Pinch Sulzberger said at the NYT Co. shareholders meeting today that "There are no plans to take this company private." Which doesn't change the fact that they never should have gone public in the first place. Related: Winning Pulitzers won't save newspapers, says Pulitzer administrator.


BET is launching a new network called Centric, aimed at middle-aged black people. "A perfect example" of their target demographic would be Barack and Michelle Obama, an exec said, naming the only middle-aged black people he could think of.


Sad sad newspaper news of the day: The Homeland Security Department is canceling newspaper (and magazine!) subscriptions. McClatchy's revenue was down 25% in the first quarter. And most heartbreaking of all, financial backers are pulling back on InDenverTimes, the online news project that a bunch of laid-off Denver newspaper vets wanted to launch, which you just knew would not work out but you really wanted to root for, regardless. They needed 50,000 subscribers, but they only got 3,000.


The Washington Post profiles some guy who just launched a print music magazine, of all the fucking things. We admire his "spunk" even while questioning his ability to read and process written information.

Oh hey, humanoid hunk of angry beef Sean Hannity said on air yesterday that he'd be willing to get waterboarded "for charity." Can we get somebody on that right away?


And a late-breaking rumor: a tipster tells us that there were several editorial layoffs at Scientific American yesterday. More info? Email us.

Tonight, I think, was one of the best speeches he has ever given. It was a direct, personal and powerful endorsement of Obama. But much, much more than that: it was a statesman-like assessment of where this country is and how desperately it needs a real change toward reform and retrenchment at home and restoration of diplomacy, wisdom and prudence abroad.

Way to go Bill, for lowering the expectations so much (just the other day he was giving more terrible ill-advised quotes) that the sudden reappearance of President Clinton the Master Speaker was an amazing flashback. Remember when our President spoke like this? Christ.

Even Peggy Noonan—who's been hating Bill and Hillary for years!—was impressed:

This was Deft Political Pro Bill doing what no one had been able to do up to this point at the convention, and that is make the case for Barack Obama. He lambasted the foe, asserted Obama's growth on the trail, argued that he was the right man for the job and did that as a man who once held that job and is remembered, at least in terms of domestic policy and at least by half the country, as having done it pretty darn well. He gave his full imprimatur to a crowd that believes he has an imprimatur to give. As Clinton spoke a friend IM'd, "What is this, the Clinton convention?" The fact is, until both Clintons spoke, it was. Now oddly enough it isn't. Now eyes turn, and finally, to Obama. This was one of the great tee-ups.

And, you know, the speech was generous and good and amazingly well-delivered. But two nights of Clintons? It is the Clinton convention, bookmarked by the Obamas only on the first and last days. Which can go either way—if it makes audiences fondly remember the happy 1990s, when Democrats ran things fairly well and we all bought things from Pets.com while listening to that "Da da da" song in our VWs, than yes, brilliant work, Obama's a sure thing.

But if it just reminds people of the Clintons, with all their strengths and baggage, then that does absolutely nothing to help Obama get elected. Bill did good. Really good. And now it will be like three days until he says something insane and undermining about Obama again.

(Which is maybe another positive for Obama! Angry red-faced Bill just makes Barack Obama look fresh and good in comparison. Who knows, it's all just pissing in the winds of public opinion.)

Here's the speech!

That quote is from John Koblin's piece in today's Observer. It's got more gems: Adam Nagourney couldn't find a seat at his own paper's workspace, then bitched about having to cover the convention with so many other, lesser reporters. Fox's Greta Van Susteren, though, was more than happy to be there.

Greta Van Susteren, the Fox News anchor, spent Aug. 25 blogging—“I like the blogging!” she said—and produced 10 blog posts, including an online poll: “What do you think Michelle Obama thinks about Hillary Clinton?”

But there are hardships!

“I don’t like it,” said the Bloomberg News editor Al Hunt, who is covering his 17th convention. “It’s chilly and you can’t hear anything. Have you been to the porta-potties here? Because don’t go.”

Elsewhere in the Observer, Felix Gillette reports that he thought he knocked over Bill O'Reilley's laptop! But no, it was Karl Rove's laptop.

