Weekend Wrap
Today's traffic stats show you're not too interested in reading about the misfortunes of the Philadelphia Eagles - this isn't uncommon after losing a game or a franchise quarterback. But how about reading of the misfortunes of another team? This isn't exactly news - it broke back in June, 2005, when someone leaked a copy of a VHS tape to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Now it's made PC World's 13 most embarrassing Web moments, and it's the sort of disaster you want to slow down and rubberneck.
The San Francisco 49ers public relations director made a little video primer on what not to do when being covered by the media. It's a little wrong -- the naked blonde in the shower, the racist caricature of an Asian pedestrian in Chinatown, the treatment of homeless, prison life, let me count the ways. It helped make Kirk Reynolds the ex-media director. But the guy was trying.
The list may not be the ultimate collection of Web Gone Wrong, but there are some moments -- CNN's Dick Cheney obit, Steve Ballmer's monkey dance, Howard Dean's howl, the BBC and the wrong Guy....
*
From The Sports Guy's recent mailbag on ESPN.com:
Q: So, one day last week I see Sixers GM Billy King in a restaurant in Philly. I started thinking "Does he deal with ordering food the same way he signs NBA players?" If he ordered the steak, if it's an OK steak but nothing fantastic, does he offer to pay double or triple the market value for it? Maybe there could be a show where Billy King negotiates car prices for people who stand by dumbfounded as he offers $27,000 for a 1987 Toyota Camry with 167,000 miles.
-- Adam, Philadelphia
SG: I had a sarcastic follow-up joke here ... then I remembered that my favorite baseball team just spent $51.1 million for the right to negotiate a free agent contract for a Japanese pitcher who's represented by Scott Boras. I'll shut up now.
*
Glenn Greenwald translates Vice President Dick Cheney's speech to the Federalist Society.
*
Little Green Footballs on the Dutch proposal to ban the burka.
*
What's up with the O.J. boycott. Foxy Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera pile on.
*
New York Times travel section celebrates the Sixth Borough art scene, saying of Philadelphia: "You're just as likely to see the work of a local artist in a grass-roots collective as in a clothing boutique, a nonprofit space or a historic 18th-century house. And in those spaces, you're likely to see every major player, especially on First Fridays, when galleries stay open late, turning the whole city into an art-fueled cocktail party. Despite the homegrown atmosphere, the caliber of work is impressive. And competition is not really a factor. "You're allowed not to be interested in what someone does," Pym says. "But no one really sees the point of actively stomping on it and saying, 'This is rubbish."'
*
Shiny Shiny's Susie Weaser, 24, does one-minute tech reviews on YouTube. The BBC takes notice, and hires the gadget gal.
*
Know your rights, bloggers. A $50,000 grant from Knight Foundation will help CUNY steer citizen journalists through legal matters.