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great moments in journalism

San Francisco's most clever newspaper loses its marbles

Philip Anschutz's reimagined Examiner newspapers are like Melissa Gira Grant's escort friends: The status-conscious feign ignorance and contempt, then pick one up when no one's looking. Anschutz is a billionaire Republican and a devout Christian, but up until now he's proven more interested in making money in a post-Craigslist local ad market than in trying to save San Francisco from pot-smoking gay abortionists. That's why today's cover, which endorses the GOP's John McCain and Sarah Palin ticket the day after McCain's "huh-what?" suspension of his campaign, seems to be a classic case of election emotions spun out of control. It's like Hollywood celebs who vow to leave the country — except with consequences. More »

9:00 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Paul Boutin
320 views, 6 comments

Latest by epicentric: Hard to put down, my foot. The front page is the most readable part of the Examiner. And I only more »

Robert Scoble

How to build your brand as an Internet addict

"The more you participate the more people will subscribe to you ... or like you," promises Fast Company teleblogger Robert Scoble, whose answer to "How do I build my brand?" starts 20 seconds into this one-minute clip. My 15-word version: If you spend all your time on FriendFeed, you'll be a big deal. On FriendFeed.

7:00 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Paul Boutin
155 views, 7 comments

Latest by valleymonger: he mentions "posting seesmic videos"!!! more »

Culture of Complaint The Facebook generation's pointless protests
The "I Hate The New Facebook" group is up to 1.4 million members. Facebook plans to make its redesign permanent next week anyway. That rebuff won't hamper Facebook's popularity, or discourage the creation of new groups motivated by the urge to whine. Starting a group on Facebook is the millennial generation's preferred act of protest, but not because the students who create them hope to change anything. They are popular because, since preschool, my fellow millennials and I — very special snowflakes, all of us — have been told that it's not if you win or lose, or even how you play the game. It's that you participate. More »

5:00 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
3,179 views, 14 comments

Latest by bonniegrrl: Haters hating on haters? Gee, how ironic. more »

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4:53 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008

Commenter Of The Day

ghunda

In Facebook's struggles to build the worlds largest and most thorough database for marketers and advertisers, the site can be more than a little uptight when it comes to users with less-than-common names like "Elmo Keep." But is the policy, which reminds me of Germany's law that requires parents to clear the names of new children with the state, more sinister than just poorly paid customer service drones with ban-happy habits? That's ghunda's theory: More »

4:40 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Jackson West
117 views, Comment

China hits publish too soon on spacewalk launch story The Shenzhou 7 mission will feature China's first spacewalk, so it's kind of a big deal. That's why reporters are snickering over state news agency Xinhua's accidental posting of a report that vividly describes the rocket in flight, complete with quotes from the three astronauts inside — "air pressure in the cabin is normal." The article, dated this coming Saturday, was live on Xinhua's website for several hours prior to the launch. (Photo by Reuters/Li Gang)

2 comments

Caption Contest

Valley carpenters union protest at Apple stores

What's a San Francisco ultra-liberal to do when their favorite computer company is being taken to task for subcontracting non-union carpenters? Seems Carpenters Local 405 is accusing Apple construction contractor South Bay Construction of hiring scabs. As SFist points out, this photo was naturally taken with an iPhone. Leave a better caption in the comments and we'll pick one as the new headline. Yesterday "A+A+A+. EXCELLENT SCRATCHER. GREAT COMMUNICATION. WOULD DO BUSINESS WITH AGAIN." by null took home the prize. (Photo by David Lytle)

4:00 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Jackson West
218 views, 10 comments

Latest by ld50: perhaps they found an equally qualified non-union contractor to do the work for them? more »

meltdowns

Americans more interested in "cupcakes" than "financial crisis"

Want to know why newspapers are dying? Because they've been running boring cover stories about that confusing economic meltdown on Wall Street instead of what Americans really care about — stuff like wizards, cupcakes and sex toys. Bristol Palin headlines can stay above the fold, though. Online searchers love them some pregnant teenagers with high school-dropout baby daddies. [Mother Jones]

3:40 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Jackson West
419 views, 1 comment

Latest by cv: The reason why newspapers are dying is because you can read those same boring cover stories about economic meltdown for more »

Spam alert If you receive an email from the Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America, with the subject line "Your Urgent Help Needed," please be informed that it is not actually from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. [Angry Bear] (Photo by AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

