FCC Chairman Kevin Martin talked about the historical significance of Thursday's announcement of the Wilmington, N.C., DTV test  as posters proclaimed "First in Flight, First in Digital" taking a page from the North Carolina license plate.

But missing from that historic press conference were two of the five FCC commissioners, and the only two Republicans other than Martin. Why, you ask?

Commissioners Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert McDowell were both on travel, according to their offices. McDowell was on a panel in California, while Tate was in the DTV trenches speaking to a collection of seniors in Chicago about the digital switch.

But couldn't they have rearranged their schedules in anticipation of this historic moment?

Turns out they didn't learn, or at leas...Read More

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Wolf Blitzer was aomng the targets of a particularly Washington-centric Boston Legal Wednesday night on ABC.

The episode began with what ammounted to the demolition of the fourth wall--that is the one between the fiction of TV and the reality outside the box.

The Boston Legal team spent the first 30 seconds or so of the show referring to the fact that the show had been moved to Wednesday night, complete with various characters expressing their surprise, which provided an opportunity to mention how many days it would be on Wednesday, the news that it would not air next week, and even a question about whether the show was coming back next season.

BL is famous for self-referential asides about it being a TV show, but this was its longest sustained aside, and is cer...Read More

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XM and Sirius announced today that they are extending their deal to merge yet again, as the regulatory wheels continute to roll exceedingly slow at the FCC.

The current deal between the satellite radio companies had a trigger to unwind as of May 1 absent regulatory approval. While the Justice Department has said it has no antitrust concerns about the merger sufficient to warrant blocking it or putting conditions on it, the FCC has not made its call and looks like it won't for a while.

The commission has to take into account public interest considerations that extend beyond competition issues, and it may well have to dicker among itselves over what conditions to put on the merger it if decides to let it through. But teh commission has had over ten months to review the deal, and FCC Ch...Read More

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The presidential candidates appeared to get into the spirit of their taped voter appeals for the WWE wrasslin' match Monday night on USA.

According to a promo reel supplied by WWE, Hillary Clinton says that, at least for the night, she "You can call me Hillrod. The last man standing may just be a woman," she adds.

Barack Obama calls out the forces of lobbying evil. "To the special interests who have been setting the agenda in Washington for too long," he says, "and to all the forces of division and distraction who stopped us from making progress for the American people, I have one question: Do You Smell What Barack is Cooking."

Hmmm.

But, arguably, the most pugnacious of the trio was battling John McCain, who dates from the days when wrestling w...Read More

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They hold hands, they have sleepovers, and they clearly love each other. They are Denny Crane and Alan Shore, characters on the ABC drama Boston Legal and arguably the highest-profile male bonders on prime time TV.

That’s why it came as a surprise to some staffers at Boston Legal producer David Kelley Productions when a an April 9 Nightline segment on “Bromances,” like the Hollywood friendship between Gossip Girls’ Chace Crawford and former N’ Sync-er J.C. Chasez,” failed to include the ABC show duo. Instead, it plugged TV friendships in shows no longer on network TV and never on ABC.

Nightline described a Bromance as “nothing amorous, j...Read More

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Has the Colbert Report become the latest must-be-seen TV appearance for would-be presidential candidates? Read on.

John McCain announced his candidacy on Letterman and many believe Al Gore might have been president if the more relaxed and funny man who appeared on late night TV after his 2000 defeat had showed up beforehand.

But last night, Stephen Colbert, who was doing the show from Philadelphia, boasted three, ount'em, three current or former presidential candidates. 

Hillary Clinton opened the show by pretending to fix Colbert's video wall. AFter the screen went blank, Colbert asked dramatically: "Are you telling me there is noone in this theater who can fix the mess we're in?" 

"I can," said Clinton, appearing ...Read More

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ABC's prime time debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was a laudable effort marred by too many commercials and too much emphasis on "gotcha" moments that never really materialized.

The tag team of Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos appeared to gang up on Senator Obama, but that was partly because he was the subject of the juiciest questions given his "bittergate" gaffe and questions about his relationships to his fiery pastor and a former 60's radical.

Not asking questions about those would have appeared to be avoiding the obvious, I think, but to front load the debate with them made it seem more imade-for-TV nquisition than exchange at a time when the media is roundly criticized for covering the stumbles and missteps of the horse race rather than the issues that will be more important in the long run.
 ...Read More

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Searchlights swept the sky as couples in tuxedos and gowns walked up the red carpet nearby. A camera rolled as one tuxedoed man was interviewed.

But rather than a Hollywood premiere, it was the April 11 gala for the Newseum, the Freedom Forum-backed museum that reopenen in Washington Friday at the foot of Capitol Hill.

Inside, a mix of government types, high-powered executives, and veteran newspeople took in the six levels of exhibits while noshing on everything from sushi to mini-cheeseburgers, catered by Wolfgang Puck, whose restaurant, The Source, is part of the museum complex.

There was FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, local newsfolk including Gordon Peterson of WJLA TV Washington, this year's recipient of the Sol Taishoff Award (named after the B&C founder) f...Read More

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The three presidential candidates with a chance to win made cameo appearances on American Idol last night as part of its "Gives Back" charity special. John McCain,the oldest demo in the group came off as the most comfortable and entertaining of the lot on a show.

While Senators Clinton and Obama were earnest in their appeals for money for various charities, with Obama invokinga more just, equal and hopeful society, McCain delivered his appeal with a twinkle and a couple of good jokes.

He compared the American Idol voters to the voting population, except, he added, that on Idol, the votes from Michigan and Florida count. That was a shot at the Democrats, whose primaries in those states did not count toward the delegate totals, at least not yet.

After making his...Read More

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Could former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney be testing the waters for a possible broadcast career? And now, the rest of the story.

Ron Chapman, fill-in for Paul Harvey on that broadcast icon's daily news and comment segments on ABC Radio, said Wednesday that on April 10, Romney will sub for Chapman on Harvey's show.

It is not an unfamiliar spot for would-be Republican presidential contenders. Fred Thompson was a frequent Harvey fill-in before he got into the presidential race briefly.

Romney certainly has the looks to extend his media profile beyond the radio microphone.

Or could it be that the former Massachusetts governor wants to burnish his image with Harvey's large, middle America audience just in case he is on that list of 20 or so possible vice presidential running mates for John McCain? (OK, let's not be coy even if McCain is. ...Read More

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I can't wait to see the "4-D" movie at the newly new Newseum. It sounds like a cross between Front Page, Spiderman, and that Honey I Shrunk the Audience movie at Disney World, only in this case the Newseum has apparently enlarged the profile of journalism to epic proportions.

I have to admit my daughter beat me to the punch--and splash and rumble and shriek--seeing the film/adventure, "I-Witneess," at a "friends and family" day at the museum over the weekend in advance of the official opening  April 11. She called it "really cool."

This is clearly not your father's news museum. It has a host of interactive features from a do...Read More

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Usually when I leave the office and go home I like to devote myself to at least a few moments of nonwork-related activity before I check my e-mail and realize the FCC has put something out late or somebody has responded to some question that needs adressing online. You know, something that doesn't have to do with a burning First Amendment issue involving an FCC chairman's concerns about sex in a show and its effects on young people

So it was last night when I plunked myself down at the dining room table and began reading a letter from the rector of my alma mater. The rector is the head of the board of governors, which, as its name would suggest, is the governing body of the college.

The rector spoke in oblique language about the difficulties of the past few months and the need for canning (my t...Read More

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