Syesha's Scrapbook: Deggans Tries His Hand at Photojournalism

The Pulitzer committee doesn't need to be alerted just yet. But I had more fun -- and success-- than I expected shooting pictures of American Idol contestant Syesha Mercado's visit to the Tampa Bay area Friday.

Tracking the visit itself was like walking the Bataan Death March -- cruising to Tampa at 7 a.m., Sarasota by lunchtime, then back to St. Petersburg in rush hour traffic to hassle with the crowd at Tropicana Field so I could watch Syesha nail a national anthem she's sung at baseball games since she was 9 years old.

A few things did stick out while I was shadowing the Last Woman Standing in TV's most popular singing contest:

-- Syesha pretty much admitted that she doesn't listen to the judges, telling reporters her vocal coaches have more impact on her creative decisions in the competition.

-- Syesha's dad Jose said he didn't mind the barbs directed his way by idol judge Simon Cowell because most of his criticisms are just a shtick, anyway.

-- Idol is still a phenomenon, and huge draw locally for WTVT-Ch. 13. Still, it was a little surprising to see the amount of news resources the station devoted to covering her visit, including two remote trucks and their helicopter.

-- Sarasota's 70-year-old mayor, Lou Ann Palmer, reportedly did three handstands last Tuesday, during a massive Idol party hosted by an area radio station at Mattison's restaurant.

-- When Palmer failed to hold a handstand on her first try during Mercado's visit to the Ringling Museum, the mayor cracked "I pulled a Brooke," in referenced to ejected Idol Brooke White, who had two false starts while competing on the show.

-- Reality was rarely good enough for idol's camera crew; Mercado had to redo her entrance at WTVT twice and redo her departure from the stations three times before they got the footage the producer wanted. Palmer had to say the name of the song Randy Jackson picked for Syesha to sing Tuesday four times before she got it right. 

Here's a host of photos from my time Friday. Click on any photo to see an enlarged, more detailed display.

Another American Idol Surprise: Sarasota-Bred Finalist Syesha Mercado is a Playful, Poised Star-in-the-Making

TAMPA -- This was not the Syesha Mercado I've seen tackling the big songs each week on American Idol.

That woman, appearing on my TV each week belting out classic diva tunes despite all advice to the contrary, is by turns intensely serious and emotional -- focused on nailing the increasingly showy tunes she picks each week for America's biggest talent competition.

But the Syesha who emerged during the start of her daylong local publicity tour of the Tampa Bay area this morning was so much more appealing. Funny. Humble. Given to playful teasing and spot-on impressions -- she cracked up the crew on WFLZ-FM's morning show with a dead-on impersonation of Idol judge Paula Abdul -- Mercado seems born to bask in the attention afforded a major singing star.

So why does so little of this superstar charisma make it onto the Idol stage during the competition?

"American Idol kind of put me in a stage fright mode," said Mercado, speaking backstage at the studios of Tampa Fox affiliate WTVT-Ch. 13, where the station had assembled a phalanx of media to document the return of a local hero. "I've learned to loosen up a bit and go with the flow."

By 8 a.m. this morning, Mercado was deep into a day of media appearances and public performances that would challenge the most experienced performer. As her gigantic stretch limousine pulled up before WTVT's Kennedy Blvd. headquarters, she had already knocked off two radio interviews, singing snatches of the National Anthem she would recreate tonight at the Rays baseball game in St. Petersburg and firing off a dead-on impersonation of Tina Turner.

At WTVT, a small knot of fans culled from the station's staff waved signs before a makeshift red carpet, providing the kind of celebratory greeting that will look good for Idol's cameras.

Inside the Fox affiliate, reporters from People magazine, Sarasota magazine, Orlando's fox affiliate and host of area newspapers jockeyed for good photos while the station's Idol correspondent Charlie Belcher goofed around with Mercado. And because cameras were on hand filming this for Idol's Welcome Home show next week, reality wasn't quite good enough: Mercado stepped out of her limo twice and re-enacted leaving the station three times, to catch the perfect shots.

Ask Mercado whether consistent criticism from the judges has ever affected her -- she is, after all, the only contestant this season to land in the Bottom Three of audience votes multiple times and survive to stand among the Top Three contenders -- and you learn that she pays far more attention to what her vocal coaches advise than what Abdul Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell offer.

"The judges say stuff to me, and it doesn't affect me...I never take it to heart," she says, expertly directing her attention to each member of the media crowded around her while speaking. "Paula is really cool -- she came backstage and told me the other day 'Simon liked your performance, he just didn't have anything else to say.' I'm like, why didn't he just say that he liked it on national television?"

Mercado even let a bit of showbiz dish drop, inadvertently; admitting that she can't get permission to sing a version of Beyonce's Listen because Cowell remains in a tiff with the singer. Back in 2005, he criticized Beyonce's figure and singing ability in an interview for Esquire magazine, promoting the singer's dad to challenge Cowell to a competition to develop the most successful singing group.

"That last show, he kind of...(nixed the song)," said Mercado. "Simon doesn't like to apologize to people, so..."

Mercado blamed her early, ice queen image on an illness early in the competition which forced her to conserve her voice, communicating with people mostly through rudimentary hand signals and written notes. Her turning point came during a performance of Andrew Lloyd Weber's One Rock N Roll Too Many, which allowed her to be a little flirty and theatrical -- separating herself from the experience by playing a bit of a role.

"Being on vocal rest kind of dampened who I am," she said. "It kinda made me silent -- you can only hold up note cards (to communicate) for so long. But slowly and surely, I came into my own."

Certainly, she looked born to the role this morning, fielding every question with enthusiasm and sass, jousting a bit with Belcher on WTVT and basking in the chorus of camera shutters set off every time she moved to a new position on WTVT's set (she even graciously handled WTVT's request that she read an endless list of on air promos, sure to fill their airwaves leading to the Idol finale).

Later today, she'll head for her old high school, Booker High School in Sarasota, headline a short performance at the Ringling Museum (rumors are, some folks are leaving work early to check it out) and angle back to St. Petersburg for the Rays game.

