I was just on the NBC5 website because I wanted to post about a story they ran this morning. I skimmed the story before linking to it and then opened the comments section. That’s where I got totally sidetracked. The comments on NBC5’s web page are completely out of control and incredibly offensive even to someone like me who isn’t easily offended. I believe, and I think most of us here at the Advocate/ Back Talk concur, that the host is ultimately responsible for the content on their site, whether it’s staff or user generated. We probably lose some content/ commentary here by closely monitoring comments and making sure they aren’t offensive, threatening or too off topic — but then we mostly end up with higher quality, more intelligent reader generated discussion (not that we don’t our fair share of hurtful or dumb comments too). I understand NBC has a lot of site traffic, but they must have a staffer or intern available to chaperone the comments section. Point is, NBC5 needs to take more accountability and get the crazy story comments under control before I ever again link to one of their articles.

The saddest part? The 200 layoffs at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper are probably not enough, and the newspaper experts I talked to expect another round of layoffs later this year if the economy doesn’t improve. Parent company A.H. Belo cut 500 jobs across its three major newspapers and assorted products.

You can see some of the people laid off here, here and here.

And, from the Isn’t it Ironic Department? A regular visitor here notes that when The News’ parent company bought the Providence newspaper in 1997, the purchase included something called The Food Network. Yes, that Food Network. The then-Belo Corp. quickly traded it and $75 million in cash to the E.W. Scripps newspaper company for a radio and TV station in San Antonio. Today, Scripps Networks, which Scripps spun off and includes HGTV, is apparently quite successful.

• Jim Schutze of the Observer and Steve Blow at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper, who traded barbs during the run-up to the November 2007 Trinity referendum, are at it again. Blow called Schutze Dallas’ Eeyore, and included a great back-handed compliment in the column: “In his own morose way, Schutze has had his mitts on a good story. …” Does that mean when I get a good story, I do it in a cranky way? Or when Blow gets one, he does it in a sunshiney way? Schutze responded by invoking the old Headliners bar downtown, which sent a shiver of nostalgia down my spine, and comparing Blow to Goofy, the Disney character. And who says the Internet is a waste of time?

• Historians and literary scholars have been frustrated for centuries because no reliable likeness of William Shakespeare exists. (Get the transition here, by the way? Writers?) Shakespeare scholarship has been hampered because no one knows exactly what the English language’s greatest writer looked like. Now, however, some think they do: a 400-year-old portrait that depicts a “a head-turner of a man,” far different from the bald guy everyone knows from studying the Bard in high school.

• Texas is one of 30 states that have contracted with banks to issue debit cards to provide unemployment benefits. The jobless, instead of getting a check in the mail, get the card loaded with their money. The catch, reports the Associated Press, is that the unemployed often have to pay the issuing bank to get their cash. A Missouri woman was changed $6 in fees to make two withdrawals off the card.

A roundup of stuff that wouldn’t necessarily make it on the blog, but is worth noting:

• Robert Wilonsky at the Observer reports that Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper is still weeks away from announcing its next round of layoffs. Expect to see 300 to 350 leave at the paper, which will include editorial, sales, marketing and circulation staff. I’m even told some managers might go. They got the bad news at the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth yesterday – more than 100 jobs gone, wage cuts, and a possible one-week furlough later in the year. And even college papers aren’t immune, USA Today reports. Daily newspapers at schools across the country have cut one edition a week — usually Friday’s — because of weak advertising.

• Apparently, physicians are immune from criticism. That’s the thinking of a North Carolina MD who helps his colleagues prevent patients from making comments on web sites, blogs and the like that review doctor performance. Note: the doctor in the story is not related to me, though we share – ironically – the same name. Guess he wouldn’t last too long writing for our blog, would he?

• Who says Texas isn’t a national leader in good government? We’re setting an example in taxing strip clubs, as more and more cash-strapped states are levying “skin taxes,” targeting dirty magazines, racy movies, sex toys and strip clubs. Says one expert: “"In that sense, it’s not a bad way to raise money. You’re not going to discourage people. But if you want to raise money, why not?"

A roundup of stuff that wouldn’t necessarily make it on the blog, but is worth noting:

• As if Dallas’ Only Newspaper doesn’t have enough problems, it looks like it wasn’t able to deliver ex-President Bush’s newspaper the last couple of weeks, either. Which Laura Bush ended up mentioning on Good Morning America, much to The News’ embarrassment. Apparently, it’s a security mix-up. The News’ delivery person doesn’t have the necessary clearance to get through the police roadblock. But, says News publisher Jim Moroney, all has been fixed, and delivery resumed Wednesday. I wonder: Has the former owner of the Rangers noticed that Morning News staffers don’t cover the team anymore?

