Category: Media Watch

So Leonardo DiCaprio, with a Golden Globe Award already won, is a favorite to win an Oscar for his depiction of Howard Hughes in “The Aviator.” Once again when it comes to popular culture, I’m clueless. I still don’t think DiCaprio is ready to play adults.

If the National Football League and its network co-conspirators really, REALLY wanted to do something about the over-the-top player antics that periodically bring the league seemingly unwanted notoriety, here’s a suggestion. Forget the pro forma statements of regret. Forget levying fines on the obscenely compensated. But do this: keep the cameras off of showboating individuals after a play has ended.

Sometimes you add by subtracting. This is one of those times.

Go right to replay, put up a graphic or a test pattern or look for trite reaction shots in the stands. Do not, repeat do NOT, linger on wide outs, running backs, defensive backs, defensive lineman, etc. who go into their individual, look-at-me, juvenile hijinks that range from boorish to vulgar. If no one — save enabling live partisans — could get a look, there might, repeat MIGHT, be less incentive to do it.

As it is, completions, incompletions, first downs, sacks, fumble recoveries and interceptions are all provocations to trip the light fantastic as only mugging athletes can. And that’s why touchdowns – occurrences traditionally worth “celebrating” – seemingly require an orchestrated upping of the ante, i.e., the (moon) shot heard ’round the sports world earlier this month.

As to whether the networks, who pay outrageous sums to televise pro football, would want to make such a coverage change, it’s a long shot. Likely a no-shot. They like exploiting the trash-talking as if it were merely gamesmanship; they follow and focus on the sophomoric, classless antics as if they were mere extensions of enthusiasm.

They think there’s not enough of us who know the difference.

They are probably right.

We now know that ostensible journalist Armstrong Williams, whose influential take on “No Child Left Behind” was co-opted and subsidized by the Department of Education, is to journalism what Paris Hilton is to acting.

But there’s a lot of blame to spread around when propaganda masquerades as news. There’s also one critical concept — public relations — that needs context.

PR primer

Let’s start with PR. It’s not journalism, but it’s not wrong. It should be an integral part of responsible leadership. It is as valid as it is valuable. Indeed, a company or a government would be remiss if it didn’t use all of its communication tools.

Keep in mind that the PR-government nexus predates the spinsanity of the Clinton and Bush Administrations. As well as Michael Deaver’s orchestrations for Ronald Reagan and FDR’s masterful “fireside chat” strategy. In fact, it was Woodrow Wilson who created the U.S. Committee on Public Information — for the expressed purpose of galvanizing public support for World War I.

For a government entity – with obvious taxpayer obligations – it’s part of the charge to inform the public about what it’s getting for its tax dollars. How well and how scrupulously you do that is what it’s all about.

There’s effective and ineffective. The former can be as basic as a well-written press release that includes a compelling news peg and is sent to the appropriate person. The latter would be a blatantly self-serving fluff item sent cluelessly to a desk or a department.

There’s also ethical and unethical. There’s nothing inherently wrong, for example, with sending video press releases to the electronic media. But mislabeling a spokesperson as a reporter would be unconscionably unethical.

Last year the Government Accountability Office criticized the Office of National Drug Control Policy for a release that used a contractor posing as a journalist. And the General Accounting Office accused the Department of Health and Human Services of sending out falsified “video news releases” that were used by 40 local TV stations.

Media’s role

Then there is media culpability and complicity – as in the aforementioned 40 TV stations.

It’s one thing for government to try to manipulate and manage the news. In a democracy with a free press, however, that effort cannot ultimately succeed without an enabling media — unprofessional, budget-squeezing and lazy.

A media that accepts pre-packaged, pre-spun news as legitimate fare. A media that doesn’t fact-check. A media too enamored of scandal and celebrity staples to scrutinize the details of more pedestrian – but more complicated – news items.

The shilling fields

Thanks to USA Today’s uncovering of a Department of Education contract that paid Williams $240,000 to shill for “NCLB,” we are now privy to one of the more egregious abuses in American PR-media annals. Williams, a high-profile, black syndicated columnist and conservative, cable-TV commentator, has been outed as a journalistic harlot, hooking for the DOE. And, yes, Education Secretary Roderick Paige had given his see-no-evil blessing.

