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In time for Election 2012, a Stephen Colbert super PAC. What is that?

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Peter Grier - Jul. 01 (Special Report) - Stephen Colbert has a “super PAC.” The Federal Election Commission on Thursday approved his application to form such a political fundraising entity. He celebrated with a balloon drop to patriotic music on “The Colbert Report” Thursday night. “I am a super PAC, and so can you!” the comedian crowed to his studio audience. But what is a “super PAC” anyway? Is it like a regular political action committee, only with a nicer office? Are its donors richer? Must its employees wear capes.

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More TV viewers may be cutting the cord this year

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - By Dawn C. Chmielewski, David Sarno - Jan. 04 (News) - New mobile devices and Internet-connected televisions that could let viewers cancel their pay-TV subscriptions are expected to be among the hottest items at the Consumer Electronics Show.

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Google TV Faces Delays Amid Poor Reviews

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Ashlee Vance, Claire Cain Miller - Dec. 19 (News Analysis) - Although Google already has a deal with Sony for its Internet TVs, other television makers — Toshiba, LG Electronics and Sharp — were prepared to flaunt their versions of the systems. But Google has asked the TV makers to delay their introductions, according to people familiar with the company’s plans, so that it can refine the software, which has received a lukewarm reception.

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Chasing Fox

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Magazine - By Gabriel Sherman - Oct. 03 (News Analysis) - In the spring of 2006, a year and a half after he was hired to run CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein went to his boss Jim Walton with an idea. CNN was in trouble. While the network remained a profit engine and an iconic brand, prime-time ratings were stalled. Fox News had surged ahead in the cable-news race, and now, alarmingly, Keith Olbermann was coming on strong. His anti-Bush broadsides were transforming his 8 p.m. MSNBC show, Countdown, into a bombastic counterweight to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, and combined, both personalities were drowning out CNN’s Paula Zahn, the respected television veteran who was anchoring a standard newscast during the 8 p.m. slot.

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Coalition blasts Comedy Central project for animated series on Jesus Christ

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

USA Today - By Doug Stanglin - Jun. 02 (News Report) - It's still only in the early development stage, but some media and religion heavyhitters have lined up in opposition to comedy central's animated project about Jesus Christ trying to live as a 'regular guy" in New York, Hollywood Reporter says.

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The secretive world of Oprah Winfrey

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Ed Pilkington - Apr. 17 (News) - She?s the most famous businesswoman in the world, so why does the media clam up when it comes to revelations from her past? Given that she is one of the world?s most celebrated women, with a multibillion-dollar media empire centred around her own personality, there have been strikingly few books about Oprah Winfrey. Among the many volumes dedicated to the O factor, most are published by Winfrey herself, some are children?s books and the rest are hagiographies (The Gospel According to Oprah, for example) or collections of her own quotations. Winfrey plays a central role in the US media, with her own TV studios, magazine, and the hugely influential Oprah?s Book Club, which perhaps goes some way to explaining the reluctance of the publishing ...

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News Units at ABC and CBS Try to Navigate Uncertain Times

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Brian Stelter, Bill Carter - Mar. 01 (Special Report) - ABC News is making no secret about what is behind the sweeping staff cuts it now faces: raw survival instinct.

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Black-and-White TV: Nonverbal Racial Bias Found in Popular Television Shows

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - By JR Minkel - Dec. 26 (News Report) - NONVERBAL CUES in popular television shows may be one reason why some people have a harder time associating positive terms to black figures than white ones, even when both show high-status characteristics.

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More Than Ever, You Can Say That on Television

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Edward Wyatt - Nov. 14 (Special Report) - Ever since George Carlin laid out the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” in 1972, television writers and broadcasters have been digging more deeply into the thesaurus, seizing on new ways to titillate, if not offend. And while the word “douche” is neither obscene nor profane — although this usage is certainly offensive to many people — it seems to represent the latest of broadcast television’s continuing efforts to expand the boundaries of taste, in part to stem the tide of defections by its audience to largely unregulated cable television.

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At MSNBC, weekends aren't newsworthy

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Scott Collins - Jun. 25 (Special Report) - In recent days, much of the news media's attention has been focused on post-election protests and violence in Iran. But at MSNBC, the crisis has taken on a bit less urgency, at least if viewers are to judge from what the network is airing.

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Stalled Switch to Digital TV A Classic Tale of Breakdown

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Kim Hart, Peter Whoriskey - Feb. 14 (Special Report) - The nation's switch to all-digital broadcasts has been more than a decade in the making. The federal government has spent nearly $2 billion to help people prepare. Broadcasters spent another $1.2 billion to run warning ads and millions more to upgrade equipment. Until last week, the United States seemed ready to follow the half-dozen European countries that have made the switch.

