Per police sources:
A man who committed suicide during a routine traffic stop near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, left a note claiming responsibility for killing the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago, police sources said Thursday.
If true, this is a bad turn for TV news. Speculation on white supremacist suspects made for a much sexier story.
With little fanfare, some in Congress (R-Inc.) are seeking to promote the interests of some road users. Whose interests? [Hint: not yours or mine.]
Is it just me or has it been extremely hard to watch TV news lately? Let me count the ways:
Jacko
Martha Stewart’s pullover
Hillary
Dan Rather
And what the heck happened to CNN Headline News in the evening? I never really watched it much. But when I did, I expected to see, you know, news. Not another Court TV channel.
Whenever people talk about the network evening news broadcast ratings going down the toilet, they cite the availability of other news outlets–cable TV and the Internet–as a contributing factor. Up to this point, I’d been skeptical of the latter reason, since it’s usually more stimulating to watch video than read news articles online. But if TV news keeps this up I may soon be joining those who rely on the Internet as their primary news source.
UPDATE: Oh brother.
John Stossel has a column in which he rightly points out that (1) TV news reporting on gasoline stinks, and (2) the price of gasoline, adjusted for inflation, isn’t anywhere near the all time high. Stossel then goes on to rave about “what a bargain we’re getting from oil companies.”
It’s true that gas is still relatively “cheap.” But we are still paying a lot more than two years ago. And that’s new spending which is being taking away from other sectors of the economy. Sooner or later, that’s going to take a toll. Over the past 50 years, there’s a pretty strong correlation between oil price spikes and bear markets. So this really is a news story.
I wonder if Stossel would still be writing on how “cheap” gas was if the federal government suddenly slapped a 25 cent/gallon tax on it.
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33 Words
Via Slashdot, a university visiting scholar proposes that the music industry could make more money if it lowered download fees to five cents a song and significantly grows demand.
Five Cents Per Song
I’m sure the music industry has had plenty of consultants weigh in on what the pricing sweet spot is to maximize profits. And unless free file sharing goes off the charts, I don’t suspect we’ll be significant pricing changes. But as a music consumer, five cents per song sounds like a great idea.
