Tampa Journalists Provide Public Forum on News Coverage Sept. 19

Ever wonder why a newspaper chose the lead story it did? Or how they could so completely screw up coverage of an event in your neighrborhood?

Maybe you've got a story that needs telling to the community but you don't know how to get it aired.

The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists feels your pain. And is doing something about it.

The group, which I lead, is sponsoring a forum titled “Getting Your News in the News” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19 in Fletcher Lounge at the University of Tampa.

The purpose of the forum is to provide an open discussion between the panel, which will include the area’s print and TV publications, and members of the community, including activist groups and neighborhood organizations, on how to pitch news stories and why issues get the coverage they do.

Currently, panelists include top editors from the St. Petersburg Times. Tampa Tribune, WUSF radio, Creative Loafing, WFLA-Ch. 8, WTSP-Ch. 10, WTVT-Ch. 13 and WFTS-Ch. 28.

They will be available to answer questions about news coverage, hear your tips on possible stories and offer strategies for getting important events covered in your neighborhood or involving your community group.

Best of all, the event is free and open to the public.

The two hour event also includes a long Q&A session in which our panelists will take questions from the  crowd.

So if you've ever wanted to give the Tampa Bay area's media establishment a piece of your mind -- and I know from experience that some of you here most certainly do -- here is your chance.

Hope to see you there!

For details or to RSVP for the event, contact program chair Camille C. Spencer

(727) 992-5203

cspencer@sptimes.com

Chris Rose Takes on Oprah Without Really Meaning To

Chris Rose wants the world to know one thing: He doesn't hate Oprah Winfrey.

You can't blame the world for getting the wrong impression, though, following publication of this column Rose wrote for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans about Winfrey's refusal to allow mention of his book on the aftermath on Hurricane Katrina in a show she was doing on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Rose, whose powerful columns on the hurricane's impact in New Orleans made him a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize last year, said Winfrey's people called about including him in her show Wednesday on the 2nd anniversary of the storm. The only catch: she wouldnt allow him to mention his book, 1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina, which not only contained lots of amazing Katrina reporting, but detailed Rose's long struggle with depression, which was the point of Winfrey's segment.

I've already jabbed at the Queen of All Media a couple of times for choosing marquee journalists over local people who know the issues when she does such special episodes. Reading Rose's column about how Winfrey's producers wouldn't let him mention the book or display it on his desk while he was talking, only heightened my disdain for their approach.

(It especially rankles me because I spent time getting to know the Times Picayune's journalists about 18 months ago; they deserved more than a little couch time.)

But Rose has now seen his column become a rallying cry for those who can't stand how Winfrey dominates the book industry. And that's something the wiseacre columnist is not so sure he wants to be a part of.

"I'm getting emails and phone calls from writers across the country saying they're going to buy my book if they have to spend their rent money on it...the anti-Oprah sentiment is driving this book up the Amazon charts," said Rose, calling by cellphone from the Big Easy, where he's spent days talking to big media outlets about his book, including us. "But I love Oprah. All I wanted was for the name of my book to drop from the lips of the Queen of Literature. But I doubt that's going to happen now."

Bad enough that they wouldn't let him mention the book; when the segment was nearly done filming, they also presented him with a release form which barred him from writing about the experience of filming the segment. "I've already spent all day filming this thing, you tell me you're not mentioning the book, then you won't let me at least get a column out of it?" said Rose, who refused to sign the release, kicking off three hours of negotiations with Winfrey's lawyers. "I can't do that."

In the end Rose didn't sign and they still used his interview, without mentioning his book. But Winfrey's Web site does list 1 Dead in Attic among the "Related Resources" on Winfrey's Katrina-centered Web page.

"I'm sure my book's only on that Web site until somebody reads the column," Rose said, laughing.

WFLA Places Second in Local HD Race; Do Viewers Care?

It is a widely-whispered rumor locally that WFLA-Ch. 8 was expecting to be the first local station to unveil its high-definition newscasts in the market. Then WFTS-Ch. 28 snuck under the wire in July, snatching the bragging rights for a significant technological advance from the area's longtime market leader.

But WFLA news director Don North denied such concerns surfaced much in the station's quest to go HD, a task which will be complete at 5 p.m. tomorrow, when WFLA offers its first high definition newscasts. (See my little treatise on the politics of local HD here).

"The reality is, I think everybody knew folks were moving to do this...It's clearly something everybody is going to do, so we might as well get to it," said North, noting that field reports still won't be broadcast in high definition, but anchor shots in studio and the weather reports will be. "It's more an issue for the engineering departments than the news department."

Okay. At any rate, the suspense is over, and WFLA is about to get in the HD game. As a reporter, it has been a bit frustrating watching this all play out, as local news executives ignore phone calls and refuse to speak on their plans, even after the race for first was done. And it's tough to know whether viewers will care much about this advance -- given that only about 30 percent of the Tampa Bay market has high definition-capable TV sets now.

   One big issue which seems to face WFLA is its anchors. High definition technology often exposes flaws in the anchors' skin tones that could previously be masked by powder makeup. And WFLA has some of the oldest anchors in the market, including the retiring Bob Hite, Gayle Sierens and Bill Ratliff, all of whom have tenures of 25 years or longer at the station.

"I think our anchors look terrific -- they always looked fine," said North, who noted anchors will be using a special type of makeup -- applied with an airbrush -- which looks smoother than powder in high definition. "I don't think they look any different now."

