A small gift from Chile- September 22, 2006 I tivo Charlie Rose every day. I don't always get to them right away. I use them as radio--while I cook breakfast, clean up, exercise . . . The great joy of that show is the incredible breadth of ideas and perspectives you hear. I tend to get the most out of the various sorts of artists he has on the show, though those are people I can often hear elsewhere, just not in such depth. (Outside of Fresh Air, the other great source.) But weeks like this are always special, when most of the world...http://blogs.salon.com/0001137/categories/media/2006/09/22.html#a1884 'The Greatest Story Ever Sold'--what a title. and . . .- September 20, 2006 And the book looks pretty damn good, too, from my quick stab, tonight. Frank Rich's The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 911 to Katrina came out today, and is already 2 at Amazon, so you're prolly going to be hearing a lot about it. I checked it out tonight at Denver's great local bookstore Tattered Cover. Really interesting opening, written in Frank's usual fluid style. And I was really glad to read this in the intro: This book is not intended to be a harangue...http://blogs.salon.com/0001137/categories/media/2006/09/19.html#a1883 The stench of network news- September 20, 2006 OK, maybe I get the situation after all. For years, I've been flumoxed about the pathetic state of network news: not what's wrong with it, but why the net execs don't get what's wrong with it. They are well aware that something is wrong. Ratings have declined rapidly for several years, and the story is monumentally worse demographically. The average age for the nightly network newscasts is now something like 60, which barely even seems possible. (Median age of 60 would be bad enough, but...http://blogs.salon.com/0001137/categories/media/2006/09/19.html#a1880 |