Off the Record   

A totally random look at the media year that was.

THIS JUST IN..

Newsday was the first and one of the few outlets to report that Bill Clinton's much criticized flight-delaying haircut at Los Angeles International Airport had actually delayed only one – an unscheduled air taxi – for two minutes.

UNTIL THE NEXT ONE

CBS aired its sixth special since 1964 investigating the assassination of President Kennedy but promised the show would be "The Final Chapter."

BE STILL MY HEART

The Washington Post began a weekly column on government regulators.

The HOMER SIMPSON "Dooop!" AWARD

A government investigation concluded that a local TV cameraman unwittingly tipped Waco's Branch Davidians to a federal raid when he asked directions to the compound from a mail carrier who was a cult member.

ENUPH ALREADY

Copy editors closed their eyes as the Phillies went to the World Series and sportswriters filled their stories with phrenetic phans, phabulous plays and phantastic pitches.

GET 'EM OUTTA HERE

It's the [blank], stupid; headline plays on NAFTA (Why We HAFTA, AFTA NAFTA, NAFTA LAFTA); anything with Jurassic.

OKAY, OKAY! UNCLE!

"World News Tonight" Executive Producer Emily Rooney said that the ABC newscast is "aware, as everybody who works in the media is, that the old stereotype of the liberal bent happens to be true."

GEORGE ORWELL WOULD BE PROUD

A group of University of Pennsylvania students who stole 14,200 copies of the campus newspaper because they were offended by several columns said their actions weren't censorship but political protest supported by...the First Amendment.

OUCH

A San Francisco jury ruled that Janet Malcolm had damaged psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson's reputation by making up five quotes in a New Yorker profile but could not decide if the damage was worth anything.

SORRY, WE ALREADY HAVE A PUBLISHER

Two robbery suspects in Brockton, Massachusetts, tried to elude police by entering the offices of the local daily and asking for a job application.

THE GANG'S ALL HERE

A California company added a section on journalists to its $29 software database of quips about lawyers, doctors and politicians.

COMIC COURAGE

At least 59 dailies pulled the strip "For Better or For Worse" when cartoonist Lynn Johnston temporarily introduced a gay teenager as a character.

GRITTY WINNETKA

The Washington Post reported that Mike Royko, the 62-year-old, chain-smoking Chicago Tribune columnist described by the Post as the "most cantankerous, most beloved and most reviled newspaperman in a city that thrives on journalistic combat," had moved to the suburbs.

HOW OLD IS HE?

According to Reuters, Eric Falt, the outgoing UN spokesman in Cambodia, once cut short a press conference because reporters were not asking any "serious questions" and he had to go to a birthday party.

TOUCHÉ

Two Detroit TV stations refused to run an ad promoting the Free Press that showed a viewer destroying his television by throwing it against the wall to kill a fly – yet another instance, the ad implied, where a newspaper would have been a better choice.

NEXT: GENNIFER FLOWERS ON FEMA

"Hard Copy" announced it would focus on more traditional journalism.

LET'S BE CAREFUL
OUT THERE

A sports editor in Michigan attacked his newspaper's editor after being fired, sending the boss to the hospital for seven stitches. In Prague, meanwhile, an AP reporter who was singing with his band, Yellow Dog, was stabbed by an elderly man who didn't like all the noise.

CUT OFF AT THE PASS

The Washington Post was scooped by one of its own reporters, Kim Masters, who landed an exclusive interview with penis-chopper Lorena Bobbitt for an assignment from Vanity Fair.

UH, YEAH, YEAH..WE THINK IT'S WRONG

Mercedes-Benz dropped a policy that prohibited magazines from running its ads in issues with editorial material "denigrating" the car maker or other German products. Before it was publicized, more than a dozen magazines had agreed to the policy.

5HE RUSH LIMBAUGH AWARD FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

ABC's "Primetime Live" ran a segment March 11 alleging media bias during the presidential campaign, but offered little to back its case beyond demanding newspaper editors explain why photos of Bush, Perot and Clinton didn't run the same size every day.

WIDE RIGHT

ðhe news director of Washington's WTTG-TV resigned after writing in a memo that he planned to meet with conservative media watchdogs to discuss replacing reporters "who are inept, politically correct, shallow and/or otherwise unsuitable."

SO WHERE WAS
PEE WEE REESE?

Anchor Katie Couric surprised Colin Powell during an interview on NBC's "Now" with a visit from a soldier whom the general had recalled fondly from his days at Fort Campbell. Unfortunately, Powell was referring to Pee Wee (Shorty) Preston; "Now" brought in Pee Wee (Midget) Caruthers.

THE TENSION MOUNTS

David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register filed a story in September on Sen. Bob Dole's prospects in the 1996 Iowa presidential caucuses.

AND SOMEONE ELSE LAID OUT THE PACKAGE

After Time published photos claiming to show a pimp and two child prostitutes at work in Moscow, the 18-year-old photographer admitted they had been staged. He complained, however, that it wasn't all his fault because he hadn't written the story.

PLEASE, NO FEATURES ON THE APOCALYPSE

In April, US magazine quoted Brandon Lee saying, "Victims...aren't we all?" in an issue sent to the printer days before the actor was accidentally shot and killed. In October, US ran an item on L.A.'s Viper Room with the caption, "Dying to see Pearl Jam?" in an issue sent to the printer days before actor River Phoenix collapsed and died outside the club.

