Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 833

NBC 'Tonight Show' Ad Brushes Conan O'Brien Under the Rug

In real life, Conan O'Brien hosted NBC's Tonight Show from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010. NBC barely remembers that, though. 

The Tonight Show has aired on NBC since 1954, with five hosts — Steve Allen, Jack Parr, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. On February 17, the sixth Tonight Show host, Jimmy Fallon, will make his long-awaited debut.

To pack the show's entire history into a one minute and five second advertisement would be next to impossible. But you would think NBC would lend more than a combined 1.5 seconds to Conan O'Brien, the last guy who replaced Jay Leno, in their new television spot. His face appears once for a split second: 

In case you missed it:

See, he's there! NBC doesn't even let O'Brien complete his clap before swiping to the next frame. O'Brien appears for that single, glorious second. Later, his name appears when NBC chronologically lists the show's hosts. Instead of the proper host order — Allen, Parr, Carson, Leno, O'Brien, Leno — NBC opted to list them like so: Allen, Parr, Carson, O'Brien and then Leno, as if Leno has only hosted since March 2010. 

That's not how history works, guys. 

       

Ecuadorian Navy Airlifts Jeff Bezos for Emergency Kidney Stone Surgery

AP

Ecuador's Navy airlifted Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos from a cruise ship in the Galápagos Islands so he could make an emergency trip to receive medical treatment in the U.S. for a kidney stone. 

CNBC first alerted us to local media reports saying Bezos suffered a kidney stone attack on New Year's Day. Bezos was flown from a cruise near Santa Cruz Island to Baltra Island, where his private jet was located. Bezos was vacationing in the area on a cruise ship. On Saturday, the Ecudorian Navy confirmed airlifting Bezos from the cruise to his private jet so he could return to the U.S. for emergency surgery. 

[Update, 6:36 p.m. Bezos gave his official vacation review to Business Insider: "Galapagos: five stars. Kidney stones: zero stars," he said, through a spokesperson. (Bezos invests in Business Insider.)] Bezos has had to answer for his professional problems recently, not of his personal ones. Amazon's drone announcement on CBS' 60 Minutes drew criticism for its glaringly advertorial bent towards the future of retail. The day after Bezos was airlifted to the U.S., news broke that the Post's popular Wonkblog creator, Ezra Klein, may leave the newspaper. 

Which crisis cause more pain?

       

Small Plane Makes Emergency Landing on Bronx Highway

Twitter: @millerlite1996

At least your commute didn't involve navigating a small plane making an emergency landing on a New York City highway Saturday. 

ABC7 reports a small plane landed around 3:20 p.m. Saturday on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx, near the near the E. 233rd St. exit. The New York Daily News and NBC New York report four people, including the pilot, were on board. The passengers — a man and two women, according to Gothamist — had minor injuries. 

NBC New York reports the plane, a four-seat, one-engine 1966 Piper PA, had minor damage, according to the FAA. This FAA listing for a 1966 Piper PA registered to Michael Schwartz circulated on social media after the crash. The Wall street Journal's Pervaiz Shallwani reports the plane lost power for some reason, leading to the emergency landing. The aircraft was heading for LaGuardia Airport. 

Naturally, everyone with a smartphone driving on the highway uploaded pictures of the downed flight on Instagram: 

If you're travelling in the area, expect traffic delays while police and fire officials sort out what exactly happened. Hopefully you're not rushing for a flight. 

       

Frigid Forecast Already Canceled School on Monday in Wisconsin

AP

Education officials in Madison, Wisconsin have already cancelled school on Monday ahead of dangerously frosty temperatures. 

The Wisconsin State Journal reports multiple school districts decided to cancel Monday classes a full 48 hours ahead of the opening bell because of forecasted temperatures that could cause serious physical harm. Madison temperature will fall around -15 or -16 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Accuweather. In Tennessee, some schools have already cancelled Monday and Tuesday classes because of expected frigid weather. 

It's the windchill — when high winds combine with low temperatures to make life even colder — that has the school officials so worried. On Saturday, the U.S. National Weather Service issued a wind chill warning in Wisconsin for the next three days, with a special emphasis on dangerous conditions Monday and Tuesday morning, when temperatures are expected to fall between -44 and -55 degrees. (That's the sound of children across Wisconsin cheering, by the way.)

