How Tim Rogers Ruined My Day

As Observer editor Mark Donald, fellow staff writer Megan Feldman and I exited our car and headed to the elevators in the parking garage at the Belo Mansion yesterday afternoon, we bumped into staffers from D Magazine. It was my first opportunity to meet Adam McGill and Zac Crain, and…

Poynter Makes “A Case for Airing Fatal Police Dashboard Video”

Courtesy the Dallas Police Department I see Sam’s Friday-afternoon breakdown of the local network affiliates’ decision to air Dallas police dashboard-cam footage is the subject of an ethics posting on The Poyner Institute’s site today. There, Kelly McBride hails Mr. Merten’s dissection of the issue — which was, should Channels…

Texas Ain’t No Toss-Up, Says NBC Producer Following Mix-Up

From Sunday’s Meet the Press, the battlegrounds? This morning, CNN’s Roland Martin takes a look at Dallas County and, sorta-kinda Harris County, and comes up with this conclusion: “Democrats may soon make Texas a competitive two-party state.” Martin’s analysis, I think it’s called, comes a mere three days after the…

Dallas Morning News Has a Smaller, But Better Audience Now

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released its latest Monday-through-Friday circ stats this morning, and The Dallas Morning News, like most of the Top 25 dailies in the country, reported a substantial drop from the same period in 2007 — nearly 10 percent, to 338,933 copies daily. But, far as A.H…

Texas Democrats Will Clean Up. Or Get Their Asses Handed to Them.

Texas A&M University Press Jon Stewart put it quite perfectly Wednesday night, when he was speaking of political pundits whose anonymous mugs have filled every last inch of TV-screen real estate in these weeks leading up to some kind of election we’re having. (Dunno, haven’t really been following it.) Said…

Dreher on News‘ “Black Friday”

On Beliefnet, Rod Dreher shines some light on the darkness spreading through 508 Young St. today: “Just came into work to find that the long-announced layoffs have commenced. A dear friend and colleague whose husband works here just learned moments ago that he got the axe. Names are rolling in,…

At This Very Moment, The News Is Laying Off Newsroom Staffers

A Friend of Unfair Park directs our attention to the News Buyout 2008 blog, where, breaking news, Dallas’ Only Daily has begun laying off employees: “Newsroom staff members from across the building have been called into meetings and notified that they are being cut.” This follows Robert Decherd’s wage-freeze announcement…

KRLD Wants to Give Me $1,000!

Ernie and Jay are very, very generous — at least, in theory. Says so in a missive I received in the mail moments ago from 1080 on your AM dial: “Just to confirm …You’re now officially entered to win with NewsRadio 1080 KRLD AM. We’re giving away cold hard cash…

“Take This For What It’s Worth.”

Following “a long, bleak lunch today” — lucky! — the Dallas Morning News’ Crunchy Con hisself just posted to Beliefnet a piece bearing the headline “The mood among Dallas Republicans.” Which is? Aw, c’mon, read it for yourself, then add to the growing list of comments — among them one…

The Hardline One Year Later: Yay or Nay?

Better than the original? Last Sunday marked the 1-year anniversary of Greg Williams’ departure from The Ticket. On Oct. 12, 2007 – as most of you well know – Williams walked away from a Hardline remote and into a 9-month tailspin that I began chronicling with this and this and…

The Cowboys May Opt Out of their Contract with The Ticket

Come next season this ol’ thing may be out of the moth balls. Let’s play radio gossip catch-up today, shall we? I’m not raising the “Breaking News!” banner. Not directly quoting high-placed sources. But after sensing displeasure and hearing rumblings from various people in the past couple weeks, let’s call…

Greg Williams Muzzled by ESPN Radio’s Hardball

Ssh! Can you hear Greggo? Me neither. First off, congrats to ESPN Radio for being nominated for a 2008 Marconi Award. Last month in Austin it was honored by the National Association of Broadcasters as one of five finalists for Sports Station of the Year. (Curiously, The Ticket won the…

Bingo Gossip, or: Why Your Nana Is the Future of Journalism

In case you missed it this a.m., David Flick had a piece in The News about Bingo Gossip and Missy Mouser, the 26-year-old one-woman show running the pub that caters to the 80-and-up crowd for whom the phrase “ball lifter” refers to “the mechanism used to raise the ball from…

Shale.tv Shelved

So much for Shale.tv, which was to be the online “news” outlet for Chesapeake Energy starring, as you’ll no doubt recall, Tracy Rowlett, who left KTVT-Channel 11 for the venture. Notes the Fort Worth Business Press this afternoon: “Jerri Robbins, public relations manager, said the move comes in response the…

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged GOP

Hate to follow any news story, especially one from a pub I used to work for, but sometimes it can’t be helped. Especially when someone like brother reporter John Council looks toward the sky and notices it’s falling on the Dallas County Republican Party. In this week’s Texas Lawyer, Council…

Disappearing Ink, or: Celebrating the Work of Editorial Cartoonists

Dan Foote, formerly of the Dallas Times Herald Baylor University’s W. R. Poage Legislative Library is “celebrating the art of editorial cartooning” with the exhibition “Drawing Power: Original Editorial Cartoons,” which features such familiar locals as Bill DeOre, ex of The Dallas Morning News, and Dan Foote, with whom Schutze…