Remember the Gay '90s?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

And you are talking like if there was a golden age of near perfect news reporting...

Precisely where am I making such a claim? I never said, nor inferred, anything of the sort.

[Coligny]

Sorry, I read it as the usual old people rant "it was better in my days"

plus...

while the checking and balancing role the media played to a certain extent will become even less pronounced.

reinforced this impression...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

plus...

while the checking and balancing role the media played to a certain extent will become even less pronounced.

reinforced this impression...

Fair enough. I was thinking Fourth Estate sort of stuff, which I guess means Watergate, which sparked a spate of far less successful attempts at investigative journalism that vaguely chipped away at the status quo only to eventually revert to form shortly thereafter.
There have been golden days of reporting, but certainly not much in the mainstream media.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Remember the actual topic of this thread, Metropolis vs M2?
I just saw this pop up in my RSS feed.

...Metropolis management will now say that they are producing an average of 26,154 copies, but it’s clear that since November 2012 they have been producing only 20,000 copies/issue. All while claiming in the magazine they have, "up to 30,000 copies guaranteed" ...
...only 15,922 copies are going to Tokyo. So compared with the 30,000 copies that were printed before, clients are effectively getting half the circulation...

----m2tokyo.com/blog/2013/04/17:
Metropolis Circulation: “Up to…” no good

Metropolis-30000-copies.png

Cor blimey, Taro.
With all the PR you've given the MarkII, I hope you haven't sold your soul to the Devlin...his reputation for payment is hardly sparkling.

[Coligny]

plus...

while the checking and balancing role the media played to a certain extent will become even less pronounced.

reinforced this impression...

Fair enough. I was thinking Fourth Estate sort of stuff, which I guess means Watergate, which sparked a spate of far less successful attempts at investigative journalism that vaguely chipped away at the status quo only to eventually revert to form shortly thereafter.
There have been golden days of reporting, but certainly not much in the mainstream media.

Now watergate material is whistleblower jobs. Mannings/Assange/wikileaks. They don't need the journalists anymore to get the end result of the truth out, they have access to the source orders.... Which bring us to much scarier realisation... Now bringing the news of governemental misconduct is the best way to become enemy of the state. In the purest banana dictatorship behaviour, it's no longer a 9-5 job. Digging in Julian Assange bio... I'm surprised he's still alive...

[Taro Toporific]

Cor blimey, Taro.
With all the PR you've given the MarkII, I hope you haven't sold your soul to the Devlin...his reputation for payment is hardly sparkling.

No worry mate.
I remain remuneration free---My reputation is intact as my rectum.
I am just eating popcorn and enjoying the show.

eating.gif

[TennoChinko]

Ironic 'cos wasn't Devlin himself constantly being accused of fudging circulation numbers and/or dumping uncirculated METROPOLIS magazines?
If true as alleged, that would certainly make him a qualified expert...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Now watergate material is whistleblower jobs. Mannings/Assange/wikileaks. They don't need the journalists anymore to get the end result of the truth out, they have access to the source orders.... Which bring us to much scarier realisation... Now bringing the news of governemental misconduct is the best way to become enemy of the state. In the purest banana dictatorship behaviour, it's no longer a 9-5 job. Digging in Julian Assange bio... I'm surprised he's still alive...

Exactly! And this leads on to what Hammer wrote yesterday. We are definitely not headed in the right direction.

(BTW, Assange spent a lot of his childhood growing up in the same area I grew up, but I wasn't in a cult that dyed everyone's hair white. I know well the place where he grew up...if he can get through that lifestyle <Look up "Anne Hamilton Byrne's The Family">, bumbling bureaucrats must be a doddle. He's far from being out of the woods yet, though.)

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I remain remuneration free---My reputation is intact as my rectum.

Absolutely no worries...I wouldn't blame you at all even if you were.
We had a business tycoon Down Under who once made the impressive observation that, "There's a little bit of whore in us all, gentlemen. What's your price?"
Unfortunately, I vie with Daiso in trying to bring the cheapest products to the market....

[Coligny]

I remain remuneration free---My reputation is intact as my rectum.
I am just eating popcorn and enjoying the show.[

you know that there is a huge market for first time videos...

"super happy big dick gaijin first rectal encounter, rape party... something something..."

[Coligny]

Now watergate material is whistleblower jobs. Mannings/Assange/wikileaks. They don't need the journalists anymore to get the end result of the truth out, they have access to the source orders.... Which bring us to much scarier realisation... Now bringing the news of governemental misconduct is the best way to become enemy of the state. In the purest banana dictatorship behaviour, it's no longer a 9-5 job. Digging in Julian Assange bio... I'm surprised he's still alive...

Exactly! And this leads on to what Hammer wrote yesterday. We are definitely not headed in the right direction.

