November 20th, 2008 by
Nick Wallace, Assistant Opinion Editor
Ted Stevens, as the ballots were finally tallied on his 85th birthday, failed to become the first convicted felon elected to the United States Senate. Happy Birthday, (ex-)Senator!
And now that Stevens is headed back to Alaska (or the big house?) a la Sarah Palin, Democrats are only two seats away from gaining the 60 they would need to break Republican filibusters. Whether or not this would constitute a healthy distribution of power is unclear, but certainly would be a dramatic change in Washington.
While I personally think Al Franken would make a great Senator, the idea of unlimited Democratic power certainly leads us to wonder whether or not his election (as well as the Georgia senator’s) would be the best thing for the nation. Actually having to run the government for two years could be the fastest ticket out of power for Democrats. Just look what happened to Republicans in 2006 and 2008.
Still, I don’t think we can buy into Norm Coleman’s assertion that his seat is “too important” for a recount.
Refusing to count votes in the interest of the American people is even scarier than giving Democrats a get-out-of jail free pass. History teaches us that the implications of democracy may be a scary one-party reign, but that’s certainly preferable to the no-party reign Coleman has been touting.
Sometimes it’s pretty easy to see why print journalism is so behind most other mainstream media outlets.
It seems that a major portion of its problems stem from its unwillingness to change its approach or accept anything new. In various situations, it’s probably a good thing that print journalists stick to their guns, but the following situation demonstrates how insane print journalists can be.
The Pop Culture Register
Cory Barker is a junior majoring in journalism and business.
Major newspapers around the country announced this week that they’re adopting a “crazy” new idea on their Web sites called “links.”
I’m sure not many of you are familiar with this World Wide Web process known as linking, but let me explain it to you quickly: Major papers like The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post now allow stories on their sites to have a little section where if you click on it, you’ll be transported to an outside media outlet that provides supplemental content.
Cory Barker is a junior majoring in journalism and business.
As most know, it’s for the best that John McCain and Sarah Palin don’t win this election.
Non-Republicans justify that statement with rhetoric about the need to avoid “four more years,” and they are probably right. However, sometimes people forget to consider the effects of a candidate’s success on the entertainment industry.
Now, it’s absolutely apparent that there are bigger issues to deal with if McCain and Palin make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and that the entertainment industry’s reaction to these two is fairly insignificant.
But to those of us who want good television, McCain and Palin – mostly the Alaskan governor – cannot win.
And that’s because we cannot have Tina Fey spending all this time perfecting her Palin routine on “Saturday Night Live” for four years.
Cory Barker is a junior majoring in journalism and business.
It’s not too often that five minutes into an award show the audience can already tell how ridiculously awful the entire long, drawn-out process is going to be.
But unfortunately, this year’s Primetime Emmys proved that there’s a first time for everything. Even for those people who enjoy television and all its award-show glory like myself, the 2008 Emmys were as disappointing as possible.
Aside from a few of the actual winners, every facet of the show seemed off, and that’s probably why the ceremony saw a 6 percent decrease in viewers from last year’s telecast. People didn’t even stick around for the important awards at the end, it was so awful.
Cory Barker is a junior majoring in journalism and business.
“Entertainment.”
“Oh, so you mean like celebrities, Britney Spears and Hollywood stuff?”
That’s basically the gist of many conversations I’ve had throughout the past year since I began writing as a columnist here at the
Indiana Daily Student. It really takes too much time for me to explain to people that when I say I cover “entertainment” stories, I don’t mean celebrities.
And thus, my problem.
So-called “entertainment” shows, magazines, blogs and Web sites have soiled entertainment journalism for the rest of us.
FOX recently announced that they would run less commercials – up to a 50 percent decrease – on their two newest and brightest shows, “Fringe” and “Dollhouse,” a move that has been widely accepted by viewers.
Now it seems that Fox, which has just simply jacked up the ad rates they had remaining, has made a killing. They are reporting that they’ve received 30 to 40 percent higher rates on those remaining spots. Seems like smart business all the way around. Not only will fans flock to these shows more due to the smaller number of ads, but FOX is ending up ahead anyway.
It’s a very surprising day that FOX actually does something right. They’re on a roll lately. This announcement plus the fact that they dominated in viewership this season. Now if only they got rid of “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader”.
The above image was taken in Monterrey, Mexico where a vehicle plowed into a bike race, killing one individual and injuring 10 more. Apparently the driver was either drunk, asleep at the wheel, or both. Maybe he just got tired of cyclists thinking they own the road.
This is literally one of the craziest pictures I’ve ever seen in my entire life. People are thrown every which way, just awful. I’d be counting my blessings if I was the dude on the far left that JUST missed what happened.
Here’s a long shot view, just in case the carnage didn’t look that bad close up.
About two hours ago, AP ran a story through that says Hillary Clinton will concede tonight after the final two primaries. From the report:
The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.
Most campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.
The advisers said Clinton has made a strategic decision to not formally end her campaign, giving her leverage to negotiate with Obama on various matters including a possible vice presidential nomination for her. She also wants to press him on issues he should focus on in the fall, such as health care.
Universal health care, Clinton’s signature issue as first lady in the 1990s, was a point of dispute between Obama and the New York senator during their epic nomination fight.
Barker is a sophomore majoring in journalism and business.
The Writers Guild of America strike is still screwing up our lives, even though it’s been over for two months and our favorite shows are almost all back. The strike might have cut “Lost” fans the deepest.
Our favorite time-bending island mystery only planned on having 16 episodes this season anyway, but the strike cut that number to an even smaller 13. As “Lost” fans know, less is never more, even if executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse promised the story would just be more accelerated. Much worse, the show was scheduled to only receive a one-hour finale. One-hour finales aren’t something “Lost” does.
Thankfully, ABC has stepped in to solve some of these woes and to prove yet again why it’s the best major network, regardless of ratings or revenue. “Lost” has been given an extra episode so the season finale can be just as it should – two hours (or three, if you count the episode before, which is reportedly strongly connected).
Barker is a sophomore majoring in journalism and business.
When the WB and UPN combined to create the CW network just two years ago, I was optimistic. While dissolving of the WB — mostly owned by Time Warner — and UPN — owned by The CBS Corporation — was a disappointment because the two did offer above-average programming most of the time, merging seemed genius because the CW would have the best of both worlds on its airwaves.
Yet less than two years into the CW’s broadcast history, the network has not improved itself one iota, and in fact, is probably in a worse place now than either the WB or UPN were before the merger. And although there are a few factors the CW can’t control, most of their own missteps have led them here.
November 20th, 2008 by 
Nick Wallace, Assistant Opinion Editor
