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“Buff Bam Is Hawaii Hunk”

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Returning Dec. 29, barring breaking news

 

Photos of Shirtless Obama Drive Media Frenzy

"Forget Barack Obama‘s staff making contact with a governor charged with corruption. What’s got everyone talking is the president-elect’s fine first form," Lisa Tolin wrote¬†Wednesday for the Associated Press.

"’FIT FOR OFFICE: Buff Bam is Hawaii hunk,’ the New York Post gushed on its cover Tuesday above a photo of the future president strolling without a shirt in Hawaii. The Drudge Report called him ‘President Beefcake’ while TMZ said the president-elect is ‘still humble enough to do laundry – ON HIS ABS!’

"The photos were distributed by Bauer-Griffin, a photo agency more typically found on the corners of Hollywood. Photographer Chris Behnke simply strolled along the beach to get the shot, said agency co-owner Frank Griffin."

"And while all the cable news channels are talking about the photo (and the others snapped of the Obama family in Hawaii)," Liz Cox Barrett added on Tuesday for Columbia Journalism Review, "Fox News’s ‘Fox & Friends’ thought to design a special rotating graphic for the occasion which lived, this morning, on the bottom right corner of the screen, flipping between an image of Obama’s face (not the image in question) and the words ‘Beach Body,’ and continued to so flip even as the story above it moved on, reminding viewers, Yes, ‘Plane Crash in Denver,’ but also, ‘Beach Body.’"

Behnke also published photos¬†of Obama and his family headed to the Oahu seaside to hold a small memorial service for his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died of cancer at age 86 on the eve of the presidential election. That prompted questions¬†about whether the Obamas’ privacy was being invaded.

"The paparazzi shots were frustrating for the photographers who are part of the press pool following Obama in Hawaii, but are restricted from approaching the president-elect’s compound," Carrie Budoff Brown and Nia-Malika Henderson wrote¬†Tuesday for Politico.

"They wound up having to explain to their editors why they don’t have the same photos.

"It turns out a paparazzo with a large telephoto lens – and in apparent full view of the Secret Service – parked himself on the beach in Kailua, which is public."

The AP story continued, "Griffin has submitted his photo agency for credentials for Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20. He said it’s too soon to estimate how much Bauer-Griffin will earn from the beach photos ‘within tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.’"

The beach photos weren’t all.

Online, "searches are soaring for ‘obama pictures’ and, in a realm normally reserved for prepubescent idols, ‘obama shirtless,’" Vera H-C Chan wrote Tuesday for Yahoo.

"The latest act of online voyeurism comes from a confluence of three recent pictorial events: Two include Barack Obama‘s return to Time magazine’s cover as Man of the Year and the release of never-before-seen college photos, in which the future No. 44 posed in a Panama hat, leather jacket, and occasionally with a cigarette for a hopeful photographer’s portfolio. That momentous puff induced a teacup-sized tempest as people zeroed in on the ‘obama smoking’ pic."

Meanwhile, Patrick W. Gavin of FishBowl DC listed "A rough compilation of our journo colleagues working on their tans in Hawaii:

"TV

"NBC – Savannah Guthrie (with her producer, Antoine)

"ABC – Sunlen Miller, Yunji de Nies

"CNN – Ed Henry

"CBS – Ben Tracy (LA correspondent)

"FOX – Steve Centanni. Bonney Kapp, Aaron Bruns

"Print

"NYT – Jeff Zeleny

"WP – Philip Rucker

"Chicago Tribune – John McCormick

"Politico – Carol Lee

"AP – Phil Elliott

"Reuters – Ross Colvin

"Bloomberg – Kim Chipman

"60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft has been chronicling the Obamas for nearly two years. Sunday’s program, which airs on CBS, summarizes the family’s narrative to date.

"60 Minutes," New York Times Tap Into Obamamania

CBS-TV’s "60 Minutes" is devoting its entire hour Sunday to Barack Obama’s journey to the White House ‚Äî one that "60 Minutes" cameras and correspondent Steve Kroft have chronicled for nearly two years, the program announced.

"The most complete picture of the Obamas to date includes never-before-seen footage and the best moments from highly acclaimed 60 MINUTES segments and interviews with his family and closest advisors."

Meanwhile, the New York Times announced¬†Monday it was producing "Obama: The Historic Journey," a hardcover book to be published on Presidents’ Day, with an introduction by Executive Editor Bill Keller and principal text by Managing Editor Jill Abramson.

This 240-page book also will include profiles of important figures in Obama’s life, reporting by Times journalists, commentary and essays by Times columnists, excerpts from Obama’s most important speeches ‚Äî including the inaugural ‚Äî and more than 200 photographs by Times photographers, according to a news release. Columnist Bob Herbert is the only Times journalist of color listed as involved with the project.

A special Young Readers Edition of "OBAMA: The Historic Journey" is to be released simultaneously.

  

Columnists Debate Filling Illinois, N.Y. Senate Seats

Efforts to fill two Senate seats made vacant by the election of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his intention to nominate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., to be secretary of state continue to generate commentary.

On Tuesday, "A report issued by Barack Obama’s transition concluded that the president-elect had no contact with Gov. Rod Blagojevich or his office and no one acting on Obama’s behalf was involved in any ‘quid pro quo’ arrangement the governor allegedly sought for filling the vacant Senate seat with a candidate of Obama’s choosing," as the Chicago Tribune reported.

