Losing the 'Public' in Public Access TV Sooner Than Expected

Granted, it may be tough to feel connected to a TV platform with show titles such as "Smokey da Bear" and "Religion Stinks."

But producers at Pinellas County's cable access TV system are hoping to enlist the public's aid in preserving at least some of the dozens of programs now slated to disappear following officials' decision to shut down the "public" part of Access Pinellas.

For at least 20 years, companies that operate cable systems in Pinellas County have been required to maintain a public access TV operation -- a facility allowing anyone who takes the time to go through a little training, to create TV programs which are then aired on a special channel. Since 2001, that operation has been Access Pinellas -- a facility in Clearwater with over 100 unpaid volunteer producers cranking out shows ranging from politically-oriented talk to religious prayer.

When the state property tax cuts began forcing county officials to look at funding reductions, public access producers knew their programs might take a hit. But last week they learned county officials had decided to completely de-fund the "public" side of cable access TV, cutting nearly $350,000 and reassigning or laying off county employees connected to the shows. Under current plans, it all goes away Sept. 30.

Of course, Pinellas County will continue to operate Pinellas 18, the public access channel devoted to government-controlled programming. Funded in part by fees from every cable subscriber, this channel airs material ranging from public meetings and hurricane readiness tips to shows spotlighting the Sheriff's office, and issues handpicked by the county commissioners themselves. (Two volunteer-produced shows, Aging on the Suncoast and Pinellas Past, will continue to appear on Pinellas 18)

Access Pinellas producer Candi Jovan, a former candidate for the state legislature, doesn't believe the funding cuts are about saving money as much as controlling the cable access TV system. "This money is a drop in the bucket," she told me during a meeting Wednesday with several cable access producers. "The powers that be really don't want freedom of expression."

Marcia Crawley, the former WFLA-Ch. 8 reporter who now serves as director of the county's communications department, said she decided to cut the public part of cable access after department heads were told to reduce their budgets by 15 percent.

But what about the notion of maintaining the government's channel for boosterism while shutting down the public's avenue of expression?

"It's unfortunate than any program folks are passionate about has to be eliminated," said Crawley,  noting that the public now has access to Internet-based TV outlets which make the need for public access TV channels less pressing; changes in state law will likely eliminate the program in five years, anyway. "This is the reality we have to face when there are massive tax cuts."

Producers are still hoping to change county officials' minds, though they only have a few weeks before the budget cuts are finalized. Their biggest challenge: proving that a TV service most of us take for granted -- and probably don't watch very much -- remains necessary in an environment of slashed budgets and shrinking resources.

Creature Comforts Goes Away

CBS put the first stake in Creature Comforts -- the show I wrote about a few weeks ago created by a former St. Petersburg Times intern -- replacing it this week with re-runs of New Adventures of Old Christine. "We're not using the c-word yet," said one CBS official of the show, which featured cute animated characters voicing visual jokes built around real, pre-taped conversations. "It's just off the schedule.

That's network TV. Nobody ever tells you when you're canceled.

Us Magazine Vows to Stay Away From Hilton Story -- Media Critics Scratch Heads

Okay, I get that US magazine got skunked by People, which reportedly spent $300,000 to get an exclusive post-jail interview with Paris Hilton. But having the stones to declare this week's magazine "100% Paris free" when the celebutante's emergence from jail is the biggest celebrity story of the year?

Isn't that kinda like Time magazine going "100-percent politics free" right before the 2008 elections? Or something?    

 

   

Media Grab Bag: Murdoch Takes The Journal, Journalism World Shrugs; Hypocrisy at CNN Over Hilton?

Now that media mogul Rupert Murdoch has cleared yet another hurdle in his quest to own the world's premiere business newspaper, the question looms: What will he do with the Wall Street Journal once he has it?

For months now, columnists and reporters have mined an impressive array of tales from Murdoch's past to argue that the Aussie-born wonder will likely turn the resources of the journal to serve his own business interest, regardless of ethical concerns. The New York Times in particular has uncorked an impressive catalog of Murdoch's sins, from forcing his news outlets to kowtow to Chinese officials as part of a strategy to further his business prospects there, to using reporters from his newspapers to investigate business rivals while claiming they were pursuing stories.

Standing against this decades-long record of manipulation, dishonesty and editorial involvement, are two things: Whatever structure the current owners of parent company Dow Jones can cobble together to protect the Journal from editorial meddling -- likely a board with the power to hire and fire top editors, instead of Murdoch -- and the mogul's value of the newspapers biggest asset, it's credibility.

In essence, Murdoch is buying the Wall Street Journal brand; a symbol of quality in business news and information, precisely because it has remained an independent voice. It wouldn't do Murdoch much good to plunk down $5-billion for Dow Jones if he ruined its reputation by curbing reporting efforts or pushing the paper to pursue his enemies. Or so the thinking goes.

Nice, logical thinking -- which is utterly inconsistent with Murdoch's long history as a controlling power broker willing to cross ethical lines with impunity to pursue specific business objectives. (See here for the New York Times' response to News Corp's odd assertion that the Times was pursuing its own business objectives by presenting a thorough look at Murdoch's world conquering tactics.)

Perhaps that's why watching this deal go down feels more and more like watching an antelope taken down by a lion on a National Geographic special. Yeah, it's the law of nature. But that doesn't mean we have to like it. (Editor and Publisher has a cool story here on how the editorial indepedence strictures requested by current Dow jones owners to curb Murdoch's powers probably won't work)

SPTimes Alum Jo Becker Lands A1 Stories in Washington Post and NYT

Read about it here. Gives me hope.

CNN Hypocrisy in Hilton Interview?

