Recently in TV News Category

Tonight's cuppa: Decaf Irish breakfast tea

On Sunday, May 6, the 21st-century reimaging of "Sherlock" returns for a second season on PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery!" with "A Scandal in Belgravia," loosely inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic "Sherlock Holmes" story "A Scandal in Bohemia."

Today's cuppa: French roast coffee (sorry, Brits)

Recently, Time Magazine released its list of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World," with the final spot claimed by the winner in an online poll of 150 nominees.

While British actor Benedict Cumberbatch didn't snag the 100th slot -- which went to the hacking group Anonymous -- he did come in 7th in the voting, beating out such other luminaries as U.S. President Barack Obama, singer Lady Gaga, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and singer Adele.

He even came out ahead of his own sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, who finished 75th (Her Majesty also lagged behind "Downton Abbey" star Maggie Smith, who just nipped her at 73rd).

"Apparently I beat the leader of the free world," says Cumberbatch, talking about edging past Obama. "How do you like that? It's ridiculous. I'm slightly flattered. It might be an alphabetical thing. It's crazy. It's really crazy. (A friend joked), 'Are you running for president?'

"Some of the people on that list of nominees have done fantastic things with their lives. Some of the people that aren't on that list, but should be, like teachers in the U.K, like doctors, like soldiers in f---ing wars, in combat situations which we can't possibly imagine, thousands of miles away; yeah, even some of the politicians -- some of them do very good things, all of them do very good things some of the time -- brain surgeons, midwives, parents. I'm not even a parent. Parents go through more than I do.

"There are lots of people I'd put ahead of myself, and that's not me being humble. Come on, you know what it's about. It's flavor-of-the-month stuff, and that scares me as much as it thrills me. I'm 35, and I've been doing this for 10 years. The point is, I thought, maybe I should start to do something with this moment.

"It's kind of inspiring in a way, because you look at it and think, 'I'm not really worthy of my entry in this.' It's bizarre and humbling and silly, rather than something to frame and look at and take very seriously."

In the poll at Time.com, the entry for Cumberbatch opened with, "Britons might be forgiven for thinking human cloning had already proved successful. How else to explain the ubiquity of an actor whose name is only slightly less angular than his face?"

When read that passage, Cumberbatch -- who's currently shooting director J.J. Abrams' second installment in his revival of the big-screen "Star Trek" franchise, and who returns on May 6 in the title role of the 21st-century reimagining of "Sherlock" on PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery!" -- responds with, "Crikey. I think it's much less angular than my face. It's all vowels. If my face was letters, it'd be consonants, I think, apart from my nose, which is a bit blobby. It might be an O or something.

"Enough of me talking about being letters. It's very funny; it's lovely; it's utterly silly; it's extraordinary. But at the same time, it made me think, f--k, I mean, this is a great thing. I need to take responsibility for this, in a way. This is a moment in my life, there's no getting away from it. It's an extraordinary one, and there's things I can do with it."

Well, he could appear in other other massive and legendary franchises.

"I have become involved in another one," he says. "'The Hobbit,' playing the Dragon and the Necromancer, so that should keep me in fine wine, as well as 'Sherlock,' so I suppose I'm part of three franchises. I plan on not getting involved in another one."

But what about "Dracula"?

"'Dracula'?" he says. "Funny you should say that, there's a script in the pipeline. I've been fighting it rather than being in it. There's a lot of Gothic in 'Sherlock.' I don't like to repeat myself too much. I think there are too many vampire franchises."

Poe?

"It's too much of an obvious choice."

Jane Austen?

"We're back to the stereotyped casting. Come on. I want to do something with an American accent, so you won't recognize me."

How about John Steinbeck or Tennessee Williams, like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"?

"Maybe."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby"?

"Been done. It's already been done."

So what? "Sherlock" has already been done.

"Yeah. Well, like a lot of things in my life ... it'd be nice if the culture had a bit of time to breathe and not see another revival of the same thing again and again and again."

Shoot, you're in "Star Trek," after all.

"Well, I know, I know. That's fair enough."

Today's cuppa: English breakfast tea (double-bagged, in the big mug)

From the labor-union protests in Madison, Wisc., yesterday afternoon, to the LAPD raid on Charlie Sheen's house and the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan last night, I've begun to think that TV is the killer app for Twitter, and that Twitter is the killer app for TV.

Both are live and continuous, with tweets reporting and reposting what's happening on TV, and TV news taking in reports via Twitter (and Facebook, although Twitter is faster and more sensitive moment by moment).

TV awards shows and news events are live-tweeted (one could almost "watch" the Oscars just on Twitter), and tweets stream across TV screens.

And some TV-news personalities, like Eric Bolling ( @ericbolling on Twitter, left) of Fox Business Network's "Follow the Money," and CNN's John King ( @JohnKingCNN , right) like to tweet right up to the beginning of -- and sometimes during -- their live TV broadcasts.

On the entertainment side, fans of CBS' "Survivor" are really missing out if they're not following host Jeff Probst's ( @JeffProbst ) frank commentary on his blog and Twitter.

It's getting hard to remember what it was like to watch TV without Twitter. No doubt my friends and relatives are relieved not to get calls during their shows just because I have a comment I can't wait to share.

Was amused the other day to see a breathless piece by David Carr of the New York Times about the supposed slide of Fox News host Glenn Beck (below, left), characterizing him as a "conservative Jeremiah" painting a dark view of the future.

Perhaps the Gray Lady was tired of seeing Pinch the talking paper on FNC's overnight news/comedy roundtable "RedEye W/Greg Gutfeld." The pompous puppet is named after NYT publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., and is known for sarcastic rhymes spoofing on the names of Times reporters and columnists.

(Click here for one of a series of "RedEye" shorts called "Pinch & Me," featuring the the paper and its human alter-ego, Bill Schulz, on an adventure in NYC.)

I don't pay too much attention to the horse race of cable-news ratings, but I'm pretty sure that even if Beck's ratings have dropped from their peak, they're still numbers that FNC's competitors probably can't hope for in their wildest dreams at 5 p.m. ET.

Of course, picking on a popular and controversial figure like Beck might increase the revenue of the Times itself, which is not the financial media powerhouse it once was (decline being a thing it understands very well).

In the interests of full disclosure, I watch "Glenn Beck" every day (except when Judge Andrew Napolitano is guest-hosting, because his monotone bellow is a bit much after a few minutes). It's fascinating. I've never seen anything on TV like it.

Since he's discussing such sexy topics as the Founding Fathers, monetizing the debt, early 20th-Century Progressivism and the decline in Americans' personal morality and reliance on God, it's a wonder that anybody watches. Really.

Why do they? Can't speak for them, but I'm mesmerized by how he blends radio drama, stage theatrics, visual aids (magnets, blackboards, pieces of pie, cupcakes), semi-Shakespearean soliloquy, portentous video clips, graphs, charts and physical comedy.

And blessedly, when he does have guests on, they 're not yelling at or talking over each other. Such a relief.

If only the rest of the TV commentariat could break away from their apparent fascination with sitting behind a desk and trying to look like Edward R. Murrow and cut loose a bit.

I don't buy everything Beck says, but then I don't buy everything anyone says. Contrary to the assumptions of many of Beck's critics, I'm capable of rationally weighing evidence and opinion and making up my own mind -- and I didn't even have to go to an Ivy League school to do it (in fact, that's possibly a big help in that area).

And I haven't bought any gold or food insurance.

In general, I think it would serve all news enterprises well to spend a little less time harping on what their competitors (and yes, they are competitors and therefore, to one extent or another, are rooting for each other's failure) are doing or saying and spend a little more time covering, you know, the news.

(FYI, if I cared what cable-news networks I'm not watching were saying, I'd be watching them.)

Unless a cable-news host or reporter says something demonstrably factually inaccurate about an important topic, or breaks a law, I don't see where it's news.

Because, when we have breaking events like the Japan earthquake, cable news really demonstrates its value. Focus on that, not each other.

Today's cuppa: English breakfast tea

It's early on a late-March Thursday morning in Van Nuys, Calif., and Thom Filicia is fueling with coffee inside a trailer situated in a Salvation Army parking lot, not far from a doughnut shop.

Such is the glamorous life of a reality-TV designer.

He's working through a two-episode week for his new Style Network series "Tacky House," premiering Wednesday, April 21, at 11 p.m. (ET). "Clean House" designer Mark Brunetz was the host for the pilot special, but Filicia ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," "Dress My Nest") takes over for the series, in which he answers a cry for design help.

"When you think of tacky," he says, "a lot of people think of the proverbial plastic on furniture. That's what everyone thinks. There are so many different types of tacky that it's funny. When I tell people they're on 'Tacky House," they're like, 'What?' But it could be worse. Tacky's much better than boring or lame. At least tacky's fun, and you're taking a risk and having fun with it.

