• by John Gaffney , June 26, 2003

Swwwwwakkk: I thought New York magazine columnist Mark Wolff's recent comments about the Iraqi war coverage were out of hand. Basically he insinuated that the major broadcast and cable networks were kissing up to the government so they could curry favor with the FCC as they made their media ownership decisions. "A** kissing has gone on to a profound degree. It's pervasive throughout all these news organizations. They need the FCC to behave in certain ways. In order to do this we have got to go along to get along," said Wolff, who delivered the keynote speech at London's MediaGuardian forum on war coverage. Media organizations do what they have to do to be in the best position to cover a story. This was a tough one if you were Fox, CNN, ABC or anybody else. I don't think anybody should have settled for the Desert Storm policy, which was no coverage at all. So maybe the media organizations did more negotiating with the government than they wanted to. But like it or not, the government was controlling this news story. I think the current set of circumstances, which are more random and violent, merit more independent reporting. And we're starting to see that.

Store Fronts: Here's what happens when you don't advertise a retail business. You go into bankruptcy, which is what happened at Kmart, or you end up selling said business for debt relief. Best Buy, in one of the quietest deals ever, sold all of its Musicland stores on Wednesday for no cash, just assumption of debt. You can say it's because of record business conditions. Or you can say these stores never positioned themselves properly. I'll opt for the latter.

At The Buzzer: Is Drudge going out of his way to trash Hillary because ultra-conservative Ann Coulter is advertising her new book on his site? The trashing has been relentless and over the top, even for Drudge.