The big question left for the market now: When will WTVT-Ch. 13 and WTSP-Ch. 10 make the transition?

New Meteorologist at WFLA

WFLA has also hired a new meteorologist to fill out its weather team after the death of John Winter in April. Her name is Leigh Spann and she comes from another Media General-owned station, WCBD in Charleston, S.C. She'll start next week at WFLA, forecasting on weekend mornings, allowing reporter Peter Bernard -- who had been helping out by covering weekend shifts -- to go back to chasing news stories.

Katrina's Challenge for TV News: Find a New Narrative

I spent some time today trying to figure out why I don't give a crap about the loads of Katrina anniversary coverage TV has been pushing at us.

I didn't put anything advancing it on the blog. I didn't even talk about it while it was going on. Only now, as Anderson Cooper is wrapping up the last of his earnest live shots from the French Quarter -- how many times is he going to talk about all the cool restaurants in town, I wonder? -- am I able to put keyboard to blog and figure this all out.

I didn't write about it, because I'm getting sick of it. Not the post-Katrina story, mind you; but TV news' tissue-thin treatment of the subject.

If you have watched any television news today, you've seen it. An earnest anchor stands in front of a still-devastated neighborhood, glowering with indignation and pity. They note the garbage which still lines the streets -- Brian Williams picked up an old videotape he said he saw there last year -- the desperate people still waiting for relief checks, the rising murder rate, the rampant homeless problem and something new, for good measure. On one station, the new thing was gangs of criminals targeting the illegal immigrant contractors who have flooded into New Orleans to do reconstruction cheap; the criminals call them "walking ATMS" because they carry so much cash.

But it's mostly an empty rehash of TV news' glory days two years ago, when just getting the human misery in New Orleans before a TV camera was enough. TV audiences have seen the occasional reports; they know it's not getting better nearly as fast as it should. And TV journalists are on the verge of losing the nation's attention, because they keep telling us what we already know.

It's time to dig deep. Anderson Cooper and Brian Williams can't just fly into town for a few days and hope to penetrate this morass of local ineptitude and federal obliviousness. Newspapers, especially the local Times-Picayune, have done a fine job of dissecting exactly why things aren't working, and it's time for TV news to follow suit.

Who exactly is to blame for this sluggish recovery? Where did the money go? Why have more than half of Americans given up on the idea that New Orleans will ever fully recover? Is New Orleans even prepared to survive another hurricane if it comes knocking this year? Where is that national conversation on these issues we've been promised by every politician who ran for office in 2006?

I watched Oprah Winfrey dissect the anniversary backed by her favorite news experts: Cooper, Lisa Ling and Dr. Oz. And while I'm not faulting these guys -- Dr. Oz, in particular, earned his stripes trying to treat those stuck in New Orleans in Katrina's early aftermath -- I kept wondering why Oprah wasn't talking to people who could really put a finger on what's going wrong. There's a small army of journalists who have been working this story non-stop for two years -- why aren't they facing Oprah's gigantic fan base and naming names?

(One local journalist who did appear on Winfrey's show, Pulitzer Prize finalist and Times Picayune columnist Chris Rose, wasn't even allowed to mention the name of his book -- a collection of Katrina-related columns titled 1 Dead In Attic -- on the show. He was tapped to talk about his struggle with depression.)

If she insists on featuring someone with showbiz credentials, just get Harry Shearer, who has been  tearing the press a new one on Katrina-related issues since Day One on the Huffington Post. (Dateline NBC didn't even try, offering yet another true crime confection)

My fear is that we've grown too used to the narrative we're stuck in now -- the poor, miserable Katrina victims, victimized again by a nameless bureaucracy and teflon politicians like Bush and Ray Nagin (CNN's Susan Roesgen scored one point, trying to get Nagin to look out his window and see homeless protesters camped right outside City Hall. Of course, he was way too savvy to fall for that one.)   

It's time for TV to start kicking some butt on this story again. Look at how much got accomplished when it happened last time. 

Anchorwoman Keeps the Faith Online

Much as I hate to crow about a show I dislike biting it hard, I can't deny that it felt good to see Fox's Anchorwoman go down in flames.

So often, we critics spend time and effort deconstructing just how awful some new TV travesty is, only to find that audiences could care less, making multimillionaires of the Jerry Springers, Donald Trumps and Barbara Walters of the world. But, in the case of Anchorwoman, the button-pushing reality gimmick failed, prompting Fox to cancel the show amid low viewership and mounting negative reviews.

Then I saw Lauren Jones' MySpace page.

Here, the plucky model remains optimistic for her many fans, showing off all the magazines covers she landed and keeping the faith that her show will land somewhere with more profile than Fox's on demand Web site.

It was almost enough to make me change my mind about the ambitious spokemodel.

Almost.

Anyways, here's her message for the fans, straight from her MySpace blog:

Anchorwoman Update!!!

Hey guys,

It has been a roller coaster of a day, as you can probably imagine. Last night, Anchorwoman aired on FOX at 8pm and we received lower ratings than what the network had hoped for. When I say "ratings", it means that the viewership was not there; we simply needed more people to tune in. Those who did, loved it! We just needed more to have known about it so they could have loved it also! As of now, I think Anchorwoman is available on FOX on Demand...

