• by John Gaffney , February 21, 2003

Other People’s Riffs For The Week

Actually A Working Phone Connection Can Be Tougher To Get: Joe Sharkey in The New York Times this week said: “About seven years ago, in one of those boneheaded statements that can haunt anyone who expresses an opinion in indelible ink, I declared grandly that I wasn't much impressed with the Internet. That, to be sure, was back in the days when Internet hucksters were proposing to spin gold from base metals, but there's nothing like a paralyzing snowstorm on the heels of a long slog on the road to drive home the point that today a working Internet connection is sometimes as valued as a working phone.”

Tin Soldiers And Dubya Comin’: Also from The NYT: “A … song about George W. Bush's rush to war in Iraq would have no chance at all today. There are plenty of angry people, many with prime music-buying demographics. But independent radio stations that once would have played edgy, political music have been gobbled up by corporations that control hundreds of stations and have no wish to rock the boat.”

Oooooh Non, Non, Mademoiselle: Speaking about her second place in finish in Joe Millionaire, Sarah Kozer said: “I thought it was going to be 'Sex and the City' in France."

Quote Of The Week: Al Neuharth, in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle addressed diversity in the media workplace said: “The real key to diversity ... lies in the media newsroom and school classrooms. Too many middle-aged white men still make the decisions. And too many of them still don’t get it.”