Tag: TV

TV Newser:

Two Amman-based Jordanian freelance producers have declared they will no longer work for Fox News Channel in a message that denounces the network as an “instrument of the Bush White House and Israeli propaganda.”

Serene Sabbagh and Jomana Karadsheh’s letter, dated July 31, was forwarded to scores of reporters and others. In the letter, they write: “We base our decision on moral issues. We can no longer work with a news organization that claims to be fair and balanced when you are so far from that.”

The two women say the network has a responsibility to report fairily for the “sake of your very naive viewers.” They say they hoped the network would “develop a degree of respect to people in this part of the world.” But: “The disdain and blatant one-sided coverage of all Mideast conflicts only highlights your total lack of humanity and bias toward Israel.”

They also criticize “inexperienced anchors” and their “racist comments,” calling them a “shameful scar on the American Media,” and comparing them to the “state run Television networks in countries you despise in the Middle East.”

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten made his first appearance on Meet the Press yesterday. As ever, Tim Russert’s questions weren’t particularly tough or hard-hitting, it’s just that the positions he’s hired to defend are so illogical.

Here’s a review from Russert Watch on the Huffington Post:

Bolten’s debut on Meet the Press was a disaster. He was a quivering mass of lifeless tissues. Nothing more than a befuddled mouthpiece for the incomprehensible illogic of President Bush’s White House. Like Tony Snow and Dan Bartlett, he has an “oh crap, I have no idea what to do or say here — hhhheelllllp me!” look in his eye. It’s a look that most Republicans have these days, but especially so amongst the White House regulars.

On the war in Lebanon, Bolten aped the company line, relying on meaningless spin to stave off saying anything controversial or, heaven forfend, insightful or meaningful. But when the topic turned to the president’s veto of a bill to fund stem cell research, the going got weird:

[To] his credit, Russert really grilled Bolten on Tony Snow’s remarks referring to the embryonic stem cell research as “murder.”

Bolten refused to back his press secretary — the guy he was instrumental in hiring — by also using “murder.” It’d be nice to think that he didn’t back Snow’s remarks because embryonic stem cell research clearly is not murder. But that’s not why. I’m really not sure why he didn’t support his guy, but he didn’t. He did, however, praise the extremely cynical East Room ceremony in which the president announced his veto of the bill while being flipped off by a little girl behind him.

He also reiterated the president’s posture that he refuses to fund the destruction of “innocent life.” At the top of the show, Russert aired one of the president’s choice quotes on the issue: “This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others.”

Russert also pointed out the illogic of it all. These embryos will be destroyed anyway, why not use them to find a cure for lives that aren’t going to be flushed? Who’s going to adopt 400,000 frozen embryos?

Our media hero, Keith Olbermann, host of “Countdown” on MSNBC, took his anti-Bill O’Reilly antics on the road this weekend. He entertained the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association in Pasadena by holding up a mask of O’Reilly’s face:

During his “Countdown” show on MSNBC, Olbermann regularly tweaks O’Reilly, whose “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox is No. 1 in the cable TV news ratings. Olbermann generally runs third in the same time slot.

Olbermann opened his session by whipping out a mask of O’Reilly — a poke at Fox asking journalists to accept handout photos of TCA news conferences from photographers the network had hired.

“We thought we’d help you out, those of you who needed a good photograph of,” Olbermann said, pausing to hold up O’Reilly’s photo glued to a stick as reporters laughed.

Olbermann has named O’Reilly his “Worst Person in the World” at least 15 times. The nightly “award” is Olbermann’s way of criticizing bad behavior.

“It’s just so much fun,” Olbermann said. “I’ve always liked playing in traffic.

Arriana Huffington and others have been crying foul for the last year or so about the ideological imbalance on the “Meet the Press” roundtable on most Sundays. Today’s show was particularly egregious. Can you find a liberal in this group of panelists:

• Guest moderator Andrea Mitchell
• Reagan era drug czar and gambleholic Bill Bennett
• Wall St. Journal reporter John Harwood
• Washington Post reporter Dana Priest
• New York Times columnist William Safire, who was a speech writer for Richard Nixon

Even if Priest and Harwood are flaming lefties in real life, they are on the NBC set as reporters and therefore prohibited by the rules of journalism from discussing their personal political views.

