* As a news junkie, I still watch my share of network news as well as some cable-babble shows. I also go in cycles because of the formulaic network focus on anchor celebs, human-interest pieces, weather overkill and blatantly self-serving teases for same-network shows. Recently I’ve started replacing that early evening network news slot with Al Jazeera America.
While it sounds like an anti-American propaganda vehicle–“Al Jazeera” means “peninsula,” not “struggle” or “martyr”– it’s hardly that. It’s headquartered in New York and has a dozen U.S. bureaus, among its 70 worldwide. Al Jazeera is after ratings and sponsors–and its approach is obvious: Be a more informative alternative to network fare.
The talent is professional–and more than a few reporters are recognizable from previous stints as network correspondents. A David Shuster here, a John Seigenthaler there. The segments are a lot longer and far more detailed. If you can get by the name, look in sometime. It’s not the Diane Sawyer, Scott Pelley, Brian Williams or Erin Burnett show. It’s a more in-depth news look via an international television channel that’s also an online news desk, one that wants to be taken seriously in the world’s most coveted market. By the way, it’s channel 128 on Bright House Networks.
* I’ve seen several lists of the top 10-12 movies of the year and been utterly taken aback by the absence of “Philomena.” I thought “Philomena” and “Blue Jasmine” were the top two movies of 2013. I also felt that “Nebraska,” where ennui-meets-tedium on the way to Lincoln, was the most overrated. And I thought Jared Leto was incredible in “Dallas Buyers Club,” as was Christian Bale in “American Hustle.”
But, then again, I’m not a movie reviewer–and am constantly reminded why.
* Here are two names that you would never otherwise see in the same sentence: Linda Saul-Sena and Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Just so happens that the progressive preservationist, columnist and former Tampa City Council member is on the same side of the effort to save the historic Jackson Rooming House as the sleazy shock jock. They both have agendas that overlap on the two-story Jackson House getting a wrecking-ball reprieve.
Saul-Sena, a fiercely feisty preservation advocate, is urging City Council to seek a 60-day demolition reprieve. She has bona fides and credibility on such matters–from neighborhoods to iconic buildings to public art.
The raunchy, controversial Clem, meanwhile, has been trying to recruit 102.5-FM listeners to volunteer time, money or construction-related skills to help rehab the house. A best case, Clem scenario: Jackson House would be stabilized, purchased and restored. Moreover, it would mean that Clem had succeeded where Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who once referenced Clem as a “complete moron,” had little success.
While Saul-Sena’s and Clem’s personal agendas may differ, they both pragmatically want the same Jackson House result. That’s all that matters.
* I still think Time magazine wanted to go with Edward Snowden in its ad-packed, “Person of the Year” issue–instead of Pope Francis. Something tells me advertisers were more comfortable with full-page ads in a magazine’s thickest, most hyped (annual) issue–which still has newsstand visibility and cachet–that depicted the Pope instead of a punk.
Snowden blew up the NSA metadata gig, alerted the world to 1984 implications, gifted China and Russia with technological and propaganda coups, served as a catalyst for eroded American relations with allies and partners–from Germany to Brazil–and negatively impacted American security. Pope Francis was a candid breath of fresh, compassionate air. But the softer tones didn’t result in hard line, doctrinal change.
But meaningful, overdue change may yet happen. And if so, then Pope Francis will likely be the first “POTY” repeat winner.
* Speaking of Time, its media conglomerate parent, Time Warner, hopes to spin off the magazine later this year. An orphaned Time will struggle even more in the marketplace. Layoffs had already been projected.
And this just in: Time will be asking its news-side employees to report to the business side. In the publication business of serious professionals, this is journalistic separation-of-church-and-state sacrilege–akin to John F. Kennedy telling the Baptists a half century ago that the Pope would, indeed, be weighing in directly on what crosses his Oval Office desk.
This will do nothing positive for Time’s credibility. Be on the lookout for “Person of the Week” cover stories later this year.
* “It’s no secret that newspapers have been under the technological-generational gun for some time. There are mergers and partnerships as well as downsizings, layoffs and closings. Typos-R-Us is more the rule than exception. Seemingly un-proofed copy all too common. Is it “its” or “it’s,” “who’s” or “whose,” “were,” “we’re” or “where”? Etc.
Not to pick on the Tampa Bay Times, but this was blatant. Here’s the lead from a bylined story that appeared prominently on page 3 of last Friday’s Local section:
PINELLAS PARK–A man who shot and killed his mother’s fiancé and then himself inside a hotel room Wednesday night has died, police said.
Again?
* Some stuff you can’t make up. This from the parallel universe that is the world of reality TV. Now we hear that more than 1,000 men and women from around the world have been selected out of 200,000 applicants to move on to the next round in the Mars One competition to see who will be the first folks from Earth to move to Mars in 2025. You read that right.
The group will be further whittled down in 2014, but details of the process are unsettled due to ongoing negotiations with media companies for the rights to televise the selection process.
Mars One then wants to get down to a manageable group of 40 over the next four years. Those then selected will train for seven years as teams. A global audience will vote on which group gets to go–one way–to Mars in 2025. But, no, nobody from the cast of “Jersey Shore” is involved.