The Laphamator
August 31st, 2004 - 2:32 pm
Chuck Simmins caught his very first Lapham. Here’s a snippet from the filed-too-early-to-be-real AP story:
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put his star power to work for President Bush on Tuesday, praising him for “perseverance, character and leadership” in a time of war and terror.
Chuck has the rest at his site.
What’s the limit on Laphams? Is there a minimum weight below which you have to throw them back?
Dear Media:
Pre-writing an obituary is fine.
Pre-writing a news story is not.
Thank you,
The American Public.
Actually, this pre-writing of stories is nothing new. I can recall a particularly egregious example in 1984. Days before election day I received my copy of US News and World Report. The cover showed a diminutive Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferrarro at the bottom of the page and a hailstorm of Reagan/Bush ’84 buttons raining down on them. The cover headline read something like “After the storm”. The article went into detail on the landslide loss of the Democratic ticket without the numbers of course.
Does someone have a copy of this issue somewhere?
What if Arnold gave the AP the text of his speech and they write the first version for the east coast papers (my little local paper seems to go to bed around 10:30). It is sloppy, but this is, I believe, standard practice. I think the blogosphere will eventually change standard practice.
So, to keep from being called on publishing “news” before it happens by folks using a medium with a much faster publishing cycle, the slow-media is going to have to publish even later.
I suspect that the slow-media folks are beginning to seriously hate the internet.
Dear Media:
By the time Time magazine makes it to my mailbox, it’s dead as old bones. I’m okay with this. You should be too.
Signed,
The American People
(This format is fun.)
Wouldn’t put it past Arnold to have a little fun with the media that slimed him and give a totally different speech.
Wouldn’t put it past Arnold to have a little fun with the media that slimed him and give a totally different speech.
Dewey Defeats Truman
Kerry picks Gephardt
Wouldn’t they have egg on their face if a bomb went off in the middle of his speech. Or Arnold all of a sudden announced that he was gay, and that Maria Shriver was really his transvestite lover.
Imagine all the things that could happen in the future. Have they pre-written the day after election story yet?
It is even affecting the Blog world!!! Heres Arianna Huffington TODAY. The “so far” refers to compassion night and theatre in the round that hasn’t happened yet. HEY! Check out my blog! (stole from you today);-) http://www.Rightwingsparkle.blogspot.com
So far the Republican convention has been all about courage, compassion and lauding our War President for possessing ample quantities of both, including the theater-in-the-round stage designed to highlight the president’s strength and authority, and the Deco-inspired presidential lectern meant to invoke the skyscrapers of New York (and oh, by the way, those two skyscrapers that are no longer there).
Have they pre-written the day after election story yet?
I imagine they’ve probably pre-written two.
My memory is that Schwartzenneger did say those things. Does printing quotations from a speech, advance copies of which were released to the press just so they could make their deadlines, constitute a “Lapham”? Maybe a disclaimer should be noted to the effect that the quotations were from an advance copy, just in case the speaker decides to depart from the text and wing it or that hypothetical bomb goes off. I still don’t think it rises to the level of a Lapham.
Oh, by the way, let me be the first to say that Bush’s speech Thursday was just boffo. He self depreciating humor and subtile jabs at Kerry were well recieved in New York. Of course W is no Ronald Reagan and his delivery was a little flat at times. Never the less,l one of the best speeches of his life.
Good lord this is fun.
Kenneth Burke:
If you read the Al Sharpton speech at the DNC website and the transcript based on what he actually said, the two are, er, somewhat different (and not just an article or two, or “happy” to “glad”).
So, yes, there is indeed the prospect of very different speeches occurring from what is given as “advance copy.”