Note:
This column is updated on an irregular basis, depending upon reader
support through advertiser links. It is NOT intended to be
all inclusive.
The July 29, 2010 edition of
The Tennessean
was notable for two reasons: The first was the absence of a letter to
the editor, submitted July 24, 2010 in response to a Metro
Council proposal allowing Nashville hybrid drivers free metered
parking. A day earlier the newspaper published a three-star
letter on the same subject, but in opposition to the proposed
ordinance. (According to the newspaper's guidelines, the
three-star designation, a letter of the day equivalent,
is bestowed upon a well-written letter that articulates its
point in the space required. PAULA WILSON's letter did just
that, but without the publication of a contrasting point-of-view,
The Tennessean
leaves itself open to criticism it has indicated is unfair; namely the
suggestion that a three-star designation is awarded letters that take a
position consistent with the newspaper's editorial position on any
given issue)
In a front-page article, also published in the July 29, 2010 edition of
The Tennessean,
BOB
SMIETANA notes the targeting of Nashville Rabbi SAUL
STROSBERG in a failed firebombing attack. Smietana writes
that the 2009 "failed firebombing isn't the first time local
Jews have been targeted for violence. In June, 1990, members
of the Ku Klux Klan opened fire at West End Synagogue in an early
morning drive-by shooting."
Smietana might also have mentioned earlier incidents
including the 1985 murder of Belle Meade resident MELBA LAPIDUS
who was killed during an October 29, 1985 explosion that also
destroyed her home. Additionally, local media personality
TEDDY BART made headlines
when GLADYS GIRGENTI, the adult leader of the Klan youth
group, was one of three people arrested on May 25, 1981 and
charged with an attempt to blow up
WSM Radio and TV (then both
located at the present WSMV-TV location of 5700 Knob Road) and
Congregation Ohabai Shalom.
(Bart was a WSM employee at that time and he worshiped at The
Jewish Temple as Congregation Ohabai Shalom is informally known)
Smietana might have also
mentioned the 1958 bombing of Nashville's Jewish Community
Center. Articles about that incident are doubtless in
The Tennessean's
archives.
****
The
Associated
Press's MIKE STOBBS wrote in an July 28, 2010 article that
some "experts" are suggesting that the recommended number of
CPR chest pushes (100 per minute) may be best achieved,
according to these same "experts,'" by "using the beat of
the... song
Stayin'
Alive as a guide."
Stobbs should have clarified that the beat of the
BEE GEE hit's
chorus should
be the guide.
****
In a July 26, 2010
Associated Press dispatch on
former
Illinois Governor ROD BLAGOJEVICH's corruption
trial, writers DON BABWIN and MICHAEL TARM noted
that
FBI wiretap tapes were played in court. While the
writers quote "Blagojevich calling the Senate seat '(expletive)
golden,'" there are no such quotes around the what appears to
be another direct quote about Blago describing the same golden
Senate seat: saying he wouldn't give it up for nothing, write
Don and Michael.
Grammarians who wince at the word "nothing " being used where the word
'"anything" would be more appropriate would prefer to believe that it
is Blago who needs to be taught the parts of speech rather than Babwin,
Tarm, their copy editor or whomever.
****
Following
a panel discussion about black network news anchors being
relegated to weekend slots during a segment of the July 25, 2010
edition of
CNN's
Reliable Sources, host HOWARD KURTZ turned to BOB SCHIEFFER to
eulogize
DANIEL SCHORR.
True, Schieffer and Schorr were
CBS News colleagues for years and
Dan made his mark at the Tiffany Network. But it
seems that following a segment on the lack of racial parity the less
ironic choice- if, indeed, a choice had to be made- would have been
been having
BERNARD SHAW to reminisce about
his work with Schorr at both CBS and CNN.
As it was, Schieffer, recalling the appearance of Schorr's name on
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON's "Enemies List," indicated "I think he ranked
13th or 14th or something."
Actually, Schorr was #17 on the list.
On a related note, Nashville's news media, to the extent that its
members noted Schorr's passing at all, did not mention, as usually
happens when celebrities die and one can be established, a Nashville
connection. That connection is often tenuous, as it is here,
but during his CNN years Schorr made a public appearance in Nashville.
I remember it because I interviewed him on that occasion for
ABC Radio News.
****
DIANE SAWYER observed during her
profile of MARK ZUCKERBERG on the
July 21, 2010 edition of Nightline
that "If it
keeps growing at its current rate, by 2013 every
single person in the world who is online will be on Facebook.”
What
hyperbole! There will always
be Facebook holdouts- like me!
****
In a Time cover story titled The Only Child Myth,
appearing in the newsweekly's July 19, 2010 issue, LAUREN
SANDLER writes that ELVIS PRESLEY was a singleton.
While raised as an only child, Elvis was, of
course, born a twin.
****
On the July 20, 2010 edition of Entertainment
Tonight, KEVIN FRAZIER
referenced MARK LANE by indicating
that “Lane
was instrumental in disproving the theory that LEE HARVEY OSWALD acted alone in
killing JFK.”
