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?

HBO's Preview of Recount: Casting Almost Good as I Imagined

HBO assured me I'll have a review DVD of their new movie about the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida, Recount, by Tuesday morning. The movie debuts at 9 p.m. May 25

But until then, looking at the preview now in circulation on YouTube, it seems their casting people came pretty close to the dream cast I assembled when news first leaked about the film last year.

They took my advice about casting an Englishman as the Velvet Hammer, Bush consigliere James Baker, except they went with ace Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson instead of Anthony Hopkins (maybe they saw Hopkins in the Human Stain and realized how painful it can be watching him try to sound like an American).

Alas, my hope that Eddie Izzard would get the Katherine Harris gig was for naught; Laura Dern looks better in a skirt, anyways.

Here's a preview of the film; I'm still hoping to get an interview with Denis Leary when I spend a few days in New York next week.

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

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.

Deggans' Weekend Bloopers: News Gone Bad

These bloopers have aired on NBC, so you may have seen them before. But there's nothing better for leading into a weekend than footage of TV news types making fools of themselves. Enjoy!

Or check this:

ONE MORE:

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:

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.   

Bailing Out YouTube Fighter: When Will Dr. Phil Take a Look in the Mirror?

News that a producer for Dr. Phil McGraw's popular syndicated talk show bailed out one of the Lakeland girls arrested and charged in connection with a videotaped assault on a classmate should come as no surprise.

McGraw's show has shown an increasing appetite for guests connected to hot-button, high-profile issues, most recently displayed in McGraw's ham-handed attempts to get close to troubled pop star Britney Spears while preparing a show on her public meltdown.

Unfortunately, McGraw's organization doesn't seem prepared for the backlash such moves can create.

In this case, local media swarmed the Friday release of Mercades Nichols -- the girl who police said lured another girl to a house where she was pummeled -- while someone, presumably connected to McGraw's show, repeatedly asserts that the program has exclusive rights to Nichols' story. The news literally made worldwide headlines and the show later issued a statement saying the bail posting was against the show's policies and they will no longer go forward with their planned segment on the fight.

But McGraw often gets at the stories of his guests by using his show to provide resources that they  cannot access on their own. The barter is an implied one: bare your deepest problems on the show, and we'll provide the kind of treatment or counseling you could never afford on your own.

In a country where 40-million people don't have health insurance, that's a powerful bargain. So this time, Dr. Phil sealed the deal in a different venue, with a higher profile subject. My question: what policy did the producer break? And how did he get the okay to post a bail set at $30,000 without the approval of a senior executive on the show? (one side question: should media outlets be naming the younger girls involved in this attack, who range in age from 14 to 16?)

TMZ.com is reporting that the guy in the footage below is a production assistant, a job they dismiss as an intern with a checkbook. But they also raise my question about how an intern with an expense account could arrange the financial resources for bail on his own, and Hollywood has a long tradition of expecting low folks on the totem pole to take a PR bullet for the boss.

I'm not really placing much stock in gossipy reports that Dr. Phil benefactor Oprah Winfrey is growing tired of the demanding doctor, although this won't help that dynamic if it's true. But it looks like McGraw's once-winning formula is showing some fraying edges -- perhaps he ought to reconsider the cynical bargain at the heart of many of his shows.   

American Idol's Traditional Ejection Surprise: Michael Johns Hits the Bricks

I've said it before: Idol always surprises us midway through the competition.

It happened to Chris Daughtry. It happened to Jennifer Hudson. It happened to Tamyra Gray. And now, it's happened to Michael Johns.

As much as I've complained about the judges overlooking the way Johns simply mimics every artist he covers, I was totally surprised by his ejection tonight. And, as usual, a little suspicious.

Simon Cowell can make all the noises he wants about Johns picking the wrong song; anyone who watched Tuesday's show knows he handled his cover of Aerosmith's Dream On powerfully and stylishly. Indeed, this ejection fit none of the things I usually cite after someone leaves the show: Johns sang well Tuesday, was rarely if ever in the bottom three before, seemed to be handling the pressure of the competition well and had a huge fan base inside the studio audience.

