Now, listen carefully here: Buzz is not saying that work is for chumps. Although when Bart Simpson made that statement, Homer did have the perfect comeback: “Son, I’m proud of you. I was twice your age before I figured that out.” Buzz is just saying that it would pay a…

Former police Chief Terrell Bolton doesn’t have many people in the media who consider him a friend, but the person on the phone uses that word when describing him. The source, a longtime hard-news reporter, agrees that Bolton is his own worst enemy but follows that by saying he is…

Despite the name of this gray box, Buzz is not always concerned with being what we in the journalism world call “timely.” So, if you happen to have, say, a Dallas Morning News memo from earlier this year that we may find interesting, go ahead and slip it under our…

Buzz likes to gamble, and we would hereby like to put serious scratch on D magazine’s publisher and editor, Wick Allison, if he were ever to rumble with Belo Chairman Robert Decherd. Not that Allison is a badass. In fact, we suspect the only thing he’s ever tussled seriously with…

You can always tell when rumors begin that a new publication is entering the media market in Big D, because the cancer-loving sales staff at the Dallas Observer doubles its number of smoke breaks. And were you to drive by the back side of the Observer’s downtown offices these days,…

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison sure sounded like a Democrat last week when she bitch-slapped the boys at Belo. In the wake of the FCC’s ruling that a media conglomerate can own enough TV stations to reach 45 percent of the U.S. market (it used to be 35 percent), the Texas…

If you’ve been busy traveling the world and not filing expense reports the past month, perhaps you’ve not heard of the “Jayson Blair saga” that roiled The New York Times. A quick recap: A young reporter, Blair, made up facts, plagiarized and lied about traveling to various locations to cover…

He’s not a “draftnik.” Let’s get that straight. Rick Gosselin, the man Sports Illustrated’s NFL writer Peter King calls “one of the greatest football writers in America,” would not be watching this weekend’s pro football draft were he not The Dallas Morning News’ chief pigskin scribe. He would not be…

A few years ago, we told you about Dallas’ own Music Man, J. Jovan Philyaw (“Goodbye Kitty,” June 6, 2001), the man behind the CueCat, Net Talk Live!, Tripledge Wipers and other testaments to his con-artistry. Now, Jovan has reinvented himself again–and this time, Buzz must say, he’s really outdone…

Revi68ss knows he has to be smarter than the enemy. His weaponry–tank, rifle, fighter, bomber, you name it–is inferior to that of the Allies he’s fighting in Western Europe. That doesn’t bother him. The challenge for Revi68ss and his comrades in the 6th Panzer Regiment (“Graubär”) is in outthinking and…

A reporter friend from Washington, D.C., called the other day to discuss war coverage. This friend is “plugged in,” as they say. Perhaps you saw him during President Bush’s recent news conference, sitting in front of our commander in chief, nodding thoughtfully, looking somber and balding. No matter. The point…

See, this is why I never do stories on Channel 5. Because the station sucks. OK, maybe that’s too harsh. It usually sucks. Most nights on most stories, it offers nothing by way of news value or entertainment. With its overhyped “breaking news” segments, breathless anchors (Mike Snyder, holla!) and…

5 things Bob Mong should do Use Associated Press stories: Readers do not read bylines except for those of columnists and sportswriters. Let the wire services cover the day-to-day national stories and use your staff for analysis, opinion and investigation. Assign three Sacred Cow beats: Put one investigator on Tom…

Bob Mong stood in front of several hundred journalists at the Hyatt Regency this past November to sell them his dream. Mong, editor of The Dallas Morning News, told his staff, “I want to speak to you today about our aspirations…as a newspaper.” He told them he’s in charge of…

Following a large-scale tragedy, such as the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia, media critics often dissect coverage of the event on television and in newspapers–something Buzz usually doesn’t do. For one thing, daily media outlets, both local and national, are usually at their best as such crises unfold, and…

Buzz has very little job pressure. Sure, Buzz faces deadlines like every other journalist (“You mean I’m supposed to write 400 words every week?”). But the folks at corporate have been so busy lately, taking meetings with the U.S. Justice Department and such (long story; check out last Sunday’s New…

I watch local network news in a different manner than you do. I am a professional media observer. I therefore bring a level of “observation” to my news viewing that most humans are not capable of understanding. I am more discerning in my evaluation of reporters and anchors than many…

The technical revolution has brought about two things that make Buzz happy. One has to do with child rearing, as now kids practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all. Two, reporters don’t have to “report.” They can simply wait for their inboxes to fill with tips from the…