Category: media

It’s everything that conventional wisdom says should make for a recipe for dull TV. But C-SPAN’s simple formula of turning on the cameras and letting them run captures the energy of democracy in action. A virtual conversation with guiding light and “Book Notes” host Brian Lamb. – The Idler 01/18/00

More and more web-savvy radio fans are abandoning their local broadcast dials in favor of broadcasting over the web. – New York Times 01/16/00 

Movies and their running times. The new ones seem to be getting longer, but do they beat the classics? – Chicago Tribune 01/16/00

Official says White House drug czar’s office reviews television scripts “to see if they’re on strategy or not” by portraying youth drug use in a negative light. If so, the networks are given credits that enable them to sell more air time to commercial advertisers rather than donating it for anti-drug and other messages. – Washington Post 01/14/00

• SOME SURPRISE (GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES): Study commissioned by the White House, to be released today, says television generally does a far better job than movies and music when it comes to responsible depictions of drug, tobacco and alcohol use. – Los Angeles Times 01/14/00
  
  
• GOVERNMENT PAYOLA? PART II:  Federal law requires that anyone financially influencing or contributing to programming content be revealed at the time of broadcast. In the arrangement uncovered by Salon, the networks are earning millions in financial incentives from the government in exchange for inserting anti-drug plots in TV shows. Is the practice illegal? Perhaps. – Salon 01/14/00
  
  
• UH, UH: “NBC has never ceded creative control of any of our programs” to the drug policy office or any other department of government, said Rosalyn Weinman, the executive vice president of content policy for NBC.” Similar statements from other networks. – New York Times 01/13/00
  
  
• Networks deny the gave government officials creative control. – Variety 01/14/00
  
  
• AP report – Baltimore Sun 01/14/00
  
  
• Previously: JUST SAY “PAY ME:” Salon Magazine investigation says that the White House got anti-drug messages sewn into television shows in return for more than $25 million in the past year-and-a-half. Report says that the White House got to sign off on scripts for network shows. – Salon 01/13/00 

“Distressed by declining box office at home, French directors are blaming some of the country’s most respected film reviewers for favoring American movies and gratuitously attacking local pictures. In a volcanic debate that has roiled through the country’s newspapers, magazines and television screens for several months, the directors emerged last month with a manifesto demanding that all negative reviews be held back until after opening weekend–at least five days following the usual Wednesday opening.” Critics, as expected, reject the idea. – Los Angeles Times 01/14/00

In a deal unrelated to the Time Warner merger, AOL announces a “strategic alliance” with PBS in which the public television system will become a “premiere content provider” for AOL and the internet provider will receive an on-air “branding presence.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 01/13/00

Some 6000 people answered CBS’ call for participants for the real-life “Gilligan’s Island” game show. Who would want to be dropped on an island to survive the elements and each other? The show is being described as MTV’s “The Real World” meets “Lord of the Flies,” and this week 50 of those still in contention met to try and impress producers. – Philadelphia Inquirer 01/12/00

Hollywood producers “always maintained that the blacklist was essentially forced on them by a powerful one-two punch of politics and public opinion. True enough. But it’s also true that the Hollywood blacklist descended directly — perhaps even more so than previously thought — from a virulent strain of anti-union sentiment. New interviews, access to internal Hollywood memoranda and a review of the existing but largely forgotten record all suggest that unions — one in particular — threatened to cut into studio control and profits. And the studios would do anything, even ruin lives, to keep that from happening.” – Salon 01/11/00

Boards of both companies unanimously approve deal announced today. – Variety 01/10/00

• Deal creates new $350 billion company – Wired 01/10/00
  
  
• More business details – and here it’s $250 billion. – DowJones.com 01/10/00
  
  
• OPEN ACCESS? AOL was a leader in the fight to force cable companies to permit open access for internet providers to cable systems. But now AOL will be a cable system activists are howling. – Variety 01/11/00 
  
  
  • Saving a dinosaur? AOL to the rescue. – Washington Post 01/11/00
    
    
  • Hollywood reaction: Big sigh – “It changes the landscape of all our businesses.” – Washington Post 01/11/00

Voter says gifts don’t do much (if anything) to win favor from press voters for the Golden Globes. “Maybe not, but Sharon Stone went too far this year when two couriers arrived at Golden Globe voters’ doors, one bearing a cellular telephone with a month’s free calls, along with a card signed by Stone and her Simpatico co-stars Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges, and the other a watch that sells for $395.” – The Telegraph (UK) 01/10/00