Category: media

“Because of a software glitch in some machines, TiVo customers have been discovering over the last few months that some of the shows they had set to record were cut off before the programs ended.”

“In this big-money era of consolidated station ownership and homogenized program formats, smaller, independent stations like Chicago’s WVON – with its tiny audience of mostly older listeners, weak broadcast signal and modest revenues-face oblivion. Yet the station perseveres, in large part because it fills a niche no general-market station would: providing a venue for its mostly African-American listeners to express their anger, hurt and pride and to share information about which politicians to believe in-a short list-or when to show up to protest a school closing or how to break off a little piece of the American Dream. WVON is more than a radio station; it’s a family business that has become a community trust.”

So the FCC has fined CBS $3.6 million for “obscene” scenes in “Without a Trace.” “For reasons that baffle the rest of the world (in this case, they don’t hate us, they pity us), the United States is far more prudish about sex than violence on television. But as long as sexually explicit material is officially taboo, then the episode did seem to meet the test: the scene of teenagers holding an orgy in a suburban house was quite blue. The camera lingered on writhing bodies and sweaty threesomes just a little longer than was strictly necessary to make the point that sexually transmitted diseases are a growing problem in high school.”

Did Tom Cruise threaten to not do any publicity for the latest Mission Impossible movie if Comedy Central (owned by the same company as the movie is produced by) didn’t pull an episode of South Park that made fun of Scientology? Cruise’s reps deny the claim. Cruise “had nothing to do with any programming” they say. “At no time did Tom Cruise say he would not do publicity” for “M:I III.” “OK, but one problem: No one at Viacom has publicly offered a satisfactory explanation of why the repeat, scheduled for Wednesday night, was pulled.”

First, Isaac Hayes quit “South Park” because he didn’t like that the show was making fun of religion. Then Comedy Central pulled the show Hayes had quit over after pressure from Scientologists. “In 10 years and over 150 episodes of ‘South Park,’ Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons or Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show.”

Three former employees of Michigan Public Media have been charged with “illegally accepting golf club memberships, Persian rugs, airline tickets and massages in exchange for on-air considerations at the state’s top public radio station.”

“It is known that the opinions of America’s movie critics, the majority of whom work for newspapers, do not necessarily have a great impact on a film’s box office. Film reviewers do, however, have a real impact on adult filmgoers who are seeking a high-quality movie and on the growing number of organizations that award prizes for movies.”

Canada needs a new official policy on commercial radio. “We no longer have one single and regulated system of radio services delivered over the public airwaves and free of charge to Canadians. Instead, we have both a regulated system of the past and a largely unregulated, parallel system of new delivery platforms for audio content.”

“Twenty-nine people have been arrested [in the UK] in the biggest ever operation against those who make and sell counterfeit CDs, DVDs and computer games. A six-month investigation has seen representatives from the record, film and software industries working with police and trading standards officers… They were also targeting those committing benefit fraud, reflecting the growing increase in the level of cooperation between the government and the so-called ‘creative’ industries.”

The BBC is to embark on a new era, with more emphasis on entertainment. “The white paper, the culmination of more than two years of wrangling over the BBC’s future, effectively means that when the corporation’s current charter expires at the end of this year it will have a new charter in place, ensuring its future through 2016. Though Parliament will have a chance to discuss the proposals, they are not subject to legislative approval and are essentially a done deal. Critics and competitors of the BBC said they were disappointed.”