"We had someone who lived in a 1970s castle -- talk about tacky. Then we had a woman who loved leopard. Her whole house, her car, are leopard. There's a woman believes in leprechauns and thinks she is part leprechaun."

(BTW, the "leopard lady" is in the premiere episode.)

In order to be on the show, the person has to be annoying, worrying or otherwise unsettling a friend, family member or loved one with his or her, shall we say, unique design sense.

"I'm not saying (the room is tacky)," says Filicia, "the husband or wife or best friend is. The person who turns them in is saying it's tacky. I'm just saying, 'Hey, look, I think it's a little wacky, but I think tacky is better than boring or dull.'

"The way I approach the guidance, I always say to the people, 'Look, your house should tell your story.' To me, it really should. It's not really about judging them. It's assessing them to find out what it is that makes them tick, while they're in this situation."

In the case of this particular homeowner, a schoolteacher, she can't bear to put her many accessories -- purses, shoes, jewelry, etc. -- behind closed doors, feeling it may somehow hurt their, er, feelings.

"It's a little fantasy for her," says Filicia. "She also has a fiance who understands. He plays with it a little but, but also, he says, 'This is silly.' Her fiance can't take the room anymore. It's a problem. For him, it's a relief, because he's just like, 'I can't take it any longer.'

"It's always been a best friend or a husband or a wife who's just like, 'You know what, it's overshadowing the person that I really care about.' In the beginning, it's fun and tacky and kitschy, and then it just starts to build into something more."

That's where Filicia comes in -- with the help of design coordinator Kelly Edwards ("Design on a Dime") and project manager Jared Dostie ("Rate My Space") -- not to squash the person's individuality or imagination, but to wrestle it into a more workable form.

"My goal," he says, "is to make it so that outsiders and insiders alike will look at it and go, 'This is awesome. I like it. I get it. It makes sense. This is fun. This is appropriate and cool and interesting, and it totally tells your story.' That's really what it is.

"I'm not so much about taking away their tackiness, but maybe more about refining it."

Today's cuppa: French Vanilla coffee

Yesterday afternoon I fought rush-hour-style traffic -- on a Saturday, fer cripes' sake! -- to get from West L.A. to Pasadena to see the "Bold & Fresh Tour 2010."

If you're not familiar with this event, it features Fox News Channel established commentator Bill O'Reilly ("The O'Reilly Factor") -- whose memoir, "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" gives the tour its title -- and rising star Glenn Beck, whose 5 pm. ET show, "Glenn Beck," has been on about a year and has proven a ratings powerhouse, at times nearly rivaling the numbers for O'Reilly's 8 p.m. ET broadcast.

While O'Reilly is keeping his audience in primetime, it's obvious that Beck is on the rise. Since O'Reilly has long been FNC's tentpole personality, Beck has come to call, making regular appearances on "The O'Reilly Factor" (I'm double-checking on this, but I don't believe O'Reilly has yet returned the favor, at least not on a regular basis).

Anyway, rather than having this turn into a cable-news "All About Eve," somebody -- I'm not sure who, but I wouldn't be shocked to hear it was FNC honcho Roger Ailes -- decided that the two should team up and go on the road.

As you see in the picture above, performances have also been rebroadcast in movie theaters.

(Just a side note, I wonder what FNC middle child Sean Hannity ("Hannity") thinks about all this. He does his own successful stage tours, but even so ...)

I showed up for the 4 p.m. show at the lovely Pasadena Civic Auditorium. I've heard of protests at other shows on the tour, but I didn't see or hear any. The crowd was capacity, generally jovial and definitely there to cheer on their favorites. And I do believe I saw Ann-Margret at the ticket booth, and I must say, she looked fabulous.

Inside, I saw one yellow Gadsden-flag "Don't Tread on Me" t-shirt and some red-white-and-blue apparel, but there was also a smattering of well-dressed folks (some of whom I heard discussing going out to dinner in Pasadena after the show, a good choice, as the town has many excellent eateries).

In truth, the whole affair reminded me of nothing so much as panel discussions I have attended at science-fiction conventions. The crowd was knowledgeable about the speakers' work and history, eager to hear familiar talking points, hip to the lingo, and generous with applause and occasional shout-outs, and one even brought a sign ("Glenn Beck for Truth Czar").

I've always thought that if you get a thorough understanding of one kind of fandom, you'll get a general understanding of all fandom. Of course, the topics discussed at your average SF panel don't have to do with the future of the the nation (unless you count the United Federation of Planets or, now, Pandora), but the basic principles remain the same. Fans are fans.

As for the show, the staging was dead simple, just a painted stage-door backdrop, a lectern or chairs. Beck talked first, then O'Reilly talked, then, after a break, they came out together -- and Beck talked some more.

Beck is a consummate showman, likely a result of many years spent in rock and talk radio. He has several funny voices -- from a snooty Ivy League drawl, with pipe clenched firmly in teeth, to high-pitched squeals for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (whom, he surmises, has had so much plastic surgery that it now hurts to blink ... "ow, ow, ow, ow" ... and so on).

His persona is like that of an Old Testament prophet (albeit a chubby one that giggles, tears up and wears sneakers without laces), not so much predicting the future as warning of the bad consequences of past and present actions.

He's an enthusiastic autodidact whose main area of study these days centers on the ideas and perils of early 20th-century progressivism and its proponents, from historical ones like Teddy Roosevelt (whom Beck doesn't seem to like very much) and Woodrow Wilson (whom Beck likes not at all), right up to modern acolytes, among which he numbers John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

His talk started on the current financial crisis in California and Democrat domination of local politics, including a line about how being a conservative in L.A. is like being at a perpetual AA meeting, where you occasionally are surprised to run into folks you didn't know were like you (appropriate, since Beck is also a very public recovering alcoholic).

(BTW, if you've ever read Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism," a lot of Beck's stuff will sound familiar. Just a plug there for another Tribune Media Services writer.)

He then segued into the threats featuring the nation at large, from debt levels to taxation to national security. Was he funny? Despite the subject matter, very.

Was he scary? No.

Were the things he said scary? Well, if you agree wholeheartedly with him, yes. If you don't and worry that his views are are reaching millions of viewers a day, yes. At this point, I'm not too certain there are many Beck agnostics among those familiar with his show -- and I sure don't think there were any in this crowd.

Then out came O'Reilly, who's really, really tall. Unlike the casually dressed Beck, O'Reilly sported a blue jacket, tan pants and a tie. He doesn't do funny voices (unless you count occasional singing), but he does tell a good joke and an engaging story.

In my experience, O'Reilly has two major modes -- dominant attack and reasonable assertive. He had reasonable assertive on this night, playing the wise old sage, full of faith in "the folks," in contrast to Beck's apocalyptic message.

It may be my imagination, but it seems that in the age of Beck, O'Reilly has been working on re-establishing his independent bona fides, casting himself as an experienced observer keeping a wary eye on both sides of the aisle. He's holding his audience, so the strategy seems to be working.

Beck also attacks on both sides of the aisle (any Schwarzenegger fans in the crowd couldn't have been thrilled), but he's a strong libertarian and pushes hard for his ideology.

When the two came together, the contrast -- whether actual or manufactured or some combination of the two -- became clear.

Beck tries to convince O'Reilly that the world is going to hell in a handbasket unless Americans wake up and do something (like meet him on Aug. 28 for a rally at the Lincoln Memorial).

O'Reilly says he believes in the reasonableness of the folks, that the country won't fall off the edge, that we don't need to collect food and gold (like Beck, he says), and that the process will eventually right itself.

It's sort of like watching your cranky, opinionated uncle square off against a pudgy combination of Cassandra and Robin Williams.

There was at teeny bit of rushing of the stage at the end, but the principals exited quickly, as they had a second show at 8 p.m.

Outside afterward, I saw, again, no evidence of protest and only one news crew -- from, of all places, Current TV, which counts Al Gore among its founders. I haven't seen the edited version of the report, but the interviewer (seen at right) did seem to go out of his way to encourage and agree with the interviewees and with the crowd, urging them to chant "USA USA."

I don't know whether he was truly a partisan or just hoping to get some good video. Any of you who catch the clip on Current, feel free to drop the URL in the comments.

All in all, an enjoyable night of political theater. I don't know if CNN or MSNBC are considering pairing up any of their personalities and sending them on the road. Again, if you have ideas for future match-ups, please share.

Tonight's cuppa: English breakfast tea

A couple of weeks ago, Los Angeles-based Fox News Channel correspondent Adam Housley was in Las Vegas, sampling fresh tech at the Consumer Electronics Show. Now, he's on assignment in Haiti, covering the devastation left in the wake of the earthquake that struck the Caribbean island nation on Jan. 12.

