St. Pete Times to publish Doonesbury strip Wednesday featuring Obama win

Some newspaper editors may be distressed over Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau’s decision to pen several strips for next week depicting Democrat Barack Obama winning the election.

But for the legendary, liberal cartoonist, banking on an Obama win a week before the vote had zero downside.

“I never considered NOT writing about the election, but to avoid lameness, I had to predicate it on an outcome,” wrote the usually comment-averse Trudeau in an e-mail sent exclusively to the St. Petersburg Times.

“The way I look at it is this: If Obama wins, I'm in the flow and commenting on a genuine phenomenon,” he added. “If I'm wrong, there'll be such a global uproar that a goofy call in a comic strip isn't going to be much noticed.”

But Trudeau may be overly modest. Already, the Chicago Tribune has decided to take the Nov. 5 strip off its regular comics pages, which will be printed before the results of Tuesday’s election are known (it could run on another page with a later deadline). Other newspapers, of the more than 1,500 that publish Doonesbury, have asked Universal Press Syndicate for a substitute strip.

Some newspapers’ concern: if McCain wins, they are stuck with at least four cartoons that read like an ongoing “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline -– celebrating a victory that didn’t happen.

“It’s a fictional world based on the real world . . . I think what happens there matters,” said Tim Bannon, editor of the Chicago Tribune’s Live!, its daily features section. “If Obama is elected president in (Doonesbury’s) world, will he stay president for the next four years?”

Possibly, according to Trudeau, who called the notion of keeping Obama president in Doonesbury-land after a real-life McCain victory “a great idea.”

In his Nov. 5 strip, Trudeau shows American troops overseas cheering an Obama win, with a white soldier telling two black soldiers “We did it! . . . He’s half white, you know.”

At the St. Petersburg Times, features editor Mike Wilson said the newspaper will run Trudeau’s strips as he penned them.

“If he's right, the people who like him still like him, and the people who hate him still hate him,” Wilson wrote in an e-mail. “If he's wrong, everybody gets a "Dewey Defeats Truman" keepsake, and the people who hate him are happier than ever. It's a no-lose situation.”

Here are Trudeau’s responses to questions from the St. Petersburg Times, e-mailed as the cartoonist works to meet deadlines for next week’s strips.
1) What inspired you to write this strip, knowing that there was a chance you'd be wrong?

Fivethirtyeight.com, which is probably the most respected of the poll analysts, has the likelihood of a McCain victory at 3.7%. That was risk assessment I could live with. In any event, I never considered NOT writing about the election, but to avoid lameness, I had to predicate it on an outcome. The way I look at it is this: If Obama wins, I'm in the flow and commenting on a genuine phenomenon. If I'm wrong, there'll be such a global uproar that a goofy call in a comic strip isn't going to be much noticed.

2) If McCain wins, will you maintain an alternate universe where Obama is president?

What a great idea. Let's say yes.

3) What do you think of newspaper editors who are deciding not to run the strip in case you are wrong?

I think more of them. It means they're reading their own comics.

4) What would it say about American voters if you are wrong?

Obama would graciously say that the voters have spoken. Someone like Bill Maher would call them idiots. I'd split the difference and say the idiots have spoken.

5) Does this compare to 1984 when you predicted a Reagan victory? Were you relieved when you turned out to be right back then?

Relieved that Reagan was re-elected? You're not a regular reader, are you?

Seriously, a Mondale victory would not have been as good for business. Reagan was the gold standard for cartoonists.

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Why I like Chocolate News more than D.L. breaking the news

There are two TV shows currently skewering news from a black perspective -- David Alan Grier's Chocolate News on Comedy Central and D.L. Hughley Breaks the News on CNN. But only one seems to really nail its targets so far.

To kick off what I hope will be a fun weekend, here are clips from each -- decide for yourselves which works better. (WARNING: The Comedy Central show has some bleeped bad language!) *

It's official: Lowest-rated World Series ever

The ratings are in, and the pundits were right.

Sort of.

The average TV rating for the World Series was, as many snarky sports columnists predicted, the lowest-rated World Series in history, attracting an average of 13.6-million viewers over five games played in six evenings.

The Tampa Bay Rays/Philadelphia Phillies matchup notched a 14 percent audience decline from the previous historic low: the Detroit Tigers/St. Louis Cardinals game in 2006, which drew an average 15.8-million viewers over five nights.

