Gawker
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media
Was the Times' Alessandra Stanley Too Hard on Farrah Fawcett?
We've received many emails tonight from readers taking issue with an Alessandra Stanley piece in the Times on Farrah Fawcett. Maybe it's the lede—"She really tried. And for a sex symbol that alone can be like an accomplishment." More »
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Comment by BookishLookish: Some women are just extremely uncomfortable appreciating that some women have more beauty than talent, while others are blessed with... 5 Responses | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Dick Cheney Killed the TV Sidekick
Did you know that the reason talk show hosts don't have sidekicks anymore is because of blogs and Dick Cheney? Alessandra Stanley cracked the code! More »
3,691
By PareeneComment by scroll_lock: Well, to be fair the sidekick *was* dressed like a giant quail. 8 Responses | Other threads
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class warfare
No One Cares About Sex Scandals Any More
So says Alessandra Stanley in today's Times. Instead we only care about Ponzi schemes, corporate looters, vapid rich wives and bribe-hungry politicians, because of the panic. Hahahahaha. More »
7,799
By Ryan TateComment by Private Hangnail: Just wait for a gay sex scandal. They seem to really perk things up. 6 Responses | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Bill O'Reilly on 'Alessandra Stanely'
This is a really subtle joke, right, Fox production team? Or is it just our birthday? [CityFile, Related] -
rachel maddow
Rachel Maddow's Boring 'Echo Chamber'
"What Ms. Maddow doesn’t do is add a fresh or contrarian perspective to a cable news channel that increasingly positions itself as... a liberal alternative to the high-octane Fox News." [Times]
1,690
By Ryan TateComment by Oy Veh (Informality Reigns): I would just like to find (or actually just listen to) a relatively intelligent, neutral, unbiased person to deliver... 9 Responses | Other threads
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stalney-watch
Most Harmless Alessandra Stanley Correction Ever?
Error-prone Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley made a mistake everyone! More »
1,066
By PareeneComment by BetweenTheLines: A story by Elisabeth Bumiller, on the same page as Stanley's, also included a reference to the Valli song. Bumiller... more » | Other threads
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stanley-watch
Error-prone Critic Actually Trying to Get Things Right For Change
Times tv critic Alessandra Stanley gets a lot of shit around here for making mistakes. It's not just that she makes a lot of them (though she does, or did), it's that she makes obvious, egregious ones that seem to suggest that she doesn't actually watch tv. But she's gotten better about it! She says. She told Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici that she's "trying to avoid" corrections, which is apparently a change of pace for her. How's she doing? Pretty well! She hasn't had a correction since she got the date of the Iraq war wrong 103 days ago. Her longest streak since 2002! BUT! More »
5,273
By PareeneComment by if_i_only_had_a_heart: real reporters at real newspapers used to get fired for getting someone's middle initial wrong in a photo caption more » | Other threads
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gossip girl
What is Gossip Girl's Big Secret?
The Times' Alessandra Stanley weighs in on the frightening phenomenon: “'Gossip Girl' goes further than most shows in depicting the excesses of the rich and under-age (in this fantasy teenagers are never carded), but most of all it represents the next evolutionary stage of girl power television after 'Sex and the City.' That pioneering HBO series, and the movie version that comes out later this month, celebrates girlish women who joined forces — 'Us against the world'— in the pursuit of success and happiness." More »
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Comment by lurkystars: @TedSez: I am enlightened, and you have made my morning. I think I love you. more » | Other threads
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do not want
President Honors Veteran In Game Show Format
If you were wondering why everyone running for president was talking like a wrestler yesterday instead of retaining some semblance of dignity, you'll be happy to find out the candidates were merely practicing for a new presidential tradition begun by George W. Bush: Appearing on a TV game show and cracking jokes. That might sound a little cheesy, but it was for a good cause. The president, you see, wanted to honor an Iraq veteran with the sort of dignity only host Howie Mandel can conjure on Deal Or No Deal. "Are you ready to get some acknowledgement for your hard work and bravery?" Mandel asked. Oh, sure, what the hell: More » -
counterpoint
Maybe People Shouldn't Quit the 'Times' Just Because We Hate Them?
An anonymous journo writes, regarding our all-in-fun poll:I sort of think the joke doesn't work with Alex Kuczynski given that she's no longer on staff and hasn't been for a loooooong time. Deborah Solomon is obviously a contract writer with the magazine, not a member of the union. Hence neither of them belong in your poll. And Amanda Hesser did quit, already. A couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I don't mean ot be all high and mighty about it, but it just seems to me that in general, if you are going to be merciless cunts, it would help to know what you're talking about.
