Running down the papers:
Post: ‘DRAG ‘NET: NYPD WELCOMES CRIME WEB VIDEO’
Terrific hed, and so’s the story:
Call it BlueTube.
Witnesses with video or photos of criminal activity will soon be able to upload their evidence directly to the police.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday urged citizens to eliminate the middleman — and the Internet — and share their footage with New York’s Finest.
“Within the next two months, people will be able to send video and text straight to 911 to increase flow of information,” Kelly said.
His appeal would include any evidence of alleged police misconduct, like the embarrassing videos that surfaced in the past week.
Only problem is that you send video to the NYPD, the cops open a file on you.
This is a clever P.R. move by the cops because the footage is going to be shot anyway, and maybe those who shoot it will hand it over to the cops first and won’t immediately run with it to the press or post it themselves, thus reducing the risk to the NYPD of uncontrolled bad publicity and giving Kelly time to craft the right response to incriminating videos.
Times: ‘McCain Tries to Define Obama as Out of Touch’
Call that “news”? It’s effective propaganda by the McCain campaign, at very little cost. The McCain/Bush “veterans” now don’t have to do this at all, because the Times has already embedded the phrase “negative narrative about Barack Obama” in voters’ brains.
Post: ‘BARACK THE BIMBO’: MAC ATTACK AD PAINTS OBAMA WITH BLOND BRUSH
Carl Campanile and the paper’s headline writers show the Times how it’s done:
Sources tell me that the word “bimbo” is not in the New York Times style guide.
Times: ‘A New Generation of Republicans in Alaska’
William Yardley‘s below-average piece, inexplicably promoted as a “top story”:
So friggin’ what? Ted Stevens’s scandalous stuff with an oil industry exec is interesting. But does this “new generation of Republicans in Alaska” have any impact on whether Alaska’s wilderness will be further plundered by the oil industry? Not a peep about that issue in this story.
Post: ‘PLAYTIME FOR JULIUS “SEIZER” ‘
Straining on the toilet of non-news news, the Post dumps this hed on us, after two straight days of brilliance about the “Rockefooler.” Clever but forced, and it’s based on this lede, which admittedly is pretty damn good on a relatively insubstantial piece of news:
Clark Rockefeller was a faker in every way possible.
The man of mystery, who’s being sought for plucking his young daughter off a Boston street and disappearing with her in New York, masqueraded in real life as a blueblood Rockefeller – but in his spare time, he dabbled in the fantasy world of acting.
Rockefeller donned armor to portray Mars, the Roman god of war, in a 2005 performance in the town of Cornish, NH. Sword in one hand, shield in the other, he stole the show in The Masque of the Golden Bull, during which he was surrounded by a bevy of beautiful actresses.
Fresh angle, but flimsy. Yeah, this guy’s an ersatz Rockefeller. Nelson Rockefeller showed what it takes: Word after his 1979 death at age 70 was that he died in the saddle with a 26-year-old chickie, though that’s never been absolutely proven.
Now that was a real superman. This phony guy on the lam is just a Clark Went.
Daily News: ‘Depressed during holidays, Clark Rockefeller spoke of kidnapping’
The Daily News shows the Post how not to do it:
Here’s a grin, though. Above the hed, there’s this line:
Post: ‘$25M SUIT: HO-LOVIN’ HUBBY GAVE ME STDS’
Dareh Gregorian‘s lede:
Such an eloquent oral report.
Times: ‘Democrats Call for Contempt Charges Against Rove’
Grossly understated headline. It implies some sort of press conference. No, it was an actual, formal vote by a powerful House committee:
Democrats on both sides of the Capitol assailed the administration’s handling of the Justice Department yet again on Wednesday, and a House committee recommended contempt charges against Karl Rove, who was President Bush’s top political adviser.
The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines, 20 to 14, to cite Mr. Rove for defying its subpoena to testify in an inquiry into improper political meddling in the department.
It doesn’t matter that it was strictly along party lines. That’s a big step for the ordinarily lily-livered top Demo leadership to move beyond press conference whining to an actual vote.
On the other hand, what’s kept them? I’ve been holding Rove in contempt for several years, and so have many others.