Tomorrow is the 45th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's shooting in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald (and maybe some other people). In memoriam, PBS re-screened a documentary called Oswald's Ghost last week, which some viewers found to be in poor taste. Cuz, you know, golden boy president, crazy assassination attempts…it sort of brings a little big of neg energy into the air, ya know?
Then again, it was an important even in history, and it's not like you wouldn't remember 9/11 just because we built some similar towers in New York, right? Or does that analogy not work at all?
After the jump, so viewer hate-mail, and the PBS Ombudsman's response.
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The Daily Beast lived up to its name this week and shamed PBS's DC affiliate, WETA, into airing early a documentary about the ways the Bush administration condoned torturing the hell out of human beings, some of whom might very well have been guilty of nothing more than being Muslin. Why the hurry? What the Beast (and subsequently the New York Times) took issue with was WETA's assertion that Torturing Democracy, a film that supposedly "connects the dots in an investigation of interrogations of prisoners in U.S. custody that became 'at a minimum, cruel and inhuman treatment and, at worst, torture,'" would, for scheduling reasons, have to be shelved until January 21, 2009, the day after President Bush leaves office. Hmmmmmm.
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The dissemination of video information on Internet has grown a billion fold since the 2004 elections, when YouTube hadn't even been put out yet. Zomg. Can you imagine what the polling places in Florida during the 2000 contests would have looked like if they were taped on the cellphone of everyone at the polling place? You would have seen grandma be all "No, I'm pretty sure I voted for that Al fellow" as her hanging chad gets quickly shuffled away. Then there would be a whole Marvel-style alternate universe where the past eight years never happened and Richard Branson had already taken us on his marvelous spaceship to colonize the moon.
But back to reality, citizen journalism as watchdogs are exactly what PBS and YouTube hope to achieve with their 'Video Your Vote' campaign, which encourages voters to "solicit, organize, stream and broadcast user-generated video from polling places around the nation on election day."
So if you see something, say something. And then post it on your blog, Twitter it, and give everyone a big old Facebook status update of any nefarious dealings at your local polling place.
PBS is in some mildly hot water (lukewarm really, like the majority of PBS-related content) after an unscripted comment about Sarah Palin during one of the station's many fundraisers resulted in some angry viewer mail. Full rundown on what was said by "celebrity host" Mike Farrell (from Mash!) and some choice snippets of the elderly Haterade, after the jump:
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When television networks are treated to the ratings bonanza (read: 60 million viewers) known as this fall's four presidential debates, viewers will see PBS anchors Jim Lehrer and Gwein Ifill each moderate a debate, along with NBC's special something Tom Brokaw and CBS News' former anchor and current chief Washington correspondent Bob Scheiffer. That means no involvement from ABC News or, for that matter, a one Katie Couric. But you know who was selected to participate by the Commission on Presidential Debates? MySpace. News Corp.'s social network will power MyDebates.org, which will live stream the debates and poll users in real time on the issues being discussed. Granted, this is not the same thing as letting MySpace users frame the questions, like the CNN-YouTube primary debates did. But at least they were asked to the table. Sorry Couric. Sorry Gibson.
Aaron Brown, who was removed from CNN to make room for Anderson Cooper in 2005, quietly ran out the remainder of his contract behind the scenes. Now that his tenure there is up, he's moving to PBS, and he gave New York his exit interview, where they asked: "Do you have psychic scars from CNN?"
Replied Brown: "Mostly I laugh about it. In my time there, they paid me to go away, they paid Connie Chung probably a lot to go away, they paid Paula Zahn to go away."
Funny, because Greta Van Susteren, who also left CNN, had an entirely different experience. She, in essence, paid them. CONTINUED »
IS 50 SEXY? PBS's Nightly Business Report host Susie Gharib rakes in 700,000 viewers a night to CNBC's Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo grabs 340,000. So why isn't Gharib lavished with the kind of attention Bartiromo receives? Well, for starters, she's 57. [Marketwatch]
From the Dept. of Things We Don't Have the Time For, Nor Interest In, Watching comes Reddit.com's weekly PBS show. The Conde Nast-owned social news site, which has users vote stories up and down all Digg-style, is teaming with the public TV network for YourWeek, where programming will also take on a UGC (that's user-generated content, genius) feel: Did a popular story get voted up on the site? Maybe Reddit the TV show will cover it! [News.com]
Users choose the stories, you see, so it's very democratic, just like Web 2.0 pretends to be. It's also sort of like NY1's The Call, except it will have stories about pube trimming mishaps, which is currently the fifth top story on the site.
Bad news for that twenty-five-year-old PBS news program that is still broadcasting: It's in financial trouble!
Though Jim Lehrer's physical health is in recovery (Lehrer, who once moderated a debate where George Bush was rumored to have been mic'd up) just underwent aortic valve replacement surgery), his NewsHour's financial health isn't so sunshiny.
For the past 14 years, Archer Daniels Midland ("one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa") sponsored the program, ponying up about $4 million (and sometimes $7m) a year to pad the show's $26-28 million annual budget. Last summer, the company announced it was severing ties with NewsHour, leaving Chevron and the Pacific Life Insurance Company as the show's remaining sponsors. But that won't be enough to curb cutbacks. CONTINUED »
While Newsweek's Steve Levy managed to lose his Macbook Air in a pile of newspapers on his coffee table, which were then thrown out by his wife, Charlie Rose gave himself a black eye trying to save his. While walking along 59th Street, the PBS anchor tripped in a pot hole, sending his laptop flying. He dove to save it, hit the pavement with his face, and managed to give himself a black eye. The Macbook is doing okay. Rose? He's wearing plenty of makeup. [Salon]
• Business Week leaker pleads guilty to leaking stock names before the issue went to press. Elsewhere, Vanity Fair sleeps soundly knowing if it can protect Suri Cruise's photos, it can keep any secret. [Bloomberg]
• It took just two hours for a jury to demand Source co-founders Raymond (Benzino) Scott and David Mays pay out $14.5 million to former editor Kimberly Osorio, who claimed sexual harassment and defamation. Calling women "bitches" at the office, it turns out, is frowned upon. [NYDN]
• If it's easier to stomach, feel free to call Katie Couric's performance on the CBS Evening News a "disappointment" rather than a "disaster." [Newsday]
• Time Inc.'s fired fleet might be interested to know its execs are still flying high. [Memo Pad]
• Nobody wants Time Inc.'s stable of 18 crappy magazines. Not even Rodale. [NYP]
• Even at PBS, it's better to tow the line than raise a stink. [PBS]
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