It's true, that does help. We blame the readers who submitted those names and our unwillingness to do any research! More, touching on Gawker punching-bag Alessandra Stanley, after the jump. More » -
britney spears
Tabs Wowed By Spears's Ability to be Briefly Sane
The tabloids are sick of the pantyless-Britney Spears-faux-British-accent-high-on-unknown-substances-bad-mother yarn. Easter just passed and resurrections are hot right now. OK!, People and Us Weekly have all given her cameo on How I Met Your Mother raves. And to be fair, they probably know more about TV than accident-prone New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley, who described Ms. Spears' performance as "a relief." [Jossip]
413
By rebeccaComment by famousauthor: She was playing a mildly deranged person, for god's sake. What kind of acting is that? more » | Other threads
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britney spears
Alessandra Plans Britney's Comeback
"The very fact that she could recite her lines was a relief: the most lasting television image of Ms. Spears in recent months showed her tied down to a stretcher. But the most promising comeback platforms for the tarnished or forgotten are network reality competitions like ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. That series (and its many imitations) gives full vent to the highs and lows of show business; each dance number is a balletic metaphor for disgrace, punishing exertion and forgiveness." [Times, Video]
702
By Ryan TateComment by it takes a lot to laugh: Actually, I prefer her tied down to a stretcher, or anything else I have handy. more » | Other threads
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armchair psychology
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So, Alessandra, Tell Me About Your Mother
A reader asks, of the oft-incorrect Times TV critic, "how many more mistakes can Alessandra Stanley make before she loses her job?" But as Freud said, or was paraphrased as saying, there are no mistakes. We ask you, why does she fuck up so often, and so obviously? What can possibly make a person decide to remember Everybody Loves Raymond as "All About Raymond"? Her corrections are cries for help. Let's open it up to the floor: what's wrong with Alessandra Stanley? -
alessandra stanley
How Many Corrections Does It Take To Get Fired At 'The Times'?
At this point, New York Times star television critic Alessandra Stanley has all the credibility of a Wikipedia entry. Most of the information is probably right, but you shouldn't take anything as gospel because you never know what's real and what's just been invented by a bored 13 year-old in Iowa. Alessandra Stanley Correction Watch has gone from an evergreen subject to an old joke. Geraldo had to threaten to sue the Times to get them to correct something Stanley invented out of thin air. As a service to the human resources department at the New York Times, after the jump, we present the best (worst?) Alessandra Stanley mistakes since the last time we rounded them all up.
More »
9,241
By rebeccaComment by Chief Wahoo: Yet she is still more tolerable than Charlie LeDuff. more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Iraq Was Invaded In 2002, As Far As Times Critic Is Concerned
Professionally inaccurate Times TV critic Alessandra Stanely may have topped herself this morning, when she added a year to the war in Iraq. Stanley, you see, wanted to tell everyone about how the big broadcast networks have dumbed down their programming, to the point where they ignored the Tuesday presidential primaries in Texas and instead showed cheesy reality shows like "The Biggest Loser" and "Big Brother." This was stupid, Stanley said, because election news can get big ratings, as evidenced by last week's Democratic debate, which managed to attract a bigger audience that America's invasion of Iraq, six years ago: More » -
reality tv
Real Housewives of New York City Will Change Lives
Wealth, status, and power exploiting reality series Real Housewives of New York City premieres tonight on Bravo. What can we expect? Judging from the reviews, essentially the same thing as the Orange County iteration (except, you know, colder.) The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert is exclaimy and gay about it. The Los Angeles Times, in a spot-on, funny review, writes "Robespierre could not have come up with better revolutionary propaganda — all that's missing is the fake cottage, the shepherdess outfit and the guillotine. Feel free to envy them because they have so much; feel free to hate them because they are so hateful; feel free to laugh at them because they are so ridiculous." Brilliant! New York Times village idiot Alessandra Stanley has a far more obtuse take (where you at, Ginny?), but essentially comes to the same conclusion as everyone else: these creatures are tacky and nouveau, and actual New York "society" wouldn't even dare employ them, let alone welcome them as their own. We'll have a full write-up of the premiere tomorrow. I can't tell you how excited some of "us" are. After the jump, a dignified video of Extra going shopping with housewife Jill. More »
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Comment by oliviakingston: and was it just me----or did anyone else think they'd accidentally tuned in to "High School Confidential"? Between Ramona's child... more » | Other threads
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sex wars
Vanity Fair Proves That Only Men Can Do Humor Or Sexism Right
