BC Crawler

Wednesday: Oprah, Awards Shows, and Solid(?) Journalism
January 16, 2008

By Alex Weprin

[OMG! Oprah!] Hey, didja hear? Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications are launching a new channel called, wait for it, the Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN. Discovery Health channel will be repurposed into the new network, where Oprah will have total editorial control. It is sure to provide some serious competition to WE, Lifetime and Oxygen (where Oprah was a former board member) when it launches in 2009. Also of note: Oprah’s flagship program, The Oprah Winfrey Show, will not be able to appear on the network until at least 2011, due to contractual obligations, but on a conference call yesterday, Winfrey said she would like it to end up there eventually.

Brian Stelter of the NY Times asks and interesting question: why must Discovery Health die to make room for Oprah’s new net? While he adds the Discovery has not decided on the future of Discovery Health (it could live on in some other form), the channel is “beachfront real estate” as far as cable networks go. By converting an existing channel, the network does not have to worry about distribution, an often slow and arduous task. Besides, many of the shows are already perfect fits with Oprah’s brand of entertainment: Dr. Oz, a show on Discovery Health, is hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz, a frequent guest on Oprah’s show.

 [The Strike and the Awards Shows] Yesterday the WGA gave the NAACP a waiver that will allow the NAACP Image Awards to proceed as scheduled. But as the Image Awards get ready for their show, two others are preparing for the worst. The recording industry has requested an interim agreement, and they have lined up the industry’s two big unions to bolster their request. Still, it is possible that a waiver would not be granted, potentially forcing stars to cross picket lines to get to what would almost certainly be a show even more music heavy then before. And then there are the Oscars. While they are expected to request a waiver, the WGA has said that it will reject it when it is finally submitted. Indeed, it appears as though the only way the Oscars will go on as scheduled is if a deal is struck between the WGA and AMPTP. Pack your bags people, we’re in for a long ride.

[Nevada Debate Wrapup] NBC News hosted the Democratic Candidates debate yesterday, you know, the one where Dennis Kucinich was invited, then disinvited, then court ordered to be invited. Well, NBC appealed, and they won, Kucinich did not appear on the debate. Though a heckler did show up, interrupting the debate and shouting that the moderators (Tim Russert and Brian Williams) were using race based questions. It was an awkward 30 seconds or so. Allessandra Stanley thought the debate in Las Vegas: “didn’t turn out to be a testy showdown between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. It was a school intervention for the leaders of the eighth-grade “Mean Girls” clique.”

The candidates practically fell over one another trying to be nice and polite, and apologizing for the mean campaign. All thanks to prodding from Russert of course. In fact, the show seemed more like Meet the Press than a formal debate, breezily moving from question to question, without the intelligent follow-ups.

[The Softball Express?] Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com posted a story criticizing John King of CNN for having an “adulating” interview with Sen. John McCain. Greenwald’s criticisms consisted essentially of reprinting the transcript of the interview, and saying  that the questions King asked were pretty soft. Well, King responded to Greenwald, pointing out that he has been very critical of McCain in the past, but that this interview was about the economy, and that he is criticized by both liberal and conservative media watchdog groups. Greenwald responds to all of those claims in detail. Take a look at the original piece, then look at King’s response, and Greenwald’s counter-response. What do you think?

[Katie Couric: Unplugged] I don’t know how Harry Schearer does it. The man consistently snags video from network feeds, and posts it on his site. This time he caught Katie Couric, preparing to go live at the New Hampshire primary. She says many things, including the dreaded “S” word (remember this didn’t air on TV) as well as a cruel impression of Meredith Vieira “Time for the weather, and Al.” but as Rachel Sklar points out, the most interesting thing might be her lack of knowledge of Mike Huckabee, who, remember, had already won the Iowa Caucus, and was very much a public figure by the time this was recorded.

Quoth Sklar: “This video was recorded on January 8th. That's after the Iowa primary — which Huckabee won. That's after the floating cross ad which made headlines and airtime everywhere. That's after he was the where-did-he-come-from frontrunner about whom everyone was scrambling to catch up, and after everyone started catching up with all sorts of his old dirty laundry in the news. That's even after November — when she sat with Huckabee as part of her presidential candidate "Primary Questions" interview series. So how the hell can she not know much about Huckabee?”

Posted by BC Crawler on January 16, 2008 | Comments (2)