Turning Lemons into a Network TV Gig

The good folks at CBS' Late Show with David Letterman are well-acquainted with the absurdity of the TV biz. So it was no surprise they invited CNN anchor Kyra Phillips to read their Top 10 list days after her embarrassing faux pas speaking ill of her sister-in-law during a bathroom break, unaware that her comments were being broadcast over President Bush's Katrina anniversary speech.

(Current scuttlebutt about the issue: Why did audio technicians allow her conversation to be broadcast on air for so long?)

Here's the Top 10 List Phillips read durin today's show taping (to be broadcast at 11:35 p.m. tonight):

10.       Still haven't mastered complicated on/off switch.

9.         Larry King told me he does this all the time.

8.         How was I supposed to know we had a reporter embedded in the bathroom.

7.         I honestly never knew this sort of thing was frowned upon.

6.         I couldn't resist a chance to win $10,000 on "

America

's Funniest Home Videos."

5.         I was set up by those bastards at Fox News.

4.         Like you've never gone to the bathroom and had it broadcast on national television.

3.         I just wanted that hunky Lou Dobbs to notice me.

2.         Okay, so I was drunk and I couldn't think straight.

1.         You have to admit, it made the speech a lot more interesting.

How Do We Overhype Media Stories? Let Me Count the Ways

In the rush to uncover every unsavory tidbit of the modern media process, sometimes we spend a little too much time obsessing on stuff that really isn't much of a scandal.

A few recent examples (click on any photos to enlarge):

Misstep #1: Attributing Political Bias to Boneheaded Mistakes

CNN anchor Kyra Phillips has never struck this critic as a candidate for MENSA. So when I heard to story about how she wore a live microphone into the bathroom and proceeded to have a conversation with another woman about her "control freak" sister-in-law that was broadcast over a speech by President Bush, I chalked it up to typical newsanchor knuckleheadedness.

But the conservative media watchdog site Newsbuster.org seems to be implying that the Phillips gaffe is a bit more -- tacking a plea for donations to oppose "liberal media lies" at the end of a rather exhaustive account of Phillips' blunder.

I'm probably reading too much into Newsbusters' reflexive hatred for all things CNN. But still, seems like a lot of bandwidth to waste on an essentially innocent mistake.

Misstep #2: Overanalyzing CBS' Push for Couric

Alert media hounds noticed something strange about a photo of soon-to-debut CBS news anchor Katie Couric in the CBS/Viacom promotional magazine Watch!

See if you can spot the difference:

 

Yes, they photoshopped the image to make Couric's waist look a little smaller (some news accounts say she looks 20 pounds lighter; I'm not buying that, though she is obviously slimmer).

Having seen Couric in the flesh several times, I'm not sure why they felt this was necessary -- she's already a tiny thing without any digital help. But I'm less than alarmed that a promotional magazine published by CBS' public relations department would tweak the picture to make her look better (As I type this, an MSNBC anchor has actually compared this teapot tempest to the Dan Rather Memogate scandal; have we learned nothing from overblown Karr coverage?) Next, you'll be telling me they let Couric review the article before it was published!

Addendum: The next most overhyped portion of this story is the Huffington Post grousing because blogs weren't credited with breaking this story or the Kyra Phillips story. So let me acknowledge here that TVNewser and Wonkette were out front on these blockbuster scoops.

Misstep #3: Overanalyzing the President's Reading Habits

We journalists know that Bush's man of the people shtick is mostly that. He's actually a son of one of the most powerful families in America, who attended elite universities like Harvard and Yale, and made a career of turning his family's political connections into failed commercial ventures before going into the family business: politics.

So I understand why NBC anchor Brian Williams wasted precious minutes of his Katrina anniversary interview with the Presient asking why he was reading a French absurdist author like Albert Camus. Williams' problem: most viewers probably don't even know who Camus was.

Here's an excerpt:

"WILLIAMS: We always talk about what you're reading as you know there was a report that you just read the works of a French philosopher. (bush laughs)

BUSH: The Stranger.

WILLIAMS: Tell us the back-story of Camus.

BUSH: The back-story of the-the book?

WILLIAMS: What led you to...

BUSH: I was in Crawford and ah I said I was looking for a book to read and Laura said you oughtta try Camus, I also read three Shakespeare's.

WILLIAMS: This is a change...

BUSH: interrupt. Not really. Wait a minute.

WILLIAMS: A few months ago you were reading the life story of Joe DiMaggio by Richard Ben Cramer

BUSH: Which was a good book 

WILLIAMS: You've been on a Teddy Roosevelt reading kick.

BUSH: Well I'm reading about the battle of New Orleans right now.  I've got an eclectic reading list.

WILLIAMS: and now Camus?

BUSH: Well that was a couple of books ago. Let me-let me- look. The key for me is to keep expectations low.

WILLIAMS: Is that what everyone doesn't get?

BUSH: I don't know Brian what they get or don't get. Here's the thing the great thing about the presidency is that you are totally exposed. And people spend a lot of-- particularly if you're making decisions, and hard decisions, people spend a lot of time, not only analyzing decisions, but analyzing the  decision maker. And I understand that, but a president must never let-- let that get him off track. 

WILLIAMS: Even if you're frustrated that we're getting something wrong

BUSH:  You have to do what you--- if we're getting something wrong, we change it.

WILLIAMS:  How have you been read wrong?

BUSH: I dunno.  I frankly don't pay that much attention-I don't wanna hurt people's feelings, but...

WILLIAMS: Still not watching television, huh?

BUSH: I watched a good baseball game."

Nice try, Brian. But Bush will always outfolksy you in the trenches. Let's spend more time talking about his actual policies, rather than what's on his reading table, huh?