When angry British drunk Christopher Hitchens wrote his seminal "Why Women Aren't Funny" article in Vanity Fair last year, lots of people got upset. Mostly girls. Milking the manufactured outrage like the publishing geniuses they are, the magazine has finally had a woman take a full shot at refuting the thesis [VF]. Unfortunately, they picked Alessandra Stanley, who proves (not for the first time) that she has not one single drop of humor diluting the estrogen and errors that flow through her veins. So on the second day of the cooing and hubbub over the new Girl Power piece (it took us an extra day just to get through it, ha), it's worth pointing out the unspoken truth in all this catfighting: women will never be as funny as men to men. And men run everything. More »
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Comment by poopscoop123: Yo, what? I was bored after the first word. See, that's how women are: bored, by Gawker Media. Also maybe... more » | Other threads
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stanley-watch
The Worst Fact-Checking Team In Newspapers
Ridiculously error-prone New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley has been making reliably glaring mistakes in every single piece she has published in the newspaper of record for years now. Here's today's, in her story about how MSNBC is trying very hard not to upset the Clintons anymore: "MSNBC calls its stars 'the best political team' on television, but at the moment some players are in disgrace." A free cookie to Slate's Jack Shafer, who wrote an entire column about how annoying it is that CNN uses that "best political team" slogan incessantly. Does Ms. Stanley own a TV? Or have an editor? [NYT]
2,813
By PareeneComment by trojanhorse: Wolf Blitzer, automaton that he is, could have made the mistake himself. more » | Other threads
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dynasties
Alessandra Stanley Reviews Last Night's Speech Thing
The Times let embittered and oft-inaccurate tv critic Alessandra Stanley write about something a little more weighty than Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles in today's paper. She gets to review the President's "State of the Union" speech, which happens on TV, yes, but it doesn't involve explosions and there are not really commercial breaks. Thankfully it's often transcribed and distributed beforehand, so Stanley doesn't have to sort of half-remember bits of dialog she wasn't actually paying attention to. But only the real journalists get to write about the bullshit in the speech itself, so Stanley instead babbles some sub-sportswriter-by-way-of-David Broder nonsense about "Dynasties" playing themselves out in some grand Wagnerian opera just behind the scenes (and also in front of the scenes, on stages and behind podiums and such). Because the Bushes and the Kennedys and the Clintons were all sorta there, in Washington, DC, where all of them spend most of their time. More »
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By PareeneComment by Leon Freilich: BUSHED STATE OF THE UNION Fail and farewell to the chief, Every move a blooper; In a perfect world he'd be Deputy White House... more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Revenge of Stanley-Watch
Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley doesn't like that new Fox show with the lie detector. She dislikes is so much, in fact, that she reserved her trademark glaring inaccuracy for a statement about a game show on a rival network: "Before picking the correct suitcase to win $1 million on 'Deal or No Deal' Wednesday night, a contestant named Britney told the audience that her father was so nervous he placed Maxi Pads in his armpits." Oh, Alessandra. Britney took the deal and went home with $471,000. We can't verify the accuracy of the Maxi Pads story. [NYT] -
chasing angela
'Telegraph' Critic Moves In On Temporary Broadway Star Claire Danes
There's only three ways the first line in the Telegraph's love-'em-up profile of Claire Danes makes sense: "There's something about the way that Claire Danes both looks and moves that makes you instinctively look down at her feet to check that they're touching the floor." Either she and Telegraph T.V. critic John Preston have crossed the Phantom Tollbooth, where one grows down not up with age, Claire Dane's got her porcelain hands on Marty McFly's hoverboard—or Preston is making a move on milady. More »
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By Joshua SteinComment by VoxPopuli: HOVERDANES ```````````IS HOVERING more » | Other threads
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yada yada
TimesTV critic Alessandra Stanley reviews the season premiere of "30 Rock" and finds it lacking. She places some of the blame on guest star Jerry Seinfeld: "[Seinfeld] shows up at Rockefeller Center to complain, and that's when the show goes a little wobbly: Mr. Seinfeld is strangely ill at ease playing himself, making his self-impersonation unpersuasive." How unfortunate! If only Seinfeld had any prior experience portraying a stand-up comedian named Jerry Seinfeld! [NYT]
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By abalkComment by TripMcCane: Once you hit "icon" status, as Jerry has, your "funny" is reduced by creeping gravitas. They should have gotten Mike... more » | Other threads
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mean girls
That white witch Alessandra Stanley doesn't like the CW's "Gossip Girl." In today's Times, she faults the show for not being as good as the books; while they "are often criticized as a devolution from Judy Blume's coming-of-age novels, they are actually closer to children's literature. Like 'Peter Pan,' 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' or the 'Harry Potter' series, these novels are fantasies and projections of an imaginary world where parents are dead or peripheral, and lost boys and girls struggle on their own with good and evil, or in this case, Bergdorf Goodman and evil." Oh yeah? Screw you, Bruno Bettelheim, you don't mess with the most amazing show OF THE YEAR. [NYT] -