Monday's windchill could cause frostbite, hypothermia or death, according to the warning, if proper precautions aren't taken. Translation: if you do leave the house, wear a scarf, hat and mittens. Or just don't leave the house! Unless you have Packers tickets, in which case, be safe. 

       

CBS Journalist Accuses Rep. Aaron Schock of Being a Hypocritcal Gay

AP

A CBS News correspondent posted a blind item on Facebook accusing a Congressman hiding his homosexuality while voting against equal rights, and then dropped an obvious hint.

A long message on CBS News' Itay Hod's Facebook page accused a Republican in Congress of hypocritically voting against bills that would bolster equal rights for gays while getting caught by a reporter in the shower with his boyfriend, or, on another occasion, navigating the gay bar scene:

what if you know a certain GOP congressman, let's just say from Illinois, is gay... and you know this because one of your friends, a journalist for a reputable network, told you in no uncertain terms that he caught that GOP congressman and his male roommate in the shower... together. now they could have been good friends just trying to conserve water. but there's more. what if this congressman has also been caught by tmz cameras trolling gay bars. now what if you know that this very same guy, the darling of the gop, has also voted against repeal of don’t ask don’t tell, opposed the repeal of doma, is against gay marriage; and for the federal marriage amendment, which would add language to the us constitution banning gay marriage and would likely strike down every gay rights law and ordinance in the country?

Are we still not allowed to out him? 

 

At the end of the note, Hay "had a sudden urge" to share this article: "The 7 gayest Aaron Schock Instagram posts of 2013." Republican Rep. Aaron Schock represents the 18th congressional district in Illinois, where is gay-marriage is legal. Schock has since adjusted his Instagram's privacy settings so no one can see his photos. 

(One person Schock follows on Instagram is recently outed Olympian Tom Daley.)

[image error]Adding further fuel to the Schock theory, the Republican matches Hod's description of a GOP Congressman who has never voted for equal rights. Schock gets a whopping zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group that holds elected officials accountable for supporting LBGT rights. In the past, Schock gave a vague answer when asked why he has never supported gay rights. "Um, well, I-I just haven't," he said.

Now the hunt is on for the truth behind Schock's sexuality, accusations on which he has not yet commented. This is not the first time gay rumors have swirled around Schock. His colorful outfits have drawn speculation in D.C. circles about his sexual proclivities. Also not helping his cause are the beefcake-y shots Schock posed for on the cover of Men's Health, who labeled him America's "fittest Congressman." 

The Schock controversy also raises fresh questions about when it is appropriate to report someone's sexuality. The common thinking is that it is never appropriate to out someone in the closet. ABC News' Robin Roberts came out publicly last week after friends, co-workers, and reporters, too, knew about her orientation for over a decade. But Hod makes the point that this is a special situation where the hypocrisy of the situation should outweigh any ethical debate — his actions endanger others' human rights. "Doesn't the media have an OBLIGATION to expose his hypocrisy? if he had done something so hypocritical and he wasn't gay, wouldn't we demand journalists do their job?" he asks. 

       

Google Restores Rap Genius After Apology for Gross SEO Strategy

AP

With the beef squashed, Rap Genius appears on the first page of its own Google search results again. 

Everything is fine and dandy in Rap Genius land after apologizing for its "foray into irrelevant unnatural linking," that landed the lyrics start-up in hot water with Google. It was discovered Rap Genius used link-baiting tricks Google hates in order to boost its search ranking. As a punishment, Google blasted Rap Genius further into the search results than a normal person ventures. Before the incident, searching for a song lyric would usually bring a Rap Genius link within the first five or six results. After Google's reckoning, Rap Genius would not show up in search results until roughly the sixth page... even if you were searching "Rap Genius."

The company apologized Saturday in a long explanatory statement on their website. "To Google and our fans: we’re sorry for being such morons. We regret our foray into irrelevant unnatural linking," the Rap Genius founders — Mahbod Moghadam, Tom Leyman and Ilan Zechory — said in a co-statement. Rap Genius even appears on the front page of its own search results again, and Google's trackers are in the process of re-registering the site's results. "It takes a couple days for Google to re-index everything, so search results are a little wonky right now, but we are officially reinstated!" Zechory told Business Insider. In their mea culpa, the Rap Genius team outlined how their original, legal search strategy evolved into something that so blatantly defied the rules:

The dubious-sounding “Rap Genius blog affiliate program”, the self-parodic used car salesman tone of the email to John, the lack of any discretion in the targeting of a partner – this all looked really bad. And it was really bad: a lazy and likely ineffective “strategy”, so over-the-top in its obviousness that it was practically begging for a response from Google.