Something tells me, this woman who has been angling for a showbiz career since she was 9 years old -- singing the National Anthem at spring training games for the Pittsburgh Pirates -- will be just as energetic at 7 p.m. as she was at 7 a.m., well aware that she's living her dreams in a way few performers ever achieve.

"People tell me to smile more...but YOU stand up here and try to smile," said Mercado, noting how hard its been to show her true performing personality on Idol's super-visible stage. "This experience is so amazing, I just don't want to go home. sometimes I don't smile...because its just so nerve wracking."

Apologies for the low-quality photos...but I was forced to shoot pictures myself. Click on any one to enlarge.    

Evil Jason Explains His Performance: Castro Swears He Didn't Sandbag American Idol

In his obligatory exit interview Thursday, fallen American Idol contestant Jason Castro told reporters he didn't intentionally sabotage his performance Tuesday night -- despite forgetting the words to a classic Bob Dylan song and online rumors he mouthed the words "don't vote" during the show.

"Yesterday, I wanted to win and the day before," Castro told journalists during a telephone press conference Thursday. "What it came down to is just my inexperience...Once we doubled up on songs, I wasn't really being able to focus. And both my songs we just -- my mind was split, and I just couldn't deliver either/or, and so I think that's what it came down to."

Castro admitted that when he auditioned for Idol, he had only performed live in something like five shows, none lasting longer than 30 minutes. That's a marked difference from the resume of competitors such as Sarasota native Syesha Mercado, who has been singing publicly since she was a child and even appeared on a previous reality TV talent competition, ABC-TV's short-lived The One.

"I'd never even learned a song all the way through, and now trying to learn two in a week has been tough," said Castro, who some critics -- okay, me -- dubbed The New Sanjaya for his obvious lack of vocal skill and performing ability. Still, the singer said he actually told viewers to "Vote" twice during the show, and it just looked like he said "Don't vote."

And he also admitted one other thing: When host Ryan Seacrest noted he looked relieved to be leaving the show Wednesday night, he had a good point.

"I was really starting to fear the week ahead, if I made it," he said. "How was I going to do three songs? I can't even do two right, and with the hometown visit, it was just going to be a lot of work, even though it would have been so much fun....My natural reaction, I just really felt relieved, like the pressure was off."

So the question remains: does it help Idol's reputation that such an inexperienced performer washed out before the final three, or hurt the show that he made it far as he did?

What Does It Means That TiVo Users' Top TV Mom of All Time Is Claire Huxtable?

Barack Obama should be heartened by the results of a recent poll released by TiVo, indicating that the favorite TV mom of all is The Cosby Show's Claire Huxtable, vaulting this classic mother of color ahead of traditional, white-bread icons such as Leave It to Beaver's June Cleaver and the Brady Bunch's Carol Brady.

Based on a survey of more than 1,000 TiVo users, the results may indicate a chance in the traditional picture of family suggested by television, expanding it a bit to include less than traditional families. Indeed, you don't have to look too far down this list to find Marge Simpson at Number 5, Family Guy's Lois Griffin at Number 12 and working class hero Roseanne at Number 15.

Still, I think the list is a bit lacking. With Mother's Day just three days away, here's five of the best TV moms TiVo missed, culled from a 2002 story I pulled together on the Best TV Moms of the New Millenium:

5. Edith Bunker (All in the Family) - Surprisingly perceptive underneath her dingbat exterior, Jean Stapleton's Edith brought a big heart to counter bigoted husband Archie's blustery insults.

4. Debra Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond) - More than just the typical sitcom "hot mom," Patricia Heaton's Debra Barone can go toe to toe with husband Raymond's overbearing mother and spare enough compassion to help her daughter get over losing a pet hamster.

3. Lois (Malcolm in the Middle) - Surly, vindictive, bullying and aggressive, Jane Kaczmarek's Lois would be the worst mother in the world - if she wasn't such a perfect match for her equally dysfunctional family.

2. Florida Evans (Good Times) - Strong enough to raise a family of three kids in Chicago's toughest housing project, Esther Rolle's Florida still shone brightest when standing beside her proud, hardworking husband, James.

1. Sharon Osbourne (The Osbournes) - This mom and rock star manager may let her kids cuss up a  storm and wear more piercings than a sideshow geek, but watch five minutes of MTV's reality hit and you'll have no doubt who runs the show in this family, on or off stage. How else do you think the Prince of Darkness avoided the career obscurity that has swallowed so many of his former bandmates?

Here's TiVo's Top TV Moms
    1.  Clair Huxtable: The Cosby Show 58%
     2.  Marion Cunningham: Happy Days 37%
    3.  Carol Brady:  Brady Bunch 37%
    4.  June Cleaver: Leave it to Beaver 34%
    5.  Marge Simpson: The Simpsons 33%
    6.  Wilma Flintstone: The Flintstones 29%
    7.  Vivian Banks: Fresh Prince of Bel Air 27%
    8.  Caroline Ingalls: Little House on the Prairie 27%
    9.  Maggie Seaver: Growing Pains 25%
    10. Marie Barone: Everybody Loves Raymond 24%
    11. Peggy Bundy: Married With Children 23%
    12. Lois Griffin: Family Guy 21%
    13. Mrs. Partridge: The Partridge Family 22%
    14. Lorelai Gilmore: The Gilmore girls 20%
    15. Roseanne: Roseanne 20%
    16. Carmella Soprano: The Sopranos 14%
    17. Bree Van de Kamp: Desperate Housewives 14%
    18. Norma Arnold: The Wonder Years 13%
    19. Estelle Costanza: Seinfeld 13%
    20. Lucille Bluth: Arrested Development 6%

A Bonus From Evil Jason's Departure From American Idol: Syesha Comes Home to the Tampa Bay Area Friday

Now it can be told: In addition to finally ridding the show of its Dead Singer Walking, Jason Castro's departure tonight from American Idol brings another bit of good tidings.

Syesha Mercado is coming home to the Tampa Bay area on Friday.