alessandra stanley watch
Tomorrow's corrections today: "Mr. Rove, who is leaving the White House at the end of the month, didn't cut an especially heroic or villainous figure. The strategist who looms in the public imagination as a political mastermind and West Wing Svengali used a rare appearance on camera to deliver an exiting White House aide's most time-honored Washington message: mistakes were not made, and it's not my fault. He even denied responsibility for his hip-hop performance as a rapping 'M.C. Rove' at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in March." Rove was right to deny responsibility: The performance in question occurred at the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner. [NYT] -
directories
Where To Find Your Favorite 'Times' Journalists In The New Building
Now that every department at the New York Times has moved into the new building, you're probably wondering where everyone has gone! So let's go floor-by-floor, shall we? And as we work our way up, we'll see who really matters in the Times organization. More » -
more complicated than the plot of lost
Alessandra Stanley Forgets Which '60 Minutes' Fogeys Died
In today's examination of the improbable continued relevance of the venerable newsmagazine show, Alessandra Stanley gives us this present:Its creator, Don Hewitt, retired in 2004; some of the most famous television reporters, people like Ed Bradley and Mike Wallace, were dying, retiring or taking emeritus status.
Dying, retiring, whatever. Keep covering all the bases, girl! It's one way to guarantee something like accuracy.
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By Emily GouldComment by El_Gato: Her editors should start including a disclaimer at the bottom of her articles that apologize in advance "for any inacurracies... more » | Other threads
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gawker
Five Signs It Is Time For A Vacation
AdAge has a super-servicey piece today about how to tell if you should find another job. The piece offers five indicators that may mean it's time to move on. I've been feeling a little bit of workplace dissatisfaction lately, but assumed it was just weather-related. I decided to do a little self-assessment based on the AdAge metrics. The results were disturbing. More »
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By abalk2Comment by JoeJoeBinks: I picture your office being more like "The Golden Girls" kitchen - everyone sitting around the kitchen table kvetching over... more » | Other threads
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the sopranos
Repent! Repent! 'The Sopranos' Is About To Die For You
Tonight, at 9 PM, on HBO, The Sopranos returns for the home stretch of its sixth and final season. Imagine if there were a day in which God comes back from the dead one last time before going away forever. This is like that day, but bigger. In fact, basically every demographic, interest group, and extant species is primed to benefit from the brief earthly return of The Sopranos before its ascension, nine episodes from now, to the heavenly pantheon currently occupied by other such pillars of Western civilization/dearly departed HBO originals as Rome, Socrates, William Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Tracy Takes On... and Arli$$. Everyone, that is, except TV critics. Indeed, the Inquisition dilemma facing the nation's small-screen literati this weekend is stark and unforgiving: To ignore The Sopranos would be sacrilege, of course, but to actually claim to "review" it—that is, to claim oneself as capable of understanding its true nature—would be heresy. The only solution? Total Prostrated Submission. More » -
corrections
ABC Totally Pissed At Alessandra Stanley
A letter to Romenesko, sent to us as well, by ABC News Senior Vice President Jeffrey W. Schneider begins: "There are glaring errors in Alessandra Stanley's column today." At this point there's little more to do than shrug one's shoulders and mutter the Hebrew from the Passover question. We're not sure how something like this could have happened! More »
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By abalk2Comment by IndianSlipper: just testing this img[IMG][i244.photobucket.com]] more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Alessandra Stanley, All Is 'Lost'
Yesterday, we charitably declined to take New York Times T.V. chick Alessandra Stanley to task for screwing up Lost plotlines. Seriously, we watched that shit last night and already this morning we can't explain why Sawyer was getting all sand-in-the-Vaseline with Jack on the beach. Oh wait. Maybe that was the creepy slash fic we "found" late last night. But no charity could stop this morning's Times from bonking Lady Stanley with her third correction of 2007. More » -
great moments in journalism
Great Moments In Journalism: A Clout On The Head
Great Moments in Journalism are submitted by readers, and can be sent to this address. Today's Great Moment comes to us, as so many of them do, via Alessandra Stanley's TV Watch column. Here, she's discussing the fanbase that remains to geeky shows like Lost:The fans of these kinds of serialized thrillers are unusually passionate and devoted, carrying a clout not unlike that of anti-abortion activists — their intensity is in some ways more powerful than their numbers.
