A note to our readers

Most of this week was spent attempting to figure out how to get items that showed they were published to display on this site. As a result, we didn't put the time in that we normally would have in the days prior to getting together to turn out the latest edition. For that reason, you won't find any book reviews or movie reviews. In fact, you'll find only one blog spotlight.

We wanted to register our frustation and disappointment that the death of journalist John H. Johnson just didn't seem to get noted by the mainstream press. There was no feeding frenzy of the sort that accompanied the news of Peter Jennings death. We're also shocked that some at ABC thought Monday's World News Tonight passed for news, let alone world news. The journalist is not the story.

So we address these issue. We address them with the Blog Spotlight of Cedric's Big Mix. We address them with a scripted parody of World News Tonight. We address them with an essay.
In addition, Ava & C.I. review the two hour, commercial free, prime time special entitled Peter Jennings Reporter. For those worried that Ava & C.I. might be going maudlin, don't worry. Their humor is "sufficently intact" (as Kat noted when reading over it -- riffing on a line from a Lone Justice song written by Maria McKee, "Wheels"). For the good taste guardians, fret ye not, Ava and C.I. don't make one joke about Peter Jennings. Reflecting the stance throughout the pieces in this edition, Peter Jennings is not the issue.

The press is. That they laregly ignored the passing of John H. Johnson and went into overdrive on the passing of Peter Jennings is discussed, in relation to them. That a special not only fails to live up to its name (Peter Jennings Reporter) but also manages to go against everything that Jennings is reported to have stood for is noted.

We do another Third Estate Sunday Review news review. Largely because we wanted to get done quickly and, as devised by Dona, this is a piece that has to be done in one hour. Whether it's done or not, after one hour, Dona will say "That's it."

We do it in the form of transcript to a broadcast. (In honor of Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez and all the other people working so hard at Democracy Now!) Last week, we should have noted, but didn't, that Ty went first so that he could begin helping with research. C.I. pointed that out over at The Common Ills. But we did get e-mails from people who felt Ty tossed out an easy item and then apparently went off to take a nap. Everyone's working during that feature. We have Dallas hunting down links. C.I.'s having to listen to what's being said and pay attention to Dona's constant announcements of how much time has elapsed. Last week, C.I. and Betty got into a discussion of Marilyn Monroe and that came about because no one was ready to go after Betty so Dona told C.I. and Betty to stretch. It ended up being our favorite part of the news review (and some readers' favorite as well). We wanted that interplay to take place more this time and we think it does. There is one part where C.I.'s told to stretch "big time" and for those who like puzzles, you can read over it and see if you can identify that part. C.I. wanted it noted that Kat did not go over her intended time. (Kat said she actually liked the idea of people thinking she was hogging time.) Kat ticked off her items very quickly (probably quicker than they read and we had to have her help in figuring out the transcription because she went that fast -- she knew from Dona that time was winding down).

C.I. brings Dona back in at one point. That wasn't due to being told to "stretch." That was due to listening to Jess report on Bully Boy being in Crawford. It took Dona completely by surprise because she had no idea why she was being asked back (and was really focusing on telling people to get their reports nailed down). It's an interesting point that emerges as a result and if we weren't doing the back and forth, we don't know that it would have occurred to C.I. and we doubt it would have occurred to us. (It's important enough that we made the issue raised the second half of this week's editorial.)

We'll also note that C.I. doesn't want to be "anchor." That role came about when we wanted to rerun something from The Common Ills where Kara and C.I. were having a humorous exchange. To do something other than a blog spotlight (and The Common Ills is not a blog and, yes, we get that lecture everytime we select an entry from it for our "Blog spotlight" feature), Dona came up with the idea of doing soemthing like that, a psuedo newscast. Since we would be using the entire thing that Kara and C.I. had worked out, it seemed logical to make C.I. the anchor for the entire piece. (C.I. feels it's too much attention and also that it would be more fun to focus on pulling from various sources to come up with a report.) If C.I. continues to hate doing that role, we'll rethink it; however, for now, when we do this feature, C.I. will remain the anchor. Our apologies to Elaine who had a piece prepared (on torture and doctors) but we ran out of time. Cedric and Elaine were the last two remaining (Jim had already given up his time when it was obvious that we were running low on time) and Dona went over their pieces with them and asked both to cut severely. Cedric was able to reduce his but Elaine's involved a number of interrelated issues and the cuts destroyed her piece. While this was going on, Mike was shoved next in line when he was supposed to go last. We think Mike thought quickly on his feet and we thank everyone for being elastic and willing to bend.

Specifically, we thank the following for work on the script parody, the editorial, the essay, and the news review: Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine subbing for Rebecca at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man and Kat of Kat's Korner. We also thank Dallas, always, for hunting down links. And we thank Miguel for allowing us to rerun his Common Ills entry on Democracy Now! We thank Cedric for allowing us to spotlight his entry on John H. Johnson.

We thank Ava and C.I. for their TV review which remains their own work.

And we thank our readers. Last week's edition wasn't an easy find as many of you noted in e-mails. We thank C.I. for reprinting the news review and the editorial at The Common Ills because they weren't displaying here. (Note: C.I. contributed to all features in this edition except this note. We're claiming C.I. as a Third Estater hence the non-inclusion in the thanks above.) Hopefully, you'll find something here that makes you laugh or makes you think or makes you angry.

-- Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty and Ava (and C.I.)