Bill Barol is the author of “Mr. Irresponsible’s Bad Advice: How To Rip The Lid Off Your Id and Live Happily Ever After” (Volt Press, 2005). He’s a former Senior Writer at Newsweek, where he authored cover stories on David Letterman, Bruce Springsteen, Andrew Wyeth, and The End of the Eighties, as well as dozens of inside stories on pop culture, entertainment and the arts. His freelance journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Time, Slate, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Fortune Small Business, Washington Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, American Heritage and TV Guide, and on PBS. He's also been a writer/producer on television comedies including "Anything But Love," "Cafe Americain" and "Townies." He lives in Santa Monica, CA and can be reached here. His recent journalism is archived here. His Twitter feed is here. He also blogs at True/Slant.

Blog Entries by Bill Barol

BIG QUESTIONS: A video update

Posted December 8, 2009 | 05:00 PM (EST)


You may remember that I'm in the process of beating the e-drum for a new Web video project called BIG QUESTIONS. It's an experiment in crowdsourcing the costs of a new enterprise, and in a new kind of journalism for the Web, and so far the results have been...

Read Post

BIG QUESTIONS: A Web video pilot

Posted November 17, 2009 | 01:52 PM (EST)


There's a great quote attributed to Milton Berle, of all people: "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." I'm building a door. Or, more accurately, a Web video series. It's sort of Journalism on Acid... no, wait, it's New Journalism for New Times... wait, hang on, it's The Onion meets...

Read Post

Walter Cronkite: A Yet Further Reappraisal

2 Comments | Posted July 28, 2009 | 09:18 PM (EST)


A July 17 appraisal of Walter Cronkite's career was corrected at length by The New York Times on July 22. In the last week a number of additional factual errors by the Times' Alessandra Stanley have come to light.

The Normandy invasion did not take place in the Upper...

Read Post

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Posted March 1, 2009 | 04:19 AM (EST)


The first draft of this piece was written for Twitter, and was 133 characters long. It read, in its entirety:

Alessandra Stanley proves that bloggers aren't the only ones who can be reflexively snarky about things they don't really understand.

I spiked it, because Twitter -- a popular microblogging...

Read Post

The Rocky

Posted February 27, 2009 | 06:18 PM (EST)


The irony of this post isn't lost on me: I'm a blogger passing on a video about the final days of the Rocky Mountain News, which published its final edition today. Bloggers come in for some gentle criticism in the film. Sportswriter Jeff Legwold remembers the old newspaperman's admonition If...

Read Post

McCain Staff Memo (not for distribution): Dismissive Obama References Still in Play for Wednesday

Posted October 9, 2008 | 03:24 PM (EST)


1) This guy
2) The O-Man
3) Barry Barry Bo-Barry, Bana-Fana Fo Farry
4) That one
5) Capt. Happy, here
6) The Bar Mitzvah Boy
7) Stretch
8) The distinguished junior senator from Illinois {w/ eye roll}
9) Fonzworth Bentley
10)...

Read Post

What Should Happen Tonight at Columbia University

Posted September 11, 2008 | 12:11 PM (EST)


SCENE: A backstage green room. Senators Barack Obama and John McCain wait to appear at a forum commemorating the 9/11 attacks.

STAGE MANAGER: Gentlemen, I'll be back to get you in about ten minutes. Please remember that, by agreement of the campaigns, tonight's event is non-political.

McCAIN: Of course.

OBAMA:...

Read Post

On Sarah Palin's Likability

Posted September 4, 2008 | 12:38 PM (EST)


If you work at home and are distractable like me and you tend to listen to cable news at a low volume throughout the day, pausing only occasionally to scream WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT or OH FOR GOD'S SAKE GET HEATHER WILSON OFF MY TV or YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY...

Read Post

The Most Revealing Video of the DNC

Posted August 28, 2008 | 03:22 PM (EST)


The most revealing video of the DNC may be airing right now on MSNBC. (Go ahead, tune in. You'll catch it. They've got nothing but time to kill until Olbermann and Matthews convene tonight's slapfight, and they're cycling through B-roll like it's going out of style.) It's a ten-second...

