Kate O'Hare's Hot Cuppa TV

Recently, I attended the Los Angeles version of the 140 Characters Conference, which focused on ways disparate groups of people are using the microblogging service called Twitter.

(Yeah, that also means yours truly.)

That included some familiar TV faces, such as Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood," who has used Twitter to put out breaking news (and correct Perez Hilton, or so he says) and "Heroes" executive producer Tim Kring, who's really into something called "transmedia storytelling."

Speaking of 'Heroes," I sat down at the conference for an impromptu chat with the Puppetmaster himself, David H. Lawrence XVII (that's 17 for the Roman-numeral-challenged, like me).

More on that later, but first, some business -- as in big business.

Before my chance encounter with Lawrence -- who's become a bit of a Twitter-lebrity -- I sat down with Kodak CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Jeffrey Hayzlett, a Twitter star in his own right, who was also one of the conference speakers (as you can see from my photo).

The venerable camera company was one of the sponsors of the event, which was held in its own Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, home to the Academy Awards.

Hayzlett has appeared on an earlier edition of NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice" -- click here for the behind-the-scenes of it all -- and he'll be back in the new season of the show. He's also acquainted with its executive producer, reality guru Mark Burnett, and a big fan of his "Shark Tank" on ABC (as am I -- click here and here for proof of that).

Here's a sample of our conversation:

On why people are wrong not to think of Kodak when they think of social media like Twitter:

JH: We have changed it. When people say, "What company gets it?", they think of Kodak now, at least those in the Twitterati.

On what a camera company has to do with 140-character tweets:

JH: Seventy percent of our business is digital. I mentioned this to other folks earlier -- we've got our mojo back in that regard. When you think about Twitter, it says, "What am I doing? Where am I at? What am I up to?" Really, Kodak's always been about sharing those moments and sharing life, and to me they're one and the same.

Why Kodak has gone feet first into social media:

JH: Seriously, it's about connecting with people. You can't lose. Nothing's going to happen. You can't lose. The only resistance (in the company was) "What is it?"

On the risks of being transparent on Twitter:

JH: Have we made mistakes? Yeah. I've personally made mistakes, where I Twittered out something 12 hours before it was supposed to happen -- something where we'd worked a year and a half on it. I accidentally hit the button. I was able to regroup and get a couple of people to stop re-tweeting it.

You make those kind of mistakes, but nobody intentionally tries to do anything, and that's the key thing you want to remember. If you do it, you're only going to do it once inside of a big company, because we're going to make the changes.

On why Twitter and other social media does not substitute for traditional advertising and consumer outreach:

JH: You can't get to them all. They're not all on Twitter; they're not all on Facebook; they're not all on Kodak Gallery. It's not how people always want to get their information, so it's only reaching those people who want to get it in that manner. That's not your only source of information.

So there's not an absolute when it comes to social media, nor is there an absolute when it comes to normal media channels. You don't just watch television and not read the newspapers. Quite frankly, a lot of the people in the Twittersphere and online, they think everything else is nonexistent.

I then told Hayzlett that I was headed that afternoon over to the set of NBC's "Community," and it turns out he's a fan.

JH: It's a good show. It's a great show. I love Chevy Chase.

In past seasons of "The Celebrity Apprentice," some celebrities have had trouble with their work ethic. According to Hayzlett, that's not the case this time around.

JH: Actually, they worked pretty hard.

For more on the 140 Characters conference, click here for "The Spark: not just another Twitter conference," the latest film from eGuiders founder Marc Ostrick and fellow filmmaker Michael Sean Wright.

When you're done with that, you can check out "the new dial tone," the first film in the "Spark" series, shot at the recent BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas.

And when you're done with that, you can check out my own video recommendations on eGuiders.

Today's cuppa: more Irish breakfast tea than one person should consume in a day

Click here for my regular Thursday appearance on Shaun Daily's TV Talk show on blogtalkradio.com, in which we talk about the TV coverage of the mass shooting at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas -- which happened earlier in the day and was still, in many ways, an evolving story-- along with the big ratings for the premiere of "V" and more.

I come in at about the half-hour mark and yap just a leeetle over my usual 30 minutes.

Tonight's cuppa: fast-food coffee

Deep in transcribing hell for a big week of features -- and probably some set visits -- next week, but couldn't resist tossing up a quick poll about last night's premiere of ABC's "V," which was a ratings and demo smash (some critics even liked it as well).

There's some controversy -- expressed here by my good pal Glenn Garvin -- about whether the drama was referring to the current administration.

As always, Cuppers, I leave that up to you. This poll is also on Twitter, but vote away here as well:

Today's cuppa: Irish breakfast tea (contemplating a switch to chai ... Hmmmm)

On Tuesday night, ABC premieres "V," its remake of the 1980s science-fiction TV classic of the same name.

As it turns out, the new version is pretty darn good (at least the pilot, which is all I've seen).

Below find the full text of the feature story I wrote this week. As you'll discover when you read it, I was unable to talk to the producers (interviews were scheduled, then canceled).

The ABC publicist asked if I could go with what they said at press tour, but since that was back in early August, and a lot had changed with the show in the meantime, I just couldn't.

After the feature story, though, you'll find an exchange between yours truly and the producers at the Television Critics Association Press Tour, which touches on some of the most controversial aspects of "V" (and just how controversial they remain after the shutdown for "script issues," I confess, I have no idea. But, for what it's worth, I have a lot of respect for executive producers Scott Peters and Jeffrey Bell, so we'll see.).

So, read, watch and, as always, make up your own mind.

First up, the story:

'V' pours old foes into new skins for sci-fi remake

 

By Kate O'Hare

©Zap2it

 

Back in 1983, NBC aired the two-part science-fiction miniseries "V," written and directed by Kenneth Johnson. In 1984, NBC followed with another hit miniseries, "V: The Final Battle."

Despite that title, the network forged on with "V: The Series" later in 1984, with most of the original cast (but not Johnson). It was short-lived and just plain bad.

Normally, this sort of a history would bode better for a miniseries remake than a series, but on the other hand, "Battlestar Galactica" was a hit pilot that turned into a flop series in the '70s, only to be revived in this decade as a critically acclaimed miniseries and series.

So one could forgive ABC and Warner Bros. Television for being a little confused over exactly what to do with their "V" remake, premiering Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Layer on top of that a byproduct of timing, partly caused by a strike-induced delay, which lands the new "V" practically on top of the anniversary of last year's presidential election with a pilot that contains such hot buzzwords as "hope," "change" and "universal health care."

As if that wasn't enough, stir in a production hiatus for "script issues," followed by a rollout schedule that calls for four initial episodes, with the rest held until after the Winter Olympics in March.

It's enough to give an executive producer fits, which may explain why executive producers/writers Scott Peters ("The 4400") and Jeffrey Bell ("Angel," "Alias") weren't available this fall to talk about the show.

But stars Morena Baccarin and Scott Wolf were. Starring with them in "V" are Elizabeth Mitchell ("Lost") as an FBI counterterrorism agent, Logan Huffman as her teenage son, Joel Gretsch ("The 4400") as a worried priest and Morris Chestnut ("Boyz N the Hood") as a man with a secret who faces a life-altering decision.

Baccarin ("Firefly") plays Anna, the enigmatic leader of aliens calling themselves the Visitors (or "Vs" for short), who hover gigantic spaceships over every major city in the world, scaring the pants off everybody. Anna then appears and offers a message of peace and advanced technology, just as long as the Vs get the slavish devotion of every human being on Earth.

Wolf plays ambitious news anchor Chad Decker, who lands an exclusive interview with Anna, only to discover he's expected to play ball and make the Vs look good, or else no chat.

Unfortunately for journalistic ethics everywhere, Decker folds like a cheap suit.

But all may not be lost for this Anderson Cooper wannabe.

"In that moment," Wolf says, "obviously he's been put in a position where he's got two very difficult choices to make. One is to be a real sucker, and the other is to potentially give up the best opportunity he'll ever have.

"What Scott thought of Chad in that moment was that he's actually smart enough to believe, or to know, that he'll find a way to make it right, that this opportunity won't come back again.

"He can reclaim his integrity, but this opportunity is once in a lifetime."

If you haven't seen the original "V," stop reading right now, because anyone who has knows that the Visitors are only human on the surface, with a reptilian reality lurking within. But we're not talking hulking crocodiles here; these lizards can hold their own with higher primates.