 

Karr Case Chokes a Scandal-Fed Media

For me, the last straw was when she called her Patsy.

MSNBC bubblehead Rita Cosby was breathlessly recounting the disintegration of the case against John Mark Karr as the murderer of Jon Benet Ramsey Monday, speaking to Pam Paugh, the sister of Jon Benet's now deceased mom, Patsy.

And she called her Patsy. Worse, Paugh herself had to remind Cosby that her first name was Pam, not Patsy, who died in June of ovarian cancer. A least Patsy didn't have to suffer through yet another media circus centered on the murder of her 6-year-old child, as news outlets which should have known better, spent weeks assuming there was substantive evidence linking Karr to the child's murder.

It was an outcome I predicted more than a week ago, appearing on Mitch Albom's Detroit radio show during a discussion about the media frenzy surrounding this case. Back then, I suggested those interested in getting a good handle on the case read newspaper reports -- particularly the dominant Denver-area media such as the Rocky Mountain News. Despite early, breathless reporting of their own, these papers also questioned whether Karr's confession was legitimate and noted that the prosecution's case depended on DNA evidence which would likely decide the issue.

Unfortunately, such subtleties as the possiblity of a deeply disturbed man confessing to a crime he didn't commit were largely disregarded by a news cycle led through cable TV's insatiable appetite for attention-getting scandal coverage. And once again, journalists are stuck with an embarrassing performance which only further erodes our credibility as purveyors of the truth.

ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper predicted as much back on Aug. 17, writing on his blog about the "unholy alliance between idiot authorities and reporters hungry for a scoop." He was talking about the way in which the media rushed to judge the Ramsey family, based on flawed information from hapless investigators. But he could have been writing about this latest iteration, in which many news outlets clucked about the edia's past performance in the case, while rushing to commit new sins of overcoverage and hype (TVNewser has a great item on live shots at Jon Benet's grave here).

Expect the finger pointing to begin in earnest today. The boneheaded authorities investigating this case already have taken hits from the media today -- "Why didn't they just do the DNA testing in Thailand?" CNN legal expert Jeffrey Toobin asked Monday -- and there will likely be some vitriol reserved for University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey. Known for producing documentaries friendly to the notion that an intruder killed the child, Tracey contacted police with information on email exchanges with Karr which implicated him.

And there will be the requisite stories asking whether the media went too far in this case. Regardless of the answer, I fear we all know how the throng will react the next time an opportunity presents itself; refuse to learn from history, and you are most certainly doomed to repeat it.

Katrina Anniversary Today; Remebrances All Over the Dial

I've been so busy with other stuff, I've had little time to watch Katrina anniversary stuff, besides Spike Lee's most excellent documentary. Fortunately, Richard Prince has collected a great rundown of Katrina anniversary programming on TV and in radio for his site, Journal-isms; check it out here.

As someone who spent about a week in New Orleans five months after Katrina hit, I've felt some mixed emotions about the issues: mostly, I'm surprised at how many people still tell me they don't realize how screwed up New Orleans still is, or the depth to which governmental institutions continue to fail the people of the city. At a time when some media types are debating "Katrina fatigue," some folks still haven't fully tuned into the tragedy in the first place.

I'm also discouraged that so few news outlets have tackled the larger issues of race and class exposed by the calamity. I decried such lack of wider coverage six months ago; other media critics note the trend is continuing at the one-year mark.

Seems the Jon Benet chasers aren't the only ones who refuse to learn from the past.

(photo credit: MSNBC publicity, Associated Press, TVNewser and Times photographer Willie Allen; click on any photo to enlarge)

Emmy's Secret Weapon: The Carrot-Topped Late Night Guy

Two previous weeks of overwork and family committments kept me from writing a live review of Sunday night's Emmy awards for today's paper. Still, I was moved enough by watching a TiVo-ed recording of the proceedings to blog five words I never expected to write in my entire TV critic career.

Thank God for Conan O'Brien.

That's because, on an Emmy night where nearly every winner was the expected choice -- Tony Shaloub, Alan Alda, Megan Mullally, The Office, The Daily Show, 24, to name a few -- O'Brien had the testicular fortitude to bring it in a big way.

Who knew the wavy-haired goofball would offer an opening comedy bit where he'd poke fun at Emmy voters snubbing Lost, slide into Dateline NBC's online predator stings and land in South Park's twisted universe -- where a guy who looked suspiciously like Tom Cruise wouldn't come out of a bedroom closet?

A minute later, he's joking about how "Mel Gibson has a new show on Al Jazeera" and the irony of party hound Charlie Sheen finding success playing a guy who helps raise a young child -- three feet away from the guy! And a minute after that, he's singing a parody of the classic musical number "Ya Got Trouble" in reference to NBC's awful ratings, noting "the guy who passed on Lost/Was promoted instead of tossed/and now the peacock's getting it at both ends."

And there's the gag where he brought out comedy legend Bob Newhart in a plastic tube, saying the guy had three hours of air -- setting up the funniest running joke I've seen in an awards ceremony in a long time.

And this show needed everything Conan could muster. Sure, there were some unexpected turns -- Andre Braugher seemed as surprised as everyone else when he was named best actor in a miniseries and Helen Mirren's turn as Elizabeth I was an award everyone knew she earned, though few Emmy voters likely saw it.

Unfortunately, Emmy's surprises Sunday were almost all negative: robbing Martin Sheen's likely last chance at an emmy as a series star for Kiefer Sutherland's hyper kinetic action stuff? Passing up a last chance to honor Malcolm in the Middle's magnificent Jane Kaczmarek for Julia Louise Dreyfus' mediocre sitcom stuff? Snubbing Steve Carell's finely-tuned Office turn for yet another misplaced comedy trophy for Shaloub? Disregarding My Name is Earl's Jaime Pressly to hand another trophy to Mullally? Passing up three nominees from two of TV's most successful shows to honor Huff's Blythe Danner -- a woman in a discontinued show which no one saw in the first place?

