January 14, 2010. Executive Leaps to Leno's Defense. By Bill Carter
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/business/media/15conan.html
Synopsis
The New York Times ran an interesting article on the recent controversy at NBC. As Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien continue to squabble over who should get the prime time slot for their late night show, an NBC executive Dick Ebersol has stepped in to defend Jay Leno. So far Leno has taken a great deal of the heat in the very public conflict, which is nightly mocked by a still angry David Letterman, who has gone a good eighteen years since he was rudely ousted from the Late Show and still harbors some hurt feelings. Mr. O’Brien joked that young people should be inspired to believe that they can “do anything you want in life — unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.” Mr. Ebersol shifts the blame away from Leno and NBC executives and instead claims that this whole mess is a result of O'Brian's performance, which he goes as far to call "an astounding failure." Ebersol says he advised Conan O'Brian to appeal first and foremost to cities in the central time zones, a strategy that late night talk show legend Johnny Carson had always followed. He claims that Mr. O'Brian had ignored this advice and ran a show for seven months that was unaccessible to his most important audience.
Response
I find all the banter and posturing done by these talk show hosts to be pretty entertaining. They don't have many reservations about comically ripping each other apart on live television, and there is a lot of professional jealousy and backstabbing behind the scenes that I didn't know about. Personally I like Leno best out of the three pundits, but he also comes off as much more ambitious than Letterman or O'Brian. I didn't realize that the midwest was so important to these talk show hosts success, to me it always seemed like the only city they cared about was New York. Late night talk shows are a big part of American culture, and I hope a solution is reached where all parties can have a prime time show. I agree with Ebersol on a couple aspects, first that Conan O'Brian didn't play to his audience enough. His show has high ratings and a lot of appeal for the Northeast and the younger generation, but these groups make up a small part of his market. Also I agree with his opinion that whoever is most popular deserves the prime time slot, which in this case is Jay Leno.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Fox v. White House
Thursday, October 29, 2009. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Season 14 Comedy Central
Synopsis
This week on The Daily Show everyone’s favorite pundit Jon Stewart gave some comedic insight to the recent "War" between Fox News Channel and the White House Press. During the interview he gives everyone involved a turn to be laughed at for their individual idiocies, pointing out contradicting statements made by both sides and the overboard reactions from the other news stations. First he shows us how it all began, when a White House correspondent states "Fox often acts as the communications arm of the Republican party." Which everyone already knew. Feigning shock Stewart then sends us to sound bytes from Fox where they rant about being censored, one Fox associate (Cal Thomas) even comparing America to Cold War Russia, and President Obama to a truth twisting Stalin. Stewart notes that when the Bush Administration reacted in the exact same way to MSNBC a year earlier, Cal Thomas praised him on national television.
Later Fox News released a statement in which they said that the White House "needs to distinguish between news and opinion programming." We then get sound bytes from the opinion and the news sectors of Fox, showing that they don't make the distinguishment at all. On a show that Fox itself claims is strictly news one anchor is heard to say "Bush spent eight years in office fighting terrorism. President Obama is now undoing those efforts." Then he shows us a school's rendition of a song sang for black history month, which included the words: "Barack Hussein Obama will make this country strong again." Fox's opinion sector quickly compares Obama to Communist China's Mao and the Nazi propaganda efforts before WWII. Later that evening Fox's news sector states that the President is being accused of indoctrination. Stewart jokes that the only people doing the accusing were the other Fox guys they ran into in the cafeteria.
Next are the reactions of other news corporations. CNN runs a breathtaking slide show of the conflict between Fox and the White House complete with theme music and angry faces from both sides. CBS proclaims that there is no end in sight to the “war” between two sides throwing “verbal grenades” at one another’s direction. MSNBC makes an attempt to mock Fox at which point Stewart yells “You guys are the Toledo Mud Hens to the Fox’s Yankees! You would love to be half as controversial.” Later a White House correspondent is asked if Fox news is biased to which she responds of course! Right after she is asked if MSNBC is biased, to which she answers: “We don’t want generalize the bias of an entire news station.”
Response
I agree with most of Stewart's opinions on this subject, though I do recognize that most of the quotes are taken out of context and the subject is quite a bit more professional and multi-dimensional than The Daily Show presents it. I myself am a conservative, but of the opinion that regardless of your party affiliation if someone in the government is being stupid they have more than earned the right to be made fun of. Though Jon Stewart’s criticism seems like harmless prodding, its obvious that he is quite passionate about politics and upset with the deception and stupidity inherent of the current system. After hearing a White House reporter say “We’re going to speak truth to power” Stewart yells out “Apparently its your job to ---- up power and Fox’s job to ---- up truth!” I personally would prefer to watch Fox News to the other stations. But its important that news stations check and balance each other so the things spoken are correct and the opinions presented are reasonable. Without the competition of liberal and conservative news stations (and humorous shows to intercede) it would be nearly impossible to get facts about the political climate and answers to each American’s personal questions.
