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Archive: April, 2010

No blood in ants

POSTED: Thursday, April 22, 2010, 9:25 AM

The state of journalism in Philadelphia. (h/t Romenesko)

Will Bunch @ 9:25 AM Permalink | 38 comments

Arlen Specter and the Single Gun Show Theory

POSTED: Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 3:36 PM

I was wondering when or even if the Democratic U.S. Senate primary between the incumbent party-switcher Sen. Arlen Specter and Delco U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak would ever heat up -- both sides are finally running ads, and the conventional wisdon is that Specter, who not long ago was a pro-Bush, pro-Santorum Republican, had skated far enough to the left on most issues like health care to at least beat back the rationale for Sestak's challenge. Maybe so, but there is still room on Specter's left.

Specifically, you can't consider yourself much of a progressive if you're still opposing closing the loophole that allows for purchases without background checks at gun shows, as Specter has done in his Republican past. Some 168 mayors from Pennsylvania are today begging Specter and his fellow anti-gun-control Democrat Sen. Bob Casey to change their minds on this issue, and this seems like one of those cases where good politics would actually be good policy.

Will Bunch @ 3:36 PM Permalink | 101 comments

Arizona becoming the first state to secede from the Union

POSTED: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 9:38 PM

Two years before Arizona celebrates its centennial as the last of the 48 contiguous United States, I'm beginning to wonder if they can truly make it until 2012. If Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signs into law the harsh anti-immigration law recently passed by state lawmakers -- making racial profiling the law of the law in a manner in which the term "police state" is not hyberbole -- then the desert paradise will all but have seceded from the Union. Not legally -- not yet, anyway, although in a few years who knows? -- but morally.

Here's the proposed law:

Will Bunch @ 9:38 PM Permalink | 80 comments

Ed Snider's newest right-winger

POSTED: Monday, April 19, 2010, 9:32 PM

Tomorrow's news today:

Flyers’ owner Ed Snider has just picked up another right-winger.This one won’t help Philadelphia finally win another Stanley Cup, though.

The local sports mogul and long-time backer of conservative causes says he’s a major investor in a new cable TV network that may have an even more difficult task than bringing hockey’s crown back to Philly, and that is toppling the right-wing ratings champ, the Fox News Channel.

The Snider-funded RightNetwork — with a looser approach to conservative topics, including a comedy show and a jocular frontman in sit-com star Kelsey Grammer — is hoping to come to your cable box as early as this summer.

Snider — whose investment in RightNetwork is personal and not linked to his role as chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, which already owns the locally popular Comcast Sportsnet on cable as well as the Flyers, 76ers and the Wachovia Center — was not available for an interview.

But he had earlier posted a statement about RightNetwork.

“We’re creating a welcome place for millions and millions of Americans who’ve been looking for an entertainment network and media channel that reflects their point-of-view. RightNetwork will be the perfect platform to entertain, inform and Connect with the American majority about what’s right in the world.”

Snider, 77, a longtime backer of programs related to the iconic libertarian philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand, has been more public in his support of conservative causes in recent years. He was a major donor to a now-defunct group called Freedom’s Watch that supported the terrorism and Middle East policies of then-President George W. Bush, and his decision to invite then-GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin to drop the puck at the Flyers’ 2008 home opener drew a mix of cheers and boos.

Now, in entering the crowded and competitive world of politics on cable TV, Snider and his partners in the RightNetwork may have taken on a tougher mission than getting the 76ers back to the playoffs.

Ed Arke, who chairs the communications department as Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., said it will be difficult to convince conservatives to change the channel away from Fox News and its star line-up of Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity. “Fox in particular, is a very personality driven network,” Arke said. “They recruited star-power when they initially went on the air and had the benefit of having a stable of recognizable talent as they were building audience. 24/7 cable news can't survive on the promise something big is going to happen.”

Like any cable start-up, the prospect of success for a venture like RightNetwork depends to some extent on the quality of shows but also its ability to get the nation’s cable and satillite providers to carry it in a good spot on the dial.

As for programming, the proposed line-up on RightNetwork — as posted for a preview on its website, rightnetwork.com — is slanted more toward what could be called “conservative entertainment” and away from the newsier approach of Fox.

There is, for example, a right-leaning comedy show, “Evan Sayet’s Right 2 Laugh,” with standup comics making jokes about President Barack Obama’s teleprompter and buying an Obama coin “because any collector will tell you a coin is worth a lot more when there’s an obvious mistake on it.” There’s also a reality show called “Running” about six novice conservative candidates, and “Politics and Poker” with bombastic new-media star Andrew Breitbart.

The previews are introduced by “Cheers” and “Frasier” star Grammer, one of Hollywood’s best-known conservatives, who hails the network as “all that’s right in the world.”