Google went nuclear on Rap Genius on Christmas day, cratering the site's traffic, and potentially setting the site back by two years. John Marbach wrote to Moghadam to ask for details about about the "Rap Genius blog affiliate" program But when the Rap Genius co-founder responded, he just asked Marboch to link Rap Genius on his blog, promising "MASSIVE traffic," instead of answering his questions. Google hates this game-y strategy — promising traffic in exchange for links that will drive a site further up the Google search rankings. The search giant noticed, and swiftly dealt with the issue.

So the site will slowly repair itself and traffic will likely return once Rap Genius is once again indexed on Google's search rankings. But Slate's Matt Yglesias thinks the Rap Genius controversy points to Google's "unchecked" power that could lead to greater problems down the road: 

As far as it goes, this is a happy ending. Rap Genius is a great site and it'd have been a shame for Google to somehow permanently cripple it. And an endless SEO arms race would be deeply undesirable, so it's good to see Google enforcing some useful norms. But the larger question of Google's vast and essentially unchecked power over the World Wide Web remains. "Don't be evil" is a nice idea, and thus far I don't see any indication that Google has used this power for anything other than good. But especially if Microsoft decides to cut its losses on Bing one of these days, antitrust issues are very likely to arise in this space.

       

'Inside Llewyn Davis' Uses Single Tweet in Full Page New York Times Ad

In Saturday's New York Times, on page 7 in the C section, print advertising mystifyingly turned into new territory after a movie studio paid for a full page ad to prominently display a single tweet. 

The studio(s) in question, presumably either CBS Films or StudioCanal, displayed a single Twitter tweet, with a fancy border and a few words, to promote the Coen brothers' Oscar contender, Inside Llewyn Davis. The film and its soundtrack are favorites of Times film critic A.O. Scott, so instead of running a standard movie advertisement, they opted for a cribbed version of this Scott tweet, and a blurb from Scott's 2013 year-end review: "The best picture of the year." The tweet, border and blurb take up roughly 20 percent of the page; the other 80 percent is is white space. 

And now the historic @aoscott full page NYT Tweet blurb for "Inside Llewyn Davis" has come full circle. pic.twitter.com/PBK9pSwfMH

— Bill Geerhart (@CONELRAD6401240) January 4, 2014

Now you're wondering how much Hollywood paid for full page ad only to embed a tweet, which they could have done on the Internet, anywhere, for no money. The answer is, well, we'll never know. We can only estimate. Companies never disclose that information, and we will never know what kind of bundles the studio purchased. Buying in bulk is smart business.

Update, 2:58 p.m. According to The New York Times media kit, a full page ad for a movie in the C section from Monday-Saturday costs $840.00 costs roughly $106,848. (On Sunday the cost goes up, to $1,011.00.) (On Sunday the price goes up, to $127,386.)

For his part, Scott seemed astounded by the new-media-on-old-media action

we have reached a strange new place in marketing when tweets become full-page print ads.

— a. o. scott (@aoscott) January 4, 2014

The rest of the world was similarly speechless: 

That's a hell of a manual RT. RT @kirstinestewart: For Your Consideration full page @nytimes ad ... And it's a Tweet. pic.twitter.com/HErp63S4rJ

— Mark Berman (@themarkberman) January 4, 2014

Full-page NYT ad with just one tweet. That's it. pic.twitter.com/r1NXvARGU6 via @kirstinestewart

— Megan Hess (@mhess4) January 4, 2014

       

Remembering Phil Everly

AP

Phil Everly, the youngest of the Everly Brothers, who influenced some of the greatest voices in rock'n'roll music, from Bob Dylan to the Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel, has passed away. He was 74. 

Everly died Friday evening from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, his wife,  Patti Everly, told the L.A. Times. The disease was caused by cigarette smoking, she said.

Phil, with his brother Don, recorded over 20 top 40 hits in their long career together. The one filled with stops and starts, fights and forgiveness, but always sealed with the harmonies that made them one of the most revered recording duos in history. As members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, the two have been recognized for the brilliance of "Wake Up Little Susie," or "Bye Bye Love," or "All I Have to Do Is Dream," or "Cathy’s Clown." The group has more hits than you shake a stick it. The Everly Brothers have also been credited by some of the greatest rock musicians in history as direct influences on their careers: 

The Everlys dealt in the entire emotional spectrum with an authenticity that appealed to proto rockers like the Beatles and Bob Dylan, who gladly pass the credit for the sea changes they made in rock to the ruggedly handsome brothers. The Beatles, the quartet whose pitch-perfect harmonies set the pop music world aflame, once referred to themselves as "the English Everly Brothers." And Dylan, pop culture's poet laureate, once said, "We owe these guys everything. They started it all."

