Salon.com > Fox http://www.salon.com Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:18:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 I am Nick Miller from “New Girl” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/01/i_am_nick_miller_from_new_girl_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/01/i_am_nick_miller_from_new_girl_partner/#comments Sat, 01 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13314061 PajibaBy all accounts I appear to “have my sh*t together.” I rarely actually feel like I do but if you looked at my life from the outside it probably would appear that I have a firm grasp on my future, my life and where I’m headed with both. The evidence is all there. I’ve found someone to spend my life with, have a career in my chosen field, and generally have enough money to both pay my bills and go out for the occasional dinner at places where sneakers aren’t allowed. Despite all of this, there are times where my life feels like I’ve begun a circus act without actually knowing how to juggle. The balls are in the air, the audience is watching, and I’ve even managed to catch and toss a few back up, but I’m probably going to miss the next one and they’ll all come crashing down and then everyone will know that I’ve been faking it the whole time. “New Girl” is my support group and Nick Miller is my sponsor.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/01/i_am_nick_miller_from_new_girl_partner/feed/ 1 Fox executive behind “Does Someone Have to Go?” leaving the network http://www.salon.com/2013/05/24/fox_executive_behind_does_someone_have_to_go_leaving_the_network/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/24/fox_executive_behind_does_someone_have_to_go_leaving_the_network/#comments Fri, 24 May 2013 20:55:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13308379 Evidently, he was the one who had to go.

Mike Darnell, Fox's president of alternative entertainment, is leaving the network, Fox said via press release.

Darnell was the executive responsible for reality series like "American Idol" and "The X Factor" -- as well as the series that debuted last night, "Does Someone Have to Go?," which asks office workers to decide which of their colleagues should be fired. Writing for Salon, Willa Paskin called it "a vile show," noting, "Obviously, someone does have to go, but it really should be all the cameras."

Aside from the two singing-themed reality series -- one of which has cratered in the ratings, the other of which has never caught on despite perpetual reinvention -- Darnell's résumé is full of the sort of provocative specials and series Fox was known for in its wilder early years: “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?” “Man vs. Beast,” “World’s Scariest Police Chases,” "The Swan," “When Animals Attack!,” et al.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/24/fox_executive_behind_does_someone_have_to_go_leaving_the_network/feed/ 3 Fox’s new reality TV show threatens regular people with unemployment http://www.salon.com/2013/05/24/foxs_new_reality_tv_show_threatens_regular_people_with_unemployment/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/24/foxs_new_reality_tv_show_threatens_regular_people_with_unemployment/#comments Fri, 24 May 2013 13:01:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13307788 Fox premiered the first part of its new reality show “Does Someone Have to Go” last night, in which employees of a company are given “control” for 48 hours, and in a rush of recrimination and gossip and dysfunction forced to decide which of them deserves to get fired. It’s the sort of “surprise” that a boss like Michael Scott would think was a “fun” idea to spring on his employees, only to have it blow up in his face. In fact, so much about “Does Someone Have to Go” resonates with “The Office” — the cubicles, the bleak carpeted hallways, the diverse, regular folk staff, the quirky personalities, the endless cringing — except that it’s a reality show, not a sitcom. Real people have to face the possibility they will be fired for the sake of entertainment and a manipulative reality show. As one employee puts it as he is deciding which of his co-workers to place in “the bottom three,” “this isn’t taking someone and putting them on an island,” but to the producers of “Does Someone Have to Go” that’s exactly what it is, only more "dramatic." It’s a vile show.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/24/foxs_new_reality_tv_show_threatens_regular_people_with_unemployment/feed/ 21 The sweet, sure to be short-lived “The Goodwin Games” http://www.salon.com/2013/05/21/the_sweet_sure_to_be_short_lived_the_goodwin_games/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/21/the_sweet_sure_to_be_short_lived_the_goodwin_games/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 14:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13304428 Last night, Fox premiered “The Goodwin Games,” a promising sibling sitcom that has been waiting to make it onto the schedule for a year. “Goodwin Games,” which comes from the creators of “How I Met Your Mother,” was announced at Fox’s upfront last May. Six episodes of it will be burned off this May. It’s a victim of Fox’s changing tastes and strategies: out with good-natured family comedies, in with sitcoms about dudes with guns.

“The Goodwin Games” is fairly high-concept for a sitcom. Beau Bridges plays Benjamin Goodwin, a wacky mathematician and single father who has raised three full-grown, messed up kids: Henry (Scott Foley), an uptight, emotionally locked in surgeon; Chloe (Becki Newton, who has been sitcom cursed since “Ugly Betty” ended), a math genius who has thrown all her intelligence away to live like a party girl; and Jimmy (T.J. Miller), a sweetie-pie klepto who has been in and out of jail multiple times. All three siblings are casually estranged from each other and their father. Then their father dies. He turns out to have 23 million dollars saved up and a complicated plan involving many, many, many activities to have his children compete for his fortune, even though his real goal is patently to make them all remember how much they love each other.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/21/the_sweet_sure_to_be_short_lived_the_goodwin_games/feed/ 2 Must-see morning clip: Fox News continues to investigate Benghazi http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/must_see_morning_clip_fox_news_continues_to_investigate_benghazi/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/must_see_morning_clip_fox_news_continues_to_investigate_benghazi/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 13:22:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13292637 Fox News has been "doggedly pursuing" the tragic attack in Benghazi and the administration's involvement, particularly: "when they blew it, why they blew it, and how they will continue to have blown it," jokes Stephen Colbert.

On the "explosive" Benghazi hearings, Stephen Colbert says, "I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve who is about to get the bike he asked for, and it's on fire!"

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/must_see_morning_clip_fox_news_continues_to_investigate_benghazi/feed/ 4 The sprinting, sloppy TV news coverage of the Boston manhunt http://www.salon.com/2013/04/19/the_sprinting_sloppy_tv_news_coverage_of_the_boston_manhunt/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/19/the_sprinting_sloppy_tv_news_coverage_of_the_boston_manhunt/#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:35:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13276692 If you woke up after 7:30 EDT this morning, there have been no new developments in the manhunt for Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, the white-hat-wearing 19-year-old suspect in the Boston bombing, since you got out of bed. If you have been following the story closely on television — or Twitter — it most certainly feels like this could not be the case. Over the past nine hours, news coverage has been in a flat-out sprint, continuous and unending, huffing and puffing to supply us with the latest news when there is no new latest news. The news networks are treading water but trying to make it look like they are free-styling by hysterically flailing their arms in a forward motion. At one of the rare moments when there is a huge, breaking news story, TV news is having just as rocky, sloppy and manipulative a time filling its schedule as when it is struggling to find stories to cover. How can this be?

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/19/the_sprinting_sloppy_tv_news_coverage_of_the_boston_manhunt/feed/ 18 Boston Marathon explosion: On cable, the same footage, best behavior http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/boston_marathon_explosion_on_cable_the_same_footage_best_behavior/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/boston_marathon_explosion_on_cable_the_same_footage_best_behavior/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:42:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13272026 In the immediate aftermath of national tragedies, TV news becomes a kind of collective waiting room: You’re there because you can’t be anywhere else. There’s nowhere else to go, nowhere else to channel your fear and anxiety, or at least nowhere else that could maybe inform you, in five minutes or five hours, of something that you might need or want to know, something that will make sense of what happened. So for hours and hours you wait, because waiting is all there is to do, with news teams that have real, serious, tragic news to report -- but too much empty time to report it in.

Immediately after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, all of the network news channels, the cable news channels, and ESPN were airing nonstop commercial-free coverage of the catastrophe. Shamed by recent misreportings brought on by working too fast and carelessly — falsely IDing Ryan Lanza as the shooter at Newtown, claiming Gabrielle Giffords was dead, botching the Affordable Care Act decision— the news programs tried to be cautious. They were careful not repeat something just because it had appeared on Twitter (or in the New York Post). They didn’t want to speculate — the anchors kept saying they didn’t want to speculate — but they did have time to fill, and so on-air experts started talking about whether the attack was "sophisticated" or "homegrown,” whether it was perpetrated by al-Qaida or a lone wolf, whether the presence of shrapnel suggested the bomb makers had overseas roots or a working knowledge of the Internet. Speculation accrued.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/boston_marathon_explosion_on_cable_the_same_footage_best_behavior/feed/ 6 Fox adapting “Go the F**k to Sleep” into feature film http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/fox_turning_go_the_fk_to_sleep_into_a_movie/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/fox_turning_go_the_fk_to_sleep_into_a_movie/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:12:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13268515 The 32-page children's book and internet meme, "Go the Fuck to Sleep," will soon be a movie -- at least if Fox 2000 has its way.

Adam Mansbach's children's book parody became a viral hit in 2011, leading both Samuel L. Jackson and Werner Herzog to tape readings of it. Jackson even parodied the parody for an Obama ad in 2012.

