Sunday, March 29, 2009

MLB.com's PR machine sells the 'Total Save' stat when it suits their purpose

  • Joakim Soria is great but with only 2 regular seasons as a late inning reliever MLB.com anoints him as 'elite.'
MLB.com, 3/29/09: "Joakim Soria is one of 14 closers
  • in history
  • than hits allowed (39)
  • in a season."
No mention of how many outs per save, runners on base, save opportunities, the 19 walks he gave up in each of his 2 years, etc. Just the total save stat.
  • Article from MLB.com, "Soria now one of Majors' Elite Closers," by Dick Kaegel
(On another day about another pitcher they'll say the 'total save stat is the most overrated in baseball').

Monday, March 16, 2009

Media Matters wants CNBC to fail

AP, Crain's NY: "Some critics are seizing on comedian Jon Stewart's attacks of CNBC to launch an online petition drive urging the network to be tougher on Wall Street leaders.

They're asking CNBC to hire economic voices with a track record of being right about the current crisis and do more to hold business leaders accountable.

  • CNBC has been in the firing line since Mr. Stewart pointed out on his Daily Show network personalities who, in retrospect, offered bad financial advice. After a week trading barbs with Mr. Stewart, Jim Cramer apologized for mistakes he'd made on his show, Mad Money."... "Watchdog group calls for change at CNBC,"*** via Radio Daily News

***"Some economists" is a general term which sounds impressive until you find out the exact names. The term "Watchdog group" can mean many things as well. In this case, it's a rich, tax exempt far left political activist group. The chairman of GE, CNBC's owner, Jeffrey Immelt, is best buddies with Obama and has big climate scams in the works in Obama's re-making of America. sm

Friday, March 06, 2009

Implementing the perversion the Left has long dreamed of

"Michael Ledeen on Tocqueville on Us [Andy McCarthy]

"The tyranny [Tocqueville] foresees for us does not have much in common with the vicious dictatorships of the last century, or with contemporary North Korea, Iran, or Saudi Arabia. He apologizes for lacking the proper words with which to define it.

but minute and meddling.” The vision and even the language anticipate Orwell’s 1984, or Huxley’s Brave New World.

Tocqueville describes the new tyranny as “an immense and tutelary power,” and its task is to watch over us all,

  • and regulate every aspect of our lives.

It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which

We will not be bludgeoned into submission; we will be seduced. He foresees the collapse of American democracy as the end result of

  • the corruption of our character, and

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Paperboys continue to lose newspapers

American Thinker: "Following the cancellation of their annual convention for only the second time in 86 years, the American Society of Newspaper Editors is considering draconian measures to right their leaky vessels. Foremost among the proposed solutions is a name change for the group. The Canadian Press reports:
  • Although this year's convention won't be held, the American Society of Newspaper Editors will still vote on a proposed name change that would reflect the Internet's growing importance.
It's hard to imagine how American paperboys can continue to lose our newspapers in the bushes without the stimulation provided by the annual ASNE convention. The group's most vital activities are:
  • 1.) Monitoring diversity in its member newsrooms and sponsoring diversity workshops.
I'm sure it's hard to believe that American newspapers are struggling to make it financially despite this rigorous combination of political correctness and Amway marketing principles.
With an eye toward helping preserve the once-hallowed institution of print journalism, I offer these 10 new names for consideration by the American Society of Newspaper Editors:
  • 1.) The Barack Obama Hagiography Project.
  • 2.) The Hey-Over Here with that Stimulus Society
  • 3.) The Federation of Not-so-Confidential Sources
  • 4.) Diversity-R-Us
  • 5.) Where's the Fairness Doctrine Now that We Need it Society
  • 6.) The Fourth Estate Leftovers League
  • 7.) Birdcage Liners, Fish-wrap & Beyond
  • 8.) Editorials-n-Things
  • 9.) The News Factory
  • 10.) I Can't Believe It's News
Any one of these colorful titles might well restore a bit of elan to an industry about to follow the Nehru jacket and the dime novel into the dustbin of American cultural history.

The editors at ASNE simply haven't recognized that their preachiness, obvious partisanship and smug editorializing amounted to