There's room for lots of griping around the watercooler today, if anyone still cares about the Emmys anymore. Meanwhile, those of us who actually sat through it all can console ourselves in knowing at least one star was born Sunday night -- and when O'Brien takes his rightful place hosting the Oscars next, we can say we knew him when.

Fave quotes:

"I guess I have to thank Showtime, even though they canceled us." -- Huff's Blythe Danner.

"I think you actually made a terrible mistake. But thank you." -- The Daily Show's Jon Stewart.

"God -- I'm sure in some way you are responsible. But you took my hair, and man, that's not cool." Earl writer Greg Garcia.

Forget the Emmys, It's time for the Deggys

Lots of people think Rescue Me star Denis Leary is a shoo-in for the best dramatic actor Emmy in Sunday's contest. But Leary isn't one of them.

"I think they’re going to go with Martin Sheen – he hasn’t won it yet, he’s a sentimental favorite, and this is probably his last chance to win one,"
said Leary today during a conference call to promote the show's season finale Tuesday. "I mean, this is a guy who played Bobby Kennedy and John F. Kennedy – he could probably play Teddy Kennedy if he wanted to start drinking again and put on some weight.”

Um, yeah. Well, that sums up the spirit of some folks headed into Sunday's 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards contest, which has a weirder than usual amount of creaky nomination and out-of-touch recognitions.

That's why I've decided to start my own awards ceremony, curiously scheduled at the same time as the Emmys -- The Deggys.

Sunday's Floridian will have a few of my major picks; looking past the true and true to re-imagine the Emmys the way I'd hand them out.

Here's a few more:

Supporting Actress, Drama Series

The Deggy goes to: Mary Lynn Rajskub, 24 -- Who didn't dig Rajskub's crabby enabler, Chloe O'Brian -- an odd mix of the most capable and most pathological office worker ever created. Able to reroute commercial airline flight paths one minute and fall into a scathing argument over wor assignments the next, she's the best bad employee ever brought to network TV. Honorable mention goes to Robin Weigert, whose boozy, profane take on Calamity Jane in HBO's Deadwood is so vivid, you can almost smell the dried puke on her (yeah, that's supposed to be a compliment).

Actor, Drama Series

The Deggy Goes To: Hugh Laurie, House -- You may notice, I gave a Deggy to Leary in Sunday's Floridian. But that's the coolest thing about having your own awards show: you can make your own rules. So in this case, I'm giving out TWO awards. and Laurie gets his for being a British actor playing flawless American, playing handicapped and playing the kind of lovable, insulting curmudgeon we haven't seen since Dabney Coleman last had a TV job.

Actress, Drama Series

Deggy goes to: Katee Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica. I know...I KNOW. I'm a hopeless sci fi geek who does not get it. Having stipulaed to that, hear me out. This series, which has managed to wrap all the drama of modern-day conflict with terrorism and religious zealotry into a whiz-bang update of the '80s series, has made gritty drama of a series which once starred bonanza's Lorne Green and a guy who would land on the A-Team. And Sackhoff's, boozing, romantically conflicted Starbuck is a major fulcrum, turning the character from an empty-headed con man to a woman kicking ass in a man's world with all the baggage you'd expect.

I'm not feeling much comedy these days outside the always magnificant Daily Show  and my new obsession, Late Night with Craig Ferguson (handled in Sunday's Floridian, thank you muchly).

So what do youse guys think? Put aside your well-deserved cynicism and spitball a bit on how the showbiz universe might be different if you held the reins. And feel free to fess up in this space on your choices...

(photos courtesy of FX, Fox and NBC/Universal publicity; click to enlarge)

Online Ethics: Not Just a Punch Line Anymore

   I know. It sounds like a triple-sized oxymoron: Online journalism ethics.

But I've just spent two days with a group of really smart online media folks trying to make that quixotic quest a reality. A code of ethics for online journalism.

The group was assembled by the Poynter Institute here in St. Petersburg Tuesday and Wednesday, using a model similar to a gathering on digital photography they convened 15 years ago. The hope is, at some point, the institute will release a collection of codes, ideas, questions, protocols -- something -- which helps online media types practice journalism more ethically, when they choose to commit it.

Yeah, it sounds awfully precious and pointy-headed. But there's value in getting a bunch of cool people together to kick around issues we're all struggling with in the online arena. And what a group: folks from MSNBC, ESPN.com, the Media bloggers Association, the Chicago Tribune, McClatchy Interactive, CNN.com, Washington Post.com, WTSP-Ch. 10, the Indianapolis Star and more.

Some questions we kicked around:

How much responsiblity do outlets have to make sure a link leads to accurate, credible material?

Is there a difference between featuring material on your site and linking to it, in terms of backing the material with your own crediblity?

Should blog posts be edited before they are published, when developed at an institution with editors? Can outlets with news reporters allow them to write opinionated blogs?

Do online operations have a clear process for developing and posting material? Is breaking news handled differently? And are those distinctions purposeful, or do they happen by accident?

How much do you verify or edit content submitted by the public?

Can those who sell ads work closely with those who create content without corrupting their journalism? how do you ensure that?

I'm sure to some online types, these questions seem quaint and old school (one participant even asked why journalists work so hard to develop ethical rules when the public's confidence in us keeps tanking).

But you don't stop trying to get better at your craft, just because a few people refuse to believe in your commitment. And I gotta say, it was inspiring to commiserate with so many accomplished people who were so focused on developing standards that can elevate the journalism without handcuffing the innovation.