Longtime Idol fans will recall that the show always films a segment close to the show's end where the finalists head home for a burst of adulation from their hometown crowds, collecting keys to the city, adoring speeches from former teachers and lots of good wishes from adoring crowds.

Because the closest Fox affiliate to Mercado's Sarasota hometown is Tampa's WTVT-Ch. 13, she'll spend a fair amount of time in Tampa, stopping by WFLZ-FM's MJ Morning Show Friday at 7 a.m., heading over to WTVT's Good Day Tampa Bay morning show by 8 a.m. and stopping by her alma mater, Booker High School in Sarasota by 12:30 p.m. for a mini-parade and private concert.

By 2:45 p.m. she's scheduled to hop aboard WTVT's SkyFox helicopter for a ride to the Ringling Museum where she'll present another short concert for the public. By 6:30 p.m., she'll be in St. Petersburg to sing the National Anthem for the Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field.

I'm assuming that she'll be in a coma in a hotel room bed somewhere by 8 p.m.

No wonder Castro was so glad to be hitting the road tonight, and the remaining contestants look so tired. It seems the life of a potential Idol leaves little room for small things. Like sleep. And more than an hour spent in any one location.

6:45 a.m.: In-studio appearances on WFLZ-FM 93.3’s MJ Morning Show and WMTX-FM 100.7’s Nancy and Chris show.

8 a.m.: WTVT's Good Day Tampa Bay.

10:30 a.m.: Downtown Bradenton appearance between City Hall and the Manatee River.

11:15 a.m.: Autograph session at the AT&T store at 4708 Cortez Road, Bradenton.

12:30 p.m. or thereabouts: At her alma mater, Booker High School in Sarasota, for a mini-parade and private concert.

2:45 p.m.: She's scheduled to hop aboard WTVT's SkyFox helicopter for a ride to the Ringling Museum where she'll present another short concert for the public.

6:57 p.m.: She'll sing the National Anthem at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg before the Rays game against the Los Angeles Angels. The game starts at 7:10 p.m. and tickets start at $9 at 1-888-326-7297. raysbaseball.com.

It's Official: American Idol Is Now an Endurance Test -- For the Singers AND the Viewers

It's awfully hard to write about a singing competition that isn't a singing competition any more.

But you only had to look at the worn faces of Jason Castro and David Cook to see the toll life at the center of American Idol's white-hot pop culture flame has taken on contestants this year.

And just like classic disaster movies always showed heroes rising to deal with danger (or not), the unique pressure cooker inside the Idol showbiz juggernaut has brought surprising reactions from all involved. In the final weeks, Syesha Mercado has emerged as the Hillary Clinton of the bunch -- refusing to take the long walk despite landing in the bottom three more than any contestant left and taking a load of crap from Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell no contestant with her voice should endure.

Indeed, it doesn't matter how many unfair criticisms Jackson and Cowell lob her way -- bravo to Syesha for breaking into tears just after Jackson's inexplicably harsh assessment of her second song, literally forcing Cowell to paste on a smile and compliment her (the Bratty Brit seems very wary of kicking contestants when they are already down). Syesha has found her groove and seems to be loving her success, like a condemned man who keeps snagging last-minute stays of execution.

David Archuleta, who still looks like he might hyperventilate himself into a coma after every performance, clocked the best vocals of the night, managing to wrap his white-boy soul around two of the most-covered tunes in rock music -- Stand By Me and Love Me Tender -- in a way that surely had Simon Cowell scurrying offstage to check on the rights for the youngster's post-Idol debut album.

David Cook seemed to sleepwalk through his songs, Hungry Like the Wolf and Teenage Wasteland, too drained to even bother ripping off new arrangements from iTunes. As Cowell noted and he seemed to realize, he did well enough to get past this week -- so why bust a gut actually, you know, performing?

And there's Jason. Castro seemed to be begging the audience to send him home, lurching through a wedding band version of I Shot the Sheriff and committing a cardinal Idol sin during Mr. Tambourine Man: forgetting his words. If Entertainment Weekly's piece last week on the show is to be believed, Castro has one foot out the door, already.

I'm begging America to help him the rest of the way. He wants it. Really.

EXTRA NOTE: A buddy who does PR for Luna Guitars, a Tampa company which makes guitars designed by a local artist who switched from work in stained glass, says the company provided all the Idols with custom-made guitars for tonight's show. Yes, that cool-looking guitar Jason used to scratch out his awful version of the Bob Marley classic was made by a company based right here in the Tampa Bay area.

I hear they're whipping up a left-handed one for rocker boy David Cook as you read this. Check out a recent feature on Luna Guitars in the Times here, and keep your eye out for Cook's model next week.   

Deggans Pundit Alert: Explaining Media's Toughness on Obama and Network TV's Post Strike Blues

Howard Kurtz must be trying to turn me into a star.

That's my admittedly self-centered conclusion after noting how much the Washington Post media critic has quoted me in his latest story, a look at how the media has gotten tougher on Obama. Frankly, this is a trend I talked about way back in February, when a Saturday Night Live sketch poking fun at the media's adulation of Obama seemed to spark a raft of negative stories about the candidate.

Unfortunately, many media outlets' idea of incisive coverage includes stories about whether Obama wears a flag pin and how long he's known that Jeremiah Wright is a loose cannon. Now Howard has weighed in, concluding that Obama has "been brought down to earth by the same media organizations that fueled his meteoric rise."

Another element at work here is something I've also written about before: The news media's love for a tight Democratic primary which has fueled TV ratings, boosted the visibility of myriad reporters and given declining newspapers a reason to argue for their relevance. Big media loves this fight and wants both contenders to stay in the game as long as possible -- which means that whenever one of them pulls ahead, the other will take a few hits.

Another friend in media, reality TV expert Andy Dehnart, did me the honor of calling while he was assembling a story for MSNBC.com on why ratings for network TV shows have dropped since their return after the writers' strike.

Andy presents experts who argue that the viewership dip isn't solely caused by the strike. But as I noted a while ago, the strike allowed some viewers to find new ways to occupy their time -- and the spate of returning shows will last just a few weeks before we're back to reality TV and reruns for summer.

