In an insane clusterf**k, the Arbiter Of Truth is asking the City of Providence to pony up $1.2 million/year to rent office space out of its downtown headquarters.

•Providence Journal Company: 75 Fountain St., a five-story 194,915 square foot building completed in 1934 that is the current headquarters of the newspaper. Asking $9.75 million for purchase or lease of $1.17 million a year with rents increasing by 10 percent every five years.

Or to put it another way, the paper of record in Providence is now bidding on city contracts.  Expect Belo to spin off a car-towing service to stave off the next round of lay-offs.

I’m not all political like some of you Dose folks, so I’ve only just discovered PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times that fact-checks statements by the White House, Congress, lobbyists and interest groups.

While others have listed the years’s top music albums or best-selling books, PolitiFact polled the top eight lies told by politicians in ‘09.

Beating out Glenn Beck’s assertion that President Obama’s science czar proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population, Sarah Palin took top slot with her statements that the government would set up “death panel” boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care:

“The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

The other runners-up include Barack Obama, Joe Wilson, Joe Biden, and birther Orly Taitz.

Now I’m curious what a Rhode Island liar poll would look like…

“Reading words” is his entire job description, but listening to Channel 10’s Dan Jaehnig mangle the English language is becoming almost unbearable. On today’s noon broadcast, following the egregious ‘First Birthdays’ feature, he asked that viewers making submissions tell him how to ‘pronounciate’ the name.  I used to find him entertaining (my favorite so far is ‘lemur’ . . . rhymes with Mario Lemieux) but there are impressionable children watching during the day. Maybe his intern could coach him before airtime.

(Poor Kelly Bates. Her I like.)

Sordid? Really? I think the the headline writer for The Providence Journal needs to get a grip, or start reading the articles. This AP story appeared on the front page of today’s edition; perhaps ProJo management is trying to goose circulation with show biz scandals. So here is what the ensuing “sordid” story basically boils down to — “Unmarried entertainer has consensual sex with unmarried 34-year-old woman”. Why don’t we save these hyperbolic headlines for, oh say, married elected officials who go toe-tapping for men in airport bathroom stalls. And if it was the blackmail that was sordid, then the picture should not have been of Letterman. (Complete disclosure: I am the hugest David Letterman fan ever.)

The Providence Journal’s 7 to 7 News Blog just launched a new feature at some point within the last two hours.  In addition to printing the addresses of where newsworthy events took place, they have now also started providing maps.  That means that with just one click you can find out where three people got mugged in Silver Lake, where to find drugs and guns in Smith Hill, and where six teens in North Providence were caught having something called a “drinking party.”

Theoretically there could be some advantages to this.  Indicating what corner somebody was mugged on might lead future passers-by to be more alert, for instance, and people who don’t know where Mirabar is might want to know how to find the animal fundraiser that City Council president John Lombardi is hosting tomorrow night.

But let’s be realistic.  This could also lead to lots of crazy people doing crazy things.  Because, you know, there are a lot of crazy people out there, and many of them are just looking for ways to get even crazier.  Like, stalkery vigilante crap.  And, okay, maybe this might not bother me so much if the Journal didn’t publish the entire educational backgrounds of some victims while others, those that work for the ProJo, don’t have their addresses published at all.  And I also unerstand the importance of bulking up online content to provide things you might not get in the newspapers.  But providing Google Maps–most of which have street views showing what the house looks like–veers uncomfortably close to privacy invasion, particularly in cases where the home owners might have nothing to do with the news.

While vetoing the marijuana-dispensary legislation, Republican Governor Don Carcieri expressed concern that it “…will no doubt result in increased usage, and will negatively impact the children of Rhode Island.” (The Senate and House both voted today to override the veto. Under the law, the Rhode Island Department of Health will license a non-profit compassion center to grow and distribute medical marijuana for licensed patients.)

The Saturday Providence Journal placed Katherine Gregg’s front page story of Carcieri’s veto right above another piece (also by Gregg)  — “‘Voluntary’ consultant to get $370,000″ — exposing the fee obtained by the Boston consulting firm The Lucas Group for its supposedly pro bono efforts in securing the federal Medicaid waiver. The Lucas partnership has connections (surprise, surprise) to a  newly confirmed executive appointee, Gary Alexander, new chief of health and human services. This reporting by Gregg has kicked off calls by Lt. Governor Roberts and Attorney General Lynch for an investigation into what was essentially a no-bid no-contract, and should serve to remind us all why we need a real newspaper in this town. [Today's ProJo]

Hey Governor, you know what might negatively impact the children of Rhode Island? Giving away the store to your ‘volunteer’ friends while cutting social programs.

OMG. If you are not following the post-election events in Iran, start. If you are not following the way that Iranians are using Twitter to respond to the recent election, start doing it right now.

I’ve always had my questions about the utility of web-based media (because I think it sometimes gives idiots the tools to spread opinion as fact. Like, um, any local blog.) But young Iranians are using more democratized internet tools to build a more democratized state. This thing in Iran is something to witness. And it is best witnessed on Twitter.

The mini-blogging site has become so critical to events in Iran, the company postponed a scheduled maintenance this evening to tomorrow afternoon (at around 1:30am Tehran time.)

More after the jump, with good links… more »

Only two days left to vote in Rhode Island Monthly’s Best of Rhode Island poll, the filling-out of which just reminded me that a) I know nothing about Newport, b) I know nothing about the East Bay, c) I really wish I were in Cumberland at the Ice Cream Machine right now, and d) I don’t know where to go for a good pedicure, though heaven only knows how much I probably need one with all the impending summer flip-floppery.  Feel free to stick our name in the “Best Blog” box, though you should know I politely voted instead for our neighbors to the south.  (I was actually very Cranston-heavy with my voting, erasing my SoundSession vote in favor of Gaspee Days in the ‘best festival’ category.)