I won't detail what we cooked up over two days -- mostly, we learned this is going to take much longer to work out what is needed. But I felt it was worth noting that there are inspired people out there asking incisive questions about what happens when online innovation and journalism intersect; and we're working hard to help people make the best choices...

As always, your thoughts -- and particularly, your suggestions for guidelines -- are most welcome.

Sumner Redstone: Idiot or a Genius?  Depends on Who You Read

Showbiz and media blogs were buzzing today about the announcement by Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone that his company's Paramount Pictures wouldn't extent its production contract with Scientologist schitzo Tom Cruise, saying his "recent conduct has been unacceptable."

Everyone who knows the business agrees this is less about a couch-jumping superstar who can't  have a civil discussion about psychology and much more about a failed negotiation with a star who takes big chunks out of his movies' bottom line.

But the question remains: Was it smart of Redstone to take this fight public?

Enter Nikki Finke, ascerbic columnist for LA Weekly and her own sparkling blog Deadline Hollywood Daily, who notes that Hollywood has long been filled with eccentric, erratic, immoral, undependable types -- including a few Viacom execs rumored to have flouted their marriage vows -- and that Cruise's movies still rake in big bucks.

She says: "Cruise did better for his studios with MI3, War of the Worlds, Collateral, The Last Samurai, Minority Report, Vanilla Sky and MI2 than almost any other star, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Adam Sandler. My best guess is only Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp and Mel Gibson did better box office."

But hold on -- Advertising Age has another take, rooted in their New York-based knowledge of another community: the investment world.

The magazine posits that Redstone was calling Cruise's bluff -- that he and producing partner Paula Wagner could get funding for their projects from venture capitalists -- by trashing the star's reliability and trustworthiness to the very investment community he would approach next for money.

They say: "So before you (Redstone) announce the split, you pick up the phone and call The Wall Street Journal -- not, please note, Variety, which is read by everyone in Hollywood, but the paper read by the people who have money to invest -- that Tom Cruise's behavior was not to be trusted by stalwart business types."

Much as I love me some Nikki, I gotta side with the New York crew on this one. Though I think Redstone's efforts won't amount to much: Celebrity and the lure of Cruise's highly bankable past will wipe away many sins with potential investors. 

 

Survivor Plays the Race Card -- Finally

I've long argued that race is a significant subtext in many of the reality shows Mark Burnett creates -- especially Survivor, where the relationship between the two minorities who are inevitably cast in each edition becomes a parable on assimilation.

But Burnett has finally decided to put that stuff on the table with his latest edition of Survivor, Core Islands, where the 20 contestants announced today -- none from Florida, thank God! -- will be divided into teams by race, at least initially.

To be sure, this follows a gimmick Burnett has explored in later editions of Survivor, tapping viewer interest in possible social friction by dividing teams along gender lines or education. Race seems the last frontier for a reality TV showman determined to keep his powerhouse claim to television fame alive for another season.

It's also a move that surprised me -- considering that Burnett seemed to almost jump out of his skin  when I asked about the racial ramifications of casting during a press party for the first Survivor series. He has always insisted whatever racial baggage the show enects is brought by the participants themselves; but those of us who have been around reality TV awhile know nothing happens on that screen producers haven't deliberately showcased.

Back in 2000, at the end of a column about Vecepia Towery, the first Survivor winner of color, I suggested Burnett might want to create a Survivor cast where white folks are the minority. Instead --- responding to criticisms that the show isn't ethnically diverse enough -- he's created one where America's four largest ethnic/cultural groups are evenly represented.

Here's the list, according to CBS News (see a video clip here):

African-American Tribe:

Make-up artist, Rebecca Borman, 34, from Laurelton, N.Y.

Jazz musician and recording artist Sekou Bunch, 45, of Los Angeles

Nursing student Stephannie Favor, 35, of Columbia, S.C.

Retail salesman Nathan Gonzalez, 26, of Los Angeles

Sundra Oakley, 31, an actress from Los Angeles

Asian-American Tribe:

Nail salon manager Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" Bui (pronounced Cowboy), 42, from Christianburg, Va.

Attorney Becky Lee, 28, of Washington, D.C.

Management consultant Yul Kwon, 31, of San Mateo, Calif.

Real estate agent Jenny Guzon-Bae, 36, of Lake Forest, Ill.

Fashion Director Brad Virata, 29, of Los Angeles

Hispanic Tribe:

Heavy metal guitarist Billy Garcia, 36, of New York

Professional volleyball player J.P. Calderon, 30, of Marina Del Rey, Calif.

Police officer Cristina Coria, 35, of Los Angeles

Waiter Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth, 25, of Venice, Calif.

Technology risk consultant Cecilia Mansilla, 29, of Oakland, Calif.

White Tribe:

Copier salesman Adam Gentry, 28, of San Diego, Calif.

Writer-producer Jonathan Penner, 44, of Los Angeles

Boxer-waitress Parvati Shallow, 23, of Los Angeles

Performer-roller girl Jessica Smith, 27, of Chico, Calif.

Pre-med student Candice Woodcock, 23, of Fayetteville, N.C.

Will this prove once and for all that Survivor is an equal competition, or only highlight our assorted prejudices. i know i'll probably be glued to the screen looking for the answer.

Pantera Publicist Smacksdown E! Entertainment

This falls under the category: I'm not totally sure it's true, but I sure hope it is.

There's an email making the rounds in which a publicist for the band Pantera takes E! Entertainment to task for requesting footage of deceased guitarist Dimebag Darrell for the purposes of re-enacting his horrible death at the hands of a concertgoer who shot him from the crowd for its special, 25 Most Chilling Hollywood Murders.

