Tag: 01.14.00

WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS DEAL

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 

JUST SAY “NON”

“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

CROSSOVER

Composer Michael Kamen’s “New Moon in the Old Moon’s Arms” had its premiere with Washington’s National Symphony this week. Kamen says he’s trying to demolish barriers between rock and classical music. After all, he says, “They have music in common, the same 12 bloody notes.” – Washington Post

  • Same 12 notes? A review: “Last night, the National Symphony Orchestra offered nothing but weeds and garbage, music that doesn’t belong in a concert hall, music that adds nothing to our understanding of the sentiments it strives to depict, music that has little use of any kind. It was two hours of despair and perhaps the worst single evening at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall this season.” – Washington Post 01/14/00

WELCOME TO LA

The orchestra is facing its largest deficit ever, it’s just laid off some staff to save money, the music director is on a year-long sabbatical, and transition from previous longtime managerial leadership has been, to put it kindly, rocky at best. These are among the challenges waiting for Deborah Borda as she took over running the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week. – Los Angeles Times

SAVING BECKMANN

Newly released letters and telegrams reveal how Munich art dealer Günther Franke continued to support banned artist Max Beckmann through the Hitler years; how he arranged for Beckmann’s painting to be smuggled from Amsterdam into Nazi Germany, sent payments to the artist and even mounted a secret exhibition. – The Art Newspaper

ARTIFACT BAN

US bans import of certain Cambodian artifacts. Monuments and sites in Cambodia such as Banteay Chhmar, and Angkor, a World Heritage site, are being damaged and destroyed by the removal of sculpture and architectural elements from ancient Khmer temples for the illicit market, the US Information Agency has found. – The Art Newspaper

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM CHAIRMAN RESIGNS

Miles Lerman, a businessman who fought against the Nazis in southern Poland during World War II, joined planning committees for the museum in 1978 and has been chairman since 1993, raised nearly $200 million to build the museum just off the National Mall. He directed the transition from proposal to the present full-fledged museum, which has had 14 million visitors in 6½ years. – Washington Post