Off the Handle
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It's hard to tell whether Bill Clinton's tirade on Fox News Sunday was simply an explosion of exasperation or a rallying cry to the Democrats in a contentious election season. But it made great television... Aired Tuesday, September 26, 2006. [MORE]
Talent Drain
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Things are rocky at the L.A. Times.
Last week, the publisher and the editor publicly announced they would not let any more staff go, in defiance of their bosses at the Tribune Company in Chicago....
Aired Tuesday, September 19, 2006. [MORE]
Fiction as Fact
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The Hollywood movie industry has always been depicted, fairly or not, as a bastion of liberalism, a place where a Democratic candidate could always help a well-heeled audience part with its cash. People on the right could reliably point to movie stars as card-carrying lefties, far out of the mainstream of American politics. Aired Tuesday, September 12, 2006. [MORE]
Pressure to Deliver
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Even if you're not normally one of the 25 million people who still bother to watch the evening news, you may well tonight...
Aired Tuesday, September 5, 2006. [MORE]
Public Desire
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There are three-ring circuses, and then there was the arrest of John Mark Karr. When the 41-year old teacher confessed two weeks ago to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the media went into overdrive, breathlessly reporting every possible angle of the case as though Western civilization hinged on it...
Aired Tuesday, August 29, 2006. [MORE]
An Unhealthy Attachment
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Unless you've been living under a rock lately, with no access to the frothing tempest of cable news, you're aware that TV's talking heads are in a lather over the arrest of a guy who claims he had something to do with the death of JonBenét Ramsey...
Aired Tuesday, August 22, 2006. [MORE]
Summer Sign-Up 2006
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Hi. This is Nick Madigan. I do a weekly commentary called Minding the Media here on KCRW, my favorite radio station by far, even though I no longer live in Los Angeles. Through KCRW.com, though, I can listen to the station any time I want to from my new perch in Baltimore. It keeps me connected to Southern California, its music and its spirit. I make a point of tuning in to hear Which Way L.A.? and To the Point and wonderful music programs like Morning Becomes Eclectic, New Ground and The A Track... Aired Tuesday, August 15, 2006. [MORE]
Vantage Point
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As hard as it is to see people dying in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, it is still instructive to watch how reporters go about covering such events, often at great personal risk...
Aired Tuesday, August 8, 2006. [MORE]
Spoiled Children
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For those who care about such things, the arrest of Mel Gibson for driving drunk and the anti-Semitic remarks he unleashed on his arresting officer have been rich fodder for entertainment Web sites that love to chase down Hollywood dirt...
Aired Tuesday, August 1, 2006. [MORE]
Devoid of Pretense
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The war is as close as the touch of a keyboard. While fighting rages in the Middle East, bloggers and other citizen chroniclers of the conflict are turning the Internet into a hive of information, opinion, pleas for help and calls for peace...
Aired Tuesday, July 25, 2006. [MORE]
Spoiling Everybody's Fun
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We keep hearing about movies that become huge hits even after they've been panned by critics. The latest examples are The Da Vinci Code and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, both of which have racked up box-office gold around the world, their audiences apparently oblivious to the critical drubbing they've received. Does anyone actually need reviews?..
Aired Tuesday, July 18, 2006. [MORE]
Amateur Hour
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Things might be getting back to normal, more or less, at the Santa Barbara News-Press, where six top editors and a columnist walked out last week in a staff revolt that sent shivers through the normally peaceful town...
Aired Tuesday, July 11, 2006. [MORE]
Off with Their Heads
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Last week, the country's top newspapers, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, disclosed the existence of a secret government program to monitor the financial transactions of suspected terrorists...
Aired Tuesday, June 27, 2006. [MORE]
Banquo's Ghost
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Dan Rather is being shown the door at CBS. He has given up what he calls "a protracted struggle" with his bosses there, and announced today that he is leaving his professional home of 44 years.
Aired Tuesday, June 20, 2006. [MORE]