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"If you wanna hang out you've got to take her out..."

Some stories are just too good to be true.

Richards Denies Snorting His Dad's Ashes
Keith Richards Denies Snorting His Father's Ashes; Magazine Says It Wasn't a Joke

LONDON Apr 4, 2007 (AP)— Off the cuff or up the nose? That was the question Wednesday as Keith Richards said he was joking when he described snorting his father's ashes along with a hit of cocaine.

"It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool's joke," said Bernard Doherty, a Rolling Stones spokesman, about Richards' quote in NME magazine.

But the magazine said on its Web site that the remark was "no quip, but came about after much thinking" by the 63-year-old guitarist.

...

In a statement posted on the Rolling Stones Web site, Richards said:

"The complete story is lost in the usual slanting! The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!!! I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight!!! I wouldn't take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide."

The result? Keith Richards is now the subject of two of the greatest urban myths in the history of rock n roll. I think the other myth was a little more believable: that he checked into a clinic in Switzerland and had a complete blood transfusion to try to kick his heroin habit. Kudos to the New York Post as well for the best headline ever written.

0 for 22

Ouch!

Nelson Sweeps Editorial Endorsements

By Larry Lipman | Sunday, October 29, 2006, 11:26 PM

There are 22 daily newspapers in Florida.

All 22 have endorsed Bill Nelson for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

The first was The Palm Beach Post, the latest two on Sunday were The Orlando Sentinel and the Jacksonville-based Florida Times-Union.

The only newspaper that has endorsed Republican candidate Harris is ironically named the Polk County Democrat, published four days a week in Harris’ girlhood hometown, Bartow.

Career Retrospective

The Onion takes us through the highlights of Dan Rather's career at CBS.

Wrong Number

From Editor and Publisher:

'Wash Post' Error: Ran Sex Phone Number for Lebanon Evacuees

By E&P Staff

Published: July 21, 2006 12:25 AM ET

NEW YORK The Washington Post ran an article Thursday that included a phone number for evacuees in Lebanon to call -- but it turned out to be a number for a sex line.

The paper corrected it online but the number already appeared in print on A19.

The Web site Wonkette first reported it. A staffer called the "800" and got, the site said, this message: “Feeling horny? Try these red hot lines from National. Live hot fun at just 69 cents per minute.”

The lesson, it said: "Americans seeking information about evacuations of US citizens in Lebanon should just relax, man."

Hitting Below the Belt?

Last week's "Meet the Press" featured a roundtable discussion with panelists Dana Priest, Bill Bennett, John Harwood, and William Safire.

You'll recall that Dana Priest won a Pulitzer Prize for her story in the Washington Post on how the CIA was holding Al Qaeda detainees in secret prisons in Eastern Europe. Bill Bennett is the former Secretary of Education and currently a conservative radio talk show host and CNN commentator who has been very critical of reporters who publish classified information.

From the transcript:

MS. MITCHELL: Dana, let me point out that The Washington Post, your newspaper, was behind the others but also did publish this story. And a story you wrote last year disclosing the secret CIA prisons won the Pulitzer Prize, but it also led to William Bennett, sitting here, saying that three reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize—you for that story and Jim Risen and others for another story—were, “not worthy of an award but rather worthy of jail.” Dana, how do you plead?

MS. PRIEST: Well, it’s not a crime to publish classified information. And this is one of the things Mr. Bennett keeps telling people that it is. But, in fact, there are some narrow categories of information you can’t publish, certain signals, communications, intelligence, the names of covert operatives and nuclear secrets.

Now why isn’t it a crime? I mean, some people would like to make casino gambling a crime, but it is not a crime. Why isn’t it not a crime? Because the framers of the Constitution wanted to protect the press so that they could perform a basic role in government oversight, and you can’t do that. Look at the criticism that the press got after Iraq that we did not do our job on WMD. And that was all in a classified arena. To do a better job—and I believe that we should’ve done a better job—we would’ve again, found ourselves in the arena of...

Isn't it interesting that Dana Priest managed to work in a reference to gambling when addressing Bennett, her detractor, while he's sitting right next to her?

Crooks and Liars and You Tube have the clip online. Watch Bennett squirm.

I'll have more in the days ahead about the controversy over news organizations publishing classified information and the recent political uproar surrounding it.

Update: I would like to add that while I don't agree with Bennett's criticism of reporters who obtain or publish classified information, I do think that Priest may have stepped over the line as far as taking a personal swipe at him. I would view gambling as a personal problem, which although it is in direct conflict with the reputation that Bennett has made for himself and the beliefs he has promoted over the years, would it be any different for going after someone's personal problems like alcoholism or drug addiction or anything else? I certainly don't think Bill Bennett's gambling problem was relevant in addressing the point that Andrea Mitchell presented to Dana Priest during the discussion.