"I like how controlled and smart and calculating she is," Baccarin says of Anna, "that she's able to learn from humans and manipulate them and be who she thinks they want her to be, so she can get what she wants.

"I like the nuances of that."

So as the alien leader, Anna is a consummate politician.

"Exactly," Baccarin says. "It's all about getting people to trust you, so you have to present yourself and do things that will get that, even if they're not entirely true."

While she says she didn't base Anna on any particular political figure, Baccarin did learn from recent history.

"Obviously," she says, "we were all very captivated by the presidential election, so I watched a lot of the debates and things in general. That, I'm sure, helped me figure out what I wanted to do a little bit."

As for the stops and starts of "V" so far, Wolf says, "Stay with us. I don't want to say I know - because none of us ever knows anything really - but I believe people are going to tune in to see this show, and I believe they are going to be excited.

"As unnerving as any kinds of bumps in the road can get for all of us, I know that every decision that's been made is in the long-term best interests of the show and the story.

"So to me, I've not veered from my excitement and belief in the show at all."

All that having been said, here are excerpts from the press-tour session from Aug. 8, starting with my question and Scott Peters' answer:

KO: Some of the words in the pilot associated with the Visitor agenda are "hope" and "change" and "universal health care." So was that intentional, or are you just freakishly prescient?

SCOTT PETERS: Freakishly prescient.

ELIZABETH MITCHELL: Wow.

KO: And now that you are here and we are in this situation and you are airing it in November, are you going to play off that, or how are you going to work with that?

SCOTT PETERS: You know, because of the Writers' Guild strike, this show has been in development for a long time, and I just felt, to me, it was, you know, certainly -- it wasn't sort of -- we are not looking to put any sort of agenda onto the table, but I think that anybody -- you know, I wake up in the morning and you look at the news, and you see, you know, there's wars, there's new diseases being discovered, there's old diseases that are still -- we are dealing with. There's -- the economy is in the toilet. There are people losing their homes. Wouldn't it be awesome if 29 ships showed up and they all said, "We've got this. We'll take care of you. Don't worry about it"? Wouldn't this be great?  And so, I mean, that's really where hope and change came from. It's just like the world -- Joel has a line in the pilot that says, you know, "The world is in bad shape, Father. Who wouldn't welcome a savior?" And I think that's a pretty interesting thesis statement. So that's kind of where this whole thing sort of came from. And, listen, I think that shows are open to interpretation. People have subjective -- bring subjective thoughts to it. And if you want to ascribe, you know, those words to the Visitors or to whatever is going on in our society, that's sort of up to the viewer, but there's no particular agenda to, you know, hone in on those specific things.

Other reporters picked up the thread a few minutes later, and here's Jeffrey Bell's response to the issue:

 

JEFFREY BELL: Look, there are always going to be people who will look for agendas in everything. This show was conceived during the Bush administration. It got executed in an Obama administration. There are people on either sides of the aisle who can find things. You can say, "Yeah, look how stupid these people are for following blindly and believing everything the government is saying," and you can have people who are upset about that. And you can have other people saying, "Look at these people who are promising everything at no cost, and look, they are leading them to their own doom." And so, for us, both sides have strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to talk about a fantastic -- let's get people to show up and watch it and talk about it.

UPDATE: Showrunner shakeup announced today, Nov. 3 (premiere day), replacing Scott Peters in that position and likely resulting in Jeff Bell's departure. The guy coming in has good creds, but this stuff seldom turns out well. Fingers crossed.

Today's cuppa: one bag each of Christmas Morning and English afternoon tea -- livin' on the edge, here.

Take three hot Brits, stir well and whaddya get?

Ratings -- or so ABC hopes, and they might not be wrong in this.

On the hit Thursday sci-fi drama "FlashForward," Sonya Walger ('Lost") plays Los Angeles surgeon Dr. Olivia Benford, who's married to recovering alcoholic FBI Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes, "Shakespeare in Love") -- the two are pictured together below -- but in her two-minute-plus blackout vision of the future, she was having warm, squishy feelings for a total stranger (Jack Davenport, "Coupling," "Pirates of the Caribbean"), who has turned out to be the loving dad of one of her kid patients.

Olivia, though, shares her experience with the whole human population (OK, almost all of it), which blacked out simultaneously and got a quick glimpse of the world on a day in April, 2010.

