When the Tea Party movement erupted in the spring of 2009, the media elites dismissed them as corporate-generated 'Astroturf' noise. They found them barely worth covering, even to besmirch them. But when the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests began on September 17, the liberal media was quickly bombarded with complaints from the Left that the media were ignoring this massive 'news' story. NPR executive editor Dick Meyer said the early protests 'did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption, or an especially clear objective.' So the protesters went out and blocked the Brooklyn Bridge and drew 700... continue reading
NBC president Robert Greenblatt was really committed to the new drama 'The Playboy Club' just weeks ago. 'What it has going for it is a recognizable brand that's automatically going to draw attention to it, good or bad," he said. "It's the right kind of thing for us to try." They tried it. Three episodes later, NBC made it the first canceled series of the season. Trains have rarely wrecked as ingloriously as this one. By the third episode, NBC could barely muster 3 million viewers, while ABC ('Castle') and CBS ('Hawaii Five-O') were both over 11 million. This show... continue reading
Is there a clumsier group of newspaper character assassins than the hit squads at The Washington Post? On October 2, the Post was back on the racist-Republican attack with a 3,000-word investigative treatise over a rock. Specifically, Gov. Rick Perry had leased a property where the N-word was painted on a rock, and then he had it painted over with white paint. But investigative genius Stephanie McCrummen could see a virtual Klan hood on Perry's head. 'As recently as this summer, the slablike rock — lying flat, the name still faintly visible beneath a coat of white paint — remained... continue reading
Back in the 1970s, there was a lot of discussion about the way TV executives were grabbing ratings with female jiggle. 'T&A,' it was called. The jiggle continues, but now it's coming from somewhere else. So far, the hot new trend of the 2011 TV season is...dangling male genitalia. That's full-frontal male nudity...hidden behind graphic effects. CBS was thrilled the September 19 premiere of its reboot of the sleazy 'Two and a Half Men' drew gonzo ratings. After all the Charlie Sheen drama, how could his TV character's funeral not attract a crowd? But that wasn't enough for Chuck Lorre... continue reading
No one thinks Barack Obama is sitting pretty in this race for the White House. The Real Clear Politics average of the mid-September approval-rating polls measures him at 43 percent approval, 51 percent disapproval. With these numbers, they should be measuring his political coffin. But to listen to the networks talk, it's the Republican field that is a mess in desperate need of new talent, and its debate audiences are a blood-thirsty horror movie. One place that Democratic contenders go for positive publicity is the network morning shows. Their audiences are diminished, but they remain a powerful national platform, especially... continue reading
It's easy to get nostalgic for those classic Dean Martin TV celebrity roasts. Just watch a Comedy Central Friars Club roast. This is not comedy; they are unremittingly vicious. When they announced they were going to roast Charlie Sheen, a disgraceful human being if ever there was one, there was a sense of karmic comeuppance. Then the show aired. Only someone as deranged as Sheen would find it funny. Sheen is deserving of plenty of verbal head-slaps for his aerobically amoral life with prostitutes, his wife-beating/strangling, and his bizarre behavior after being fired by the gutter-level CBS comedy 'Two and... continue reading
Twenty years ago, NBC's 'Today' devoted three days of interviews to the insufferable Kitty Kelley, who unspooled baseless allegations against Nancy Reagan, like her supposed love affair with Frank Sinatra. That kind of tabloid bilge belched back up the garbage disposal on September 16, when 'Today' promoted the new Palin-bashing book 'The Rogue,' by leftist author Joe McGinniss. NBC doesn't have an evidence standard when it's conservatives being gored. With liberals, it's a different story. NBC didn't give a second to McGinniss after he was roundly condemned by liberals in 1993 for his Ted Kennedy book 'The Last Brother.' In... continue reading
People who love reality television often have a special attraction to 'train wreck' shows. For two years now, the tasteless titans of the cable channel TLC have been exploiting the spectacle of hyper-ambitious stage mothers parading around 'beauty queens' just barely out of diapers in thousand-dollar gowns. The program is titled 'Toddlers & Tiaras.' But now it's even worse: they're dressing up little girls as what radio hosts are calling 'prosti-tots.' TLC aired an episode with a three-year-old pageant contestant named Paisley ridiculously dressed as the Julia Roberts prostitute character in the 1990 film 'Pretty Woman' – complete with skimpy... continue reading
'NBC Nightly News' is the highest-rated daily news show in the morning or evening. In mid-August, this show had been ranked number one for 100 straight weeks, pulling an average of 7.7 million viewers. This makes Brian Williams the king of the TV-news hill. To be sure, it's obviously a smaller hill than the Walter Cronkite era, but in political terms, Williams, like Cronkite, is E.F. Hutton. His newscast can set the tone across the rest of the 'news' media. But all that royalty evaporates in the presence of Barack Obama. The contrast was jaw-dropping between Williams roaring like a... continue reading
For Hollywood, to push America's morality buttons is a win-win proposition. When they challenge those moribund "traditional values," they not only strike a blow for the sexual revolution, they create the cherished publicity "buzz" that brings attention – and viewers – to their shows. It explains why ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" named to their cast America's most famous "transgender" activist, who was once the cute little blond daughter Chastity that everyone of a certain age remembers from the old Sonny and Cher show on CBS, and is now the female-denying Chaz Bono. ABC didn't name Bono because she's known... continue reading