FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Speaking of Marlins stadium cost over-run provisions...

Meant to post this Monday-------------------------------------
Just wanted to share a couple of odds and ends with you that I caught late Sunday over at DCRTV, http://dcrtv.com/ , a go-to media website and connect them to some local issues of interest to me.
DCRTV's a website that I've been going to for years since I lived in the DC area, and eventually got fed-up with the whitewash and company line I saw too often in the Washington Post's coverage of news about DC-area TV and radio stations and their personalities.

They still cover that in a way that's long been missing at both the Herald and the Sun-Sentinel, though I'm old enough to remember when the Herald did a pretty decent job of that, back when it seemed like every other week something crazy was happening at WNWS with Neil Rogers, Al Rantel, Stan Majors, et al, when there was local radio talk that was a worth listening to.
But then South Beach Hoosier still recalls how great Neil Rogers was doing play-by-play for U-M baseball games, so...

Owing largely to DC's much-larger media universe, it necessarily is better plugged- in to the industry and has more influence up there than locally-based http://www.sfltv.com/ down here, though I still go to the latter a few times a week, and have listed them on my blogroll from Day One.
In fact, it's there that I first learned that IU alum and then-Local10 meteorologist Megan Glaros was heading up to Nueva York.

It's also where I first learned yesterday morning about Post-Newsweek buying local NBC-6 -WTVJ, to create yet another duopoly in this media market.
I'll have a post on that story tomorrow as I really thought that the Tribune Company was a more likely buyer for the NBC affiliate. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/605477.html

Please read the first link below from the Washington Post, as it presages exactly the sort of embarrassing future Marlin headlines I think it's quite likely we'll see in the Herald, if this disastrous Megaplan goes through, as the Washington Nationals' owner is currently not paying the team's rent in DC due to problems with the stadium.
Not surprisingly, the City of Washington is not amused!

And did you catch this delicious nugget in Barry Jackson's Sunday Herald column? http://www.miamiherald.com/592/story/602626.html
Apparently the Marlins were trying to change the terms of their $38.5 million loan from MLB, but the suits up at Park Avenue weren't buying Jeffrey Loria's lame excuses.
They want their money back.

Well, to paraphrase what Popeye's popular side-kick Wimpy (J. Wellington Wimpy) often said, Jeffrey Loria & Co."would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."
The difference is that Loria wants to use our wallets to do it!

See this great illustration of Wimpy and the whole gang at a very interesting flower blog called the Human Flower Project: Sweet Pea - ‘Adoptid infink’
Sweet Pea on Popeye’s lap, with Wimpy and Olive Oyl Image: Myron Waldman, King Features
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from http://www.dcrtv.com/

More: Baseball A Bust In DC - 7/11 - Now, on top of news that the team's delivering lower-than-low TV ratings, we learn that the Washington Nationals' owners - the family of Bethesda-based developer Theodore Lerner - have failed to pay $3.5 million in rent for the District's new ballpark, contending that the state-of-the-art stadium is still incomplete. DC paid more than $611 million in public money to build the stadium complex along the Anacostia River. More in the DC Post.....

Nats' Fans May Boycott Post - 7/11 - Some Nationals fans are not happy with the Washington Post's coverage of the team. And are floating the idea of boycotting the Post's Nats coverage in favor of the Washington Times' Nats coverage. Dan Steinberg has more at washingtonpost.com.....

(It's all at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071002731.html?hpid=topnews
Nationals Withhold Rent on Ballpark, Hundreds of Items Are Incomplete,Team Owners SayBy Daniel LeDuc and David Nakamura. Washington Post Staff Writers, July 11, 2008)

Williams: Bad Baseball Cause Of Nats' TV Slump - 7/14 -
In the Examiner, Jim Williams looks at the ultra-low TV ratings for the Nationals: "The team isn't playing well and there just not seem to enough compelling storylines. Add to that the area is not yet used to following the Nationals... I think that it is unfair to blame MASN for the low numbers. I have heard the absurd argument that because the Nationals and the Orioles alternate between MASN and MASN2 fans can't always find the games. If you can find NBA basketball on CSN, TNT, ESPN, ABC, and even NBA-TV then you should be able to find the Nationals games".....