27) A GREAT WALL . . . OF SILENCE
NBC, broadcast home for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, diligently avoids any serious discussion of social or political problems in modern China while covering the Games.
28) THEY DISTORT — YOU DECIDE!
After Times reporter Jacques Steinberg writes a piece on Fox News' ebbing ratings, the show Fox and Friends runs altered photos of Steinberg (who's given an enlarged nose, a pointier head, and yellowed teeth) and his editor, Steven Reddicliffe (who, in addition to yellowed teeth and a pointier head, gets a receding hairline and dark circles under his eyes).
29) CHRIS? WE NEED TO HAVE A TALK
Chris Matthews caps a bad year for himself (apologizing for misogynistic anti-Hillary commentary; saying Barack Obama generated a "thrill going up [Matthews's] leg") and MSNBC in general (David Shuster apologizing for saying the Clintons were "pimping out" Chelsea; network brass bumping Matthews and Olbermann from their anchor slots due to concern about excessive partisanship) by saying that, as a journalist, his "job" is to "do everything I can to make this thing work, [Obama's] presidency work."
30) ALL THE VANITY REAL ESTATE THAT'S FIT TO HOCK
One year after opening its new, 52-story headquarters — described by Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff as "[a] towering composition of glass and steel clad in a veil of ceramic rods" that will "drag . . . the Times. . . out of the Dark Ages" — the New York Times Co. announces that it's borrowing up to $225 million against the building to deal with a cash-flow problem, thereby uniquely contributing to the Times' coverage of the ongoing economic meltdown.
To read the "Don't Quote Me" blog, go to thePhoenix.com/medialog. Adam Reilly can be reached atareilly@phx.com.
Editor's Note: In a previously published version of this story, in the 2nd point, the author mistakenly identified Ashley Todd (the young woman with the "B" carved into her forehead) as a McCain campaign volunteer; Todd was actually a College Republican National Committee employee.
