Category: media

“Social scientists doggedly pursue evidence of correlations between on- and off-screen behavior, while some commentators insist that no such connections could possibly exist. The rest of us know perfectly well that we don’t play with anvils and dynamite just because we see Wile E. Coyote do it, though perhaps those Looney Tunes are cautionary tales.”

“Inoperable cellphones. Impenetrable Web sites. Neurotically overstyled objects. Too much packaging. Digital versions of this, that and the other. Things with esoteric functions that we’re unlikely to ever be able to pronounce correctly, let alone to want to use. We’ve all tussled with them from time to time. There’s nothing new in this.”

Owners announced they were “pulling the plug on the 5-year-old venture, which supplied programming to about 100 stations nationwide, including KTLK-AM (1150) in Los Angeles. The network had had financial problems from the outset, and they were exacerbated by the worsening U.S. economy, which has resulted in advertising cutbacks across all media.”

“Segment profit for NBC Universal was $602 million, 30% less than the fourth quarter of 2008. During the year-ago period, the media unit was floating on the success of “Mamma Mia” DVDs. Revenues for all of NBC Universal were down 4%, to $4.26 billion.”

“Over the 16 years from O’Brien’s first appearance on late night to his taking over “The Tonight Show,” Leno didn’t change his nice guy persona and O’Brien didn’t get any more comfortable on stage. They remained pretty much the same. It was the culture that changed around them. And that’s where demographics came in.”

“A long and winding legal battle that raised uncomfortable questions about Hollywood’s treatment of middle-aged and older TV writers was settled Friday, a decade after a class-action lawsuit alleged they were the victims of widespread age discrimination.”

“Sundance Film Festival organizers pulled a Domino’s Pizza on Thursday afternoon, saying that they’d failed in some respects over the last few years and vowing to improve.”

“All three films received eight nominations for awards which will be presented in a month’s time at the Royal Opera House. After that, the most nominations – seven – went to the South African sci-fi film District 9, with Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air receiving six each.”

“A new study suggests that viewers worldwide turn to particular broadcasters to affirm – rather than inform – their opinions. It’s a notion familiar to those dismayed by the paths blazed by cable news networks FOX and MSNBC – although the study finds one (perhaps unlikely) network may actually foster greater intellectual openness.”

Tony Soprano. Nurse Jackie. The cops in The Wire. “The heroes of today are radically different from those of two or three decades ago. They have evolved to represent a radically changed world.” During WWII and the Cold War, there “was an almost archetypically monstrous enemy, we were unequivocally the good guys. But now we’re fighting wars … where it’s far less clear who the enemy is, indeed whether there is an enemy at all, or even that we are the good guys.”