We suppose "cachet" doesn't sound quite right either. (Note: tipsters have also been telling us about a lot of factual mistakes that Stanley made re: Lost's plotlines; we'll let a team of Times corrections forensic specialists handle that, because no one can reasonably be expected to make any kind of sense of that show). More »
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By Emily GouldComment by picardia: A lot of people go through life with the nagging sense that they're faking it, they don't know as much... more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Alessandra Stanley Advances The Banner of Ladyism
It's a given, at this point, that any woman writer who tries to contradict Christopher Hitchens's airtight assertion that "Women Aren't Funny" (which he later amended, of course, to 'Non-"hefty, dykey, or Jewish" women aren't funny') will be on the receiving end of a predictable, nyah-nyah "You just proved my point." But today, in a review of two new tv shows featuring "funny" men and ornamental, dim ladies, Alessandra Stanley puts herself on the line for the women-are-funny cause: More »
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By Emily GouldComment by dmac: So... this means I'm not funny or good in bed, doesn't it? Shit. more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Alessandra Stanley Makes Us Think We Might Actually Be Taking Crazy Pills
Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster was the blogger. On Christmas Eve, as the blogger sharpened stakes of holly to drive through the hearts of media "celebrities," Intern Stephanie timorously asked to take the next day off. More »
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Comment by Pete the Chop: Saves me an e-mail to Gawker. It's like Stanley's column was translated into Thai by Babelfish and then translated back... more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
And They Both Sound Funny When They Say "Nuclear"
In today's New York Times, Alessandra Stanley points out to us the uncanny parallels between the television appearances by Madonna and George W. Bush. More » -
rush limbaugh
Michael J. Fox Wins This Round, Rush Calls in Cavalry
So what's the latest on the Rush Limbaugh vs Alex P. Keaton beef? Well, after getting thorughly p0wn3d by the TNR's The Plank and his own inept research department, he apologized for accusing Michael J. of faking Parkinson's, though not as "bigly and hugely" as promised. The former ESPN personality added that Fox "is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democrat politician." Sheesh Rush, it's Parkinson's, he's not retarded or anything. More »
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By sukiComment by raincoaster: Yeah, but what you didn't hear was, this ad was almost scrapped when the director got drunk and called Rush... more » | Other threads
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new york times
Not That It's the First Time the Paper's Read Like Gibberish
Today the Times reviews Calista Flockhart vehicle Brothers and Sisters, the ABC drama that anorexic Ally McBeal fans have been waiting for. The first page reads fine, but the second page? Looks like someone forgot to remove the placeholder text. But it doesn't matter what the page should say — it's an Alessandra Stanley piece, so of course it's wrong. More »
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By JessicaComment by Tulletilsynet: And still no skinny on the causes of these ongoing NYT drive-by typos? Because it's got to be a dissatisfied... more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
People Like To Put The Television Critic Down
We've always assumed Alessandra Stanley got the TV critic sinecure as a consolation prize for not rising farther at the Times; you'd figure as a former foreign correspondent, she'd at least be able to bring some of that reportorial skill to her review of The Path to 9/11, the controversial ABC mini-series suggesting that Bill Clinton and Osama Bin Laden planned the attack on the World Trade Center together one boozy night at the Viper Room. Well, as Think Progress notes, not so much: More » -
alessandra stanley
Also, Alessandra, Conan O'Brien Wasn't Really in a Plane Crash
You watch the Emmys, kids? Yeah, same here. Still, we read the coverage in The Paper of Record and came across this: More »
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By abalk2Comment by giraffeluvah: I don't think the word "gag" is really the correct description-- it was an attempt at a comedic acceptance of... more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
Alessandra Stanley Now Pissing Us Off With Both Fact and Opinion
Believe us, we take no pleasure in pointing out the frequent errors committed by Alessandra Stanley. It is, at this point, a heavy burden from which we wish we could be unyoked. Today, however, is a special day in our Alessandra coverage: We're taking issues not so much with her factual record, but with some of the opinions she asserts. We refer specifically to her analysis of TV news, a piece based around a review of "Walter Cronkite: Witness to History," a documentary about the legendary CBS anchor. We have no particular brief for Uncle Walt; we never saw him broadcast and, quite frankly, frequently confuse him with Captain Kangaroo. But Stanley's oddly antagonistic piece sits uneasily with us, not least because if Stanley's thesis that the Cronkite brand of cultural authority is no longer relevant, why the fuck would we bother to read an analysis of it an a dead-tree organ like The Times? More »
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By abalk2Comment by sock puppeteer: This will be a serious post for once. I lost any respect I had for Uncle Walter years ago. That when at... more » | Other threads
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alessandra stanley
New York, 11:48 AM
Fri Jul 10
45 posts in the last 24 hours
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