BARNICLE was whining again that we on the internets don't plagiarize enough

[UTUSN]

It looks like the Scabs circus has gotten over us, gotten over being bothered by our long ago e-mails, and the whole crew is all complaisant and giddy over itself, just yukking it up despite all of their dooming and glooming for three hours at a stretch.

Yaas, in the early days I'd pop out of dozing when they did a month of slamming PELOSI over her daring to badmouth the CIA or something and I'd fire out an e-mail on their website form (which is only active during the air time), usually listing the crew of criminals and failures (BUCHANAN the Nixon Nazi; BARNICLE the plagiarist; Scabs the scab, etc.), and they would all have downcast eyes and a bit of shame and dejection.

And BARNICLE would sigh and throw out a line bemoaning how the internets people "have no editor" to put the breaks on us, whereas real newspaper writers like him have editors who put the breaks on him.

Well, no more. They have gotten fat in the figurative way and happy. I don't know whether the change had to do with the (producer?) who left with severe health problems. Maybe that guy cared more or something.


So today, with typical Mika Mouse flair, an author was welcomed with Mika Mouse saying, "This is a REALLY GREAT BOOK and it has BARNICLE in it!1" The kicker was when she added, "And I can't WAIT TO READ it!1"

So the book is about what makes great newspaper columnists, and yes, BARNICLE is cited as one of those!1 After a set-up in which "great columnists" were defined and how rooted those were in their own communities, like BRESLIN in New York and somebody else somewhere else, the author dude actually launched into a veritable paean to BARNICLE as one of these greats, the very essence of Boston.

BARNICLE was modestly basking in the slurping-up and I wasn't quite barfing enough to lift out of my dozing, but then he went into his erstwhile self-pity of auld, whining that them was de daze when there were real writers with real editors instead of dese daze of de internets, because, doncherkno, back then a real writer had to go out and experience something then come back and THINK about it before committing it to ink stains, do a little plagiarizing ----uh, I mean, THINKING and RESEARCHING --- which is something that we on the internets just do NOT do!1

It was the old days again!1

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Do you think the nature of professional reporters has not changed?

I'm not familiar with Barnicle's reputation and didn't see the infomercial interview, however, I remember when news shows did news stories. Now they are a vehicle for marketing the latest Disney movie or pimping for the hottest reality series currently aired on the network.

Newspapers actually employed foreign correspondents to get a first hand account of current events back in the day. Not so much now. The internet is the premier research tool du jour, it seems to me.

[UTUSN]

2. Whups, just saw my brain synapse lapse ("breaks" vs "brakes) - OH, for an EDITOR!1 n/t