Their effect on music can still be felt to this very day. This year, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones recorded Foreverly, a tribute to the Everly Brothers' Songs Our Daddy Taught Us LP. 

The Everly Brothers' relationship was not always healthy. From 1957 to 1962, the pair could do no wrong, releasing nearly 20 top 40 hits during that time. But they famously broke up on-stage in 1973, and spent the next decade apart. They always, eventually reunited, because music was in their blood, as Rolling Stone explains:

The sons of a Kentucky coalminer, the Everlys began entertaining in grade school: When the family relocated to Iowa, the family had a radio show (Ike, their father, was also a singer), and Don and Phil would perform on the daybreak-hour show before heading to school. When they were teenagers the brothers relocated to Nashville. Although Columbia Records took an early interest in them, it wasn’t until they cut "Bye Bye Love" — a song rejected by 30 other acts — for another label, Cadence, that the Everlys' career took off. "Driving back to Nashville when we got within radio distance, they had this pop station on in the car — and it was playing our record," Phil recalled to RS in 1986. "That was, like, big juju. It really was."

When they last preformed together, in 2003, it was at the behest of another contentious pair: Simon & Garfunkel. “They hadn’t seen each other in about three years," Simon told Rolling Stone. "They unpacked their guitars — those famous black guitars — and they opened their mouths and starting to sing. And after all these years, it was still that sound I fell in loved with as a kid. It was still perfect."

When news of Phil's death spread Friday evening, many shared their favorite Everly brothers songs and performances on the Internet, as a small way to remember one of rock's defining voices: 

Everly Brothers "Til I Kissed You" with Dick Clark intro. A classic. R.I.P. Phil Everly. http://t.co/X7th8Lq0nE via @youtube

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) January 4, 2014

The movie's over; it's 4 o'clock; and we're in trouble deep. "Wake Up Little Susie." R.I.P. Phil Everly. http://t.co/wXd3r7RsMR

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) January 4, 2014

It's hard to pick just one perfect Everly Brothers song but this is pretty damned close: http://t.co/D4ACB2FdxG

— Ken Layne (@KenLayne) January 4, 2014

Bye Bye Love (live TV, 1957 -- "Don Everly, age 20... Phil Everly, I'm 18 years old") http://t.co/pdpk8FOn6I

— Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) January 4, 2014

Here are the Everly Brothers with "Wake Up, Little Susie," live in 1957: http://t.co/jnlQaH1rnR. Phil Everly died today at 74.

— Sam Sifton (@SamSifton) January 4, 2014

Phil Everly has just passed away, and thus, so have these harmonies. http://t.co/UdLlYohfK7 RIP

— Adam Minter (@AdamMinter) January 4, 2014

       

Everything (Besides Smoking Pot) Joe Scarborough Has Called Dumb

Scarborough, clean and sober, rocks out at the 2000 GOP convention. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Joining the ranks of squares who oppose smoking pot was Joe Scarborough on the Friday edition of Morning Joe. Marijuana, he said, "just makes you dumb" — but, then, basically everything is dumb according to Scarborough.

Talking Points Memo transcribed a bit of Scarborough's comments. Joe has never actually smoked weed; he's just seen dummies around him being dumb after stupid smoking it.

"Never once did I say, 'Hey man, that looks like something I want to do,'" Scarborough said. "Never smoked it, 'cause everybody that ever did just looked dumb as hell."

Jim Cramer, who no one has ever accused of enjoying a nice mellow buzz, nodded vigorously and agreed. Mark Halperin asked if drinking made you dumb, too, and Scarborough said it did, but that it was only temporary, or something.

Anyway, the point is that calling things "dumb" or "stupid" is a bit of a Joe Scarborough hobby. If pot smoking makes you dumb, here are all of the things that maybe smoked too much reefer for Joe's taste over the last 18 months or so.

