A look back at April’s fools: a roundup

Just like the rest of you, yesterday we kept an eye out for journalistic tomfoolery in the tradition that is the first of April. Here’s what we found:

She’s not bitter, she’s not bitter at all

Okay so ABC News anchor Gigi Stone and her co-anchor are reading a story on falling models… turns out, Stone has some bones to pick!

“They have a terribly hard job just walking up and down, getting paid millions of dollars, thinking the whole time…”

Whoops, my bad.

Wow! Talk about embarrassing!

This weekend, Star magazine reported that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married over the weekend. Unfortunately for Star news, that wasn’t the case:

Sources in a position to have information regarding a secret wedding ceremony between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had confirmed to Star that the couple married in the French Quarter Wedding Chapel on Saturday, March 29. “There were two weddings, one planned and one unplanned,” one source told Star. “Brad and Angelina’s was the planned ceremony. The weather wasn’t good, so we were indoors.”

Mm-hmm, yeah, okay…

$15 versus 15 years

Fifteen dollars can buy you a lot of things — 30 tacos at Jack in the Box, three footlong sandwiches at Subway, or if you’re feeling really glam, a three course meal at Denny’s, tip included! $15 can also buy you this: (Media Bistro- How To Start a Blog)

FJOTD: Robin Scherbatsky!

Good morning readers!

After a long, hard deliberation, we have decided that our Fictional Journalist of the Day is none other than How I Met Your Mother’s Robin Scherbatsky.

Robin is a reporter at a local news station in New York. What is it aboot her that makes this Scherbatsky girl special? Its not often you meet very many girls who enjoy guns, smoke cigars, date characters portrayed by Enrique Iglesias, and in some magic way… are from Canada. This girl is a looker. Melissa Theuriau-esque, almost!

That wasn’t always the case though:

Right aboot now you’re probably thinking, what the heck happened here? We’ll show you what happened alright!

And if you’re not convinced yet:

Lets go look at links! …today.

– Craigslist is going multi-lingual! (cnewmark.com)

– When you can’t beat ‘em… start a blog and anonymously post about the people against you. Classy guys, very classy.(news.com.au)

– Can you believe this? Only 7 percent of all ad dollars goes to online advertising! And now they want more. (NYFishbowl)

– Ever wondered how much a top reporter makes at a newspaper? Here’s your chance to find out! (newsguild.org)

– Blogger threats another blogger over a screen capture, ends up getting pwned! (hirejimessian.com)

Friends with benefits

What? We still haven’t posted a video today? Well we’re going to change that right now! Here’s poignant discussion on the current state of journalism and news reporting that was featured on Real Time with Bill Maher a little over a year ago. Guests include Dan Rathers, Martha Raddatz, and um… for some reason, Jason Alexander.

What in blog’s name is a blog?

Around these here parts, we kind of feel that talking about blogs as the new “cool, hip (yes, hip!)” thing and reading “what exactly is a blog?”-type articles (cringe) are a bit passe. The misnomer that bloggers are only tech savvy hipsters who talk like Juno or fat guys who live in their mom’s basements have been dispelled, no?

By no means are we trying to be elitists here, and you are definitely welcomed to disagree with us (comments), but it’s just that we feel they’ve been around long enough that it’s safe to assume the casual reader has a basic understanding of what exactly is a blog. Just because you don’t know how something works, doesn’t mean you don’t know what it is.

FJOTD: Andie Anderson

Hello friends!

Tinmaker here, Its 5:40 and I am bringing you the late afternoon of FJOTD! You already got to know our friend (and my hometown hero) Ron Burgandy. Now lets take a trip east and meet Kate Hudson’s Andie Anderson!

The Ruckmaker already gave Kate and Matt some face time on this blog, so I bring you How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days- OC style! I love this movie- ruthless editors, glamorous clothing, and illicit relationships (Advertising vs. Journalism? Blog forbid!), not to mention.. a Celine Dion concert! How can it get any better?

FYI: Newspapers aren’t doing that great

In “Out of Print: The death and life of the American Newspaper,” New Yorker writer Eric Alterman takes us on a journey as to the decline of newspapers, how the internet is taking over, and why the HuffPo is indeed going to out live us all.What was that? You didn’t know that the newspaper business was declining? Oh… yikes. This isn’t awkward. This isn’t awkward at all.

Media cover-up? You don’t say!

The Associated Press ran a story today about the lack of headlines covering the Iraq war in the U.S. media. It’s no secret that it’s been an unpopular subject for the current administration, and quite frankly (and perhaps callously), five years and 4,000 U.S. deaths in Iraq later, it seems that the American public may just be tired of hearing about it.

This is, for the most part, a nation of escapism. Britney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith (may she rest in peace), The Hills (are you friggin’ serious right now?), etc.

The short attention span of the mass population (and we’re not saying we’re not a part of that group) just doesn’t care about things that don’t affect their day-to-day lives. Out of sight, out of mind is sort of a mantra around these here parts.

For the minority that do care, and are aware (and we’re not saying that we’re a part of this group either), they get drowned out by the bull horn that is the American media.

So why do they do it? Are they pushing a political agenda? Or are they just chasing profits? It’s probably a mixture of both, with a bit of special sauce on the side, we assume.

We’ll part this post with one of our all-time favorite quotes: