BC/DC: Eggerton on Washington
BC/DC is the media executives\' must-see view from Washington, delivered by yours truly without the aid of rose-colored glasses and without the need, quite yet, of bifocals.
RTCA Hands Out Awards for Journalistic Excellence
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) closed the Radio and Television Correspondents Association awards dinner Wednesday night at Washington’s National Building Museum with a big “thank you” to the radio and TV journalists “who refused not to tell the story” of her city when the levees broke after Katrina. She said they had never left and continued to speak from their heart ...... Read More
Comments (0)'Scandal' vs. Scandals
Those of us who have been watching the “not so upfront” Obama Administration this week rather than the upfront presentations by TV networks in New York should not be surprised that a show about White House scandals, as in ABC’s Scandal, had its best ratings outing ever Thursday night. It was also the most tweeted episode, according to ABC, with over 500,000 comments. In fact, ...... Read More
Comments (0)Connolly, Furchtgott-Roth: Latest Names to Surface For FCC Seat
The buzz around D.C. Thursday (May 16) was that Michelle Connolly, economics professor at Duke and former chief economist at the FCC under Republican Chairman Kevin Martin, was another possible replacement for the FCC seat of Commissioner Robert McDowell, though one source suggested she might not want to make the move.Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose staff has been vetting candidates, had repor ...... Read More
Comments (0)Speed Kills
With apologies to Charles Dickens–after all this is about nothing if not apologies–Howard Kurtz screwed up. This must be distinctly understood or nothing useful can come of the story I am about to relate. I have been watching with a mix of emotions the hammering of Howard Kurtz over a series of errors he made, one apparently compounding another. I was once the victim of someone spea ...... Read More
Comments (0)The (Fun) House Correspondents Association
No way that Conan is going to be able to follow the President. That was my thought at the White House Correspondent’s Association (WHCA) dinner Saturday night. the opening act had killed. The President was in rare stand-up form. But Conan delivered, and the combination had the heady mix of journalists, politicos, and Hollywood imports rolling in the aisles. Actually, there were no aisles ...... Read More
Comments (0)Wheeler/Clyburn Ticket?
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has yet to announce his exit date, but the inside-the-Beltway chatter about his successor is coalescing around a scenario where former National Cable and Telecommunications Association president Tom Wheeler is nominated to replace Genachowski and, since the vetting and voting for that pick will likely take a few months, Mignon Clyburn would be named interim chair. C ...... Read More
Comments (0)The Unbalance of Power
Just a secretly-recorded tape reel’s roll away from the Russell Senate Office building where the iconic hearings were held, former Watergate prosecutors mingled with iconic Nixon Administration figures last Thursday (April 18). The venue was the Newseum in Washington, D.C., which played host to a Discovery Channel and White House Correspondents Association hosted premiere screening of the n ...... Read More
Comments (0)Marathon Story 'Breaks Open' Overnight
Only hours after the FBI circulated photos and videos of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, the story began moving at lightning speed and the 24-hour news nets were all over it. At press time a little before 5 a.m., according to CNN and Fox News and others, an MIT police officer had been killed by a pair of gunmen identified as the suspects; one of the suspects–suspect number one in the ...... Read More
Comments (0)Tentative Dates Surface for Senate Communications Hearing
According to an industry source, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) has come up with some dates for a series of communications-related hearings he signaled recently would be part of an active Communications Subcommittee agenda under its new chairman. According to the source, there is a pretty solid date of April 25 for a hearing on wireless communications. More tentative are a May 14 target date for a video ...... Read More
Comments (0)FCC Official: Not Aware of Any Boston Communications Shutdown
Some reports Monday suggested cell service might have been shut down in Boston in case the bombs at the Boston Marathon had been triggered by cell phone. But that appears not to have been the case. Fox News interviewed its own senior producer, Jay Soroko, who was running the marathon. Soroko said he was about a half mile from the finish line when the explosions went off. Police jumped into the run ...... Read More
Comments (0)TV A Big Player At The Masters
The Masters golf tournament featured a major player putting its stamp on the tournament Friday afternoon–television. Thanks to a TV viewer and a televised interview, Tiger Woods was assessed a two-stroke penalty and was in some danger of being disqualified. As CBS explained in an on-air interview Saturday with Fred Ridley, chairman of the competition committee, a TV viewer contacted Masters ...... Read More
Comments (0)Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight
Hearing of the death of Annette Funicello was like learning that your first girlfriend–OK, the girl you fervently wished had been your first girlfriend–was gone.I mourn the passing of the girl and woman, but also of what she represented to boys of a certain age–that is boys currently in their 50’s and 60’s. We were all in love with Annette. The reason was obvious ...... Read More
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