Why would the cable newschannel which has waded least in the Paris Hilton coverage pool turn around and give her an hour of exposure in prime time?

I know: tonight's Larry King interview with Paris Hilton is a rare chance for the increasingly out-of-it host to compete against the Fox News juggernaut in prime time. Still, it would seem such Hilton fixation runs against the newschannel's own stance at moderating coverage -- it has even sparked calls for a boycott off tonight's talk -- and CNN president Jon Klein's own past statements.

Consider these past Klein quotes (provided by a helpful tipster):

New York Times, June 26, 2006
“Our gimmick is news.”

New York Times, February 13, 2006
“Any of us can do the quick fix…it’s a deal with the devil.  You confuse your identity to the audience.”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 8. 2006
“Real journalists like to win the quality war.”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 30, 2005
“Our stock and trade is our authority, experience, trustworthiness and objectivity. Those qualities develop over time, and you'd be shooting yourself in the foot to simply go for youth and looks at the expense of ability.”

New York Times, September 12, 2005
“There are an awful lot of things you can cover if you don’t have people tied up with this meaningless nonsense...Cable news has to stop ‘obsessing over this trivial stuff’’.

Fave YouTube Moment: Elizabeth Edwards Tears Ann Coulter a New One

What I like most about this exchange is that Coulter, in trying to drown out Edwards' plea that she lay off the personal insults, basically admits she would have no newspaper columns or books if she stopped insulting people. 

Public Saves News Media From Itself on Paris Hilton Story

There's one person we can thank for ending the big-money network TV bidding war over Paris Hilton's first post-jail interview: You.

You -- as in, the general public -- complained about journalists, especially on cable TV, gorging on Hilton' s trip to jail for her brazen violation of a judge's DUI penalties. You reacted in disgust when you heard rumors NBC's entertainment division was planning to pony up $1-million to get Hilton on the Today show. And you made it plain that the network news executives' typical justification -- that people complain about such coverage but watch it anyway -- wouldn't wash in this case.

At least, that's the conclusion I'm left with, following news that Hilton has now turned to the one interviewer celebrities always count on: CNN's Larry King. Faced with a wave of public condemnation last week, ABC and NBC backed off pursuit of Hilton's first post-jail talk, leaving an appearance at 9 p.m. Wednesday with CNN's softball specialist King as the venue of last resort.

This is a deal which came together amid reports that the networks grew skittish as word spread about what network news divisions were willing to do to get her first interview after leaving jail Tuesday.

It promised to be serious ratings juice for a slow news summer, as the celebutante America loves to hate drew offers of $100,000 (ABC News) to $1-million (NBC News) from the TV networks (People magazine also offered $300,000, according to the New York Times); another irony that a woman so rich should draw such outsized payment offers.

But the Hilton story has also become a corrosive symbol of all that doesn't work in TV news. As news of NBC's reported $1-million offer for Hilton's interview spread, the whole shoddy practice of using entertainment division money to pay for news interviews came under renewed scrutiny (the other two-step technique -- paying for photos or other items -- also took a hit). News consumers tired of drowning in Hilton excess have begun to criticize the news networks for featuring the stories in the first place.

And the whole mess dropped as ABC announced further layoffs in its news division and NBC struggled to cope with its own downsizing, including longtime Dateline NBC anchor Stone Phillips and John Seigenthaler.

Like Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson before her, Hilton has turned into the story which slimes everything it touches.

You taught the networks a bitter lesson they shouldn't have had to learn about the ramifications of paying for interviews. By the time Hilton's representatives were pitching ABC to take the interview, the network couldn't feature her without taking a huge credibility hit -- which is why journalists don't associate themselves with paid interviews in the first place.

The biggest question which remains: How will news media treat her liberation from jail tomorrow? Will we see another stampede of coverage, or will the criticism of unbridled celebrity chasing finally have an impact? And how p.o.'ed will Michael Moore be after learning he got bumped from King's show to make room for Hilton?

I just hope you guys are ready to save us from ourselves once again.

NBC Mum on Buying Hilton Interview; Why Would Any Journalist Give Political Money?

It seems obvious now -- amid rumors NBC is offering $1-million for the first post-jail Paris Hilton interview -- that NBC is continuing the ethical two-step that has allowed them to get high-profile interviews with Princess Diana's sons and develop the widely watched To Catch a Predator series, opening its checkbook to buy access.

As the Los Angeles Times details nicely here, it's a dance well-known to network executives. You cut a deal with an interview subject for some ancillary material -- paying them for video footage, or personal mementos or, in the case of the royals, rights to broadcast a charity tribute concert (the only mistake CBS seemed to make in offering a similar deal to Jessica Lynch was putting the money offer in the same letter where news coverage was detailed). Everyone involved knows the cash also includes a Big Interview, but technically the money is a payment for materials or a fee from the entertainment division (CBS, for example, bought a Michael Jackson special it never aired).

Clearly, the network suits haven't read that part of the journalism ethics code which talks about the appearance of impropriety being bad as actual wrong doing. And given that the interview with the royals was such a ratings hit -- Monday night's Dateline NBC got its best rating in two years -- no one should expect this practice to end anytime soon.

UPDATE: CBS' Public Eye blog suggests dropping the pretense and openly paying for interviews. Isn't that a bit like saying everybody wants to speed anyway, so why not get rid of speed limits?

More Stuff, In No Particular Order

--- The Orlando Sentinel is among the first Tribune newspaper web sites to present a redesign. Looks OK, though I think it remains confusing and cluttered. Few newspapers have licked the basic problem with Web site design -- put too much on the home page, and you confuse the reader, put too little,and they have no idea how to find all the cool stuff you have to offer.

