Ski Mt. Dumb-ass

A couple of days ago, Colorado talk-radio host Peter Boyles (loved him in Young Frankenstein) discussed a June 12 Dallas Morning News article headlined, “Parkland will treat all moms-to-be.” Well, Colorado Media Matters, a state-based project of the nonprofit “progressive” group Media Matters for America, reports on its Web site…

Radio Uh-Oh

Yes, I know. Thanks for the calls and e-mails, really. KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket) is not on the air right now–at least, not on the AM side. Its FM counterpart at 104.1 is up and running, but the guys back at the station have no idea what’s up at present…

Malas Noticias

We mentioned it last month, and the Los Angeles Times repeats it once more today: If you get your local news from Telemundo, well, chances are it ain’t really local. Nope–it’ll come straight outta Fort Worth. That’s because NBC Universal, Telemundo’s parent company, is cutting $750 million from its budget,…

Cuban: Newspapers Do “Dumb-Ass Shit”

Not that Mavs owner Mark Cuban is criticizing our fair medium; it’s just that “newspapers don’t see their own value,” which is a point well taken. So that doesn’t stop Cuban from touting The Dallas Morning News in the latest issue of Esquire, in which Cuban shares “What I’ve Learned”…

Hindsight is 20/20

Judge Keith Dean, who gave a pot-smoker life and let a murderer walk, was voted off the bench Tuesday. 20/20 is kinda taking the credit for that one. Dunno if you saw this last week, but during 20/20’s special report on “Privilege in America” last week, it included a piece…

Look Out, Belo. Your Redesign Sucks.

It’s easy to pick on The Dallas Morning News–and, ya know, it’s kind of our job. Has been ever since BeloWatch way back in the late, oh, 1960s, was it? I had no intention of logging in early this a.m. and taking potshots at its new Web site. Who are…

Ankarlo Off a KLIF

Darrell Ankarlo’s leaving Dallas. It’s OK to cry. Let it out. Got some good news for local League of United Latin American Citizens president Jesse Diaz (and the rest of the human race) this morning: Darrell Ankarlo, morning-show host on KLIF-AM (570), is leaving our fair town for Phoenix. So…

Typo Our Ass

I had no idea till I saw FrontBurner just now–and big ups to our pal Aaron McGill for the link–that Richie Whitt’s “two shits” made Gawker yesterday (not to mention AdRants and a host of other sites). Apparently, some folks think Richie made a typo; ah, not so much. More…

We’d Rather Watch

There’s finally a start date set for Dan Rather Presents on Mark Cuban’s HDNet: November 14. And Rather talks about the show, his first since being unceremoniously canned from CBS News in June, in today’s New York Daily News. (What he doesn’t talk about is how Katie Couric’s taking the…

Belo Suits: They Fit Like They’re Handmade!

Rhett Bomar, The Dallas Morning News has some more questions for ya, if you don’t mind. OU does, apparently. I saw last night on KTVT-Channel 11 that some 18 former Dallas Morning News staffers have filed suit against their old boss, claiming age discrimination. The fine folks at FrontBurner have…

Everyone’s a Winner

They gave away the Lone Star Emmys Saturday night in Houston, and in case you missed the results, KDFW-Channel 4 is, like, the best station ever. Or something. The local Fox affiliate picked up the night’s top honor, Overall Station Excellence, which was presented to General Manager Kathy Saunders; KDFW…

Deal or No Deal for Channels 5 and 39?

This is the man who saved NBC, and he will likely be the very man to kill it altogether. NBC Universal Television Group CEO Jeff Zucker announced yesterday his network’s cutting $750 million from the budget by 2008, and it’ll get there by canning some 700 employees not only at…

Fake News is a Real Pain

On October 9 we reported that the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Division has sent Letters of Inquiry to all 77 stations mentioned in the Center for Media and Democracy’s study, Fake TV News, concerning TV stations whose newscasts have used video news releases without identifying them as, well, press releases…

Stay Classy, San Diego

Dunno if you’ve heard the story about Watauga Department of Public Safety officer Jason Reddick: He was fired in May “for having racial innuendos and sexual content on his MySpace Web page,” says the Fort Worth-Star Telegram, and reinstated on Tuesday due to a procedural error in his dismissal letter…

More Moronic Morons

Maybe it’s like a family feud; after all, Mark Cuban is part of the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. Seems, though, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks was a little peeved with the magazine’s trying to compare the sale of his Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in…

Dear Fellow Employee…

Belo Corp. chairman, president and chief executive officer Robert W. Decherd sent the troops a “Dear Fellow Employees” letter today in which he said, more or less, Hey, baby, everything’s gonna be fine–trust me, baby. More or less. Not really in those terms. You get the idea. Decherd, who was…

Everybody’s Narcing on The News

People are not happy with The Dallas Morning News this morning; don’t look at me, mine’s just a little soggy. Let’s start close to home, with Sharon Boyd’s Dallas Arena, where it’s The Dallas Managed News getting Boyd worked up this a.m. Turns out she’s discovered that Ronda Gibbons, the…

So Not the Real Terrell Owens

Yeah, so maybe that’s the fake Owen Wilson below; I’m too high right now to care, anyway. But this is most definitely the fake Terrell Owens. Still, you can kinda imagine T.O. saying what “he” “tells” The Onion in the piece headlined “Terrell Owens Blames Poor Game On Drew Bledsoe,…

Could It Be That Owen Wilson?

Look, anyone can say they’re Owen Wilson. I’m Owen Wilson. See, it’s that easy. So there’s no way of verifying that the poster to The New York Times’ comments section concerning a story about states letting felons vote is, ya know, Owen Wilson. Or that Owen Wilson. But let’s say…

Sleuthing About Shareslueth

Los Angeles CityBeat, which is staffed and edited by a few old colleagues of mine from New Times Los Angeles during my very brief stay in L.A., has an interview with Mark Cuban concerning, among other things, his controversial investigative Web site Sharesleuth. Chiefly, Joe Piasecki wants to know why…

Dena and Andrea: LYLAS!

According to Dallas’ Only Daily, Andrea Yates, pictured here, and Dena Schlosser are BFF! Like, OMG. No, really. They killed their kids because God needed them to. What they said, anyway. Yesterday, The Dallas Morning News offered the front-page story about how Andrea Yates and Dena Schlosser, who’re killin’ time…

And Now, The Fake News

In May, our former colleague Rick Kennedy wrote about the Center for Media and Democracy’s report Fake TV News, in which the group blasted television networks and their affiliates for passing off paid-for news as The Real Thing–including, in one instance in February, our very own WFAA-Channel 8. Wrote Rick…