TO SAY THE LEAST

The day after columnist Ira Berkow of the New York Times related an anecdote told to him by Michael Jordan, Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times repeated it in his column – sans credit. Mariotti explains that sports writers have "a different standard" than news reporters about lifting material.

911-TASTE

The Palm Beach Post apologized for running a box next to a story about a toddler's near-drowning that advised readers to call the paper's hotline to listen "as the boy begins to breathe again" on a taped emergency call. In a note to readers, Editor Edward Sears called the promo "sleazy" but promised other 911 calls would be offered.

THAT'S WHAT
FRIENDS ARE FOR

Dotson Rader told the Washington Post that he has known Hillary Rodham Clinton for years and didn't use some material from an interview with her for Parade magazine "because I thought it was too personal."

I'LL ASK WHEN I SEE THEM AT CHRISTMAS

The FBI denied Terry Anderson's FOIA request for information about the nine terrorists who held him captive in Beirut because he hadn't gotten the terrorists' permission. The former AP bureau chief replied that he "couldn't find their mailing addresses."

BUT WHAT DOES SHE THINK ABOUT NAFTA?

A Los Angeles firm began marketing "Leave Chelsea Alone" T-shirts.

HELLO? HELLO? ANYBODY HOME?

After studying 287 stories and editorials in Michigan newspapers about legislation to reduce regulation of the state's phone company, Marquette University's Center for Ethics Studies concluded that coverage "failed to provide readers with a complete, realistic and useful description of the legislation." The study was funded by Michigan Bell.

BUY TWO AND GET A "NO COMMENT" FREE

After being connected to alleged Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, rocker Billy Idol said he would only discuss their relationship if reporters donated $1,000 per question to an AIDS charity.

WE DIDN'T HAVE ROOM WITH THAT FEATURE ON CHOCOLATE LOVERS

Through November, ABC's evening newscast had run 99 more minutes on the war in Bosnia than CBS and 185 more minutes than NBC.

COURTHOUSE FOLLIES

• A judge in Jacksonville, Florida, ordered 17 newspaper racks removed from near the courthouse because they were "unsightly, demeaning, degrading to and distracting from the administration of justice."

• A Detroit judge sentenced a News intern who had telephoned a juror during a trial to five days in jail and orderered him to attend court dressed in prison garb.

• A magistrate in New York said she found it ironic that 149 NBC writers and producers portrayed their jobs as "routine and mechanical" to win a case involving overtime.

APOLOGY ACCEPTED

Hillary Rodham Clinton withdrew an impromptu invitation to reporters before an August reception for new Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, explaining she had mistaken them for "real people."

FIRST AMENDMENT 101

A Chicago high school principal suspended the school newspaper editor for four days after she wrote an editorial challenging his ban on students wearing shorts.

SPIN CONTROL,
INSIDE OUT

Editor and Publisher Burl Osborne reminded minions at the Dallas Morning News in a terse memo that no one in the newsroom could talk to the press about the paper without his permission.

WHAT NEXT? COMICS?

The New York Times added color to its Sunday paper.

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS

Soon after Time set up its electronic edition on America Online, one of the first discussion groups created by a user was titled "Smash Time Inc." It became one of the most popular.

NO ONE EVER SAID IT WOULD BE EASY

The Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje, which has a staff of 70 Muslim, Bosnian and Serbian volunteers, celebrated its 50th anniversary. The paper has published each day since the war began, even after Serbian shelling destroyed its offices.

THE CRUMBLING WALL

It's a fine line, but Details magazine crossed it with gusto in a September "special promotional section" mimicking the publication's layout, models, body type and headlines that was actually a paid six-page "fashion spread" produced by the cotton industry.

THAT'S KARL "THE LETTER CARRIER" MALONE TO YOU

The Los Angeles Times discouraged use of politically incorrect words and phrases, including Chinese fire drill, Dutch treat, mankind, co-ed, mailman, divorcee, powwow, lame, babe and crazy.

NO SCARIER THAN THE NEWSROOM

Despite holding its convention in South Florida, where 11 tourists have been slain in the past 14 months, the Radio-Television News Directors Association reported that attendance jumped 24 percent from last year.

THANKS, COUNSELOR

Amy Fisher's lawyer said he had no problems lying to reporters: "If I give you deliberate misinformation on behalf of a client and you print it, that's your problem."

DON'T YOU WORRY ABOUT A THING

The Los Angeles Times reported that although a KCBS reporter had agreed to disguise a source's identity for a story on illegal drug sales, she included the woman's age, occupation, first name and shots showing her hair and her living room. (Three days later, a Molotov cocktail was tossed through her window.)

..AND THE MAGAZINE IS THINNER TO SAVE ON MAILING COSTS

Explaining 20 layoffs at Life magazine, a spokeswoman said, "We've reduced the staff in order to function in a more entrepreneurial spirit."

DEAD MEN DON'T MOVE

Asked why NBC's "Nightly News" didn't lead an October broadcast with the earthquake in India that killed at least 10,000 people, Executive Producer Jeff Gralnick explained, "By the time [we] aired, the earthquake story was 18 hours old, not a hell of a lot of movement in it, not a lot of pictures."

TOUCHY, TOUCHY

In an interview with Rolling Stone, President Clinton said he was "sick and tired" of not getting more credit from the "knee-jerk liberal press." l