In the Tampa Bay area, the games scored well, attracting an average 754,000 viewers; more than 830,000 fans watched Wednesday's final innings, or about 45 percent of area viewers with TVs turned on. Nationwide, the games averaged a 8.4 rating and 14 share, meaning 8.4 percent of those with TVs watched the game, or 14 percent of those with their televisions turned on.

Of course, there are explanations for this (or, as the critics might say, excuses). Rain delayed Saturday's game to near 10 p.m.; the contest eventually lasted almost until 2 a.m. Weather also forced the historic suspension of Monday's game -- the first time a World Series game was played over two days' time -- earning low ratings as viewers realized the contest wouldn't resume that night and bailed. And recent history shows the World Series really builds in audience when it goes to six and seven games, so ending at five games also precluded that possibility.

Putting the best face on things, Fox touted the 19.8-million people who watched the final innings Wednesday, a 33 percent advantage over the other networks. As opposed to Monday, when ABC's Dancing With the Stars outrated the rain-challenged game, Wednesday's conclusion attracted 18 percent of those watching TV nationwide.

Locally, the World Series ratings scored lower than the last Super Bowl, which earned a 49.8 rating and 71 share. But the Tampa Bay area has only had a few years to develop the kind of fan following that teams such as the Red Sox and Phillies have enjoyed for decades, and the Super Bowl's one big game always outdraws baseball's extended series.

Perhaps this World Series is less a historic low than a promising beginning; the introduction of the Tampa Bay Rays to a national audience.

Or is that just another, um, explanation? *   

Selling Obama: Pitch-perfect infomercial more Clintonesque than Kennedy-style

Some media critics already have compared Barack Obama to John F. Kennedy when it comes to the way  he handles himself on television, especially when measured against some of the Nixonian, less TV-friendly visuals of his rival, John McCain.

So on Wednesday, when Obama made history by spending millions to place a 30-minute infomercial on three broadcast networks and four cable channels, the biggest question was a simple one:

What would this telegenic candidate actually do?

Turns out, viewers got a film that didn’t evoke Kennedy so much as Bill Clinton; specifically, the 1992 Democratic convention film "The Man From Hope," which set then-candidate Clinton’s down-to-earth biography to a series of emotional images crafted by a group of old Hollywood hands.

But instead of focusing exclusively on Obama, Wednesday’s slickly produced film spliced stories of middle-class voters struggling with tough economic times alongside stretches of the candidate speaking on Iraq, energy and taxes, buoyed by clips of prominent supporters touting his case.

In dozens of tiny ways, this film was built for outreach to undecided voters, from the use of average folks from contested states such as Ohio and New Mexico, to the film’s big finish — a live plea from the candidate himself from a campaign stop before an audience of thousands in Fort Lauderdale.

“America — the time for change has come,” he told the cheering crowd, echoing his campaign’s longtime theme. “If you’ll stand by me and fight by my side . . . together, we will change this country and change the world.”

Most notably, none of the average folks featured in the film actually endorsed Obama. Instead, they reminded viewers of the tough economic issues which are working best for the Democrat right now — from a 72-year-old Ohio resident forced to work at Wal-Mart five years after retiring, to the New Mexico teacher with two jobs.

The other notable turn here: No mention of his Republican rivals, John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Instead, Obama stuck to the themes which seem to resonate with the undecideds: tax cuts for the middle class, an end to the war in Iraq, initiatives for reducing dependence on foreign oil and more.

It was during these moments that the film may have fallen flattest, presenting clips of Obama statements that we have seen before in other ads. In particular, the story of his mother telling him to stop complaining about getting up early to do homework, has played dozens of times before in campaign advertisements.

Filled with folksy images — a young Obama swinging a bat, a decidedly older Obama conducting a town hall meeting — the film subtly countered  McCain’s recent attempts to paint him as an unknown, untested friend to radicals. To show his media savvy, quick messages encouraged viewers to text-message and visit his Web site, as well.

Airing on CBS, NBC, Fox, MSNBC, Univision, TV One and Black Entertainment Television, the infomercial gave Obama access to wide swath of the TV audience — a reach across fragmented media outlets that wasn’t necessary the last time a presidential candidate did this, when Ross Perot addressed prime time audiences during the 1992 campaign.

Combined with an appearance on The Daily Show at 11 p.m. Wednesday and cable chatter over the infomercial throughout the day before it aired, the film gave Obama a ubiquitous hold on TV outlets six days before the Nov. 4 election. During the film, some Tampa Bay area viewers could even click over to cable newschannel Bay News 9, where live coverage of the Fort Lauderdale rally was underway.