Things Joe Scarborough has called stupid on Morning Joe November 12, 2013: The shutdown. ("The shutdown was so bad and so stupid...") October 16, 2013: The Republican Party. ("Let just stop being the stupid party.") September 23, 2013: Republican tactics. ("We don't have to engage in really stupid tactics.") August 8, 2013: The idea of a government shutdown. ("Are you really that stupid? Are you really that dumb?") April 18, 2013: The NRA's argument against expanded background checks. ("It's so stupid.") April 18, 2013: The argument that background checks would lead to a national gun registry. ("It's offensive. It's stupid.") February 4, 2013: The NRA's arguments in general. ("They're stupid arguments!") August 21, 2012: The Republican Party. ("I'm just tired of it, of being the stupid party. ... I'm tired of us being stupid and having stupid people saying stupid things.") February 22, 2012: Rick Santorum's focus on social issues. ("Get off these stupid side issues.") January 28, 2012: Newt Gingrich. (Gingrich is "forward thinking and short-sighted, gifted and dumb - sometimes all within the same hour.") December 8, 2011: People who thought he was defending Rod Blagojevich. ("For the idiots involved at home who think we are defending what Rod Blagojevich did, you are an idiot and you are too stupid to watch TV.") November 14, 2011: The Romney campaign. ("Mitt is willing to dumb it down ... and say things that have no connection to geopolitical realities.") July 15, 2011: Joe Scarborough. ("I'm just a dumb country lawyer.")

According to Joe Scarborough, you can be dumb whether or not you have smoked pot. So, you might as well smoke some pot. Quod erat demonstrandum.

       

Why Is Ted Cruz Still Canadian?

Ted Cruz telling reporters how much he wants to renounce his Canadian citizenship.  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Ted Cruz made it clear in August that he planned to renounce his Canadian citizenship by the end of 2013. But despite the pretty simple renunciation process it's a new year and he's still a Canuck — not that there's anything wrong with it. According to Canadian immigration lawyers, the process isn't nearly as complicated as he's making it out to be: all he really needs to do is download a four-page PDF, fill it out, pay a fee and send it back. Also, the fourth page is just signatures. If Cruz had started the application process back in August when he announced his renunciation plan, he'd already be free of his embarrassing status as a Canadian, since the average wait time is three to four months. If you urgently need to renounce your citizen, then you just write “Urgent – Renunciation of Canadian Citizenship” in large dark letters on the envelope you send your application in. 

From the Government of Canada site.

“Unless there’s a security issue that hasn’t been disclosed, unless there’s a mental health issue that hasn’t been disclosed, there’s no reason for anything other than a lickety-split process to occur,” Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration attorney, told the Associated Press. Cruz's September filibuster was a little odd, but we're going to assume that any mental health issue that would make him ineligible to denounce his citizenship would also make him ineligible to be a United States Senator. 

Last month, Cruz told the Dallas Morning News that he had retained counsel to help him get through the process. But why would a Harvard educated lawyer need someone to help him answer questions like:

No. From the application to renounce Canadian citizenship.

“It’s not complicated at all,” Stephen Green, a Toronto-based immigration law who offered to help Cruz, told the AP. “They make sure you understand what you’re doing, that you’re not going to become a stateless person, and then you’re rock ‘n’ roll, and good to go. I would assume that if he’s retained counsel, this could have been done by now.”

One possible answer for why it's not done is that he wants to keep his options open. If Cruz can't become the first Canadian-born, half-Cuban, Tea Party president of the United States, then Canada could always be an option. Not that Cruz really understands the way things work up north. He said he learned about his Canadian citizenship from the Dallas Morning News, even though their citizenship law works exactly the same as America's (if you're born there, you're a citizen). 

Another, more valid, explanation is that Ted Cruz doesn't have proof he's an American citizen. As Steven Lubet, a law professor at Northwestern University, explained on Salon in September, there is one tricky part of the form — Cruz has to provide documentation proving that he's a citizen of another country other than Canada. And according to Lubet:

Only one of Ted’s parents was a citizen when he was born (his father is a Cuban émigré who did not take U.S. citizenship until 2005), and he therefore falls under a special section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that applies to “Birth Abroad to One Citizen and One Alien Parent.” Under that provision, Cruz only qualifies for American citizenship if his mother was “physically present” in the United States for 10 years prior to his birth, five of which had to be after she reached the age of 14. 

That may be the undisclosed problem that's holding him up. He'd need leases, school records and other documents to prove his mother's whereabouts for a decade. But then again, he's been living in the United States since he was four — surely he had to prove he's an American citizen sometime in the last 39 years.