(BTW, Assange spent a lot of his childhood growing up in the same area I grew up, but I wasn't in a cult that dyed everyone's hair white. I know well the place where he grew up...if he can get through that lifestyle <Look up "Anne Hamilton Byrne's The Family">, bumbling bureaucrats must be a doddle. He's far from being out of the woods yet, though.)

I saw a docudrama "underground, the Julian Assange story" his wikipedia page don't mention his first gulf war involvement... but if true... It's amazing that he's still breathing...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Now watergate material is whistleblower jobs. Mannings/Assange/wikileaks. They don't need the journalists anymore to get the end result of the truth out, they have access to the source orders.... Which bring us to much scarier realisation... Now bringing the news of governemental misconduct is the best way to become enemy of the state. In the purest banana dictatorship behaviour, it's no longer a 9-5 job. Digging in Julian Assange bio... I'm surprised he's still alive...

Exactly! And this leads on to what Hammer wrote yesterday. We are definitely not headed in the right direction.

(BTW, Assange spent a lot of his childhood growing up in the same area I grew up, but I wasn't in a cult that dyed everyone's hair white. I know well the place where he grew up...if he can get through that lifestyle <Look up "Anne Hamilton Byrne's The Family">, bumbling bureaucrats must be a doddle. He's far from being out of the woods yet, though.)

I saw a docudrama "underground, the Julian Assange story" his wikipedia page don't mention his first gulf war involvement... but if true... It's amazing that he's still breathing...

I doubt it...he was still a child at the time.
I don't think he's much of a savior, either.

[Coligny]

but he already had a keyboard...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

but he already had a keyboard...

True. And an ego.
I don't know enough about what he's supposed to have done, but whatever it was I'm sure it was hyped out of all proportion.

[Coligny]

Just found some internal reports on an unproperly secured fileserver listing as active targets with known heavy civilian occupancy buildings that after their bombing were in the news declared as 'tragic collateral damages' (in Baghdad).

Which in 91 was sort of a big deal when the us was first marketting their surgical strikes and clean war porpragranda...

(still wondering if they really blew only by accident the Chinese embassy in Belgrade... the "sorry dem maps wuz outdated" excuse always sounded lame...)

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Just found some internal reports on an unproperly secured fileserver listing as active targets with known heavy civilian occupancy buildings that after their bombing were in the news declared as 'tragic collateral damages' (in Baghdad).

Which in 91 was sort of a big deal when the us was first marketting their surgical strikes and clean war porpragranda...

(still wondering if they really blew only by accident the Chinese embassy in Belgrade... the "sorry dem maps wuz outdated" excuse always sounded lame...)

Ah, OK...I have vague memories (that include something along those lines. I also have vague memories.)
I think you give too much credit to the Merkin government.
Bumbling incompetence is as Merkin as fundamentalist cultists armed with semi-automatic firearms they will gladly use on anybody denying the possibility of Jesus riding dinosaurs.

[Russell]

... I'd predict the vast majority of us are going to be sucked into mega-SNS sites and opiated with its addictive drivel while the checking and balancing role the media played to a certain extent will become even less pronounced.

This! This right here! Yup yup!

The line between fact and bullshit is already getting hard to to spot, and the blur is only going to spread.

Some sort of accreditation is going to become necessary ... which, if not done carefully, could lead back to government censorship and control. A sticky issue indeed.

[Marked Trail]

Remember the actual topic of this thread, Metropolis vs M2?

I just saw this rebuttal from Terrie 'Veghead' Lloyd show up on facebook ...

Metropolis....png

facebook.com/M2Tokyo/posts/140391649478717

_________________________________

Background information...

Metropolis continues to mislead readers and clients
M2 -- TOKYO LIFE, 2013/04/27
...On April 17, 2013, I published an analysis of Metropolis circulation which showed that Metropolis magazine had been falsely telling readers and clients that it had been certified by ABC {Japan’s Audit Bureau of Circulation} for “up to 30,000 copies” when in fact it has been printing 20,000 copies since November 2012.
The analysis of Metropolis’ circulation was based on:

1) Metropolis editorial staff posting a picture of the printer’s delivery note for 20,000 copies on Facebook. (see the photo at the top of this article – the original posting has been deleted)

2) ABC circulation records which conclusively prove that over the past six months Metropolis produced far less than 30,000 copies/issue, and is now producing only 20,000 copies/issue, only 15,922 of which are in Tokyo.

