[First published in AM New York]
IN HER BROADCAST TODAY, OPRAH WINFREY is doing something unusual for a talk-show host. She’s showcasing her own acting performance in ABC‘s “Desperate Housewives.”
But then, Winfrey is noted for doing the unusual. Who would have thought a TV book-club would ever succeed, let alone deliver such a slap to America’s bemused publishers.
Continue reading “Some Compare Catastrophes – However Tough That Seems” »
[First published in AM New York]
WHO WILL REPLACE POWELL? No, this is not about Colin Powell‘s successor. Yesterday, Condoleezza Rice, despite last-minute gestures from some energized Democratic senators, won confirmation as Secretary of State.
But now Colin’s son, Michael Powell, has to be replaced as well, as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Continue reading “New National Regulator – and Anonymity at The Times” »
[First published in AM New York]
SO HE’S BEING inaugurated again. And the nation’s fighting a war.
Media pundits are dusting off their historical reference works to pronounce on the vexed question of “tone” – for when an elite whoops it up at the reported cost of $40 million, while the lower orders in uniform serve at the cost of their lives. Continue reading “Hail to the Chief, in Time of War” »
[First published in AM New York]
Celebrity crime-writer Dominick Dunne is about to get more exposure, of the kind he doesn’t like.
His battle with ex Congressman Gary Condit is generating even more spill-over than the stories on “Today” this week. The NBC TV show focused on Condit’s denials (more emphatic than before, but still disputed) of having a romantic relationship with the murdered intern Chandra Levy. Continue reading “Reporters who Chat, Rather than Check” »
[First published in AM New York]
They are stunning, heartstopping images. And there are so many of them.
Every day seems to bring more. Scenes of the tsunami crashing down on unsuspecting coastal communities may not have been available to us all immediately, but thanks to the growing non-professional use of digital mini video-cameras – there they were, very soon afterward. Continue reading “Vlogging the Tsunami” »
