As I was without an Internet connection for the past week, I ended up watching a lot of television news. And while hearing about Barack Obama's every move and every analyst's baseless prediction of the day is fun for... well, really not all that long, here are some movies about the news are much more entertaining than trying to figure who among Olbermann, O'Reilly, and Lou Dobbs needs to shut up first.

Broadcast News (1987): Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Broadcast News takes a look at the evolution of television journalism and its shift of focus from quality reporting to getting ratings. The vehicle through which writer/director/producer James L. Brooks presents this shift is a love triangle between Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), a passionate producer who cares deeply about the quality of her reporting; Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), another devoted reporter who wants to be recognized for his hard work; and Tom Grunick (William Hurt), a good-looking new guy who is able to work his way up the ladder of promotion, despite his total lack of knowledge or journalistic skill. As significant changes happen at the network, the relationships between the three reach a climax, allowing the film to shed light on the way news media has shifted today.

UPDATE 2:42 PM: Damooei just called Bwog to inform us that the final word from Robert Taylor is that the Elections Board is not going to consider Krebs' rules violation complaint because of the deal struck between Ness, Krebs, and Damooei. No idea what we're talking about? Read on...

The front page of today's Spectator features an article about George Krebs' plan to file a rules violation against Alidad Damooei in response to a comment made by outgoing CCSC President Michelle Diamond's that Damooei and his party were "a stronger ticket."

The Spec article (and Damooei, when Bwog spoke with him) claims that a rules violations deal was struck between Damooei and Krebs. The deal, which was facilitated by Elections Board Chair Andrew Ness, specified that Krebs would not file a rules violation against Diamond's statements (Diamond is not allowed to endorse any candidate), if Damooei would not file a rules violation against Krebs' party for posting a campaign flyer on the glass window of an EC computer lab, which is a violation.

According to Damooei, Ness explained to Krebs and him that if either of them were to file rules violations this late in the game, hours-long judicial hearings would prevent them from going outside and getting people to vote. Krebs and Damooei agreed that avoiding this was appealing, and the three shook hands.

Bwog is a simple website. We like hawks and free coffee and pictures of babies in snow. But this morning Bwog was thrust into the unflattering spotlight of the New York media thanks to a fact-checking-averse ex-Speccie with a Gawker byline. You can read the post here.

The story has inexplicably gained some momentum, and Bwog was later contacted by Media Bistro regarding our response to Gawker, which you can read here.

We'd chalk it up to a slow news day, but then again Governor Spitzer was just implicated in a prostitution ring, so we're stumped.

Que sera sera.

You guessed it! The infamous hate-crime cracker packets showed up again on campus this week—and this time we have photographic proof. Bwog correspondent/cryptographer/gumshoe investigator Addison Anderson, who spied the pictured item of hatred on a bench on the path between Lerner and Low, wrote up the following account. Read the full report, which includes an in-depth analysis of the perpetrator's twisted message, after the jump:



If you were hungry for a handful of hearty melba toast topped with a heaping helping of magical fascism on Thursday, then you missed some free food left in the middle of a stone bench on the west side of South Lawn.

Yes, the hate-snacker, made infamous by Bwog's reports of April 11th and 13th, has struck again. On the afternoon of July 6th, this reporter found six pieces of melba toast, a slice of pepperoni, and a small section of a chocolate donut in a hate-packet similar to those previously discovered. The whole thing was bound up with rubber bands between a paper plate and a clear plastic container top—an odd surface for an even odder scrawl, which is here reproduced:

HOLES IN FOOD
BLACK MAGIC
[drawing of BIG SWASTIKA]