What Happens When You Promote Karen Eliot House to Publisher?

You're down a great foreign affairs columnist. Her piece yesterday on North Korea and Iraq was clear and cogent. And an antidote to all the drivel that has been written on the subject in recent weeks.

Day Three

236. Off to the gym.

When Is A Columnist The Lonely Voice of Truth?

When he's Paul Krugman! Here's what he told Der Spiegel:

"Instead [of writing a column about the New Economy], I now find myself once again as the lonely voice of truth in a sea of corruption. Sometimes I think that one of these days I'll end up in one of those cages on Guantanamo Bay (laughs). But I can still seek asylum in Germany. I hope you'd accept me in an emergency."

Andrew Sullivan has more.

When Is A Scribe Like Billie Holiday?

When he works at The New Yorker! Here's New Yorker editor David Remnick on New Yorker "essayist" Hedrick Hertzberg:

"He's the political voice of the magazine....Rick's writing has a kind of moral tone that is irreplaceable—he has tone control the way Billie Holiday had tone control, and his sentences are as well-timed as the most brilliant joke or song phrasing."

Not just a moral tone! Moral tone control! I bet you don't have that.

Dear Fatso

Thanks to all those who have e-mailed diet/exercise advice. I appreciate it. I haven't consulted a nutritionist or dietician (or whatever they're called). I'm just going with the "eating less" diet (and no sweets). And working out every day. I've postponed the nicotine patch until Monday, just because.

Virginia Postrel, whose excellent site you should bookmark if you haven't already, has taken an interest in my progress and reports today that I have gained six pounds. This is incorrect. When I began this drill, my weight on our bathroom scale was 229 pounds. My weight on the gym scale was 233 pounds. I threw out 229 pounds as my benchmark weight and reset it at 233 pounds, after I was informed that the gym scale was (alas) accurate. Since then, I've gained three pounds which I expect will be gone by Monday.

The workouts are great. 30 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes on the tread or the bike and then weight-lifting for 15 minutes, followed by stretching and adios. The I-Pod makes it move along nicely. I've started at the "2" level of exertion and will stay there for two weeks. Then up to "3." Then up to "4." Etcetera.

I'm using the blog to discipline myself. No matter what happens, I have to post my weight every day until April 10th. Needless to say, my "friends" are using this to set up over-under betting pools. One of them was kind enough to inform me that the over-under on my weight for February 1, 2003 was 236 pounds. Another emailed to say that he was betting heavily that I would be 240 pounds by April 1st. Another emailed with the salutation: "Dear Fatso."

I wish them all luck with a capital "F."

Day Two

236. Off to the gym.

The NFL on Pay-Per-View

The networks are losing their shirts carrying National League Football. The Wall Street Journal reports the gory details:

"Fox took a $387 million charge in 2002 against earnings to pay for the NFL. Industry executives estimate ABC is losing more than $100 million a year on its broadcast of "Monday Night Football." Despite this season's increase, NFL TV ratings are down more than 10% since the current network contract began in 1998. The cost picture isn't improving: The networks' annual payments to the NFL -- an average of $500 million to $600 million -- are scheduled to escalate in the last three years of the current eight-year deal."

NBC estimates that it would have lost $1 billion over the last five years on the NFL, had it not "lost out" in the bidding for broadcast rights. Ever true to form, CBS maintains that it does not lose money on its NFL contract. I'm not sure if this is corporate vanity or corporate mendacity. But it ain't true.

Strategery

New York Times reporting on the behavior of The New York Times Company is usually highly polished, with perfect quotes from management and rosey scenarios for whatever management is plotting. So this morning's report by David Kirkpatrick on the NYT's takeover of the International Herald Tribune is revealing, since it describes management as essentially clueless.

The key graphs:

"Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Co., said it intended to keep the existing International Herald Tribune intact. 'We are not jumping into this to change the IHT,' Sulzberger said. 'We are jumping into this to understand a marketplace that we don't understand the way we should.'"

Edward Atorino, an analyst who follows newspaper companies at the investment bank Blaylock Partners, said the Herald Tribune might eventually provide a useful base for international expansion, a logical extension of The Times's recent moves to attract more readers in the United States outside New York. But Atorino said profit from publishing internationally was unlikely to amount to a significant sum for The New York Times Co. as a whole. .

Howell Raines, executive editor of The Times, will oversee the news operations of the Herald Tribune. Raines said the international paper, which is printed in many locations around the world, would eventually become part of The Times's strategy to make its journalism available in a variety of formats, including local and national editions and the Herald Tribune, as well as television, radio and the Internet.
.
"What we are moving toward is a kind of integrated New York Times report that is carried in a variety of media, including the International Herald Tribune," Raines said.