This low viewership (2.7 million) may have happened for a number of reasons. We only filmed the show in June and then quickly turned it and aired it in August. That is quick and doesn't leave much time to get a huge audience on board. That could be one component. The word was truly not out there as it could have been. There are also many other reasons that the viewership wasn't there. The thing that stinks about this is that Anchorwoman is such a great show and gets better and more fun with each episode! It gets funnier, more tense, more lovable, and we all believe in it - still! And there is some good news, and it's tough to be positive during a time like this, as I'm sure you can imagine. Those who actually saw the first two episodes LOVED it!!! This means a number of things! While the show is no longer on FOX on Wednesdays at 8pm, it will STILL run - we just don't know the details yet - and possibly be ressurected in another, possibly better fashion! All hope is not lost, this could possibly turn out good. The show may go to another network, we are not sure. Voice your opinion and let FOX know how you feel, because nothing in this world is permanent:

Paper Mail address only:

ANCHORWOMAN
P.O. Box 900
Attn: FOX BROADCASTING Publicity Dept.
Beverly Hills, CA 902130900

Via email:

askfox@fox.com

Share your thoughts, voice your opinion... you and your voice matter!

XOXO
Lauren Jones

Scary Spice, a Billionaire, an Osmond and Wayne Newton: The Weirdest Dancing With the Stars Yet

Donald Trump may still be shining on the press about who's doing his celebrity Apprentice, but ABC today confirmed the roster of, ahem, "talent" taking part in its latest edition of Dancing with the Stars -- set to debut at the start of the TV season on Sept. 24.

There's also a competition divided by gender in the first week and Dolly Parton. What's not to like?

The roster includes a record 12 celebrities this time around:

Wayne Newton,

Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown, Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan, Brazilian Indy 500 champ Helio Castroneves,

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Beverly Hills 90210 vet Jennie Garth, model Josie Maran, soap actor Camerion Mathison, boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, model Albert Reed, actress Jane Seymour

And good girl hottie Marie Osmond.

The only question left: who gets the Tucker Carlson Award as most likely to get canned first?

My money's on Cuban, whose public image has included lots -- a talent for shooting off his mouth, spending bucketloads of money and acting like a knucklehead during his own team's games -- except any indication he might have the coordination required to come off better than Jerry Springer.

My favorite site on reality TV, RealityBlurred, noted something I forgot -- several of the names reported early as DWS contestants by gossip site TMZ.com were seriously wrong, including former Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, '80s pop star Nia Peeples and onetime teen idol Aaaron Carter.

Somehow, I think that would have been a better show. Anyways, TMZ has a logical excuse: ABC lied.

Check the full release below:

Worst News Blooper Ever: Candidate One

I'll be traveling today and far from a laptop. So to keep the blog hopping a little, I decided to put up my nomination for worst news blooper ever, snatched from YouTube.

What do you think? Feel free to post the worst blooper of your own, as well.

Couric's Gonzales Prediction Finally Comes True; Another Man Down -- CBS Translator Kidnapped and Killed in Iraq

I know most of the TV news universe is trying to figure out whether the White House will be dumb enough to send up the guy who screwed up Hurricane Katrina to replace resigning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and what it means that the two guys who did everything to serve Bush have announced their departure from the White House within weeks of each other.

But I'm struck by a single fact: Gonzales' resignation finally confirms a prediction made by CBS anchor Katie Couric more than five months ago.

Back then, in one one the first newscasts overseen by then-new executive producer Rick Kaplan, Couric announced it was only a "matter of time" before Bush ousted Gonzales, citing unnamed sources after former Gonzales aide Kyle Samson began outlining his boss' misstatements in the U.S. attorneys' firing scandal.

It was a good bet: either Gonzalaes really would be gone soon, or Bush would do that loyalty thing and everyone would forget that she hung a really attention-getting news lede on an unnamed source who turned out to be wrong.

Well, everyone but me.

Turns out, it took nearly a half-year for Couric's prediction to come true. Fortunately, we haven't seen many more examples of this type of prognostication on the CBS Evening News. With an expected deluge of negative stories coming on her one year anniversary Sept. 5, the last thing she needs is more evidence that the hard news thing isn't working out.

Another Man Down: CBS Translator Kidnapped and Killed in Iraq

Western journalists working in Iraq continually praise the courage of their fixers and translators in the country, many of whom work as the news organizations' eyes and ears with full knowledge that, if their identity is discovered they or their families could be killed. (pictured at left is a BBC reporter with his translator, whose identity is hidden to ensure his safety)

CBS today announced the death of one such translator, Anwar Abbas Lafta, abducted Aug. 20 and found dead five days later. Here's the announcement from CBS.

STATEMENT FROM CBS NEWS

Anwar Abbas Lafta, a translator working for CBS News for the past 10 months, was abducted last Monday, Aug. 20, from his home in Baghdad at approximately 8:30 PM local time.  He had left the CBS News bureau in Baghdad at about 5:00 PM that evening.

Appoximately 8-10 armed men, some wearing body armor, entered Mr. Abbas’ home and fought with him and his brother, who was also at home.  Mr. Abbas’ brother was beaten, his sister was shot in the arm, and Mr. Abbas himself was taken by the men.  During the week, two ransom calls were received by Mr. Abbas’ family.  On Saturday, Aug. 25, a cousin, who, along with Mr. Abbas’ brother, had been searching police stations and morgues for the body, received a call from the local police saying they had found a body on the north side of Sadr City.  The cousin identified the body that evening.

Mr. Abbas was in his early 50s and was not married.  He had worked as a translator for the U.S. military in Iraq for approximately three years before joining CBS News.

He was buried today (27) in Najaf.

