Neither Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts nor Jerry Moran could claim any of the 641 total appearances by senators from 2010 through June 3 on the big Sunday news shows. But they have plenty of company. According to the New York Times, 40 other sitting senators were similarly unseen on the shows during the period, while Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., logged 61 appearances and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had 58. “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace acknowledged sometimes thinking that McCain and others appear on the show a lot. But “the fact of the matter is they are good guests,” Wallace said.
Ken Burns’ excellent documentary on the Prohibition is prompting calls to end America’s War on Drugs and legalize drugs. But Kevin A. Sabet, a former senior policy adviser to President Obama’s drug czar, contends that “if our experience with legal alcohol provides us with any lessons for drug policy, it is this: We have little reason to believe that the benefits of drug legalization would outweigh its costs.” He also argues: “It is wrongheaded to think that the only choices we have in drug policy are a punitive approach centered exclusively on enforcement, or one based on careless legalization. Neither has ever worked particularly well.” Meanwhile, the October issue of Libertarian-focused Reason magazine has a cover story lamenting that, despite his pot-smoking youth, Obama turned out to be just another drug warrior. Its headline: “Bummer.”
In response to the death of Tom Leahy Jr., I expressed regret that local stations don’t make TV personalities like Leahy’s “Major Astro” and “The Host” anymore. Bryan Frye, director of marketing at KAKE, Channel 10, didn’t exactly disagree, but he called to make sure I knew that Mike Harvey, son of the late Henry Harvey (in photo), has been reprising his dad’s role as Santa Claus on KAKE since 2008 and will be back this holiday season in 10 new episodes of “Santa’s Workshop.” Santa’s sidekick will be Hugh Harding, who has voiced the variously named KAKEman and Toy Boy for 40 years.
Sarah Palin was upset with the cartoon series “Family Guy” for having a character with Down syndrome who said she was “the daughter of the former governor of Alaska.” Palin’s real daughter Bristol called the writers of the show “heartless jerks.” But the 39-year-old actress who played the character — and who has Down syndrome herself — criticized Palin for not having a sense of humor. “In my family we think laughing is good,” said Andrea Fay Friedman (in photo). “My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.” Gail Williamson, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, which assists films and television series in casting actors with the disability, defended the show’s portrayal of the character. “Within ‘Family Guy,’ the character was fully included, well-rounded, dynamic, not dealing with stereotypical Down syndrome issues,” she told the New York Times.
The irritating scheme in which television commercials automatically spike in volume could soon be a thing of the past. By voice vote, the House approved a bill aimed at stopping TV ads from being played louder than programs. The bill would require the Federal Communications Commission to enforce broadcasting industry guidelines on uniform sound. Broadcasters for years have failed to comply with their own standards. Some critics complain that Congress shouldn’t waste its time on this issue. Others note that a solution is as simple as turning off your TV. But why should viewers need to do that, just to escape an annoying advertising ploy in their own homes? Advertisers shouldn’t be able to dictate the volume level of your television in your home. If broadcasters were smart, they’d take steps to enforce this reasonable standard before Congress legislates the issue. — Philadelphia Inquirer editorial
The House approved a bill by Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif., to turn down the advertisers’ volume. It would require all stations, cable and satellite TV operators to follow the volume-limiting guidelines adopted by the digital TV standards group. Eshoo might have the public on her side, but as a representative of Silicon Valley, she should be more wary of having the government dictate technological solutions to problems that individuals can solve themselves. The market is already responding — more than 30 percent of TV viewers use ad-skipping video recorders. Besides, as dissenting Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee pointed out, “Americans’ televisions still have volume control, and remote controls still have ‘mute’ buttons. Consumers do not need the government to come into their homes and operate their remote controls for them.” With all the challenges facing the country, you’d think lawmakers could find better things to do than invite themselves into their constituents’ living rooms. — Los Angeles Times editorial
There have been a lot of weird “stars” on “Dancing With the Stars,” but perhaps none more so than former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The former exterminator known on Capitol Hill as “The Hammer” will be part of the cast for the ninth season of the ABC reality show, which debuts Sept. 21. His competition includes Donny Osmond, Macy Gray, Kathy Ireland, Kelly Osbourne, Natalie Coughlin and Michael Irvin. “I couldn’t believe they asked me to do this,” DeLay said. “It didn’t take me five minutes to agree. I’ve been working out like crazy.” Wonder how a guy who titled his memoir “No Retreat, No Surrender” will handle being judged by the likes of Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.