The Republican Party of Florida had a sharp retort ready: “Florida voters see through this rhetoric no matter how polished it is,” read a statement released by the party shortly after the broadcast ended. “Florida voters will embrace John McCain’s plan to get our economy back on track, grow jobs, and reform Washington, and they will do so because they trust John McCain’s leadership, not because they were sold a candidate on an infomercial.” *

Check it out for yourself here:

Cloris Leachman has been freed from Dancing With the Stars

The long national nightmare is over. Cloris Leachman has been kicked off Dancing With the Stars.

Her departure Tuesday couldn't have come soon enough. The 80-something attention sponge was quickly becoming the Sanjaya Malakar of ABC's unscripted dance competition, mugging her way through dance routines she could barely negotiate physically -- like that crazy aunt you try to keep away from small children at family gatherings.

Producers groused anonymously to the gossip sheets that she was ruining their ratings cash cow (you'd think bringing in Lord of the Schmaltzy Dances Michael Flatley as a guest judge this week would have accomplished that anyway).

And it was hard to decide whether watching Leachman lurch around in low-cut costumes, ignoring the show's hosts to cut up with the judges, was endearing or just sad evidence how badly this eight-time Emmy winner had fallen.

The only plus from Leachman's performances was the way she kept confusing co-host Samantha Harris, a refugee from the E! channel who seemed to react like a dog smacked across the face with a rolled-up newspaper every time Leachman would barrel past to crack a joke or curse a low score from the judges.

But toward the end, Leachman began to look like that 4-year-old singer audiences refused to kick off America's Got Talent; after awhile, keeping somebody around who can't keep pace is just cruel.

So the show's audience finally released Leachman -- and us -- from the pain of pretending that her antics were still entertaining. 

And with her gone, just one question remains: Will the show get so predictable we won't even care whether Warren Sapp takes it all or not? *

Despite World Series, Barack Obama to appear on NBC, CBS, Fox and The Daily Show on Wednesday

Even the completion (we hope) of Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday won't keep Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama from his moment in the prime time spotlight.

Officials at Fox and Major League Baseball say Obama's half-hour prime time special, scheduled to air on CBS, NBC and Fox at 8 p.m. Wednesday, will air as planned just before the scheduled resumption of Game 5, which was suspended on Monday night due to excessive rain and canceled on Tuesday night, also because of weather.

(UPDATE: Obama's special will also air on Univision, MSNBC, BET, and TV One. the New York Times has a few bits of information on what viewers may see.) 

The only question left: What will Obama actually do?

Currently, the first pitch is scheduled for 8:37 p.m., allowing Fox to air Obama's special and cut over to the World Series game. Presumably, preliminary elements such as the national anthem and introductory analysis will be cut or shifted from the start of the show to make room.

Come Wednesday, Obama will stand at the center of a serious amount of TV attention, from his half-hour special at 8 p.m. -- purchased for a reported $1-million per network -- to an 11 p.m. appearance with Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

What no one at the networks will say for sure, is what Obama will actually do or say during the special. Spokesmen from each of the networks said that, because Obama's remarks are classified as a political advertising buy -- albeit an incredibly large one -- they don't have the ability to vet the broadcast in detail.

It's hard to imagine the telegenic Obama repeating the performance by the last presidential candidate to buy a huge chunk of prime time 16 years and three weeks ago: Ross Perot. Back in 1992, Perot faced a camera for 30 minutes several times on different networks, armed with more than two dozen charts and graphs, explaining to the audience why the economy was faltering.

But in the end, Perot drew audiences comparable to other prime time fare and scored nearly 20 percent of the popular vote. So maybe Obama could do worse than follow his lead. *

Click below to read the Daily Show press release:

Wonder if my 30 Rock review got it right? Watch the episode yourself here

Tina Fey couldn't have timed this year better if she could jump through time like that guy from Heroes.

Just as TV audiences seem to be tiring of SNL's lampooning of the election -- even a pitch-perfect Sarah Palin impression can feel a bit worn after three straight weeks of skits -- along comes Fey with the perfect follow-up. Namely, a batch of 30 Rock episodes funny enough to make us forget her amazing take on Caribou Barbie -- at least, for a moment.

I wrote on Sunday about how cool these first two 30 Rock episodes are, with Will & Grace alum Megan Mullally on this week as an unlucky adoption worker checking out Fey's Liz Lemon for possible placement. Next week, the queen of all media, Oprah Winfrey, appears in an inspired cameo that involves an airplane flight, lots of Vicodin and mistaken identity.

