LALARRY

In the Great Tradition of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite

Katie Couric seems all but certain to take over as anchor at CBS news.

We know Katie has a nose for news. As I reported here in Dec 2004. During the midst of the Tsunami tragedy Katie took time off from here weekend to call into the NBC newsroom:

I know you guys are all busy with all that tsunami stuff, but is it really true Brad and Jen broke up ?

you go girl....I'll keep  watching Jon Stewart and Colbert  instead. That's the real fake news.

The headline across the time cover below says "we have lost the country" LBJs reaction to Cronkite declaring that the US involvement in Vietnam was doomed.

to which I say to CBS news "you have lost all integrity"

or as Murrow famously said:

"good night and good luck"

you'll need it

I guess we'll be seeing Katie on Time Magazine with an article on her ma$$ive CBS contract. But I'll doubt she'll ever make it for journalistic excellence like her predecessors.

imo this makes rathergate look like chickens...

As KCRW media commentator noted: Katie will be the only anchorperson to interrupt a reporter in the Czech republic to note that Prague rhymes with Prada.

The Celebrity Industrial Complex Just Keeps On Churning

It's a great country :

"American Idol" got more than 500 million votes for the season.

Although the 2004 presidential election garnered 122 million votes, Thompson isn't worried. Voters got one ballot in Bush versus Kerry, he points out, while they could vote as many times as they wanted for Bo versus Carrie.

more on the celebrity industrial complex later, but one more for now

US magazine paid $500,000 for a picture of Brad and Angeline on vacation in Africa.

Am I the only cynic who finds it strange that Brad dumped the wife with the stagnant career for the co star of his latest movie ?

Am I the only one who doesn't even know when American Idol is on and what channel it airs on ?

And no I never looked inside US (people, in touch etc) except on a checkout line or if it was left on a treadmill at the gym. But  those are just about the only magazines I ever see anyone reading here in LaLa land .

Obviously I'm missing something (not !)

I stole the "celebrity industrial complex" moniker from Peter Howe, author of a new book: Paparazzi. Great interview with him on public radio's Marketplace here. And an excerpt from the book here.

We Report You Decide...

...except when we already decide for you. And what was that about "fair and balanced" ?

Is there really someone in the world that believes that:

Liberal is to CNN (NBC,ABC, CBS) as Fox News is to Conservative ?

From the May 25 edition of Fox News Live: (thanks to )

ASMAN: You're the chairman of the rules committee. Did Senator [Bill] Frist [R-TN] have the votes to end the filibuster?

LOTT: I believe that he did. It would have been very close. We would have probably gotten a 50-50 tie vote, with the vice president breaking the tie. Perhaps we'd have had 51 before it was over. I do think it's a rule that should be in place because what the Democrats have been doing is not, you know, protecting a rule, they have been causing something different. The filibusters on a serial basis, federal judicial nominees to the appellate courts, was unprecedented for 214 years. So, to put that rule in place saying that it only takes 51 votes to confirm these judges was something I thought we should do. Remember now --

ASMAN: So, Senator, if we should have done it and if we had the votes to do it in the Senate -- if you guys in the Republican Party did -- then why did you need a compromise?

OOPS !

This Just In... A Major Discovery in Research About the Media

After exhaustive "content analysis" of Cable News, the Project for Excellence in Journalism reached the following startling conclusion:

Fox was measurably more one-sided than the other networks,                     and Fox journalists were more opinionated on the air. The news channel was also decidedly more positive in its coverage of the war in Iraq, while the others were largely neutral. At the same time, the story segments on the Fox programs studied did have more sources and shared more about them with audiences.                   

   

         

CNN tended to air more points of view in its stories than others, and its reporters rarely offered their own opinions,but the news channel's stories were noticeably thinner inthe number of sources and the information shared about them.

I think they could have saved hours of research by making a 3 minute phone call to anyone with a cable box and a remote