What's more worrisome than viewership drops is the trend of complex scripted shows migrating to cable. Increasingly, the best scripted dramas are found in the wilds of cable, where ratings demands and content restriction are lower. So what will happen to network TV's upscale, educated audience when all you can find on broadcast is Deal or No Deal and Celebrity Apprentice?

Keep your eye on this blog, and you'll read the answers before my quotes wind up in the Washington post or MSNBC.com.   

Bubba the Love Sponge Scores Big Ratings on His Return

When Bubba the Love Sponge Clem first returned to local free commercial "terrestrial" radio in January, he promised two things: that he wouldn’t repeat the same kind of explicit material that got him fired from the dial four years ago, and that he would eclipse rival Todd "MJ" Schnitt in short order.

Following release of ratings from the first full measurement period since his show’s Jan. 8 debut on WHPT-102.5 FM (The Bone), it seems Clem has accomplished both goals, turning employer Cox Radio into a bigger player among area rock radio stations in the process.

According to figures supplied by WHPT and confirmed by the Arbitron ratings service, Clem scored top ratings from Jan. 10 to April 2 among several age groups attractive to advertisers, including: age 12 and older, ages 18 to 34, and ages 25 to 54. In most categories, he tripled or quadrupled ratings from a year ago, bringing a new audience to WHPT's morning show.

"The market just readjusted to where it was before I left," said Clem, who had the top-rated morning show on Clear Channel-owned WXTB-97.9 FM (98Rock) four years ago, when he was fired after incurring a $755,000 indecency fine from the government.

Clem’s success also trickled down to afternoon drive time, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., where WHPT’s former morning man Mike "Cowhead" Calta scored top ratings among adults aged 25 to 54.

Schnitt declined to comment Monday on the ratings, hanging up his cellphone in mid-conversation.

Clem has earned loads of media attention this year — relentlessly criticizing the decision of Mark Lunsford to sue the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office over the investigation into the disappearance, rape and murder of his 9-year-old daughter Jessica. More headlines came when Schnitt sued Clem, alleging that comments critical of him aired on WHPT were false and defamatory.

One industry expert said the numbers may just show listeners’ initial curiosity about Clem.

"The interesting thing will be to see if this continues into the next ratings book and the next," said Ken Tucker, radio editor for the trade magazine Radio and Records. "Right now, this is potentially the biggest audience he’ll ever have."

Clem disagreed. "The Bone has never been a major player in this market, now they are," he said. "I’ve never done this well, this fast."

Here's the ratings figures:

Morning Drive M-F 6a-10a

All numbers here are ratings shares: the percentage of people listening to radio at the time.

Adults ages 12 and over
1. WHPT (The Bone)              9.5
2. WFLZ  (93-3 FLZ)               8.1
3. WDUV  (The Dove)              7.0
4. WBTP   (The Beat)              6.6
5. WFLA-AM  (Newsradio 970) 6.5

Adults ages 18-34
1. WHPT                   18.5
2. WLLD (Wild 98.7)  10.8
3. WFLZ                   10.6
4. WBTP                    7.3
5. WSUN                     5.6

Adults ages 25-54
1. WHPT           14.0
2. WFLZ            10.1
3. WBTP           8.4
4. WQYK          4.6
5. WFLA-AM     4.3

Day Three in NYC: Denis Leary and the Psychology of Race in Election Coverage

Only in New York can you go from an academic discussion of race, media and the presidential election to kickin' it with Rescue Me's Tommy Gavin.

But that's the fun I'm going to be having today, as I cap my time in Gotham by visiting Denis Leary on the set of FX's deliciously profane firefighter drama Rescue Me to talk with about that show and HBO's ambitious take on the Florida-based fight over the 2000 presidential election, Recount.

Last night, I sat on a panel at Columbia University discussing the state of the media's work covering race and the election -- we had lots of criticisms, surprise! -- moderated by Ray Suarez of PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and featuring folks from the Poynter Institute, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal (I KNOW, what was I doing there?)

I was particularly intrigued by the work of the Post's Shankar Vedantam, an academic-friendly reporter who has assembled a number of stories crunching behavioral studies to explain some of the dynamics in the current election.

One reason why he thinks reaction to the Jeremiah Wright scandal varies so starkly between black people and white people is because minorities seems to measure racial progress by comparing current conditions to an ideal future, while white people measure racial progress by comparing the present to our racial past. So when Jeremiah Wright delivers fiery sermons about institutional racism, black people immediately think of how far we have to go while white people get offended, thinking of how far we have come.

He also cited another study in which white people were presented with a scenario -- you're about to be born and you are scheduled to be born white. If your color were somehow switched to black, how much money would you want in compensation? At first, respondents said about $5,000, greatly underestimating the challenges of being black in America. Once they are told the true cost -- that black people are 447 percent more likely to be imprisoned, 521 percent more likely to be murdered and start life generally with five times less the wealth of the average white person -- they usually demand more money.

And regarding gender, he cited a study in which the same description of an executive was handed to two groups of people -- tough but fair, rewards creativity, etc. -- but the only difference is one group gets a description on a CEO named James and the other group gets a description of a CEO named Andrea. You got it - when questioned, the subjects overwhelmingly named Andrea as less likable and James as the boss they would prefer to work for, even though there was no difference in the descriptions except for the names.

His work suggests there are split-second, unconscious reactions to race and gender issues that are affecting how we react to these candidates. Exposing and discussing those tendencies -- and what they mean for real-life candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- is some of the most interesting work around on the campaign trail.

Wonder how Denis is going to react to some of this? 

Ira Glass and This American Life Change the Life of a Tampa Man, Just By Reporting on Him

Talking to Ira Glass feels like starring in your own personal version of This American Life.

His thin, slightly nerdy voice echoes the rhythms of his quirky, wondrous public radio feature show, even over the telephone line from New York City. And our meeting likely wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for Mike Phillips.

