Total Buzz Fail: The Shoe Fetish
Everybody knows that traditional print journalism is on the way out. Why? Lazy citizens? Sensory overload? More convenient access? All of the above?
Dying papers like the Orange County Register are fighting a rear-guard action by turning their print edition into a dumbed-down website-looking format with lots of pictures and human interest stories for us idiots. And of course they have gone on-line with stuff like their political gossip column “Total Buzz.” Which might be better termed “Total Schmooze.”
Rather than actually dedicate itself to reporting real, relevant news, the Register has decided to dedicate its employees’ talents toward the inane, and to the political flackery of Martin Wisckol and Frank Mickadeit. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to the worthies than run the Register that Orange County is a market that is starved for local news and, coincidentally, that it is run by a group of political overseers who operate the place like their own private plantation. Seems like an opportunity to do real reporting, right?
But yesterday the Register hit a new low, even for them.
Consider this, um, monument to cutting edge journalism as Jennifer Muir shares the embarrassing shoe fetish of Brett Barbre with her breathlessly waiting readers.
Huh? FFFF has recently disclosed a series of embarrassing expenditures by the County Clerk, Tom Daly, including a $48,000 contract to the very same Brett Barbre to “study” an athletic hall of fame, and who then turned around and kicked back $1000 into Daly’s political campaign.
And what about the $1700 as month retainer that has been paid out by Daly for over five years to a Sacramento “consultant” to do – nothing. And how about the County spending $2,100,000 two years ago at Daly’s behest on a tear-down building that was supposed to house County’s archives? Of any interest to the intrepid journalists at the Register? Naw.
Instead we get pictures of what shoes the political hacks are wearing at the Registrar of Voters Office. They think we want to look at pictures of people’s feet. Meanwhile a lowly blog is forced to actually do a newspaper’s job.
Well, we can take a certain perverse pleasure in knowing that the Register’s days are numbered and that soon its employees will be doing (paid) PR work, or will be blogging for food.
Still, it does seem shame that nobody in the business is willing to try to fill the void where local news used to be.
I saw that. How lame! It must be a concerted effort by Muir and Barbre to to stop Barbre’s fall from grace (from the foot fetish politicos?)
Cancelled my daily subscription to the Register awhile ago.
They have ruined what used to be a fine newspaper…
What is sad here is:
1) Barbre’s lame attempt to schmooze it up with a reporter who knows all about his rip-off.
2) Muir’s willingness to be schmoozed.
3) the very real possibility that reporters are dodging issues in Daly’s office because they feel sorry for and want to protect their old pal Jean Pasco – who never should have been hired in the first place.
That is weird-ass shit. Total Buzz Harsh.
Shoe fetish? Sounds like Barbre and ‘cute shoes’ Galloway would be a match made in heaven!
Biff, you beat me to it.
Clearly Muir needs to spend some quality foot-time with Galloway. She can take that creep Barbre with her.
Muir is a card carrying Liberal that is friends with Pasco/Daly/Tsunod; all living off the webs of deceit and lies in order to maintain their special status of arrogance and position over the rest of us. Their disdain for us peasants is very apparent.
Muir doesn’t run to a story, she runs from it. She would fit right in our city working for the communists at the Fullerton Observer.
The Register needs to fire that girl fast. Perky only goes so far, then its just irritating.
“Well, we can take a certain perverse pleasure in knowing that the Register’s days are numbered and that soon its employees will be doing (paid) PR work, or will be blogging for food.”
You’re the Future, they’re the Past. And the Future is Now.