New Poem: ODE TO CHRIS CUOMO

 see that news person crying in the corner

 he was fired for dubious ethical decisions

 and he tried to keep his even more dubious brother in power

 now he cries ice cubes like a penguin in a Bugs Bunny cartoon

 wailing about the big comedown of working for NewsNation

 oh I’ll never again be Number One, he despairs

 then a smile breaks through the misery

 he yells to the other patrons:

 wait until I win my $125 million arbitration suit against CNN

 as Alisyn Camerota appears on the big screen TV

 in the time slot he thought he might own forever

Chris Cuomo explains to Don Lemon why Rick Santorum isn’t likely to leave CNN

By now, readers of this post are aware of a certain racist remark at the expense of Native Americans made by televised-by-CNN house conservative panelist Rick Santorum.

Santorum was a guest on Chris Cuomo’s Monday night show.

Don Lemon wasn’t having it.  Below is a link to the Cuomo-to-Lemon show transition:

https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1389402315359199233?s=21

Margaret Sullivan on “balanced” news in the Trump era.

Excerpted from a WASHINGTON POST op-ed column:

The news media continues — even now when it should know better — to be addicted to “both sides” journalism. In the name of fairness, objectivity and respect for the office of the presidency, it still seems to take Trump — along with his array of deceptive surrogates — at his word, while knowing full well that his word isn’t good.

When major news organizations publish tweets and news alerts that repeat falsehoods merely because the president uttered them, it’s the same kind of journalistic malpractice as offering a prime interview spot to Kellyanne Conway.

Random comments from the CNN website after the Steubenville rape trial verdicts.

Names of the commenters omitted here.  Comments presented intact.

What is remarkable, if only for its absence, is the discussion in the media about those who stood by and did nothing as this happened.
It's frightening to know that we live in a society where when people are in danger or being victimized the accepted social response is to break out the mobile phone and record it happening, rather than intervene. People will dial 911 to report a spanking at a mall, but not one of these teens thought to text or call someone to help this girl, or God forbid, speak up on her behalf?

The blame lies with and only with the sick little freaks who decided to rape this young woman, period, we as a society need to stop trying to blame the victims, and lay the blame at the feet of the sicko's in our midst. I am personally for castration of anyone who is convicted of rape, but perhaps that is just me.

Drunk or sober, no one should be violated. Just like people are trying to say that the boys were just stupid kids that did something stupid, so was she. What she didn't do however was violate another human being. She got drunk...a lot of people get drunk and don't get raped or violated just because they have indulged in too much alcohol. If I drank as much as witnesses say she did, I would not be sober enough to consent to sexual contact and I'm 41, so it's easy to see how someone her age and size could be completely incapacitated by the amount of alcohol in her system. Just because someone CAN NOT say no, doesn't mean yes. I have to wonder however about this series of parties that were going on where the alcohol was being consumed. If there were so many of them, where were all the adults in this town? Did they all go on vacation together and just leave all their teen aged children at home?

While I agree with you, she did break the law. She should also be punished. One could also argue that the boys fell prey to pressure and didn't realize that they were doing anything wrong. Some men aren't taught what consent actually means. I had to explain to a group of young boys what consent meant when this case occurred.

[Direct reply to the previous commenter]No, one really cannot "argue that the boys fell prey to pressure and didn't realize they were doing anything wrong." 16 and 17 are more than old enough to know that what they were doing was not just wrong, but a heinous crime. Rape is an act of violence. She was nothing more than a toy, a thing for them to abuse. They did not view her as a human being. They violated her willingly and in two different locations over a period of time There is no excuse for their behavior.. They are predators. They enjoyed what they were doing. They are criminals. One more thing, you think she should be punished for underage drinking? I find that incomprehensible that anyone would want to "punish" the victim of a rape for a misdemeanor.

So her rape, her body being posted all over the internet isn't punishment enough???

[Direct reply to the previous commenter] NO because these boy's lives were ruined by a classroom slut. they will never see a football career or any decent career because they will be branded as sex offenders. all because of what? a slut whose mom doesn't realize how loose her daughter is? try the same shit when she's in collage and they'll call it ''kids just having fun'' i hope the mother sees more of her whore daughter on the internet'

You see a stupid drunk girl laying down dirty drunk, and assume that because she is drunk she was raped. Where in any video or photo's that were shown does it show these two men raping her. One guy holding her by her hands, and the other holding her by her feet carrying her while she is fully clothed, does not constitute rape. Yes she was drunk, but who fault is it but hers

[Direct reply to the previous commenter]
Rape is an act of violence that objectifies another person, they used her as an object. Next you will say if a woman dresses slutty, or is out too late it is her fault if she is attacked. Why do we assume men have no self control and are unable to stop themselves from raping or assaulting if we tempt them too much? A kid who would do that, and send out pictures of it to laugh with his friends, has a long life of using and abusing women ahead of him. Women sometimes blame a victim because that makes them feel that they are not at risk because they would never do 'something so stupid.' Trust me, an entitled kid who feels he has the right to violate a woman and send pics out if not a safe person to be out and about, and he might not wait until a woman is drunk to do it. He is someone who believes that women are toys and are to be used for his entertainment. You need to try to babystep yourself into the present century.