--- I'm always surprised by stories about journalists giving hundreds of dollars to political candidates. And this MSNBC story  noting 144 journalists who gave political contributions between 2004 and the start of the 2008 campaign was no exception. I'm wondering: a) how can journalists afford to be giving thousands of dollars to  political candidates, and b) why would news reporters court such obvious conflicts of interest? There's lots of complaints about the overwhelming amount of money given to Democrats -- 125 to 17 --  which is yet another  reason why journalists should avoid this kind of stuff. Romenesko posted a link to a very cool dissection and debunking of the story here.

-- I was also amused by Gov. Schwarzenegger's warning to Hispanics that they should reject Spanish-language media -- that it is mostly a crutch which keeps them from assimilating in the U.S. Besides noting that what he says is true in a ruthless, bottom-line kind of way, I was also struck by how old school that vision is these days. One thing I think black folks have taught other dispossessed groups in the U.S. is how to demand inclusion on their own terms. Why accept the notion that participating in America means leaving all your culture behind? I have a feeling Hispanics are going to define a new American culture which blends part of their Spanish-language heritage more strongly with our own.

Just a thought.

Super cool Kathy Griffin spot sparring with Larry King and Anderson Cooper

Dialogue With a Racist Continues...Even Here

If you've come to this blog looking for my posts on Cathy Salustri, the woman my colleague Rodney Thrash wrote about today who fears her petty crime-filled neighborhood is turning her into a racist, I must apologize.

The link in today's paper is to the general blog, and I wrote my stuff about Cathy a while ago. So here's some fresh links: Here you can find my longest post on Cathy, written right after she attended a meeting with the group I lead, the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists. The middle item here has a post about Cathy's reaction to my reaction. Assorted links inside those other posts will lead you to more material on this discussion.

I think Rodney's story hints at one of the disconnects going on here -- a difference that only tangentially has to do with race, I think.

As I pointed out many times to Cathy during our meeting, I grew up in a Gary, Ind. neighborhood worse than the one she's living in now. My house was robbed about six different times before I left for college, and I saw two different people get shot as a kid in separate incidents. And what I remember most about those times was not being all that shocked that such things were happening in my neighborhood, or feeling a sense of injustice that they were happening in my neighborhood.

When police came to fill out robbery reports, we did it so we could get the insurance money for the stolen items -- we never thought they would actually catch the robbers (and they never did). For me, that kind of stuff was like getting hit by lightening -- seemed like it could happen to anyone.

So I wonder, sometimes, if that isn't the difference sometimes among people in neighborhoods struggling with high crime. Some people seem to accept it -- and even sometimes take advantage of it -- while others know  there's a better life possible, if you only try.

And I have a hard time believing those attitudes are limited to people of color. what do you think?

Malcolm X, Paul Robeson and...Isaiah Washington?

No he didn't.

Fired Grey's Anatomy co-star Isaiah Washington did not just compare himself to a murdered black Muslim civil rights leader and one of America's first, most courageous black celebrities to stand against segregation and racial oppression. Did he?

"This happened to Malcolm X, this happened to Paul Robeson," he told People magazine recently. "This misconception can happen to any man of power that loves himself and wants to spread that love and that humanity throughout the world."

So Malcolm and Robeson also got fired from a cushy gig on one of TV's top shows for uttering a homophobic slur and then clumsily handling the fallout? Sigh.

It's all part of Washington's continually ham-handed way of responding to his dismissal from the show; a clumsy attempt at career rehab that is, unfortunately, centered on pitting black people against gay white people.

I recently got an email from someone I respect, Jasmyne Cannick, a black publicist and activist for gay causes, who is staunchly defending her friend Washington as a victim of racism among gay-friendly white Hollywood. Her position, featured in stories by the Associated Press and New York Post among others, is that the media was determined to portray Washington as an angry, homophobic black man, even after he tried to make amends for an on-set argument in which he called co-star T.R. Knight a "faggot" -- outing him as gay when the fight became public.

"It sends a clear message: Black actors accused of being homophobic, no matter true or not, will more than likely not be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to redeem themselves," she wrote, noting that ABC has lost many actors of color from important shows this season.

But Washington didn't just use the slur in a private argument. And when the argument became public, it wound up outing the actor who was the subject of the slur -- a guy who wasn't even a participant in the fight.

He then lied about the incident when asked about it during a press conference at the Golden Globe awards, repeating the slur in the process. One of his own co-stars went to the press and insisted that he own up to the incident and apologize publicly.

And when he released a statement about losing his job, he's the one who used the line "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

If this had been a white actor who called someone the n-word in an argument, even if it was off camera, would black folks have tolerated this kind of reaction without demanding his job?

UPDATE: Washington now tells the Houston Chronicle his gay castmate -- you know, the one his angry outburst inadvertently outed in the first place -- is the one who should have been fired.

I just hope people are smart enough to see through this nonsense. The last thing we all need is a conflict between gay white people and black people because some actor with foot in mouth disease is trying to rescue his reputation.

TMZ Reveals Text From O.J. Book; Goldman Family Vows Legal Action

If anybody was going to put this out there, it would probably be TMZ, the site which brought us the Michael Richards n-word cellphone video among other celebrity news scoops.

This excerpt of O.J. Simpson's aborted If I Did It book, from a description of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, in which Simpson writes in a fictional friend named Charlie, sums up the awful absurdity of it all:

"Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how. I was still standing in Nicole's courtyard, of course, but for a few moments I couldn't remember how I'd gotten there, when I'd arrived, or even why I was there. Then it came back to me, very slowly: The recital-with little Sydney up on stage, dancing her little heart out; me, chipping balls into my neighbor's yard; Paula, angry, not answering her phone; Charlie, stopping by the house to tell me some more ugly shit about Nicole's behavior. Then what? The short, quick drive from Rockingham to the Bundy condo. And now?

