{"id":3774,"date":"2010-01-12T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=3774"},"modified":"2010-01-12T08:30:59","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T13:30:59","slug":"the-theater-of-the-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/01\/12\/the-theater-of-the-absurd\/","title":{"rendered":"the theater of the absurd…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The How-To of an Admission in the Steroid Era<\/a>
New York Times<\/strong>
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
January 11, 2010<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He did it all in one afternoon, starting with a statement that was distributed widely to the news media, and that came across the Associated Press wire at 3 p.m. The A.P. followed quickly with a story that featured an interview with McGwire, who subsequently spoke to numerous other news media outlets — including USA Today and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Tim Kurkjian and John Kruk of ESPN [both by telephone, not on the air]; KTRS Radio in St. Louis; and The New York Times, before talking to Bob Costas live at 7 p.m. Eastern on MLB Network. The one-day plan — coordinated over the past month by Ari Fleischer<\/font><\/strong>, a former White House press secretary who runs a crisis-communications company, and the St. Louis Cardinals, who recently hired McGwire as their batting coach — contrasts with last year’s roll-out of Alex Rodriguez’s steroid admission…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Carefully crafted, no doubt about it – with spin from Bush’s first spin-master, Ari Fleischer<\/font><\/strong>…<\/div>\n
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In his repeated confessions Monday, he had no defiance or anger, just sadness and tears. “I like the door-to-door strategy, in that he is telling his story in long form and in less confrontational settings,” said Kevin Sullivan, a former White House communications director who runs a strategic-communications company. “He needed to rip the Band-Aid off before heading to spring training.” <\/div>\n

Sullivan added: “I suspect McGwire will soon have some form of a press availability where he takes questions. He won’t be able to completely turn the page until he satisfies the pent-up demand and takes some questions.” The McGwire interview was a coup for the year-old MLB Network and justifies what the channel is paying Costas. It provided McGwire with a stage for acceptance on a channel that is majority-owned by the league that has, after a long goodbye, welcomed him back to his old team. MLB has a little more than half the subscribers ESPN has. But MLB had an edge in Costas if, indeed, McGwire wanted to be interviewed at length by a smart interrogator. <\/p>\n

[A corporate connection should be noted: Costas is represented by IMG, which owns half of Fleischer’s company.]<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Lie to Congress, but then hire the President’s front man to orchestrate your confession – priceless. I wonder if anyone actually cares? We all knew he used steroids. We probably all are vaguely aware that Tiger is likely a steroid user with a hormone enhanced sex addiction. I guess we know that the movie stars have tucked tummies and breast whatevers. As long as we are willing to pay the gate prices, our celebrities will rake in the inducements to cheat. It’s something of a fair contract between fan and celebrity because we all sort of know it. Brad and Angelina locked in constant struggles with Jen, like on the magazine covers at the supermarket. But it’s pretty silly. This, on the other hand, is over the top:<\/div>\n
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Palin signs on as Fox News Channel Commentator<\/a>
LA Times<\/strong>
By Matea Gold and Mark Z. Barabak
January 12, 2010<\/div>\n

When Sarah Palin abruptly stepped down as Alaska governor in July before the end of her first term, many questioned how she could maintain a national presence without the platform of elected office.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

That hasn’t proven a problem for the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee, who has kept herself at the center of political debate with a bestselling book, an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and controversial Facebook postings. Now Palin has found another way to stay in the spotlight: by signing on as a contributor for the top-rated Fox News Channel.<\/p>\n

Palin, who will make her debut tonight on "The O’Reilly Factor," will appear regularly as a commentator on the network. She’ll also be one of the hosts of an occasional series called "Real American Stories," about how everyday Americans cope with challenges…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I suppose with television having become a central feature of life, it was inevitable that such a thing would happen outside of some futuristic movie. It appears that Fox News will move politics into the same celebrity realm as the entertainment industry and professional sports. It’s not particularly funny because it’s so destructive – a trip into the theater of the absurd. And we thought steroid use in professional sports was a problem. How about hormones in politics?…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The How-To of an Admission in the Steroid Era New York Times By RICHARD SANDOMIR January 11, 2010 He did it all in one afternoon, starting with a statement that was distributed widely to the news media, and that came across the Associated Press wire at 3 p.m. The A.P. followed quickly with a story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}