The two topics unexpectedly overlapped, as Housley explains while calling in during a brief trip on Tuesday to pick up supplies in the neighboring Dominican Republic before heading back to Haiti.
 
Housley wound up using a plug-in mike he found at the show to record better audio for reports shot on his iPhone. Then, a little more tech wizardry allowed Housley and his cameraman, Eric Barnes, to turn rescue footage shot by Congressman Kendrick Meek of Florida into broadcast news.

'We brought over my photographer's computer," says Housley, "and plugged (the iPhone) in. I dragged the file down to Eric's computer in a Quicktime format. He sat down and dragged it into an editing program and cut it down so we could put it on Geraldo Rivera's show.

"Then we FTPed it into New York. They dragged it down, and it was on the air, all in a 20-minute process."

Along with Meek's skills as an impromptu cameraman, Housley praised him for "doing a good job of staying out of the way" of the rescue efforts, something Housley says he and his colleagues strive for as well.

"If you're going to go," he says, "show the story, but don't be a burden. Get the job done; show the story; but don't become part of the story. Whatever you do, God forbid, don't take away from those people who are trying to help others.

"That's one of the reasons we're grabbing supplies right now. We don't want anybody to have to worry about us."

As anyone who has been watching the Haiti coverage knows, the visuals have been horrendous. FNC's Steve Harrigan choked up on air while talking about the destruction and loss of life. Taking it one step further, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon, even pitched in to help.

But for a reporter who's not also a physician, the human impulse to help becomes more complicated.

"My crew would agree," says Housley, "our jobs as news crews for Fox News is not to become part of the story. It's to show the story, tell the story, get close to the story, but not become the story.

"No one should care whether Adam Housley climbs up on a pile of rocks. They should care that the picture I'm showing shows them what's happening, as if they were there. It's history from the front row. That's what it's all about."

But, veteran correspondent Geraldo Rivera, host of  FNC's "Geraldo at Large," did just get involved in bringing supplies to an orphanage in Haiti, as outlined in this Huffington Post piece.

"There's a slight difference there," says Housley. "One, he is on a show, but two, that was a situation where ... if it's dire, of course, we're going to help. If we're talking about somebody drowning, I'm not going to sit there and watch them drown so I can get the video. That will never happen.

"So, yes, there are very small exceptions. In that situation, Geraldo went out to an orphanage that hadn't had water in three days, and there was no one getting anything to them.

"Now, putting him on camera, I can't quote on that, because I didn't see the story. But I know they went out there, because I got emailed by the same people who were trying to get us out there. We didn't have a car at that point. Geraldo's crew did; they went.

"The point is, the story isn't about us. It's not supposed to be that. Our job is to show it. We will never leave somebody hanging, but if we were to go out there all of a sudden with water in the back of our truck, passing it out every time we do a story, it would cause more of a problem than a help.

"Unless you're going to some specific small location where nobody knows you're there, you go out of the city with water in the back of your truck, you'll start a riot. The military has to stop what they're doing and come and stop a riot.

"And you're putting your crew in jeopardy of being injured; now you're taking a spot in a medical hospital from people hurt in the earthquake. The point is, that's not what we're there to do, and if we do that, it causes more problems than good. We can show stories from the front row, and the people back home can see that, and they can volunteer, they can get water down here, they can give money.

"They can do all those things, and that's going to be a much greater help than if Adam Housley and Eric Barnes walk out there with a case of water and start a riot."

While Housley tries to maintain focus and composure, it's impossible not to be affected.

"In this story," he says, "I don't care where you sit, this is an horrific thing to happen to a group of people. They're beautiful people; they are. Every society has its good and bad, but the Haitian people have been so nice to us when we see them. We have pictures of kids that are just smiling and hamming for the camera, in horrible circumstances."

As for the charge by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez that America is using the aid in the cause of imperialism, Housley says, "There are always going to be people who have the bad intentions (they believe America has) in mind, but that's not the case here. Sometimes you have to do what's right. I think, when you talk to the military on the ground, they're doing what's right.

"Who cares what Chavez or anybody else says? What's right, right now, is to make sure that we can get a safe supply line out to the people in Haiti who need food and water. ...  I'm sorry, those people who speak out against our actions here and think we're doing the wrong, they need to get their butts on a plane and come down and see what's wrong, because right now, there are a lot of people who need food and water."'