Check out the first full episode here, days before it debuts on NBC. And let me know if I got it right. 

(By the way, when I watched the episode, it was sponsored by Obama's campaign. Which made me wonder: Is it ironic that Obama would be sponsoring a Webcast of the show starring the woman who made headlines playing his nemesis? Or is it just good politics to reward the woman who has done as much to cement Sarah Palin's image as a lightweight ex-beauty queen as anyone besides the candidate herself?)

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E! True Hollywood Story tackles Hulk Hogan saga

The long work of rehabilitating the Hulk Hogan family brand is in full swing.

Those of us familiar with the ways of celebrity media know there are two kinds of E! True Hollywood Story episodes: ones where the subjects participate, and ones where they don't.

I've heard from several celebrities that when E! calls about these pieces, the offer is made plain: cooperate with us by giving interviews and background material, so the piece will be much less harsh. And the THS episode on Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea and his family's disastrous year airing at 8 p.m. Nov. 7 features interviews with Bollea, daughter Brooke, local pal/radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge Clem and many more friends and intimates.

According to the early clips released to critics, Clem blames the reality show Hogan Knows Best for "destroying" Bollea's family, and the ex-wrestler talks about feeling like he might vomit after realizing he was going to be divorcing wife Linda.

After perusing these quotes, I wouldn't be surprised if the show offered a bit better publicity than the steady stream of headlines dogging the family over the past year, furthering a process started with Bollea's Larry King Live interview with improving the family's image outside the gossip columns.

E! just sent TV critics a collection of quotes from the show. Check them out below:

Hulk Hogan, on his feelings over the divorce: "It was shocking. … I didn't know if I was going to vomit or pass out or cry, and I kind of took a few moments, and it was like I got kicked by a mule. … I was one of these hopeless romantics that thought no matter what happened, I thought I would be the one who was married forever."

Brooke Hogan, leading up to Hulk's "Larry King Live" interview: "It was to the point where we were getting so just slaughtered with this press of just false rumors and false stories, it was just like the truth has to come out."

Brooke Hogan, on her dad being alone: "There's been times where he's been alone that have scared the living daylights out of me and I'm like, 'Dad, I'll be right there.'  He's very emotional, and he starts over thinking things, and he starts getting really sad."

Brooke Hogan, on her father's current girlfriend, Jennifer McDaniel: "I really do like Jennifer a lot.  It would probably kill my mom to hear this.  I'm glad that she's around because, you know, I'm trying to do my own thing and work, and it's like I can't be there 24/7 so it's nice to know that there's somebody that I trust with, you know, taking care of him as much as I would."

Hulk Hogan, on Nick's sentencing for reckless driving: "When the judge said you're gonna get 8 months in jail, Nick didn't turn around and look at me for advice, guidance or anything.  He just took it like a man.  I never got to say goodbye to him, you know."

Brooke Hogan, on how the incident affected her brother: "Nick, for being in his situation, for being in the public eye, it was a good lesson.  He definitely he got a wake up call."

Brooke Hogan, on the effect of her brother Nick's car accident on her parents' relationship: "The accident, I think really showed them that they just don't view things the same as individuals and as parents, you know, so, it was just kind of like a wakeup call.  I just think that all the stress of our life kind of made it happen sooner."

Bubba The Love Sponge Clem, friend/radio personality, on "Hogan Knows Best:" "In my opinion the reality show is what destroyed the family, and I can remember Terry telling me, 'It is what it is, brother.' " 

Eric Bischoff, friend/former wrestling promoter: "Hulk finally for the first time in a 25-year career allowed people to look behind the curtain, you know, for a guy who is as aware as he is about staying in character and being that brand and being Hulk Hogan.  For him to finally let people in his house, see him in the shower, sitting on the toilet, flipping eggs, was a big thing."

Brooke Hogan, on her reality show, "Brooke Knows Best:" "It's like the best time in my life because it's me and my two best friends and we can just raise hell.  There's not, like, Mom and Dad watching.  It's like I just kind of go, you know, balls to the wall."

Hulk Hogan, on the business of professional wrestling: "No matter how often I worked or how easy things were getting, I felt everybody was replaceable in the business.  It was a business with no security.  If you broke your leg, that was it.  I mean, it was over.  It wasn't like we had guaranteed contracts.  There was no insurance.  There was nothing so I mean, you just never knew how long it was gonna last."