Now I was standing in Nicole's courtyard, in the dark, listening to the loud, rhythmic, accelerated beating of my own heart. I put my left hand to my heart and my shirt felt strangely wet. I looked down at myself. For several moments, I couldn't get my mind around what I was seeing. The whole front of me was covered in blood, but it didn't compute. Is this really blood? I wondered. And whose blood is it? Is it mine? Am I hurt?"

 

 

 

My New TV Addiction: Minisodes

I've always loved my cheesy '70s shows.

The Incredible Hulk ("Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry!") T.J. Hooker (for the hair on star William Shatner alone!). Diff'rent Strokes ("What'choo talkin' bout, Willis?").

But if you ever try actually watching these shows, there's way too much filler in between the cheese. Long, boring speeches. Shots of people getting out of cars, walking up stairs, putting on coats. You never realize how fast-paced and tightly-written today's TV shows are until you try sitting through one of these bloated episodes.

But MySpace has a cure for all that. Today they debut an array of "minisodes," taking the most outlandish episodes from T.J. Hooker, Starksy and Hutch, Police Woman, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and more -- all the boring, awful stuff edited out for a pure injection of TV cheese.

Wondering how a marauding ape and mud-covered African native manages to turn into a sleek, blond supermodel? Curious how two California detectives track down a vampire? Amazed at how Shatner can take out a murderous Vietnam vet without mussing his carefully-crafted toupee?

It's all here, in three to five-minute, easily digestible chunks, full-length episodes pared down to the barest essentials. Of course, some minisodes are better done than others -- Angie Dickinson's undercover turn as a prison babe in a classic Police Woman becomes even more incoherent through this hacky clip job.

But for this fan of '70s cheese, there could be no better summer TV present.

T.J. Hooker Takes on the Vet

TJ Hooker - Terror At The Academy

Add to My Profile |   More Videos

A Fantasy Gone Bad on the Island:

 Fantasy Island - APHRODITE / DR. JEKYL, MISS HYDE

Add to My Profile |   More Videos

Olivia Fox Returns to Radio...In Washington D.C.

Those who remember how WBPT-FM personality Olivia Fox was unceremoniously removed from the air by Clear Channel back in September may be pleased to note she's landed another radio gig. The downside: it's located in Washington D.C.

In fact, Fox is headed back to the station she left before comnig to Tampa, WKYS-FM, hosting an evening show called Out of the Box with Olivia Fox. Fox left WKYS back in 2002, when her partnership with popular morning guy Russ Parr disintegrated and she was terminated by station owner Radio One Inc.

Whatever happened then must have been resolved; Fox now is returning to work for Radio One in the evenings, beginning Sunday. From the release:

"Olivia says she will pick up where she left off in the DC area some 5 years ago with her commitment to her signature, Olivia Loves the Kids campaign. Olivia intends to reach out to school children throughout the metro area, through speaking engagements and other events, to help them understand the importance of setting achievable goals, so they can go on to be productive adults.

Ms. Fox adds, “I have never forgotten the support I received during the past 11 years while I was on the airwaves in the DC metro area, and off the airwaves.  Regardless of where I have worked, DC has always shown me love.  I know while I was in Tampa, Florida there was not a week that would go by that someone from the DC area would email me or call and say, “Girl, when are you coming back to DC? We miss you!”

I’d say, soon, I hope to come back soon.  Well that time has come, and as I always say... you just never know how things are going to go, and I couldn't be more excited”.

Listeners and fans worldwide can get updates and more information on Ms. Fox’s website. 

Can a Former Taco Bell Pitchman Help Gov. Crist Develop a Youth Health Regimen?

Can a 335-pound basketball star -- whose endorsements once included Burger King, Taco Bell (left) and Pepsi-Cola -– help the state of Florida curb child obesity?

    Shaquille O’Neal thinks so, announcing Monday that he will sit down with Gov. Charlie Crist next week to discuss methods in which schools can help kids eat healthier. The meeting, scheduled next Wednesday, will cover programs the Miami Heat center developed while working on his reality TV show Shaq’s Big Challenge, featuring O’Neal coaching six obese Broward County youths through an intensive weight loss and fitness regimen.

    During a conference call with reporters Monday, O’Neal and the show’s producer criticized a “fast food culture” dominating schools and homes, where children eat fattening foods and get little exercise. O’Neal, who was named to the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness in March, spent months working with six experts to develop the fitness plans used on camera -– plans he said can be adopted across the entire state.

    “I do consider (Crist) a personal friend of mine…(so) I’m just going to give him my two cents,” said O’Neal, who estimated a “50-50” chance Crist might adopt suggestions such as mandatory physical education classes in schools and healthier lunch menus. “I know they’re probably going to try and throw the money thing in my face. But (producers) and I have worked something out, where it doesn’t need to cost more…maybe a penny or 10 cents more.”

It's hard to judge how contrived this all is: will Crist, who already announced his own plans to promote health and wellness across the state, really utilize these plans O'Neal is presenting? Even if he wants to change things, can the Governor have much impact on a system greatly influenced by the federal government and by all the goodies school cafeterias must sell to stay in business?

Is this all just a slick promotional vehicle for O'Neal's new six-episode reality show -- which comes across as a kinder, gentler Biggest Loser for kids?

