“Dear Jeff”

I note that Washington Post  boss Jeff Bezos has indicated that he wants “more conservative writers” at his birdcage-liner publication.  Hell, I could do with a job, so here goes:

“Dear Jeff:

“If you’re serious about hiring more conservative writers at the Post, then please allow me to submit my application for just such a position.

“Now I will say at the outset that I have no actual journalistic experience, but I feel that this shouldn’t count against me for two reasons:  firstly, as far as I can tell, the Post  hasn’t had any actual journalists on the payroll for about twenty years, and the ones who claim to be journalists are anything but that.  Secondly, if you really want more conservative writers, I can think of few better than I to fill such a position in that I have consistently voiced conservative opinions in an online format for well over twenty years — and by “conservative”, I mean in support of such issues as Constitutional rights support, and vitriolic hatred of Socialism/Communism/Leftism/Jacobism whatever you want to call the foul, slimy denizens of that edge of the political spectrum.

“Speaking of said vitriol, I will make a considerable concession to you in that I will refrain from referring to said denizens as “cocksuckers” (even when, as in the case of Kamala Harris, they are actual suckers of the male appendage).  And in similar vein, I will refrain from using the seven forbidden words of George Carlin as much as I am able, but I will rely on the layers and layers of editorial staff to be my backup should I fail.  (You may stop laughing now.)

“Now, my naysayers (and there may be some) will say that my arrival at the Post  will cause a stir among the existing staff and your regular readers, resulting in mass resignations among the former and still more subscription cancellations from the latter.  In the case of the existing staff, “mass resignations” can only be seen as A Good Thing because they are largely responsible for your current problems, in that the general public views the Post as being unworthy even to line birdcages.

“As far as cancellations of existing subscriptions are concerned, I am pretty sure that these will be far outweighed by the new subscriptions you will get from others — even if they are only interested “to see what that fascist asshole has said today”.  In the immortal words of Roger Ailes to Rupert Murdoch, there’s half of America to be had, and while I can’t guarantee the whole half, I can assure you that there will be a goodly portion thereof that might consider a Post subscription to be worth their while, with me on your staff.

“And just from a marketing perspective, I’m pretty sure that in hiring me, you will also siphon more than a few eyeballs from Breitbart News, if this is important to you.

“Also, I will not confine my writing to politics.  My own website (once you’ve got past the strong language) also contains material such as movie reviews, thoughts on literature, clothing, architecture and the Fine Arts.  I will also write a weekly feature on guns — one of my strong suits, if I may be so bold — which will contain honest appraisals of guns because unlike reviewers at gun magazines,  I am not beholden to gun manufacturers for advertising support.  And, I suspect, they aren’t interested in buying advertising space at the Post  right now, so you’re not going to lose anything.  But there are hundreds of millions of gun owners — potential readers, if you will — who might think of reading such honest reviews at the Post  instead of being confronted with your newspaper’s existing anti-gun stance on a daily basis.

“Speaking of weekly features, you may want to consider including my ‘Dear Dr. Kim’ articles, which dispense common-sense advice to the needy in a largely jocular and satirical manner.

“From a financial perspective, my salary demands would be modest — certainly compared to overpaid morons like Jennifer Rubin — but we can discuss that privately.  Oh, and sorry, but I absolutely refuse to move to Washington D.C. lest I get infected by the Beltway Disease and be subjected to their disgusting regulations on firearms ownership.  Conservative opinion is best nurtured in Middle America — okay, northern Texas, in my case — but even that is a positive thing in that I will require no office space in your building.

“Lastly (and this is no small thing), you may rely on me to use proper grammar and syntax in my writings — again, something which has not been much in evidence at the Post for the past several decades.

“And oh, by the way, if the DEI thing is still important to you:  like Elon Musk, I am a proud African-American.”

Sincerely,

Scare Quotes

I am so sick of seeing bullshit headlines like this:

Why the quotes?  The actual report itself:

A manhunt for a suspected knifeman has been launched today after a ‘heavily pregnant’ woman was stabbed in Aberfan in a suspected ‘domestic incident’.

Let me just parse this.

  • The woman was “heavily pregnant” — i.e., she had a huge non-Lizzo-style belly, clearly apparent.
  • She was stabbed — obviously apparent, so no quotes.  But then we have:
  • A”suspected” knifeman (my quotes).  If she was so obviously stabbed, how could the stabber be a “suspected” knifeman?

