The March issue of Brill's Content, the magazine which covers and criticizes the media industry, includes a long article by Jim Edwards about the ongoing effort from some quarters of corporate America to provide more options for family television viewing. The effort gathered steam about three years ago when executives at ten or so companies responsible for spending staggering amounts of money on TV advertising decided to organize in order to counteract the virtual disappearance of wholesome programming from prime time. Those companies, which formed what is now called the Family Friendly Programming Forum, have been joined by more than... continue reading
You can tell a Republican lives in the White House. Remember how, during the Reagan-Bush era, the homeless problem in America dominated the news? Somehow during the Clinton years that national tragedy all but evaporated from our TV screens. Guess what? With a new Bush administration, and the pledge of Reaganesque tax cuts, the homeless problem miraculously has reappeared. ABC World News Tonight was the first to trumpet the rise in homelessness shortly after George W. Bush took office. On February 11, ABC decreed that the homeless problem is a national epidemic. ABC actually blamed massive housing shortages on the... continue reading
Don't let the relative quiet in Washington DC right now fool you. Listen carefully and you'll hear the soldiers sharpening their broadswords and battle-axes while the generals map our final plans in preparation for the coming Great Tax Cut War of 2001. The Great Tax Cut War of 2001 between the Taxers and the Tax Cutters will consist of two major engagements. The second will take place in the halls of Congress, and will be over votes. The first is now underway. It's the battle for public opinion support. Already sorties have been launched by both camps to probe the... continue reading
Blessed is he who doesn't simply complain about the entertainment industry's negative influence, but goes the extra mile to counteract it, even if in so doing he faces the wrath of high-priced lawyers and a soft-porn-peddling hack. Ray Lines owns two video-rental outlets called CleanFlicks not far south of Salt Lake City. According to a January 31 New York Times article, all the movies at CleanFlicks are free of "sex, violence, and profanity," even if Lines must remove such content himself, which, given today's Hollywood product, should qualify him for hazardous-duty pay. Among his trims: the nudity in "Titanic" and... continue reading
Do you wonder how it is that the left always seems to be rolling in money, with countless millions to spend anytime there is a political battle to be fought? Just how can it afford this level of exposure? Here's one way: it does it. "2000: Bringing Community Service Home" is a glossy new report issued by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). It boasts that the NAB has "generated $8.1 billion worth of community service" through its Public Service Announcements (PSAs) which have appeared on nearly 5,700 radio and television stations in all fifty states. That, dear reader, is... continue reading
Coming in second place in the presidential race is a lot like finishing second in the Super Bowl. Instead of being the second-best contender, the loser suddenly becomes the butt of ridicule and Monday-morning quarterbacking. Don't cry for Al Gore, whose unsavory America-Held-Hostage fight over Florida hasn't earned him nearly enough heckling yet. He's embarking on a new career as a college professor, teaching graduate-level journalism courses at Columbia University. There, in a very prominent nexus of academia and the national media elite, Gore will no doubt succeed in teaching aspiring scribes paying serious Ivy League money how he won... continue reading
For a quick lesson in the upside-down morality of the national media, consider the January cases of John Ashcroft and Jesse Jackson, two political leaders identified with their religious faith. But Ashcroft's faith has been presented repeatedly as an obstacle to high office, while Jackson's low sexual behavior has been reported with deep sympathy and pleas for him to remain in "public ministry." Ashcroft's faith is being projected as a scary one, a demonstrative Pentecostal religion that requires rules that enlightened media liberals can't fathom. "Ashcroft is the son of a fundamentalist minister who doesn't drink or dance," reported NBC's... continue reading
The Senate Judiciary Committee, very temporarily led by the Democrats, greeted John Ashcroft in its hearing room with one question on its mind: Would John Ashcroft come down with a bad case of pre-confirmation career poisoning? In today's quick and dirty media politics, Ashcroft may be well-known in Washington, but not around the country, so leftists hoped that creating a very unfavorable first impression might be enough to sink him. A confirmation process is not a jury trial, but if it were, the Ashcroft hearings would have to be relocated due to vicious pre-trial publicity. The leftist groups have tried... continue reading
Since the early-to-mid-1970s, prime time television has been obsessed with sex. It was a staple for countless characters on series past, like Sam and Diane on "Cheers" and J.R. on "Dallas." It is nearly the only reason for the existence of today's lead characters, like Monica and Chandler on "Friends" and Jack on "Will & Grace." Take away sex as a topic and you're left with a test pattern on your TV screen. Sex, Hollywood style, does have its standards. Rarely will the creative community slide from pure physical fulfillment to that vacuous notion of "love." A married couple having... continue reading
If George W. Bush hopes to create a more successful presidency than his father's, he will begin his term by recognizing the immutable Washington reality that there is no reliable way of gaining love and praise from the liberal media if you don't share their ideological bent. You could, of course, surrender your principles (see Bush the First's disastrous read-my-flips, tax-raising 1990 budget deal). But as that proved, it will do you exactly zilcho good at re-election time. The new Bush administration may appear to many Americans to be an opportunity for a fresh political start, but there is no... continue reading