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No More Media for Murdoch

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FreePress.net - Nov. 29 (Opinion) -

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FCC: Expanded Basic Cable TV Rates Climbed 5.4% In 2010

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

multichannel.com - Aug. 15 (News) -

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Confidence in TV news at all-time low

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Dylan Byers - Jul. 10 (Poll) - Americans' confidence in television news has hit an all-time low, according to a new survey by Gallup. Twenty-one percent of the 1,004 adults polled said they had "a great deal" or "a lot" of confidence in television news media, continuing a steady decli

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Role Reversal: Why TV Is Replacing Movies As Elite Entertainment

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Hollywood Economist - By Edward Jay Epstein - May. 13 (News Analysis) - Once upon a time, over a generation ago, The television set was commonly called the “boob tube” and looked down on by elites as a purveyors of mind-numbing entertainment. Movie theaters, on the other hand, were considered a venue for, if not art, more sophisticated dramas and comedies. Not any more. The multiplexes are now primarily a venue for comic-book inspired action and fantasy movies, whereas television, especially the pay and cable channels, is increasingly becoming a venue for character-driven adult programs, such as The Wire, Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire. This role reversal, rather than a momentary fluke, proceeds directly from the new economic realities of the entertainment business. Consider what happened to Pay-TV. Back in the 1970s, HBO provided something home viewers could not get elsewhere: movies uninterrupted by commercials. It was, as a HBO executive put it, “the only game in town,” so its subscribers paid a monthly fee, no matter how little or often they watch it, to their local cable provider who in turn forked over a share to HBO. As the cable systems grew, so did HBO. By 2010, it had (including its Cinemax unit) over 40 million subscribers, and just the monthly fees produced cash flow of over $1.5 billion a year. Getting new movies was no problem. HBO simply licensed them from a few major studios for an exclusive period (which began a few months after they were released on video and DVD) in so-called “output deals.” To continue to harvest this immense bounty, HBO had merely to stop subscribers from ending their service.

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Current TV Dismisses Keith Olbermann

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Brian Stelter - Mar. 31 (News) - For nearly a year now, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt have been building their liberal cable news channel, Current TV, with the mercurial television anchorman Keith Olbermann at its center. This week, the center collapsed. Current said on Friday afternoon that it had fired Mr. Olbermann — one of the nation’s most prominent progressive speakers — just a year into his five-year, $50 million contract. It was the culmination of months of murky disputes between Mr. Olbermann and the channel that he was supposed to save from the throes of ratings oblivion.

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In time for Election 2012, a Stephen Colbert super PAC. What is that?

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Peter Grier - Jul. 01 (Special Report) - Stephen Colbert has a “super PAC.” The Federal Election Commission on Thursday approved his application to form such a political fundraising entity. He celebrated with a balloon drop to patriotic music on “The Colbert Report” Thursday night. “I am a super PAC, and so can you!” the comedian crowed to his studio audience. But what is a “super PAC” anyway? Is it like a regular political action committee, only with a nicer office? Are its donors richer? Must its employees wear capes.

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What's Inside Glenn Beck's Brain?

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - Apr. 06 (Cartoon) - A map of all the obsessions and conspiracies that fueled his soon-to-be-gone Fox News show.

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Simon responds to Bealefeld's criticism

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Baltimore Sun - By Justin Fenton, David Simon - Jan. 18 (Comment) - "The Wire" creator David Simon responds to comments made recently by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III that the HBO show was a "smear that will take decades to overcome":It is my understanding that Commissioner Bealefeld -- by finally choosing...

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More TV viewers may be cutting the cord this year

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Dawn C. Chmielewski, David Sarno - Jan. 04 (News) - New mobile devices and Internet-connected televisions that could let viewers cancel their pay-TV subscriptions are expected to be among the hottest items at the Consumer Electronics Show.

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Google TV Faces Delays Amid Poor Reviews

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Ashlee Vance, Claire Cain Miller - Dec. 19 (News Analysis) - Although Google already has a deal with Sony for its Internet TVs, other television makers — Toshiba, LG Electronics and Sharp — were prepared to flaunt their versions of the systems. But Google has asked the TV makers to delay their introductions, according to people familiar with the company’s plans, so that it can refine the software, which has received a lukewarm reception.

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Chasing Fox

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Magazine - By Gabriel Sherman - Oct. 03 (News Analysis) - In the spring of 2006, a year and a half after he was hired to run CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein went to his boss Jim Walton with an idea. CNN was in trouble. While the network remained a profit engine and an iconic brand, prime-time ratings were stalled. Fox News had surged ahead in the cable-news race, and now, alarmingly, Keith Olbermann was coming on strong. His anti-Bush broadsides were transforming his 8 p.m. MSNBC show, Countdown, into a bombastic counterweight to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, and combined, both personalities were drowning out CNN’s Paula Zahn, the respected television veteran who was anchoring a standard newscast during the 8 p.m. slot.