As a loyal and supportive wife, Olivia doesn't want to believe that her flash-forward will come true, and Walger is keeping an open mind.

"No, I haven't decided at all (if it will happen)," she says. "I just play each scene and each script as it comes. All of us, at some point wonder how it would inevitably dictate your behavior to get a glimpse of the future, especially in a way that felt so real, that wasn't just a fortuneteller in a tent predicting something, but in a way where you actually physically, experienced it and smelled it and tasted it, where it was palpable to you -- how very compelling that would be."

Interestingly, of the three British actors involved in this potential love triangle, only one of them -- Davenport -- gets to use his native accent.

"I'm not bothered at all," Walger says (using her own British accent). "I've been here for eight years, so I'm so used to playing American characters that it's strange to use my own accent. I'm not remotely bothered by it.

"I don't even hear it (when Davenport) speaks. I really don't. I don't hear the difference anymore."

It is interesting to have an American drama with, not one, but three British actors in leading roles (and a fourth, Dominic Monaghan, late of "Lost," has just joined the cast, but he's not another potential lover for Olivia -- at least not yet).

"I know!" Walger says. "It's extraordinary. I keep waiting for immigration to come and confiscate my green card, but I think it's working."

Even though Britain is a relatively small country, and Hollywood is a pretty small professional community -- and the cast of "Lost" probably do get together at lunch -- Walger says, "I'd never met any of them. I'd never met Joseph or Jack or even Dominic. Yes, very strange."

Asked what her biggest "FlashForward" challenge is, Walger says, "I'm going to say, the medical stuff weighs on me a huge amount. There are operations I have to do, and I've loved it, absolutely loved it.

"They've been some of the toughest things of my career, knowing exactly what to ask for and when to ask for it, with a team of people looking to me to get the scene right, and incredibly expensive prosthetics, fake blood everywhere and all of that.

"Just on a practical level, that's been one of the most challenging things, but it's interesting."

On the flip side, the doctor costume is a breeze.

"The scrubs are fantastic," Walger says. "You can breathe in them and let your tummy hang out. It's wonderful. I love my scrubs."

At the same time as she's juggling surgical instruments and wearing jammies to work, Olivia is worrying that her husband will fall off the wagon (he was pretty liquored-up in his flash-forward) and that she'll wind up throwing over one handsome brunet for another.

(Jack Davenport, left)

"It's wonderful," says Walger. "I love playing women that have a lot going on. It's reflective of life as we live it. None of us is able to deal with just one thing in our lives. It's interesting that Olivia is so determined to steer this course, against all the odds, swimming against the tide.

"She's trying to be a mum, trying to be the best doctor she can be, trying to be the mentor of interns, trying to be wife to Mark but still trying to be honest and upfront about what she's going through, but at the same time sensing that there are things he's not telling her.

"She's a really rich character with huge demands being made of her. I love it."

What if newlywed Sonya Walger had a flash-forward in which she was with a man other than her husband, writer/producer/playwright Davey Holmes?

"I'd be devastated. That's why I really empathize with Olivia. I'd be absolutely devastated, and I'd be doing everything I could to not let that happen."

But, is there any handsome fella whose appearance in said flash-forward might tempt Walker to feel slightly less guilty about forbidden fruit?

"Only my husband," she says.

Good answer.

Tonight's cuppa: peppermint tea

When I'm not watching TV for fun and profit, I'm a gardener. I wasn't always one. When I was young, I was very good at killing plants, until I realized that I didn't know anything and started reading books on the subject and then doing what the books told me to do.

Of course, like any gardener, every now I and then I get puffed up with confidence about my ability to beat nature at her own game, and need a harsh reminder (as chronicled in this blog post) to go with the natural flow.

We humans may think we're the kings and queens of Earth, and that we make the natural world bend to our will, but as often as not, the reverse is probably true.

If you look at the criteria of abundance and distribution of a species as marks of evolutionary success, then we've been at least as good for dogs, cats, horses, cows, chickens, hamsters, camels, pigs, corn, wheat and soybeans as they've been for us, and we definitely come out on the short end of the stick with cockroaches, rats, crabgrass and bedbugs.