Oh, really? Then who would Oswald's accomplices have
been? And was Lane instrumental in bringing them to justice?
Has Frazier spoken with
GERALD POSNER? And how
exactly does one disprove a theory? Mathematicians would
love
to know!...
****
A
July 17, 2010 CMT
Insider report
on MARK McGRAW referred to Mark as TIM McGRAW's brother.
Mark is actually Tim's half-brother.
****
Fox 17
's
STACY CASE had grammarians wincing
when she spoke of how to "make your money go farther"on the 9 p.m.
edition of Fox 17 news.
****
CYNTHIA MCFADDEN's July 12, 2010 Good
Morning America report about the movie Salt
indicated that the ANGELINA JOLIE's character Evelyn
was to be named Edward before Jolie was cast, as Edward was "a part
reportedly created for TOM CRUISE."
"Reportedly?"
Unless Tom and
Salt's
production company are blackballing
Cynthia and/or ABC, viewers can presume that McFadden has the
access and
GMA the resources to confirm or deny this "report."
****
WSMV-TV's
JEREMY FINLEY reported on a "new
scheme" during the July 12, 2010 edition of the station's 6 p.m. news.
But the scheme, involving the "Department of Crime
Prevention" is far from new. As Finley admitted, "The Better
Business Bureau warned about these crooks, but it wasn't until we
actually got recordings of them that you can really see and hear how
serious this is."
Well, actually, the scam hs been around for some time.
ALICE GROMSTYN of ABC News' Business Unit reported
on it August 21, 2008. Beyond that the recording
are nothing new: ABC posted them on line at that same time.
They may be found here.
****
Who is
writing the news scripts at WTVF-TV?
From NICK
BERES during the July 10th edition of 6 p.m. edition of
Channel 5 news at 6 p.m : "You're probably wondering 'Who are these
counties?'..."
Only if
counties have turned human....
Not to be
outdone, VICKI YATES spoke of a
newsmaker who "walked through her house like normal," during the 4 p.m.
edition of Channel 5's July 7th newscast. Also during that
half-hour telecast, Yates redundantly revealed that "Seventh
graders now have to have two additional immunization shots."
****
KRISTIN
PRIESOL did a little shilling for
WTVF-TV
's July 7th 5 p.m. newscast., when she announced that "We
partnered
with several different companies to help you find a job. The
Safe
& Sound Career Expo was a big success." (Like
Priesol's gonna say
it was a failure?)
Then Priesol added "Applicants say the job
search in these tough times is still very frustrating." (So
the truth
is coming out?)
Kristen's candor fully emerged with a
grammar-challenged statement to the effect that "Organizers say there
were slightly less people than last year and that might be because some
are simply getting frustrated with the job search."
****
LEE COWAN told viewers of the July
4, 2010 edition of
NBC
Nightly News, “John Adams…
hoped today would be honored… from one end of this continent to the
other. He certainly got his wish and more.”
Oh, really? Since when is America's Independence
Day celebrated in Canada?
****
"CHELY WRIGHT is country music's only openly gay singer."
So declared
SCOTT COUCH on the July
1, 2010 edition of
Fox
17's 9 p.m. newscast, though
k.d. lang might beg to
differ....
****
Referring to LARRY KING and RYAN
SEACREST on the June 30, 2010 segment of The Insider,
CHRIS JACOBS could have used a
grammar lesson, else why would he have
King and his rumored replacement as "him and Ryan."
****
During the June 27, 2010 telecast of NPT's
A Word on
Words, host
JOHN SEIGENTHALER referred to the
CARTER Sisters, suggesting that "ANITA was the oldest." In
fact, HELEN was the oldest of Mother MAYBELLE CARTER's
daughters
.
Anita was the
youngest.
****
In a pre-publication on-line excerpt of
DOTSON
RADER's June 27, 2010
Parade Q-A
with
WILLIE NELSON, in which
Nelson
mentions
CHARLEY PRIDE,
Pride's first
name is
misspelled.
****
JONATHAN
MARTIN announced that he was the morning's substituted anchor
during the June 26, 2010 edition of
WSMV's 9 a..m news by indicating
that his ailing colleague was "not feeling too good." Grammar
lessons, Jonathan?
****
Shame on the TV news media who, showing footage of
GEORGE HAMILTON IV
singing at
JIMMY DEAN's funeral,
did not so much as identify Hamilton by name, let alone
explain the role Dean had in launching Hamilton's career!
****
Re: Ongoing speculation about GARY COLEMAN's death, news
organizations interviewing various "friends" and "family" with opposing
interests and viewpoints, why is there no disclosure clarifying who is
being paid for interviews and by what entities?
Such disclosures help observers to
establish credibility.
****
Reporting June 23, 2010 on the Nashville Rising Concert of a day
earlier, an all-star benefit for flood victims that ran
overtime,
DEMETRIA KALODIMOS
forgot her grammar when she remarked "And if
we’d let it it would have
went till like 3 o’clock in the morning."
