Category: media

“This fall, for the first time, three of the big networks and one of the lesser broadcast networks will offer viewers regularly scheduled repeats as part of their fall prime-time lineups.”

American TV networks are changing their schedules in fundamental ways. “Giving new meaning to mind-numbing, phony “reality” and other unscripted shows occupy 20 percent of the lineup. This season, five new phonality shows are on the card. Last year, there were zero. An addict will be able to watch cow-eyed love seekers; rapacious, amoral yuppies; and psychologically damaged females seven days a week, in 13 of the 15 prime-time hours before 10 p.m. It’s part of a youth-crazed, bottom-line mentality that also finds reruns written into the start of the schedule for the first time, helping to bump every trace of first-run scripted series TV from Saturday nights.”

Conservatives protesting Michael Moore’s “Farenheit 9/11” have mounted a protest campaign. “Since we are the customers of the American movie theaters, it is important for us to speak up loudly and tell the industry executives that we don’t want this misleading and grotesque movie being shown at our local cinema.”

“The Portable People Meter is the next big thing in ratings. For the past few years, about 1,500 people in the Philadelphia area have worn small electronic devices that keep track of every bit of radio programming they might hear in the car, at the office, as they walk to lunch, when they drop by a friend’s house or when they hit happy hour after work.”

The kingdom of Bhutan is considering removing certain TV shows from the air five years after TV came to the country. What shows? Wrestling, for one. It’s because of “a wave of children performing copycat wrestling moves. The students are becoming more and more violent when they are at school. The elder boys are trying to imitate the wrestling styles on the younger ones, so that is creating a lot of problems in schools.”

The Motion Picture Association of America is objecting to a proposed new law in the US Congress that would exempt from legal liability anyone using software to make “family friendly” versions of movies. “Our objection is simply to Congress providing legal cover to companies that want to make a profit by offering an edited, abridged version, without regard for the wishes of the director who created the movie or the studio that owns the copyright.”

The conservative action group that got the CBS biopic The Reagans pulled from the TV schedule last year is mounting a new campaign against Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. So far, they don’t appear to be on the verge of another kill…

“The European Commission is poised to approve a merger between Sony Music and BMG,” according to sources. The approval is something of a surprise, constituting a reversal of the commission’s earlier published position on the merger, which expressed grave concern over the dominance that the merged company would have on the global music trade. The decision to approve the merger could come as early as Friday.

“It’s the whitest radio audience in the world; it is the most educated audience in the world; and they make more money than everybody else. . . . I have found that when you talk to people who are white, make money, and are educated, you don’t tell them, `I’m here to educate you.’ What we do attempt to do is enlighten them.”

“Blogging pioneer Dave Winer unexpectedly closed Weblogs.com, his free blog-hosting service, on Sunday, leaving thousands of bloggers without access to their blogs. Blogs affected by the shutdown now redirect to a generic message posted by Winer.” The Weblogs.com service was a free one, and Winer says that he simply could not afford the time and money necessary to keep it going. But many of his virtual tenants are furious at having been given no warning of the shutdown, especially since the content of their blogs is now inaccessible to them.