Now, the A.V. Club reports that Fox 2000 is attempting to churn out another round of punch lines from the tired book. Since the main punch line of the book involves the word "fuck," and Samuel L. Jackson has already worn out that meme, it's not clear what direction the movie can go in. But Fox has hired Ken Marino and wife Erica Oyama Marino of "Burning Love" to figure it out.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/fox_turning_go_the_fk_to_sleep_into_a_movie/feed/ 4 Fox executive threatens to make network a subscription channel http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/fox_executive_threatens_to_make_network_a_subscription_channel_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/fox_executive_threatens_to_make_network_a_subscription_channel_ap/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13265267 LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A top executive with the owner of the Fox broadcast network threatened Monday to convert the network to a subscription channel on cable or satellite TV if Internet startup Aereo Inc. continues to "steal" Fox's over-the-air signal and sell it to consumers without paying for rights.

Although anyone with an antenna can pick up a station's signals for free, cable and satellite companies typically pay stations and networks for the right to distribute their programming to subscribers. Industrywide, those retransmission fees add up to billions of dollars every year. Aereo says it's not subject to those fees.

News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said that not being paid by Aereo jeopardizes the economics of broadcast TV, which benefits from both retransmission fees and advertising.

"This is not an ideal path we look to pursue, but we can't sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal," Carey said at the annual gathering of broadcasters, called NAB Show, in Las Vegas. "If we can't do a fair deal, we could take the whole network to a subscription model."

Fox owns 27 TV stations that thrive on the signal of Fox or its sister network, MyNetworkTV. Carey didn't explain how they might be affected by his proposal.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/fox_executive_threatens_to_make_network_a_subscription_channel_ap/feed/ 10 Jay Leno to Fox? Why network affiliates might hold up a deal http://www.salon.com/2013/03/22/jay_leno_to_fox_why_fox_affiliates_might_hold_a_deal_up/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/22/jay_leno_to_fox_why_fox_affiliates_might_hold_a_deal_up/#comments Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:46:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13249021 The New York Post reports that its sister company, Fox, may give Jay Leno a new home if and when he's pushed out at NBC's "Tonight Show" -- and it's a familiar story with a different protagonist.

In 2010, Conan O'Brien was rumored to be negotiating with Fox for a late-night franchise after his own "Tonight" ouster, but numerous press outlets reported that the snag came from the affiliate stations; local channels that air Fox's broadcasting in prime-time don't have the late-night hours reserved for national broadcasts, but rather for lucrative and popular syndicated programming that varies from market to market. (In New York, for instance, late night on Fox includes "30 Rock" and "The Big Bang Theory"; in Chicago, it's celebrity gossip programs "TMZ" and "Dish Nation.")

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/22/jay_leno_to_fox_why_fox_affiliates_might_hold_a_deal_up/feed/ 4 Jay Leno mocks NBC fourth night in a row, may move to Fox http://www.salon.com/2013/03/22/jay_leno_mocks_nbc_fourth_night_in_a_row_may_be_headed_to_fox/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/22/jay_leno_mocks_nbc_fourth_night_in_a_row_may_be_headed_to_fox/#comments Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:47:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13248920 Jay Leno opened last night's "Tonight Show" with another jab at NBC executives, who are reportedly replacing the longtime late-night host with Jimmy Fallon despite the fact that Leno's program is one of the few successful programs on the network. The thinly veiled criticism is Leno's fourth attack on NBC executives this week.

He asked the audience, “Are you all excited about March Madness?”

“People are talking about who’s in, who’s out, who’s gonna be eliminated. And that’s just here at NBC," he said. "I’ve never been in the paper this much. It’s fantastic.”

But Leno might have a new home at Fox, which has been wanting to start its own late-night show for some time, now. Steve Pruett, the board chairman of Fox, told the New York Post that “If Fox were to present the right business plan, the affiliate board would be interested" in signing Leno onto the network.

The Post explains:

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/22/jay_leno_mocks_nbc_fourth_night_in_a_row_may_be_headed_to_fox/feed/ 4 Fox making a documentary about Rihanna’s disastrous 777 tour http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/fox_making_a_documentary_about_rihannas_disastrous_777_tour/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/fox_making_a_documentary_about_rihannas_disastrous_777_tour/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:42:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13245040 Fox will be making a documentary about Rihanna's now-infamous 777 tour, which made headlines last year when 256 fans and journalists were more or less held captive on a 777 jet with Rihanna as she spent a week performing around the world.

The documentary is meant to give a behind-the-scenes look at the entire promotional event for her 7th album, "Unapologetic," which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200. The publicity, though unflattering, paid off: Her single, “Diamonds” topped Billboard Hot 100 the day after the tour ended.

