Wash. Times Cruise Turns Into Ghost Ship

Image via Wikipedia

Vacationers who shelled out $1,298 for a cruise sponsored by the financially strapped Washington Times may be feeling a bit seasick after most of the Times columnists and staffers slated to lead stimulating discussions were no-shows.

Scheduled programs on the Obama Presidency, future GOP leaders, and the threat posed by radical Islam found themselves devoid of "Timesers" to lead them.  At least attendees got to experience a romantic (Rev.) Moon-lite cruise in the Eastern Caribbean.

Google Ratchets Up Real-Time Searching

Image via CrunchBase

The Associated Press reports that Google has bolstered its search engine so that the data yielded will also include output from Twitter and blogs, as well as news stories.

Google's "real-time" search results will appear in a capsule on the main results page that will capture tweets, blog posts and news stories almost instantaneously after the information reaches the Web index. Of course, "fast" isn't the same as "vital," but Bing & Yahoo, like Google, are competing with Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, which emphasize exchanging real-time information.

Virtual Newsstand Aim of Joint Venture of Media Conglomerates

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Four media giants that focus on magazines and the newspaper-heavy News Corp. are joining forces in a joint venture to create a digital newsstand.

Conde Nast, Time, Inc., Meredith, the Hearst Corp. and News Corp. visualize creating an industry-standard platform and an online store, similar to iTunes, where the media consortium can sell  publications to consumers who can view them on their cell phones, electronic readers, the Internet, and other digital devices yet to be devised.  The media moguls believe advertisers will pay a higher price for placement in these digital publications.

The joint venture is thus far, nameless, and none of its members has disclosed a dollar amount they expect to contribute to the effort. However, Time, Inc. executive veep John Squires will serve as the venture's interim general manager.  The success of the project is dependent on the willingness of Amazon's Kindle e-reader and Apple's iTunes to adopt the joint venture's technology standards.

"TUOL" finds it hard to imagine digitally reading magazines in the bathroom and laments the likely extinction of magazine newsstands where cranky vendors short-change the customers and yell at them not to thumb through the adult periodicals.

Doctored Livingston (Profile) I Presume

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Actor Ron Livingston, 42, best-known for his role as Peter in cult comedy "Office Space" (1999), has sued Wikipedia in Los Angeles Superior Court for libel, invasion of privacy, and appropriation because an unknown individual allegedly has repeatedly altered Livingston's Wikipedia page to suggest he is involved in a gay relationship with Hollywood casting director Lee Dennison, celebrity Web site TMZ reports.

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native, who married actress Rosemary DeWitt earlier this year, claimed the hacking of his Wikipedia page began in May. According to the Complaint, whenever the rumored relationship with Dennison was deleted, the anonymous hacker would restore it on Livingston's Wikipedia page.  The same individual purportedly created a false Facebook page suggesting that Livingston and Dennison were in a relationship.

Livingston, who appeared on several episodes of  "Sex and the City" as Sarah Jessica Parker's boyfriend, is currently filming "Dinner for Schmucks," according to the Internet Movie Database Web site.

Former ABC Newser John Stossel Sly As A Fox Host

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

With the cleverly named "Stossel" set to debut this week on Fox Business Network, 62-year-old mustachioed Libertarian John Stossel, a 28-year ABC veteran, sat down for an interview with The Daily Beast blog (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-06/fitting-in-at-fox/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC2).

Stossel, a Princeton grad, revealed that during his long tenure at ABC, he appeared only once each on World News Tonight and Nightline, and could not count the late anchor Peter Jennings as a fan.  Stossel said that Jennings was dismissive of him for not upholding the objectivity of ABC News and would not acknowledge Stossel when he passed him in the hallways.

The anecdote offers yet another reason to respect Jennings and ought to invite introspection by Stossel, because it's not easy for Canadians to dislike anybody.

Drowning NBC Grabs Hold of Cable

Comcast Corp., the larguest cable operator in the U.S., this week reached agreement to purchase NBC Universal from General Electric.

The deal results in a joint venture in which the Philadelphia-based Comcast owns 51 percent and GE 49 percent. GE will receive roughly $6.5 billion from Comcast, which also is providing cable channels to the venture, including E!, the Golf Channel and Versus.  NBC's cable channels, including SyFy, Bravo, USA, MSNBC and CNBC, are what sparked Comcast's interest in the acquisition. NBC Universal honcho Jeff Zucker keeps his job, but will report to Comcast bigwig Steve Burke.

"The Biggest Loser," is not only one of NBC's few hit shows, but also an apt description of the faltering network, which ranks fourth in viewers among ABC, CBS and Fox.