Michael Collins

Tuesday, September 18, 2007
September 18, 2007

"An attorney and her husband have been awarded $4 million after a jury found that she was the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by the former news director of a Charleston, South Carolina television station. A jury deliberated about three hours Friday before deciding against WCSC-TV channel 5 and Jefferson-Pilot Communications," owner of WCSC, a CBS affiliate. (Associated Press)

A former soap opera star has pleaded innocent to DUI charges. "Actor Sean Kanan, who appeared in the daytime soap operas The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital, pleaded not guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence." (Associated Press)

Even though he has won both an Oscar and an Emmy, former vice president Al Gore says he does not expect to win a Grammy. (Associated Press)

Winning an Emmy has raised the profile of Al Gore's Current Television.  (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Former HBO Chief Executive Chris Albrecht, forced out after an assault arrest last spring, said he was joining the sports super-agency IMG to help it expand the reach of its small but fast-growing media business. As head of global media for IMG, Albrecht, 55, plans to generate programming based on the firm's existing sports and fashion-industry properties and build a U.S. distribution network." (Los Angeles Times) 

Former Buffalo Bills football player O.J. Simpson is back in the news, in an alleged robbery at a Las Vegas hotel. With O.J. incarcerated, there is wall-to-wall coverage on many cable news shows. Washington Post media correspondent Howard Kurtz, who also hosts Reliable Sources, a weekly show on CNN, says this means news stories such as the nomination of a new U.S. attorney general go uncovered on television.

Much of the content on morning and daytime TV shows is "fluff and stuff," according to the Hartford Courant.

The public should be concerned about giant conglomerates such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. owning more and more broadcast networks and stations and newspapers, editorializes the Seattle Times.

A blog this week by B&C's John Eggerton discusses the bleeping of certain words on Fox's telecast of the Emmys Sunday night, and now Fox is saying bleeping was done only to eliminate possibly indecent words, and not any political statements. (New York Times) 

The ratings for Sunday night's Emmys on Fox were the lowest on record. (Associated Press) 

Three citizens went to the FCC to challenge the license renewals of the six Clear Channel Communciations radio stations in Binghamton, N.Y. But the FCC has granted Clear Channel Communications' applications to renew the licenses, rejecting allegations that Clear Channel is too big, not local enough, operates for profit, does not give public access to airtime, did not cover allegations of payola against it in its news coverage, and was missing a list of contracts from its public file. The FCC answered that Clear Channel is in compliance with ownership limits, did have the list of contracts in its public file, was not bound to cover the payola investigation, and otherwise was in full compliance with the rules. (All Access) 

By Michael Collins

Posted by Michael Collins on September 18, 2007 | Comments (0)