• You know that plush, soft, fluffy toilet paper that you love? Looks like it’s an environmental disaster, reports the New York Times. In the U.S., which is the largest market worldwide for toilet paper, tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than two percent of sales for at-home use. Most of the fancy, quilted, high-end brands come from paper made from trees, which have to be harvested for that purpose. Says one environmental advocate: “No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper.”

• And, as long as we’re on the environment, what’s more green, burial or cremation? Cremation, but it isn’t all that great either, says Canada’s National Post. A 2007 Australian study found that the average cremation produced roughly four times as much CO2 equivalent as a burial, but that was offset by  the long-term fossil fuel costs of lawn-mowing and general grounds upkeep. That gave cremation a 10 percent better environmental footprint.

I made a mistake in my Monday post about A.H. Belo’s 2008 loss. It was $62.3 million, and not $637 million. The corrected version is here.

And that’s not the worst news for the parent company of Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper. It cut expenses by 2.7 percent last year, but saw revenue decline by 14 percent. Those are mind-boggling figures, given the 500 layoffs and accompanying budget cuts that the company made in 2008, as well as the advertising bonus thrown its way by the presidential election.

This year, given a recession no one expects to end until 2010 and no election to boost ad sales, how will Belo cut enough expenses to make ends meet? The already announced 500 layoffs don’t look to be nearly enough.

Because, frankly, if Belo doesn’t cut costs any better this year, it’s time to question whether we’ll have The Morning News as we know it at the end of 2009.

A roundup of stuff that wouldn’t necessarily make it on the blog, but is worth noting:

• One of the most important issues facing Dallas in the Legislature this session is water. We need more of it to keep up with expected growth, and the Lege doles out water rights in the state. That’s why this story is so important, since it may be a way to get around the legislature’s distaste for granting us more water. Irving wants to buy water from a city in Oklahoma, which has extra, but the state of Oklahoma won’t let the city sell its water to Irving. Complicated? Certainly, and it may well go to the Supreme Court. But it could have a huge affect on whether we can water our lawns in 10 years.

• Microsoft has offered a $250,000 reward to find out who is behind the Downadup/Conficker virus, which has infected millions of Windows computers in the past five months. The worm is a self-replicating program that can infect machines via the Internet or by hiding on USB memory drives. Don’t expect anyone to claim the reward, though. Microsoft has offered cash to for information for three other major computer worm threats known as Blaster, MyDoom and Sobig worms, and no one came forward.

• The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde was at a Chicago McDonald’s yesterday, part of a protest to urge the fast food giant to kill the chickens it uses for its sandwiches and food more humanely. This may all be well and good, but it’s also an excuse (after the jump) to play the Pretenders doing "Night in My Veins" video, courtesy of cockaleekieman at YouTube.

What is it about New York newspapers and their ability get things all wrong when they write about Dallas? Is it that famous myopia about everything west of the Hudson? Or maybe a new York arrogance that nothing west of the Hudson matters much, so who cares about details?

First there was the New York Post story a couple of months back, during George and Laura Bush’s house hunt, that referred to Preston Hollow as a town "outside Dallas" with "mountain views".

Then in Sunday’s New York Times, there’s a Travel section story that refers to Dallas as an "oil-rich city." Really? (Maybe they’re confusing us with J.R. Ewing’s Dallas, which was, you know, a television show. An OLD television show.

And finally, Maureen Dowd’s column on Sunday takes a swipe at Rep. Pete Sessions, referring to him as R-Waco. Again, really? Not unless the Park Cities, Lakewood and North Dallas have suddenly become Waco suburbs.

• Those annoying Cash4gold TV commercials are not, apparently, the only annoying thing about the company. The Consumerist web site reports that Cash4gold’s business practices are less than stellar, with a former employee claiming that the company doesn’t do accurate appraisals, loses gold and jewelry, and sits on checks.

• Hackers, says the BBC, have discovered a new way of duping users onto fraudulent websites: fake parking tickets. Cars had tickets placed on the windshield which directed users to a website where users were tricked into downloading a virus. The first reports of this scam came from North Dakota.

• The Smithsonian Museum wants Aretha Franklin’s Inauguration Day hat, which just goes to show that someone there has as impeccable a sense of style as Aretha does (as we noted here after she wore it). The Queen of Soul, though, isn’t sure. “I am considering it,” she said. “It would be hard to part with my chapeau since it was such a crowning moment in history. I would like to smile every time I look back at it and remember what a great moment it was in American and African-American history.”