We evolved on Planet Earth too, and as far as we try to remove ourselves from nature, it's temporary at best and usually just an illusion.

On Wednesday, Oct. 28, PBS premieres "The Botany of Desire," based on the book of the same name by author and avid gardener Michael Pollan (BTW, it's an absorbing, thoughtful and entertaining read, and I recommend it whether or not you watch the special).

The two-hour documentary looks at four of our favorite plants -- apples, tulips, cannabis and potatoes -- and examines how their natural histories have become entwined with our desires for, respectively, sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control.

As it turns out, the familiar apple is an honest-to-goodness wild thing, made to breed true only by cloning; our housing boom and bust are nothing compared to the Dutch tulip mania of 1637; cannabis' complex molecules have a surprising relationship to our brains; and potatoes are a whole lot more than a McDonald's french fry.

Even watched on my laptop screen earlier tonight because of a power outage in windy Los Angeles (I understand it hit CBS' Craig Ferguson during taping of his show), "The Botany of Desire" is a gorgeous piece of filmmaking, and Pollan is an engaging and non-stuffy guide to a world he evidently loves (honestly, read the book for the bit on the, to put it mildly, eccentric John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman, if nothing else).

I guarantee that if you read, watch or both, you may never look at plants quite the same way again. I'm not talking about a "Little Shop of Horrors" man-eating plant moment or anything like that, but you may rethink who's evolving whom, here.

After all, you don't fool with Mother Nature -- she fools with you.

Tonight's cuppa: peppermint tea

I'll be busy at the Twitter-ific 140 Character Conference the next couple of days here in Los Angeles (along with my second visit to the set of NBC's "Community"), so to tide you over, here's a Q&A with two of the most popular people to ever appear on this blog, businessman Bill Klein and pediatrician Dr. Jen Arnold.

The recently marrieds are the stars of TLC's hit reality series "The Little Couple," which returns for a second season on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Unless otherwise indicated, all answers are considered to be from both Klein and Arnold (and as you can tell from the pictures, they did squeeze in some angling time):

Q: Are you surprised at the success of the show?

 

A: It's a success? Actually, it's been a surprise and a pleasant one at that. Most of the feedback we have received has been positive and who could complain about that?!

Q: Two times I've posted stories on "The Little Couple" on my blog -- click here and here -- and the second post (which came out after the series had premiered) generated many comments from readers, all very positive. What about the show and yourselves do you think appeals to viewers?

 

A: If we had to guess, it's that people see a lot of themselves in us. We are two down-to-earth folks, who happen to be madly in love, that are trying to make the best of our situation...and hopefully that is what resonates with the viewers.

Q: What challenges are you facing during this season?

 

A: Time! Time is a commodity that is in high demand in our home. Work for both of us as picked up in pace and the demands we must meet to make things work with the show and our careers is tough enough.

Insert the want and need to continue to have some private time between just the two of us and all of a sudden, we are looking for Funday, that elusive eighth day of the week! Also, we have a lot of big things coming up. Baby stuff, house stuff, work stuff...it will be hard to get it all into one season...but it keeps us busy!

Q: How has your life changed since the show has been on the air?

 

A: It takes a lot longer to go to the grocery store; we have actually been seated a little quicker at a restaurant or two! And we have met so many great fans all over the country!

Q: Do you feel like you're educating viewers about the medical causes for your stature? What feedback are you getting?

 

A: We do think we are educating our viewers about the medical issues surrounding skeletal dysplasias.  Jen: "I have had many emails from families who have kids with dwarfism asking for advice. Of course I can't give them exact medical advice since I am not their physician, but I have been able to guide them to specialists and even speak with their physicians as needed. It's a very rewarding opportunity. If and when we have a child with skeletal dysplasia I think the education will really increase as many of the medical and orthopedic challenges of dwarfism occur in childhood."

Q: What's been the most fun about shooting the show?

 

Q; Getting to know the crew, they have all been great to work with! Bill: "and l get to test out my jokes with a captive (truly captive...the crew is obligated to listen) audience!

Q: Any regrets?

 

A: The only regret is time management. With our busy schedules, we wish we had planned some things a little better so that we were ahead of the game instead of always feeling like we are trying to catch up.  Also, we wish we kept up better with our fan mail, email, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. We love to reach out, but find it often hard to keep up.