"One might think that releasing a report at 4:30 p.m. on the day before Christmas Eve would be a good way to have it avoid notice, but that was never destined to be the case when it came to the Obama transition team’s report on contacts with embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich," Kevin Hechtkopf wrote¬†Wednesday on the CBS News political blog, summarizing the mixed editorial-page reaction.

In New York, columnists debated Caroline Kennedy‘s declaration that she is interested in the Senate seat that would be vacated by Clinton.

Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson wasn’t impressed by Kennedy’s visit upstate last week, when she spoke with politicians rather than average voters.

"After all, she won’t hear about our glut of politicians from the politicians. But maybe after hearing it from taxpayers, she could find federal incentive money to offer as leverage to build the region from the core out while shrinking the levels of overlapping bureaucracy," Watson wrote¬†on Friday.

"Or she could have stopped at one of the local auto plants where workers are on edge about the possibility of being out on the street as Washington dithers over a bailout. Ditching the politicos and listening to assembly line workers would give her a much better appreciation of this area’s reliance on the auto industry, which experts say accounts for about 8,200 jobs here plus perhaps twice that number in related industries."

NAACP Scores Lack of Progress on TV Diversity

The NAACP Hollywood Bureau said on Friday that its latest report on the media "shows the entertainment industry, particularly television, continues to fall seriously short in achieving diversity.

"NAACP officials warned that without quick action to reverse the bleak statistics cited in the 40-page report, the industry could face political action.

". . . the report reveals that employment and promotion opportunities for minorities are directly tied to highly subjective practices, a closed roster system and potentially discriminatory guild membership practices.

"The serious shortage of minority faces on primetime television can also be traced to the virtual disappearance of black programming since the merger of UPN and WB networks into The CW network, according to the report.

"To help remedy the situation, the report recommends the establishment of a task force [comprising] network executives, educators and NAACP advocacy partners to update the Memorandum of Understanding between the networks and the NAACP and its coalition partners. The goal would be to create best practice standards throughout the industry."

Iraq Remains Deadliest Country for the Press

"For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history," the organization said last week.

"All of those killed in Iraq were local journalists working for domestic news outlets. The victims included Shihab al-Tamimi, head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, who died from injuries suffered in a targeted shooting in Baghdad. Soran Mama Hama, a reporter for Livin magazine, was targeted by gunmen in front of his home after reporting on prostitution and corruption in Kirkuk."

. . . Trial of Shoe-Throwing Journalist Set for Dec. 31

"The trial of Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi man who hurled his shoes at US President George W. Bush, will start on December 31, the judge investigating his case told AFP on Monday," Agence France-Presse reported.

"He risks up to 15 years in jail."

In the wake of the shoe-throwing incident, the Internet has been flooded by online games in which users can throw shoes at Bush, or avoid them, the Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.

It said at least 10 games were released in less than a week.

"One of the first . . . is the Bush Shoe Game created by Mind360, an Israeli company that develops scientifically based brain training games.

"The game measures response time, a capability that is known to be reduced with age. As soon as the shoes are thrown at Bush, the player must click on Bush to avoid being hit by the shoe.

"According to Google trends, it appears that most ‘Bush and Shoe’ searches were carried out in Muslim countries, with Pakistan leading the search volume."

Good News and Bad for Future of News Industry

The layoffs that have battered the newspaper industry accelerated this year, with more than 15,000 losing their jobs, while big companies like Tribune Co. and McClatchy were racked by mounting debt, credit problems and declining stock value, Toni Fitzgerald wrote Friday for Media Life magazine.

"Things are looking even worse in 2009," she said.

"Forecasters have predicted more declines in newspaper advertising revenue, hurt by the recession and the continuing competition from the internet. Ad spending could be down anywhere from 9 to16 percent, after falling 10 percent through third quarter 2008, according to TNS Media Intelligence."

The same gloom was forecast for broadcasting.

"The new year is shaping up to be crunch time for much of the TV-station industry," the Wall Street Journal said. "Having been walloped in 2008 by a sharp drop in auto advertising, which accounts for 20% to 25% of total revenue for many local stations, conditions are set to worsen in 2009. This year’s results were helped by ad dollars tied to the November elections and the Olympic Games. Both those pots will disappear in 2009."

But there is also welcome news.

"David Westphal reports an important and historic crossing of the Rubicon for a major newspaper, recounting a discussion with LA Times editor Russ Stanton at USC: ‘Stanton said the Times’ Web site revenue now exceeds its editorial payroll costs,’" Jeff Jarvis wrote for the Huffington Post.

"I’ve long been asked by newspaper people ‚Äî as a challenge ‚Äî when the web will cover the costs of the newsroom as it exists. I’ve said it won’t, that the scale of the business is just different.

"But if what Westphal reports is true ‚Äî and I confirmed via email that I was reading him correctly (and it does make sense since both edit costs and web revenue run at about 10-15% of newspaper budgets) ‚Äî then it means the Times could support its newsroom as it stands ‚Äî after cutbacks aplenty ‚Äî from the web. That’s momentous."

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Happy holidays!

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