“Our deepest sympathies go to Mr. Abbas’ family and friends,” said Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports.  “This is not the first time the CBS News family has suffered the worst loss possible—the life of a colleague.  We certainly hope it is the last, but the pain and sorrow will be with us and his family for a very long time.”

 

Honing Ideas While Speaking Your Mind: Why I Do All These Pundit Shows, Anyway

It's an odd thing, basing your daily work on explaining the world to itself.

For me, the most challenging part of the gig is working out ideas. How do I know whether it's worth excavating Anchorwoman or looking skeptically at the CNN/YouTube presidential skirmishes? Around the office, I'm the guy getting into conversations with anyone who will talk to me -- shaping ideas under the guise of BS-ing about the latest American Idol castaway -- until I found a new way to work out ideas.

All this pundit stuff.

This not-so-original realization came to me after reading this Florida Times-Union story which included my comments in a story dissecting it's recent cartoon scandal. As I noted last week, the newspaper was drowning in criticism after printing a cartoon which seemed to utilize some clumsy stereotypes about black folks to make a point about the "Stop Snitching" culture.

At the time, I asked on the blog "Is this cartoon racist?" because I wasn't really sure. But when a friend forwarded a bunch of emails from the listserv of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, I did pen a few emails which clarified my thoughts. The Times-Union wound up publishing part of one email after asking my permission.

Basically, I didn't think the cartoon was racist -- an incendiary term I think is slung around way too much these days -- but I did think it was a stupid way to start a conversation. Especially for a newspaper which in 2000 published an op-ed which garnered national attention for saying slavery had "existed "briefly in America" and "its effects are not permanent."

Jacksonville is an area which struggles mightily with issues of racism and intolerance. So if you're a cartoonist looking to start a community conversation on the stop snitching issue, do you start it with an insult? Or are you really just looking to poke at some people whose choices you find awful, for the benefit of those who agree with you?

Instead, the Times Union columnist focused on my words about how important these issues can be to people of color, because the majority makes decisions based on a stereotypical image of a people rather than its reality. But I kind of wished they had also talked about the area's history of troubled race relations and the newspaper's part in it.

On Sunday, I got a chance to clarify my thoughts on CBS' Kid Nation (button-pushing reality gone too far) and Jon Stewart (equal opportunity skewerer) on CNN's Reliable Sources.  Who knew there would be a benefit to all this bloviating beyond giving my mother a chance to see her boy on TV?

Tampa Drops Another Notch in the TV Industry; Deggans on CNN Sunday

Another knock on Tampa Bay: Nielsen Media Research reports that we are no longer the nation's 12th largest TV market.

Turns out, Phoenix, Ariz. gained more TV households than we did -- they jumped about 75,000 households compared to Tampa's 30,000 household rise -- so they vault to Number 12 for the 2007-08 season. According to ratings whiz Bryan Fields at WTVT-Ch. 13, the change won't cost anyone advertising revenue, because Tampa's audience is still growing.

The odd thing about these numbers, is that they measure the number of households with TVs -- not individuals people or televisions. So even though Miami has more people, because more people live inside each home, they have fewer TV households than we do (blame the huge number of retirees here living one or two to a home). That's why we getting bragging rights as the state's largest TV market.

Dallas/Ft. Worth and Atlanta also each jumped a notch -- from 6th to 5th and 9th to 8th, respectively -- displacing San Francisco and Washington D.C.

I can't believe I wrote this much about this subject.

Drew Carey Takes Over Price Oct. 15

CBS's Emmy-Award winning THE PRICE IS RIGHT, with new host Drew Carey, will have its 36th season premiere on Monday, October 15 (11:00 AM-12:00 Noon, ET; 10:00-11:00 AM, PT), on the CBS Television Network.  Carey was recently named host of television's long-running game show, succeeding former host Bob Barker, who retired in June after 35 years on the show.

Deggans on CNN at 10 a.m. Sunday

Everyboy else in medialand must be on vacation.

CNN's media guru Howie Kurtz called this week to ask me back on his show Reliable Sources for another spirited roundtable. So far, the subject list includes Wikipedia editing by Fox and NYT and coverage of Hurricane Dean.

I'll be trying to do this shot from he offices of the St. Petersburg Times, where we have a nifty camera set up for talkbacks now (I used to drive 20 minutes to the central Tampa offices of PBS station WEDU). So my fingers are crossed that this comes off okay... 

With Anchorwoman Dead, Can O'Reilly Be Next?

I knew Anchorwoman's awful ratings would prompt Fox to put the show on a short leash. But even I never imagined the network would cancel the series after just one airing -- bowing to the realities of low viewership where arguments about ethics and taste failed.

My only concern now: Did the show flame out because it got so much bad press before it aired? Or does this just prove that young people could give a crap about the news, even when its presented inside a comedy/parody/reality show?

And now that Anchorwoman's down, maybe the tsunami of bad karma produced by the show can be directed to the next spoke in our Media Axis of Evil, Bill O'Reilly.

Courtesy of my man Amani Channel, here's one of the best rebuttals to O'Reilly's barely-concealed prejudice that I've ever seen. 

O'Reilly or Anchorwoman: Which Is the Greater Threat to Journalism's Future?

There's lots of reasons why, as a media critic, I can't stand Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly.

