BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Friday, August 15, 2003
Darkness, followed by light.
The lights are pretty much back on, according to this
story on CNN.com. Talk
about more alleged news. Don't get me wrong -- it was obviously a big
story. But, honestly, once terrorism was ruled out (and it was,
pretty quickly), how much do you need to know?
I did tune in long enough to watch
what may be the best question anyone has ever asked Senator Hillary
Clinton. On Larry King Live, Wolf Blitzer asked: Senator,
everybody's been getting likkered up for hours. Aren't they going to
run wild tonight?
Okay, I exaggerate, but not by
much. Blitzer:
Senator, the people of New
York have responded well so far, but I have some concerns standing
here on the streets of New York. It's dark, obviously, very dark
right now. A lot of people are mulling around. I have seen a lot
of crowds mulling around. Clearly for some -- for some misguided
New Yorkers, there almost seems to be a festive atmosphere. A lot
of people drink[ing] beer and other spirits up if you
will.
Have New York law-enforcement
authorities done everything necessary to make sure it doesn't get
ugly in parts of New York City tonight?
Clinton was on by phone; I wish
she'd been on camera so I could have watched her scrunch her lips.
Anyway, she eluded the question and was boring to boot, so I won't
quote her response. But at least Blitzer provided a moment of cheap
entertainment during the Live Story from Hell. ("The lights are still
out ...")
Ventura highway to oblivion.
I suppose MSNBC, the number-zero cable news channel, deserves a
little bit of credit for indefinitely postponing Jesse
Ventura's prime-time debut.
To my knowledge, this is the first time that the channel has ever
cleaned up one of its train wrecks before it's aired for a few
painful months.
Still, Nobody's News Channel will
let Ventura hold forth on weekends, as it did earlier with right-wing
hatemonger Michael Savage. Obviously Ventura is considerably more
savvy -- and less offensive -- than the gay-bashing, garbage-mouthed
Savage. But an on-air train wreck remains a distinct
possibility.
This, from the aforelinked Jim
Rutenberg and (ooh, sorry; with) Charlie LeDuff's account in
the New York Times, offers a scary insight into how MSNBC
president Erik Sorenson and his drones think:
One concept that the
network tried this summer, according to someone present at the
taping, had Mr. Ventura eliciting commentary from his guests while
an attractive woman served up different topics.
Sounds like the bimbos who flaunted
themselves at ringside back in The Body's days with the
WWF.
That hissing sound you hear is a
sigh of relief from Brian Williams, who escaped from MSNBC last
summer and who now holds forth on the unwatched, but unembarrassing,
CNBC.
posted at 8:58 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