Synopsis
This week on The Daily Show everyone’s favorite pundit Jon Stewart gave some comedic insight to the recent "War" between Fox News Channel and the White House Press. During the interview he gives everyone involved a turn to be laughed at for their individual idiocies, pointing out contradicting statements made by both sides and the overboard reactions from the other news stations. First he shows us how it all began, when a White House correspondent states "Fox often acts as the communications arm of the Republican party." Which everyone already knew. Feigning shock Stewart then sends us to sound bytes from Fox where they rant about being censored, one Fox associate (Cal Thomas) even comparing America to Cold War Russia, and President Obama to a truth twisting Stalin. Stewart notes that when the Bush Administration reacted in the exact same way to MSNBC a year earlier, Cal Thomas praised him on national television.
Later Fox News released a statement in which they said that the White House "needs to distinguish between news and opinion programming." We then get sound bytes from the opinion and the news sectors of Fox, showing that they don't make the distinguishment at all. On a show that Fox itself claims is strictly news one anchor is heard to say "Bush spent eight years in office fighting terrorism. President Obama is now undoing those efforts." Then he shows us a school's rendition of a song sang for black history month, which included the words: "Barack Hussein Obama will make this country strong again." Fox's opinion sector quickly compares Obama to Communist China's Mao and the Nazi propaganda efforts before WWII. Later that evening Fox's news sector states that the President is being accused of indoctrination. Stewart jokes that the only people doing the accusing were the other Fox guys they ran into in the cafeteria.
Next are the reactions of other news corporations. CNN runs a breathtaking slide show of the conflict between Fox and the White House complete with theme music and angry faces from both sides. CBS proclaims that there is no end in sight to the “war” between two sides throwing “verbal grenades” at one another’s direction. MSNBC makes an attempt to mock Fox at which point Stewart yells “You guys are the Toledo Mud Hens to the Fox’s Yankees! You would love to be half as controversial.” Later a White House correspondent is asked if Fox news is biased to which she responds of course! Right after she is asked if MSNBC is biased, to which she answers: “We don’t want generalize the bias of an entire news station.”
Response
I agree with most of Stewart's opinions on this subject, though I do recognize that most of the quotes are taken out of context and the subject is quite a bit more professional and multi-dimensional than The Daily Show presents it. I myself am a conservative, but of the opinion that regardless of your party affiliation if someone in the government is being stupid they have more than earned the right to be made fun of. Though Jon Stewart’s criticism seems like harmless prodding, its obvious that he is quite passionate about politics and upset with the deception and stupidity inherent of the current system. After hearing a White House reporter say “We’re going to speak truth to power” Stewart yells out “Apparently its your job to ---- up power and Fox’s job to ---- up truth!” I personally would prefer to watch Fox News to the other stations. But its important that news stations check and balance each other so the things spoken are correct and the opinions presented are reasonable. Without the competition of liberal and conservative news stations (and humorous shows to intercede) it would be nearly impossible to get facts about the political climate and answers to each American’s personal questions.
Monday, November 2, 2009
TV channels seek to capture the boy market
Wednesday September 2, 2009: Marvel Purchase shows Disney's boy troubles: Channels have had a tough time appealing to males as much as females. The Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32663578/ns/business-media_biz//
Synopsis
This article was about competing TV channels in their quest to capture and secure the boy market. It began speaking about recent moves made by Disney. Recently Walt Disney Co. has made headlines with the purchase of Marvel, the comic book giant, for a price of $4 billion dollars. Recently they also created the channel Disney XD, targeted towards younger boys. Disney has made these decisions in reaction to their own recent success with the Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, and High School Musical franchises who's audience consists of 65% girls. Should they try and keep the audiences they have? Or is trying to win back the boys really such a good idea wonders the author. He notes that tween boys are already very much targeted, take Cartoon Network for example. Over 70% of their audience is boys, with popular shows like Star Wars: The Clone Wars which is coming out with a new season this fall.
Response
I think that disney is making a good move with the purchase of Marvel. Their earlier efforts of trying to create shows that appeal to boys(I'm in the band, Zeke and Luther) seem to have fallen flat and they have turned to fantasy. Does Disney Channel want need the stereotype as a girl channel where tweens can dote over The Jonas Brothers and sing along to Hannah Montana? I think that would be bad idea and seriously limit their audiences. But rather than separate their shows into strictly gender specific, why not find a middle ground? Nickelodeon has an average audience of 2.2 million(leading the industry) and has an almost equal representation of boys and girls with shows like Spongebob Squarepants and Penguins of Madagascar. Perhaps comedy is the link to bringing in both boys and girls.
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