“President Bush actually said today he will not be rushed into a decision about Iraq. I guess one time is enough for him.” –Jay Leno
“Dennis Kucinich (in photo) has announced that he’s running for president in 2008. In a related story, somewhere a tree fell in a forest.” — David Letterman
Posted by Randy Scholfield
In what could become a common occurrence, “Saturday Night Live” posted online a skit from last week’s show that it had to bleep many times during the televised broadcast. It is a song parody about two boy-band singers (including Justin Timberlake) who give their male anatomy as a present, the New York Times reported. Within days of being posted, millions of people watched the uncensored video. Other network shows are sure to follow.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The December issue of Reason, a libertarian magazine, has an interview with “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The duo were asked why they hate both liberals and conservatives. Parker said that their show has a simple formula: pit extremists from opposite sides against each other, and then one of the fourth-grade kids observes, “You both remind me of each other.” Parker said: “The show is saying that there is a middle ground, that most of us actually live in this middle ground, and that all you extremists are the ones who have the microphones because you’re the most interesting to listen to, but actually this group isn’t evil, that group isn’t evil, and there’s something to be worked out here.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
If you think things have gotten nasty in the Kansas attorney general race, take a look around. Attack ads airing in the rest of the country make Phill Kline and Paul Morrison seem like old fishing buddies.
The Washington Post reports that this year, political ads are going way beyond negative, completely abandoning issues in favor of casting opponents as moral degenerates. The story includes some pretty outrageous examples.
The Post notes that the majority of such ads are coming from the GOP, which this year finds itself with a record that is not particularly inspiring.
“You’re going to see more of this sensational, off-the-wall stuff,” one expert said. “If you get people disgusted, they might withdraw from politics, and that’s the real goal these days.”
Posted by Dave Knadler
A new Cornell University study seems to provide evidence of a link between autism and TV watching in early childhood.
One theory is that autism, which is diagnosed in 1 of every 166 children, has a genetic basis but is triggered by unknown environmental factors. The researchers found that autism rates increased dramatically after 1980, when cable TV and VCRs became common in households. They also found that kids under age 3 who spent more time watching TV were more likely to get autism.
Kids now watch about four hours of television daily. Is passively watching flickering two-dimensional pictures messing with their brain development?
The science isn’t conclusive yet. But this is another good reason to limit how much TV your children watch.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Fox News turned 10 this week, and Bryan C. Anderson, who wrote the book “South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias,” has a commentary in Friday’s Eagle applauding Fox News’ success. He doesn’t deny that the network is conservative, but he argues that much of the impressions of bias are based on opinion talk shows such as “The O’Reilly Factor,” not the news programs. He cites one study that concluded Brit Hume’s “Special Report” is more centrist than any of the three major networks’ evening newscasts.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Here’s a sad testament to these politically testy times: Of the 30 or so campaign ads rolled out across the country Tuesday in contested congressional races, three are positive. According to the New York Times, the unflattering subject matter goes beyond voting records and campaign donations into personal finances, business histories and even old student writings, presented with lots of “shadowy images, breathless announcers, jagged music and a dizzying array of statistics, counterstatistics and vote citations.” By comparison, Kansas’ air wars in the gubernatorial and attorney general races seem pretty tame so far.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, doesn’t appear to have been included in the Times’ review, likely because his race isn’t considered to be competitive. But Tiahrt has a positive commercial up this week that emphasizes jobs and his efforts to keep the U.S. economy competitive.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ new ad expresses her disappointment with Jim Barnett’s anti-immigration commercial.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Anyone catch “The Daily Show” Tuesday night?
