Category: media

“Typically one of the quietest bureaucracies in Washington, the quasi-governmental Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been unusually active in recent weeks. CPB this month appointed a pair of veteran journalists to review public TV and radio programming for evidence of bias, the first time in CPB’s 38-year history that it has established such positions. PBS officials were unaware that the corporation intended to review its news and public affairs programs, such as “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” and “Frontline,” until the appointments were publicly announced.”

Has Hollywood discovered Africa? “Africa is almost as much of a ‘dark continent’ for moviegoers today as in the past. There’s a grim irony in this, at a time when headlines about western Sudan are crying out to the world for attention, just as events in Somalia did a dozen years ago. It takes catastrophe of huge proportions to focus American minds on African issues.”

Several techno-savvy companies are banding together to explore the possibility of combining FM radio and cell phone technology to entice a new generation of consumers to re-embrace radio. “The technology would combine the traditional over-the-air FM broadcast — through a receiver included in the phone — with text and graphics displayed on the phone’s screen. Those text-and-graphics images could be coordinated with the broadcast — to display the title of a song and the name of the artist, for example — or provide information such as concert schedules, allow the user to buy ring tones from the artist or participate in radio station contests.”

Much of the raging debate over broadcast indecency centers on programs airing on cable networks, which are not regulated by the FCC, since their programming is not distributed over the public airwaves. So why exactly do politicians and bureaucrats think they have any right to interfere with what we watch on channels that use no public resources, accept no public subsidy, and for which the public voluntarily pays on a month-to-month basis?

“An Iraqi film will compete at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, vying for the top prize against veteran directors and past winners such as Gus Van Sant. The United States accounts for four of the 20 movies (from 13 countries) selected to compete at the festival.”

The controversy over “cleaned-up” DVD copies of Hollywood blockbusters – stripped of nude scenes, foul language, and references to homosexuality by specialty companies – continues to churn, but is it possible that everyone is missing the central truth about such doctored DVDs? “Control is shifting from the studios to the masses. One argument in favor of the sanitizers suggests that, if the government can’t dictate what people watch in the privacy of their own home, then the Directors Guild can’t, either… Just as unauthorized music remixes became the rage in nightclubs a generation ago, now movie re-edits are becoming cheaper and easier to do. And there’s no going back.”

A French children’s book author who claimed Disney’s Finding Nemo copied a fish of his creation has been convicted of fraud and ordered to pay damages.

It has been more than 3-1/2 years since the 9/11 attacks, which apparently is long enough for Hollywood to start making movies about one of the worst tragedies in American history. “Are Americans ready yet to watch, let alone pay to watch, a re-enactment of some of the most searing events in their lives? When will enough time have passed? How do you make use of the stories of the victims and survivors without being seen as exploiting them? Then there is perhaps the most basic creative dilemma: Do you show the airplanes crashing into the twin towers? On this, there is unanimous reluctance.”

“There are no obvious hot-button films in this year’s lineup, which stacks up as a classic Cannes selection packed with critical favorites and sprinkled with both potential comeback kids like Atom Egoyan, and hot directors, including, notably, Mexico’s Carlos Reygadas and Italy’s Marco Tullio Giordana.

The US Congress has passed a bill that would allow companies to strip out scenes from movies they find objectionable. “The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act would assure manufacturers of DVD players and other devices using such technology they would not be violating copyrights of the Hollywood producers of movies. The House passed it Tuesday on a voice vote. The Senate passed it in February.”