The only reason this ejection makes sense, is that Idol needed a surprise to shake up the contest. Which makes me even more suspicious.

Johns' departure makes me even more certain that this contest will wind up a fight between the two Davids; disheveled rocker creativity versus almost-too-earnest teenybopper appeal. But, given the way this Bizzaro Idol week has unfolded, anything seems possible.

So maybe Kristy really should start thinking about what she'll record on her debut album.   

Jailed Trucker Jean Claude Meus Gets New Trial: Did TV Help Make It Happen?

Score another win for media-savvy attorney John Trevena.

It has taken years, but Trevena has finally won a new trial for the 44-year-old Haitian immigrant truck driver, who started a 15-year prison sentence in 2003 after his conviction on vehicular homicide charges after an accident in which prosecutors alleged he fell asleep at the wheel.

I wrote about Meus and Trevena back in 2005, when Trevena tipped WTVT-Ch. 13 investigative reporter Doug Smith to the seeming disparity. At the time, Jennifer Porter, a 29-year-old, part-Cuban woman widely perceived to be white, had received three years of probation, two years of house arrest and 500 hours of community service after leaving the scene of a car accident in which she struck two children, who died.

Didn't hurt that she was represented by the most powerful criminal lawyer in town, Barry Cohen.

I wrote about how national media outlets were surprisingly indifferent to Meus' story, despite its parallels with the Porter case and questionable outcome. Trevena and Smith stuck with the case, however, and saw their efforts pay off Tuesday. See Smith's story from last night here.

Meus, who stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators, was charged with homicide in Hardee County for the accident, which killed a 40-year-old woman and her daughter. His case was striking enough that two sisters of the woman killed in the accident took up his cause, arguing that the trial wasn't fair.

Smith's story, along with a later piece in the St. Petersburg Times, suggested Meus may have faced tougher charges and received a stiffer sentence because of his race and lack of wealth (Trevena didn't represent him in the original trial). Smith noted, for example, that another trucker, Thomas Smith, had a similar accident in 2002 in Hardee County which killed a man, but that driver admitted falling asleep at the wheel and got a traffic citation for it as his only punishment.

The difference between Smith and Meus? Smith is white and Meus is not.

But it sounds like justice may finally be at hand, thanks to a persistent lawyer and TV reporter. 

 

An Accusation Which Makes Me Proud: Bill O'Reilly Thinks I'm a 'Race Baiter'

The main people who don't seem to want to talk about race in America these days, are those who earn their living by keeping us apart.

Exhibit A: Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, a guy who I've called on the carpet many times for his use of coded words and phrases to pass along stereotypical, insulting ideas. He's gleefully pointed out going after "black rappers" in a prime time special on explicit entertainment, noted how those who live a "gangsta life" were like those left to drown in post-Katrina New Orleans and insisted he wasn't going to "go on a lynching party" when Michelle Obama said some thing which upset conservatives about America.

Last night, in one of those inexplicable moments when a world-famous opinionator reaches out to swat a barely-known newspaper writer, O'Reilly called me "one of the biggest race baiters in the country," offering no proof of how I'd earned the term, beyond my status as chair of the Media Monitoring Committee for the National Association of Black Journalists.

I'm betting it's because I took note of his lynching remark in a column about Don Imus on Friday. Indeed, I have a long history of tangling with Fox News' most popular pundit, viewable in stories here, here and here.

"Millions of white Americans will no longer even think about discussing race with black people," O'Reilly offered, just before plastering my picture on his screen. "Any slip of the tongue can lead to trouble."

Of course, O'Reilly's use of coded race language is hardly accidental. A key part of his show involves invoking the specter of out-of-control black males to frighten his audience. Once a critic like me objects, he can claim it was a mistake and accuse others of overreaching or unfairness. But if the Don Imus incident teaches anything, it's that mainstream America is growing far less tolerant of such antics.