****
During the June 21, 2010 edition
of WSMV-TV's
Channel 4 News at Noon, Anchor JENNIFER JOHNSON reported that
JIMMY DEAN's tombstone is inscribed with a line from the lyrics of Big, Bad
John which Johnson quoted as "as the bottom of
this mine lies a helluva man." While Dean's original lyric,
referring to a "hell of a man" was what he intended, he compromised
with radio censors of the day and, when it came to recording the
smash, settled on "a big, big man.".
****
Though he is not the first and won't be the last to do so, during the
June 11, 2010 edition of
WSMV-TV's noon news, TOM
RANDLES
mispronounced
JULIANE HOUGH's surname. Note
to Tom: The proper phonetic pronunciation of Juliane's last
name is not "Hoe" but rather "Huff."
****
During the June 7, 2010 edition of
WSMV-TV's 6:30 p.m. newscast, JENNIFER JOHNSON
failed to correct herself after she referenced the statement that
brought an abrupt halt to HELEN THOMAS' career, when Johnson
said "
Thomas
went on to say that the Palestinians should go to…’
It was, of course, the
Israelis
who were the targets of Thomas' now- infamous rant.
****
DAN HARRIS' pre-recorded "exclusive" interview with SHANNON
PRICE, which aired on
Good Morning
America June 7, 2010 was followed by an
in-studio Q-A with ROBIN ROBERTS. One of Roberts' questions
of Harris was about whether GARY COLEMAN had a will.
Dan explained that there are "reports" that there one or more
wills exist and that Coleman's ex-wife may be excluded, but Robin did
not ask, nor did Dan explain, why Harris did not pout the question to
Price.
****
Re:
RICHARD SCHLESINGER's profile of JOAN RIVERS on the June 6, 2010
edition of CBS'
Sunday Morning.
Schlesinger chronicled Rivers' early professional struggle by
indicating "“Eventually she got
noticed by JOHNNY CARSON.”
(Rivers introduction to late-night network TV followed her
success on The Ed Sullivan Show, yet
Schlesinger didn't even mention Sullivan in his piece.)
****
On the
June 6, 2010 edition of WTVF-TV 's 10 p.m. newscast, SCOTT
ARNOLD
promoted Channel 5's upcoming career fair,
by indicating that "It
is shaping up to be one of the biggest job fairs in Middle Tennessee….
You’’ll get
to meet dozens of local employers…
Right
now we are looking for looking for employers to be part of the
event so go to
newschannel5.com to reserve your booth.”
How does Arnold know that there will be enough
participating employers to prevent cancellation of
the July 7, 2010 Safe & Sound Career Expo if
they haven't been booked already? Shouldn't
commitments for the event be in place before it is promoted, resulting
in viewers' possibly canceling other plans that they might
(potentially) benefit?
****
During
the June 5, 2010 edition of Channel 4 News at 5
p.m., WSMV-TV'
anchor ALAN FRIO introduced
a package on the reopening of the
Wildhorse Saloon that included a sound byte from a man Frio
misidentified as Gaylord CEO COLIN REED.
The speaker was actually PETE WEIEN, Sr. VP / GM Gaylord Opryland.
****
KATIE COOK's
June 5, 2010 CMT Awards preview featured
predictions from a CMT "panel of experts." Who were
these "experts"? Cook, CMT Radio's CODY ALAN and CMT Top 20
Countdown's EVAN FARMER. The stacked deck of youngsters was
more representative of a monopoly than of a cross-section of
Nashville's music industry.
****
Shame
on Nancy cartoonist GUY GILCHRIST!
The text of Gilchrist's June 4, 2010 comic referred to
CHARLIE MONK as the "Mayor of Music Row."
That unofficial title rightly belongs to CHARLIE
LAMB. Not Monk!
****
Fox
Business Network reporter CHRIS COTTER could use a
grammar lesson. During a June 3, 2010 report Cotter told
viewers "Less people may be
losing their jobs.”
****
During the June 2, 2010 edition of Fox 17's
9 p.m. newscast, FLINT ADAM mispronounced COLIN REED’s name.
Rather than the same as the same as a part of the anatomy,
Reed's first name rhymes with "pollen."
****
During a live remote during the June
1, 2010 edition of WSMV-TV's
10 p.m. newscast ALAN FRIO addressed
in-studio colleagues by noting "Guys, Mallory Lane
and perimeter drive (in Franklin, Tennessee)-
that’s where I am
right now." reporting on "a well-known Nashville
doctor.”
Disgraced former
doctor, RICHARD FELDMAN, no longer licensed to practice
medicine after several run-ins with the law, had
been charged with aggravated assault in a
road rage incident (Frio
didn't bother to mention that
Feldman was formerly featured as guest commentator on the
station's newscasts when Channel 4t was known as WSM-TV.)
****
WSMV-TV's
June 1, 2010 newscasts repeated an erroneous item re: TIPPER
and AL GORE's announcement of a marital separation. Not sure
the news team had gotten it wrong when I saw the station's noon
newscast, I knew differently when I distinctively
heard TOM
RANDLES
report on the 5 p.m. news that the Gores "have three grown children."
After my call to the station
indicating that there are four
grown Gore children, the item was omitted from the station's 6
and 10 p.m. newscasts.