Mike is an amazing guy in South Tampa who loves Dr. Who, quotes Seattle rockers Death Cab for Cutie and can only move his left thumb and his face. In today's Floridian, I tell the story of how Mike, who struggles with a neurological disorder which took away his ability to operate many of the muscles in his body, climbed out a depression and began to find a new independence in life after trading emails with Glass, who was interested in profiling him. (at left, Mike poses with his girlfriend, St. Petersburg Times reporter Sara Rosenbaum)

For a while, Mike's story was a contender for This American Life Live, an event tonight in which Glass presents some stories from the TV version of his show, answers questions and shows outtakes in a presentation beamed to theaters across the country, including three in Tampa and Sarasota. But the story proved too long for Glass' live program, though it will be featured on the first episode of This American Life's second season on premium cable channel Showtime.

It's a powerful, penetrating story, featuring picturesque cinematography and movie star Johnny Depp appearing as Mike's voice (because he breathes through a respirator attached to his neck, Mike doesn't talk much, anymore). And Glass made time in a busy pre-Live show schedule to talk a bit about how his story on the 27-year-old became an example of a media version of the fabled Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: the very act of observing something can change it forever.

When did you realize Mike's story could be material for This American Life?

The point at which I thought it was a story was really early. We were emailing about something which isn’t a big part of the story on television – which is how often he has these near death experiences where his breathing gear will stop. Sometimes he’s alone, and sometimes he’s surrounded by people who don’t notice that it’s happened. The way he wrote about what those moments were like was utterly without melodrama. It was just a very easy to relate to reporting of 'Here’s everything that goes through my head when I realize I may die in a minute.' It was kind of amazing. My favorite thing – it happens to him so much, he has a lot to say about it – he thought about the moment when Switch dies in the Matrix movie. And she says 'Not like this.' That’s what he thought. I totally can imagine what it’s like. He just seemed like somebody who was having a number of extraordinary experiences but could relate them in a way anybody could relate to."

Mike seems determined not to be portrayed in the typical way disable people are shown in media.

"We knew he wouldn’t be a caricature of a disabled person – the courageous person who triumphs over adversity. We really tried to structure it so that would not be available to the viewer. When I met Mike in person, the very first thing he did, was that he played me a song a church had written about what an inspiring figure he was. He was very respectful about the people who wrote the song, but it was clear that it wasn’t capturing his experience. It’s not his job to be inspirational.”

How did you get Johnny Depp to serve as Mike's voice on the story?

In a real moment in the story, when I asked Mike 'Who would you like to read your narration?' He said Johnny Depp or Ed Norton. I said well, Ed Norton's based in New York City, you see him on subway with his kid. He seems like a human being who a person could reach. We contacted his agent, said here’s the thing. He was out of the country shooting something and could not make it happen. They expressed regrets and we left it at that...About three weeks before we finished the episode, the president of (Showtime), Bob Greenblatt, asked if we had approached Johnny Depp. He had been in contact with Johnny Depp – for him, Johnny Depp was somebody he could get on the phone. So basically, I emailed his agent at UTA, and he agent passed it onto his sister – his sister is his business manager. What I’m told I his sister forwarded it to Johnny and he said yes. I think I got a reply that day and Johnny was in. I basically pasted in the email some of the things that Mike had written to me. And I said, 'Here’s who this is, and we’re not interested in doing a corny kind of story.' Apparently, he (may) have a recording studio in his home, he just did it on his own.”

Have you ever had a source talk about your show changing their life in the way Mike does?

“I think the way in which we changed his life is the way that anybody’s life might be changed by suddenly having the national press show up. And that seems fine. If somebody was a peace activist and we convinced them to join the marines I would be worried. When we do these stories, I assume I’m seeing some glossy version of someone's life. I’m company. I’m seeing as much as I can see when I’m company. I don’t think there exists some deeper, final truth. In these kinds of situations, I’m looking for something that is true. I’m not Seymour Hersh investigating Abu Ghraib. As long as what we’re showing actually is true, its okay if we don’t get to the bottom core of everyone’s feeling.”

At the Daily Show With Aasif Mandvi; A Tampa Guy at the Tip of a Cultural Phenomenon

Now, I can die happy: I have walked onto the set of the Daily Show.

Of course, Jon Stewart and his cast of faux-journalists weren't exactly there. Those guys were elsewhere in the shows sprawling, 44,000 square-foot office/studio space, kicking around ideas (for those of you who saw Stewart live in Tampa last year, wearing two t-shirt and khaki pants, he seemed to be wearing the exact same ensemble today!)

I visited Daily's digs along west 52nd st. earlier today, to hang out a bit with the show's Tampa-raised, British-born Mideast Correspondent Aasif Mandvi. also known as "that guy who fired Spider Man" in the superhero movie's sequel, Mandvi is a thoughtful actor who is relishing a regular job satirizing the nation's agita on race, culture, religion and politics at a time when all these subjects are on society's front burner.

I'm going to save the quotes for later, when I work our conversation into a full-on feature for the print newspaper. But we spent nearly two hours together, talking about everything from Hollywood's inability to deal well with race issues to the culture shock he experienced as a teen when his family moved from a working class neighborhood in Britain to 1980s-era Tampa.

Along the way, I got a tour of Daily's sprawling loft of an office, with the kind of casual air usually reserved for college dorm lounges. I traded a few quips with correspondent Jason Jones -- I talked so long with Mandvi, he accused me of writing a book on him -- and got a glimpse of John Hodgman (PC Guy from the Apple commercials), who appears in a bit tonight.

Unfortunately, I came a day late to see Aasif's latest gag, in which he "reported" from inside the graphics of the bloody new video game Grand Theft Auto IV, satirizing the nation's thirst for pixilated blood and Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia's lawyerly claim that torture isn't necessarily considered punishment (as in "cruel and unusual")

I've got to cut this post short, because I'm checking out the show taping at 6 p.m.; even though Aasif doesn't appear in the program tonight, I'm hoping to soak up some color and maybe meet ace researcher Adam Chodikoff, who was the subject of much buzz in the office today over a cool feature in the Washington Post on his work digging up the show's striking video clips. 

