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Popular Twitter feed scores TV, book deal

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:42:47 +0000

One of the more consisently funny Twitter accounts is @shitmydadsays, a young man’s collection of the random, hilarious things his cynical, elderly father says.

The @shitmydadsays Twitter account, populated by 29-year-old Justin Halpern, went viral in late August and currently has upwards of 700K followers. Halpern hit the social media lottery this week, with the feed being optioned by CBS to become a sitcom produced by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick of Will & Grace fame. TV isn’t the only opportunity opening up for Halpern- Harper Collins signed a book deal with Justin last month based on the feed as well.

While a sanitized network TV adaptation of the elder Halpern’s no holds barred style of speaking will almost certainly suck, it’s definitely an interesting development for internet humor and popular Twitter feeds. If you’re one of the few who hasn’t read Justin’s dad’s tweets, here’s a sample:

“Son, no one gives a shit about all the things your cell phone does. You didn’t invent it, you just bought it. Anybody can do that.”

“I hate paying bills… Son, don’t say “me too.” I didn’t say that looking to relate to you. I said it instead of “go away.”

“Oh please, you practically invented lazy. People should have to call you and ask for the rights to lazy before they use it.”

“You worry too much. Eat some bacon… What? No, I got no idea if it’ll make you feel better, I just made too much bacon.”

“I need to change clothes? Wow. That’s big talk coming from someone who looks like they robbed a Mervyn’s.”

“You sure do like to tailgate people… Right, because it’s real important you show up to the nothing you have to do on time.”

“Just pay the parking ticket. Don’t be so outraged. You’re not a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement. You double parked.”

“That woman was sexy…Out of your league? Son. Let women figure out why they won’t screw you, don’t do it for them.”

“Son, people will always try and fuck you. Don’t waste your life planning for a fucking, just be alert when your pants are down.”

“I wanted to see Detroit win. I’ve been there. It’s like God took a shit on a parking lot. They deserve some good news.”

“We didn’t have a prom. Dancing wasn’t allowed…What’s Footloose?…That’s the plot of the movie? That sounds like a pile of shit.”

CBS Sports mobile launches live streaming for SEC on CBS Football and Basketball

Duncan Riley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:11:36 +0000

September 25, 2009 (Inquisitr Wire): CBS Sports, the exclusive national over-the-air broadcaster of Southeastern Conference home football games, will stream its entire 2009 SEC college football schedule live on CBS Sports Mobile through the CBS Sports: College application, which is available for iPhone and iPod Touch users. The SEC ON CBS continues this Saturday, Sept 26 (3:30-7:00 PM, ET) with Arkansas at No. 3-ranked Alabama.

In addition to live streaming video from the entire 2009 SEC ON CBS college football schedule, the CBS Sports: College application for the iPhone and iPod touch will provide users in-game box scores and player stats, even as an overlay on top of the video. Additionally, a full Division FBS college football scoreboard, individual gamecenters for top 25 matchups, polls, headlines and standings are accessible through the CBS Sports: College application.

As part of its offering, the CBS Sports: College application will also stream select games from CBS Sports’ 2009-10 SEC College Basketball schedule. Developed in partnership with MobiTV, the CBS Sports: College application is now available for $9.99 from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch.

Last week, CBS Sports announced that for the second consecutive season, they would stream the entire 2009 SEC college football schedule live on CBSSports.com The SEC ON CBS game of the week is offered free of charge on CBSSports.com and allows viewers the ability to access a scoreboard feature with in-game statistics as well as track college football scores and standings from around the country. Additional options include a live chat feature, video preview segments and on-demand highlights as the game progresses

“Following up on our success last season streaming the SEC on CBSSports.com, we are excited to extend coverage to the mobile platform to better serve college fans by delivering the SEC on CBS to them when, where and how they want it,” said Mike Aresco, Executive Vice President, CBS Sports.

“Taking the live video from CBS Sports’ game coverage and extending it to the mobile platform was a natural next step and we’re happy to provide fans of SEC football the ability to watch no matter where they are,” said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com.

A total of 15 SEC contests will be streamed live on CBS Sports Mobile concluding with the SEC Championship Game featuring the Eastern and Western Division champions on Saturday, Dec. 5 (4:00 PM, ET). Additionally, the 110th Army-Navy College Football Classic will also be streamed live on CBS Sports Mobile. The games are available exclusively on CBSSports.com, CBS Sports Mobile and can also be accessed through a link on the websites of all CBS affiliates.