There was considerable discussion yesterday — fueled by some confusion in initial news reports -- over whether Snider and the network would receive backing from another Philadelphia institution — Comcast Corp., which is currently seeking approval for its majority stake in NBC-Universal. Comcast Corp. issued a statement late yesterday that it is not an investor in RightNetwork and that it is evaluating the content of the new channel for possible addition to its channel lineup, as it would with any other start-up cable network.

Will Bunch @ 9:32 PM Permalink | 74 comments

56,000!

POSTED: Monday, April 19, 2010, 7:10 PM

That's the seating capacity of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

It's also the number of pictures that Lower Merion school district officials took serreptiously with the webcams on those school laptops.

Will Bunch @ 7:10 PM Permalink | 5 comments

Paranoia, the destroyer

POSTED: Sunday, April 18, 2010, 6:56 PM

Here's kind of a weird update on something I wrote about two weeks ago, on tomorrow's 2nd Amendment March in D.C., including an open-carry event in which a lot of guys with guns -- including the militia guy who called for people to smash the windows of Democratic offices after health care legislation passed -- were planning an event at Fort Hunt, across the Potomac from D.C. (There's also a presumably gun-free rally in Washington.) I noted that the fast-growing Oath Keepers -- current and ex-military and cops who say their oath is to the Constitution and not to the politicians giving the orders -- had issued an urgent call for their thousands of followers to attend, and so this would be a test of their strength.

Except they sort of weirded out. First they backed out of the Fort Hunt event, in a posting that implied it was because of the association with the vandalism inciter, ex-militia leader Mike Vanderboegh of Alabama (although his name is not mentioned.) That was updated today with this bizarre explanation of the withdrawal, which involves a mysterious government plot against the Oath Keepers:

Will Bunch @ 6:56 PM Permalink | 89 comments

Bedroom community? For who? For what?

POSTED: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 9:03 PM

There's a new report out today about the state of Center City (h/t Atrios) and here's what I don't get:

-- Philadelphia is becoming more of a bedroom community, and more dependent on college, hospital, nonprofit and tourism jobs.

Will Bunch @ 9:03 PM Permalink | 91 comments

Crossing Jordan

POSTED: Thursday, April 15, 2010, 9:22 AM

So I guess whoever had 11 hours in the "how long after the end of the season will the 76ers fire Eddie Jordan" poll is victorious. Huzzah. Why the man who insanely brought the hapless Jordan here in the first place -- and who squandered the Sixers' one-and-only chance to get an impact player on the likeable-but-washed-up Elton Brand -- is still employed is a complete mystery.

What can the 76ers do? Clearly, they should look into moving Brand, Iguodala, and Dalembert; of those, only Iguodala probably has a chance of going anywhere. Of the "young nucleus," only Jrue Holiday looks like a guaranteed NBA star, which is one small step -- it's still too early to know about Marresse Speights, Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams but none of them seemed to be moving in the right direction in the short-lived Age of Jordan. Is there hope for this team? Not really. The thing that's most lamentable about the NBA these days is that teams become championship caliber not based upon their grit but by being in the right place at exactly the right time -- ask the Cleveland Cavaliers how that works. I love sports but I can't stand gambling -- but that's what the NBA is these days, one big lottery.

Will Bunch @ 9:22 AM Permalink | 37 comments

The massive NYT suck-up to the Tea Party

POSTED: Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 4:03 PM

Hey, remember back in late 2002 and early 2003, when tens of thousands of people showed up for several rallies to protest the looming war in Iraq -- suggesting that maybe a pre-emptive war under false pretenses wasn't the best use of American dollars and lives -- and when the American news media was falling all over itself to get the Iraq war protesters to tell their stories, and what their movement in opposition to the president of the United States was all about?

Yeah...me neither.

Will Bunch @ 4:03 PM Permalink | 194 comments

Obama versus the Moon men

POSTED: Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 11:18 AM

Can you imagine the outcry -- from the Tea Parties, your typical Republican congressman, and your favorite Fox media personality -- if President Obama came out an announced a multi-billion dollar taxpayer-funded initiative which would involve thousands of government-created jobs and a vague promise that it would spur economic activity elsewhere. It would be branded as socialism at best, or at the worst another example of Obama's Marxist tendencies.

At least it would if Obama were creating "green jobs." Or promising a big investment in high-speed rail.

Will Bunch @ 11:18 AM Permalink | 47 comments

Kochs, coke and an American dystopia in Detroit
And then they came for Fox News
Memorial Day 2013: Remember the fallen, bring home the living
Obama, drones and U.S. citizens: Don't feel bad...cuz 1 out of 4 ain't bad
Watch what Obama does, not what he says
Bienvenida to journalism, Gov. Corbett!
Teacher, teacher
And your bird can flip
The day the Obama administration went Nixon on us
UPDATED: Mayor Dread

About this blog

Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.

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