Read Post

"But I am reasonably certain, my friends, that I own exactly sixteen Patek Philippe watches."

Posted August 21, 2008 | 11:46 AM (EST)


If you're looking for a good, concrete example of a guy who's right in touch with the aspirations of ordinary Americans you'd be hard-pressed to top a guy who isn't sure how many houses he owns. I mean, isn't that The American Dream right there -- to own so many...

Read Post

Dance On, Matt

Posted June 24, 2008 | 01:47 PM (EST)


I've been trying to figure out why Matt Harding and Melissa Nixon's Dancing 2008, the breakout viral video of the moment, is so charming, so endlessly watchable, and ultimately so moving. (If you haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil it for you. Watch it below.)

...

Read Post

Be a basketball columnist! It's easy!

Posted June 16, 2008 | 01:00 PM (EST)


There are many reasons to root for the Celtics over the Lakers in the NBA finals, which head to Boston on Tuesday for a critical Game 6. But there is one above all.

A Celts victory will force LA Times basketball columnist Bill Plaschke to shut up.

It will...

Read Post

Why It's Time to Retire the Term "Citizen Journalist"

Posted June 6, 2008 | 03:14 PM (EST)


Today's Los Angeles Times profiles Mayhill Fowler, the Huffington Post blogger and "citizen journalist" who got Bill Clinton to go postal on Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum. The LAT buries the lede, though, in not noting until the 14th paragraph that Fowler's question to Clinton was "What do you...

Read Post

Five Amazing Similarities Between Hillary Clinton and Rocky Balboa

36 Comments | Posted April 1, 2008 | 01:57 PM (EST)


PHILADELPHIA - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she has something in common with legendary film boxer Rocky Balboa -- she's not a quitter. Recalling a famous scene on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the 1976 Oscar-winning film "Rocky," Clinton said that ending her presidential campaign now...
Read Post

Don't Give Up Your Day Job, Jackass

3 Comments | Posted March 27, 2008 | 01:18 PM (EST)


I'm not going to link to it, but there's a video out there of NBC Universal chairman Jeff Zucker that's apparently supposed to precede next week's return of My Name Is Earl. Forget that Zucker is a lousy performer and his attempts at a comic style are gut-wrenching. These alone...

Read Post

The Tarmac at Tuzla

66 Comments | Posted March 24, 2008 | 02:37 PM (EST)


In a speech last week at George Washington University, Hillary Clinton recalled a 1996 trip to Bosnia and said she remembered "landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to...

Read Post

Also, apparently, there was like a strike about this or something.

Posted March 10, 2008 | 05:37 PM (EST)


The New York Times discovers, in today's Business section, that the kids are now watching TV shows on their computers. (Whoa! It's like I'm talkin' space talk!) The piece is downright exhaustive, including both the name of an actual Los Angeles screenwriter (Peer Gopfrich) and the kind of big...

Read Post

"It's three A.M. and your children are safe and asleep.... "

Posted February 29, 2008 | 05:08 PM (EST)


" ...But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing.... Who do you want answering the phone?" (Clinton campaign spot, 2/29/08)

...Really? You do? Him? Hmm. Okay, well... Okay, so wait. Wait. Let's say it's like... It's like FOUR in the morning. Okay? And your children are safe...

Read Post

Clinton's Zidane Moment

Posted February 24, 2008 | 05:12 PM (EST)


You may recall French soccer star Zinedine Zidane's epic lapse of composure in the 2006 World Cup final. Zidane grew irritated in what would turn out to be a losing match against Italy, started jawing with Italy's Marco Materazzi and ended up pasting Materazzi with a vicious headbutt. If you...

Read Post

Dem Debate Shocker: Everyone On Stage Plagiarized From Me

Posted February 22, 2008 | 12:53 PM (EST)


A close reading of the transcript from last night's CNN/Univision debate reveals that everyone on stage plagiarized from me. The proof:

Whatever happens, we're going to be fine. -- Hillary Clinton, last night
I'm fine. I'm going to be fine. Just go away. -- Me, to my wife, after...

Read Post