To see where Housley winds up next (although he's probably not leaving Haiti anytime soon), you can follow him on Twitter at @AdamHousley.

As explained in the previous post, updated late into last night, News Corp., the parent company of Fox Broadcasting Company and a family of cable stations, has been involved in a price dispute with Time Warner Cable, which threatened to result in certain Fox Broadcasting affiliates and some cable networks pulled from TWC.

Negotiations continued through New Year's Eve and throughout the day today, with a series of extensions that kept the TV press and many Time Warner Cable customers in suspense.

Today, Fox Networks Group announced an agreement with Bright House Networks, which is operated by Time Warner Cable, just in time to ensure that Bright House's Florida customers would see the Allstate Sugar Bowl, which aired tonight on Fox.

They have further reached in agreement in principle with Time Warner Cable, which will allow Fox stations to remain on the cable system. Click here and here and here for reports.

Here's the press release that specifically addresses Bright House:

Agreement Provides Continued Uninterrupted Access
 to Programming

Allstate Sugar Bowl to Air Tonight on FOX and Bright House Networks
at 8:30 pm ET

 

The Fox Networks Group and Bright House Networks announced today that they have agreed in principle to a comprehensive distribution agreement to provide Bright House's more than 2.4 million customers with programming from Fox Television Stations, Fox Broadcasting (FOX), Fox Cable Networks and Fox's regional sports networks.  Of particular interest to Bright House's Florida customers is confirmation that tonight's Allstate Sugar Bowl will air at 8:30 pm ET on FOX.

"We're pleased that, after months of negotiations, we were able to reach a fair agreement with Bright House Networks -- one that recognizes the value of our programming," said Chase Carey, Deputy Chairman, President and COO, News Corporation.

"We're pleased that an agreement has been reached with no disruption in programming for our customers," said Steve Miron, Chief Executive Officer, Bright House Networks.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Today's cuppa: Irish breakfast tea

News Corp., which owns Fox Broadcasting Company and several Fox cable channels, and Time Warner Cable are in a financial stand-off that could come to a head just as the ball drops tonight in Times Square.

Although many fervently hope, and some even expect, that all this will be resolved at the last minute, it's very possible that Time Warner Cable customers will lose at least some Fox channels as of 12:01 a.m. tonight.

As detailed here and here and here, the corporations are involved in a price dispute, with News Corp. demanding an increase in the fee TWC pays for retransmitting Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates and some of its cable networks, including FX, Fox Reality and selected Fox Sports channels. So far, TWC has refused, using ads to enlist viewers in its "Roll Over or Get Tough" campaign.

Click here for a brand-new explanation of what's going on. As outlined here, the situation is particularly dire in Florida, where football fans may not be able to see the Sugar Bowl on Friday and the final game of University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.

Click here for CNBC's video report.

This is probably only one of many fights we're likely to see in upcoming years as the seismic shifts in the media landscape finally hit the relationship between broadcast networks and cable systems. According to a story in the New York Times, Fox has an ally in Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC.

But, consumers have options. Of course, you can switch your provider from Time Warner Cable to one of the satellite services or to something like Verizon FIOS (and no doubt they'd be thrilled to accommodate you, but expect a rush if the blackout occurs).

Not everyone will lose everything, depending on where you live. If you're in one of the major markets where News Corp. owns and operates the local Fox affiliate (like Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, etc.), your local station could disappear. But, you could buy an antenna. That won't help with the cable networks, but it will get you "American Idol," "24" and other broadcast shows.

If you have a standard-definition TV, you're going to need to add in a set-top box to pick up the new digital signals. But if you have an HDTV with a tuner inside, head to your local electronics store for a rooftop or indoor antenna. If you have good reception in your area, you'll be able to see Fox shows in crisp HD.

And, of course, Fox shows will still be available online, including at Hulu.com, but you may have to wait a day.

This dispute may be solved sometime today, but even if it is, it's probably an issue that's going to crop up again as other contracts come to a close. Might be a good idea to keep those options in your back pocket just in case.

UPDATE: Here's a view from Fox News (which is not at stake in this, but obviously has a keen interest) of the dispute as the hour approaches.

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: The FCC weighs in.

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE OF THE UPDATE: It's now New Year's day in sunny Los Angeles, and in the absence of fresh reports after the wee hours of this morning -- which said the warring parties had agreed to an extension of talks for a short time -- KTTV, Channel 11, the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, still remains alive and well on my Time Warner Cable system. So there ya go. 

