The Shipp boys were, arguably, the coolest kids in elementary school who didn’t have access to a stack of Playboys. Their dad, Bert Shipp, was a local newscast legend, having worked as a reporter and news director at Channel 5 and, beginning in 1961, at Channel 8. The other kids…

I have a theory. This conjecture involves former colleague Laura Miller, who is running for mayor, and the executives at The Dallas Morning News, who hate her. The theory is simple. It’s the horny churchgoer theory. In other words, the paper will do anything it can to screw Miller, so…

A quick rundown of trends, notes and final thoughts about the year in local media, an aught-one that said goodbye to KLIF’s Tom Kamb and hello, again, to the Crab Nebula’s Marty Griffin. Afghan Wigs: If you have a life, you may not realize that former Channel 4 anchorbabe Ashleigh…

A reunion seemed like a great idea. Get together 10 years after the slaying to drink heartily, remember the good times, bad times, all that was the Dallas Times Herald. Some of its former employees, who tossed the idea around for months, could meet at the great journalist’s bar Joe…

Buzz is thankful for many things this holiday season, foremost among them that with The Dallas Morning News around, no bad, unsettling, evil thoughts will cross our minds, because they won’t be allowed in the paper. Now, we know Buzz is a bit late in realizing this, but we’re just…

Fifteen minutes into this past Sunday’s WFAA-TV Channel 8 navel-gazing special Covering Terrorism: Critiquing the Media, two things became clear: Peter Jennings is less than cordial, and a dying local news station has no idea why it was once great. The disjointed, uninteresting, self-important program purported to give local journalists…

It wasn’t a good week at The Dallas Morning News. The city lost out on its Olympic bid to friggin’ Houston. (Hey, but that means the streets will be fixed and cops ‘n’ teachers ‘n’ firemen will be paid more. Right? Hello? Isn’t that right?) The rank-and-file reporters don’t care…

I am confused. I don’t know what to write. I have no strong opinions. Every steadfast and firm conviction I had has been turned into tapioca. This is what happens when you talk to too many lawyers. Not that lawyers are bad people. In reporting this column about how Dan…

Newsroom staff at The Dallas Morning News filed into the downstairs auditorium somberly. It was going to be bad. That much they knew. Reporters and editors had been openly speculating for weeks that declining revenues, increased spending on post-September 11 coverage and the $37 million write-off known as CueCat would…

Sure, Buzz likes good city disputes, but it’s easy to nod off when they turn out like the topless bar brouhaha: official bungling followed by endless, hydra-headed court action. Before long, the whole thing becomes a muddled jobs program for lawyers. It’s too early to say for sure, but this…

Watching smoke billow from the World Trade Center on their new compact-car-sized high-definition TV only made the morning of September 11 seem more real, if that were possible. The TV was a gift from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a fan of the sports-talk station at KTCK-AM 1310 known as…

Crimson-faced: Never let it be said that Buzz will miss an opportunity to make fun of Okies. Why? Because Buzz–at least this week’s author–grew up in the land of red dirt and 3.2 beer, and we will forever harbor deep psychological scars because of it. So it’s surprising to hear…

This is the discussion going on several times a month at The Dallas Morning News: Highly paid, award-winning writer: “Hi, boss person, whazzup?” Midlevel editor: “Hello, longtime faithful employee. I just needed to alert you to a few changes in your job description.” HPAWW: “Great! Will I be working from…

In retrospect, it could have been much worse. When KLIF-AM 570 talk radio host Tom Kamb didn’t show up for work two weeks ago, station management immediately began a worried search for him. Kamb, a race- and gay-baiting conservative known for angering Mayor Ron Kirk and garnering a nearly infinitesimal…

I have read a local newspaper almost every day since I was 8 years old. I began by reading Boston Red Sox box scores to see how well my favorite player, Jim Rice, hit during the previous night’s game. In high school, I cut out editorials or political essays that…

What Beats What? Poker hand rankings of five-card hands, from best to worst: royal flush (A-K-Q-J-10, same suit), straight flush (five cards of the same suit, in order, e.g. J-10-9-8-7 of hearts), four of a kind, full house (any three of a kind, plus any pair, e.g. 9-9-9-3-3), flush (any…

Contrary to what you may think, you most likely will never beat T.J. Cloutier at the poker table. Oh, you may get lucky and win a game on the last card, but that’s a “bad beat,” which is not really a beat. You may get a big hand, maybe put…

In case you’re wondering–and lots of stockholders/employees at Belo Corp. are–there were plenty of people who knew the CueCat was a ridiculous investment. Mark Cuban said as much. Newsroom grunts who were asked to evaluate its worth said, in the kindest terms possible, that the digital scanner cat-lookin’ thingie was,…

Too much fund?: In the just-trying-to-help department–the Rev. Zan Holmes, pastor of St. Luke “Community” Methodist Church, has expressed fervent hope that the perpetrators of a vandalism attack on his church (“Mystery of St. Luke,” May 17) will be apprehended, no matter who they may be. The need for the…

The conference room at the Hyatt Regency was hot. The meet-your-new-bosses assembly had been called so hastily that the air conditioning hadn’t been turned on when the staffers of The Dallas Morning News filed in. Not that it mattered. The reporters and editors at the Morning News, where hope springs…

Let’s say you decide you’re going to be a whore. Maybe you’ve had a long, respectable life in which you’ve only rarely, quietly embarrassed yourself. Some silliness when you were young, a few wayward escapades while growing up, but for the most part you are seen as a sober person…

He Hate Me: Buzz is one of your typical liberal-media agnostics, but we understand how religious discussions can go awry. Buzz once tried to ask the head of a very well-known Catholic girl’s school what it would take to get Buzz’s daughter admitted. “Is she Catholic?” was the response. Buzz,…