A screener copy of the first two episodes veers between contrived drama (Shaq visits kids eating cheeseburgers in front of TVs in their living rooms) to genuine pathos (parents and children disssolve in tears upon hearing the kids have 30 to 50 percent body fat). Regardless of how contrived, there are substantive moments -- a look at how parents feed kids' problems by allowing junk food meals and sedentary lifestyles.

But a recent visit to ABC's website for the show proves how hard this fight will be: the home page had a Taco Bell ad, and the page for O'Neal's new show boasted an advertisement for Coca-Cola.

 

NBC's Campbell Brown May Be Getting Paula Zahn's CNN gig; Intolerance May Rise in CNN's Prime Time

When I wrote my column about how CNN's Paula Zahn was finding some unlikely success by focusing on reports about race and social diversity issues, I wondered whether a mainstream broadcaster could spend night after night talking about race and keep an audience.

Looks like I have my answer...

 

Drudge Report and TVNewser are both reporting that NBC's Campbell Brown is due to take Zahn's place as a primetime anchor on CNN. Lou Dobbs is expected to get either at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. slot.

 

If Dobbs does get the 8 p.m. gig, CNN will be replacing a show hailed for its in-depth examinations about race with a guy who regularly demonizes illegal Mexican immigrants as criminals and gangsters. Check this New York Times piece for more a most excellent debunking of Dobbs' most egregious claims.

 

Thanks CNN....

Bob Barker Says Goodbye; Steve Wilson May Face Felony Charges

I'm sitting here watching Bob Barker's last Price Is Right, still a little unable to admit it's all over.

I mean, this is a guy I remember watching when I was home sick from school, smoothly guiding overexcited housewives through pricing games with an ease that only comes from decades of doing what you know you do best.

I probably should have tried to write something about his retirement for the newspaper, but the fact is, I feel like I did the perfect Bob Barker story back 2003, when the man turned 80 and was feted with prime time specials and all kinds of tributes. It must have been a decent take, because the Mack Daddy himself sent me a handwritten thank you note -- one of only a handful of times that a celebrity has actually contacted me about something I wrote on them.

The final episode playing as I write this will be rebroadcast at 8 tonight leading into the Daytime Emmy awards, which were taped earlier today. A Tampa firm, Spectrum Productions, was honored during that ceremony with a award for Outstanding Children's Special for Saving a Species: The Great Penguin Rescue, starring Elijah Wood.

True to form, Bob didn't really  spend any time talking about his history on the final show -- just a couple of lines thanking the fans. Phil Barrett from Tampa turned out to be the first person in line to get on the show -- he waited in line about 100 hours to earn that honor -- and the last contestant ever on the show (unfortunately, he lost both his first contest and the final showcase showdown; his only prize -- a $7check he plans to frame).

See you later, Bob. Thanks for all the memories. I'll be sure to spay and neuter all my pets.

California Police Recommend Prosecution for Steve Wilson

Regular blog readers will reconize the name of Steve Wilson, a former part-tme investigative reporter for WTVT-Ch. 13 in Tampa who sued the station after it sought to substantially change an investigative series he and his wife assembled.

Wilson made another local splash when he claimed during testimony at an FCC hearing in April that a local station was letting its promotions department choose which stories to pursue as investigations. Now, the Detroit News is reporting that California police want him prosecuted for impersonating Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to obtain hotel records.

According to the story: "employees at the luxury La Costa Hotel and Spa said a person identifying himself as Kilpatrick contacted them on May 7 and requested copies of Kilpatrick's hotel bill and of a check used to pay for a visit there last August.

Investigators traced the fax and telephone numbers back to Wilson.

Wilson used the faxed hotel bill and copy of a check as the basis for a series of news reports starting May 8 that outlined how the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, a nonprofit created by the mayor in 1999, paid the resort $8,605.03 for two rooms from Aug 12-19 used by Kilpatrick, his wife and sons while the mayor, according to fund officials, was there fundraising for the group."

Wilson has denied any wrongdoing.

New CNN/YouTube Presidential Debate Set In Florida

Officials from CNN and YouTube today announced details of their partnership in presenting two presidential debates this year -- including a Republican candidates debate planned in Florida for Sept. 17 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Debate organizers didn't reveal details about which sites in Florida may be under consideration, but a CNN official did say that the delay in naming a specific site had nothing to do with any hesitancy by Republican candidates over the format -- which features questions mostly submitted by YouTube users.

Calling it the "first-ever voter-generated presidential debates," CNN and YouTube officials described an area on YouTube where users can submit questions for review by CNN producers. Organizers expect host Anderson Cooper to present anywhere from 20 to 30 different clips to the candidates, in which users ask direct questions of those in the debate (a selection of possible questions is viewable here on YouTube's political blog)

While users will be able to see all the questions uploaded for the debate, organizers will not reveal their selection process to the public for fear of tipping their hand to the candidates.

Those submitting questions must keep them under 30 seconds, with no profanity and are advised to be original, ask a direct question, provide context and provide name and hometown. All in under 30 seconds.

The Democratic debate, scheduled July 23 at the Citadel in South Carolina, will give Floridians a sneak preview of what to expect in September. And though some wonder if the process won't shut a lot of tech-ignorant folks out of the process, organizers noted that previous town hall-style debates in which people asked questions at the event itself limited potential questions to people in the room.

"I think in an odd way, this is the most Democratic of all possible structures," said Dave Bohrman, Washington D.C. bureau chief for CNN. "I mean everyone in the country at this moment has a chance of having a question asked of someone who very possibly be the next president."

Well, as long as you have some way of filming yourself and uploading that video content to YouTube.