I'm not saying I'm perfect in this. We've reached a point with prejudice and stereotypes where the issues are subtle, deep-seated and difficult to discuss. But I think intent counts for a lot -- and it seems obvious to me that O'Reilly doesn't come to these debates with respect for many positions besides his own. And that's why I'm so tough on him; because he's smart enough to know exactly what he's doing.

The News Hounds web site notes that the only people O'Reilly accuses of being unfair about claims of racism are black folks (he did cite the liberal media watchdog Web site Media Matters for America, which is run by white people). His list of "race hustlers includes an ex-girlfriend of comic Bill Maher, who filed a palimony suit accusing the HBO host of using "degrading racial comments" against her. (that mention, which really has little to do with accusations of racism in politics and media, just seemed calculated to show a picture of Maher, who is white, next to his black centerfold model ex-girlfriend).   

O'Reilly and I can agree on one thing: the word racist is thrown around way too much. It feeds the notion that the only people who leverage such language are serious bigots, which isn't true. The toughest thing about confronting stereotypes sometimes is that they are seductive, entertaining and often employed by people who aren't bigots. Doesn't make them any more right.

In O'Reilly's world, the only "race hustlers" in the game seem to be black people (except Al Sharpton, with whom O'Reilly seems to have a cordial relationship). But white pundits like O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage often use race tension to score points with their audiences, exploiting their fear and frustration about race issues to score ratings points.

As I've said many times before, I judge journalists by the enemies they make. So I must be doing pretty well these days.

Here's a clip of O'Reilly's rant, courtesy of YouTube:

   

Can Linda Bloodworth Embarrass HBO Into Airing 12 Miles of Bad Road?

  It's got to be one of the oddest packages I've ever received as a TV critic.

Non-descript and sent overnight, the envelope contained seven DVDs and a plea from producers Linda Bloodworth (left) and Harry Thomason, creators of the classic sitcoms Designing Women and Evening Shade.

Seems HBO had spent more than $20-million creating 12 Miles of Bad Road, a sprawling comedy poking fun at the Bush-era, Enron-style Republicans, and now the premium cable channel had decided not to air it -- basically, spending the most money it ever has to NOT air a TV series.

I have a story in today's Floridian detailing the showbiz Hara-Kiri Bloodworth and Thomason seem to be committing, embarrassing one of Hollywood's major players by sending critics copies of six completed episodes in hopes our stories can accomplish what their negotiations did not.

Charging forward like a character from one of her Southern-baked sitcoms, Bloodworth assured me that she'd go on the Home Shopping Network to sell this show, which offers inspired performances from Lily Tomlin, Mary Kay Place, Gary Cole and blue collar comic Ron White. See more about the show here.

Obviously, HBO believed in the show at one time, because it's listed here at the back of an old promo reel from 2007. Check it out -- this brief glimpse may be all you'll see of the best (or, at least, the most expensive) show HBO never aired.

Deggans PunditWatch: NPR's Barbershop and Florida This Week

As if bloviating on CNN weren't enough, I'm flapping my gums in two more places this week, which you can enjoy at the comfort of your own computer screen through the magic of the Internet (sounds like some late '90s instructional film, I know).

Click here to check out my first-ever participation in The Barbershop, a regular feature on former ABC News reporter Michel Martin's National Public Radio show Tell Me More. Every Friday, a group of brothers gets together to razz each other and talk about the week's events. I was a last-minute addition, but I had been wanting to join this crew for a while, so this was fun (for those of you who know, it's one step below the hang late night in the hotel lounge at an NABJ convention. Nuff said).

As Michel describes it: "The guys in this week's Barbershop — Arsalan Iftikhar, Nick Charles (VP of BET.com), Roy S. Johnson (Editor-in-Chief of Mens Fitness magazine) and Eric Deggans (Media Critic for St. Petersburg Times) — have a lot to say about Sen. Hillary Clinton's conflicted account of a trip to Bosnia, Chelsea Clinton's snappy response to a question about Monica Lewinsky during a recent campaign stop, the latest song release by the "Obama Girl" and the NCAA's March Madness.

