Four in the morning

1. David Brooks blames the message the messengers choose to deliver for Gen. Stanley McChrystal's downfall. NYT

2. Robert Rector eviscerates a Michigan lawmaker's cheeky proposal to license journalists. Robert Rector

3. Walter Shapiro says the Rolling Stone exposé of Gen. McChrystal means the end of fly-on-the-wall journalism for now (which will make David Brooks [see above] happy). Politics Daily

4. The Internet overlords want to give online pornography its own .xxx suffix. Reuters

Four in the morning

1. Dead horse beat: Local news in Los Angeles is often an extended commercial for the network's entertainment shows. Robert Rector

2. Cluttertweet: There is no mailbox that junk mail will not find (and eventually fill). Twitter ads appear to be the latest iteration. Austin American-Statesman

3. DocumentClouds forming: The Atlantic, New Yorker, Mother Jones, MSNBC, WNYC and Washington Post have joined the nonprofit DocumentCloud. NYO

4. Buzz generator: Cliff Barney is psyched about reporting experiments at UC Berkeley's j-school. Calbuzz

A specialized diet at Readers Digest

To survive both the decline in print and America's great differentiation, the now-bankrupt Readers Digest plans to transform itself from a general-interest publication into something better suited to our fragmented society.

As Robert Rector observes, Readers Digest once traded on a caricature of the upright, white, suburban middle-class family and, in doing so, gained a broad audience in an America that strove to be a being part of that world. The Internet has punctuated and amplified the cracks in this worldview, and now Readers Digest must become a caricature of itself. It will strip away the veneer of mainstream appeal and follow the cultural guideposts of the sect called American conservative.

Rector writes:

...the Digest, after years of trying to broaden its appeal, is being pushed in a decidedly conservative direction.

It is cutting down on celebrity profiles and ramping up on inspiring spiritual stories. Out are generic how-to magazine features; in are articles about military life. ...

Indeed, the Digest plans to introduce a new multifaceted effort produced with Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor, called the Purpose Driven Connection. For about $30, subscribers get a quarterly magazine with religious workbooks, along with DVDs featuring Warren, and membership in a social-networking Web site, including tips on what to pray for each week. It is available through churches and at Wal-Marts.

Obama and the BCS*

Since Southern California is home to the Rose Bowl, the Coliseum, UCLA and USC, I figured President-elect Barack Obama's comments on 60 Minutes about reforming the Bowl Championship Series might reverberate on the local sports pages. Well, sort of.

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times had this to say in his column in Thursday's paper:

Take out a quill -- the kind Thomas Jefferson used to pen the Declaration of Independence -- and declare this:

President-elect Barack Obama will solve the Middle East crisis before he solves the Bowl Championship Series.

He'll get the polar ice caps to stop melting before he gets "sensible" people to come to a college football consensus.

Sure nothing is likely to happen, but that shouldn't stop us from speculating.

After some prompting, Larry Wilson, public editor of the Pasadena Star-News and my former boss, gave his thoughts on whether talk of BCS reform should be cause for panic (displayed in the most civil manner possible) in the Crown City. Here's what he had to say:

gary, indeed such an obamaorama of a solution to the mighty woes of the ncaa gridironers would mean an end to the messy but lucrative bcs. but wouldn't it then create a neat and also very lucrative series of playoff games which historic and large stadiums such as the [Rose Bowl] would bid for -- and wouldn't the bowl be the likely place for western regional games? and then every five years it would still likely host the final national championship as well. so i say this is obama's way of repaying his pasadena debt. lw

While the BCS already rotates the "championship" game in this way, the Rose Bowl would have to give up the Pac-10/Big Ten match-up under the playoff scheme. Would a regional playoff game attract the same level of excitement as a traditional rivalry? Is the Tournament of Roses ready to embrace a more egalitarian system? Wouldn't the Coliseum make a play for the playoff action?

I'll be waiting for the Pasadena paper to provide some answers.

*UPDATED: My former editor, Bob Rector, whose columns appear in the Star-News, weighed in on the Obama plan. The chances college football drops the bowl system for a playoff series: A big zero. Bob elaborates:

For one thing, the Pac 10 and Big 10 don't want to further diminish the Rose Bowl game, which would undoubtedly happen in a playoff scenario.

Second, there's too much money to be made under the current arrangement. Dump the bowl games and you're dumping the cash.

Bob did some consulting work for the Rose Bowl and has a severe addiction to UCLA home games. His column on the Obama plan, the BCS and ESPN dominance of college football is scheduled to run in Friday's paper.