He often willfully misrepresents facts to make his point. He wraps himself in the trappings of a news anchor to bolster his own credibility -- this Pew Center opinion poll shows he's the second most-admired journalist in a country which has increasing trouble naming any news anchors. But he claims he's not a journalist when people criticize his methods. And he's one of the biggest bullies in modern media -- equalled, perhaps, only by Rush Limbaugh.

My latest evidence, O'Reilly's laughable segment last night criticizing Judge Manuel Lopez, who made the unfortunate decision to grant bail to Michael Allen Phillips, a 24-year-old with a history of arrests who eventually shot and killed a sheriff's deputy.

There is a good discussion to be had on how this case fell through the cracks. How many other lawbreakers with Phillips' record are handled by the court everyday? Are judge's giving full consideration to circumstances? And is it fair for people like Phillips' girlfriend to complain about his violence when they failed to help police prosecute him earlier?

But O'Reilly isn't interested in facts. So he had a producer show up on the judge's driveway to ask provocative questions, followed by an in-studio interview with State Sen. Ronda Storms -- a legislator with little firsthand knowledge of the court system or the issues involved. Read the transcript here.

During the talkback segment, O'Reilly confused the case with another one he had been pumping on air, saying incorrectly that Phillips was released on $150 bail (his bail, according to our stories, was $30,000 -- O'Reilly corrected his mistake later in the show). He had no idea what the legal boundaries were in the case. And he didn't mention that police issued trespass warnings to his crew for going on the judge's property without permission.

Bothered as I am by Fox's insulting Anchorwoman reality TV show, I'm far more alarmed by the way cable news' highest-rated personality constantly obscures discussion on important issues instead of illuminating them.

Everybody knows a bikini model isn't a journalist. But people keep making that mistake with O'Reilly, and there may be a higher price to pay for that.

Button-Pushing Anchorwoman Snarks Off Real Journalists

              From the moment Lauren Jones pops onscreen in her fire-engine-red miniskirt, you know Anchorwoman is calculated to offend.

Fans of serious news are already complaining about too much Britney, too much Paris and too much Lindsay. So a reality TV series debuting on Fox at 8 tonight about a bikini model and former WWE wrestling diva taking the anchor chair in a tiny Texas market with little or no training, is just the sort of in-your-face insult calculated to spark morning show news segments and talk radio debates for days.

But my cynicism about the show's bald-faced button-pushing -- juxtaposing scenes of the buxom Jones working out with attempts by the station's sleazy general manager to justify this bone-headed stunt -- vanished when I screened the first episode for a mostly-female group of anchors at the Poynter Institute.

Because these women weren't just disappointed. They were pissed.

"This is  slapstick comedy that happens to be set in a building that once served as a news organization," said Carolyn Murray, anchor at WCBD-TV in Charleston, S.C. I'll have a story in tomorrow's Floridian better detailing their thoughts, but these women reacted the way a black person might respond after seeing an episode of Amos and Andy -- angered at the resurrection of stereotypes they're already facing down everyday (see the story here).

When I met Jones in Los Angeles at a Fox press party, she seemed like so many other reality "stars" I've encountered. Savvy enough to get that much of what she's doing is a put-on, cynical enough to milk it for all its worth and yet blithe enough to overlook the fact that she really is the shallow, uninformed sexpot she's playing onscreen.

I chuckled to myself as she talked excitedly about how Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly wanted "a private interview" to circumvent Fox's resistance towards press interviews during production (she seemed unaware that he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2004, lending a different tone to that request).   

And like all reality show contestants, she had an armor plating of rationalizations ready to explain away this awful enterprise. She was taking advantage of an opportunity; she brings a skill set to the table; everybody uses sex to sell things; why can't a smart woman be a model and a news anchor at the same time? (To see her non-news media chops, click here and here.)

We all know local TV news can be a haven for bubbleheads and superficial beauty queens. But to have a network with its own news division serve up a series which so clearly undercuts its journalistic mission -- well, that seems a prime example of excreting where you eat.

Deggans Speaks Out on Blogs - Surprise! He Likes Them!

When I ran into former WTVT-Ch. 13 reporter Amani Channel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea I'd soon be headed for YouTube immortality.

But Channel, who was developing a show for the Black Family Channel before that outlet went the way of all things, eventually tracked me down with a camera and spent some time talking with me about the impact of blogs. Channel has been placing some innovative content of his own on his blog, My UrbanReport.com. Originally conceived as a home for the citizen journalism-type show he was developing for BFC, Channel has turned MyUrbanReport into an interesting mix of vlogs, blog entries and more.

Amani was nice enough to upload his video chat with me to YouTube, where he has assembled an interesting channel filled with reports from NABJ and more. Here's my own blathering about how blogs keep mainstream media energized:

Veronica Mars, K-Fed and The Donald: New Faces in Odd Places

August is the oddest month of the year for the network TV biz.

This is the time when series finally get down to it -- making final decisions about casting which wil last until the end of the year, though November's noted "sweeps" ratings period. Here is where actors find out whether they're a rising star about to find serious fame on a major production, or kicked off the train before it's even left the station.

The most inexplicable beneficiary of this week's flurry of casting is the former Mr. Britney Spears, K-Fed, who landed a role on the CW's equally inexplicably surviving not-so-teen drama, One Tree Hill. His role:  Jason, the cocky, enigmatic frontman for “No Means Yes,” a seminal rock band from the fictional town of Tree Hill, North Carolina.

Playing a talented musician, eh? He's going to need lots of research.

