Can nothing spare us from the arrogance of liberal media figures, still parading around as Guardians of the Facts and Solely Anointed Professional Disseminators of the Truth? Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank, in what reads like an early April Fools' prank, has written an article for the Post's Sunday "Outlook" section presenting himself as an objective reporter. The headline was "My Bias for Mainstream News." In it, he complains that the "cottage industry" of watchdog groups on the right and left "are devoted almost entirely to attacking the press." The most priceless sentence is this: "Regardless of the merits, the... continue reading
Parents across America should thank Time magazine for putting the issue of indecency in broadcast and cable television front and center this week, asking the question, "Has TV Gone Too Far?" The poll commissioned by Time suggested the majority of Americans believe this to be true. Most Americans want a change. Time's poll found more than half of America's TV watchers - 53 percent - think the Federal Communications Commission should place stricter controls on broadcast-channel shows depicting sexual content and violence. An imposing 68 percent believe the entertainment industry has lost touch with the moral standards of the audience... continue reading
The Easter celebration of the redemptive death and miraculous resurrection of Christ is a suitable occasion to remember that the religious believer in America has to recognize the difference between finding a way to God and finding a way through the news of the world. It's a stunning disconnect. The creators and salesmen of news are the least likely people to see the world through what might be called an eternal perspective. Rarely do they offer reverent silence on the sacred, while happily profiting from the profane. The media's tone on religious questions is predictably wary of demanding ancient dogmas,... continue reading
It's too bad John Kerry never had the courage to take on Hollywood as a presidential candidate. Then again, President Bush said next to nothing about Tinseltown's corrosive effect on America's moral values during the campaign, either. Why both camps ignored an issue with such profound political ramifications is a mystery to me. Would it surprise you that Hillary Clinton is not going to make that mistake? Last week, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a new study on the media habits of children. They found that the bedrooms of America's youth have become multi-media centers, from the I-Pod, to the... continue reading
Few have a better understanding of the liberal media elite than Ari Fleischer, who spent several years deflecting the daily barrage of arrogant and accusatory media questions as the first White House press secretary under President Bush. His new book, "Taking Heat," has been panned by liberals for having no Bush-trashing moments in it. One can also safely conclude they're the ones who don't want you to read his chapters exposing the liberal ways of the reporters who baited him in the briefing room for three years. Liberals looking back on the first Bush term would like you to pretend... continue reading
Surely parents can do better than to turn out children whose major goal in life is to be on television and become a star. But thanks to the "reality" show format, we're exposed on nearly every night of the week to young people parading their clawing, scraping ambition to become famous in nearly every desperate look-at-me field. The fad of look-at-me TV started with the singers on "American Idol" and has now branched into modeling, business building, and acting. Why anyone would want to be an actor today, when TV is so full of "unscripted" programming? NBC failed at the... continue reading
The Dan Rather era may be over at the "CBS Evening News," complete with the self-congratulatory special segments. At least Rather's critics could enjoy Donald Trump being cued up on "Fox News Sunday" to say "Dan, you're fired." They know, as does everyone else, that it's only a matter of time before Rather's last journalistic assignment, the low-rated "60 Minutes Wednesday," is canceled, and he'll be gone for good. Rather has been brought so low that his retirement from the anchor chair is accompanied by a new book from the gossip editor of the National Enquirer called "Rather Dumb" that... continue reading
It was a surprise to NBC in 1992 when "Saturday Night Live" aired pop star Sinead O'Connor ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II and crying "Fight the real enemy!" But now NBC has aired a planned, scripted episode of a sitcom that attacks not the Pope, but Jesus Christ Himself. The February 22 episode of the painfully unfunny new sitcom "Committed" made a mockery out of the sacrament of the Eucharist. As William Donohue of the Catholic League explained about the show: "By far the most offensive scene occurs when [male characters] Nate and Bowie accidentally flush... continue reading
Have our partisan liberal media evaporated? Are we now in an era when President Bush has as much control of Washington's journalism output as Vladimir Putin's defenders assert he does? (The Moscow line, if you haven't heard, is that Bush ordered the firing of Dan Rather.) These questions are overwrought and self-evidently silly and yet, the left is on Orange Alert over its slipping control of the public agenda. Witness the still-ongoing attempts to inflate the teeny-weeny scandal over James Guckert (a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon"), the former White House reporter and alleged male escort. Here we have the supposedly momentous scandal... continue reading
Hollywood has long defended the production of what many find offensive, dark, and twisted programming by insisting it is providing only that which is demanded by the "market." The reverse is also proclaimed: Movies with positive, life-affirming messages are rarely made because the public isn't interested. Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of the Christian Film and Television Commission, has delivered a devastating indictment on what is, pure and simple, Tinseltown mythology. Last year, Hollywood released 28 movies with explicit sexual content, nine movies with very strong homosexual content, 10 movies with very strong politically correct content, and 15 movies with very... continue reading