Following the tragic and early death of actor Heath Ledger last week, CNN’s Anderson Cooper took a stand on air and on his blog to not cover Heath’s death until results from the toxicology reports come back because until then there is nothing new to report. Just a bunch of speculation and fuel to rumors that seem to be what’s grabbing headlines these days. I applaud his stance and decision to cover issues that matter. I wish other news outlets would take note and follow Anderson’s lead. One can only hope the day will come when the headlines of the day don’t inlcude the latest craziness from Miss Disaster herself (a.k.a. Britney Spears). Now that will be a great day…but I don’t think I’ll hold my breath! 

I love The Wire. It is the best written, directed and acted show I think I have ever seen on TV (and I have watched a lot of TV in this lifetime). There seem to be quite a few who agree with me, like the folks at Salon and Slate.

Over the year’s the show has tackled drugs, political corruption, security at the docks (or lack thereof) and the failure of the public school system in Baltimore. This season the issue is the slow death of the newspaper business. Given the recent news from the SDUT about buy outs and layoffs and today’s news from the LATimes, the show’s theme is timely. And painful to watch.

But here is an example of one newspaper fighting back. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
is going head-to-head with the Super Bowl as a superior advertising vehicle (thanks for the tip Allen). I don’t know if all those hot shot agencies that place Super Bowl ads will buy the premise that the newspaper delivers a higher market share but kudos to them for trying. More creativity and less cuts would be a good thing, not only for the folks at the papers but for the public that still relies on journalism to provide some modicum of the truth.

So maybe it’s not the exact story line of an adult living in a child’s body, as in the movie Big, starring Tom Hanks. But Comedian Mark Malkoff is living in an IKEA store while his apartment is fumigated.

You can also check out his blog about the experience. Watch hilarious videos of Mark in his PJs escorting customers out of his “home,” skateboarding by breakables, and jumping on the beds.

Mark wonders why IKEA would let him live in their storeroom for a week.

As I am reading the Associated Press article, sending his blog to everyone I know, and laughing at videos of him using IKEA products that I could use in my own home, I know why they did.

It’s a PR campaign at it’s finest. And it’s not costing them a dime.