****
During a May 27, 2010
Entertainment
Tonight
segment discussing Rolling
Stone's choice of the "500 greatest songs,"
explaining the choice of a BOB DYLAN classic,
Nathan
Brackett attempted to explain how it differed from other
songs that charted the same year by saying "1965- (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window-
Like a
Rolling Stone
was just so different.”
Only problem is that the
PATTI PAGE classic was recorded
over a decade earlier- on December 18, 1952- and released
shortly thereafter!
****
OPRAH WINFREY devoted
the May 26, 2010 edition of her syndicated program to
TONY ALAMO's church.
Oprah, who called Nashville home for several years, focused
on Alamo's years in Fouke, Arkansas. Winfrey didn't so much
as mention Music City, where Alamo spent many years building and
merchandising his brand, though she surely found one of his leaflets on
her car or knew someone who did, given the cult evangelist's and his
followers' fervor..
****
Referencing BRET MICHAELS being named the
May, 2010 Celebrity Apprentice,
WSMV-TV's
TOM
RANDLES
told viewers of the May 24, 2010 edition of Channel 4 News at Noon,
that "“The singer is donating his quarter million-dollar prize to
the American
Diabetes Association.”
The
statement is somewhat misleading in that the concept of Celebrity Apprentice
is that the celebrities don't need the money and therefore ALL of the
winning celebrities donate their winnings to a favorite charity- or
they aren't cast on the show in the first place!
****
During the
May 16, 2010 edition of NPR's On the Media,
BOB GARFIELD referred to the ABC News
Sunday morning news program, This
Week as "The Week'- during a segment about fact-checking, no
less! (Garfield got it right in subsequent references.)
****
Narrating
the May 12, 2010 presentation of the PBS American
Masters series documentary titled THE DOORS: When You're Strange,
JOHNNY DEPP referred to JIM MORRISON's incarceration,
following a 1969 performance in Miami, inside a
"deep-southern jail." Miami, while technically a
part of the region suggested, in reality, was hardly
known for the brutality and climate of fear associated with Southern
cities in general, and non-tourist Meccas of the civil rights
and post-civil right era in particular, outside the
Florida state line.
****
During
the May 12, 2010 edition of the syndicated tabloid TV program,
Inside Edition, PAUL BOYD referenced JAMES VAN PRAAGH's being miffed at
BARBARA WALTERS and The View.
Following Walters' announcement of her forthcoming open heart
surgery to replace her aortic valve, only a short time earlier, Van
Praagh reminded Boyd of his appearance on The View almost two
years before. Backstage on that occasion, James told Barbara
"There's something wrong with your blood;" that she had an "elevated
white (blood cells) count."
As she told her audience not long after, Barbara
laughed off James' prediction, but mentioned it to her doctor during
her next appointment. Further, Walters revealed, she had a
blood test and her doctor told her "I am absolutely normal."
James maintains that those comments made him an object of ridicule and
is upset that Barbara never gave him a forum to defend himself:
"I know what I saw... my interpretation might have been off.
Her interpretation was
obviously
off."
Of course, Van
Praagh's conversation with Boyd came before Walters' surgery, so, since
Barbara is 80 years-old and given the nature of Van Praagh's complaint,
one wonders why Paul didn't ask James to predict the results of
Barbara's surgery.
****
WSMV-TV didn’t
feel a May 10, 2010
debate
between gubernatorial candidates, BILL
HASLAM, MIKE McWHERTER and ZACH WAMP (Lt. Gov. RON RAMSEY, the fourth
candidate
in the race couldn’t attend the forum because it conflicted with his
presiding
over the state Senate) was worthy of "live" coverage at 7
p.m., so it referred
(potential) debate viewers to streaming video on its Web site..
****
WSMV-TV's May 7, 2010 late afternoon newscast
featured Anchor DEMETRIA KALODIMOS'
report on "TSA
screener ROLANDO NEGRON charged with aggravated battery for
allegedly attacking
a fellow screener." Kalodimos referenced an argument over a
remark made about "the size of Negron's body." Does Kalodimos
or her news director, MATTHEW HILK believe that "penis" is a dirty
word?
And
why does Hilk not have a problem with SARA DORSEY's lack of
professionalism-decorum/informal reference to Demetria and Kalodimos'
Co-Anchor TOM
RANDLES as
"you guys" during the same day's 5 p.m. newscast?
Then
again, when NBC Nightly News Anchor BRIAN
WILLIAMS inteviewed Demetria about flooding in
Nashville during a split screen interview featured on the same
evening's edition of Williams' broadcast, Brian asked "How are you guys
doing?" Williams took the occcasion also to inquire about
the "Grand Old Opry" (sic).
****
During the
May 4, 2010 telecast of the CBS Evening News, DEAN REYNOLDS
indicated that, due to flooding, "Nashville's Grand Ole Opry
is a grand old mess." Dean added that an upcoming performance
of the Grand Ole Opry performance would be "shfited to another
location." Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium is hardly just
"another location." It was the Opry's home from 1939 to 1943.