Q: Any favorite celebrities you've now had a chance to meet?

 

A: Oprah.

Today's cuppa: hot peppermint tea

Yesterday, I did my regular weekly appearance on Shaun Daily's TV Talk show on blogtalkradio.com -- click here for the MP3 version.

I come in just after the half hour mark (scratchy throat, stuffy head and all -- just a cold, no swine flu or anything like that, thank goodness).

We talk about the poll results on my blog (the poll remains open, BTW), and all the various set visits and award shows I've gone to lately .. which are quite a few, and which may account for me catching a cold.

At the same time, I'm pretty cranky at Fox for pulling "Dollhouse" for sweeps -- click here for the Zap2it story -- mostly for selfish reasons. I did interviews and a set visit for a story originally planned to run next week, focusing on the beginning of Summer Glau's (standing, right) recurring role.

Now that won't happen until December. Not sure if the story will re-run then or not in syndication; we'll have to see what happens.

But, I did sit down last night and watch two "Dollhouse" episodes that Fox sent out -- both the one airing tonight, and the one that was supposed to air next Friday, with Glau.

It arrived with a note from creator Joss Whedon attached, which says, in part, "We're back! With two brand new, never-before-sent-to-reviewers episode of 'Dollhouse,' a show that's sweeping an unbelievably tiny portion of the nation."

He's not kidding about the "tiny" part, which explains why the show was benched for the all-important sweeps period, starting Friday, Oct. 30, when Fox re-runs the two-hour "House" premiere, followed by "House" and "Bones" re-runs for all of November. Re-runs. Ouch.

I have to be honest in saying that I've always thought "Dollhouse" has fallen well short in the execution of its premise, which has inherent difficulties of its own. It's tough to have viewers lock into characters that shift personas week by week. In some ways, it's doomed "Dollhouse" to the trouble that plagues all anthology series, which have proven a tough sell to regular audiences over the last couple of decades.

This season, in answer to that, Whedon has been fleshing out the lead character of Echo (Eliza Dushku, lying down, above), with some success.

But Echo's a minor player in tonight's episode, "Belonging," which really belongs to Dichen Lachman, who plays Sierra, another of the memory-wiped, reprogrammable "Actives" that live in the mysterious L.A. Dollhouse.

An Australian with a mother of Tibetan descent, Lachman has a very distinctive look, which doesn't hamper her in the least when it comes to morphing into wildly different personas.

I've always thought she was the most adept chameleon in the cast -- with Enver Gjokaj, who plays Active Victor, as a close second -- and "Belonging" is a showcase for Lachman's considerable transformative skills. Whatever happens to "Dollhouse," I can't imagine Lachman being short of work in the years to come.

"Belonging" -- co-written by Whedon, and directed by Jonathan Frakes -- is also a nice turn for Fran Kranz. He plays amoral tech wizard Topher Brink, who learns that growing a conscience can be very painful indeed.

Whedon does have an eye for talent, and I'm happy he's brought some of these lesser-known folks to the attention of the showbiz world.

Speaking of Whedon discoveries, the episode currently skedded for Dec. 4, called "The Public Eye," brings in Glau, who got her first acting role a 2002 episode of Whedon's "Angel" and has gone on to be a favorite of his.

In "Dollhouse," she plays a twitchy, off-kilter part that's not too far from what we've seen her do in "Firefly," "The 4400" or "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

But since Glau is quite good at playing a sweetly innocent psycho or a dimpled butt-kicker, that's not an entirely bad thing.

It was also fun to see her as a smart-mouthed, trashy chick with a dark side on CBS' military drama "The Unit," so she does have range.

But, we'll get back to that in December, either in a syndicated feature story or in this space.

So, whether or not you've been loving "Dollhouse" all along, I recommend tuning into "Belonging." It shows what the series can be at its best, and it's just a tight, tasty hour of TV. It might be too little, too late, but you never know. It's not all about the overnights these days.

As Whedon said in his note, "Thanks, and see you on the TiVo!"

Today's cuppa: Irish breakfast tea and decongestant (yep, got a cold)

If you're a news watcher, it's impossible not to notice that the White House has declared war on Fox News Channel (FNC's logo and slogan are to the left), not just disagreeing with what the network says on its opinion programs but asking whether or not it's a legitimate news organization at all.