Here's an excerpt:  "I ask that you all please take a moment from your busy days and close your eyes. Live out the fantasy of playing your favorite instrument onstage. Your closest friends in the world surround you, either in the band or in your crew. From one side of the stage, a man approaches. Thinking he’s a security guy or a drunk fan who’s just a bit out a line, you continue to perform. Two seconds later, he lifts his arms, aims a rifle at your brother, your best friend, your buddy and blows his brains out, not three feet from where you are. In the nanosecond it takes you to comprehend the magnitude of what just happened, he does it again…and again…and again…and again…and again…and again before taking aim and murdering additional members of your extended family as well as fans that have come to see you play. Two of your crew are shot but survive, but of course, will never be the same again."

And the kicker: "In case none of this appears clear enough and you need a definitive answer to your request…no. The answer if no, and on behalf of everyone that was there that night and everyone that misses him every day, you can take that no and shove it up your collective asses."

Read the full text here. All I can add to that is, amen my friend. There's a special place in H-E-double-hockey-sticks reserved for those who make their cash by dancing on the graves of murdered artists.

(photos: CBS publicity and Dean Guitars. Click on thumbnails to enlarge)

Simon sings a Not-So-Simple Song

  I'll say this for the guy who always makes American Idol worth watching for me; he cuts to the chase, even when he's trying to shine you on.

Idol judge and reality TV entrepreneur Simon Cowell faced critics via conference call about two hours ago to talk up his new Celebrity Duets show. And even as he was selling us on the concept, he was quite willing to admit who he was ripping off to make it happen.

"I really liked Dancing with the Stars," said Cowell, quickly copping to critics' early tagline for the show, Dancing-meets-American Idol. "I thought it was a great format, but I always thought it would work better as a singing show,rather than dancing. But to make it work, we had to bring in legendary artists...We went into this thinking if we could get the Smokey Robinsons and the Gladys Knights, it would work. I never in a billion years thought we could actually get them."

Turns out, he got them and more. Duets, which debuts Aug. 29, will feature singing greats (James Ingram, Chaka Khan, Patti Labelle) and the not-so-great (Michael Bolton, Randy Travis, Belinda Carlisle) paired with the requisite crop of C- and D-list celebs  looking for a career boost (Lucy Lawless, Cheech Marin, Lea Thompson). Each episode features the celebs duetting with two different singing greats at different times -- the audience doesn't know who will share the stage until they step in the spotlight.

Mega-producer David Foster is the Cowell of the bunch -- the centerpiece judge who offers rudely on-target assessments passed off as honesty -- joined by Little Richard and another judge who hasn't been confimed (Cowell expects to finalize that deal in next few days, probably a female recording artist).

Executive roducer Cowell insists each of these celebrities has a good voice -- "We auditioned them three or four times...(Fox) was honest with me, the only reason we're putting this on is, these people have to be good" -- and in the back of their minds, probably believes success will lead to a Taylor Hicks-level record deal.

"No one was booked for comedy value," he insisted. "they've been taking vocal lessons, practicing for weeks...for the non-sngers, this is outide ther comfort zone. And because the're more high profile, there's more at stake if it all goes wrong."

Since this is a Fox show, Cowell may even make an appearance (another contractual uncertainty to be worked out soon), and ultra-likable Wayne Brady is hosting. And according to Cowell, one castmember was an immediate hire, the moment his name was mentioned.

"Someone said Little Richard and I said, 'Book him,' " Cowell said. "So many of these knock off shows, the panel is so dull. But Little Richard is interesting, he an artist and a personality...It wasn't obvious, and that's what I liked about it. I based it on 'Who would I want to see?' And everytime I've seen this guy interviewed, I'm genuinely interested by him."

So with Foster as the Jerky Judge and Little Richard as the Crazy Judge, all Cowell needs is the Comforting Judge (perhaps Deborah Gibson, who honed her nurturing skills tolerating the rugrats on American Juniors so many years ago).  And the consummately in-command Cowell only came close to losing his cool one time: When a critic dared ask who was he centerpiece judge on American Idol.

"Me, of course," he said in a tone that left some doubt as to whether he was kidding or not. "why would you even ask that?" Why indeed.

Fox Starts Fall Season Tonite

Normally, its the fourth-place networks which start their schedules early, despearate to hook viewers before the flood of new fall shows washes away their new offerings. But Fox is jumping the gun this year, continuing their recent strategy of debuting stuff all over the map so no one really knows when their new series are on.

Prison Break at 8 tonight, and a new kidnapping series, Vanished, starts at 9 p.m. comes back to new episodes

The most interesting element of the new Prison Break is Invasion's William Fichtner addition as a super-sharp F.B.I. agent with an almost supernatural ability to figure out Scofield's moves as eight guys from the prison escape and try to stay free (he deduces, for instance, that the tattoo is the key to the plan). The usual outlandish stuff happens otherwise -- T-Bag somehow keeps causing trouble even with a hand cut off and Veronica meets an unexpected fate. This is a drama for people who think 24 is too plausible.

Vanished is a bad Ransom ripoff with a twist: the missing woman, a Senator's wife, is not who she appears to be. It's a sure bet audiences lose interest by the third episode.

 

Black Leaders Spin While Black Journalists Listen

C. Ray Nagin wasn't taking the bait.

Already, the mayor of New Orleans had accused the media of missing the ongoing story of his citizens' struggle to rebuild in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Because of racism, neglect, general cluelessness and a willingness to let developers take over the rebuild, he said, the nation's media weren't getting the story.