Deggans Hits New Yawk City and Muses on Law & Order's Coolest Cop Partners

I've just touched down in New York's JFK Airport, and my first thought is to crack open the laptop and get a fresh post on the blog. I'm awfully frightened about what that says about me.

I'm here for a conference hosted by Columbia University on how the media covers race -- they were dumb enough to put me on a panel about race and election coverage moderated by Ray Suarez -- but I've also got plans to hang out with Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi (who knew he grew up in Tampa?) and Rescue Me star Denis Leary. So the blog is going to take on a certain hard headed Gotham feel for the next few days, as I give you the early skinny on my exploits.

But since I'm back in The City That Never Sleeps, I figured I'd toss up a tribute to the coolest cop show ever to grace the streets of Manhattan: Law & Order

Yeah, it's cool these days to slag off NBC's creaky cop franchise, but the mothership has gotten more interesting than ever, with new additions Linus Roache and Jeremy Sisto. So, as Law and Order says goodbye to Jesse L. Martin's Ed Green -- read last week's tribute here -- we find NBC's 18-year-old cop drama preparing to welcome its 8th team of detectives in the show’s history.

So, before Anthony Anderson’s Kevin Bernard joins Jeremy Sisto’s Cyrus Lupo at 10 p.m. tonight, it’s worth remembering the series’ coolest cop team: Lennie Briscoe and Mike Logan.

A classic TV duo, onscreen and off, Jerry Orbach’s Lennie Briscoe was the weary veteran -- a reformed alcoholic whose acerbic worldview gave each episode the best one-liners in crime TV (my fave: “I specifically asked for him to be put on suicide watch. Apparently, here at Riker’s, that means that they watch you commit suicide.”)

Chris Noth’s Mike Logan was all impetuous anger and passion, eventually ushered off when he clocked a city councilman getting away with murder — as the wealthy often did on early L&O.  On a show fanatically focused on story, they remain a percolating connection to personality — providing a street-level look at each week’s crime, and a laugh or two besides.

The Rest of Law & Order's Best Partnerships:
Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green (Orbach and Jesse L. Martin): Martin’s Ed Green brought an edgy energy as the junior detective with a gambling history and a grudge against authority. As Green grew to respect his Luddite partner with the ‘50s-era pompadour, we grew to respect him.

Max Greevey and Mike Logan (George Dzundza and Noth): L&O’s first police duo, this team was hobbled a bit by a testosterone-heavy cast – no females in the core lineup, which almost got them canceled by NBC – and an ambling storytelling style. Still, the beefy Dzundza had the most realistic physique of any Law & Order cop.

Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson (Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay): Anchoring hit spin off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, this pair produced the franchise’s first magnetic female cop and a team compelling enough to anchor the first L&O series to focus as much on characters as story.

American Idol Crowns Two New Sanjayas -- Jason Castro and Brooke White

You know American Idol is headed into new territory when the singers who gave the two best performances of the week land in the bottom of the voting.

It's not that I didn't expect Carly Smithson to eventually get bounced from the competition -- she suffered from Phil Stacey syndrome, where she never really figured out what kind of artist she wanted to be until it was too late. Still, her version of Jesus Christ Superstar was easily one of the best performances of Tuesday night -- highlighted as such by none other than the snippy Brit, Simon Cowell himself. She hardly deserved to leave the show tonight.

Instead, Cowell was left to make lame excuses for why viewers voted for Jason Castro, whose take on Memory he said reminded him of a child forced to sing at a wedding, and Brooke White, who screwed up her song onstage for the second time. (Ialso love how he made Carly's ejection about himself, noting that he complimented her on the week se was ejected).

Syesha Mercado gets my Hillary Clinton award for making more comebacks than any singer this season, landing in the bottom two or three multiple times, only to evade ejection in the last moments.

These results are a bit unfortunate, because American Idol is so clearly not a singing competition anymore. And unlike last year, when Sanjaya Malakar was squeaking ahead of singers only marginally better than he was, White and Castro are besting some people who could have gone the distance, particularly if voters were choosing contestants who could actually sing.

It will be interesting to see if this dynamic busts up the two Davids, Archuleta and Cook, now still heavily favored to land in the top two. Because, if Idol voters aren't really picking the best singers, then what do the contestants do to stay in the game?

Decide for yourself -- compare Carly's performance and Jason's below

American Idol's Big Question: Can Brooke White Survive Her Second Onstage Flub?

Earnest bohemian Brooke White looks more like a flower wilting in the sunlight every week.

Much as I like her fresh-faced sincerity, White seems to be taking way too much of the madness to heart as American Idol gets down to the final stretches, and it's killing her performances.

Last week, only residual revulsion from Kristy Lee Cook's early missteps kept White from taking the long walk. And this week, she committed the cardinal sin of stopping mid-way through the intro of a song -- the second time now that she's restarted a tune in the competition. Before long, something that originally looked like a cool coffehouse flub is beginning to come off like a serious case of stage jitters.

If Idol voters were casting ballots solely on vocal style, however, Jason Castro's halting, game stab at Memory would earn him the one way ticket to Ejectionville. As usual, judge Simon Cowell came up with the night's best line, noting "I suspect I felt, like you, that that was the longest two minutes of your life."

It's a curious turn, given how stage-managed American Idol really is. The New York Times weighed in today, offering a behind the scenes look at Idol which boiled down to a few revelations you could have guessed already: a) they recruit all the pretty young girls at the stage front; b) they coach them on how to act during performances; c) every performer on the show has a bodyguard to make sure no fan actually touches them offscreen.

In truth, Andrew Lloyd Webber night turned out much easier on the ears than I'd imagined. Like Mariah Carey before him, Webber's image as a celebrity has become such a caricature that it's easy to forget what a brilliant songwriter he is. And watching both Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson breathe new life into their performances by tackling some of his gutsiest tunes (One Rock & Roll Too Many and Jesus Christ Superstar, respectively) was well worth the time.

Unfortunately, White is looking more pained by the week -- a malady Idol voters usually reward with rejection. Hey, if the pressure's too much for her to handle, America should do us all a favor and stop the madness. Right now.