It's common that FNC's cable competition -- and some of the broadcast competitors -- huff and puff about whether or not the cable newser is "fair and balanced," as it claims. It seems to me that some competitors, in particular MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, have made a name for themselves at least in part by complaining about FNC.

Now the White House has piled on, trying to get FNC's competitors to stop considering it one of their own.

To me, this doesn't sound like a good idea.

First of all, if any administration chooses not to place its spokespeople on FNC, fine.That's its prerogative. Of course, that does limit its opportunity to speak to all of FNC's viewers, but if the administration decides that's not worth its time or effort, that's its call.

But the administration deciding who is or isn't a news organization seems pretty high-handed, and since a good chunk of FNC's viewers are also voters, possibly counterproductive.

FNC is the most popular of the cable newsers by far, and I doubt it's going anywhere. Ratings-wise, the White House complaints haven't left a dent. This attack strategy is unlikely to gain new support for the administration and very likely to further alienate the several million voters who watch FNC.

Again, that's all fine and dandy, but it is interesting to look at just what the White House is complaining about.

The White House claims that FNC's newsgathering efforts are unfair and slanted, but when pressed by ABC News reporter Jake Tapper, press secretary Robert Gibbs named timeslots that contain opinion shows -- "Glenn Beck" and "Hannity."

Here's the exchange from Tapper's blog from Oct. 20:

Tapper: It's escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations "not a news organization" and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it's appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one -

(Crosstalk)

Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage.

Tapper: But that's a pretty sweeping declaration that they are "not a news organization." How are they any different from, say -

Gibbs: ABC -

Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different?

Gibbs: You and I should watch sometime around 9 o'clock tonight. Or 5 o'clock this afternoon.

Tapper: I'm not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I'm talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a "news organization" -- why is that appropriate for the White House to say?

Gibbs: That's our opinion.

-jpt

Last I looked, all the cable newsers have opinion shows -- from "Lou Dobbs" on CNN to "The Rachel Maddow Show" and "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC -- but the White House seems to only have issues with FNC's opinion shows.

One wonders what might happen in the future if any of these other opinion shows express opinions that don't agree with the White House's opinion on what an opinion show should be. It's my opinion that they might find themselves coming under fire as well.

Other cable newsers may indeed have issues with FNC's style, content or accuracy, but if they attack a more successful rival, it's going to look self-serving, but, of course, they're free to do so if they feel it's necessary. Newsweek did, but one assumes this is part of the news magazine's opinion section, not to be considered a news report.

That's my opinion anyway -- I could be wrong.

Others have other opinions, from the Huffington Post to the New York Times' David Carr to Fox News' own Tucker Carlson, to the Los Angeles Times and US News and World Report.

The POTUS has also weighed in on the subject.

Opinions and perspectives are subjective. If any news organization -- TV, print or online -- makes factual errors, the subject of the reporting or even other news organizations should absolutely call it on the mistake, and if a mistake was made, corrections and/or retractions should be issued. But one subjective opinion is as good as another.

I don't see a big fundamental difference between Maddow and Hannity, or Olbermann and O'Reilly, or Dobbs and Beck -- except that the White House has decided it doesn't like the FNC commentators' opinions.

Well, as Gibbs said, that's its opinion. You, or I, may agree or disagree, but in the rough-and-tumble world of American free speech and free press, that's the way it should be.

As far as I know, print, broadcast or online news entities don't need the White House's blessing to come into being, and they shouldn't need its blessing -- or that of their competitors -- to continue doing what they do. That's up to the readers and viewers.

Let's hope it stays that way.

Tonight's cuppa: decaf Irish breakfast tea

Those of you who watched tonight's third-season finale of Bravo's design-and-remodeling reality TV show "Flipping Out" got a taste of the birthday party thrown by Ryan Brown for his three-year-old daughter, Chloe. I was on hand for the event at his Hollywood Hills home -- had a great time talking to Brown's awesome grandmother and charming neighbor -- and here are a few pix to remember it by ...

Sprinkles cupcakes ...

The garden ...
The view ...

The gazebo ...

Filming in the princess bouncy house ...


And Jeff Lewis' indispensable assistant Jenni Pulos as the entertainment, in a gecko suit ...