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Coalition blasts Comedy Central project for animated series on Jesus Christ

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

USA Today - By Doug Stanglin - Jun. 02 (News Report) - It's still only in the early development stage, but some media and religion heavyhitters have lined up in opposition to comedy central's animated project about Jesus Christ trying to live as a 'regular guy" in New York, Hollywood Reporter says.

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The secretive world of Oprah Winfrey

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Ed Pilkington - Apr. 17 (News) - She?s the most famous businesswoman in the world, so why does the media clam up when it comes to revelations from her past? Given that she is one of the world?s most celebrated women, with a multibillion-dollar media empire centred around her own personality, there have been strikingly few books about Oprah Winfrey. Among the many volumes dedicated to the O factor, most are published by Winfrey herself, some are children?s books and the rest are hagiographies (The Gospel According to Oprah, for example) or collections of her own quotations. Winfrey plays a central role in the US media, with her own TV studios, magazine, and the hugely influential Oprah?s Book Club, which perhaps goes some way to explaining the reluctance of the publishing ...

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Fey returns to SNL for launch of 'Sarah Palin Network'

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Saturday Night Live - Apr. 12 (Comedy News) - Saturday Night Live alum Tina Fey returned to host the program last night, which naturally resulted in the resurrection of her Sarah Palin impersonation.

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News Units at ABC and CBS Try to Navigate Uncertain Times

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Brian Stelter, Bill Carter - Mar. 01 (Special Report) - ABC News is making no secret about what is behind the sweeping staff cuts it now faces: raw survival instinct.

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Black-and-White TV: Nonverbal Racial Bias Found in Popular Television Shows

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - By JR Minkel - Dec. 26 (News Report) - NONVERBAL CUES in popular television shows may be one reason why some people have a harder time associating positive terms to black figures than white ones, even when both show high-status characteristics.

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More Than Ever, You Can Say That on Television

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Edward Wyatt - Nov. 14 (Special Report) - Ever since George Carlin laid out the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” in 1972, television writers and broadcasters have been digging more deeply into the thesaurus, seizing on new ways to titillate, if not offend. And while the word “douche” is neither obscene nor profane — although this usage is certainly offensive to many people — it seems to represent the latest of broadcast television’s continuing efforts to expand the boundaries of taste, in part to stem the tide of defections by its audience to largely unregulated cable television.

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The Obama Top Ten List on Letterman

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Film clip - Sep. 22 (Entertainment) - Letterman top ten reasons President Obama agreed to appear on the David Letterman Show.

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At OpEdNews: My Letter to Joe Scarborough on 4/13/07

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Op Ed News - By R. Francis Rubio - Sep. 07 (Opinion) - I wrote this letter to MSNBC two years ago about the coverage of the derogatory remarks (nappy haired comment among others) Don Imus made on his radio show about young African American women on a college basketball team. Now after the election of our new President in large part due to the youth vote finally we may be starting to get it.

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‘Mad Men’ Crashes Woodstock’s Birthday

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Frank Rich - Aug. 16 (Opinion) - While the 40th anniversary of Woodstock is getting much air time this summer, perhaps it is Don Draper’s America, the early ’60s country-at-a-pivot-point, that really resonates today.

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At MSNBC, weekends aren't newsworthy

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Scott Collins - Jun. 25 (Special Report) - In recent days, much of the news media's attention has been focused on post-election protests and violence in Iran. But at MSNBC, the crisis has taken on a bit less urgency, at least if viewers are to judge from what the network is airing.

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Pixilated Over Pixels

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Maureen Dowd - Jun. 14 (Opinion) - As an explosion of pixels hits our TV screens this weekend, with the digital and high-def revolution, my unscientific survey shows women are less excited about high-def than men.

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Glenn Beck - Common Sense Comedy Tour Is for Laughing at Liberals (and Hawking That Book) - NYTimes.com

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Mike Hale - Jun. 06 (Review) - Before starting his performance on Thursday night at the Midland Theater in Kansas City, Mo., which was simulcast to more than 440 movie houses around the country, Glenn Beck walked over to the camera,

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Cable Wars Are Killing Objectivity

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Carr - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - Apparently there is an ingredient in tea that causes hysteria when given to cable news anchors. How else to explain the coverage of the tax day tea parties on Wednesday, which was the day when we procrastinators finally mailed the check to the feds?

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High Noon on the Set: Cramer vs. Stewart

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Alessandra Stanley - Mar. 14 (Opinion) - The much-hyped showdown between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer, the mercurial host of “Mad Money” on CNBC, felt like a Senate subcommittee hearing. Mr. Stewart treated his guest like a C.E.O. subpoenaed to testify before Congress: his point was not to hear Mr. Cramer out, but to act out a cathartic ritual of indignation and castigation. “Listen, you knew what the banks were doing, yet were touting it for months and months,” the Democratic senator from Comedy Central said. “The entire network was. For now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.”

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