If THAT weren't enough, you can also catch me on Rob Lorei's public affairs show for WEDU, Florida This Week. This time, I'm appearing with former Florida Senate president Tom Lee, Democratic consultant Vic DiMaio and leadership director at USF Sarasota, David Klement. What do I know about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the state's apology for slavery and the teaching of intelligent design in the state's schools? Tune in at 8 p.m. tonight or 12:30 p.m. Sunday to find out!

Hillary Clinton Can Make Insensitive Racial Remarks, Too

I almost hate to put this up, because I really don't want to contribute to the sound bite culture that has gotten a stranglehold on our political process these days.

But I was rooting around on a different story today, and stumbled on this YouTube clip of Hillary Clinton making a joke four years ago, comparing noted east Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandi to a gas station owner. This a remark for which Senator Clinton has already apologized.

This wasn't something said by a pastor or a friend. This was a scripted joke she delivered while introducing someone at a public event. I don't think it's evidence of some closet racism on her part. But I do think it's evidence that anyone can say something racially insensitive in public, and the sensible thing to do is find out whether it reflects their consistent feelings about these issues or if they are just errors in judgement.

And its also evidence that we all should be careful about judging people too harshly on these issues.

Why Did It Take Sinbad to Expose Hillary Clinton's Bosnia "Misstatement"?

As I've been watching coverage of Hillary Clinton's attempt to explain why she characterized a visit to Bosnia years ago as much more dangerous than it actually was, I've been struck by network reporters' attempts to insert themselves into the story.

Both CBS's Sharyl Attkisson and NBC's Andrea Mitchell have pointed out during their reports that they were actually with Clinton on that Bosnia trip and recalled no sniper fire, rushing crowds or exagerrated danger. Since headlines have been filled with the news, other journalists who took that trip 12 years ago -- including former MTV News reporter Tabitha Soren -- have weighed in.

So why did it take comic Sinbad to blow the lid on the whole deal?

The idea that Clinton may have been fudging the truth about her Bosnia story first came from a March 11 interview Sinbad gave to The Sleuth, a behind-the-scenes Washington blog produced by WashingtonPost.com writer Mary Ann Akers. The former Jingle All the Way co-star, last in the news denying widespread rumors he was dead (just the career folks, rimshot!) accompanied Clinton on the 1996 trip with singer Sheryl Crow and said it wasn't so dangerous.

His best line: "What kind of president would say, 'Hey, man, I can't go 'cause I might get shot so I'm going to send my wife...oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.'"

Unfortunately, Sinbad also declared himself an Obama supporter during the interview, which probably   cost him credibility. And Akers basically presented the story as a he said, she said, with a Clinton spokesman providing quotes from stories published at the time noting the danger. Journalists acknowledge Clinton has told the Bosnia story at least since December on the stump; relating it so many times, reporters who regularly cover her had begun to joke about how often she'd drag out this old chestnut.

The Post ran a snarky blog item on Clinton's use of the story Dec. 29 and the conservative media watchdog site Newsbusters noted March 18 that no reporter covering the Bosnia trip in 1996 mentioned sniper fire.

But the truth of the Bosnia visit didn't resonate in the mainstream press until Attkisson's story this week (what's funny, is that Attkisson's original report plays up the danger of the visit a lot more than her latest story).

But shouldn't Mitchell and Attkisson, who have filed more than a few election stories this year, have remembered the truth before now?

Now it Can Be Told: Cheney Would Rather Spread Democracy Than Practice It

Jon Stewart said it best on The Daily Show, when he lampooned Dick Cheney as a "dealer, not a user" of democracy. But it is interesting to see how the Bush administration is dropping many of its past pretenses as its lame duck status advances.

In this interview, with ABC News' Martha Raddatz, Cheney admits he couldn't care less about the nation's opinion of his five-years-and-counting war...

Rev. Wright Debate on CNN But Not in Tampa

I was disappointed to hear that Rev. Jeremiah Wright was not coming to Tampa. I was hoping his appearance here might bring the debate over his words to the Tampa Bay area in a way which might help broaden the debate a bit.

