Bill Clinton has stepped back into the spotlight for the latest round of public yak-yak. His foundation created something grandly called the "Clinton Global Initiative," a hot-air meeting of monarchs and global bureaucrats. He granted interviews to ABC, NBC, and CNN, and all three networks genuflected before him on cue. Let's first dismiss the "news" that emerged, because it was another Clintonian yawner. Clinton bashed President Bush for supporting tax cuts and accused Republicans of intentionally lowering living standards for our children. In other words, it was the same old class warfare, Democrat-style, and worse. Clinton just can't stay in... continue reading
If Kanye West meant to goose sales of his new album with his emotional ranting on NBC's hurricane-relief concert, saying the President doesn't care about blacks and lawmen have been given "permission to go down and shoot us," he clearly succeeded. We st's new release, "Late Registration," another play on his college-dropout persona, burst out of the stores, and sold 850,000 copies in its first week, double the first-week sales of his first effort. Charges of racism and wacky conspiracy theories are not the right message for national unity after the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, but it's the right message... continue reading
In the midst of the hurricane devastation, the folks at NBC's "Today" seemed a bit too smiley for a Monday morning as they kept reporting that President Bush's approval ratings had hit an "all-time low." Have you seen the AP poll? How about the Zogby poll? Did we mention "all-time low," they wondered? If Republicans were asking themselves when the Cindy Sheehan publicity festival would end, they got their answer: when the next Bush-trashing media opportunity suggested itself. It's not political rocket science to figure that job approval ratings of a president might dip after the bungled government response to... continue reading
You would think every major corporation likes to nurture its image as not only the maker or provider of a great product or service, but also as a good corporate citizen. But when it comes to buying advertising time on television, the notion of corporate responsibility flies out the window. In the era of 100-plus channel programming, it's no longer important to satisfy broad public opinion. If the Widget Corporation can reach two to three percent of the public with its ad, Widget is satisfied. And if that fraction of people enjoyed watching lions eat Christians, that would be fine,... continue reading
A major news event follows a very routine pattern. First, we get the hard news phase, where reporters relate the unfolding dramatic facts. In the second phase, those same reporters become analysts, commentators passing moral and political judgment on the story. By its nature, the first phase tends to be devoid of bias. But the second phase often comes loaded with politicized gotchas and predictable liberal editorializing. Hurricane Katrina and its flooding aftermath in New Orleans is a good example. No one can fault reporters' emotional statements as they eyewitness the tragedy. Nor is it inappropriate for them to ask... continue reading
The fall TV season is approaching, and predictably, the powerful lobbyists at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) are already demanding that Hollywood develop more positive gay characters. But this year, GLAAD's study of gay TV characters goes beyond numbers to quibbling about percentages. They claim that out of 710 series regulars who will appear this season on the broadcast networks, gay, lesbian and bisexual characters make up less than two percent of the total. They say it's a false depiction of their community. As GLAAD's Damon Romine complained, "This is a shocking misrepresentation of reality and of... continue reading
Cindy Sheehan is wrapping up operations in Crawford and preparing to torment the East Coast with her "Camp Casey" circus, much to the delight of the cheerleading national media. In the New York Times, Maureen Dowd underlined the template of the Sheehan media blitz with her column's declaration: "The moral authority of parents who bury children in Iraq is absolute." Let us say this firmly: not so. Let us say this with equal vigor: Ms. Dowd and her legions of like-minded reporter peers are hypocrites. There are hundreds of other grieving family members loaded with moral authority who think Sheehan... continue reading
Worshippers of the wild and dissolute drug culture of the 1960s gathered at their temple in Woody Creek, Colorado on an August Saturday night to pay tribute to the booze-and-drug-soaked journalistic legend Hunter S. Thompson, exactly six months after he shot himself in the head in the middle of a phone call with his wife. It was, in a way, a perfect ending to symbolize Thompson's self-absorbed, self-destructive worldview. How pathetic is it that some people are actually celebrating this. The next time you hear the biggest hearts in Hollywood railing against how the government or corporations waste millions of... continue reading
Remember this the next time ABC toots its own horn as a defender of free speech. Michael Graham, a popular talk-radio host on ABC-owned WMAL in Washington, DC, publicly declared that "Islam is a terror organization." Under pressure from a radical Islamic group, ABC fired him. Left alone as a sentence, Graham's charge is a wild overgeneralization. But he didn't utter a sentence. He delivered an entire series of oral essays over a four-day period exploring the point. Graham plainly stated in print and on the air that he had "great sympathy for Muslims of good will who want their... continue reading
The annual "Teen Choice Awards" recently broadcast on Fox celebrated the winners of an online poll operated by Teen People magazine for 13- to 19-year-old voters. In between the incessant screaming of 13-year-old girls for every winner, presenter, and commercial break, came the award winners, and if this isn't enough to send shivers down the spine of any parent, nothing will. Start with "Choice Rap Artist," which went unsurprisingly to white rap "artist" Eminem, who keeps on teasing and promising us he's going to retire from his so-called musical career, something that couldn't happen fast enough. The "Choice Rap Track"... continue reading