CBS Sports begins its first year of its historic 15-year contract extension with the Southeastern Conference to broadcast its football and basketball games In addition to broadcast rights, the new deal includes digital, internet, wireless, video-on-demand and enhanced highlight rights across all CBS Sports properties

60 minutes creator Don Hewitt dead at 86

Duncan Riley — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:36:34 +0000

CBS News executive Don Hewitt, the creator of 60 minutes and regarded by many to be the father of “magazine” television has died at the age of 86 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Over Hewitt’s long career he could boast of many firsts. In 1960, Don Hewitt produced and directed the first televised Presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, a debate watched by a staggering (even today) 70 million people.

60 Minutes made its debut in 1968, and changed the way television news was considered. Before that time, news was seen as a public service that wasn’t profitable. After 60 Minutes, news as entertainment came to the fore. You could say that Hewitt was the man responsible for the trash that passes as news today, but that would be unfair as well, because the man had a strict sense of editorial independence, and fought the networks to make sure the shows he worked on remained neutral.

Don Hewitt is survived by his wife, four children, and three grandchildren.

Letterman, Palin Drama – Advertiser Abandons CBS in wake of Lewd Comments

Paul Short — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:32:37 +0000

In the wake of controversy surrounding David Letterman’s lewd comments about Sarah palin’s daughters, CBS has lost an advertiser.

Embassy Suites, part of the Hilton Hotel chain, has pulled their advertising from CBS web properties after recieving numerous complaints from concerned customers.

A spokesperson for Embassy Suites/Hilton Hotels said:

“We received lots of e-mails from concerned guests and we assessed that the statement that he made was offensive enough to our guests and prospective guests that we elected to take the ads down.”

Embassy Suites ads did not air during Letterman’s show.

I guess the fat lady sang as the founders left Last.fm

Steven Hodson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:55:00 +0000

It’s not all that unusual to see happen in the tech world. Startups – well start up, they get some big buzz, end up getting bought by a company with big wallets (if they don’t deadpool first) only to have the people who started the company decide it’s time for green pastures. Such is the case it would seem with the founders of Last.fm who have announced that they have resigned.

In the words of Felix Miller, Richard Jones and Martin Stiksel – “After two years running Last.fm within CBS we feel the time is right to begin the process of handing over the reins".

No-one is saying whether the recent accusations of Last.fm user data making its way into the hands of the RIAA, either at the behest of CBS or through them directly, has any bearing on the three gentlemen leaving at this time.

From the announcement on the Last.fm blog

After two years running Last.fm within CBS we feel the time is right to begin the process of handing over the reins. This is the latest stage in a long journey for us founders, which began in a living room in East London in 2002, and took us to the headquarters of one of the biggest media companies in the world.

It’s been a privilege working with the incredible team here in our London office, and we’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved together. Last.fm’s users have more than doubled in the last 12 months (we are now at an all-time high of 37.3M monthly unique visitors), and we’re confident the site will continue to go from strength to strength. Being a part of CBS, and the recently formed CBSi music group, continues to open up many opportunities for Last.fm. Recent product releases such as the new visual radio, and the Last.fm on XBox announcement, are an indication of how much more Last.fm will achieve.

A huge “Thank You!” has to be said to all of you in front of your computers. With your contribution, enthusiasm and scrobbles you have helped to make Last.fm into what it is today: the best place for music online. Big up yourself for that, as we say here in East London.

That’s all folks, we are going to miss you!

Felix, RJ and Martin

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of effect this is going to have on Last.fm – will they get totally sucked into the corporate culture or will they be able to keep that strong brand identity they have built up?

Soap Opera Guiding Light canceled by CBS

Duncan Riley — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:43:47 +0000

Soap opera Guiding Light has been canceled by CBS after a staggering 72 year run.

Guiding Light started as a radio serial on NBC in 1937, and switched to television on CBS in 1952. Guinness Book of World Records credits the series as being the longest-running soap opera in production and the longest running drama in television and radio history.

15,700 episodes later, the show has faced declining ratings in recent years, despite adopting story lines to the social issues of the time. Producers though haven’t given up hope, and are shopping the show to other networks in an attempt to keep it on air. The last scheduled show will air September 18 on CBS.

Media Briefs: Layoffs at Macmillan, CBS

Duncan Riley — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:15:39 +0000

More layoffs in media to start the week, with cuts coming at book publisher Macmillan and CBS.

The new CBS cuts of around “low two figures” are on top of cuts announced last week (which included Last.fm) and affected mainly management positions.

Variety reports that CBS Paramount Executive VP Maria Crenna, as well as the studio’s comedy senior VP Brian Banks are out, along with “several mid-level and lower staffers.”

Macmillan Publishing cut 64 jobs and consolidated its children’s publishing arms into a single “Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.”

According to Media Bistro, the cuts will be spread over different arms including Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Picador, and St. Martin’s Press, among others.

