by TChris

The days may be gone when kids call a store and ask if they have Prince Albert in a can, but the practice of making prank calls lives on, as evidenced by Bart Simpson and Comedy Central's Crank Yankers. These days, you have to be careful who you prank, lest you incur the wrath of the FCC.

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $4,000 fine for a Miami radio station that got through by phone to Cuban President Fidel Castro in a crank call and broadcast the communist leader before rudely letting him in on the joke.

No word on whether the FCC intends to fine Castro, who undoubtedly violated broadcasting decency rules by "denouncing the callers with a stream of vulgarities."

by TChris

Doonesbury, the comic strip that is no stranger to controversy, has been censored again.

In a story line that began Monday, B.D., a football coach-turned-soldier, lost a leg after being reactivated in the Army at the end of 2002. In Friday's strip, his doctor explains how amputees go through a grieving process that starts with denial, followed by anger. In the final panel, B.D. curses from behind a hospital curtain, skipping the denial.

The curse (popularly abbreviated as "S.O.B.") was deleted by some papers, while at least two others pulled the strip.

The strip's creator, Garry Trudeau, explained his decision to pursue a story line that leaves B.D. disabled but not dead.

Saturday night, April 24, join thousands of music lovers around the country in protesting anti-music legislation, raising money to protect live music, and organizing voters

Via Drug War Rant:

Check out ProtectLiveMusic.org a project of the Drug Policy Alliance. It's a good awareness site of some of the drug laws in particular that are targeting the music industry (just as Anslinger targeted musicians in the early days of criminalization). There are action items where you can make a difference. This Saturday, April 24, is their Day and Night of Outrage, complete with some wonderful music, in clubs around the country.

As we reported here, some USA Today employees were hoping USA Today's top editor, Karen Jurgenson, would not take the fall alone for the Jack Kelley scandal. Turns out she won't: Managing News Editor Hal Ritter submitted his resignation today, and Executive Editor Brian Gallagher will be next.

7 of the Apprentice candidates were on Larry King Live tonight. Donald Trump appeared by phone. He offered to put Troy through college. Very, very nice moment.

[comments now closed]

Remember Jack Kelley, the reporter for USA Today who was fired after a scandal in which it was disclosed that he had fabricated many stories for the paper ? Last night, Karen Jurgenson, the top editor at USA Today and an employee of the paper since its inception in 1982, abruptly resigned over the Kelley matter.

Tom Squitieri, a reporter who covers defense and foreign affairs, expressed regret only that Ms. Jurgensen had chosen to step aside before those editors who had more directly supervised Mr. Kelley. ``The editor least responsible for what happened is the one who has been forced to go,'' said Mr. Squitieri, who has worked at the newspaper since 1989. ``I and several of my colleagues are waiting to see if others will follow her lead.'' He He declined to identify who he thought those editors should be.

Who's Tom talking about? He doesn't say but other reporters at the paper are citing USA Today's Managing Editor Hal Ritter as being far closer to Kelly's work in terms of supervision. Meanwhile, Jack Kelly's wife is still employed by the paper as an advertising executive.

From the new issue of New York Magazine's intelligencer column--Condi's slip:

A pressing issue of dinner-party etiquette is vexing Washington, according to a story now making the D.C. rounds: How should you react when your guest, in this case national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice, makes a poignant faux pas? At a recent dinner party hosted by New York Times D.C. bureau chief Philip Taubman and his wife, Times reporter Felicity Barringer, and attended by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Maureen Dowd, Steven Weisman, and Elisabeth Bumiller, Rice was reportedly overheard saying, “As I was telling my husb—” and then stopping herself abruptly, before saying, “As I was telling President Bush.” Jaws dropped, but a guest says the slip by the unmarried politician, who spends weekends with the president and his wife, seemed more psychologically telling than incriminating. Nobody thinks Bush and Rice are actually an item. A National Security Council spokesman laughed and said, “No comment.”

[link via Wonkette, of course]

Update : Via Atrios, we just can't resist:

Stanley (Tookie) Williams was the leader of the Crips in south central LA. He's been on death row for 23 years. While in jail, he became an anti-gang activist, wrote children's books and was nominated by a member of the Swiss Parliament for the Nobel Prize. In 1999, he was visited by Winnie Mandela.

Williams is hoping for a reprieve. Watch the movie about him tonight, Redemption, on FX, starring Jamie Foxx. FX, Sunday at 8 p.m., Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.

[Comments now closed, thanks to all for your thoughts.]

by TChris

We depend on the media to uncover hidden wrongdoing in government. To what extent should the media seek to uncover the mysterious workings of jury deliberations?

The question arises after reporters visited the Manhattan apartment building of Juror No. 4 in the Tyco trial. (Background on the trial, which ended in a mistrial after twelve days of jury deliberations, and the role played by Juror No. 4 can be found in TalkLeft posts here and here.)
Based on interviews, the NY Times reported that Juror No. 4 was a "standoffish" resident who only spoke to staff when she was giving them orders but never bothered to tip them at Christmas. The Times later confessed that, "contrary to previous reports," the juror does tip her doorman.

The Times' internal critic characterizes the coverage as accusing the juror of being "remote, cheap and stubborn." He's also disturbed "that The Times is willing to publish negative comments, made by unidentified individuals, about someone who does not have the opportunity to reply."

Taking similar shots at public officials might seem unfair, but those elected or appointed to a government office know what they're getting into and have a forum from which to fight back. Jurors are pressed into service, often unwillingly, as a public duty. They don't deserve to have their private lives made public. Interviews like those published by The Times can only dissuade citizens from serving on juries, impeding the ability of courts to give people a fair trial with a truly representative jury.

Janet Jackson, playing Condi Rice, on Saturday Night Live, now.

Update: As Emily Litella would have said, never mind, we're told in the comments in was Maya Rudolph, not Janet playing Condi. Great skit.

Update: Our commenter was wrong and we were right. Pontificator finds this article with picture from the AP showing it was Janet Jackson in the intro skit with Dick Cheney, as we originally posted.

Best comment so far, from Cincy Demo: "Thanks to TalkLeft for demonstrating the unreliable nature of eyewitness identification."

The second to last episode of The Apprentice is on tonight. Take the test, figure out which one of the Apprentice candidates is most like you. We're Bill:

What is Bill's definition of "success"? If I can lead a happy life, touch the lives of others in a positive way, win the respect of those that I care about … and make a few million along the way then I have been successful.

After the show, head on over to Oliver Willis' Apprentice blog for comment. Oliver reports, by the way, that he is Katrina.

After being fined $495k by the FCC, Clear Channel today dropped Howard Stern's show from its radio stations. Here is Howard's response:

"This is not a surprise. This is a follow up to the McCarthy type "witch hunt" of the administration and the activities of this group of presidential appointees in the FCC, led by "Colin Powell Jr." and his band of players....It is pretty shocking that governmental interference into our rights and free speech takes place in the U.S. It's hard to reconcile this with the "land of the free" and the "home of the brave". I'm sure what's next is the removal of "dirty pictures" like the 20th century German exhibit in a New York City Museum and the erotic literature in our libraries; they too will fall into their category of "evil" as well.