The NYT is jumping into a marketplace (it doesn't) understand? The IHT will eventually become part of a New York Times strategy? The IHT won't make any money? And remember: this is the official, scrubbed-twelve-ways-to-Sunday version of the story.
.

What The World Needs Now: More Liberal Media

You can't make this stuff up. Here are the two key paragraphs from Jim Rutenberg's story this morning about Democratic schemes to create a more liberal media:

"In one of the more ambitious of the ideas circulating, a group of wealthy Democratic supporters is toying with the idea of starting a liberal cable network. That endeavor would cost in the hundreds of millions and require the backing of a media company with enough leverage to force it onto the major cable systems.

Democratic officials said that they had discussed a similar idea with Haim Saban, a media mogul and party supporter, a couple of years ago, as Fox News began its ascent, but that he ultimately decided against it, in large part because of the odds against success."

If Democrats believe that they are losing elections because the media are not liberal enough, then they really ought to just give up.

A Bit of Bad News On the Weight Thing.

I weighed myself at the gym today and the number was 233 pounds. So that's the benchmark number: 233 lbs. Daily posting of (hopefully lower) weight figures begins Thursday, as does the Patch.

2002!

1. Athlete of the Year: Anika Sorenstam.
2. Upset of the Year: Norm Coleman over Walter Mondale in Minnesota.
3. Novel of the Year: The Lovely Bones.
4. Reporter of the Year: Mark Bowden.
5. Bloggers of the Year: Andrew Sullivan/Mickey Kaus.
6. Movie of the Year: Big Fat Greek Wedding.
7. Company of the Year: Toyota.
8. Customer Service Idea of the Year: In-Store Tech Support (Apple).
9. Technology of the Year: Wireless Fidelity (WiFi).
10. Politician of the Year: George W. Bush.
11. Magazine of the Year: The Economist.
12. Business Nightmare of the Year: "Price Discipline" (the inability to raise prices).
13. Airline of the Year: JetBlue.
14. Coffee of the Year: Dean and DeLuca's House Blend.
15. Dumbest Idea of the Year: Tiger Shouldn't Play The Masters.
16. Best Merger of the Year: HP-Compaq.
17. Best News of the Year: No new terror attacks on US soil.
18. Best New Magazine Idea: Fix. Kudos to Anne Kreamer.
19. Best Team of the Year: US Special Forces.
20. Best Administration Player: Paul Wolfowitz.

Happy New Year to all.

Murder Most Foul

The murder of three Americans in Yemen throws the recent remarks of Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) into stark relief. Here is what Sen. Murray said about a week ago today:

"Bin Laden's been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health-care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven’t done that. How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"

All three of those murdered yesterday worked at a charity hospital in Jilba, Yemen. The hospital has been operated by the Southern Baptist Convention for 35 years. Hospital staff are not permitted to proselytize. Their work is to provide the people of Yemen with the best possible medical attention.

The three were shot in cold blood at point blank range. A fourth person was injured in the attack, but is expected to recover.

Ridley on Raelian Cloning

Matt Ridley, author of the excellent book Genome, has a strong piece about the implications of the birth of the baby girl known as Eve. Ridley argues that the Raelian cult will be to therapeutic cloning what Chernoybol was to nuclear power; a damaging and perhaps game-ending event.

VNS DOA?

Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times reports this morning that the television news networks are leaning toward pulling the plug on the Voter News Service (VNS). This is something that the nets should have done long ago but didn't (for all the usual stupid corporate reasons). VNS's performance on election night 2002 was even worse than its dreadful effort of 2000.

The question now is whether the Network Suits will (a) throw open the bidding to the widest possible vendor pool (IBM, MSFT, SUNW would all be strong bidders) or (b) continue to promulgate the old-boy CBS News Election Unit network. The answer will almost certainly be option "b."

New Year's Resolution

This year's resolution is to lose weight and get fit. Toward that end, I joined a local health club and will begin a regular weight training/elliptical machine regimen beginning tomorrow morning. On January 2nd, I will quit smoking for the remainder of the month (and then we'll see what happens from there). On January 3rd, I will begin posting my weight on the blog every morning. Presently, I weigh 229 pounds. The goal is to weigh 205 lbs by the opening of golf season (roughly April 10th). Stay tuned.

Iraq and the Arab World

Is the title of a longish piece by Fouad Ajami in the new issue of Foreign Affairs. It is well worth reading. Thanks to reader Barry K. for the URL.