Click here to see a sample:

Want to Get Serious About Paris? Here's a Few Suggestions

So now Paris Hilton says the whole dumb blond thing was an act?

Those of us who saw her turn as a shapely, doomed sexpot in the B-level horror film House of Wax, might wonder if she’s got the chops to pull off an acting feat that accomplished.

But journalist Barbara Walters insisted Hilton was ready to get real in a conversation from jail Sunday, saying, “I’m not the same person I was. I used to act dumb. It was an act.”

I’m not buying it. That's because I remember a poolside conversation I had with an unnamed network TV executive just before the debut of Hilton's reality TV show, The Simple Life.

This executive knew the juice of the show – featuring Hilton and off-again, on-again friend Nicole Ritchie isolated from their wealth and plopped in jobs designed to embarrass them – would mostly come from its stars’ genuine and complete cluelessness. Lame-o reality TV-style acting would not do.

“Five minute into our meeting,” the executive told me, “I knew we had a series.”

(I knew they had a series when I saw a preview clip with Hilton asking a family if they “like, they sell wall stuff” at Wal-Mart – a comment Hilton also explained away by saying she was playing dumb.)

I’m also not down with those commentators who suggest the world is unfairly piling on the 26-year-old “celebutante” (yes, Mr. Hitchens, I’m talking about you). The world of tabloid-fed celebrity excess is a contact sport. Just ask Britney and Lindsay; if you’re going to lace up the gloves and jump into the world of tabloid-fed fame, you gotta expect to get tagged every now and then.

We've even seen some serious journalism come of this debacle, as the Los Angeles Times presents a story today noting that Hilton's  current 23-day jail sentence is 80 percent longer than most sentences for similar infractions.

What I don't understand, is why Los Angeles-area law enforcement -- and by extension, the news media overall -- seemed so hamstrung by this issue. They have so many celebrties who break the law, there are wings of their jail reserved for the well-known. It has been more than 10 years since the O.J. Simpson trial. Why haven't these judges and sherriffs (and journalists) figured out how to process celebrity lawbreakers in ways that make sense and are fair to everyone?

Still, I’m willing to throw a lifeline to the incarcerated hotel heiress, if she’s willing to listen. Here’s a few ideas from me and my colleagues in Floridian for Hilton, if she’s really serious about getting serious:

Catch Up Time: Help Eric Pick the TCA Awards; Racist Journalist Tired of Media Attention; Matt Lauer Sorta Sticks Up For Katie

Have to sneak in a quick plea for some help here.

Haven't heard from many blog readers regarding my final picks for the TV Critic Awards, which we'll announce in July during our summer Press Tour. I'm really hoping to make my ballot a collaboration between you guys and me, so  I need your suggestions for what to choose in my final selections. And I need your suggestions right away, because the deadline for votes is at midnight tonight, June 13.

Click here to see the finalists as announced by the TCA last week. As others have noted, NBC notched the most nominations -- just before its entertainment chief was replaced for low ratings -- followed quickly by HBO. But it's no surpriser that some of the best-regarded shows, including NBC's Friday Night Lights, would also be the lowest-rated.

So feel free to post here or on the original page with any suggestions about what I should vote for.  I'll try to blog live from the actual awards ceremony, scheduled for mid-July in Los Angeles with host John Oliver from the Daily Show.

You've probably sat at home watching awards shows and gotten increasingly upset about their boneheaded choices; now's your chance to made a boneheaded choice of your own.

Racist Journalist Chafes Under Media Attention

Earlier, I wrote about how Gulfport Gabber writer Cathy Salustri met with my group, the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists, after admitting fears that living in her petty crime-filled predominantly black neighborhood was turning her into a racist.

Now, with attention from WMNF-FM, Creative Loafing, the St. Petersburg Times and the TBABJ, Salustri writes on her own blog that she's tired of talking about the issue, preferring instead to focus on the problems of her neighborhood, and tired of resisting people's refusal to believe she is actually racist.

Gotta say, this is an odd tale which keeps getting odder. Why write something so provocative in print and on blogs and then get upset when the community decides to engage you about it?

Here's Creative Loafing's take on her meeting with TBABJ. Hear WMNF's report here. I wonder what will happen once these stories let others in the community know what she has written?

Matt Lauer Sticks Up For Katie as Dan Rather and CBS Trade Blame on Disintegration of the News Division

This week, Dan Rather finally began venting his anger over getting shoved off CBS a year before his 25th anniversary, criticizing Katie Couric's CBS Evening News on MSNBC by saying "the trend line continues, as I say, dumbing it down, tarting it up, going to celebrity coverage rather than war coverage." He also vented on Fox News Channel.

Since then, CBS Evening News producer Rick Kaplan has noted that  the network had to do a lot of rebuilding after Memogate shattered the rank and file's morale. And Chicago Tribune media columnist Phil Rosenthal rightly notes that one reason CBS had such a thin anchor bench in the first place, is because CBS didn't develop a successor (something I've heard Rather, who was worried a successor might do to him what he did to Walter Cronkite, had more than a little to do with).

Now Couric's former partner Matt Lauer gets into it, telling Larry King in an interview pre-taped for 9 tonight that some criticism of Couric has been "unfair" and that Couric never "thought she was going to go over there and change the game like this, that the playing field would just be turned upside down."

Here's an excerpt:

Vanessa Redgrave: A Lifelong Activist Who Refuses the Title

A recent 60 Minutes profile featured footage of grand dame actress Vanessa Redgrave in her cheeky heyday during the late '70s: giving a passionate speech about the plight of the Palestinians at the Oscars, running for office in England under a leftist political party and funding an anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian documentary in which she brandished an automatic rifle (here she is in 1967).