CBS to Live Stream College Basketball Online

Duncan Riley — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:16:12 +0000

CBS will stream select games from the 2008-09 SEC College Basketball live on CBSSports.com from the start of the season this coming Saturday (December 13.)

12 College Basketball games will be streamed live and free of charge concluding with the SEC Championship Game on Sunday, March 15. The games are available on CBSSports.com and via a link on CBS affiliate sites. The stream will be offered in 16 X 9 (although no mention of HD) and after each show the site will have on-demand highlights and recaps.

At the conclusion of the 2008-09 SEC College Basketball schedule, CBS will offer March Madness on Demand, live streaming video of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

More good news for those who want live sport online.

CBS drops Moblogic.TV

Duncan Riley — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:52:59 +0000

CBS has pulled the plug on Moblogic.TV, the Lindsay Campbell post Wallstrip video show.

Peter Kafka at AllThingsD notes that the show isn’t completely dead: the MobLogic.TV site will still exist, and the Moblogic.TV team may still put up an episode up on their own from time to time, but regular production has ceased.

Host Lindsay Campbell is still under contract to CBS and hasn’t been let go, but will instead be put “to work on something else” and producers Adam Elend and Jeff Marks are now working on Novel Adventures, a new show for CBS.

I wasn’t a regular viewer of the show, and obviously I wasn’t alone, but the episodes I did watch always impressed me. It’s sad to see an intelligent show such as Moblogic.TV go; there are far too few shows like Moblogic.TV that actually challenge their viewers to think. Campbell is a great talent and will no doubt quickly reappear in a new or existing show. Let’s just hope that CBS doesn’t try to dumb down whatever she does.

Here’s the last episode of Moblogic.tv for your enjoyment.

No related posts.

Obama 60 Minutes

Duncan Riley — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:05:34 +0000

President-elect Barack Obama appeared for his first major television interview post election on 60 Minutes this evening.

In a wide ranging interview, Obama spoke about the need to restore America’s place in the world and how he’d close Gitmo and ban the use of torture to help in that process.

On the auto industry, Obama spoke of the need to provide assistance, but only conditionally with a long term look at sustainability.

The first video from the interview as follows, well update to the post when more is available. Following the video is a full transcript

Update: video is now the full interview

Watch CBS Videos Online

Steve Kroft: So here we are.

President-elect Barack Obama: Here we are.

Kroft: How’s your life changed in the last ten days?

Mr. Obama: Well, I tell you what, there seem to be more people hovering around me. That’s for sure. And, on the other hand, I’m sleeping in my own bed over the last ten days, which is quite a treat. Michelle always wakes up earlier than I do. So listen to her roaming around and having the girls come in and, you know, jump in your bed. It’s a great feeling. Yeah.

Kroft: Has this been easier than the campaign trail?

Mr. Obama: Well, it’s different. I think that during the campaign it is just a constant frenetic, forward momentum. Here, I’m stationary. But the issues come to you. And we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a lot of problems, a lot of big challenges.

Kroft: Have there been moments when you’ve said, ‘What did I get myself into?’

Mr. Obama: Surprisingly enough, I feel right now that I’m doing what I should be doing. That gives me a certain sense of calm. I will say that the challenges that we’re confronting are enormous. And they’re multiple. And so there are times during the course of a given a day where you think, ‘Where do I start?’

Kroft: What have you been concentrating on this week?

Mr. Obama: Couple of things. Number one, I think it’s important to get a national security team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack. We wanna make sure that there is as seamless a transition on national security as possible. Obviously the economy. Talking to top economic advisors about how we’re gonna create jobs, how we get the economy back on track and what do we do in terms of some long-term issues like energy and healthcare. And how do we sequence those things in a way that we can actually get things through Congress?

Kroft: Are you in sync with Secretary Paulson in terms of how the $700 billion is being used?

Mr. Obama: Well, look, Hank Paulson has worked tirelessly under some very difficult circumstances. We’ve got an unprecedented crisis, or at least something that we have not seen since the Great Depression. And I think Hank would be the first one to acknowledge that probably not everything that’s been done has worked the way he had hoped it would work. But I’m less interested in looking backwards than I am in looking forwards.

Kroft: The government has spent almost $300 billion out of the TARP program.

Mr. Obama: Right.

Kroft: Money that was set aside to help the financial industry. And nothing much has changed if you look at it. Nothing much has changed. It’s $300 billion. Why is that?

Mr. Obama: I think the part of the way to think about it is things could be worse. I mean, we could have seen a lot more bank failures over the last several months. We could have seen an even more rapid deterioration of the economy, even a bigger drop in the stock market. So part of what we have to measure against is what didn’t happen and not just what has happened.

Having said that, there’s no doubt that we have not been able yet to reset the confidence in the financial markets and in the consumer markets and among businesses that allow the economy to move forward in a strong way. And my job as president is gonna be to make sure that we restore that confidence.

