More on music: Among the accusations of Human Rights Watch are reports of detainee mistreatment at a United States-run, secret prison near Kabul, Afghanistan. According to HRW, some prisoners were tortured by being made to listen to Eminem and Dr. Dre for 20 straight days. Presumably, it was really, really loud, too. Kind of puts [...]
Hillsborough County schools are not short-changed on challenges. Undermanaged county growth, overcrowding, budget shortfalls, school-choice frustrations, FCAT roulette. But won’t we all feel better about educational priorities when news coverage of school board meetings isn’t dominated by provincial, polarizing, grandstanding debates about religious holidays and Gay-Straight Alliances? Is the allure of “The O’Reilly Factor” that [...]
Here’s hoping your whole holiday season has been a happy one so far. From blessings that resonated at Thanksgiving to whatever the New Year already portends. But of no less importance, here’s also hoping yours was a very Merry Christmas. Whether you gathered around a Nativity scene, played Santa to the special people in your [...]
Speaking of news, however defined, the Tampa Bay TV market now has had a fortnight to size up the newest entry into the late evening sweepstakes, WTVT-Ch. 13′s NewsEDGE at 11. Early ratings are favorable for the local Fox station, which probably means enough viewers can never get enough frenetically-paced, tabloid-styled news. It is what [...]
Speaking of news, however defined, the Tampa Bay TV market now has had a fortnight to size up the newest entry into the late evening sweepstakes, WTVT-Ch. 13′s NewsEDGE at 11. Early ratings are favorable for the local Fox station, which probably means enough viewers can never get enough frenetically-paced, tabloid-styled news. It is what [...]
It’s bad enough that the airwaves are polluted with “reality” flotsam, but do print and electronic media actually have to prominently cover – and even tease — this stuff like, well, “news”?
It’s bad enough that the airwaves are polluted with “reality” flotsam, but do print and electronic media actually have to prominently cover – and even tease — this stuff like, well, “news”?
There’s hyperbolized eulogy rhetoric, and then there’s Chris Rock’s over-the-top homage to the late comedian Richard Pryor. Rock referenced Pryor as “the Rosa Parks of comedy.” Please. Rosa Parks mainstreamed civil disobedience to odious Jim Crow laws. Pryor, a genuinely hilarious entertainer, mainstreamed the N and MF words.
Truculent, xenophobic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues his game plan for repealing the last millennium. He has now banned all Western music, including classical, from Iran’s state radio and TV stations. All this does, however, is underscore the Islamic Republic’s commitment to hypocrisy. This is no Talibanned-in-Tehran. Behind the closed doors of the well-off and [...]
Two weeks ago I was watching the Sunday morning political talk show hosted by Chris Mathews on NBC. Among his guests: the conservative David Brooks and the not-necessary-to-label Andrea Mitchell of NBC, a mainstream media liberal as well as Alan Greenspan’s wife. The topic was illegal immigration. Economics. Legalities. Security. Sovereign borders. The usual mix. [...]