The week's second bit of casting news makes more sense -- geek-goddess Kristen Bell transitions straight from the CW's canceled Veronica Mars to a much larger platform: NBC's super-powered drama Heroes. Bell is playing "Elle," a sexy, intriguing, mysterious young lady who has ties to Peter's apparent death, H.R.G.'s past, and Claire's future. When fans first meet Elle in October, she will commit a terrible crime, but as always with "Heroes," it will be unclear whose side she is really on.

Hmmm. Okay, I'm hooked.

Finally, Donald Trump can't stop shilling for The Apprentice, saying he's negotiating with Britney Spears to do the celebrity version of his show, Paris Hilton has asked to do it and he's planning to call Lindsay Lohan. Because the two things all these women need is more monery and more press attention, humiliating themselves in a TV show built around lionizing The Donald. I think Trump's been sniffing his own hair spray a bit too much.

More telling, is the celebrities who have actually agreed to go on the show: Carmen Electra, Joan  Rivers, George Foreman, Kimora Lee Simmons.

What, Erik Estrada and Todd Bridges weren't available? 

 

Is This Cartoon Racist?

The editorial page editor at the Jacksonville Times-Union is apologizing for allowing this cartoon to be printed, saying he shouldn't have allowed the word "ho" to be printed in his newspaper. But for folks offended by the cartoon, use of the word that got Don Imus fired is the least of this cartoon's transgressions.

What do you think blogreaders (and I'm hoping for opinions without insulting stereotypes about what all black people do in their neighborhoods)? If we all agree that the stop snitching effort is a trend in certain neighborhoods -- and 60 Minutes reported it, so it must be -- is this image fair game?

(Looks like the blog software is cutting off the rapper's words, which are "Now that's a good little ho!")

Meet the Newest Alternative Media Capital: Tampa Bay

I was in Los Angeles beating down the producers of ABC's Cavemen when Creative Loafing's purchase of the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper was originally announced. so I couldn't do much besides throw up a blog post announcing it all with the text of the press release.

But when I got back to the Tampa Bay area, I got to thinking: This makes our odd little hometown quite the media mecca.

You've already got a rare circumstance in which two powerful daily newspapers are regularly competing against each other -- an increasing oddity given the shrinkage of the print industry. We also have five different local TV news operations also competing heatedly, with a minimum of sensationalism and maximum of professionalism.

Major radio chains such as Clear Channel Cox and CBS Radio all have major footprints here, along with a growing cluster of smaller print publications.

And then there's Creative Loafing. Founded in 1972, the Atlanta paper became part of a small chain including papers in Tampa and Charlotte, N.C. when founders Deb and Elton Eason sold to a group of investors which included their son, Ben. Now, Ben has masterminded an eight-figure deal to purchase two of the biggest names in alt weekly newspapering, effectively moving a locus of the industry to our corner of the Sunshine State.

Since Ben Eason had always been an affable source in the past, I decided to chat him up about his plans for the chain and integrating the two new papers, outlined in this Q&A from Sunday's paper.

Eason on Tampa's status as a media capital: "It’s not obvious. But let’s just go back a few years: Howell Raines, New York Times editor was a St. Pete Times guy (political editor in the mid-'70s). Florida from a journalism perspective has been one of the great states. When you’ve having to build community out of sprawl, out of these little tiny towns....The Tampa Bay area is in some instances 10 times harder from a publishing standpoint than a center city like a Chicago. It’s a tough place to cut your teeth from a publishing standpoint. There’s a ton of success stories that come out of Florida. Its an unlikely place to run a large media group, though.”

The open question for Eason: will Creative Loafing change the Reader and City Paper more than those storied newspapers change the parent company? And can you run a chain of newspapers that large without becoming the media monster you've always tried to fight?

High School Musical Sequel Shatters Viewership Records

Everyone knew it would be big. But not this big.

According to the Disney Channel, 17.2-million people watched last night's debut of High School Musical 2 -- making it the most-watched telecast on basic cable ever.

In my house, my 11-year-old daughter went to a viewing party with her friends, while my 12-year-old daughter had a friend come to our house for a sleepover/viewing. And because the soundtrack was released on Tuesday, many of them already knew the plot because the songs basically give it all away.

Like Harry Potter, HSM has transcended status as a mere entertainment product to become an essential component of tween life. That transition seems to be borne out by the viewership numbers, which indicate one of the biggest hits basic cable has ever seen.

A few other highlights, courtesy of the Disney Channel:

• “High School Musical 2” now stands as the most-watched basic cable telecast of all time in Total Viewers (17.2 million), topping previous record holder, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game on 9/23/06 (16.0 million), by 8%.

•  “High School Musical 2” now ranks as the most-watched TV telecast ever in Kids 6-11 (6.1 million), and the most-watched entertainment telecast ever (behind only Super Bowl in 2004) in Tweens 9-14 (5.9 million).

• “High School Musical 2” ranked as the No. 1 basic cable movie of all time in Total Viewers (17.2 million), towering above previous record holder, TNT’s “Crossfire Trail” (NEW, NEW UPDATE -- Just to correct all the back-and-forth about this on the blog; I got a revised statement from Disney Channel and "Trail's" viewership was actually 12.5-million, which is 37.6 percent below HSM2).

• “High School Musical 2” was TV’s No. 1 Friday telecast in more than five years (since 5/10/02) in Total Viewers.

I guess there's little doubt there's going to be a High School Musical 3.

Tweens and High School Musical 2: Old School Media for a New Generation

From the beginning, I had no illusions about understanding High School Musical 2.

