The Jerusalem Post was somehow seduced into believing that Ronn is a respectable businessman and published a long interview with him. It is comical, as one would expect:

But money - which the Bronx boy-turned-Manhattanite admits to considering important - isn't the only thing he's after. Indeed, he insists, he's got strict red lines when it comes to clientele. The notorious Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, for example, whom he likens to a "mass murderer," is someone he claims he never would have represented. Ditto for terrorists or others out to harm Israel.

On the other hand, he does admire the PR prowess of some of the above, citing Al Jazeera TV as one example, and US President Barack Obama - whom he calls "a disaster" - as another.

"I don't think Obama is good for America and business," sez Ronn! These "strict red lines," though, do not preclude Ronn from having pyramid schemes or psycho pastor John Hagee or Joe Francis as clients. The other relevant thing that Ronn says in this interview:

It's true that many people in the business world today make public statements that bear little resemblance to reality.

Cordero first made the news when she alleged that Epstein told her he could help her get a "modeling" career and used her for sex when she was 16. Then the Post reported she was born a man! And that she had talked about "masturbatory" fantasies on Myspace! And then they ran off and got a dismissive quote about Cordero from Epstein's flack, Howard Rubensteing—who is also the Post's own flack! A fact which they did not disclose, which is shady as fuck.

So Cordero sued the paper for libel, and now, the judge has ruled. In favor of the Post! Basically the judge said that, yes, they reported that she had sexy fantasies, but not that she actually did the sexy things, and the average person wouldn't think she's a "promiscuous slut" (exact legal language!) just because she had dreams of getting triple-teamed. Hell, the judge himself has animal fantasies that would make you sick, but he's a straitlaced guy in real life. We made that up. But if you want to call somebody a slut in print, just make sure you call them a fantasy slut. Relevant portion of the ruling:

Plaintiff's libel cause of action is predicated on the theory that the October 23 article was libelous per se because the statement that "[o]n one [of the Myspace pages], [plaintiff] gives a graphic depiction of a masturbatory fantasy' she has of being with multiple men and then multiple women" implies that she is "a promiscuous slut." Obviously enough, plaintiff can only recover damages on her libel cause of action if she can establish that the article was in fact defamatory - "tend[ing] to expose [her] to public contempt, ridicule, aversion or disgrace, or induce an evil opinion of [her] in the minds of right-thinking persons, and to deprive [her] of their friendly intercourse in society" (Rinaldi, 42 NY2d at 379). The Post defendants argue that the statement does not have a defamatory meaning because the statement only reported that plaintiff had a sexual fantasy; it did not report that plaintiff actually engaged in sexual conduct with multiple men and multiple women or otherwise acted on the fantasy. For that reason, according to the Post defendants, the statement does not imply that plaintiff is promiscuous and therefore is not actionable. Plaintiff argues that the statement suggests that she is so perverted that she publishes an online diary of masturbatory fantasies of group sex and therefore implies that she is promiscuous. Thus, according to plaintiff, the statement is defamatory...

At bottom, plaintiff's claim of defamation rests on the contention that the average reader reasonably would infer that someone with such a lewd fantasy also is in fact sexually promiscuous. That some readers might draw this inference does not render it reasonable.

[via THR, Esq.]

Brill's latest company, "Clear," which was supposed to save rich people a half hour standing in security lines at airports in exchange for $128 a year, is shutting down. Let's do a quick and dirty balance sheet of Brill's successes and failures—keeping in mind that to do your best is all your mom really asks.

Successes

The American Lawyer: Brill launched what would become the nation's leading legal magazine in 1979. This is not an unqualified success, though, since American Lawyer Media (now Incisive Media) is having problems right now.

Court TV: Brill created the network (now truTV) in 1991. After receiving a huge popularity boost from the OJ Simpson trial, it was sold it to Time Warner in 1997. For which Brill got a tidy sum.

Emily Brill: Steven's daughter, the ultimate narrator.

Failures

Brill's Content: Launched in 1998, this mediacentric mag was supposed to capitalize on America's insatiable thirst for news about the news! Turned out not that many people really care about the news about the news. Not enough to pay money, at least. Stopped publishing in 2001.

Contentville.com: A website selling "a variety of content ranging from thesis papers to ebooks." Closed in 2001.

Inside.com: The legendary media site that launched the careers of many top media reporters and also failed to make any money. The magazine version of Inside was merged with Brill's Content, and the website was part of a convoluted plan with Primedia to corner the market on media trade publications, but the whole thing was shuttered in 2001.

Clear: In the post-9/11 world, Brill noticed, airport security sure was a hassle. People would pay to be "verified" beforehand so they could breeze right through! Right? 165,000 people did, reportedly, and Clear raised more than $100 million from investors, but now it's dead, unable to afford to keep going.

Brill also wrote a couple books which didn't sell all that well and a column for Newsweek, but you can judge those on their own merits. He's not out of the game, though—his other ongoing venture is Journalism Online, a company that plans to help various magazines and newspapers charge readers for online access. Bet on it!
[Pic via]

Isn't the whole HOPE poster look getting a bit overexposed? Dog Fancy? Really? Maybe check out how you're diluting your own art before suing everyone else for the same crime?

Or better yet just start going in new (but still derivative of Soviet propaganda posters) directions like you did for the gay marriage poster. That was pretty cool.

(Graphic: Dog's Life Spring 2009)

Let's review the recent evidence:

• He's a self-made man, who actually did enough "street art" on actual streets to earn gold-plated props. Heroic!
• He was already famous. But he got ten times more famous last year for the Obama posters. And he donated the proceeds to Obama. Heroic!
• He does other work for worthy causes like gay marriage. Heroic!
• The AP looked like it was bullying him over using its Obama photo. He was under siege. which made him look...heroic!
• Hey, he makes legal threats against small little artists for using his copyrights just like the AP was doing to him. Tool!
• And you know, the AP can really use every penny it can get these days, without other people making huge money-generating projects by stealing AP stuff without licensing it. Tool-ish.

From a very strict, hardcore, graffiti-centric, fuck-the-man perspective, it's easy to judge Shepard Fairey as a tool. It's equally easy to judge him as a worthless vandal, from a conservative perspective. But the guy goes around the world doing legal and illegal street art that, you have to admit, is pretty fucking cool; he's politically conscious, and put his money where his mouth is; and at the very least, he has well-considered reasons for the things he does, rather than just making shit up as he goes (see the clip below where he explains his rationale for fighting the AP).

In other words: chances are he doesn't even sell out as much as the average one of us does on an average day. The only reason people get so pissed at him in the first place is they really want the guy who makes those fresh ass shirts to be as righteous as his wheatpaste posters. Yea, he can be a hypocrite, and he's definitely not a purist, and times that pushes him into tool territory. We're all tools sometimes. At least he's a cool tool.

Obviously, electing Oboma [sic] is a step in the right direction. Americans deserve approximately half the praise they’ve been heaping on themselves because, after all, Obama is half-African-American.

Why are you light-skinned African-Americans always trying to sneak past Toby Young? He sees you. [Spectator]