Clearly, this was a woman who was out to change the world. So when I found myself on the other end of a telephone line with Redgrave, now 70, I had to ask: Was she disappointed that so little has changed?

"No, I’m glad we’re still having these conversations...Things did change, but, finally, there's certain things that have to have a political answer. There’s a lot human rights (groups) can do. But If governments don’t do what governments can and should do, you suddenly have a kind of explosion of those problems, because they haven’t been tackled. When the Berlin Wall came down, it opened a new era. Millions took part. I was always confident that would happen, and it happened to the amazement of everybody. However, following that, all kind of politics got in the way. A tremendous –- let’s call it an opportunity -– vanished before our eyes.  We build again."

I say to her, "You sound like an optimist." She replies: "It’s nothing to do with optimism. I can see the reality of what will happen if we don’t do all that is possible. We’re in a very toxic situation in the world. I think the best thing that could happen would be quite irrespective of political parties, a government would dedicate itself to human rights- -the work that could be done at the humanitarian level – and that could change everything mightily. It is intolerable that we should allow children to die and mothers to die and not develop the enormous human potential that everyone has."

I was drawn to talk with Redgrave because of an intimate, small film she's made for HBO with an amazing history: The Fever. (read my story for today's newspaper here)

Based on a one-person play by Wallace Shawn (who knew the bald wrinkled dude who played the bad guy in the Princess Bride and The Incredibles was also a Harvard graduate and wrote My Dinner with Andre?), The Fever tells the story of a wealthy person who falls ill in a poor, war-torn country. As the illness progresses, the person reflects on the personal awakening which led them to the country -- a journey to discover the roots of inequality and oppression in the world.

In the play, Shawn refuses to give any country a name, to allow the work to be performed by anyone, anywhere. But in film, some choices had to be made. So Redgrave's character is British, and the country is some sort of unnamed European area, to avoid the obvious Africa comparisons (unfortunately, it also allows the production to avoid actors of color).

In bringing the lead character's dialog to life, producers also had to add other characters, and those are played by some intriguing actors, including modern-day activists Angelina Jolie as a freedom fighter and Michael Moore as a foreign correspondent. It's also a family affair: Redgrave's son Carlo Nero directed and helped adapt the film from Shawn's play; Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson (shown at right) also appears as a young version of her mother's character, who decides to stop buying her family Christmas gifts in embarrassment over the waste.

There are some who will find the play's skewering of the blithe indifference of many Westerners to the plight of the world's poor simplistic and overdone. But I found the film a slow, compelling introduction to the frightening notion that, even if you are not particularly wealthy, most westerners enjoy a obscene amount of wealth balanced largely on the labor and output of those much less fortunate.

The question The Fever asks is simple and disturbing: Once you know this fact, what will you do next?

"“I think HBO has put it very well – look beyond comfort," said Redgrave, speaking over her publicist's cellphone from New York City, where the film had just had a splashy, HBO-sponsored premiere. "A personal awakening. Basically that’s the story of the film. The personal awakening of a woman...(who) could be from any country in the world and the journey she makes more or less through whim or chance, begins to awaken her. Through the course of the night as she’s ill, her brain begins to question what she’s done in her life and what is she going to do about what the terrible poverty in the world and the lack of human rights and the situation of the poor – to recognize that she has some choices. She faces some of those choices – she doesn’t come to a conclusion. The message is – this is happening in our world and each of us has some choices. It’s up to each of us to make a choice and know why we’re making it.”

My Last Sopranos Post As Tony Beats Tony -- Blogger Snags Gig at the Grey Lady

Say what you will about how the Sopranos ended; there's no doubt a whole bunch of folks  watched it all go down.

According to figures released this morning by Nielsen Media Research, nearly 12-million people watched the Sopranos finale Sunday -- nearly twice the 6.3-million who watched the Tony awards on CBS. That's an amazing number, given that only about 30 percent of the nation's homes even receive HBO.

That also put the finale ahead of the 5.7-million who watched WWE Raw on USA Network and the 5.8-million who watched House of Payne on TBS, the next two highest-rated programs on cable that week.  And because network TV viewing was depressed last week by summer reruns, only one network TV show drew higher viewership -- the Hasselhoff-ilicious America's Got Talent, which drew 13-million viewers last Tuesday.

The question now: What happens to all those viewers, now that they know there will never be another new Sopranos episode on HBO? Check out my piece, wondering how HBO is going to fare trying to replace Sex and the City and The Sopranos with Big Love, Entourage and John From Cincinnatti.

And while we're on the subject, one of the Sopranos pieces which stuck in my craw the worst was this column from New York Sun TV critic David Blum, who tries to turn the legitimate difference of critical opinion over the quality of the Sopanos finale into just another lame-o bloggers (cool) vs newspaper writers (not cool) food fight.

"For decades, television critics suffered as second-class citizens in a world where scholars and essayists preferred plays, operas, and ballet as an opportunity to expound on grand theories and great ideas," he wrote. ""The Sopranos" changed all that, and gave dozens of pale, miserable video pundits something to slam their fists on the table about. Finally, television had achieved the stature of literature — and did so with humor, bloodshed, and ample amounts of mayhem and nudity."

Um, okay. Does that mean I don't fit this insulting, BS generalization since I'm not pale?

Blum's Exhibit A as clueless newspaper writer is, of course, the New York Times' Alessandra Stanley (for a writer at the conservative New York Sun, hating the Times is easy as breathing). He notes "it will be the bloggers and insta-critics following closely behind that make it exciting, interpreting and Monday-morning-quarterbacking in ways that have changed the face of criticism."