Suggesting possible series that CNN head Jeff Zucker might consider

http://www.deadline.com/2012/11/jeff-zuckers-first-memo-to-cnn-staff/ …

Jeff Zucker's NBC career spanned the heights of the Matt-and-Katie era of THE TODAY SHOW to the depths of THE JAY LENO SHOW/throwing Conan O'Brien into the Siberia of basic cable.

Given that CNN pre-Zucker was planning to manage for margins by giving series deals to edgy gourmand Anthony Bourdain and pop-documentarian Morgan Spurlock, one can easily imagine the kind of programming that Jeff might greenlight:
WHERE ON WALL STREET IS ERIN BURNETT?
PARKER BLITZER (teaming conservative columnist Kathleen Parker with Wolf Blitzer)
WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS IN AFGHANISTAN WITH LARA LOGAN
THE KATIE COURIC INTERVIEWS (goodbye, Piers Morgan)
and, of course,
THE NEW JAY LENO SHOW.

Why I haven't rushed out to big-studio summer movies yet.

Perhaps it's age--and perhaps it's also witnessing coming-attractions trailers. But I haven't been persuaded to invest time and admission money in slavish remakes of either THE A-TEAM (from the once-promising Joe NARC Carnahan) or THE KARATE KID (which at least proves that old showbiz legend Jerry Weintraub--who helped birth the original franchise--is someone you should never bet against).

But the cut-cut-cut-costs and play it safe-safe-safe methodology of the studios (one would think that Jeff Robinov would have been 86ed from Time Warner by now) seem to be biting them in the posterior--with Pixar craftsmanship (although with the recent Pixar tendency towards overlength) and Christopher Nolan imagination likely to be the only real offsets to a likely red-ink corporate moviemaking bottom line this summer.

In terms of the big-release summer films I have seen, here's some random opinionating:
The Cronenberg-esque SPLICE (about two-thirds of an engrossing film) would have been better off being distrubuted by IFC or Magnolia on a specialty theater/pay-per-view platform. For WB to throw it out (in the US) on a 2000-screen basis left it to laughed at by mass audience hyenas who wanted copious amounts of blood and dismemberment and less of a thoughtful update of the time-honored morality play about scientists playing God at their peril.
GET HIM TO THE GREEK was a superior Nicholas Stoller-directed Judd Apatow outing to FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL--with the same crack teamwork of Russell Brand and Jonah Hill. Unfortunately, anything emerging from the Apatow banner has to display a pandering, faux-MORK AND MINDY morality (still remembering Robin Williams being stuck with the what-I've-learned "Mork calling Orson" tags to each episode) that is becoming increasingly awkward with every Apatow-based outing. So, if you haven't seen GREEK already, expect a have-it-every-possible-way approach to the subjects of sex and drug use.
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe's ROBIN HOOD was stupidly dumped on by mainstream critics who apparently expected Errol Flynn heroics and zest. But the 2010 version had enough action and humor--and fortunately didn't espouse the dourness and nihilism of Richard Lester and James Goldstone's 1976 ROBIN AND MARIAN (which ended with the deaths of the two protagonists). But contemporary critics/reviewers (e.g. the usually astute Karina Longworth) shrieked as if the Scott film was an exact clone of Lester's earlier (and semi-forgotten) outing.

Conan, Jay and NBC: What we've learned.

After Friday night's great finale for THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, I now feel free to make a list of things I've learned (as well as most of you reading this):
1. I can't wait for Comcast to fire Jeff Zucker, Jeff Gaspin and Dick Ebersol and bring in new
executives that might have some grasp as to how to run a broadcast network in the 21st century.
2. NBC's trying to create a new myth--that THE TONIGHT SHOW is a franchise must be executed in strict lowest-common-denominator fashion in order for it to be Number One.
That myth is based solely on Jay Leno's pandering-to-fratboys tenure on the show since 1995. If you take the network's myth
as gospel, then Steve Allen (too quirky) and Jack Parr (too talky, books too many smart guests) could never host the show if they were alive today. Even Johnny Carson, who would occasionally book author Truman Capote and scientist Carl Sagan, would be suspect to current NBC management.
3. In spite of NBC giving Conan a gag order and allowing Jay to go on OPRAH for another platform for Mr. Leno to do his ".....ehhhhh, I'm just a working class guy that NBC took off when I was Number One" schtick, the legend of Coco will persist. Especially because Conan was likely screwed into the ground by network weasels who insisted that he try hard to mute his normal humor and come up with a Leno-esque way of doing THE TONIGHT SHOW--and, then, when Conan was passive-aggressively fired for giving them the show they wanted, they turned around and unfairly accused him of "not listening" to them.
4. Conan O'Brien's next TV series may not knock off Jay, Dave or Jimmy Kimmel (likely the front-runner for Leno's TONIGHT SHOW chair), but it's guaranteed to be fresher and funnier than its competition--as long as network execs let Conan be Conan and stop all the second-guessing and other interfering-with-creativity nonsense.