I know, I know:  the reporter is simply reporting from what he’s been told by, one imagines, either the police or hospital staff, hence all the quotes.

And it’s all bullshit.  A pregnant woman was stabbed by a knife-wielding man (even that’s redundant), and police are looking for him.  The circumstances surrounding the stabbing were, apparently, that it was down to a domestic incident — i.e. the stabber was known by the stabbee — the details of which are still unknown.

If it turns out that it wasn’t a domestic incident — i.e. that the woman was stabbed by some nutcase because he hates Tuesdays and the voices in his head told him to hurt someone, anyone — then the time for amending the report comes when the newspaper can print that no, it wasn’t a domestic incident as first reported, it was just some random loony.

I’m sorry, I meant “loony”.

I realize that this is the Daily Mail  newspaper– hardly a paragon of acceptable journalism — but fucking hell, can we at least dispense with all the prevaricating quote marks?

Isn’t THAT Special?

In case you were wondering, yes:  there is a noise in the background, and it is the sound of hoofbeats:

Why?  Silly rabbits, this is the reason:

Made In Chelsea to become first UK show in TV history to broadcast three-way kiss between male throuple as Channel 4 hire ‘Queer Expert’ to oversee storyline

Every single phrase in that headline is appalling. And try as I may, I can’t even make a joke about it.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and puke my guts out.  And then go to the range.

Fixing The Mess

I see that CNN has canned their CEO after only about a year on the job:

CNN CEO Chris Licht will be leaving the media company just 16 months after being picked for the position.

Licht announced Wednesday that he will be leaving CNN after meeting with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. The 51-year-old CEO will be replaced in the interim by a three-person leadership team which includes longtime CNN executive Amy Entelis, who worked closely with former cable news boss Jeff Zucker before Zucker’s resignation in February of 2022.

“For a number of reasons things didn’t work out and that’s unfortunate,” Zaslav said. “It’s really unfortunate. And ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.”

Zaslav told employees that CNN is “in the process of conducting a wide search” for a new leader that could “take a while.”

I want this job.  Here’s how I see it working.

If CNN is serious about rebuilding its image and ratings, what better way to signal that change than by picking an avowed conservative (i.e. me) who will not become enthralled by blowjob pieces by the New York Times  and Atlantic Magazine?

My first pledge would be to make CNN’s principle business about actual news instead of opinion — all their talking heads would be fired on Day One of my tenure — and my job would be to make their ad line “This… is CNN”  something that doesn’t instantly cause mocking laughter and isn’t used as a punchline.

See this shit?

Politicians and media personalities from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Joe Scarborough were angered by CNN’s decision to host Trump on the platform that has consistently offered friendly coverage to Democrats.

Gone.  I pledge to give unfriendly or at best skeptical coverage to everybody.  If that frightens off the Lefties, c’est la vie.  (For some reason, conservatives have no problem with this, as long as they are treated fairly — Tim Scott went on The View  recently, even.)

Sure, I know nothing about running a media company.  So what?  “Industry experience” doesn’t seem to have helped them very much in the recent past, has it?

I’d move all their New York offices to somewhere like Fort Worth, cutting the cord of the New Jersey Turnpike, so to speak, and okay, I’d make the sacrifice myself and relocate to Atlanta.

Oh, and by the way:  I’m cheap.  Best way to increase profits is to cut costs, most especially salaries (see “terminated talking heads”, above) and the best way to signal that is for the CEO to be the first to take a pay cut.  All media people are overpaid anyway.  And to those who would say that I’d be hiring cheap (ergo inferior) replacements, I would point out that the overpaid assholes they’ve currently got on staff have not exactly covered themselves with glory.

I’d be satisfied with a two-year contract at $12 million p.a., no shares or stock options (conflict of interest), with further annual extensions at $12 million each (because I don’t want to work there for too long lest I get cooties).

They could use one of these as my profile pic:

It would frighten all the right people, and please all those on the right.

To quote Roger Ailes:  “Half the market.”

What could CNN lose, any more than they’ve lost already?

Ahem

Following yesterday’s post about ads posing as news items at Breitbart, I see this little thing today:

I’m not saying that I had anything to do with it, of course, but I also note that the “Sponsored” note appears at the END of the headline and not at the top.

Improvements still needed, dickheads.

Even worse, they still tried to sneak it in as news on the sidebar:

They really must think we’re stupid.