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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.

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."

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: haven't decided yet -- check back with me at the end of the post. Might be hot peppermint tea, might be Irish breakfast, might go nuts and make coffee...

Fans who stay up until 3 a.m. (ET/midnight Pacific -- as for the rest of the nation and world, you're on your own) to see Fox News' comedy/news roundtable show' "RedEye W/Greg Gutfeld" are very familiar with comedian, actor, writer and voice performer Greg Proops, who drops in occasionally to offer witticisms and wry commentary.

He also consistently comes out ahead among the show's regular male guests for best hair and glasses (former CIA agent Mike Baker has equally good hair, but no glasses; comedian Jim Norton has very short hair and no glasses; and musician Andrew W.K. also has great hair, but again, no specs.)

Proops might even accept a bit of credit for the show's recent ratings success.

"I like to be honest," says Proops. "I think people are waiting for me to come on. It's a nice show. I love doing it. Even though it's on Fox News, I love doing it."

But before you assume that Proops is lining up with the White House against the news cablenet, he says, "It's a reminder, a clarification. It's not so much that I think Fox News is pure evil or anything -- I think it's fantastic that they're willing to put on a show that's as irreverent and gag-oriented as that show is.

"They're always accused of having no sense of humor, and I think that show is as funny as any comedy show, frankly, on TV. You don't see any of the big networks trying anything like that, even though it wouldn't cost them anything.

"A little in-house operation like that is a very economical way to fill time in the middle of the night without showing infomercials or something, and it's still funny and informative. Even if you disagree, it's a joke."

Proops' most recent appearance was on Thursday night of last week -- click here to watch -- and this time he was in person, not coming in via satellite from Los Angeles. The occasion was a promotional tour for the quiz show "Head Games," premiering Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on both Science Channel and Science Channel HD.

Executive-produced by Whoopi Goldberg and featuring Proops as host, "Head Games" uses humor and technology to test the scientific acumen of ordinary folks in such categories as chemistry, space, biology, animals and physics.

Asked how he'd describe "Head Games" to "RedEye" host Gutfeld and his "disgusting" sidekick Bill Schulz, Proops says, "I would say, 'Greg and Bill, this is a science trivia quiz show, so you guys aren't going to watch, but for the people coherent enough to watch, it's fun for the whole family.'

"We show amazingly weird videos like goats falling over and people charging a dead car battery with red wine -- and then I think you'll see Bill and Greg perk up a bit when I mention charging a battery with red wine, though I don't think they ever drink red wine, because it doesn't have a head on it.

"I'll say, 'You know, red wine, you guys, like we drink in the swirling vortex of baby-killing gay celebrity where I live in Hollywood, that kind of red wine.'

"And then I think the main point for Greg and for Bill, watching a show like 'Head Games,' all the questions are true/false or multiple-choice, so you have a good sporting chance, even if you don't know anything about science."

Proops responds, "Kate, really, isn't it obvious?" to a question about why he was chosen, but seriously, he does think he's the man for the job.

"Hosting is something I do all the time," Proops explains, "and I really love doing it. They always call it, in TV, 'directing traffic,' but I think you can direct traffic with a great deal of humor and fun.

"First of all, I don't like a script. I like spontaneous, and a couple of rules make spontaneity great. We're playing a game, so it's a groovy form for me, because I can extemporize in between the questions, and yet I always have something to go back to.

"So, I'm not going nuts for 15 minutes, but I can go nuts for 30 seconds. I'm the person to do that. I'm the person to keep it light, and I'm also smart enough to sound like I know what I'm talking about even if I don't, and that's the acting part."

As for his own scientific literacy, Proops says, "It could be better, I suppose. I can tell you who Galileo was and Copernicus and stuff like that, but I don't know how exciting that is for people. It doesn't get you the chicks."

And by the way, if you click here, you can play along at home.

Oh, and what's tonight's cuppa? Tomorrow isn't a school day, so I'm going for the full-caf coffee, so if you need to call at 2 a.m., I'll still be up.