I knew the peculiar combination of well-scrubbed young actors, kinetic pop tunes and sitcom-style storylines would escape my jaded adult sensibilities. So it only made sense to bring along my two tween-age daughters when I got a chance to review the sequel to the Disney Channel's most successful made-for-TV movie ever.

Thanks to the local Verizon folks, I was able to score an advance peek at the movie by schlepping to one of their Tampa stores (Verizon FiOS TV customers got access to High School Musical 2 via video on demand a week before the rest of us peons). Bringing my two girls to their Carrollwood showroom with me not only ensured they would have bragging rights among their friends for a while, it gave me a change to see this tween phenomenon through the eyes of those most connected to it. That's So Raven, Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. For an adult, watching these shows is like turning back the pages of time to the '70s heyday of cheap situation comedies, where outlandish premises, over the top acting and sets that look crafted from cardboard ruled the day.

And I learned something odd: it's all about old school media in a new package.

No wonder young viewers could care less about traditional TV comedies these days. By the time they graduate high school, they've overdosed on such shows -- watching old school comedies probably feels like hanging out at the kiddie table.

The word blockbuster doesn’t seem adequate to describe how the first High School Musical took over the attention of fans aged 9 to 14 – better known as the “tween” demographic.  Nearly 8-million kids watched the movie when it debuted in January 2006, spawning sales of 7-million CDs, 8-million DVDs and viewings by 170-million people globally.

And now. with the sequel poised to break new records tonight with freshly-minted stars such as Zac Efron, Corbin Bleu and Vanessa Hudgins, the movie's roots in long ago Hollywood musical styles seems clear.
My daughters know ‘70s-era hits such as Will it Go Round in Circles and Do You Believe in Magic because of Raven co-star Orlando Brown and Aly and A.J. And now, thanks to Disney’s talent for reinventing old media, they’ve discovered the wonder of the made-for-TV musical -- minus the smoking, premarital sex and bad spandex clogging the musical which teens got into when I was in that demographic, Grease!

So now the secret of High School Musical -- and just about every other tween media phenomenon -- can be told. It's just old fashioned media dressed up for an audience too young to remember the stuff in its original form.

Enjoy it while it lasts, kiddies. Because once you learn old media's tricks, it's all downhill from there.    

Craig Ferguson May Be God, But Craig Kilborn Is So NOT!

Regular readers of this space know that I believe Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson is God.

If you don't believe me, then check out this slavering profile I did for today's features sections, outlining how the quick-witted Scotsman pulls together the 10 coolest minutes on television: His legendary, stream-of-consciouness-style monologue.

I had the pleasure of visiting Ferguson in his office at CBS' sprawling Studio City complex. It was a surprisingly small space, dominated by a huge, brown secitional couch and wooden coffee table, where we kicked it for about a half hour in the middle of a busy day, where he would record elements for two different shows at once.

When I asked how he pulls together the monologue, he said this:

"We don’t really write it in a conventional sense. What we do is, we sit around and talk about subjects. I choose what I want to talk about that day. Then … I sit down with funny guys and we make each other laugh for about an hour. The writers’ assistant bullet-points that conversation. Then the writers go away for an hour and they put it into some kind of structure they think might work … those bullet points come back to me and I go through again and think, well, I’ll do that and then I’ll come up with that and I’ll come up with that.

"And if there’s any specific jokes that I think are funny, we’ll write down a joke. And then we pare it down to, like, words and phrases that go into the teleprompter. So words and phrases like, you know, the cat lady, giant ass, spaceship, William Shatner, the Bahamas …
D: So, like notes, as if you were doing standup.
F: Exactly like that, yeah, it’s exactly like that. But, you know, I have rehearsed in the room in a sense. It’s not rehearsed word for word because it’s not finished being written until it’s finished recording. And so, some nights, you know, I pay a great deal of attention to what’s on that prompter, and some nights I don’t really pay much attention to what’s on the prompter. There’s usually a trick. If you watch the monologue a lot, if you hear me say, what the hell was I talking about, it’s usually, I’m going back to the …  I look at the (notes on the) prompter and I got it, and we’re back."

What strikes me, besides the fact that Ferguson is about as self-effacing and witty in person as you'd expect, is that his success also says something about his predecessor, Craig Kilborn.

Ferguson is way too nice to say it, but when Kilborn was hosting the Late Late Show, you could never tell how much of his self-centered and superficial attitude was a put on and how much was reality.

And considering how the Daily Show became a political and cultural powerhoue AFTER he left the building, it's also interesting to note how much success Ferguson has had AFTER Kilborn left there, as well.

Wonder what TV show Kilborn could improve by leaving next?

See more of my conversation with Ferguson by clicking the link below...

Deggans Punditry Alert: When The Reporter Becomes the Subject

I've got a pal who summed it up in a phrase: When journalism is done to you.

That's his term for the uncomfortable feeling which comes from being featured in a story in a way that doesn't quite capture what you were trying to say. As someone who has done his own journalism a fair amount of the time, I know how it happens: the reporter misunderstands you, doesn't set your quotes in context, or just has a different take on issue you're discussing.

  I was reminded of this concept last week, when CNN finally ran a story based on a 15-minute interview with me on the underwhelming Caveman pilot. I knew the story aired because I started getting angry emails titled "are you kidding?" and "racist??? Against blacks???"

