Archive for 2018

YUUGE BREAKING STORY! ACTIVATE THE DRUDGE SIREN! A raccoon climbing a skyscraper in Minnesota is a media sensation, and trending on Twitter.

Since he’s in St. Paul, rather than New York, he still has a chance of surviving. Follow #mprraccoon for all the latest exciting developments.

UPDATE: Tim Nelson‏ of Minnesota Public Radio tweets, “For those of you worried about : Animal control folks have put live trap on tower roof with aromatic food, hope raccoon smells it and can make its way to the roof, be captured and safely brought down to the ground. Not much else to do but wait and hope.”

We’ll let you know if and when more comes in.

IN NEW YORK, SCRAPPY LOCAL NEWSPAPER STRUGGLES FOR SURVIVAL. New York Times: It’s All Craiglist’s Fault.

Craig Newmark, the Craigslist entrepreneur who arguably forced the newspaper industry to change its business model after his website put a dent in the lucrative classified ads business, is giving $20 million to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism…. Now, maybe it’s just me, but I get the impression that the Times’ writer, and probably the whole New York Times, are not comfortable with Mr. Newmark, and certainly not with having a journalism school named after him.

Heh. Read the whole thing.

(Classical reference in headline.)

BREAKING: JUDGE APPROVES AT&T TAKEOVER OF TIME WARNER.

A federal judge on Tuesday approved AT&T’s massive, unprecedented merger with Time Warner, dismissing the government’s claim that the $85.4 billion deal violates federal anti-trust law.

The merger, which will bring brands such as HBO, CNN, and Warner Bros. under the control of one telecom giant, is expected to set off a wave of similar deals among large corporations eager to merge with companies that are not direct competitors but operate in a related space.

Read the whole thing.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Hollywood Lies About Its Blatant Liberal Bias. “The industry deserves an honorary Oscar for pretending its progressive content is fair and balanced.”

If “Crash” could be named Best Picture, why not?

STATEMENT DRAFTED BY HARVARD’S DEPARTMENT OF CHUTZPAH: Harvard emailed its alumni today (subject line: “Defending Diversity”) warning them that those bringing a lawsuit charging the college with discriminating against Asian Americans will “seek to paint an unfamiliar and inaccurate image of our community,” by making claims that, in Harvard’s opinion, “rely on misleading, selectively presented data taken out of context.” Apparently that’s bad when it happens to Harvard administrators, though not so much when Harvard does it to its own students.

SOMEONE FOUND A USE FOR TWITTER: For every time this tweet is retweeted, Country Time will add a dollar to its Lemon-Ade (ha!) legal defense fund for young entrepreneurs harassed by busybodies and bureaucrats:

My colleague Ryan Young has more here.