I've been pretty disappointed in how media outlets have been unable to present a quality debate about some of the issues Wright's speeches have raised. Instead, we're stuck in soundbites and snarky comments, with longtime closet racists such as Pat Buchanan using the controversy as an excuse to air their awful comments in the guise of serving as elder statesmen.

I wonder how it is a guy like Buchanan can write books and columns admiringly quoting white supremacist William Pierce and the white supremacist organiztion the New Century Foundation without any rebuke from mainstream media. And yet his he is indignant that journalists haven't hammered Obama harder for his ties to Wright?

Here is a video of my vain attempt to bring some perspective to this debate on Howard Kurtz's Reliable Sources show. The video is provided by left-leaning media watchdogs Media Matters, which have also criticized CNN's Kurtz for not covering the excesses of conservative pastors more:

Can Watching a Fictional Black or Female President Help Americans Elect the Real Thing?

Since Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama began making waves in their quest for the presidency, it’s a question us pop culture critics have asked with growing frequency:

Can watching a fictional person of color or woman serve as president prepare people to elect the real thing?

Turns out, TV and film have been presenting us with a diversity of fictional presidents long before we were ever poised to elect an actual non-white or non-male. But even Hollywood had trouble believing America could look past its own prejudices to choose such people, with many of these presidents achieving the job by accident or presented as jokey punchlines (even Ernie Hudson, the black guy from Ghostbusters, has played a President).

I put together a story for today's Floridian looking at the various minority and female commanders in chief, with a indication on our Inspiration-scale™ just how much each portrayal might have prompted us to accept the candidates we see today. Here's an excerpt, with some clips so you can judge yourself:

BLACK PRESIDENTS

James Earl Jones as Douglass Dilman in The Man (1972)

How did he get the job? A little-known congressman made president pro tempore of the Senate when the vice president has a stroke, he becomes president when the incumbent and the speaker of the House are killed in a building collapse. Inspiration scale: 3 out of 10. Could there be a more outlandish way to become president? Based on Irving Wallace's 1964 book, the movie seems tailor-made to assure '70s audiences it could never actually happen.

Morgan Freeman as Tom Beck in Deep Impact (1998)

How did he get the job? Presumably elected. Freeman shines in the same grandfatherly sidekick mode he worked in The Shawshank Redemption and Bruce Almighty, helping white folks work out their problems before an asteroid destroys the eastern seaboard. Inspiration scale: 6. He's the coolest president on film. Of course, he's leading a country facing extinction.

Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer in 24 (2002)

How did he get the job? Elected. Palmer then overcomes a mutinous vice president and Cabinet to avoid a needless war in the Middle East started by greedy multinational businessmen. The similarity to real life these days is inescapable. Inspiration scale: 9. If only our real-life president could have been this prescient.

FEMALE PRESIDENTS

Patty Duke as Julia Mansfield in Hail to the Chief (1985)

How did she get the job? Presumably elected. Duke was a particularly harried president in this ABC sitcom, saddled with a cheating husband, a sassy black secretary of state and wacky plots. Inspiration scale: 5. Fortunately, the pain lasted only seven episodes.

Glenn Close as Kathryn Bennett in Air Force One (1997)

How did she get the job? OK, technically, Vice President Bennett never becomes president; she refuses to sign a document giving her the power when Harrison Ford's President James Marshall is taken captive by terrorists on Air Force One. Still, she rallies the military and Cabinet, looking serious and barking into telephones many times. Inspiration scale: 4. Not only does she refuse power when the president is forced to release a terrorist with a gun to his head, she really doesn't come up with any plan for saving him. Good thing the president used to be Indiana Jones.

Geena Davis as Mackenzie Allen in Commander in Chief (2005)

How did she get the job? Tragedy strikes again! Incumbent Teddy Bridge dies of a sudden brain aneurysm, leaving Vice President Allen in the driver's seat. Inspiration scale: 8. Allen successfully reins in male power brokers determined to marginalize her. But producers wound up focusing more on male characters to save the show, which was canceled in its first season. The price you pay for being three years ahead of your time.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Sermon in Context

When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons first came under fire, I didn't even want to bother arguing about them. I was raised in a black church. I knew how good preachers would use hyperbole and aggressive statements to make their point during sermons aimed at teaching bold lessons to parishioners.