1 comment

Want to buy music from Amazon.com on MySpace? Not so fast Most MySpace Music customers won't go searching for the obscure stuff. The big money is in pop hits. The industry's top 10 singles are all available to preview on MySpace Music — and they're all on Amazon.com's MP3 store as well. But that doesn't mean it's one-click easy to buy the music via MySpace. Trying to purchase downloads of 6 of the 10 directly from MySpace's new music widget failed. And those that worked required plenty of clicks and drop-down menus. [Idolator]

1 comment

online advertising

Google to provide TV ads to Bloomberg

"Bloomberg TV is largely an afterthought in a lucrative genre dominated by CNBC," wrote one journalist a year ago. But Bloomberg is trying to build up its business TV coverage, in part by letting Google handle the ad inventory. PaidContent summed up the deal announced this morning: "Google TV Ads primarily works with EchoStar and a much smaller, local California cable company, to serve the ads. That only gives Google access to the satellite TV company's 14 million households out of a roughly 65 million basic cable subscribers. Given the hunger for economic news due to the volatile financial markets, the Bloomberg deal could hardly have come at a better time." Here's the full press release, with "BLOOMBERG TELEVISION" left in screaming caps: More »

2:20 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Paul Boutin
121 views, Comment

Confonz

Oracle's OpenWorld conference closes with Treasure Island party

Please welcome back ConFonz, the man who goes to technology trade conferences so Valleywag doesn't have to. The Conference Fonzerelli, a veteran of many OpenWorld conferences, thinks Oracle has pumped up its image this year. The show is much more huggy-touchy-feely-bloggery. Despite the fact that most Oracle employees of use are hiding under rocks. Quite a change from the days when Oracle at your door meant you were either out of a job, out of memory, or simply out of your mind. If anyone in the technology industry is wondering how to run a conference, this is the one to emulate. Oracle OpenWorld pulls 45,000 people, and twice as many service workers to support it. That's why Howard Street is closed and why you can't get a good picnic spot in Yerba Buena Park. More »

2:20 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By confonz
342 views, 3 comments

Latest by cv: This isn't Jezebel. That bag is ugly. And this post sucks. Like all Confonz posts. But that's just me... more »

Twitter is DOWN i hate it here

Timeline of a Twitter outage

TWITTER IS DOWN NOW IT'S NOT OH MY GOD. A nightmare in screenshots! More »
Owen Byrne

Former Digg programmer ready for his book deal ... hello? Hello?

"Anyone out there who would like to talk about a book contract, I think I have some compelling material, given the right deal," trolls Owen Byrne, who left Digg for the presumably more stable workplace at TravelPod, a travel-blogging site launched in 1997 and now part of the Expedia network of sites. Book agents, Byrne's full pitch after the jump. No fighting! More »

1:40 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Paul Boutin
898 views, 6 comments

Latest by wchan_sea_wat: Luckily Owen doesn't work at Google. more »

Great Moments In Pr

McCain campaign site still promises debate

Were John McCain's web team pulled away from their desks yesterday to throw their shoulders into the Wall Street bailout? The Popeye-like Senator's site still promises a debate with Barack Obama on Friday, and several more next week. I haven't been this stumped by a candidate's behavior since Ross Perot flipped out in October 1992.

1:20 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Paul Boutin
234 views, 1 comment

Latest by colonelpanic: This is an epic scam designed to de-Palinify the campaign and prevent a Vice Presidential debate. You just watch, more »

UC Irvine prof gets $100,000 to study World of Warcraft The National Science Foundation has given informatics prof Bonnie Nardi $100,000 to study why Americans go crazy modding World of Warcraft, while Chinese players don't. Nardi has some preliminary thoughts on the difference:

4 comments

New MacBook Pro photo, maybe -- it's French! Some French blog, now offline, briefly featured a photo of what may be the new aluminum MacBook Pro. It appears to be a laptop. Here's a screenshot of the now-disappeared blog post:

9 comments

Road Warrior

Schwarzenegger bans texting while driving

A new law effective January 1st slaps a $20 fine on the first offense of reading, typing or sending text messages from behind the wheel. Repeat violators will get a $50 fine. The governor's quote: "Banning electronic text messaging while driving will keep drivers' hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, making our roadways a safer place for all Californians." I know, it's not as good as "Get out." No word if the law covers light rail conductors. (Photo by Señor Codo)

12:20 PM on Thu Sep 25 2008
By Paul Boutin
219 views, 2 comments

Latest by Goose Spruce: Its just the matter of time before it become law in every state. The problem will be enforcing it. more »

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