The main subject was the rightwing’s new assault on the freedom of the press. Bill Bennett hounded Dana Priest about her reporting on the CIA’s off-shoring its torturing of terror suspects.

Priest is no patsy, however, and she got off a good one at Bennett:

MS. MITCHELL: Dana, let me point out that The Washington Post, your newspaper, was behind the others but also did publish this story. And a story you wrote last year disclosing the secret CIA prisons won the Pulitzer Prize, but it also led to William Bennett, sitting here, saying that three reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize—you for that story and Jim Risen and others for another story—were, “not worthy of an award but rather worthy of jail.” Dana, how do you plead?

MS. PRIEST: Well, it’s not a crime to publish classified information. And this is one of the things Mr. Bennett keeps telling people that it is. But, in fact, there are some narrow categories of information you can’t publish, certain signals, communications, intelligence, the names of covert operatives and nuclear secrets.

Now why isn’t it a crime? I mean, some people would like to make casino gambling a crime, but it is not a crime. Why isn’t it not a crime? Because the framers of the Constitution wanted to protect the press so that they could perform a basic role in government oversight, and you can’t do that. Look at the criticism that the press got after Iraq that we did not do our job on WMD. And that was all in a classified arena.

TVNewser is reporting scuttlebutt that the Fox News Channel is prepping a satiric news show to compete with Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart.” According to the TV news blog on the Media Bistro website, the host of the show is radio talk show host and professional Clinton-hater, Laura Ingraham:

An anonymous tipster says Ingraham’s pilot is known as “Watch This Right Now.” The tipster calls it “an absolutely terrible rip off of Daily Show” including a “music and video montage” and “mouth replacement of known news figures.” (Huh?) “They want to keep it a secret so they hired all freelance tech people,” the tipster adds. “The writers and producers should be embarassed to show this one to Roger.”

If I were compelled to come up with a one-word description of Ingraham, the word would be “humorless.” In all the years she has been in the public eye, I can’t think of a single funny thing she has said. Does she think she’s funny? Maybe. Here is how Ingraham describes an exchange from her radio show that she remembers as being “hysterical,” in which she punked an anti-war activist who hadn’t read up on Ingraham’s pro-Bush, pro-war stance:

One of the most hysterical exchanges I’ve had is with Maya Jones, who represents an anti-war group called Not In Our Name. I tried to debate her, and she said, “You really should tell people who are coming on if you’re not going to agree with them. I came on to promote the anti-war march, and I only have a few more minutes left.” She finally hung up on us.

OMG! LOL! Can you stand it?? Those liberals, huh? Can’t live with ’em, can’t shoot ’em.

[…]

No mo’ Ho: The Food and Drug Administration has moved to seize two so-called medical devices from the market because the agency said the Dr. Ho’s Double Massage and Dr. Ho’s Muscle Massage don’t actually treat diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, arthritis or migraine headaches, as advertised.

I found a funny review of Dr. Ho’s infomercial where he demonstrates his products primarily on scantily clad women:

“Not to be used by pregnant women, people with pacemakers, or epileptics” warns the gentle disclaimer that appears midway through the Dr. Ho Muscle Massager infomercial. After watching the device in action, viewers will suspect that for epileptics, Dr. Ho is not really dangerous — it’s merely redundant.

Of course, Dr. Ho has his defender, who took exception to the reviewer’s characterization of Dr. Ho as hokey:

So if you want a laugh ok, but at least stop telling people that it doesn’t work — it certainly does — also of course if you’re going to attach electrodes to body parts the person needs to expose that body part and hence not wear much — like a bathing suit — they choose to use the hip muscle because it’s a large muscle and you can see it react! You can’t tell what someone else feels — but you can SEE a reaction in a muscle and see that something is obviously going on! Do research and find out what you’re talking about before you spread claims!

But maybe the FDA has the goods on Dr. Ho after all:

Since these devices have not been approved by FDA, the safety parameters associated with their use and the efficacy of the devices for use to treat diseases have not been determined. These devices are misbranded because their labeling lacks adequate directions for intended use, they are not labeled prescription use only, and they are not being used by consumers by order of a licensed practitioner. They are further misbranded because they were manufactured at an unregistered facility.

So Cindy, me and the FDA urge you to Just Say No to Ho before it’s too late.