This is True: Media

The Power of Collective Outrage

2006-11-20T10:05:11-07:00

The following essay was included in True's e-mail editions for the week of 19 November 2006.

I had reserved this space tonight for a major rant. What makes one of my rants "major"? I was actually going to call for a boycott and a letter-writing campaign -- I don't recall ever doing that before. I wanted to show how collective outrage can make a difference. But you know what happened? Collective outrage grew on its own, quickly rising to a spontaneous chorus of "NO!" And the perpetrator listened.

Kyra Phillips' Restroom Break -- Live!

2006-09-10T15:21:32-07:00

CNN host Kyra Phillips -- took a bathroom break while President Bush was speaking from the site of Hurricane Katrina's one-year anniversary remembrance. The story, from True's 10 September 2006 issue:

Live From the Loo

CNN's Live From show carried a speech by President George W. Bush live. It was a great opportunity for the show's host, Kyra Phillips, to pop into the restroom. She was still wearing her wireless microphone, and the show's audio technician apparently didn't notice Phillips' trip to the loo was carried live. "My husband is handsome," she boasted to an unidentified stall mate, overriding the president's words. Her brother is great too, she said, but "His wife is just a control freak." Finally, someone alerted her that her words were going out on the air and she turned her mic off. CNN issued an apology, while Phillips went on the Late Night with David Letterman show to give her "Top 10 Excuses" for the gaffe. (AP) ...No doubt her words will be remembered far longer than the president's -- at least by her sister-in-law.

Editors: How to Get True for Your Pages

2005-03-13T09:43:13-07:00

Thanks much for your interest. In addition to our extremely wide online distribution, this is True is available to print publications as a weekly feature.

True briefly retells weird news stories from "legitimate" news publications -- never from "tabloids". Each story starts with an appropriate "slug" (head) and ends with an opinionated, ironic, and/or funny tagline.

All stories have slugs and tags. At the end of each column there is a "headline of the week" which has a slug, but no tag. The source for each item is credited. True's modular format makes it very easy for you to customize the length to fit your news hole or editorial requirements. A full column includes 7-9 stories, totaling about 900 words. We aim for a mix of about half U.S. stories, and half outside, but typically have more U.S. stories.

Your TV Wants to Control You

2002-05-19T16:09:33-07:00

Just how clueless is Hollywood? Very. It's bad enough that they try to jam crap down our throats all the time, but they also demand that you sit and watch that commercial for "Tide" detergent -- all 26 times it runs tonight. Why, it's in your contract! Didn't you read the fine print before you signed? From True's 19 May 2002 issue:

Don't Touch That Dial

You have a moral obligation to watch TV commercials, argues Jamie Kellner, Chairman and CEO of AOL/Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting division. "Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots," he says. "Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis." He says that people who use VCRs or Personal Video Recorders to record shows and then skip through the commercials during playback are particularly irresponsible. By not watching the commercials "you're actually stealing the programming," he says. But what about going to the bathroom during commercials? Is that allowed in the "contract"? Only if you really have to go, he answers: there's only "a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom." (San Jose Mercury News) ...Good, because so much of their programming makes us want to throw up.