* The media drumbeat preceding the Ferguson grand jury decision turned into a de facto countdown to over-reaction. Lights, cameras, no action? No way on non-indictment Monday.
* The headline said it all: “Gunmen Kill 4 Anti-Polio Workers In Pakistan.” Obviously there is no vaccine for ignorant, demonic barbarity.
* No matter your opinion on the Affordable Care Act, whether based on philosophy, economics or the law, we should all be able to agree on this: The media, not just Fox and fiends, hasn’t been doing its job by carelessly calling–and continuing to call–the ACA “Obamacare.” What started out as a partisan pejorative has morphed into easy labeling, media shorthand.
* Have to feel for Channel 8 sports anchor Dan Lucas who has those regularly-contracted, One Buc Place interview segments with Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith. It only gets more awkward as the season devolves. And last Sunday’s 12-man fiasco was the worst. “(It gets) tougher every week,” empathetically acknowledged Gayle Sierens after Monday’s wince-able, Lucas-Smith Q&A. Actually, the studio “happy talk” gets tougher each week too.