Glenn Beck’s star is really rising.  And Buchanan in the third clip, oh man…

Congratulations to Providence Monthly who will be celebrating their 150th issue this week. Complete disclosure — occasional Daily Dose “contributor” and malcontent, John Taraborelli, is a PM honcho. Although, to be honest, the only contribution I can remember him making was over a year ago when he declared himself the Dose ombudsman and proceeded to pound us all into the dust. But he sure shows up to all the parties. Providence Monthly is throwing its own shindig this week (hot hors d’oeuvres I hope I hope) where they will presumably unveil their new full-color redesign complete with new logo. It’s a great little publication and they should all be proud of it. Well done.

John Nichols and Robert McChesney have a compelling article in the upcoming edition of the Nation, wherein they argue that government involvement is key:

The founders regarded the establishment of a press system, the Fourth Estate, as the first duty of the state. Jefferson and Madison devoted considerable energy to explaining the necessity of the press to a vibrant democracy. The government implemented extraordinary postal subsidies for the distribution of newspapers. It also instituted massive newspaper subsidies through printing contracts and the paid publication of government notices, all with the intent of expanding the number and variety of newspapers.

When Tocqueville visited the United States in the 1830s he was struck by the quantity and quality of newspapers and periodicals compared with France, Canada and Britain. It was not an accident. It had little to do with “free markets.” It was the result of public policy.

In particular, they argue for a tax credit, to go to individuals who spend money on newspapers — leaving the decision about which what to buy up to the consumer:

What to do about newspapers? Let’s give all Americans an annual tax credit for the first $200 they spend on daily newspapers. The newspapers would have to publish at least five times per week and maintain a substantial “news hole,” say at least twenty-four broad pages each day, with less than 50 percent advertising.

In effect, this means the government will pay for every citizen who so desires to get a free daily newspaper subscription, but the taxpayer gets to pick the newspaper–this is an indirect subsidy, because the government does not control who gets the money. This will buy time for our old media newsrooms–and for us citizens–to develop a plan to establish journalism in the digital era. We could see this evolving into a system to provide tax credits for online subscriptions as well.

In the era of tax credits for Hollywood and private equity firms, it sounds more than reasonable to me.

The scene today down at Phoenix headquarters can only be imagined, but what a headache tomorrow morning when they all wake up and realize that news editor, Ian Donnis, has actually left the building. Ian has posted a farewell blog today at The Phoenix. He will be hard to replace. The need for a strong second newspaper in this town was never more apparent than during the Providence Journal’s own labor problems, which it refused to cover. Ian did cover that story from beginning to end, keeping it on the front burner and bugging the hell out of the ProJo management. We wish Ian all the best in his new position as political reporter over at WRNI.

All the confident opinions and public preening notwithstanding, we are surprisingly insecure here at the Dose and in need of heaping piles of external validation.  The Providence Phoenix is accepting nominations for that ‘Best of…’ thing that they do.  Click here to nominate ‘The Providence Daily Dose’ under the ‘Blog’ category. Take a little extra time and do ‘Hamburgers’ while you’re at it (go Stanley’s). To submit a nomination they will ask for a name and email addy.

No, she is not referring to her brand new trout pout, but rather the eight babies still in the preemie ward. Okay, we’ve established that Nadya Suleman is mentally ill (14 children under the age of 7 and she’s spending money on Angelina lips).  But the national press has a huge mea culpa to perform.  When the story first broke, the national media acted as if it was an adorable human interest story — with help, I might add, from the clueless delivery docs who thought it was so cute how they thought there were only seven, but then there were eight!  What a surprise! What a disaster. All these children were immediately at high risk for a lifetime of expensive medical and developmental problems, and that’s how it should have been reported from the very beginning (if it needed to be reported at all). Now comes the Today Show interview with the insufferable Ann Curry acting as is if this were a journalistic coup. Just maybe we shouldn’t be interviewing mental people.

Divine Providence, by far my favorite local publication, is switching to an online-only format after next week. Founder Eric Marion cites ad sales as the cause of the switch.

For those of you unacquainted with the magazine, every Thursday it provided sixteen pages of news about the gays; the back cover of every issue was a handy map of downtown Providence and the front cover was always a really low-contrast photo of some shirtless dude, stretched out beyond recognition in some arbitrary direction.  In-between there were news, ads for all the gay bars, and Princess Pearl’s gossip/fashion column. One of my favorite things about DP is that the online version of the magazine was always presented as a PDF, but without a print edition I’m not sure whether or not that will continue.

I liked Divine Providence because you always knew what you were getting with it (kinda like the Federal Hill Gazette, another personal favorite)  It didn’t try to magically include anyone or pretend to be any deeper or bigger than it was, and Marion’s editorials were always delightfully snippy, even if I didn’t always (or often) agree with them.

Nowadays, if you bother making the effort watch music videos on Youtube or MTV.com or wherever, you’re often confronted with endless product placement for cell phones.  Sometimes, as in the case of Fall Out Boy, the video itself is totally remade into a big cell phone ad, usually without the band even knowing that it’s happening.

But twenty years ago, when things were simpler and cell phones didn’t really exist, product placement was a lot subtler.  I don’t know how many of you remember the Heinz campaign that ran around 1987, with the tagline “The best things come to those who wait.”  Basically, they were putting a smily face on their famously poor packaging design.  (And a pre-Friends Matt LeBlanc starred in the campaign’s most memorable commercial.)

I mention all of this because I woke up today wanting to hear Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, and I remembered the video for their catchy #1 single from 1987, Lost In Emotion.  Note the subtle product placement:

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