But then, of all people, Bubba the Love Sponge hipped me to some postings on YouTube, where an enterprising videographer found larger clips of the most notorious sermons quoted by TV news outlets in the stories which kicked off the controversy about his speeches. And I was ashamed.

Because Rev. Wright deserved a better defender than I -- or, frankly Barack Obama -- have been during this nonsense. A look at these clips, which present much larger excerpts of Wright's speeches, shows that his seemingly damning statements came during passionate speeches about America's history of racial oppression and America's history of killing innocents while exacting military revenge against enemies.

One of Rev. Wright's most controversial comments -- the statements about "chickens coming home to roost" after 9/11 -- was his quote of a white ambassador speaking on Fox News Channel. Why didn't the TV news reporters tell us this?

It is true that Wright has also made some strident charges which aren't true. In a phrase within his GD America speech, he says the government injected black men with syphillis. Presumably, he is referring to the legendary Tuskegee Experiment, in which nearly 400 black men who already had syphillis were led to believe they were being treated for it when they were really being observed by government physicians noting the effects of the disease's advancement. (ironically, the story was broken in 1972 by Jean Heller, a former St. Pete Times reporter who was working for the Associated Press at the time)

He's also said the government has given drugs to black people, a possible reference to a widely discredited theory that the CIA helped establish the drug pipeline which first brought crack cocaine to Los Angeles, as a method of funding the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. This theory was the subject of a 1996 three-part series in the San Jose Mercury News and a book. But the newspaper backed off the story after it was published and the reporter, Gary Webb, eventually killed himself in 2004.

What is clear here, is that Wright is articulating the suspicions and cynicism of many black people about the motives of a government led mostly by white people. I think his characterizations can sometimes be simplistic and off base, but I don't think he's the raving racist some pundits have made him out to be.

Check these two excerpts of his speeches from YouTube and see if they don't make you think twice:

Highlights From Fallen American Idol David Hernandez's Exit Interview: Stripping Didn't Matter

  I normally would rather poke myself in the eye with a Donald Trump bobblehead than sit through the telephone press conferences Fox organizes with ejected Idol contestants.

Scheduled for the day after the rejection, the calls are packed with folks from such august journalism institutions as OK! magazine, Access Hollywood and Flash News. The questions are penetrating and tough: how do you cope with new found stardom? Who was your closest friend in the Idol crew? How much fun was it meeting Jim Carrey? (David's response: "It's awesome.")

So, I must admit, I wait until Fox emails the transcript of the press conference the next day to see if there's anything I care about. Surprisingly, the text of David Hernandez's interview Thursday provided several moments.

First, it only took about a quarter of the press conference for someone to ask if he thought his past as a gay, lap-dance-providing-stripper led america to vote him off this week. On camera Tuesday and Wednesday, he seemed to consider saying something public about it all, right up until the last notes of his goodbye song faded.

But by Thursday's press conference, Hernandez's agenda was plain: He's unemployed and he wants a record deal. I know this, because he said it about four times.

"I actually believe (my elimination) was based on song selection," said Hernandez, as if he was reading from a script provided by his agent. "I think America's smart enough to know y now that people's personal lives should not influence their musical career." Mmm, hmm. Tell that to Britney, Janet and Michael. Judge for yourself by watching his performance again by clicking here.

  Anyways, he offered a few more interesting facts: For Beatles week, they all picked their top three songs from a list of 25 tunes. When two people pick the same top song -- as he and Brooke did, with Let It Be -- they draw lots out of a hat to see whose preference wins.

Producers knew about his past as a stripper and decided early on they didn't care. And contestants have a lot of say over the arrangements for their songs, working out the general form with the band's piano player and a vocal arranger (so blame Kristy Lee Cook for the outrageously fast tempo of her countrified Eight Days a Week -- which might have been cool if she played it at the original tempo).