Today's cuppa: Newman's Own Royal Tea chased with office coffee

(Below: printing press and other memorabilia at the headquarters of the Los Angeles Times)

With Lou Dobbs' departure from CNN, there's a great deal of chatter about opinion journalism -- or advocacy journalism or commentary or the Op-Ed page of your local paper, whatever you want to call it -- and whether it's a hazard to the republic.

As a Founding Father might say, poppycock.

All our Founders wanted was a free press, and that means a press free to talk about whatever it deems fit, and believe you me, the press needled our early presidents just as much as it needles our recent ones.

Of course, that doesn't mean even the Founders liked it.

We got all the way to our second president before the battle began ...

John Adams on press regulation

 

"If  there is ever to be an amelioration of the condition of  mankind, philosophers, theologians, legislators, politicians and moralists will find that the regulation of the press is the most difficult, dangerous and important they have to resolve ".

 

So wrote John Adams, who had been the second President of the USA, to his friend John Lloyd on 11 February 1815. The quote was used as an epigraph to their 1947 report by the Commission on Freedom of the Press, aka the Hutchins Commission.

Click here for the original.

So the fact that that an elected leader doesn't like the press is neither here nor there. Our right to a free press is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution, which means it is a fundamental right, not given to us or able to be removed from us by a politician. The press doesn't exist by the leave of any politician, and it is not answerable to them.

Oh, it's answerable to a whole bunch of other people -- from publishers to advertisers to, most importantly, readers and viewers -- but not to the government (at least not yet, despite the specter of a newspaper bailout hovering around).

And if you think today's commentators or news organizations are slanted, you should look at what Adams had to deal with. The tradition of an impartial press is a recent invention -- but a noble goal.

I don't know if humans (and journalists are still humans) can ever be truly impartial. Probably the best we can hope for -- and the least we should demand from journalists who cover hard news -- is fairness and a willingness to follow the facts wherever they lead, whether or not the truth uncovered agrees with the the journalist's or the news organization's worldview.

But as for opinion commentary, as long as it's labeled as such, I have no issue with it. Nobody has any trouble understanding the distinction between Page One and the Op-Ed Page. TV is no different. There needs to be a bright line between news anchors and commentators, and as long as there is -- and unfortunately, that's not always the case -- I believe people are bright enough to figure it out.

Oh, but critics claim, people will get all their news from commentators! They won't listen to us! Well, that's the power of free will and choice. If you want people to listen to your news, make it interesting and compelling, produce it well, and give it the ring of truth and honesty. Just because someone watches opinion shows doesn't automatically mean they won't watch news shows.

But nobody wants to watch boring news shows, no matter how solid their reporting is. People have choices now in media. It's not just the daily newspaper and the nightly network news. If you want to be read or listened to, you just might have to work harder. One reason opinion shows are so popular is they're not boring.

And anyone who wants to squelch popular opinion commentators -- whether in print, online, on TV or on the radio -- to protect their own piece of the pie needs to reread that First Amendment.

There's a reason it's called the free marketplace of ideas, not the protected reserve of ideas.

But can opinion commentators report news? News is news, no matter whether it comes over the back fence, in a pennysaver paper or on television. Opinion commentators can break news, but if they are, that might mean that the actual news reporters are a little slow on the uptake.

When's the last time that the Op-Ed page scooped a print investigative journalist?

The media environment isn't going to get any less competitive or cutthroat. If anything, the choices will keep proliferating exponentially. For those news organizations who've spent a few decades with comfortable near-monopolies and now cry foul -- tough.

As one of my favorite quotes says:

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less." General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army.

BTW, here's a test. If all opinion commentators agreed with your opinion, would you have an issue with the existence of opinion commentary?

Sauce for the goose ...

Today's cuppa: Newman's Own Royal Tea (fit for a TV Czarina!)

Tonight, musician and actor Rick Springfield appears on Showtime's "Californication," playing Rick Springfield, degenerate musician.

Below find my story with Springfield from a little earlier in the month. It's part of a conversation we had -- with Springfield's rescued dog in attendance -- at the "Californication" sets in Culver City.

There's a lot more to our chat, including Springfield's days entertaining the troops (and sustaining mortar fire) in Vietnam. (UPDATE: Click here for that.)