JIM MORET referenced "Cookesville,
Tennessee" on the April 27, 2010 edition of Inside Edition.
The citiy's name is Cookeville.
****
During the April 27, 2010 edition of Better,
KACY HAGERTY referred to "Liza Minnell,"
It's hard to believe that young Kacy has apparently never
heard of LIZA MINNELLI.
****
The April 27th
edition of The Tennessean
excerpted an Associate Press article indicating that THOMAS HAGAN, "the only man ever to admit
involvement in the assassination of MALCOLM X was freed on parole
Tuesday… the
last man serving time…"
There
was no explanation of why the others were freed first.
The two others (paroled during the ‘80s)
maintained their innocence and Thomas Hagan agreed.
****
During
the April 16, 2010 edition of the CBS
Evening News, KATIE COURIC redundtantly referred to
a "Catholic nun."
****
After
second day of
Oprah-Tesh tease ET 15th anniversary producers
told Oprah not to
talk about it after the filming of the 15th
anniversary show which
was filmed as it was shown in 2010?
On April 13, 2010, the second day of an ongoing tease about
whether or not
JOHN TESH and OPRAH WINFREY lived together while
the two worked iin the news divisions of competitive Nashville
TV stations, Entertainment
Tonight's MARY HART reacted to a film clip,
an outake from postproduction of ET's 15th anniversarly special showing
Oprah about to speak about John just as a producer (still with cameras
running) tells Winfrey not to discuss it.
Rather than run the rest of the exchange or otherwise answer the
question posed in the tease (i.e., Did Oprah and John live together
while in Nashville?), Mary avers "Well, I just think we'll leave this
one where it is- in the past." (If it were in the past, why
bother with the tease and the subsequent explanation, as lacking in
disclosure as it was? Further, why not just get ex-ET
Anchor John and/or Oprah to answer the question(s) now?)
****
During
the April 12, 2010 edition of WSMV-TV's noon news, Anchor TOM
RANDLES referenced JOHN TESH and OPRAH WINFREY "while they were
working together in Nashville." John and Oprah never "worked
together in Nashville." They were competitors, Tesh at
Channel 4, Winfrey at Channel 5.
****
KATIE COOK
appeared
logic and grammar-challenged during the April 10th edition of CMT Insider.
In the first instance Cook reported on TAYLOR SWIFT, informing viewers
that they could ‘win tickets to Taylor’s
sold-out show.” Taking a commercial break, Katie teased,
"Coming up, where does
the ZAC BROWN BAND, CARRIE UNDERWOOD and LADY ANTEBELLUM land on
this week’s charts?"
****
During the April 3, 2010 edition of
WTVF's 10
p.m. newscast,
SCOTT ARNOLD referred to
"country-music superstar JIMMY WAYNE." Is it not preature to
label Wayne a "superstar?"
****
ABC's
World News, anchor
DIANE SAWYER evidently had not
edited her script prior to reading it on the teleprompter during the
April 6, 2010 edition of the telecast. As a result, Sawyer
told viewers that rescuers were "
still
trying to
reach the four missing miners listed as missing.”
****
When (my
cousin) SAMANTHA HARRIS announced JOHN
FORSYTHE’s April Fool's Day
death on the April 5, 2010 edition Entertainment
Tonight, she referred to Forsythe as a “beloved
actor.” If that's the case, and I believe it is,
why did John's April passing rate less than 30 seconds of the 30-minute
program?
****
WSMV-TV's
ALAN FRIO
, speaking about admission to the Memphis Zoo during the April 3, 2010
edition of Channel 4's 6 p.m. news referenced childrene "accompanied
with an adult."
WKRN-TV's
BOB
MUELLER
appeared to be grammatically-challenged as he achored
the March 23, 2010 edition of
Channel 2 News at 6 p.m. when he said "Right now the baby along with
the two-year-old are staying with relatives."
****
WKRN-TV's
BOB
MUELLER addressed the issue of health care on the March 23,
2010 edition of Channel 2 News at 5 p.m. by indicating that "13
attorney generals have filed a lawsuit to block the bill."
Did Bob mean to say "attorneys general?
****
Meredith
Corporation's WSMV-TV
refuses to honor a condition of its license, refusing to air
programming in the public interest. The most egregious
example of a refusal to acknowledge that the airwaves belong to the
people, is the pre-empting of the fourth hour of the Today
Show to air PAT ROBERTSON's 700 Club.
Since Robertson has his own network, because Channel 4 only airs the
show to fatten its advertising coffers, because WSMV has
non-Chrisitan viewers and because Today includes
newscasts and often other "live" events that should be aired
"live,"there is no excuse for Channel 4 not air all four hours of Today
consecutively.
Another reason: President BARACK OBAMA often schedules news
conferences and speeches at 10 a.m.. On occasions such as
those, Today
(or more accurately NBC), ABC
and CBS,
the network cede their time to the President, as happened when
President Obama signed sweeping healthcare legislation into law on March 23, 2010. Love or
hate this landmark legislation, it is important and Nashville's ABC and
CBS affiliates pre-empted network programming to accomodate the
President (the office as opposed to the man). Not so WSMV,
which chose to air the 700 Cllub.
