You can't argue with The Experts on this one. Looking back on 2000 to determine the big stories of the year, Florida's two E's - Elian and the election - take the prize. Both were as monumental as they were unpredictable, which explains the media's, and the country's, fixation on them. Neither was supposed to be the big story of the year. In fact, hadn't our fabled media pundits and newsmen spent reams of paper and endless gabfests on television in late 1999 predicting something entirely different? Remember Y2K? Oh, what a disaster that was meant to be. When the... 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 2000 News columns. December 28 A Look Back at 2000 December 26 Hillary, Our Favorite Author? December 21 No Pardons In... 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 2000 Entertainment columns. December 05 Too 'Queer' or Not 'Queer' Enough? November... continue reading
Now that this topsy-turvy roller coaster of a year is over, what did we learn about our fabled Fourth Estate? In a word: they're incorrigible. To ponder another year of the media's misbehavior, a panel of 46 distinguished American remote-control tossers has voted on the Media Research Center's "Best Notable Quotables of 2000." How many perpetual media tendencies can you spot on this year's list? 1. The Clinton suckup. As Bill Clinton marched through the concrete innards of the Staples Center like a professional wrestler before his convention address, Geraldo Rivera all but took out his hanky, winning the "Carve... continue reading
The Clintons may be moving out of the White House, but that doesn't mean the media will stop being their loving courtiers, assisting them in whatever political or financial endeavors they pursue, while sympathizing with them through every unfortunate bout of "Clinton hater" scandalmongering. Hillary Clinton took advantage of her waning days in the White House by releasing a new book casting herself as a combination Martha Washington and Martha Stewart. One reporter who can't get over it is Ann McFeatters, a White House correspondent for Scripps-Howard Newspapers during the Clinton years. Rarely has a journalist slobbered more profusely. McFeatters... continue reading
As we look ahead to the weird new age without a Clinton White House ruining our daily breakfast, we still have unfinished business. Specifically: Will there be any pardons? Rumors are circulating that the President will pardon Whitewater criminal Susan McDougal and Rose Law Firm embezzler/Whitewater document specialist Webster Hubbell. But the pardon frenzy shouldn't stop there, some think. Since independent counsel Robert Ray is still investigating whether Clinton should be prosecuted for perjury after he leaves office, some have now begun suggesting that President-Elect Bush consider a pardon for Bill. Republican Scott Reed, among others, suggested that since Bush... continue reading
The big loser for the Democrats in Election 2000 was, of course, Al Gore. He was given the coattails of a (perceived) economic miracle to run on; the biggest financial war chest in the party's history to run with; a militantly rejuvenated party base to run behind; and if that wasn't enough, a perceived light-weight opponent to run against. And still he blew it. He not only lost, he lost and lost, and kept on losing until even his supporters tired of him. No one will ever want to hear the word "chad," a word forever linked to Gore, again... continue reading
Like liberal judges, liberal journalists are profoundly results-oriented. When it comes to jurisprudence, it matters little (if at all) whether a ruling properly reflects legal precedent or procedure. The driving concern is political, as in: Did our side win yet? When the Florida Supreme Court split 4 to 3 on Friday in demanding yet another hand recount, liberal justices put the state's election laws into a blender and hit "puree." In reporting the story, the networks had no taste for exploring the views of the dissenters, and zero interest in exploring the ideological agenda of the liberal Democrat majority. On... continue reading
As our television screens enumerate the elongating days of this never-ending election - Day 29, Day 30, like an Iranian hostage crisis - will there ever come a point when the media will turn out the lights for Al Gore? With every passing day, it becomes more obvious they are nothing but an extension of his campaign and will not concede until he does. First came November 26, when even the extreme liberal overreaching of the Florida Supreme Court couldn't save Gore's bacon in the extremely selective manual recounts in Democratic counties, and the Florida Secretary of State certified the... continue reading
Late last month, the pay-cable network Showtime had ample reason to be excited. It was about to launch "Queer as Folk," which it hopes will become its first so-called signature series, i.e., what "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos" have been to the longtime king of pay-cable-land, HBO. If you've missed the hype over "QAF," which is adapted from a British program of the same name, you should know that it, in the words of Us magazine's Tom Conroy, is "the first American television show to address the sexual lives of gay men frankly and nonjudgmentally...You can feel the... continue reading