Death and Destruction at the Belo Mansion!

Last night’s thunderstorms had even my cat thinking the Rapture had come. Anxious to see what kind of damage the weather had done throughout the city, I checked my trusty Dallas Morning News this morning, where I learned that traffic is snarled, power is out and–horror of horrors–“Overnight storms knocked…

Can’t Spell “Below Expectations” Without Belo

Tomorrow morning, Belo Corp. will announce its first-quarter results, and at least one person on the street (OK, TheStreet.com) doesn’t think the news for News’ owner is gonna be good. How could it, asks Sandy Brown, when: “The owner of the Dallas Morning News and regional TV and newspaper assets…

Did I Miss Something?

With all the huzzahs being handed out over The Dallas Morning News’ breaking-new photography Pulitzer Prize–an award that’s utterly meaningless, says Slate–seems one local media outlet’s been given short shrift concerning its own recent kudos. A few weeks ago, the Radio-Television News Directors Association handed out the regional Edward R…

Good News Is No News

A local company is investing $50 million in a new plant in southern Dallas. Let’s see, how can we make that seem like a bad thing? Hmm… See, the trouble is that the company is Belo Corp., which announced the groundbreaking for the plant on Langdon Road in a press…

Zac, You Made It!

Hey, I never thought former Dallas Observer music editor Zac Crain’s mayoral bid was a joke (my wife, on the other hand…kidding). But now that I can read about it here, in the hallowed pages of Dallas’ Only Daily, well, now I will take it very, very, very seriously. Good…

RE: The Unfriendly Skies

Before moving to Dallas, I rarely flew on a major carrier. Southwest was much cheaper to fly home from Utah, as was JetBlue when I lived in New York. Now that I cannot fly on either (due to the Wright Amendment, I guess) I am forced to choose between United,…

Racing ‘Cross the Heath

The Fort Worth Startle Gram offers tips today on how to get to “Texas Moor Speedway.” Location for fast-moving North African Muslims or destination for thrill-crazy high-altitude British fields? You decide. –Andrea Grimes…

The DMN and Bill O’Reilly

Former Inside Edition anchor Bill O’Reilly, who apparently has gained some renown as the right-wing’s Jon Stewart, has a new favorite newspaper: your own Dallas Morning News. Actually, it’s hardly his fave; turns out, in Papa Bear’s estimation, Dallas’ Only Daily has turned so sharply to the left it’s not…

Behind the Music: Courtside

A few people fell for our Dirk Nowitzki April Fool’s prank, including Mike Rhyner and Greg Williams, hosts of “The Hardline” on KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket), but most people didn’t. The song did make its way around the Internet, though, which was good enough for us. One blogger called it…

So Nice They Aired it Twice

Last night, I was watching my fave late-night newscast, MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, during which the former ESPN’er twice aired the clip of WFAA-Channel 8 reporter Bert Lozano’s close encounter with a streaker on Sunday night. The first time Olbermann aired the clip–unedited, yech and hee-hee–was during his nightly…

Death Cab for Frat Guys

Is weepy the new douchebag? Friday night, Observer Night & Day co-editor Merritt Martin and I hauled out to the Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie for the Franz Ferdinand-Death Cab For Cutie show and were surprised to find ourselves in the company of a remarkably large population of frat guys…

Good News is Not Good News

Robert Decherd’s gotta be scratching his head. Yesterday, he got the good news that the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, was dismissing a shareholders’ suit against the owners of The Dallas Morning News over the company’s circulation scandal that turned into quite the mess in 2004. But for…

Howdy, Folks…in Reverse

Some folks have asked about the change in our Unfair Park blog banner–the chalk outline, the crime-scene tape. Well, yesterday we said goodbye to Big Tex, the original mascot of Unfair Park. We’d been told that we “can’t have Big Tex” because he’s a registered trademark, and the State Fair…

Those Damned Liberals

And so the conspiracy theories begin about just who was behind the immigration rallies that took place this week, not only in Dallas but across the country. Me, I tend to shy away from any Web site that employs Tammy Bruce as a columnist, but feel free to check it…

DMN: I Want Your Mommy

So it won’t seem like a big surprise when The Dallas Morning News debuts its new section geared toward busy mommies, here’s the premature announcement…oooh, perhaps that’s the wrong choice of words. No matter. Actually, the News is one of six newspapers (out of 18 that applied) dipping into the…

LaHaye Hey

Former Republican strategist-turned-Republican critic Kevin Phillips, now a bestselling author with such titles as American Dynasty (about the Bush family) and Wealth and Democracy, is at it again with his brand-new tome American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century. (Ah,…

Long Live the Queen

I’ll admit it. I watch Deal or No Deal like a fiend. I cheer, I yell, I jeer. (If this show is a complete mystery to you, go here for a rather cynical explanation by the Freakonomics freaks.) There are contestants I love totally and ones I loathe completely. On…

That’s News to The News

Amazing the stuff you find trolling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Web site when you’ve got nothing else to do. For instance, take this little item from Belo Corp.’s Form 10-K annual report, filed with the SEC just last week: “On January 5, 2006, Infinity Radio, Inc., a subsidiary…

Blowjob

Steve Blow apologizes for having an opinion. I’m sure it won’t happen again. –Matt Pulle…