Granted, Gen. Pervez Musharraf was there to hawk his book “In the Line of Fire,” but it was still remarkable. He was the first sitting president to appear on the show.
The Pakistani seemed relaxed — and frequently amused — as he sipped tea with Jon Stewart. Asked who would win if George Bush and Osama bin Laden both ran for election in Pakistan, Musharraf chuckled and replied, “Both would lose miserably.”
Posted by Dave Knadler
What got into former President Clinton during his debut interview on “Fox News Sunday”? Host Chris Wallace mentioned the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” episode in Somalia and al-Qaida’s later bombings of U.S. interests and asked, “Why didn’t you do more, connect the dots and put them out of business?” Clinton worked himself into a finger-wagging tantrum about Wallace’s “nice little conservative hit job on me” and the “false pretenses” of the interview, half of which was to be about his Clinton Global Initiative.
Clinton still seemed upset about that ABC docudrama and kept referring to former anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke’s book. His spokesman later told the Washington Post that Clinton “came in prepared to respond to any attack on his record.” OK, but if he can’t calmly handle one question about how his White House handled terrorism now, how would he and his wife handle countless questions about that and other aspects of his record during a “Hillary Clinton for president” campaign?
And as Wallace told the Post, the surprise is not that he asked the terrorism question, but that no other TV interviewer asked it of Clinton during last week’s media blitz.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Nobody’s seen it yet, but the reviews are in: “The Path to 9/11″ — which airs beginning tonight on ABC and purports to chronicle actions by the Clinton administration in the months before the attacks — really, really stinks.
Just ask former members of the Clinton administration. Nearly all of them have weighed in demanding that ABC either correct factual errors in the film, or pull it entirely.
While they’re probably overstating the significance of a made-for-TV movie — by the same network that gave us “Charlie’s Angels” — I feel their pain. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the whole concept of “docudrama,” where real events are exaggerated, condensed or omitted for dramatic effect, and fake events can take on the stature of historical fact. It also kind of bothers me when living, well-known people are played by other people who are a lot better looking.
Regardless of how you remember the Clinton years, a cheesy TV movie is probably not the best path to understanding history.
Posted by Dave Knadler
“Can anyone really imagine seeing what those firefighters saw — first one plane, then another — and saying, ‘Goodness gracious, what rare deed is this?’ when ‘What the –’ more accurately captures the moment?” columnist Kathleen Parker asks on today’s Opinion pages. She was responding to the misguided vow by the American Family Association to flood the Federal Communications Commission with complaints if CBS stations air the documentary “9/11,” which contains some cursing (it’s scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Sunday on KWCH, Channel 12 in Wichita). “Surely the American Family Association’s biblical ethics leave some wiggle room for common sense and context,” Parker argued. “Besides, children too young to hear raw language are far too young to watch something as horrifying as the mass murder that took place on Sept. 11.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
I’m looking forward to Katie Couric’s debut today as anchor of the “CBS Evening News.” Not because I care about Couric, but because I’m tired of the promotional buildup (which included releasing this photo that was altered to make Couric look thinner). Enough already. Instead of treating TV news anchors as celebrities, we should be like the British and call them what they mostly are: “newsreaders.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Steve Irwin‘s over-the-top personality could get on your nerves. And he certainly didn’t always use the best judgment, such as when he held his infant son while feeding a crocodile. But he sure made learning about nature fun for millions of children. And he did good work promoting conservation. Given all his encounters with dangerous animals, it seemed inevitable that he would be killed one day — or at least lose a limb. But when Irwin was killed by a stingray Monday, as his producer said, “he died doing what he loved best.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Neither Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts nor Jerry Moran could claim any of the 641 total appearances by senators from 2010 through June 3 on the big Sunday news shows. But they have plenty of company. According to the New York Times, 40 other sitting senators were similarly unseen on the shows during the period, while Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., logged 61 appearances and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had 58. “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace acknowledged sometimes thinking that McCain and others appear on the show a lot. But “the fact of the matter is they are good guests,” Wallace said.
