Friday, March 27, 2009

IS ED GOD?

He's BAAAAKKKKKKK.....

As some of you know, our Inspired Leader Ed Silverman is out there twittering. Some of us have resisted twittering. But this was too good to pass up.

There is a good and interesting piece about Ed at:

http://media.haymarketmedia.com/Documents/2/HEADLINER%20B_1327.pdf

In terms of what we have lost through the continuing dissolution of media, Pharmalot and more, it is sobering but critically important. The lights are going out. And bad things happen in the dark.

In terms of the headline, Ed, like us, wrote about the theological problem posed by Dr. Biederman. While we frankly think we were much funnier, we are ecumenical on issues like this.

Amen.

14 comments:

  1. We’re funny, but Dr. B is hysterical.

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  2. I don't know about Ed being God... I also worry that Mrs. Pharmalot might have trouble getting Ed to finish projects on his honey to do list if we started calling him God.

    That being said, has anyone else noticed that Ed doesn't seem to need a whole lot of sleep? Probably involves a trade secret...

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  3. I think the secret is caffeine....Ed's drug of choice...

    Of course, it is possible that Biederman is slipping him some adhd samples.

    But I doubt it.

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  4. Justice,
    Ed and friends turn up the lights, here (check the sidebar):

    http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100951

    ReplyDelete
  5. Diana and the SupremesApril 1, 2009 at 8:28 AM

    We need their voices. Who is warning the public that the sun is coming down on us?

    From the link:

    “As Joe Mathews, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, wrote in 'The Morgue: A reporter’s elegy for his dying paper” in The New Republic, ‘With fewer watchdogs, you get less barking. How can we know what we’ll never know?’”

    “While answers await, we can only hope that what we’ll never know won’t harm us.”

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  6. “what we’ll never know won’t harm us”

    Only in Never Land.

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  7. I was struck that there was a story in our local paper about a bill to make university tuition affordable for all students in our state.

    The paper will die in a couple of months. This is the sort of issue--potentially good news as well as bad--that most folks will simply not know is in the works without the hard copy paper.

    If I didn't have three other jobs already, I would try to organize a communal newspaper for our town. Hopefully, someone else is.

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  8. Are you talking about the Ann Arbor paper? I used to read it when I was a student there.

    I signed up for Twitter and am now following Ed. Unfortunately, when I entered my cell number Twitter said they don't "support" it. I have a Verizon BlackBerry. Has anyone else had this problem? I can go to the website, but not being able to get the updates on my phone kind of defeats the purpose of Twitter, doesn't it?

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  9. Justice,

    A lot of folks will miss reading the paper over their morning coffee. But, how much news will we miss? For example, in Michigan, The Detroit News and Free Press have so under-reported our drug immunity law that most folks don’t even know it exists. They find out when they need a lawyer.

    “The news is what we say it is.” - Quote from “The Corporation.”

    How can you fight a bad law if you don’t know about it?

    More folks are going to the Internet for information, but, sadly, the Internet won’t save us.

    “And those who believe that the Internet, alone, will save us from this fate should realize that the dominating Internet news sources are controlled by the same media giants who control radio, TV, newspapers and cable.”
    – Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner, quoted from “George Orwell rolls in his grave.”

    The people of our country will be our saving grace. But, again, like FDA preemption, how do we get the message out?

    To view videos explaining why the media is not as forthcoming as it once was, please copy and paste the links below into Google.

    YouTube - THE CORPORATION [17/23] Unsettling Accounts

    YouTube - George Orwell rolls in his grave.

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  10. Even for me, there is a lot going on besides FDA preemption. And a good deal of it is community and state news that will be missed, and have important consequences.

    I believe the loss of local newspapers is a major blow to the chance for citizens to participate in local and regional issues--whether that be related to preemption or the zillion other things that impact our lives.

    BTW, I tried "twitter" but find it a pain in the twooter.

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  11. I am with JIM...Twitter is not interactive the way that this and other blogs are...Pharmalot worked b/c it is about an interactive dialogue between and among an Internet community of folks who are all interested in Pharma.

    Twitter seems like it is more of a one way dialogue...maybe it's just me, but this is not what Ed and Pharmalot are about. Twitter is good for some things...it has a nitch, but it is not a replacement for a blog.

    So, Ed's posts are on Twitter, and we are....HERE on the Pharmalittle Blog commenting on them...I don't know about you, but I have a hard time being in two places at once...

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  12. Well, we can be at two places serially! But, as is clear, relatively few of Ed's folks, certainly on the industry side, will come here. And they will note that it has taken an "anti-pharma" turn, which is oversimplified but has some truth. I will write about that soon.

    Anyway, Ed, as always, is a great source!

    ReplyDelete

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