****
During
the March 18, 2010 episode of The View, BARBARA WALTERS indicated that she
didn't want to replay a clip of SANDRA BULLOCK's interview for The Barbara Walters Special
on The View
so as not to embarrass Bullock. But The View's JOY BEHAR played the excerpt on
that same evening's edition of HLN's The Joy Behar Show.
Since Behar could not have played the tape without
Walters' permission ...
****
Tennessean Action Line
Columnist JENNY UPCHURCH's March 18, 2010
column refers to a reader's letter to Upchurch referenceing "Saint
Thomas Hospital on Harding Place."
While Nashville's many streets include those with names such as
Hardiing Place and Old Harding Pike, the hospital's true location
should have been noted. St. Thomas Hospital's location is
4220 Harding Pike.
****
WZTV's
Entertainment Reporter
STACY
McCLOUD profiled
THE
HONEYMOON THRILLERS’
NATHAN BARLOWE on the March 17,
2010 edition of Fox 17 News at 9 p.m. Barlowe's comment that
THE BEACH BOYS'
Endless Summer LP was "the first
record my dad ever played for me" and that the album inspired
him McCloud further noted that the two-discs LP evoked in
Nathan "a love for music from the '50s."
Please be advised, Stacy, that the Beach Boys' were a
'60s
group (though, they had hits and/or have continued to tour,
in various incarnations, to the present day).
Further,
Endless Summer was released in
1974.
PETER GRAVES (whom trivia buffs
know as
JAMES ARNESS' kid brother) may
best known to those of a certain age for
his roles in
Mission Impossible and
Airplane, including the youngsters
running the
Associated
Press, newspapers and rip-and-read TV and radio news
departments across the United States. For those were the credits cited
when the Minneapolis-born actor died March 14, 2010. But to
those of us who grew up in
the late '50s,
Graves
will forever be
remembered for his role in
Fury.
Some Fury trivia: BOBBY DIAMOND later auditioned for
a starring
role on My Three Sons.
And JIMMY BAIRD is the brother of
(Original)
Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer SHARON BAIRD.
****
Reporting on
Washington D.C.'s new recognition of same sex marriage, Anchor JENNIFER JOHNSON reported during
the March 9, 2010 edition of WSMV-TV's
Channel 4 News at Noon
that homosexuals who marry in the nation's capital "won’t have all
the rights of
married couples" because “state law still defines marriage as being between a
man and a
woman.”
Since when did Washington
D.C. achieve statehood?
****
During The
View's March 9, 2010 telecast, SHERRI
SHEPHERD spoke of the experience of covering the March
7th Academy Awards' televised Oscars red
carpet preview. "You have exactly 35
seconds with everybody, " Shepard complained, adding "There's
so many restrictions…
Like
with TAYLOR LAUTNER… You couldn’t ask
him about his next project. We
couldn’t ask him about him about his body.
And I’m like 'Well, that’s 95%
of the
questions!'”
****
After four successive nights of MARIE OSMOND
blather, Osmond’s deceased son was
suddenly and without explanation referred to as MICHAEL
BRYAN on the
March 5, 2010 edition of Entertainment
Tonight. Viewers
were not told that
the adopted son of Marie and her ex-husband, BRIAN BLOSIL had decided
to
legally change his full name to his first and middle name. Upon Michael’s death, the
court records
surrounding the reason for the name change were sealed.
If ET had reported any of this, that would
have been the real
news!
****
LARRY KING
(whose father-in-law KARL ENGEMANN is suing former
management client MARIE OSMOND ) waited until March 8, 2010,
the day of MICHAEL BRYAN’s funeral. to note Osmond's
(adopted) son's
February 26, 2010 death on Larry King Live.
Even then, King did not mention that Michael was BRIAN
BLOSIL’s son, too. Larry expressed sympathy only to Marie "and
the extended family."
****
The Associated Press'
report of March 8, 2010 re: MICHAEL BRYAN references
STEPHEN CRAIG. That reference should read STEPHEN
CRAIG JR.. (The A.P. intended to reference MARIE OSMOND's
son, rather than Marie's first ex-husband.)
****
BARBARA WALTERS signed off on her
annual Barbara Walters Oscars Special March 7, 2010 by indicating that,
after a 29-year run, the March, 2010 Academy Awards special
would be her last. Incredibily, prior to and
during the airing of this ABC program, Walters announced
the first such special recieved the highest ratings of all.
One wonders what Barbara was thinking when she
admitted that, just as her pre-telecast warning left viewers
scratching their heads. For Walters announced at the
beginning of the March 7th telecast, "If you
have young
children, you might find some of this inappropriate."
The show's content included MO'NIQUE's advocacy of open
marriage. That alone necessitated a disclaimer.
"Might find" the content "inappropriate" for the kiddies
seems
like an understatement!