Letting Vic Richie have the last word on the Jay/Conan talk-show turf-fest.

Take a look at Nikki Finke's DEADLINE story from Thursday about NBC plotting to move Jay Leno back to 11:35 p.m. and Conan O'Brien to 12:05 a.m.
http://www.deadline.com/hollywood

And scroll down quite a long way in the Comments section to read what Vic Richie says about the whole mess.

Paraphrasing Vic: He's quite right to complain about overpaid execs who make stupid, shortsighted decisions and then go home to their elegant big houses (which they're not likely to lose).

Except he says it so much better than I (or a hundred other legitimate TV "critics") can.

My choices for People of the Year.

Purely subjective choices for People of the Year:

1. Joe Lieberman--the man who gives aid and comfort to Republicans,

conservative Democrats and the health insurance lobbyists who love them.

2. Stanley McChrystal--this generation's version of the general

who once croaked "old soldiers never die, they just fade away"

and prompted President Harry Truman to remove him for defiance

regarding the Korean War; President Obama, facing a similar situation

with Afghanistan, meekly rolled over instead.

3. Lloyd Blankfein--head of Goldman Sachs, the bank

which apparently keeps Gordon Gekko's motto "greed works"

to heart.

4. Jeff Zucker--the man who has made NBC what it isn't today.

5. Oprah Winfrey--the talk-show megamogul who's moving from

syndication to ruler of her own cable network (acronym OWN)

6. Tiger Woods--from all the recent chatter, one would think

that he's the first-ever sports celeb to ever have affairs. Now

the media has shifted to wondering how much endorsement

money he stands to lose.

THE JAY LENO SHOW: insert your punchline here.

At this point, I'm wondering if NBCUniversal still thinks the continuing spectacle of THE JAY LENO SHOW (which now seems so hamstrung due to apparent restrictions on booking guests, it's turning to members of the George Butch Jr. family and the lame-duck California Governator) is worth the effort because it keeps Leno from being a competitive late-night force on some other network.

A modest proposal: do away with guests altogether and cut the show to a half-hour--giving network affiliates some slight relief and an earlier start on late news.

This way, Jay can merely do his monologue--plus all the hoary, fan-pleasing old bits (Jaywalking, Headlines, etc.). And maybe someone at NBCUniversal can strongly insist that he dump the sour "smirking about being gay" schtick that seems left over from, say, the latter years of THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW--yes, that may mean getting rid of the demeaning, ridiculously stereotyped "Ross The Intern."

Or, if NBCUniversal really wanted to save money, they can turn the new soundstage over to another tenant and just tape Jay doing his Sunday evening joke tryouts at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach. Five half-hour timeslots filled just like that.

[UPDATE 11/9/09: A better proposal might be to move Conan O'Brien to 10:00 (where his younger-skewing demographic may be more compatible with some of NBC's primetime lineup) and call Conan's show EARLY TONIGHT. This can allow Jay to return to 11:35 and keep doing the same old stuff; it could even be rebranded as TONIGHT SHOW CLASSIC.]

Jay Leno going to prime time: everything old is new again.

Jay Leno, who will now get to take his play-down-to-the-proles version of THE TONIGHT SHOW to prime time, isn't the first host of the show to score a prime-time gig on NBC. Both Steve Allen and Jack Paar went the same route in the 50s and 60s--and if I recall correctly, Paar's prime-time show was much the same as his late-night one.

But neither Parr nor Allen were asked to do an hour show for five nights a week in prime time.

Obviously, Ben Silverman (who for every OFFICE or 30 ROCK comes up with nongenius ideas for "edgy" retoolings of KNIGHT RIDER and THE BIONIC WOMAN) isn't going to walk the plank. So, one can expect NBC to gut their prime-time schedule as much as possible (even past the 16 hours remaining when Leno debuts next year) with more superstupid reality shows and extra helpings of DATELINE NBC.

Perhaps the silver lining in this cloud will be possessed by Conan O'Brien. Free of the spectre of Jay being direct competition on either Fox or ABC, maybe Conan can develop an 11:35 p.m. talk show that can be truly Conanesque [i.e. incorporate more of the LATE NIGHT WITH...show than he thought possible, say, a week ago] and move the tired late-night format into a new era.

At least until Viacom sends David Letterman to early retirement and likely blesses Jon Stewart with the CBS 11:35 p.m. slot.