At HuffPo, media critic Rachel Sklar asks Anderson Cooper about the altitude, and Cooper reveals that he wishes he'd had a Bar Mitzvah. If, somehow, Cooper had added that he also wished to be on Saturday Night Live, in a Broadway musical, and Canadian, Sklar probably would've fainted. (After filing 1,500 words.)

And hey, did you know that there are bloggers at the Democratic National Convention? It's true, according to the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau. "The political bloggers are here because this week Denver is the center of the Democratic Party's political universe," we're told. Good to know! Even Katie Couric stopped by the blogger area to figure out what bloggers did all day, exactly.

And lovable David Carr, America's Favorite Recovered Crack-Addict-Turned-Times Reporter, hauls his Carpetbagger vlogging suit out of the closet to bug "members of the media" in Denver! Watching this video, we were struck by how these were exactly the same parties that are thrown in DC every week except in Denver. They still look terrible.

"The best speech of her career," New York's Daily Intel says.

Great political speeches blow away petty questions about ambition (like “What does Hillary really want?”) by fusing the personal and the political, by making you believe in the speaker as the vessel of your hopes. On Tuesday night, even watching on TV, you could feel the familiar rhythms of Hillary amping up her supporters give way to the generosity (however rooted in self-interest) of her transferring their hopes to Obama.

Radar, suffering 18 million cracks in their cynicism ceiling due to Alex Balk's break from editing duties, also enjoyed it.

Slate's John Dickerson says Clinton's speech was mostly there, with the "were you in it just for me" line being the most important pivot point. But, you know, she never said anything about Obama, just that if the nation can't have Hillary it will have to settle for him. Because the alternative is scary!

The front page of the New York Post makes this astute point as well while also representing the Democratic Party with the cartoon jack-ass from Hee-Haw.

Tim Noah just weighs in with this, which seems apt. And, you know, our antipathy toward the Clintons and their army wavered last night as we enjoyed her speech, but in the cold light of mid-morning, we're not convinced anymore. It was just about her, her fantastic campaign, her great promise. But that guy in Iraq with adopted austic children who needs health care was not what her campaign was ever about. She ran a shitty, mismanaged campaign that went negative first and loudest, acted as if the nomination was her birthright, and represented dynastic politics that should make every student of American Democracy fucking sick. The "experience" she trumped was entirely imagined and exaggerated, she was wrong about the war and never adequately explained why, and, you know, she lost the primaries. Whatever. We don't hate her—she's smart as hell and capable and has actually been pretty gracious compared to her miserable husband—but no one owes her shit for coming in second in a fair fight.

Oh, and Josh Green just says it was boring. Which also seems apt.

She’s voting for McCain and had nothing nice to say about the Obamas. What about the kids, I asked. “Adorable,” she agreed. Well, I said, Michelle raised them.

“I think her mother does,” Anderson shot back, adding: “I wonder if Michelle would give the Queen one of her little knuckle punches?”

Lady, America does not have a Queen. Also, what is wrong with you?

Something called "Joint Juice" seems to be the highlight. But there's also hand sanitizer and a free ringtone card! Seriously, why do people go to this? Are journalists so bored and nerdy that the prospect of a hotel party in Denver excites them? It is like the School Band Trip of the National Press Corps, isn't it? We got a better schwag bag at some weird Time Out party we went to this month. It had condoms and Stuff White People Like. We have no use for either of those things but it's still better than Post-It notes!

The Post raves!

Sen. Ted Kennedy brought the Democratic faithful to cheers and tears last night as he emerged from a summer of treatment for brain cancer to vow that he'll be in Washington when a new president is sworn in.

And the Herald!

Bay State Sen. Edward M. Kennedy shook off the effects of cancer treatment and stood tall on the stage of the Democratic National Convention last night, declaring himself buoyed by a “new hope” for the nation and vowing to return to the Senate in January as thousands of delegates erupted in cheers and tears.