I was a little puzzled, because I had taken care to say during my interview that I thought the Cavemen pilot wasn't racist, just clumsy about having its characters -- ripped from the GEICO ads about modern day Cavemen upset about their depictions in media -- resist a wide range of stereotypes mostly attached to black people.

Then I saw the transcript for the story, which was originally planned for Paula Zahn's show before she left CNN, and eventually landed last week on a program they're calling Out in the Open -- basically a placeholder until the channel can decide what will go at 8 p.m.

The problem was that the anchor introducing and promoting the segment kept asking, "Is the Cavemen show racist?" But the story never included my quote answering that question by saying it isn't racist. Instead, they cherry picked other comments I made to make it appear that I was more outraged about the show than I was. I was trying to present a nuanced reaction to the show, but it seems the folks assemlbing this story just wanted another piece about black people complaining about unfair treatment in the media.

I experienced another version of this phenomenon when NPR's Juan Williams asked to speak with me about the recent controversy over Black Entertainment Television's depiction of black people. While I explained why the national Association of Black journalists gave BET its thumbs down award last week, I challenged Williams' assertion that some of the images on the channel were "pornography," and pointed out that they have a slew of new shows coming which may change their balance of images.

So I didn't appear in Williams' piece at all.

Got to say I prefer the treatment I got from the folks at the Web site Television Without Pity, which conducted an 20-minute interview with me on how I do my job and then posted a transcript, so all the ideas appeared as they were uttered. It was the second interview we'd done -- the first, lost to technical problems, got more into race and media -- but I just enjoyed seeing my concepts reflected pretty much as I intended.

Guess I better be more careful when I do journalism to others next time.

 

Today Show's Fourth Hour Also a Watershed For TV Diversity

Just thinking about a fourth hour of the Today show gives me a headache.

Already, I can barely stand the giddy brew of too-soft feature stories, thinly-disguised promos for NBC and NBC cable shows, and anchor-centric nonsense which fills Today after its first 20 minutes or so. Tacking on another hour of recipes and celebrity interviews never seemed like a great idea to me.

But there is one cool thing about the fourth hour, officially announced today by NBC and tagged for a Sept. 10 start date; all the women who will serve as hosts of that final hour -- Today newsreader Ann Curry, Dateline correspondent Hoda Kotb and Today correspondent Natalie Morales -- are all women of color.

(Since at least one person reading this blog has assumed they're all black, let me explain: Natalie Morales is Puerto Rican and Brazilian, Ann Curry is Japanese and French, Hoda Kotb is Egyptian-American. None are African American, but they all add lots of cultural and ethnic diversity).

This is important because these jobs turn out to be a farm team for the show, allowing the network to develop its younger talent so they aren't caught flatfooted when somebody like, say, Campbell Brown or Katie Couric decides to take their talents elsewhere. NBC has always been the best at maintaining a deep anchor bench, which they deploy across all their shows -- meaning Curry or Today weekend host Lester Holt might fill in on Nightly News for a vacationing Brian Williams at any time.

With these ladies in the pipeline, it does mean NBC's news shows will have a visible mix of on air ethnic diversity, at least. This also means that Tiki Barber and Giada DeLaurentiis-- two non-broadcasters touted as possible hosts  -- will not get a regular slot in the rotation, saving the audience from their amateurish fumbling.

Though NBC says 90 percent of its affiliates will carry the fourth hour at 10 or 11 a.m., in Tampa the fourth hour won't air until noon, after WFLA-Ch. 8 airs it's local show Daytime and its midday news at 11 a.m. Fear not, Montel fans, the bald one's show will move to 1 p.m., while the daytime soap Days of Our Lives will air at 2 p.m.

Now, if only they could do something about that airhead Maria Menounos...

Dan Rather Takes on Florida Voting Machine Problems -- Through Google Video?

It's a compelling 12-minute clip, tracing the problems with voting identified in Sarasota, Fla. to a factory in the Philippines assembling faulty electronic voting machines in a sweatshop environment.

And it's entirely possible more people may see this clip -- floated by former CBS anchor Dan Rather and his compatriots at HD Net on Google Video -- than will see the actual, hourlong report on voting irregularities, which airs for the channel's limited audience at 8 tonight and throughout the rest of the week.

Starting with protests by Democratic candidate Christine Jennings, who saw more than 18,000  electronic ballots in Sarasota County record no vote for Congress in her race for the seat vacated by Katherine Harris (she lost by 373 votes to Republican Vern Buchanan), Rather's story vaults to a factory in Manila where workers allege they assembled voting machine with minimal testing and faulty touchscreens imported from the U.S.

Rather shows one Philippine worker who says he was paid $2 to $2.50 an hour for his work, done in a hot factory with no air conditioning. testing amounted to shaking the machine to see if any loose parts rattled around. And the most defective parts of the unit, an unreliable touchscreen, was manufactured in the U.S.

Unfortunately, Rather and HD Net didn't announce the broadcast of this eight-month investigation until Monday, declining to make review copies of the entire story available to critics in time for review. Given that HD Net only reaches about 4-million viewers, it's more likely that the Google Video clip -- already linked on numerous blogs -- will reach many more eyeballs.

It's also worth noting that the clip doesn't feature any rebuttal from public officials who support the use of the voting machines or officials who run the companies which manufacture them. And despite Rather's claims to Associated Press that "our story is not that the election would have turned out differently in 2000," it's hard not to draw that inference, when you see Jennings protesting the anomaly of 18,000 non-votes.

See for yourself:

Act 1 of Dan Rather Reports 227