A letter from ABC staff who said they had visited Metropolis to ask them to change the “advertisement” on April 16.
Metropolis also claims “up to 1000 distribution points“, a number that neither matches the 600 points in the ABC report nor takes into account recently decreased circulation.
In late 2012 Metropolis magazine was transferred by Terrie Lloyd, a New Zealand and Australian dual-national who claims to be a successful entrepreneur in Tokyo and who runs various seminars on starting up businesses in Japan, to Japan Partnership KK — a company that does not even have its own homepage. Lloyd continues to publish the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) magazine.
The CEO of Japan Partnership KK is Frank Kasala — a man who has no experience in publishing; who, as far as I have been told, has never met the Metropolis staff; and who does not even appear on the Metropolis About Us page. Note that this page also still states “up to 30,000 copies”.
A company that has no web page? A CEO with no publishing experience? A CEO not listed in the magazine, or on the magazine website? A magazine with no Publisher? One has to wonder who is really calling the shots at Metropolis.
Plus ad nauseum ...

Metropolis-20000.jpg

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Even as a non-paying spectator, it's still pitiful to watch these other non-payers bitch slap each other with a sodden slice of decade-old celery...

[TennoChinko]

Funny how old accusations regarding the Metropolis are now being utilized by the former owners. Digging into the wiki backboards, I found this gem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... d=94485448

==Controversy==

Circulation claims

In the November 1999 issue of "Japan Traveler" a free English-language magazine it was alleged that the Crisscross publication "Tokyo Classified" (the forerunner to Metropolis) was engaging in a gross circulation fraud by wildly exaggerating print-run figures in an attempt to unfairly increase it's competitiveness in the advertising market. The article, in the monthly publication, was by Japan Traveller owner and publisher James C. Gibbs.

Gibbs went on to expand his claims on the Japan Traveler web-site (material now removed) by alleging that:

*Tokyo Classified was initially claiming a 60,000 copies per week circulation by their 6th issue.

*Circulation was then quoted as 45,000 copies per week in the company data handout.

*In response to an enquiry from a disquieted client dated 16 November 1999, Publisher and CEO Mark Devlin replied "We are also speeding up our application for verification of 40,000 each week from the Japanese Audit Bureau of Circulations".

Gibbs described incredulity that a publication which has grown from a 4-page black and white broadsheet to a 56-page full-color A4 glossy magazine should see it's quoted circulation figures drop by half.


Tokyo Classified's response

Tokyo classified responded to Gibbs claims on their web-site (material now been removed) and Devlin wrote to Gibbs asking him to withdraw the allegation and apologise.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Where is Scumbags in Japan when you need it?

Who gives a fuck about circulation figures? It's fucking pointless; kinda like spouting book-length reports that people are wasting time at some of Japan's biggest companies by posting on the Net. (Edit: I should have added that the circulation figures are pointless because the Audit Bureau of Circulation has little credibility, especially in dealing with publications outside of the Japanese language. Advertisers are hardly going to be thrilled at a circulation of a few dozen thousand, albeit in a specified readership, in a city with a working population of 30 million plus, most of whom depend on their mobile phones for information of the type available in any of these rags.)

Personally, I'd rather know what bills aren't being paid. (And not see the publishers of any publication I may advertise in conducting a public argument about who the bigger liar is.)

[Samurai_Jerk]

Where is Scumbags in Japan when you need it?

It's hard to kick ass when you only got one leg.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Where is Scumbags in Japan when you need it?

It's hard to kick ass when you only got one leg.

Unscrew it and clobber them with it?

What happened there?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Where is Scumbags in Japan when you need it?

It's hard to kick ass when you only got one leg.

Unscrew it and clobber them with it?

What happened there?

I heard the guy who ran it lost a leg to diabetes.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Where is Scumbags in Japan when you need it?

It's hard to kick ass when you only got one leg.

Unscrew it and clobber them with it?

What happened there?

I heard the guy who ran it lost a leg to diabetes.

I knew he lost a court case: I didn't know he'd lost a leg, too.
He didn't become Heather Mills by any chance did he? She was an excellent example of successful extortion when you haven't got a leg to stand on...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Where is Scumbags in Japan when you need it?

It's hard to kick ass when you only got one leg.

Unscrew it and clobber them with it?

What happened there?

I heard the guy who ran it lost a leg to diabetes.

This entire case is becoming increasingly like getting uptight over the results of events in the Special Olympics....

[Taro Toporific]

This just popped up in my RSS feed, muahaha.

Sparkzilla-vs-Lloydodon_Twitter.jpg

m2tokyo.com/blog/2013/04/30/questions-for-terrie-lloyd

[sublight]

Oh ffs...

Is he actually producing a magazine, or his entire reason for being here just to get even with people he thinks wronged him years ago, like some Hanna-Barbera villain? I expect to see him wearing a Dick Dasterdly cap and cackling "I'll get you next time, Terrie! NEXT TIIIIIIIIIMME!"

Word of advice to anyone doing business with either of them: insist on cash up front.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Wow, I really am starting to have 90s flashbacks. James Gibbs and "Japan Traveler".

[yanpa]

Come to think of it, I met my ex-wife via Tokyo Classified... Curse you, Dark Melvin!