And most of the reviews were similarly ecstatic. It was an impressive performance. Kennedy seemed positively youthful, not like a man battling advanced brain cancer. And his speech was a welcome return to the stirring outward-looking rhetoric of yore, in an age in which most Democrats rely on personal tales of relatability and hardship ("I was born of a single mother and met an iron worker once" vs. "we're going to the fucking MOON"). Michelle was charming and capable, and she's smart as hell, but selling the rubes on the Democrats as the party of both the little guy and the party of grand ambition is more impressive than selling the people on the Obama Family as Just Like Us.

When it looked, for a time, that Ted Kennedy might be our next president, Kennedy family gadfly Gore Vidal said, "every country should have at least one King Farouk." And that was, basically, the official line on Teddy for most of his political career—the least of the Kennedy brothers. The dumb one. But somehow, after his undeserved ascent to his Senate seat, the Chappaquiddick tragedy, and his failure to win the presidency, he's become, against the odds, a respected statesman. That the right wing attempts so often to make him either a cartoonish villain or a dismissive fat joke might be a sign that he's actually a threat to their world-view, as an old-school '60s Senate liberal. We don't care for the family or the idolatry, but Ted's won our respect for actually building an impressive resume as a legislator and a deal-maker who wins victories for liberalism in the most undemocratic and depressing political institution of our United States.

You know how most of America's problems are caused not by the disastrous failure of government over the last like 30 years but by, uh, Tim Robbins? Yes, of course you do! So do Republicans, who learned long ago that the only thing America loved more than obsessively consuming pop culture object is loudly decrying the creators of those objects as unAmerican queers. The fact that Hollyweird (along with the music and television weird-ustries) caters directly and scientifically to every desire of every American demographic does not mean that anyone actually likes famous people, because, obviously, they are misanthropic wealthy blinkered assholes whose lives bear no resemblance to the lives of their audiences.

Which is true! They are! Just like politicians and their constituencies! Except no one knows who their Representative is, and everyone knows who Ben Affleck is. He is the Vince Vaughan who isn't funny!

And then it gets really odd, because even someone like Bruce Springsteen—who is unreservedly beloved by basically all white people older than 30—suddenly becomes a loathed example of garish flashy wealth when he sings a song for a Democrat. But, you may say, if you actually like Bruce Springsteen it is patently obvious that he has always sang bleeding heart songs about losers betrayed by their countries! But he also sings about cars which cause the Global Warming, which is a myth except when liberal celebrities have big houses, and then it is real.

So. Now Obama has to "stay away" from these famous people, except for the ones singing to him on TV, and also George Clooney has issued a press release announcing that he's never texted Barack Obama. George Clooney, in case you are unfamiliar with him, is basically the single most well-liked man in America, which is why his support for Barack Obama is the kiss of death.

Of course, if you are a Republican, you get to have the support of shitty country acts who are massively, hugely, insanely popular across the entire country except in the places where journalists live, so they don't count as "celebrities."

Get it?

Photoshop: Steve Dressler

Here's Brett Baier (who??) taking you on a kick-ass tour of the FOX EXPERIENCE, which looks to be a shitty Bar & Grill with plasma tvs strewn about and Steve Doocy hanging out upstairs.

According to 5280 Magazine, Braun's features "tasty cuisine" and handicap access!

CNN, meanwhile, has taken over a bar called "Brooklyn's," which, according to Yahoo Travel, is located a convenient 50 yards from the Pepsi Center. Also: "predictable burgers and sandwiches." Try the pulled pork! And the weird CNN beer, "Red Ale." (Seriously, someone try that and tell us how it is.)

MSNBC, sadly, doesn't seem to have a stupid bar at all.

Oh, also, please insert your own think piece here on the appropriateness of the 24-hour cable news networks taking over sportsbars to cover the Democratic National Convention and what that says about the state of the body politic in this miserable year of our lord 2008.

Attend, in Denver: Any and all "VIP" or "Cocktail Receptions." At night: Creative Coalition, GLBT Unity Dance, Distilled Spirits "Spirits of Denver" Party (alt: Maker's Mark party), Kanye.

Attend, St. Paul: Distilled Spirits, the Maker's Mark thing. Honestly, unless an hour or two of shitty cocktails at an open bar means that much to you you are then advised to go drink with the locals.

Skip: Everything else.

It's Denver! [TRS]