Facing a packed meeting room at the National Association of Black Journalists' national convention in Indianapolis Friday, Nagin blasted those who would make his citizens be fingerprinted and interviewed for hours before getting relief funds (of course, he glosses over the hit federal officials have taken for handing out relief funds to people who didn't need it in Florida). And he blamed a needlessly complicated state bureaucracy for slowing down his city's access to funds.

Wait a minute. Was he accusing Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco -- who he is known to have problems with -- of holding up his access to funds?

"The dollars flow from the governor's office," Nagin said, just before i asked him if he was fingering Blanco as the source of his money problems. "Don't be hoodwinked...into thinking the eople in new Orleans can't get the job done."

Nagin was a slick, charismatic presence, blaming the media for inaccurate coverage -- without acknowledging that he and former police chief Eddie Compass were passing along a fair amount of misinformation during the crisis. He claimed journalists still weren't telling all the stories out there -- even though news outlets such as National Public Radio and NBC have bureaus in the city, and Anderson Cooper has been aggressively targeting Katrina rebuilding problems through a regular feature called "Keeping Them Honest."

"It's a a city that is being strangled," said Nagin, tapping into the natural empathy many NABJ members have for the black, poor victims of Katrina-caused flooding. "Very few of the dollars have gotten to the local governments or the residents themselves."

Moderated by Michelle Norris of NPR's All Things Considered, Nagin's appearance was the kind of thing which happens often during the NABJ convention -- which this year has attracted everyone from NPR's ed Gordon and CNN's Suzanne Malveux to civil rights leader Al Sharpton, acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., and, um, me.

It would take too long to explain why this convention means so much to me and other black journalists. instead, i suggest you read a column I pulled together this morning for the Poynter Institute's Web site here.

Besides seeing friends you never encounter elsewhere, NABJ's convention usually provides some news. This year:

Ed Gordon announced a new TV venture, a nationally syndicated TV show called One World With Black Enterprise, which will air at 5:30 a.m. Fridays on WTVT-Ch. 13 in Tampa. Lots of folks were buzzing about Gordon's future, thanks to my story on monday about NPR's problems with his radio show, News & Notes.

I appeared Thursday on Mitch Albom's radio show from Detroit, talking about the renewed hysteria regarding Jon Benet Ramsey

Al Sharpton complained Thursday about those who criticize the lack of cohesive leadership among black civil rights leaders, but also insist that black people have wide-ranging opinions and are not monolithic.

"We're enterting this debate longing for something we never had," he bellowed. "Weve always had multiple leaders and lots of ego. Why can't we do what we do, hope to help people and hope we'll be remembered, too?"

It's tiring and filled with lots of distraction. But the NABJ conference is also a major battery recharge for many journalists of color who feel isolated and neglected in jobs at mainstream news outlets. And it doesn't even end until Sunday...

The Tao of Lenny Venito

So, I'm sorting through the nameless TV Critic hell that is watching each and every new show advanced by the networks this fall -- oh, look honey, this one is like Grumpy Old Men have a midlife crisis! -- and I see this guy.

And you know right away he's one of those dudes. Those actors you see in TV shows all the time, clocking in way-cool performances, but never famous enough to get a blurb in People magazine, let alone space in your memory banks for their name or their story.

This time, I was watching Lenny Venito in an amazingly funny ABC show pilot that once had a cool name -- Let's Rob Mick Jagger -- and now does not: The Knights of Prosperity. I know, it sounds lame -- but it's actually a side-splitting, absurdist blend of Dumb and Dumber and Reservoir Dogs, as a host of working-class misfits try pulling a heist they think will make their dreams come true, led by Donal Logue (The Tao of Steve) and written by the creators of Ed for David Letterman's production company.

But I digress. Because Venito caught my eye as Logue's buddy Squatch, a janitor stuck on the night shift who likes nothing more than shining laser pointer lights on people's naughty bits (see the pilot; that explains all). And I remembered where else I had seen him: as a greasy prison guard on FX's Rescue Me; as Christopher Moltisanti's right hand, "Murmur" Zancone on The Sopranos; as Manny the Mechanic in Spielberg's War of the Worlds.

You need greasy, working class, vaguely Italian guy, Lenny' s your man. And it got me thinking about all the other cool character actors who don't get their due in Hollywood. The folks who seem to be everywhere, yet nowhere at once. Folks like...(click photo to enlarge)

J.K. Simmons -- HBO is a great haven for underappreciated character guys (Clancy Brown's devilish preacher on Carnivale; Harry Dean Stanton's magnetic cult leader on Big Love, et. al), so it was fitting that one of the greatest contemporary character guys would get his start as a homocidal, homosexual white supremacist prison inmate on OZ. Since then, he's been the world weary psychologist Emil Skoda on Law & Order, over-the-top newsman J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies and, most interestingly, buttoned-down assistant police chief Will Pope on TNT's the Closer.

Gerald McRaney -- Typecast as the gruff half of Simon & Simon and later as a tightass military doofus on the formulaic comedy Major Dad, McRainey has finally gotten a chance to show his acting chops as ruthless gold baron George Hearst in Deadwood. going toe-to-toe with another character acting great, Ian McShane, McRaney's performance is almost enough to make you forget he was in Commando Nanny. Almost.

Wendell Pierce --  He's playing det. william "bunk" moreland on HBO's The Wire these days, but he's been Steven Weber's best friend on his ill-fated sictom, Gregory Hines' best friend on his long-gone comedy, and basically a smooth-as-silk spark plug wherever he pops up.

Bruno Kirby -- Recently popped up on HBO's hit Entourage, Kirby sealed his character chops with best friend roles in films like City Slickers, When Harry Met sally, and the ultimate pal -- Vito Corleone's early partner in crime in the Godfather II. Kirby makes the list, in part, because he just passed away from leukemia -- a too-soon end for a guy whose passion and charisma lit up many a supporting role.