"I like to have faith in Idol...they've given me this huge platform," Hernandez said Thursday.

So America can speculate on whether David got the boot because of his past in the gay sex industry; but he's just trying to get paid. Which is, I guess, the real spirit of America Idol. 

Too Pretty To Fly Girls Squashed by Dr. Phil?

  Anybody who read my Times colleague Bill Levesque's most-excellent profile of media savvy attorney John Trevena could not be surprised to learn that the lawyer is now representing the two Oldsmar girls who earned headlines not long ago by claiming Southwest Airlines treated them badly because they were too pretty.

The girls -- Nisreen Swedberg, a 19-year-old University of South Florida student, and her best friend, Sarah Williams, 18 -- will appear in today's episode of the popular daytime talk show Dr. Phil, where they are expected to encounter some serious skepticism from the tough-talking doctor.

Today's show is focused on recent allegations from young women that they were treated poorly on Southwest flights, presumably because of their beauty (waitress Kyla Ebbert made similar charges last year and scored a pictorial in Playboy before the dust settled). But Swedberg and Williams' charges were greeted coolly by many media outlets, despite the fact that their allegtions earned them attention everywhere from the cover of TBT* to Inside Edition.

Host Phil McGraw apprently shared in the skepticism exemplified by a travel writer for MSNBC, who noted: "Ladies, it wasn't that you were 'too pretty to fly.' You were too rude. And, sadly, stereotypically clueless."

Looks like a typically juicy Phil fight-a-thon is in the works.

Here's a CNN story on their allegations....

And Southwest Airline's response:

Keith Olbermann Rips Clinton a New One

It's not exactly Cronkite ending Vietnam, but MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann delivered a long and passionate criticism of Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro last night during one of his occasional, murrow-esque "Special Comment" editorials.

Liberal blogs were buzzing about commentary hours before he made it, because it would be the first Special Comment to explicitly criticize a Democrat; Olbermann debuted the concept back in 2006, when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared his critics to Nazi sympathizers.

Here's a look at the carnage:

Racist Crowd Attacks Black TV Reporter and Cameraman

I still remember the time it almost happened to me.

I was a green, just-out-of-college reporter covering the Easyriders Motorcycle Rodeo just north of Pittsburgh in Butler, Pa. and I was feeling awfully out of my element interviewing biker guys and their old ladies (their term!). They were doing things like balancing a running bike in place, using no legs, while the girl sits up in the back seat and tries to bite a hot dog hanging from a line in the air. Really.

While I was watching this action (and wondering who came up with this crazy s*%#) a spectator in the stands decided he wanted to come down a pick a fight with me -- mostly because I was the only black man in the joint. Fortunately, I had done some really cool interviews with guys in the merchandise stands and they literally put the guy down for me to keep him from kicking my butt.

All this explains why I feel for South Carolina TV reporter Charmayne Brown, who was attacked by crazy relatives of a guy she was reporting on, who had been arrested by police for murder. She was black, they were white and they pounded on her while yelling racial slurs (of course, a competing TV crew filmed the whole ugliness without actually, you know, helping)

Here it is, if you can stand to watch it. Me, I'm just thinking how lucky I was that Saturday afternoon 17 years ago.

 

Tucker Carlson Loses MSNBC Gig to David Gregory

It's hard to know what to make of MSNBC's latest change -- which eliminates bratty conservative Tucker Carlson's snarky mid-day show next Monday in favor of a 6 p.m. showcase for rising star David Gregory, dubbed Race for the White House.

My source at MSNBC says it is just about ratings -- Carlson didn't do so well the in the years the cable channel gave him to find an audience. But I also find it interesting that MSNBC has shouldered a lot of criticism for other hosts offering commentary insensitive to women just as the cable channel lets go of a show which had become a good example of that approach.

