Earlier this month, the leftist L.A. Weekly ran a story on black cartoonist Aaron McGruder's syndicated comic strip, "The Boondocks," that detailed the strip's skepticism toward America's war on terrorism. That's how a leftist weekly would see it, anyhow, but it's far more than that. It's a hateful screed against America and its president. "The Boondocks" might seem an unlikely polemic, given that its main character, a black nine-year-old named Huey Freeman, is nowhere close to being old enough to vote or even drive. But the militant Huey is not a typical child, either. The typical child, after all, doesn't... continue reading
January 10 brought us the first hilarious liberal attempt to tie George W. Bush to the moral black hole of William Jefferson Clinton. With the opening of government investigations into the bankruptcy of Enron, the same people who would have thrown Arkansas farm products at anyone who would dare use the words "Bill Clinton's Watergate" are asking that we seriously consider the question: "Is this Dubya's Whitewater?" Liberals all choked and coughed any time anyone would compare Whitewater to Watergate. Their boy genius just was not capable of any scandal that matched the political depravity of Tricky Dick. Though scandals... continue reading
In January 1999, NBC's new entertainment chief, Scott Sassa, declared that parents "want to watch [TV] with their kids," and that his network "should have some shows" featuring "traditional families." Last week, Sassa reversed himself completely. NBC has no plans to launch any family series, he announced, because they don't appeal to his web's "upscale" audience. What kind of chance did Sassa give family programming over those three years? Well, in 2000 NBC aired "Daddio," a pleasant sitcom centered on a stay-at-home father, and then there was...well, let's see...actually, "Daddio" has pretty much been the extent of the Peacock's family-friendly... continue reading
Should conservatives start worrying about the Fox News Channel? Throughout its five years on the air, the Fox News Channel has been singled out by the media elite as uniquely biased to the right. Right off the bat the network became suspect when Roger Ailes was hired to run it. He worked for Nixon and the elder George Bush, countless establishment media types huffed, conveniently overlooking that the resumes of the Kennedy and McGovern and Gene McCarthy groupies could paper entire walls at the rest of the networks. Not much intimidates Ailes, and this didn't either. He launched his network... continue reading
Reagan administration national security adviser Richard Allen has published an article in the Wall Street Journal exposing manifold untruths in the Showtime cable film "The Day Reagan Was Shot," which premiered last month. Allen charges that while there have been other "mostly inaccurate" accounts of what took place in the White House in the wake of John Hinckley's 1981 attempt on Reagan's life, "none has approached 'The Day Reagan Was Shot' for brazen distortion." Words have meaning, especially for serious men like Mr. Allen. When he accuses you of "brazen distortion" he is saying one thing, and one thing only:... continue reading
Now that we face a lull in hard news coverage of the war on terrorism, the TV talking heads have to fill the time with analysis. One area being scrutinized is: Who was to blame for our lack of preparedness before September 11? Some on the right are hammering President Clinton for never making fighting terrorism a priority; some on the left blame conservative "Clinton haters" for distracting the country away from terrorism by its focus on presidential sex and lies. No honest person outside the specialties of intelligence and Middle Eastern political movements can claim they knew that the... continue reading
Founder and President of the Parents Television Council, L. Brent Bozell III leads the only Hollywood-based organization dedicated to restoring responsibility to the entertainment industry. The PTC at http://www.parentstv.org features the Family Guide to Prime Time Television which aids parents in making informed viewing decisions for their children. Mr. Bozell is a nationally syndicated writer whose work appears in publications such as Wall Street Journal , The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The New York Post, The L.A. Times and National Review . Below is a collection of 2001 Entertainment columns. December 11 Not Music to FTC's Ears December 05... continue reading
Founder and President of the Media Research Center, L. Brent Bozell III runs the largest media watchdog organization in America. Established in 1987, the MRC has made "media bias" a household term, tracking it and printing the compiled evidence daily. Mr. Bozell is a nationally syndicated writer whose work appears in publications such as Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The New York Post, The L.A. Times and National Review . Below is a collection of 2001 News columns. December 31 A Left-Wing Heyday? December 27 Peter's Holiday Blues December 26 Reviewing 2001 December 20 Jonathan Alter,... continue reading
Now that the intensity level of the major media's war coverage is downsized, routinized, and parceled out casually between commercial breaks, we can take the time to analyze the possibility that nobody loves a good war like the professional left-wing media critic. In peacetime, the radicals believe the Dan Rathers and Tom Brokaws are somehow hopeless tools in the hands of greedy CEOs. They are far too malleable, far too "objective," far too passive. A good journalist would be lighting a Molotov cocktail for socialist revolution instead. But in wartime, the left's clarion call sounds. Suddenly they want "objectivity," which... continue reading
The 1987 film "Broadcast News" played on the usual caricature of the network anchorman, all style and no substance, all calm and reassuring presence and not much candlepower upstairs to muddle the image. But William Hurt's blow-dried teleprompter robot caricature is just that - a caricature. In reality, the network anchormen wield enormous power in deciding what will be reported to the nation, in what order, and with what inflection. That's not to say that anchormen are necessarily brilliant. In fact, they're most dangerous when they think they're so much smarter than everyone else. But their attitudes toward current events... continue reading