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A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Richard Pérez Peña - Nov. 13 (News Report) - But most of Eisenstadt’s victims have been bloggers, a reflection of the sloppy speed at which any tidbit, no matter how specious, can bounce around the Internet. And they fell for the fake material despite ample warnings online about Eisenstadt, including the work of one blogger who spent months chasing the illusion around cyberspace, trying to debunk it.

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TV Will Miss the Gravy Train of Political Advertising

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Carr - Oct. 27 (Special Report) - Let’s be honest. As much as we are looking forward to Nov. 4, when a historic and riveting presidential campaign will finally reach a verdict, it’s going to take more than a few aspirin and a nap to get rid of the hangover we will feel the next day.

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Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michiko Kakutani - Aug. 17 (News Report) - IT'S been more than eight years since "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" made its first foray into presidential politics with the presciently named Indecision 2000, and the difference in the show's approach to its coverage then and now provides a tongue-in-cheek measure of the show's striking evolution. Jon Stewart describes the morning meeting as "a gathering of curmudgeons expressing frustration and upset." In 1999, the "Daily Show" correspondent Steve Carell struggled to talk his way off Senator John McCain's overflow press bus -- "a repository for outcasts, misfits and journalistic bottom-feeders" -- and onto the actual Straight Talk Express, while at the 2000 Republican Convention Mr. Stewart self-deprecatingly promised exclusive coverage of "all the day's events -- at least the ones we're allowed into." In this year's promotional spot for "The Daily Show's" convention coverage, the news newbies have been transformed into a swaggering A Team -- "the best campaign team in the universe ever," working out of " 'The Daily Show' news-scraper: 117 stories, 73 situation rooms, 26 news tickers," and promising to bring "you all the news stories -- first ... before it's even true."

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One Angry Man

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New Yorker - By Peter J. Boyer - Jun. 16 (Special Report) - In cable news, the dominant personality puts an identifying stamp on the entire organization. The stamp at MSNBC is indisputably that of Keith Olbermann. The television gossip pages occasionally report grumblings of some NBC News personalities about Olbermann's dominion at MSNBC, but most, even the traditionalists, seem happy for the airtime, and glad that Olbermann's success redounds to them. As Olbermann puts it, "A rising tide lifts all boats."

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F.C.C. Set to End Sole Cable Deals for Apartments

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:10:00 -0700

New York Times - By Stephen Labaton - Oct. 29 (News Report) - The Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency's chairman says.

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Comedian Colbert Reaches Double Digits As Third-Party Candidate

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:02:37 -0700

Rasmussen Reports - By Rasmussen Reports - Oct. 25 (News Report) - Comedian Stephen Colbert is not a threat to win the presidency, but the odds are that that his satire will win plenty of laughs and maybe even some votes. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that Colbert is preferred by 13% of voters as an independent candidate challenging Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani. The survey was conducted shortly after Colbert's surprise announcement that he is lusting for the Oval Office. The result is similar when Fred Thompson is the Republican in the three-way race. With Thompson as the GOP candidate, Colbert earns 12% of the vote. Last week Colbert used his Comedy Central show "The Colbert Report" to announce that he is running for President as both a Republican and a Democrat, but only in the state of South Carolina. He first informed fellow jokester Jon Stewart on Stewart's program that so far he had only "decided to officially consider whether or not I will announce"--a habitual formulation of both politicians and comedians pretending to be politicians. Fifteen minutes later, however, Colbert was telling viewers of his own show: "After nearly 15 minutes of soul-searching, I have heard the call." Colbert does particularly well with the younger voters most likely to be watching his show and therefore most aware of his myriad presidential-like qualities. In the match-up with Giuliani and Clinton, Colbert draws 28% of likely voters aged 18-29. He draws 31% of that cohort when his foes are Thompson and Clinton. In both match-ups, Colbert has more support with young voters than the GOP candidate.

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Iran Holocaust Show Sympathetic to Jews

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 10:50:26 -0700

Agence France-Presse - By Nasser Karimi - Sep. 16 (News Report) - It is Iran's version of "Schindler's List," a miniseries that tells the tale of an Iranian diplomat in Paris who helps Jews escape the Holocaust -- and viewers across the country are riveted.

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Amid War, Passion for TV Chefs, Soaps and Idols

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:42:49 -0700

New York Times - By Barry Bearak - Aug. 01 (Special Report) - Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, Afghanistan has been developing in fits and starts....But television is off to a phenomenal start, with Afghans now engrossed, for better or worse, in much of the same escapist fare that seduces the rest of the world.