But his examples for whip smart bloggers who got the Sopranos  intepretation right? Alan Sepinwall and Matthew Zoller-Seitz -- two guys who also write about television for the Newark Star Ledger.

Talk about somebody who missed the point....

Nuts Pay Off - Jericho Returns to CBS July 6

Here's the press release: JERICHO, CBS's drama about how residents of a small, peaceful, Kansas town band together to survive in the wake of a nuclear explosion, will return to the Network beginning Friday, July 6 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT).  Rebroadcasts of episodes from the first season will air in the Friday, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT time period for the remainder of the summer.

Brian Stelter Leaves TVNewser for the Gray Lady

One of my favorite sources on TV news -- I quoted him probably four times this year alone -- is Brian Stelter, editor of the way cool site TVNewser. The Baltimore Sun reported today that Stelter, newly graduated from college, is headed for a job writing and blogging or the New York Times on cable TV news.

It's an interesting parable on where the top newspapers are finding their talent these days, and a troubling development for those of us who had grown addicted to his amazing coverage of the TV news industry. (though the NYT is developing a blog for him, his old site is owned by Mediabistro and will get a new editor; Stelter gets an editor at the NYT, which he may yet come to regret.)

According to the Sun, everything changes July 20.

Sopranos Debate Continues as Series Creator Declines to Explain

On Monday, the world seemed to be divided into two types of people: those who hated the Sopranos finale, and those who wrote me really P.O.'ed emails.

"Maybe David Chase was pointing a middle finger directly at you," wrote reader J. E. Smith in a particularly sympathetic email. "He certainly wasn't pointing it at loyal followers of the Sopranos in the incredible series finale, most of whom remained sympathetic to Tony in the end and weren't looking forward to him getting whacked..."Confusing, hodgepodge of a story''? I can't remember the last time I read a review that missed the mark this badly."

Another satisfied customer.

It seemed that everyone I met yesterday wanted to discuss the finale, with about 60 percent still supportive of Sopranos creator David Chase and his odd finale. When the TV critic's Web site TVTattle.com lined up the reviews, I stood with Newsday, Salon, LA Weekly's Nikki Finke and the New York Daily News in bitter anger over the proceedings. Time magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Newark Star Ledger and USA today were more supportive.

Chase himself, speaking to the Star-Ledger in an exclusive interview scheduled before the season started, insisted he wasn''t out to piss off anyone.

" "I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there," he says of the final scene. "No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God," he adds. "We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people's minds or thinking, 'Wow, this'll (tick) them off.'

"People get the impression that you're trying to (mess) with them, and it's not true. You're trying to entertain them."

In that final scene, mob boss Tony Soprano waited at a Bloomfield ice cream parlor for his family to arrive, one by one. What was a seemingly benign family outing was shot and cut as the preamble to a tragedy, with Tony suspiciously eyeing one patron after another, the camera dwelling a little too long on Meadow's parallel parking and a walk by a man in a Members Only jacket to the men's room. Just as the tension ratcheted up to unbearable levels, the series cut to black in mid-scene (and mid-song), with no resolution.

"Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there," says Chase, 61, who based the series in general (and Tony's relationship with mother Livia specifically) on his North Caldwell childhood."

So there you have it. Ending the most-lauded TV series in recent memory on an ambiguous, unsettling cut to a black screen wasn't really an attempt to mess with us all or give us the bird. It was just business. Never personal.

Wonder how many people are responding to Chase's entertainment by cancelling their HBO subscriptions?

Rescue Me Star Denis Leary Exposed

I'm too exhausted from answering angry reader emails to write a full-on preview of tomorrow night's premiere of FX's primo firefighter dramedy series, Rescue Me. But I did take a stab at outlining the growing friction between FX and HBO for title of coolest TV Outlet Ever.

For an interview with Leary better than any I could have concocted, check out this interview on NPR's Fresh Air where Leary talks about turning 50 (?!), trying to quit smoking and how firefighters are a breed apart. Rescue Me comes back for its fourth season tomorrow at 10 p.m. on FX.

Do You Really Want Ed Begley Jr Removing Your Appendix?

I have officially been in this job too long. Because I can't decide whether this is a really cool series idea from boomer-centered cable channel TV Land or really sad:

"What happens when Sherman Hemsley spends the day sweating it out at a real dry cleaning establishment? Can Loni Anderson really hack it as a receptionist at a top radio station? And does the courtroom listen when Harry Anderson starts hitting the gavel? Viewers will find out when TV Land airs Back to the Grind, a new original series premiering Wednesday, July 18 at 10:30 p.m. This half-hour series challenges iconic TV performers to actually work in the jobs their TV characters held on shows like The Jeffersons, Night Court and WKRP in Cincinnati. Other performers featured in the series include Erik Estrada, Marla Gibbs, Betty White, Mark Curry, Bea Arthur, Ed Begley Jr. and Jimmie Walker."

 

The Sopranos Finale: A Big Finger to Viewers?

It's not something that's wise for a TV critic to admit.

But, these days, I don't get The Sopranos.

Take the show's disjointed, anticlimatic finale Sunday. To me, it felt like an hourlong f-you from a guy who has seen fan devotion for The Sopranos transform him from a little-known but well respected TV producer into one of the most legendary TV auteurs in history.

As I expected, we didn't see Tony get whacked -- although Chase did all he could with the show's final scene to leave us wondering whether some goombah was going to come out of the bathroom blasting the whole family to pieces. And why exactly were they eating dinner in such a low rent joint? Didn't seem like a place Carmela would be caught dead in, normally.

Chase's finale also seemed to leave a lot of the show's trademark humor by the wayside as well. Wry a