This depresses me to no end

The man after whom I've modeled my life is a phony.

---

'Wild' Storm: Reality Survival Show Faked
Scenes on Reality Show Were Contrived; Host Spent Night in Motels

July 25, 2007 —

He was born to be wild -- but only after a hot shower and room service.

The Discovery Channel has issued a statement in response to an investigation into its popular series "Man vs. Wild," following allegations that the show's host, Bear Grylls, had a little help battling the wild: a motel.

"Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the 'Man vs. Wild' show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field," the network stated.

The series' production company, Diverse Television, is cooperating with British television's Channel 4, which carries the program under a the name "Born Survivor: Bear Grylls."

Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had spent the night indoors on at least two occasions when the series had led viewers to believe he was spending the night in the wild.

Sort of like a modern day Tarzan, Grylls is airlifted into the wild with only a few survival tools, such as a flint or water bottle. The reality show hunk, who has appeared on several talk shows to the screaming delight of women of all ages, served in the British Special Air Services. On the show, he reportedly survives for several days with no outside assistance.

Grylls has been filmed stranded in the deadly swamps of the Florida Everglades, paragliding onto the edge of the Andes to follow rivers into the Ecuadorean jungle and demonstrating how to make a snow cave, find water in deep tunnels and avoid frostbite in Iceland's arctic environment.

But if there's a warm bed waiting nearby, just how impressive are these stunts?

Among the Grylls grievances is an episode supposedly set on a deserted island (actually Hawaii) that shows him building a raft, which was actually constructed and then disassembled by show consultants so that the host could easily put it together.

And though Grylls claims to be a horse wrangler, another charge maintains that the wild horses Grylls happened upon in the Sierra Nevada were not so wild, and were in fact from a trekking station.

The Discovery Channel gave no indication it was ditching the show entirely. Instead, the show will be tweaked.

"Moving forward, the program will be 100 percent transparent, and all elements of the filming will be explained upfront to our viewers," Discovery said in its statement. "In addition, shows that are to be repeated will be edited appropriately. Bear Grylls is a world-class adventurer and a terrific talent."

No word on what "transparent" means or how fans of the series will react, but perhaps Discovery should add a disclaimer to the show: Survival made possible by hotel stay and dramatization of events.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

Bummer

The Wisconsin State Journal retracted their "Protestants in Hell" headline. I guess I'm going to have to share heaven with those WASP-y jerks after all.

Pope: Protestants Going to Hell

That was the title of an article in yesterday's Wisconsin State Journal on the release of the Vatican's document reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic church.

How woefully ignorant of the editing staff of the WSJ. The story was an AP piece, but they chose to use that title. (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran the same story under a different title.)

If they actually bothered to read the document, it would be fairly clear that the pope isn't asserting that all protestants are going to hell. But I suppose that's too much to ask of a major newspaper with a staff numbering in the hundreds.

Big Jim, any thoughts on this?

Imus

This whole Don Imus thing is really stupid. Personally, I don't care if they fire him or not. What he said so over the top that he has brought all of this on himself.

Having said that, this quote from the Rutgers captain really annoys me:

"We'd just like to express our great hurt, the sadness that he has brought to us," Essence Carson said.

Really? A 60-something guy you've never met--and most likely never heard of--can cause you "great hurt" that easily? Is your self esteem really that poor? If so, you've got bigger problems than Don Imus.

A brief rant against newspapers

One of the responsibilities of my job is to talk with members of the media about publications I've written as well as topical tax issues. I enjoy doing radio interviews because they afford me the opportunity to put the things I say into context.

Conversely, I don't like newspaper interviews, because journalists have a tendency to fit whatever I have to say into the narrative of the story they want to write. There are some exceptions to this rule; a few local journalists that I've talked to multiple times are genuinely interested in learning and writing informative articles that serve the greater good. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. Whether it is out of ignorance or malice, few reporters seem both willing and able to write a smart, contextual story.

Generally, I'm not someone who thinks I could pick up a job and do it particularly well. I understand most occupations take time to learn and hone your craft. However, I'm convinced that if I got a job as a newspaper reporter tomorrow, I would immediately be in the 90th to 95th percentile in the profession. Simply put, they are not good at what they do.

I assume a lot of the reporters with whom I interact have journalism majors. I say that because they do not seem to understand the issues they are writing on at all. While I'm sure a journalism degree teaches people some fine things, reporters would do well to also study some relevant field, be it economics, political science, or even history. Without the context these fields provide, reporters cannot hope to understand the issues they cover.

Having said that, you'd at least think a journalism degree would help reporters write well. You'd be wrong. Take this story, from today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on property values and home sales. It begins as follows:

Wisconsin weathered the national housing downturn of 2006 - but it came at a price.

Home resales declined 4.5% from a year ago, but the number of homes sold was the second-highest in state history.

A fourth-quarter price slump canceled out gains made earlier in the year.

The median house price in Wisconsin is now $164,000, up 1.2% from 2005.

The year ended on a low note.

In the final three months, resales dropped 10.7% in the southeast, 10.6% in the south central and 9.4% in the north, compared with a year earlier.

Autumn was a time when over-ambitious sellers realized their pricing mistakes, said David K. Stark of Stark Co. Realtors in Madison.

The first seven paragraphs of the story have one paragraph each! By my count, the article has 24 paragraphs, 17 of which have one sentence. There are also four two-sentence paragraphs and three three-sentence ones.

If journalism classes teach this sort of writing, shame on them. If editors encourage it, shame on them. When the media cannot be trusted to write an intelligent, straightforward, unbiased article, they certainly cannot be trusted to serve as a watchdog against things like government corruption and corporate sleaze. Consequently, we all suffer.