A Gawker post, written anonymously by one of the journalists on board, offers a glimpse into what the documentary might cover (or not cover):

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/fox_making_a_documentary_about_rihannas_disastrous_777_tour/feed/ 4 Fox’s Bob Beckel makes a lame rape apology http://www.salon.com/2013/02/21/foxs_bob_beckel_makes_a_lame_rape_apology/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/21/foxs_bob_beckel_makes_a_lame_rape_apology/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13207409 Watching a bunch of Fox News commentators discuss rape is like watching Jonah Lehrer talk about journalistic ethics. It's vaguely amusing, but it's ultimately just going to make you angry and depressed. Such was the case earlier this week, on "The Five," when the network's token liberal-who-gives-liberals-a-bad-name Bob Beckel made the world's worst argument against concealed weapons — and then followed it up Thursday with a weak non-apology for a comment he made about rape.

It was a conversation about guns that sparked Beckel to travel the road of absurd logic. He started off well enough, addressing the "carry laws around a lot of states" and the issue of guns on college campuses. "If you do that," he said, "it seems to me the chances of people getting killed …" After his colleagues jumped into the fray on the subject of women and self-defense, Beckel lobbed back, "When was the last time you heard about a rape on campus?" His remark earned a hearty round of "WHAAAAAA?" from the panel, and pleas that campus rape is "rampant." Beckel took his mighty rhetorical shovel and dug himself in deeper. "Rampant?" he sniffed, incredulously. "Date rape, yeah, that's one thing," he said, "but are you going to take a gun out and shoot your date?"

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/21/foxs_bob_beckel_makes_a_lame_rape_apology/feed/ 7 Bill O’Reilly speaks for the babies http://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/bill_oreilly_speaks_for_the_babies/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/bill_oreilly_speaks_for_the_babies/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:09:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13191246 When I wrote last month of my conviction that life begins at conception — and my unshakable belief in the need for reproductive choice — I knew that I was risking attracting the attention of the trolls. And attract them I did, setting off a surge of blistering articles, emails and tweets, many to the effect that I’m worse than Hitler and that my mother should have aborted me. Thanks, "Christians!" I did, however, also get supportive messages from fellow pro-choicers, and exactly one email from a self-described “Imperfect Christ-follower” who invited a conversation on the “difficult, potentially contradictory ramifications” of abortion. What I hadn’t expected was that I’d land on the radar of loofah enthusiast and JFK-assassination-hogwash-dealer Papa Bear himself, Bill O’Reilly.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/bill_oreilly_speaks_for_the_babies/feed/ 100 Networks order pilots for “Beverly Hills Cop” remake and more Seth MacFarlane http://www.salon.com/2013/01/23/networks_order_pilots_for_beverly_hills_cop_remake_and_more_seth_macfarlane/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/23/networks_order_pilots_for_beverly_hills_cop_remake_and_more_seth_macfarlane/#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:05:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13179447 Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS have lunged into the new year by picking up 22 pilot orders, Variety reports, initiating the next intense wave of competition to land a series deal among show producers, writers and actors.

NBC has ordered the most, at seven, including three dramas and four comedies from the likes of "Law and Order's" Dick Wolf and "Arrested Development's" Jason Bateman. Bateman will co-produce an as-of-yet untitled family-oriented comedy by D.J. Nash. Wolf, known mostly for crime dramas, will this year produce a comedy based on "Girlfriend in a Coma" by Douglas Coupland, about a 34-year-old woman who awakens from a long coma to learn she has a 17 year-old daughter. One of the most novel concepts in the network's lineup, however, comes from "Lost's" Cartlon Cuse: "The Sixth Gun," which TVGuide describes as "a supernatural Western that follows the story of six mythical guns" is based on the eponymous best-selling graphic novel.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/23/networks_order_pilots_for_beverly_hills_cop_remake_and_more_seth_macfarlane/feed/ 1 Did “Glee” rip off Jonathan Coulton’s cover of “Baby Got Back”? http://www.salon.com/2013/01/18/did_glee_rip_off_jonathan_coultons_cover_of_baby_got_back/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/18/did_glee_rip_off_jonathan_coultons_cover_of_baby_got_back/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:13:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13175656 Musician Jonathan Coulton is claiming that Fox's hit show "Glee" plagiarized a cover he performed of the 1992  Sir-Mix-a-Lot single "Baby Got Back." Via Twitter, Coulton wrote:

[embedtweet id="292304798999539712"]

[embedtweet id="292311288799981568"]