  If these complaints were the camel breaking straw, MSNBC is sure to offer a different tack with Gregory's Race to the White House. Gregory, who has won attention both for his aggressive questioning of administration officials as White house correspondent and his ease at filling in as a substitute anchor of the Today show, will keep covering the White House while hosting this daily show.

That means, he'll have to be careful about expressing views as an anchor which may compromise his ability to access sources in his job as a reporter. Frankly, even though a rising star like Gregory needs a showcase, I don't know how he's going to find the time to be an effective reporter and topline a weekday show. Also, with cable increasingly turning towards opinionated talkers like Dobbs, Beck and Olbermann, does it really make sense to build a show around a guy who won't be able to reveal many opinions?

That said, I have always felt that MSNBC's ties with NBC News were an underutilized asset in everyday programming. Giving a high profile NBC News face an MSNBC show helps solidify that connection at a time when interest in politics is at an all-time high.

The change also keeps intact MSNBC's string of middle-aged white guys hosting shows from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., though foreign affairs reporter Andrea Mitchell, who has also helped out with a lot of campaign coverage, will host a hourlong 1 p.m. show.

The changes will be implemented with MSNBC's typical flair -- which means other schedule changes also take effect next Monday sure to confuse viewers.

So here's the lowdown, starting March 17:

Race to the White House with David Gregory at 6 p.m.

Hardball with Chris Matthews at 7 p.m.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 8 p.m.

Verdict with Dan Abrams at 9 p.m.

New rebroadcast of Countdown at 10 p.m.

Three-hour "Doc-Block" with NBC News documentaries at 11 p.m.

New rebroadcast of Countdown at 2 a.m. (11 p.m. on the West Coast, which is the audience they're shooting for)

And for a look at Gregory's softer side, here's a clip of him busting a move on Today:

 

American Idol: Judging the Judges

American Idol may be broadcast live these days, but I never watch it that way.

And I'm not just using my TiVo-ed Idol episodes to skip commercials. More and more, I can't stand the judges.

I'm no Idol neophyte. I know Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul are mostly space-saving distractions, and Simon Cowell modulates his mostly-spot on criticism to favor the artists he wants to sign to his record label when the dust clears.

Still, watching recent editions of Idol has never felt more like watching an abusive parent take on an unlucky child. Some of these singers, looking to these fortysomething eyes like they just got out of preschool, face a black belt-level of showbiz machinations they can't possibly be ready to confront.

(According to a recent SEC filing, Idol is one of the biggest moneymaking machines in television, earning $63-million in profit last year for 19 Entertainment, the production company owned by low-key Idol producer Simon Fuller. That's not counting the money Fox-Tv makes off the show, which regularly attracts 30 percent of the people watching TV)

Was Amanda Overmyer really that impressive channeling Joan Jett singing I Hate Myself for Loving You? As a longtime musician I've always thought she has trouble making that distinctive voice fill the big songs she's always choosing, and Wednesday night she looked as if she'd rather be anywhere but on the Idol stage. Yet, all the judges patted her on the back, because they really, really seem to want a female Chris Daughtry in the running.

Was Chikezie's take on Whitney Houston's All the Man I Need really horrible? I thought he did a great job with a song originally made a hit by one of pop music's most talented singers. But he got no love from the judges because, after Ruben Studdard's stillborn career, the last thing Idol wants is another R&B singer getting anywhere near the show's top tier.

I also know from covering the kiddie version of Idol -- the travesty that was American Juniors -- that vocals inside the Idol studio sound very different than what viewers hear during the broadcast. Still, I've never wanted more to be sitting on that judges panel, just to counter some of their bone-headed observations. Here's my Idol-style take on the judges.

Randy Jackson: Dawg, those observations, like, yo, you be bringing it sometimes. But then, you know, you drown some potentially useful criticisms in, you know, mad awful ripped-from-hip hop lingo. I mean, like, dude, you don't have to remind us you played with Journey every time someone sings a Steve Perry tune. And, like, dawg, you really need to remember, yo, that nobody believes someone who once played with Journey really talks like that naturally.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

Paula Abdul: Paula, everybody remembers that crazy chick f