Media highs and (mostly) lows from the weekend.

Glad to see the NYT’s Maureen Dowd playing it down the middle. In her Sunday Times Op-Ed column, she dared to question BHO’s leadership: “No Drama Obama is reticent about displays of emotion,” Dowd writes. “The Spock in him needs to exert mental and emotional control. That is why he stubbornly insists on staying aloof and setting his own deliberate pace for responding—whether it’s in a debacle or after a debacle.”

Unsurprisingly, Saturday’s Jets/Bengals on NBC was a train-wreck of a broadcast. The network threw together paired Tom Hammond with blabbermouth analyst Joe Theismann and former Redskins coach, Joe Gibbs. That the three men, have never worked together is not surprising, networks typically test new broadcast teams in preseason. But this was an NFL playoff game! Not the venue to throw three guys in a booth and find magic. Gibbs showed his age by repeatedly referring to Jets coach, Rex Ryan, as Buddy, Rex’s father.
And why bring in the old coach at all if you’re going to pair him with Theismann? Instead of a microphone, Hammond needed a whip and a pistol to maintain chaos.

And during an NHL promo, the usually-reliable Hammond had Red Wings star Nicklas Lidstrom playing for the Blackhawks. Don’t get me wrong: Hammond is great on NBC’s horse racing coverage— he was thrown into an impossible spot on Saturday.

Conversely, Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth were steady on Cowboys/Eagles. Although I could have done without constant references to the stadium as “Jerry’s World” and the incessant obligatory shots of the Jones skybox—inhabited by former president George W. Bush (with trademark goofy grin) and the former First Lady.

Even the NYT has bad days. In Sunday’s corrections box, we learn that the Times issued a correction from last week’s correction! Journalistically, that’s an unpardonable sin on the level of walking the bases loaded. (Insider’s tip: Most media people love it when the Times screws up!)

Derek Jeter to marry! Good for him. Before I rush out to look at the wedding registry, does it make me a cynic to equate the upcoming Jeter nuptials as the latest fallout from the Tiger Woods scandal? Is it a stretch to think that Jeter and Tiger, who do commercials together, also hang-out together? Stop me when the least of you begin to connect the dots…

Newsflash: Mark McGwire admitted to steroids! Wow! (“What, there’s gambling going on inside Rick’s? I’m shocked!” –Casablanca)

Personal note: The only time I saw McGwire was in 1997 when, with Oakland, he turned around a Mariano Rivera fastball in a game-winning homer. And by claiming ignorance of McGwire’s usage, Tony Larussa, McGwire’s former manager in Oakland and St. Louis, revealed himself to be a fake, phony fraud. Really Tony? You didn’t know? Say it ain’t so. Also in case you missed it: There’s no such thing as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or tooth fairy.