The New York Times really loathes Rupert Murdoch. The Gray Lady almost achieved Nirvana on the front page the other day when a group of Laborites in the British Parliament asserted in a “damning report” that Murdoch was “not fit” for major media ownership. Bill Keller, recently the paper’s Executive Editor, devoted his latest column to Fox News with the headline “Murdoch’s Pride Is America’s Poison.” The man who edited the New York Times is blunt: “I would argue that — at least for Americans — Fox News is Murdoch’s most toxic legacy.” If that’s not ridiculous enough, try this:... continue reading
The new frontier just keeps arriving. New York magazine reports NBC programming chief Robert Greenblatt has given the go-ahead for a new sitcom called “The New Normal.” NBC’s new normal is about two gay men who start a family using a surrogate. Greenblatt is apparently so enamored with the concept that he’s strongly considering having the 20th Century Fox TV–produced sitcom launch by August, following NBC's broadcast of the Summer Olympics. The show comes from Ryan Murphy, the gay creator of “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” and “Nip/Tuck.” This is only part of a growing Comcast/NBC Universal campaign promoting homosexuality. In... continue reading
The general-election campaign for president is not yet under way, but clearly some in media have entered the Utterly Ridiculous Zone. On CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” host Howard Kurtz hailed an “eye-opener: the candidate with the best coverage during the presidential primaries was Mitt Romney. And the worst? Barack Obama.” That’s not eye-opening. It’s a declaration that you’re blind. And deaf. And your olfactory glands are shot to pieces. When something smells as bad as this, odds are it’s rotten. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism – to be precise, former Los Angeles Times media reporter Tom Rosenstiel... continue reading
It was a very special disco-themed episode of “Glee” on Fox the other night. A new character named Wade from a different high school shared that he was born in the wrong body. He was black, but he said he felt he was born white, and decided to go out on stage at Regionals painted over as a white man. Everyone adored and applauded him as he sang “Boogie Shoes” looking just like the lead singer of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. If you actually watch “Glee” or just know Hollywood liberals, you know I’m kidding. Of course, he wasn’t... continue reading
Once upon a time, it meant something for a reporter to be called a “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.” The prestige of this designation is quickly eroding. The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes looked lesslike an excellence-in-media competition and more like an exercise in leftist self-affirmation. No prize established this more strongly than the coveted National Reporting prize going to...The Huffington Post. The Pulitzer judges who would rather swallow rat poison than give an award to a conservative outlet like The Washington Times are bestowing kudos on a site that thrives on celebrity dreck like “Miley Shows Off Legs in Lacy Shorts” and “Kim... continue reading
Ten years ago, perky actress Jennifer Love Hewitt tried to jump-start a music career with a song titled “Bare Naked.” Now she’s trying that attention-grabbing tactic again with a sleazy new Lifetime series called “The Client List.” She plays a massage therapist who turns tricks. That network has adopted a new slogan: “This is not your mother’s Lifetime.” That’s appropriate for a new drama with a single-mother whore at its sympathetic center. We learn she was forced into being a sex worker when her husband mysteriously left her – you know, the way of the world for single moms. Hewitt... continue reading
Republican strategists should generally be wary of campaign advice from liberals – and when it’s from the media, generally becomes definitely. Washington Post political writer Chris Cillizza recently suggested Mitt Romney’s general-election strategy should start with getting a “positive first introduction” to voters through the liberal media because “only the national media can provide that megaphone and serve as a sort of validator for him.” How hard did he laugh after he wrote that? No Republican should think he can end-run the liberal media establishment entirely and not suffer damage. Ask Dick Cheney. On the other hand, no Republican can... continue reading
The poobahs of our popular culture never seem happy unless they’re taking entertainment down to the “next level” of deviancy. When they undertake remakes of Hollywood classics – especially the comedies – that’s when you see how far we’ve fallen. The forthcoming modern-day adaptation of “The Three Stooges” isn’t going to be a celebration of that iconic family comedy. The trailer features Moe poking the eyes of “Snooki” Polizzi of the uber-sleazy MTV show “Jersey Shore.” But that’s nothing compared to the real absurdity of 19-year-old Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton playing a nun at the orphanage where the... continue reading
The news is stuffed with “studies” in which “experts” tell us how we should behave. One recently found that conservatives have lost their trust in science over the last 40 years. That’s probably because the very political academics of “Science” are routinely summoned to prove the right-wingers are not only wrong, but dangerously wrong, andnot just dangerously wrong, but evil, too. These “studies” are laughable. First, there was the study purporting to prove that conservatism appeals to low-intelligence racists “who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world.” Then there was the “scientific” study that parents should be allowed to... continue reading
MTV is now trying to lure young viewers with a saucy sex show in the “advice” category. They didn’t reach for Dr. Drew or God forbid, Dr. Ruth, or an actual doctor of anything. They turned to filthy sex columnist and gay activist Dan Savage. The new show is called “Savage U,” and it documents Savage touring college campuses to offer snarky/smutty advice to college students. This is MTV’s libertine ideology pitched right at children, and Savage is blunt about how he’ll be going around the parents. Savage explained to the Los Angeles Times that “The idea is we’re going... continue reading