Looking back at 2001 is like looking back at two years - the fat and happy first eight months, and then the unfathomable terror followed by sudden war. For the national press it was equally turbulent. For eight months it was business as usual, only to become, literally overnight, non-stop war coverage. Geraldo Rivera started 2001 on the set of CNBC still spinning for Bill Clinton and ends the year on Fox, reporting from caves, bounty hunting for Osama bin Laden. To review the year in media lows, as well as highs, a distinguished panel of judges have once again... continue reading
News Flash: Jonathan Alter, Newsweek's Senior Editor and "media critic," is angry with conservatives again. In a Newsweek "Web Exclusive" on MSNBC.com, Alter finds it shocking, positively shocking that somehow the Reverend Jerry Falwell's ministry continues to operate after his ill-advised comments blaming leftwing organizations for the horror of September 11. Our objective "media critic" Alter is unequivocal with this broadside: "the larger conservative movement has done little or nothing to repudiate the founder of the Moral Majority, and he's still in business. Talk about double standards." Conservatives are hypocrites, period, and Alter is going to prove it. "Let's imagine... continue reading
As our armed forces conclude a massive rout of the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, we have the luxury to turn our eyes back to the home front, and that relaxation welcomes the familiar patterns of partisan politics. The Democrats have decided that George W. Bush, as commander in chief, is unassailable. We're encouraged to forget that just months ago, they specialized in dismissive punchlines about the frat-boy lightweight. They're praising his work abroad, but they are also setting up a new line of attack: he is now threatening civil liberties at home. Every American should be vigilant about... continue reading
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission issued its one-year (fifteen-month, actually) follow-up to its September 2000 report on the marketing of violent entertainment products to children. The original study had found a great deal to criticize in the practices of the industries within its purview - movies, music, and electronic games, all of which were marketing adult content to young children, a surprise to absolutely no one. This follow-up praises the movie and e-game businesses for their increased (though far from perfect) restraint in vending violence to youngsters. As for the music industry...well, the FTC isn't exactly whistling a happy... continue reading
CBS usually loves a whistleblower. You can sense reporters' juices flowing when some corporate insider wants to whisper that he knows that his corporation is riddled with deceit, even if he's telling the public a sugar-coated fairy tale which everyone on the inside knows to be a lie. Think of Jeffrey Wigand, the Brown & Williamson tobacco executive who "60 Minutes" interviewed some years ago, but shelved the story for fear of lawsuits. The outrage within the liberal media community was intense, and eventually the Wigand story came off the shelves, and he became a hero against the scheming power... continue reading
Among the brightest stars of this television season have been the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jennifer Aniston, and Carol Burnett, whose luminosity predates by several decades that of both the baseball club and Mrs. Brad Pitt. On November 26, the last Monday of the four-week sweeps period, CBS's 10 p.m. special, "The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers," drew nearly 30 million viewers, a blockbuster success by today's ratings standards. In fact, it was, according to Bill Carter of the New York Times, the season's fourth-most-watched program, behind only Game 7 of the World Series and two episodes of "Friends." "Show Stoppers" consisted... continue reading
In the lazy, hazy, crazy days of Clinton, the media fought an enemy it no longer has. In an interview almost stroking the hair of Vice President Al Gore, Bryant Gumbel identified them as "the architects of gridlock." They were, of course, the Republicans. Even as Democrats ruled both houses of Congress and the White House in 1993 and 1994, a united Republican minority was holding "progress" at bay, and the media wanted them to be unpopular for it. When the Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, the media wanted them destroyed. Today, as President Bush leads a war... continue reading
Even the airplane-crash attacks of September 11 could not stop the cultural list-makers from constructing new lists of what's in and out. At the top of the "Out" list is the Age of Irony. After The Era of Detachment, the appeal of laughing at America from the heights of disdain seems instantly to have dried up. The one journalist who embodies the spirit of The Age of Irony is Maureen Dowd, the flippant fraulein and heckling hermit of the New York Times editorial page. She made herself a name and earned herself a Pulitzer Prize by dunking nearly every prominent... continue reading
Earlier this fall, the Los Angeles-based Media Project, which claims that it seeks to "ensure that [the entertainment industry is] presenting the most up-to-date, socially relevant, and accurate information about sexual health issues," announced the winners of its annual SHINE (Sexual Health in Entertainment) awards for "accurate and honest portrayals of sexuality" on various television programs from the 2000-'01 season. Imagine that you knew nothing about the Media Project and the SHINE awards and were looking for a clue, any clue, as to their guiding philosophy. Your hunch, when you hear Hollywood buzzwords like "accurate and honest portrayals of sexuality,"... continue reading