I liked it better with profanity.

What billy said, and besides — I get so few gratuities in life.

If anyone ever waxes rhapsodic at you about how wholly pure, innocent, simple, and good the 50’s were (or conversely – sterile, stifling, conformist, and miserable) hand them a copy of Halberstam’s The Fifities along with a steaming mug of stfu and a plate of cookies.

Fuck it infuriates me that he’s dead.

he was just speaking up the street from me on Saturday night (at UC berkeley). I wanted to go see him, but we ended up having dinner guests. And that was my chance. For some reason, this just really hits me harder than usual about missed opportunities and enjoying life, etc.

Ahhh, but YOU said it without the need to play corporate advertising monkey. Go get yourself a philly cheese steak, you earned it.

That Halberstam did, indeed, rock. But Brad, you rocked too, because people need to keep saying this stuff. Everybody needs to say it every way they can, as often as they can. If we’d had an engaged press corps in 2003, it might have made a difference.

I’m sure grampaw will come along to call me a damn dirty leftist but class and media consolidation really are central factors here.

The more money you have the more committed you are, generally, to the status quo. Rocking the boat too hard puts your personal fortunes at risk. Also, the emergence of professional J-schools attached to big-time universities increases the likelihood that the pool of “acceptable” reporters are now more likely to come from the monied classes to begin with. Journalism used to be more like a trade, now its clearly a profession, and no one seems to talk much about the implications of that sea-change on journalism as a whole.

At the same time, the number of places to go to work has dwindled. When moswt media outlets with news divisions are owned by a tiny number of giant companies it creates more pressure on journalists to go along to get along. Time was that a good reporter could say “fine, you don’t like what I’m handing in? I’ll find someone who will” and they could find a new gig with the competition. Now, the “competition” is likely to be owned by the same parent company so quitting in one place closes doors all over town (and across the country, really)

Shit’s fucked up, is what I’m saying, I guess.

here“>Shit’s fucked up, is what I’m saying, I guess.

mikey

Shit. I’m suing you guys for (one) Preview Button…

here“>Shit’s fucked up, is what I’m saying, I guess.

mikey

Arrrggghhhh. Once more, then I give up…

Shit’s fucked up, is what I’m saying, I guess

mikey

Thank you. I’m going through my own fucked up shit right now and I have just listened to that song twenty times. You are a jewel Mikey.