In a comment that redefines understatement, Williams acknowledged that he understood “why some people think it’s unethical” and conceded that “My judgment was not the best.”

Worse yet was the reaction of DOE.

In a stonewalling response that Richard Nixon – or Joseph Goebels — might have admired, the DOE actually defended the mole-in-the media relationship, calling it “a permissible use of taxpayer funds.” Williams was part of its minority outreach program, explained DOE. His contract was for “advertising.”

No harm, no foul. And obviously no sense of shame over being caught trying to undermine a system that depends on informed public debate where “journalists” aren’t paid advocates for a point of view.

Fallout follow-up

But also impacted are legitimate “outreach” programs. There are valid reasons why minorities might want to consider the party of Thomas Sowell, J.C. Watts and Colin Powell instead of the party of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Kweisi Mfume. Why they might want to opt out of Democratic lock-step and consider self-sufficiency as an alternative to historic dependence.

Williams also has made it easier for those who look askance at conservative blacks as so many “Uncle Toms” and so much Republican window dressing.

And coming in the wake of the CBS and other media scandals, Williams has helped make the case for those already disposed to dismiss the media as something less than “fair and balanced.”

In sum, the consequences of Williams’ DOE work – as he himself might inimitably characterize it — are “not the best.”

Just think. A whole year to go before the next round of “Year in Review” stories, starting off with reliving in macabre detail the devastating death toll from the South Asian earthquake and tsunami.

Perhaps this journalistic tradition, if it must continue, is best left in the satiric hands of Dave Barry.

Have a safe and Happy New Year’s. Moreover — and please do take this as an anti over-the-top-secularism message — here’s hoping everyone had a very Merry CHRISTMAS.

Saying Tom McEwen was a sports writer is like saying Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer. It doesn’t tell you nearly enough.

Tom McEwen, the former Tampa Tribune sports editor, was a force. A valued resource. An old-school, home-town community asset. More on that later.

Fact is, the 81-year-old McEwen still has a lot of shelf life – not just legacy stock. He still writes – and has his own web site.

Sure, he can reflect on Pete Rose and the early signs of talent, tenacity and trouble. He can tell you what Bear Bryant was like as a coach — or a golfing partner. Why George Steinbrenner never got over not buying the Buccaneers. What Al Lopez remembers most about Minnie Minoso. And he can give you the inside, dog-and-pony skinny on how the Buc franchise came to Tampa.

Unlike anyone else around here, McEwen can put current sports events into historic perspective. He knows the minutes from previous meetings. He probably kept them.

But he’s also where contemporary media go, for example, when they want to know what Steve Spurrier is really thinking. Some reporters would kill to have his Rolodex.

McEwen has long mattered to this town: For his scoops, his insights, his civic loyalty, his institutional memory and his myriad stints as a master of ceremonies for all manner of black-tie occasions and charity events. The city’s current “I am Tampa” slogan was embodied by McEwen an era ago.

So, it was most appropriate when an endowed scholarship for USF mass communications students was named in his honor. It will be funded fittingly by Media General and the Tampa Tribune .

McEwen was no Red Smith or Jim Murray or even Martin Fennelly. You won’t find “McEwen” and “wordsmith” in the same sentence – except for ones such as this. Too many sentences beginning with “Thought here is

For those still expressing outrage over that steamy pre-game promotion preceding a recent Monday Night Football game: Get over it.

Not because you’re overreacting. Not because you just don’t “get it.” And not because “that’s ‘show biz.'”

But because it’s now too late to re-bottle the genie of mainstream cultural sludge.

Frankly, I was more offended by an NBC promo for “Thanksgiving Fear Factor.” It included, and I wish I were making this up, this reference by one of the participants: “Would you like some maggots with your mash potatoes?”

I guess that’s an edgy hoot to some. And truth be told, I might still be laughing if I were still 15. What’s being imposed is the sophomorizing – as well as the coarsening of the culture. You don’t have to check out BET Videos and Jerry Springer or review tapes of the Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers-drunken loser fans “basketbrawl” for a representative sampling.