Well, you've seen my Hall of Fame list -- what about yours?

   

 

Can National Public Radio Reach all of the Public?

On Wednesday, i'll be heading to the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Indiana for four days of discussion on how to amp up diversity in the nation's news media. Topic one: how to deal with the diversity fatigue which seems to plague newsrooms today -- weary from the never-ending struggle to create a newsroom diverse as the communities they cover.

So it was a good time to drop my story yesterday on National Public Radio's struggle to make a go of its only black-focused program, News & Notes with Ed Gordon.

If you live in the Tampa Bay area, you probably haven't heard the show because it's only available on WUSF-FM's secondary digital channel. But Ed had the daunting task of taking over for black media icon Tavis Smiley, when he decided to leave NPR, and his reward has been a loss of more than 186,000 listeners a week and no presence or reduced presence in major markets such as Chicago, New York City and here.

It's an enduring irony that NPR, long considered a liberal institution, has struggled mightily with a lack of diversity for decades. It was sued three times for race and gender discrimintion in the 1990s and still only has four black program hosts on its roster -- including the two people who host News & Notes.

I wrote about this issue from the content side last year, and I heard from a fair number of earnest peopel at NPR who said they were working on the issue -- mostly by developing Ed's show. Now that he's got one foot out the door -- about to announce this week a new TV show he's hosting in partnership with Black Enterprise magaizne -- I hear my story Monday is now making the rounds among some at NPR who still hope to do better.

Frankly, I think everything from Dave Chapelle's show to Tavis' current PBS radio and TV programs prove you can create shows rooted in black culture that appeal to everyone. Wonder why NPR is having such a tough time doing it?

Can Jerry Springer and Tucker Carlson Save Network TV?

Well, the roster for ABC's Dancing with the Stars is out, and its a typically star-studded bunch.

News already broke days ago that MSNBC political nerd Tuker Carlson was on tap to show off his white guy overbite (even his friends say he dances "like he's just been tasered"; see the evidence here). But the alphabet network dropped the full roster yesterday for the show, which debuts sept. 12, and it's positively horrifying.

Faded L.A. Law star Harry Hamlin (see him as a star -- and now on the D-list; click to enlarge).

               

Well-past-his-prime ex-teen star Joey (now going by the much more grownup sobriquet, Joe) Lawrence (then -- and now).

And this guy. (can they work a chair-slinging brawl into a tango routine?)

D-listers everywhere have been clamoring to get on the show after seeing its impact on the careers of towering talents like Stacy Kiebler, Lisa Rinna and John O'Hurley. But if this is what it takes to save network TV from the onslaught of digital downloads and viewar apathy, maybe we're better off without it.

Protesting Protests About Protest Music

The whole thing started with a call from USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham.

DeWayne knew I used to be a music critic and had an intriguing proposition. He was organizing a civil rights conference for the journalism program he leads at historically black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University -- would I be interested in talking about why the classic protest songs of   the '60s and '70s have no modern counterparts?

Answering that question led to me developing an engrossing, 90-minute presentation that hit on everything from how folk music influenced easrly soul and gospel singers to the impact of 9/11 on radio formats. It went so well, Les Payne of Newsday suggested I develop it into a story, so it landed in Sunday's Floridian.

Reaction so far has been interesting -- totally dependent on the respondent's political perspective. Several readers emailed to accuse me of not blaming Right-Wing corporate media for silencing artists -- even though I cited a lack of radio support several times in the piece and even quoted artists like The Coup's Boots Riley speaking out about it.

An avowed, 19-year-old black conservative who likes country music -- gotta admit, I didn't know such a person existed -- wrote to tell me that there are other forms of protests music, like songs by Darryl Worley and an actual U.S. soldier talking about how necessary the Iraq war is. (one hint, my young GOP friend: it's not a classic protest song if it actually supports large institutions like big business or the government; check the definition here).

Others claimed my story said there were no protest songs being written anymore, even though I spent several paragraphs describing the fate of new protest songs by Pink, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Do people even read stories before sending emails about them, anymore?

At any rate, this story has gotten more response than anything I've done in a while, and I appreciate all the feedback -- even the less, um, attentive stuff. If you want to check out some of the music which inspired me to write the story in the first place, click here.

I particularly liked getting an email from Flee, a personality at local community radio station WMNF, where protest music is always kicking it (I LOVED a recent show wednesday where they commemorated the 25th anniversary of What's Going On by playing all the cool cover version of songs from the album!)

Flee reminded me that WMNF has teamed with the Bay Area Arts and Music Organization to create a CD due in October: "Power to the People: A Tribute to Protest, Dissent and Electoral Dysfunction Songs," including declarations of discord from raucous and rebellious local artists including Ronny Elliott's "I Don't Hear Freedom ring anymore," Lori Karpay's "Dangerous George," Crash Mitchell's "Radio Station Abomination," as well as original, angry yet amusing songs by nonconformists Ricky Wilcox, Lorna Bracewell, and the Threads."

Flee says an all-day celebration of free speech is scheduled for Skippers' Smokehouse,910 Skipper Road, Tampa, FL 33613 on Saturday November 4 from noon to midnight.  Over twenty-five local bands will perform both original and classic protest songs.

Want to prove my story wrong? Make a success out of this CD and that concert. Time for fans of good protest jams to put their money -- and their dance moves -- where their mouth is.

   

Last Comic Standing -- Just Barely

So, I've finished watching Josh Blue crowned the latest Last Comic Standing tonight -- and yes, we voted for the comic-with-cerebral-palsy-dude yesterday via our handy-dandy digital cable remote -- and I have one question left.

Was there something fishy going on?