****
During
the March 2, 2010 Pinheads &
Patriots segment of The O'Reilly Factor, BILL
O'REILLY expressed his admiration for JUSTIN BIEBER by proclaiming the
teen singer "a patriot." Fortunately, not all patriots are
Americans, but since Bill-O tends to be somewhat of a xenophobe, I'm
not sure if he is aware that Bieber is a Canadian.
This is the same Bill O'Reilly who often lashes out at "the
media" as though media were a monolithic term (rather than the plural
of medium) and as though Bill is not a part of it!
****
Shame
on HOWARD KURTZ . During
the February 28, 2010 edition
of CNN's
Reliable Sources,
Kurtz credited ABC News' BRIAN
ROSS with being the first to report on Toyota's
safety issues. Ross' report was in November, 2009,
but WSMV-TV's
JEREMY FINLEY was actually the
first first to sound the warning about Toyota's negligence.
Jeremy's first report on the issue was October 8,
2007. Then on the March 7, 2010 telecast of Reliable
Sources,
Howie noteed that Gawker
spotted ABC’s sloppy editing of one
of Ross’ two followup Toyota reports.
Kurtz missed a second opportunity to correct the record by
crediting Jeremy Finley.
****
After
four successive nights of MARIE OSMOND
blather, Osmond’s deceased son was
suddenly and without explanation referred to as MICHAEL
BRYAN on the
March 5, 2010 edition of Entertainment
Tonight. Viewers
were not told that
the adopted son of Marie and her ex-husband, BRIAN BLOSIL had decided
to
legally change his full name to his first and middle name. Upon Michael’s death, the
court records
surrounding the reason for the name change were sealed.
If ET had reported any of this, that would
have been the real news!
****During the March 2, 2010 telecast of WSMV-TV’s
5 p.m. newscast, anchor JENNIFER JOHNSON indicated that "LADY
ANTEBELLUM will perform their hit, Need to Know on the Today
Show tomorrow." Lest the trio, whose current hit
album
Need You Now continues to be a chartbuster think
everyone knows who they are...
****
"Tragedy
strikes a member of our family here at ET- MARIE OSMOND." That's
how Entertainment Tonight's MARY HART introduced the
syndicated gossip show's March 1st
telecast of a three-day old story on the suicide of Osmond's
18-year-oild
adopted son, MICHAEL BLOSIL.
"It is a story that has affected all of us who know the family so well.
More than just asnother star, Marie is my friend, a fellow
mother.
A woman I've come to know so well over the past nearly 30
years. We've
cried together over the death of her parents. We cheered
together, side
by side, as DONNY (OSMOND) won Dancing
with the Stars.
Now as Marie faces the tragedy of losing her son, her ET
family mourns
wiht her."
While Hart's script might have sent some running for handkerchieves and
tissue,
I tried to suppress my gag reflex,
Assuming Mary believes her own hypes, has it ever occured to her that
while she
may consider herself Marie's friend, as Hart describes it the
relationship
sound more like unrequited love than an enduring sisterhood.
They've
cried over the deaths of GEORGE and OLIVE OSMOND? Has Marie
cried over
Mary's losses? They've cheered Donny's professional success?
What
does Mary know or care about Marie's family's less visible
brothers
and, as
importantly, do Donny and the other Osmond brothers
cheer Mary on with
any regularlity?
In other words, where is the reciprocity? Sounds
like Hart is
delusional, which is as depressing as the coverage. ET, lurid
headlines,
repetitious teases and all, promtes itself as having the respect of an
entertainment news program even
as LINDA BELL BLUE and company
have broken, with regularity, just about every rule of true
journalism..
****
Perhaps
it was a slip of the tongue, but on the February 26,
2010 of WSMV-TV's Channel Four News at 10
p.m. DEMETRIA KALODIMOS referredf to KENNETH FEINBERG as "Kevin
Feinberg."
****
WTVF-TV
anchor RHORI JOHNSTON reporting on SARA EVANS during Channel 5''s
February 26, 2010 10 p.m. newscast , indicated that "today the country
star filed a temporary restrainging order." Actually, the
Order Evans filed against her ex-husband, CRAIG SCHELSKE, was filed two
days earlier.
****
During the February 25,
2010 edition of
World News, ABC's
SHARYN ALFONSI noted the 10
billionth iTunes download but slightly butchered the title of a
JOHNNY CASH hit in a way that Cash
and
JACK CLEMENT fans wouldn't
appreciate. Alfonsi indicated the 10 billionth iTunes
download.
Guess Things
Happen That Way was "Guess Things Just Happen that Way."
****
In
the course of her February 25, 2010 Music City Beat
feature on MANUEL, WZTV's
STACY
McCLOUD described Nashville's Couture Cowboy as "the one and
only" and a man who “needs
no introduction”- except, perhaps, for McCloud's benefit. The
young entertainment reporter seemed well-versed in
comlimentary clichés,
but when it came to documenting MANUEL ARTURO JOSÉ
CUERVAS MARTINEZ'
rise to rhinestone fame and fortune and the "many famed designers" with
whom the
talented tailor has worked, there was no mention of Manuel's
mentor, NUDIE (COHN).
****
Nashville Channel 50 (Comcast cable channel 250)
screens callers to its
Morningline
and
Open
Line programs. The station utilizes a
seven-second delay.