But back to the MNF flap.

Prime time pro sports – notably basketball and football – have been chronic offenders in the poor-taste sweepstakes. From cheesy chorus lines to police-blotter players and gangsta promos. From “trash-talking” thuggery euphemized as cultural “gamesmanship” to cameras following and focusing on every boorish showboat’s customized choreography.

It is what it is, and the ratings and ad rates haven’t crested yet. As for that racy locker room exchange between Terrell Owens, the NFL poster child for stentorian stud, and some towel-clad bimbo from “Desperate Housewives,” it was merely an extension of an increasingly sleazy entertainment product.

And as black Indianapolis Colts’ coach Tony Dungy has pointed out, the offending cross-promotion of the NFL and “Housewives” even played the racial stereotype card – lest someone be left unoffended.

It was the height of hypocrisy for ABC, the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles organization to have feigned regret over the incident. After a few pro forma apologies, they were all high-fiving each other over their collective PR coup.

If you’re a parent, don’t waste your breath complaining; the league is more Ray Lewis than Derek Brooks. Might as well wax disturbed over an MTV Awards’ show. The best thing you can do is to be an example to your kids and not applaud the “colorful” antics of dysfunctional-culture athletes because they are home town players.

Journalism is the only profession with its own amendment, the First. It is the bedrock of democracy.

But it is not a science – rocket or otherwise. The practice is rife with judgment calls. Among them: How do you handle controversial photos?

You know the one: that gut-wrenching shot of the dying American soldier in Fallujah being unsuccessfully ministered to on a gurney. It had to have been the subject of countless editorial discussions – some doubtlessly heated — across the expanse of American newspapers. That obviously included this market.

A couple of points.

First, photos are more than layout elements. Chosen well, they graphically show what a thousand words of copy can only describe in the abstract. Chosen well, they help convey the truth.

This is what the photo of the dying soldier did, and that’s why it ran on a lot of front pages, including that of the Tribune.

But here’s the other side.

While journalists continuously work to rein in – or just limit – their subjectivity, they shouldn’t be checking their empathy at the newsroom door. The news isn’t reported – and consumed – in a vacuum. At its core, news is people. Subjects, suspects, victims –and readership: the nation, the region, the community.

What works for a national magazine might be less appropriate for a daily newspaper that is a community staple. Demographics also matter in a democracy. What works on the jump might be more appropriate than what is displayed across three columns on page one.

In this case, maximum impact was the wrong call for the right reason.

When Tom Brokaw finally signed off on election night, it was, in effect, the veteran NBC anchor’s last hurrah. The 64 year old, who has anchored the “Nightly News” for more than two decades, officially steps down Dec. 1.

Unlike Dan Rather, or other mass communication-mass culture notables, Brokaw didn’t linger past his prime. He never trafficked in the shout-a-thons and gotcha gestalt that characterize so much of news “analysis.” He leaves a network that continues to lead in the evening news ratings race.

Say what you will about America’s sensationalistic news culture, including its celebrity- anchor cult, but Tom Brokaw never made the news. Except when he called it a career.

Not that the Tampa Tribune is courting national notoriety; it just looks that way of late.

Editorially, the Trib has been rock solid Republican for more than a generation — endorsing every Republican candidate for president since 1968. This year, however, the Trib did not endorse the Republican incumbent, President George W. Bush. In fact, it endorsed nobody.

It’s obviously a function of an editorial transfusion — new blood in at publisher, editor and editorial page editor. It’s also a function of an editorial board apparently as polarized as the electorate at large. Moreover, the president hardly helped himself with those who look at fiscal policy and the size of government as conservative litmus tests. And the mess that is Iraq easily transcends any traditional ideology.

As for the widespread publicity per se, it’s the most national notice for the Trib since, well, a certain editorial was written and sent to press before the outcome of a certain hockey game barely four months ago.

At the very least, the Trib has been on the wrong side of a basic newspaper tenet. Report –and analyze — the news — don’t make it. Only tribulation can result.