stuck in my mind when it first came out in the US as "Niagara" in 2001. Pfizer, the makers of Viagra quickly filed a world trademark lawsuit and a month later, the US distributor as well as the Swedish company that produced the drink agreed to change the name to Nexcite.
So what's with the UPI story? Fiction or poor research?
Considering the Chinese press recently proved itself an embarrassing, plagiarism-riddled mess by reprinting an article from The Onion as truth, I don't see how any stories from China would be printed without double or triple checking.
When the Unification Church purchased the UPI, most people wrote the news service off as a legitimate source. Heck, even Helen Thomas quit.
Not the Sun-Times...hoseheads.
May Sweep Stories
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
I've updated the sweep stories file to list the May 2002 log.
I was very disappointed at the lack of truly enterprising reports.
Channel 2's theme was trust - can you trust your plumber? Can you trust your doctor? Jay Levine did a two-parter on parking valets stealing money from your car. After that revelation, I expected another earth-shattering report on how Rosie O'Donnell is-gasp-a lesbian! Who knew? Though, to be fair, the hidden video was fun to watch. Vince Gerasole continued in his quest to get everyone in his family on the air when he did a story on Doggie daycare and brought his dog in the studio. Awwww! Viewers got to see his darling, sad face and puffy cheeks you just want to pinch. The dog was cute also.
Channel 5 started out slow - with a week's worth of health tips-but Dave Savini had a great report on Chicago cops & firefighters with criminal histories.
Channel 7 practice some economies of scale by making 8 of their reports 2-parters. On the one hand, this may compel a viewer to tune in the next night in order to see part two. On the other hand, it's lazy. I was disappointed that the ABC & I-Team really didn't come out with guns a'blazing in May. The best stuff came from Charles Thomas (Gun violence/gangs) and Chuck Goudie (deadbeat parents). The oddest? Leah Hope doing a story about makeup for women of color. Maybe it's the lighting, but I'm still having a hard time believing that Leah is not a Caucasian. I understand it's true that she's African-American, but seriously...Michael Jackson is darker than her...was she the right fit for THAT makeup story?
Channel 9 seems to be getting more enterprising. A couple stories about the Catholic priests/pedophiles, a couple of people vs. the system stories and an interesting 2-parter analyzing the Dan Ryan Chemical spill.
Channel 32 was light on the number of stories, but Larry Yellen was kept fairly busy. Yellen uncovered a job scam, poor security in Federal buildings, bad driving tests and how Bin Laden's relatives were shuttled out of the country before harm came to them. Mark Saxenmeyer, on the other hand, continued compiling a reel for an audition with Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." Saxenmeyer did a story on a school teacher/internet model, a ghostbuster, a catfight website and a romance bootcamp. He did each story without cracking a smile once. Steve Carrell would be proud. I just don't get it...is he doing tongue-in-cheek stuff ala Frank Mathie?
Bits and Pieces
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
On Sunday, Dave Savini reported about the Chicago Firefighter who didn't have a drivers license, yet drove a rig for a time. This was a sort-of follow-up of his May 13th report on cops & firefighters with arrest records and questionable pasts. I say sort-of follow-up because it was really a response to a Channel 9 report last week by Steve Sanders about this same firefighter. Channel 9 made it out to be a big new revelation. Savini had much better video and lots more information, and I suppose he brought it back out on Sunday to remind people that he's done the story already.
For any journalists who use the argument of "what journalistic value does it have?" when talking about how the Daniel Pearl video should NOT be aired, I offer another in a long line of way too many examples of things with no journalistic value making the air. On the night after the Browns Chicken killers were finally arrested, I watched in horror as John Dempsey tried talking to the killers' ex-girlfriends' parents. Wow. I can't imagine a more tenuous, less newsworthy connection to that case. I especially enjoyed the video of Dempsey being nice and understanding as he was turned away from the doors. Had to wonder if the raw footage had him pounding on the door, demanding a comment. I mean, really, what the hell would those poor people have to say that is newsworthy? Was he expecting them to say they knew about it for years?
Despite less-than-stellar ratings around the country, Fox has rolled out "Good Day Live" to more TV markets, including Chicago. I watched the first couple days it was on and as far as train wrecks go, it's comparable. True, I didn't squirm in my chair as much as I did with the Chevy Chase Show, but it still rates as truly awful television. Steve Edwards looks to be 75 years old so they pair him with two bimbos-Dorothy Lucey and Jillian Barberie. It's like having two Kathie Lee's only with half the intelligence. Hey, maybe I'm being too hard on them. Now that I think about it...nope, I'm not. Jillian Barberie was talking about her appearance on Howard Stern's radio show and mentioned that she wasn't a ring girl for a boxing match because there were lots of beautiful porn starlets there. Then she says, "Don't get me wrong, I love porn..." Ah, Jillian...where have you been all my life? Barberie is best known to us as the weather chick on Fox's NFL Sunday whose job is to get all the men good and horny for the day's football games. I had a debate with a friend about her once. I said that she served a useful purpose as a football fan's wet dream in the midst of the orgy of violence that is the NFL. My friend says that she's nothing but a two-dimensional fantasy vessel and guys just want to slam-fuck her, then toss her aside once they got sick of her annoying prattling. Yeah...that was a good debate. Maybe we're both right. Wow, did I get raunchy here, or what? Anyway, the show sucks big-time. Believe it or not, "Good Day Live" is part of a successful morning news show in Los Angeles! Think it would play in Chicago? Not a chance.
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