Yeah, Vietnam. Dang, the boy still looks good, and you'll get to see that for yourselves when he flirts with nudity on Showtime, and hear more about his adventures before his next episode airs on Nov. 22.

Without further ado ...

Rick Springfield only plays Rick Springfield on TV
By Kate O'Hare

On the current season of Showtime's racy comedy "Californication," airing Sundays, rock musician and actor Rick Springfield plays rock musician Rick Springfield. While there's plenty of wild rocker behavior, there's no actual rock.

"No," he says, "it's just the acting thing. I don't touch a guitar.

"I've acted a lot of different things in my life, but I used to be averse to playing a musician, but now I think it's fine. You have an in there, just because you are a musician, but it's still acting.

"There may be some elements of it that refer to Rick Springfield's life, but the gig is basically an acting gig. I have to say those lines; I have to be truthful in them. I have to do certain things that I sure don't do in my real life."

Even though the Australian-born Springfield, 60, has acted for quite some time - including a long stint on "General Hospital" - he's not often recognized as an actor.

"Occasionally," he says, "you'll get a person who goes, 'You're that soap opera guy!' but most of them, it's because of music. Music goes deeper into people's psyches."

Asked who yells out the title of Springfield's 1981 hit, "Jessie's Girl," he says, "Pretty much everybody. There are two songs that bar bands in Vegas play to get the crowd up- one of them is 'Don't Stop Believin',' the Journey song, and the other one is 'Jessie's Girl.'

"In a backhanded compliment, Rolling Stone listed' Jessie's Girl' last year as the No. 1 karaoke song."

While Springfield calls his "Californication" character a "perverse version" of himself, that doesn't mean he was a choirboy in his younger days.

"I was a bad boy, that whole thing," he says. "My fall from grace was the death of my dad. I did drugs earlier. I was more of an acid guy. I was never into blow that much; I smoked dope at times.

"But I've always been so driven and ambitious that when I'd feel something taking over or I got into pot for a while, and acid ... I almost OD'd. That got me off it forever.

"When I'd feel it got to take over my real time for what I wanted to do, I could cut it out, because I knew it was interfering."

But as to whether he'd ever choose between acting and music, Springfield says, "I'll always write. I'll always be a musician. I love performing onstage. We always surprise people with the power of the live show.

"It's very interactive; it's very personal. That's how I relate to people. That's really why I perform. I'm pretty shy most of the time and can't be bothered."

 Springfield credits his wife, Barbara - with whom he has two sons - with his current happy existence, but he did live the wild life.

"I was a young guy who, in all his young life, wanted to have sex and hadn't got it," he says. "I was never the handsome guy in school. I was always a loner, arty, kind of dark, a loner. I was the one made fun of. If I got someone, I kept it really quiet.

"here's something that drives you into music and performing, and it's not that you're that popular with the girls."

He's also worked hard to avoid being a flash in the pan.

"The live shows now are the best shows we've ever done, the band and me," he says. "I never wanted to kind of die away. If you've got a lot of experience behind you, that counts if you're still in shape and can deliver."

Springfield also never forgets that he's not alone onstage, and for that he credits his father, a military officer.

"From my dad," he says, "I've always tried to treat people with respect. The band's been with me for 12 years, because I treat us like a band. They've certainly been with artists who treat them like sidemen and give them s---.

"I learned (from my dad) that I'd rather have friends out there than employees, because it's much more fun."

Wait! Just because I like you, here's a little bit extra from Springfield ...

On finding his inner wild man:

"I have to say these lines. I have to be truthful in them. I have to do certain things that I sure don't do in my real life. I've had a long time at being a musician, so I have done a lot of things that I can certainly use, but that's the same with any part.

"You've never killed someone, but if you play a murderer, you use whatever part of your could kill someone. That guy on the highway who cuts you off, if you had a gun, you'd shoot him right in the head. That's the part you tap into.

"So I tap into whatever parts of me are wild and hedonistic. They're certainly still there in different guises, but that's what an actor does. The best ones I know are the great American actors who come from the Actors Studio and use the real sh-t of what's inside them.

"Certainly that's what I aspire to be, that type of actor."

On the boot camp of daytime TV:

"You're hitting marks; you're talking to somebody; you're doing a lot of dialogue. It's all about dialogue, because there's no action in soaps. It really is the hardest acting and writing gig in TV.

"This is something that is a great boot camp for beginning actors. It's probably nothing I'd want to retire into, because it is so much work."