On No More Music Magazines: The Problem With Publicists and the Celeb Industrial Complex, Part XXVI
Um, the biggest reason music magazines are closing is because the music industry that supported them with ad dollars is in freefall. Add that to the problems the rest of the print publishing industry's woes and you get closings. Kinda simple. Of course, that provable reason couldn't be spun into a flashy -- yet meaningless -- column about the zeitgeist of music criticism, social networking and Beyonce's hot pants, so, yeah, he didn't do that one.
Posted on August 1, 2009 at 10:52 am
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On The Death of the Public Option: The Sloppy White House Healthcare Briefing
I think this is a call-to-arms for liberals, including Team Obama, who thought everything would be fine on this because there’s a Democratic president and Congress. This hoohaw â€" if there will even be one â€" over whether the public option is “preferred†or “essential†is a test to see how well The Left can support their guy. Up to now, Dick Armey and his army of shouty decoys have been outmaneuvering them at every turn.
Seriously, why didn’t anyone in the Obama administration think that the insurance companies and Big Pharma would mobilize a “grassroots†campaign to stop reform? And why has it taken them this long to realize that the only way to stop a “grassroots†campaign is with an actual grassroots campaign?
If they can’t figure out a way to get their one-time supporters talking about how insurers already make “Grandma-killing†decisions by denying coverage or how they force Grandma and Grandpa into bankruptcy so that Medicare will have to take care of them, the whole prospect for reform is doomed.