This is as it should be, however the sister station of
Nashville's CBS affiliate,
WTVF, has overstepped
its authority. While it's fair game for
screeners to request that callers to its call-in shows-
programs that typically feature newsmakers or experts on topics of
interest to viewers- give some indication that their areas of
inquiry be on-topic, apparently it's no longer enouigh that callers
give the subject matter of the call. At least one
Open Line
screener is now insisting that callers state the exact question for her
before the question is restated, on air, to the guest and host.
A screener who becomes a First Amendment censor is of far greater
danger to the public than a caller who might be longwinded,
controversial or whatever, since safeguards (including, if all else
fails, a dump button) are in place to prevent any phone-in disruption
of a program.
This is a chilling blow to freedom of speech. Perhaps the
busybody (or, if simply following orders, the show's
producer) should just chilll out!
****
WKRN-TV's
Religion Reporter JAMEY TUCKER, on a February 24, 2010 News 2
Extra special report erroneously used the term "interdenominational"
when he meant to use the more encompassing
term, nondenominatiional.
****
The February 18, 2010
edition
of
The
Tennessean contains
PETER
COOPER's article titled
Country
stars sign on for 2010 CMA
Music Festival.
Cooper reports that “Musicians
donate their time for the festival, with half of the net proceeds over
the past three years going to support Metro Nashville Public Schools...
More than $3 million has been raised... with the 2009 festival raising
$1,066,632."
Thus, readers who didn't know
before are now informed where half the proceeds are destined.
The question remains (although the answer is obvious, despite
it detracting from the other promotional aspects of the
blurb), who gets the other half of the dough?
****
During
WTVF-TV
reporter
MARK BELLINGER February 13, 2010
Channel 5 News at 10 p.m. report on the closing of Nashville's
Musicians
Hall of Fame & Museum, Bellinge informed
viewers that "A judge ruled the city could take the building through
eminent domain.
He
ordered CEO JOE CHAMBERS to get out of the
building in seven days.”
The "he" to whom Mark referred was actually
Davidson County Third Circuit Court Judge BARBARA HAYNES!
****
During the course of WTVF-TV reporter MARK
BELLINGER's February 12, 2010 Channel 5 News at 5 p.m.
report on an elderly scam victim, the woman's personal check,
including her phone number, was clearly visible to viewers.
****
Segment
for segment, any
resemblence between
CMT Insider and TV
broadcast journalism is purely coincidental. The February 6,
2010 edition of the program, in a Grammy wrapup segment, proclaimed
that, during the pre-telecast,
CARRIE UNDERWOOD "won best country
collaboration for
I Told You So,
her duet with
RANDY TRAVIS."
The piece was clearly
intended to focus on Underwood. And if casual viewers weren't
payiing attention they wouldn't realize that the definition of
"collaboration" underscores that this was a shared
award. Not only did Randy receive equal honors, he, unlike
Carrie, wrote- and had the original hit version- of the song.
CMT's shorthand also failed to acknowledge theat the full
name of the award is "Best Country Collaboration with
Vocals."
During another segment of the
same program, the 2010 Academy Award nominations were discussed.
It was mentioned that "The
Blind Side, starring TIM McGRAW
snagged two nominations, including Best Picture."
Huh? Why wouldn't
the film's other nomination (
SANDRA BULLOCK, Best
Actress) be disclosed? Here's a hint:
McGraw was not nominated for an Oscar, which begs the point of the
purpose of this "news item," as reported, was anyway. (BTW,
NPT2's February 11,2010 telecast of The Charlie Rose Show
included Rose's interview with Bullock about
The Blind Side.
During the chat, which ran a little over 30 minutes, Sandra
never once mentioned Tim.)
But my award for perhaps the
saddest segment was the one on ROY ORBISON's posthumously
receiving a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Forget, for a moment that
Roy, unlike many others similarly honored, had a tenuous connection
with Hollywood- at best- CMT not only had to inform its young audience
of who Orbison was (identifying his widow, BARBARA and surviving sons,
ROY and ALEX, though not by their names), but
when it came to recruiting someone with the show biz
credentialls to provide affirmation for the Walkway's choice of Roy- a
common journalistic practice- the most appropriate celebrity in CMT's
judgement was apparently the only one featured: DAN AYKROYD.
(The comedian is probably not the first person who comes to
mind when one thinks about celebrities who have either known or been
influenced by Orbison.)
****
In
an article titled Downtwon parking citations enforced on Saturday now,
NANCY DeVILLE wrote in the February 5, 2010 edition
of The Tennessean that,
according to Metro Public Works' GWEN HOPKINS-GLASCOCK,
"Metro
Public Works enforced meter parking on Saturdays until 2003 when
a special ordinance was passed by the Metro Council to amend the law to
exclude Saturdays... It expired in 2004, but wasn't reinstated until
last month."
The truth is that Metro
Public Works enforced meter parking on Saturday mornings
but that, up until January 2010 motorists could park Saturday
afternoons at downtown meters without fear of receiving a
citation.
****