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The TV Is Dead. Long Live the TV

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:30:27 -0700

Wired - By John Borland - Apr. 06 (Special Report) - TV is evolving into something new and hardly recognizable to generations raised on its earlier incarnations. The structured world of analog over-the-air programming that brought American families together in the living room has been shattered. In its place has emerged a new form of unbounded digital video, endlessly permeable and reprogrammable. "Traditional TV won't be here in seven to 10 years," says Kim Moses, co-producer of CBS' popular Ghost Whisperer, who has just launched a short-form version of her own show online. "It's changing so fast that I don't know if it's even going to be that long." On the 80th anniversary of the first long-distance TV broadcast, the industry that evolved out of it is under siege. Old rules -- defining who, where and what to watch -- are collapsing, making room for new ideas and talent on air and online. In other words, television has never been stronger. Programs like HBO's The Sopranos have reinvigorated TV as entertainment and even art. Completely new forms are breaking out online. Perhaps, most surprising of all, octogenarian TV is once again one of the most potent catalysts for technological innovation.

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The Case for Reality TV

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:37:20 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Michael Hirschorn - Apr. 06 (Special Report) - Is there an easier position to take in polite society than to patronize reality TV? Even television programmers see the genre as a kind of visual Hamburger Helper: cheap filler that saves them money they can use elsewhere for more-worthy programming. Reality shows cost anywhere from a quarter to half as much to produce as scripted shows. The money saved on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the logic goes, allows ABC to pay for additional gruesome medical emergencies and exploding ferries on Grey's Anatomy,. NBC's crappy Fear Factor pays for the classy Heroes. As befits a form driven largely by speed and cost considerations, reality TV is not often formally daring. Fifteen years after MTV's The Real World set the template for contemporary reality TV by placing seven strangers in a downtown Manhattan loft, reality television has developed its own visual shorthand: short doses of documentary footage interspersed with testimonials (often called OTFs, for "on-the-fly" interviews) in which the participants describe, ex post facto, what they were thinking during the action you are watching.

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5 Internet startups building the TV networks of tomorrow

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:27:50 -0800

Business 2.0 - By Erick Schonfeld - Feb. 23 (News Report) - Wayne's World, it's not. The Web TV series Diggnation draws hundreds of thousands of viewers. It has Fortune 500 corporate sponsors, and its two young stars are among the brightest in the tech firmament. Still, the production values are more in line with Wayne and Garth than they are with, say, The Daily Show ... "Hello, and welcome to Diggnation, episode No. 80! I'm Kevin Rose!" "And I'm Alex Albrecht! Diggnation covers some of the hottest user-submitted stories on the social news website Digg.com!!" Building the next YouTube? And with that lead-in, a packed trade-show audience of more than 700, peering up at the makeshift stage, cheers wildly for the start of the main act: Digg's 30-year-old founder Rose and his spike-haired sidekick Albrecht, slouched on a couch, sipping beers, and staring down at laptops between their knees. A lone videocamera records the action. "Should we go right into it?" Albrecht asks. By "it," he doesn't mean the arrival of some star guest, comedian, or musical act. What we have here is TV by and for geeks - entertainment aimed directly at gadget-loving, commercial-skipping 18- to 34-year-old males who spend more time on the Web than in front of a TV. YouTube, with its 40 million viewers per month, has already proved the mass appeal of video streamed over the Web. But two-minute clips of lip-syncing teenagers are just the start. Full-length serialized shows are popping up everywhere online, with advertisers in tow, led by shows like Diggnation.

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Jeff Zucker to take top spot at NBC Universal

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 09:59:33 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Meg James - Feb. 04 (News Report) - Jeff Zucker, the fast-rising television executive who made his name as executive producer of NBC's morning show "Today," will be named chief executive of NBC Universal this week, according to four people at the company. Zucker, 41, will succeed Bob Wright, who has spent nearly 21 years building the company brick by brick, transforming "the peacock" from a stand-alone TV network into a sprawling entertainment empire with broadcast and cable channels, a Hollywood movie studio and theme parks. Wright's reign will have been among the longest in media history.

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Study: iPod video yet to play big

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 04:15:19 -0800

Reuters - By Andrew Wallenstein - Nov. 20 (News Report) - Nielsen Media Research has begun gathering its first data on the audience for Apple's iPod, calling into question the popularity of its video offering.

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Clinton Officials Protest ABC 9/11 Film

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:02:34 -0700

Associated Press - By Deepti Hajela, Devlin Barrett, Frazier Moore - Sep. 07 (News Report) - A miniseries about the events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks is "terribly wrong" and ABC should correct it or not air it, a group of former Clinton administration officials said in letters to the head of the network's parent company. But in a statement released Thursday afternoon in apparent response to the growing uproar, ABC said, "No one has seen the final version of the film, because the editing process is not yet complete, so criticisms of film specifics are premature and irresponsible."

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