The "Glee" track, from Season 4, below:

Indeed, the song bears an uncanny resemblance to Coulton's 2005 release, posted on YouTube via user Enzemo:

Salon has reached out to Fox via email and is waiting to hear back.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/18/did_glee_rip_off_jonathan_coultons_cover_of_baby_got_back/feed/ 8 Conan O’Brien bringing sitcom to Fox http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/conan_obrien_bringing_sitcom_to_fox/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/conan_obrien_bringing_sitcom_to_fox/#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13159938 Conan O'Brien is bringing a 30-minute medical comedy sitcom to Fox. The show, "Bob's New Heart Show," a play on "The Bob Newhart Show," is about an ambitious young doctor who decides to take over a small medical practice in his hometown after a heart transplant compels him to reevaluate his life.

In addition to writing the script, "Community" writer Ben Wexler will executive-produce the show, along with O'Brien and Conaco's David Kissinger and Jeff Ross.

"Bob's New Heart Show" marks Conaco's first project with Fox, although Wexler and O'Brien worked together on a Fox script in 2010.

h/t Deadline

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/conan_obrien_bringing_sitcom_to_fox/feed/ 0 Glenn Beck and Vince Vaughn’s showbiz purgatory! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/vince_vaughn_and_glenn_beck_its_showbiz_purgatory/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/vince_vaughn_and_glenn_beck_its_showbiz_purgatory/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:10:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13116098 At first glance, the Wednesday press release announcing the production of something called “Pursuit of the Truth” just sounds like another bad idea for a soon-to-fail reality show. An “Apprentice” or “American Idol”-style competition between documentary filmmakers! That’s almost as interesting (at least to the average TV viewer) as a show about orthodontists or paving contractors. But drill down just a little, and “Pursuit of the Truth” starts to seem a bit sad and desperate, and quite possibly a unique confluence of craziness. Yes, two of the most tarnished brands in show business – Glenn Beck and Vince Vaughn – are together at last.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/vince_vaughn_and_glenn_beck_its_showbiz_purgatory/feed/ 10 Fox News licks its wounds http://www.salon.com/2012/11/07/fox_news_licks_its_wounds/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/07/fox_news_licks_its_wounds/#comments Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:41:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13065710 To the victors goes the Schadenfreude. The day after Barack Obama's and the Democrats’ fairly decisive electoral victories, Fox News is still licking its wounds, in simultaneously hilarious and terrifying fashion. On the riotous end, they’ve repeatedly shown a scruffy 20-something in Colorado screeching, “I’m going to get high tonight!” while petulantly complaining about Obama’s lack of bipartisanship. On the hair-raisingly efficient end, the talking point engine is already humming along, keen to make the “fiscal cliff” situation as much of a traumatic, partisan experience as the debt ceiling crisis. So 14 hours after Obama's victory, Fox News is basically back to normal, having traded in yesterday’s super-sad faces and Karl Rove’s deranged attempt to flip Ohio and the election for Romney, for its more standard anxiety-mongering. Fox may have lost the election, but it still has a job to do: Even when one’s worst fears have been realized, there is always another fear (even if it has the lame name "fiscal cliff," which sounds like it could be  Jimmy Buffet’s backup drummer).

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/07/fox_news_licks_its_wounds/feed/ 14 Who rocked the hurricane? The Weather Channel http://www.salon.com/2012/10/30/who_rocked_the_hurricane_the_weather_channel/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/30/who_rocked_the_hurricane_the_weather_channel/#comments Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:06:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13056855 Hurricane Sandy is just coming ashore, which means we have been living through a 24-hour news cycle that amounts to running-in-place news. Around 5:20 p.m. on MSNBC, a very wet reporter standing down in Battery Park told Chris Matthews that there is for sure going to be flooding tonight— which is exactly what the person standing down in Battery Park said last night, the only difference being that person was not getting rained on. As a public service — like, a service that tells people what they need to know for their health and safety — one TV network broadcasting updates every 10 minutes would suffice. That is clearly not what is happening. Everything else that is happening — the endless chatter, the reporters performing their commitment to their job in increasingly bad, dangerous weather — is just for show.

But once you accept the fact that the 24-hour-news networks — which all of the major networks have turned into for the duration — are not performing a public service, we can begin to evaluate them on a whole other scale. That scale being: Which was the most fun to watch today, while you were stuck at home, carefully heeding all the news networks' advice not to go outside? On this score, there was a clear winner. Let me break down the contenders.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/30/who_rocked_the_hurricane_the_weather_channel/feed/ 3