Cable TV's Election Coverage: The More They Talk, The Less We Learn

I have a simple theory about cable news, developed after months spent consuming its endless coverage of this endless presidential election: the more attention they pay to a subject, the less viewers actually learn.

I tested my notion recently by tackling a marathon assignment: spending a day watching the shows cobbled together by each cable news channel to capitalize on the nation's electoral interest -- Fox’s America’s Election HQ, MSNBC’s Race to the White House and CNN’s Election Center.

What I found: news programs chewing over morsels of information like grazing cows, taking a sliver of reported fact and massaging it with bursts of analysis and supposition until viewers had a tough time separating actual fact from assumption and opinion.

I call it the high “noise to signal ratio” of cable news; the way punditry and strategy often overwhelms the meat of reportage. Unsurprisingly, the show with the highest noise to signal ratio on this day was found at Fox News.

America’s Election HQ is a chummy, vibrating hour packed with flashy graphics, made-to-order partisan conflicts, Fox’s trademark general friendliness to conservatives and two gleaming, youthful hosts in anchors Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly.

The day I watched, Hemmer led the show with “breaking news”: former Clinton aide Dick Morris heard from an unnamed source that Bill Clinton had recommended to Columbia’s president in 2007 that he would only get a trade agreement with the U.S. by convincing Democrats to support it. According to Morris, 10 days later, Columbia hired the consulting firm led by Mark Penn, the recently-resigned chief strategist of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

“Are you reporting that Bill Clinton got Mark Penn the gig?” Hemmer asked urgently.
“Yes,” said Morris, before thinking better of his allegation. “I don’t -- I can’t prove it. I wasn’t there.” So what exactly was he reporting? That Clinton told Columbia’s president last year that Democrats control Congress thanks to their success in 2006’s midterm elections? That’s breaking political news?

Another urgent panel discussion centered on acampaign worker assembling a crowd to stand behind Michelle Obama at a Pittsburgh rally, who yelled for “more white people.”

Fox’s high velocity election program was a clear contrast to MSNBC’s Race to the White House, a vehicle for rising NBC News star David Gregory that seems tailor made for Hardball-weaned political junkies.

What irked me most here was the continuing presence of pundit Pat Buchanan, who has written at least one book implying America’s success lies in its identity as a white Christian nation. Why MSNBC and NBC News continue to allow this guy to denounce people like Jeremiah Wright as bigots with no mention of his own tangled history remains a mystery to me.

Indeed, it wasn’t until I turned on CNN’s Election Center that I felt the media noise subside a bit. On a day when there wasn’t much real campaign news, Brown’s CNN show focused more on the news of the day, spending the first 15 minutes or so dissecting the protests in San Francisco and the likelihood that any president could implement a quick troop withdrawal from Iraq.

At a time when Americans are still struggling to make a historic electoral choice, don't we deserve election coverage which cuts  through the noise instead of adding to it?

People Magazine Exclusive From Lakeland's YouTube Fight Victim: "It Feels Like Something's In My Ear."

People magazine on Friday unveiled its exclusive interview with Victoria Lindsay, the teenage cheerleader underneath the white dot in a now-world-famous video, showing her being pummeled by a gang of girls in Lakeland.

Dubbed by People as "the girl fight seen round the world," the incident has brought adult charges of assault for the six girls and two boys involved -- all teens ranging from age 14 to 18 -- along with a media dustup as outlets such as the Dr. Phil show tried to lock up the stories of various participants through whatever means possible.

It's unclear yet what People did to gain its exclusive with the victim, a friend and her parents, but it seems the primary benefit was visual -- as the magazine published a page-size photo of Lindsay's face and a group shot with her father and stepmother (according to the magazine, Lindsay's mother is serving a 10-year prison term for a fatal stabbing).

Citing a gag order imposed by the judge overseeing the case, People only has a few quotes from Lindsay in its six-page story, focused on how she feels after the attack: "I was in a lot of pain...It feels like something's in my ear." And after observing that Lindsay was living with the family of one of her alleged assailants after falling out with her parents, the teen said "Your Number 1 friend is your family. Don't trust anybody." (the gag order also seems to allow Polk County sheriff Grady Judd a lot of leeway to describe the crime without competing accounts from the accused)

Unfortunately, the case seems more about children from troubled homes acting out and clueless parents still unable to accept what their kids have done.  More than once, the story quotes adults blaming the Internet for what the kids did, with little acknowledgment that something besides overheated MySpace messages may have fueled this beatdown.

Kristy Lee Cook Hits the Bricks As Idol Voters Officially Go Off the Rails

I was off by one person.

My prediction that hippie chick Brooke White would be leaving American Idol this week nearly came true, as White joined kickboxing country gal Kristy Lee Cook in the Bottom Two this week. But America liked the singer-songwriter a little more than the country gal, so Cook took the long walk tonight.

This ejection was notable for something else, though (no, not the boneheaded way they strung out the ejections -- though Ryan Seacrest gets extra butthead points for trying to make David Archuleta choose which group of Idols formed the bottom three). Paired with Michale Johns' departure last week, it confirmed a disturbing trend. Idol voters are no longer rejecting the people who have given the worst vocal performances.

That honor this week went to Jason Castro, who didn't even make the bottom three, and White, who escaped ejection by the skin of her too-pink nose. Kristy Lee Cook turned in a pretty good vocal this week, but it wasn't enough to save her from viewers who still remembered the calamity which was her speeded up, countrified 8 Days a Week during Beatles Night.

We are at a point in Idol where the also-rans are mostly fighting over who gets ejected first. The two Davids -- Cook and Archuleta -- are like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; the frontrunners trying desperately to avoid making the kind of mistake that would kill their candidacy.   

But at a time when Syesha Mercado can blow the doors off a Mariah Carey song and still nearly get voted off, who knows which way the wind is blowing? Which makes for a lousy singing competition, but an amazing reality TV show.

Here's Kristy's last tune:

The Journey of Flavor Flav: From Public Enemy to Public Buffoon

(As Flavor Flav makes his sitcom debut tonight, I cooked up a column for Floridian lamenting the slide of a brother who once stood for something. Here's the column reposted on the blog)

We were never supposed to see something like this.