I ask, only because runner-up Ty Barnett cracked some lame joke about expecting to be stuck watching Josh win the show, before uncorking a kick ass set that probably would have won him the competition -- if he'd only performed it THE NIGHT BEFORE. You know, when people could vote for him?

Barnett seemed to be acting like the result was a foregone conclusion. But I couldn't tell if that was because he was pissed at himself for doing such a lame-o set last night before the final viewer vote, or if he was, um, encouraged to suck to pave the way for Blue's win. (To see some comedy cognoscenti accuse Josh of ripping off other handicapped stand up comics, click here and scroll to comments)

Watching the parade of past winners and creator Jay Mohr work it during the finale, I was struck by just how diverse this program's slate of winners has been -- how many other reality shows have had a Vietnamese guy, white guy, black guy and now handicapped guy as top winners? (I know. No women?) I was also struck by how they all stunk up the joint, save for Alonzo Bodden -- I know he's a little old and a little dark for Hollywood, but this guy should at least be writing scripts for somebody big!

I've been avoiding the flood of summer reality TV nonsense like the plague, but Last Comic managed  to hook me in ways Work Out and Flavor of Love couldn't (but I gotta admit, watching Isaac the Love Boat bartender, Tina "Family Ties" Yothers AND Vincent "Big Pussy" Pastore on VH1's tribute to celebrity humiliation, Celebrity fit Club 4 comes awfully close, too!).

But I still never understood why Last Comic's latest host Anthony Clark -- a stand up veteran with at least two horrendous sitcoms to his credit -- always had flop sweat like he was making a hostage video most of the time he was onstage.

In the end, tho, I gotta agree with my girl -- D-list queen and onetime Last Comic judge Kathy Griffin: most of these comics were too generic and too lame to care about, even among the winners. One plus, tho: no Hasselhoff.

Times Picayune Photographer Tries for Suicide By Cop

I never met John McCusker during my week or so hanging out with staffers at New Orleans' Times Picayune newspaper for my story on their post-Katrina travails. But I often wondered how the newsroom endured something so traumatic -- evacuating, building a new life in Baton Rouge, coming back weeks later to a devastated town -- without major psychic damage among the staff. (here is a McCusker photo from the paper's Katrina coverage - click to enlarge)

Turns out, they didn't. McCusker, a key figure in their Pulitzer-winning coverage of Katrina's aftermath, was arrested Tuesday night after a confrontation with police in which he appeared to be egging them to kill him; some news reports said he had just found out insurance wouldn't cover the cost of rebuilding his home.

McCusker hinted at similar issues during an interview with American Journalism Review: "After taking a leave of absence for a month, Times-Picayune photographer John McCusker went back to work on June 20. McCusker spent much of the leave sleeping off exhaustion and attending therapy sessions three times a week. As a colleague told him, it was easier getting into the foxhole than getting out.

McCusker says he had essentially become nonfunctional, a joker who had become humorless, a man who had given up cigarettes 20 years ago who was smoking two packs a day. On the day the Pulitzer Prizes were announced, McCusker's wife, Johanna Schindler, told her husband that she had gotten a new job, as director of public relations for the University of New Orleans. McCusker rejoiced and then spent the next day at home curled up in a ball, weeping. It was time, he says, to get help. "It's very simple. You have to see if you can get your head turned around, to look away from the past, look to the future and go on," he says."

i was always surprised that the Times-Picayune didn't have some sort of mass counseling program underway to deal with all the trauma. Something tells me they may have to rethink that notion soon. 

(photo subjects in bold; click all photos to enlarge)

A New Day in My Blog-iverse

Welcome to my new world.

As you may have already noticed, the Times blogs are moving over from Blogger to Typepad, so they're changing in format, style and features. For you, it means a slightly busier interface, pictures that are smaller than usual (though you can click on them to enlarge them) and new links. For us, it means a program where we can actually upload photos instead of mirroring them from other sites -- sorry for stealing your bandwidth, dudes! -- and a more reliable blogging exprience overall.

Some of us are already grousing about the new look and feel. Those of you who read this space regularly know I love to play with my pictures, and that's going to be severely restricted here. But the move also coincides with my new tenure as times TV Critic, so a major transition right now makes a lot of sense.

With that said, I want to test your patience with a little discourse on something i'm reconnecting to these days: what it means to be a critic.

Jeff Jarvis, a media consultant who delights is saying the kind of stuff that makes traditional media tear their hair out -- like pronouncing that newspapers should fire all their critics and go hyper-local -- takes on the idea of what a critic really is and should be in a way-wired world.

In a column for the British newspaper The Guardian, Jeff asserts: "Rather than issuing pronouncements and bon mots, unchallenged, from the screening room, I’d want them to spark the discussion about entertainment: find the good voices, pinpoint the arguments, even referee debates among artists and critics. A great critic should be a magnet for fascinating discussion."

He's reacting to a trend I noticed awhile ago: that movie grosses seem impervious to critical influence. But he also surprised me by getting at the core of what I think a critics job really is.

It's easy to toss around opinions about artistic work. The arguments are so subjective, almost any position is defensible. But good critics have a way of getting you to see the work in new ways, sparking discussion by insisting on seeing below the surface of this stuff. when speaking in public, I always insist that you can learn a lot about a culture by dissecting its entertainment, ad that's what I'm going to be doing as TV Critic.

So I hope you're ready for a new course; I'm not sure where this ship is headed, but i'm determined to have fun getting us there.

Joe Redner Captivates the Country

I used to get mad at local media for riding Redner's jock so much -- going along with the hilarious notion that the strip club owner might be gay was the last straw. Then I saw what happened with the chair throwing incident.

CNN couldn't stop playing the video of Redner getting whacked by a chair thrown by political oppon