Brooke Hogan, on her dad wrestling: "It was really horrifying for me and Nick because all I saw was my dad bleeding profusely and Nick would go running down the hallways, screaming.'"

Bill Goldberg, friend/wrestler, on Hulk: "I don't think Terry's happy unless he's performing.  He's always gonna be out there, and he's got fans upon fans upon fans who are always gonna be with him."

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More bad news for newspapers -- circulation declines continue

Newspapers got a bit more bad news today, courtesy of circulation figures for the six-month period ending September 2008 showing continuing declines for most papers.

Here in Florida, the St. Petersburg Times lost 19,873 subscribers daily from September 2007 levels, a dip of 6 percent. On Sundays, our circulation basically stayed steady, rising by 337 subscriptions to 390,289. I don't think it's much of a coincidence that these changes happened during a time when we shrank the size of our daily paper, while shifting most of our best work to Sundays.

The Tampa Tribune dropped 4,560 daily subscribers from September 2007 to September 2008, down to 187,689 paid subscribers. On Sundays, the Tribune's paid circulation dropped 3,785 to 258,089 subscriptions, or about 1.4 percent.

Elsewhere in Florida, the news didn't get much better: the Herald Tribune in Sarasota was down 7,247 to 97,824 on Sundays, down 4,676 to 84,291 daily. The Miami Herald lost 27,702 on Sundays to 279,484 and 28,296 daily to 210,884. The Orlando Sentinel also dropped 7,043 to 206,363 daily and down 10,418 on Sundays to 307,976.

Nationwide, among the five biggest papers, only USA Today and the Wall Street Journal kept circulation essentially even daily, at 2.2-million and 2-million subscribers, respectively. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and New York Daily News all lost circulation in drops ranging from 3 percent to 7 percent.

And the good news, as presented by trade magazine Editor and Publisher, didn't feel so good. The Top 10 gainers in circulation only included one paper with more than 100,000 subscribers, the Las Vegas Review Journal, which gained .85 percent to 165,010.

So, as we've seen, the trend of really small and really big papers maintaining their subscribers is continuing. But for the rest of us in the big middle, there seems to be little but tough times on the horizon.

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D.L. Hughley proves CNN should focus on news reporting

The line between satirizing racial stereotypes and wallowing in them is a fine one.

And, unfortunately, the Saturday debut of comic D.L. Hughley's new CNN comedy show, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News, fell a little close to the latter mode too often for my comfort.

Hughley has always seemed a comic searching for a vibe, anyway. Comfortable enough with Hollywood to score an ABC sitcom and a supporting role in NBC's Studio 60, but street enough to host BET's Comic View, he has also seemed a bit removed from either setting -- a little too raw for prime time and a little too refined for the street.

Saturday's debut of his new comedy show for CNN -- itself an odd concept -- revealed Hughley in yet another element where he doesn't quite fit.

Leave aside the fact that his Saturday debut was filled with jokes that never quite landed right -- portraying Freddie Mac as a garish pimp when the GOP has blamed the country's entire financial meltdown on poor folks who got Freddie Mac loans? Really?

Breaking the News' biggest problem, especially in its first half, was that it all felt too hard. David Alan Grier's black-focused news satire Chocolate News works because Grier is a funny actor who can sell anything. He will play any role for maximum laughs without hesitation -- whether he's embodying an X-rated rapper making a No Child Left Behind video or Maya Angelou regurgitating a nonsensical rhyme about Barack Obama.

But worse than Hughley's off-balance jokes was the effort it all took. Wide as he smiled, you saw this guy was working way too hard; and it's hard to laugh when you sense that, behind the comic's eyes, he's not sold on the material, either. Here's D.L.'s take on something I've written about before -- the history of the black president in film.

None of this even touches on some critics' biggest complaint about Hughley's show -- that a news network has no business putting on a comedy program in the first place (yeah, you could argue Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace did it first, but that's just snide). It seems CNN is acknowledging what many critic have already said -- that the satire of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report can get to the truth of some news reports better than traditional reporting.

As I had to remind a Fox News publicist who called me offering a raft of quotes from CNN head Jon Klein about the importance of news, Fox News Channel tried its own hand at something like this -- The 1/2 Hour News Hour --  last year. Remember the days when cable TV news channels focused mostly on reporting the news?

And is it good or bad for CNN that this comedy show actually broke news Saturday when former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Hughley's show?

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