When Flavor Flav burst on the scene with seminal rap group Public Enemy, he was never the main attraction. Flav brought the noise as the ultimate "hype man," a comic foil to help ease the brutally Afro-centric, often militant messages of rap's first successful group to base its image on a political stance.

While lead M.C. Chuck D. urged fans to Bring the Noise or Fight the Power, Flav provided a break from the seriousness, highlighting the slow response of emergency crews in America's ghettos with 911 Is a Joke before warning listeners on the followup album that you Can't Truss It, especially when left-wing politicians in Little Rock feed you a line.

In his prime, William Drayton was the best rap sidekick in the game. Mouth packed with gold caps and a gigantic clock wrapped around his neck, Flav helped turn the hype man into a hallowed institution in hip-hop while contributing to some of the most legendary rap hits in history.

So how did this image of excess and hedonism, originally presented as a counterweight to the austere black nationalist vibe of Public Enemy's core message, become the group's most visible surviving legacy?

Here's how: In the last few years, reality TV shows have transformed the sidekick clown into the star.

The odyssey started with Flav's debut as a housemate in the series that crammed dysfunctional celebrities in a house, The Surreal Life. It progressed to his goof of a "romance" with Brigitte Nielsen in Strange Love (she reportedly was engaged to someone else during the production) and VH1's ghetto-style version of The Bachelor, Flavor of Love. (That's three No. 1 cable series, if you're counting.)

Flavor of Love in particular has proven a ratings bonanza. The show's first-season finale drew the most viewers in VH1's then-21 years, and its second-season debut drew the channel's biggest premiere audience ever. Small wonder VH1 okayed two spinoffs and a third season.

Now 49, Flav is set to star in a half-hour sitcom, Under One Roof, debuting tonight on low-rated MyNetworkTV. He plays an ex-convict living with his straitlaced brother, and the series is so good, MyNetworkTV didn't send me a review copy (a publicist for the show insists that happened because they are editing the show down to the last minute).

A cynic might assume that fans — black and white — are giddily consuming the buffoonish black-hustler stereotype Flavor Flav offers with little regard to the social consequences.

In the process, the man who once rhymed about black folks being "Divided and sold/For liquor and the gold/Smacked in the back/For the other man to mack" is now lording over women who insult each other over their herpes bumps and one who even relieved herself on the floor. (The punch line: She wasn't eliminated from Flavor of Love for that. Really.)

By now, it's a cliche to complain about how Flav's worn playa shtick has become a license to print money for reality TV producers. It's just the latest in a long line of contradictions from an artist who can boast of skills as a classically trained pianist and arrests for carrying an unlicensed gun and crack cocaine.

Without seeing an episode, it's a safe bet that Under One Roof continues that legacy, mining stereotypes about black folks minus the godly messages you get in a Tyler Perry script.

This Public Enemy fan is left to wonder about the irony: One of rap's most militantly pro-black groups has produced one of TV's biggest black buffoons. The voice of the hype man, in the end, is the loudest left from the rap band that was socially conscious before the industry had a name for it.

Looks like someone decided that fighting the power wasn't as profitable as joining it.

And we all may be the worse for his choice.

American Idol's Latest Cause: The Search for a New Rock God

David Cook looked like he couldn't believe his ears.

He had some problems with the start of his performance on Tuesday's American Idol, fumbling with the lower register of Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby. Like last week, he saved the performance with a strong, stylish finish; still, last time he tried something like that, judge Simon Cowell tore him a new one.

But Tuesday ended differently. Randy Jackson said Cook was ready to make a record tomorrow and Cowell feinted with a crack about karaoke hell before delivering one of the best compliments he's ever given idol's last remaining rocker.

That's the shape of things on Idol, circa P.J. -- or, post-Johns.  With dreamy-looking rocker Michael Johns ejected last week, Idol's last hope of seeing a Daughtry-style rocker crowned king now rests on Cook's slender shoulders. So Cook should get used to a level of love he hasn't yet seen from the judges, who seem willing to do just about anything to get a rock star to the top. (It also didn't hurt that David's cancer-stricken brother was in the audience, causing him to tear up after the judging session; even Cowell knew better than to diss a guy whose dying brother is in the house)

Once again, that's bad news for Syesha Mercado, who turned in the second best vocal performance of the night -- though you'd never know it from the judges comments. Even Cowell had to admit Mercado's take on Carey's Vanishing was "technically perfect" though he criticized her for singing a lesser=-known song.

But didn't he harp on and on last week about her tackling a song that was too well known by the audience, inviting inevitable comparisons? Doesn't it make sense that she would tackle a Carey song not so many people knew to avoid those selfsame comparisons?

Indeed, Cowell's taste-o-meter -- often brutally accurate in ways only the British can muster -- seemed a bit off tonight, as he praised Jason Castro for delivering the night's weakest vocal, while dinging Kristy Lee Cook after she delivered a take on Carey's Forever that was near her personal best.

It's hard to tell who's in danger this week, because weak singers like Castro are liked by the audience and judges, while contestants on the outs with the judges gave some of the strongest performances. I'd say, trusting the Idol voters to place a lot of weight on the performances, that Brooke White, Castro and Carly Smithson are in the most danger, though Syesha may suffer most, simply because Idol so clearly wants her gone.

Still, my prediction: Brooke White hits the bricks tomorrow.   

Tallahassee-Based Black-Centered TV News Channel Signs Deal With Comcast

UPDATE: The Black Television News Channel is a project fronted by former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts, aimed at creating a black-focused news channel which would look like a hybrid of Fox News Channel and CNN, according to its senior vice president Steven Pruitt.

The company is based in Tallahassee right now because it is working with Bob Brilliante, the former head of Florida's News Channel -- an effort to create a statewide TV news channel which never quite lived up to its ambitions. The project expects to move its headquarters to Washington D.C. soon and launch in time for Black History Month 2009, according to Pruitt.

Pruitt says the company is securing carriage deals like the one it announced today before hiring any personnel. But this will be the third ti