(CBS) Kroft: Once you become president, are there things that you’ll change?

Mr. Obama: Well, you know I think we still have to see how this thing unfolds over the next couple of months. One area that I’m concerned about, and I’ve said this publicly, is we have not focused on foreclosures and what’s happening to homeowners as much as I would like. We have the tools to do it. We’ve gotta set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes. That is gonna have an impact on the economy as a whole. And, you know, one thing I’m determined is that if we don’t have a clear focused program for homeowners by the time I take office, we will after I take office.

Kroft: Are you being consulted by Secretary Paulson?
Is he telling you what’s going on?

Mr. Obama: You know what we’ve done is we’ve assigned somebody on my transition team who interacts with him on a daily basis. And, you know, we are getting the information that’s required to and we’re making suggestions in some circumstances about how we think they might approach some of these problems.

Kroft: Are they listening?

Mr. Obama: Well, you know, that we’ll find out.

Kroft: People are comparing this to 1932.

Mr. Obama: Right.

Kroft:Is that a valid comparison, do you think?

Mr. Obama: Well, keep in mind that 1932, 1933 the unemployment rate was 25 percent, inching up to 30 percent. You had a third of the country that was ill housed, ill clothed, unemployed. We’re not going through something comparable to that. But I would say that this is as bad as we’ve seen since then. And if we don’t take some significant steps then it could get worse.

Kroft: You have a situation right now where you have General Motors, which is in dire straits.

Mr. Obama: Yeah.

Kroft: May run out of cash by the end of the year, maybe by the end of certainly, if we believe what we read in the papers, by the time you take office.

Mr. Obama: Yeah. Well, let’s see how this thing plays itself out. For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment, not just for individual families but the repercussions across the economy would be dire. So it’s my belief that we need to provide assistance to the auto industry. But I think that it can’t be a blank check.

So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere. And that’s, I think, what you haven’t yet seen. That’s something that I think we’re gonna have to come up with.

Kroft: Are there a lot of people that think that the country would probably be better off and General Motors might be better off if it was allowed to go into bankruptcy?

Mr. Obama: Well, you know, under normal circumstances that might be the case in the sense that you’d go to a restructuring like the airlines had to do in some cases. And then they come out and they’re still a viable operation. And they’re operating even during the course of bankruptcy. In this situation, you could see the spigot completely shut off so that it would not potentially permit GM to get back on its feet. And I think that what we have to do is to recognize that these are extraordinary circumstances. Banks aren’t lending as it is. They’re not even lending to businesses that are doing well, much less businesses that are doing poorly. And in that circumstance, the usual options may not be available.

(CBS) Kroft: When the price of oil was at $147 a barrel, there were a lot of spirited and profitable discussions that were held on energy independence. Now you’ve got the price of oil under $60.

Mr. Obama: Right.

Kroft: Does doing something about energy is it less important now than…

Kroft: Why?

Mr. Obama: Well, because this has been our pattern. We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it’s not important, and we start, you know filling up our SUVs again.

And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It’s part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.

Kroft: Where is all the money going to come from to do all of these things? And is there a point where just going to the Treasury Department and printing more of it ceases to be an option?

Mr. Obama: Well, look, I think what’s interesting about the time that we’re in right now is that you actually have a consensus among conservative Republican-leaning economists and liberal left-leaning economists. And the consensus is this: that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we’re gonna have to spend money now to stimulate the economy.

And that we shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. That short term, the most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession.

Kroft: How high a priority are you placing on re-regulation of the financial markets?

Mr. Obama: I think it’s a top priority. I think that we have to restore a sense of trust, transparency, openness in our financial system. And keep in mind that the deregulation process, it wasn’t just one party. I think there’s a lot of blame to spread around.

But, hopefully, everybody’s learned their lesson. And the answer is not heavy-handed regulations that crush the entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking of American capitalism. That’s what’s made our economy great. But it is to restore a sense of balance.

His first legislative goal will be to get Congress to pass an economic stimulus package that he hopes will create jobs and put money in the pockets of ordinary citizens, construction programs to shore up the nation’s creaky infrastructure, a tax cut for the middle class and his first initiatives on health care. But some things he can do with the stroke of a pen.

Kroft: There are a number of different things that you could do early pertaining to executive orders. One of them is to shutdown Guantanamo Bay. Another is to change interrogation methods that are used by U.S. troops. Are those things that you plan to take early action on?

Mr. Obama: Yes. I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture. And I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.

(CBS) Kroft: Can you give us some sense of when you might start redeployments out of Iraq?

Mr. Obama: Well, I’ve said during the campaign, and I’ve stuck to this commitment, that as soon as I take office, I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops. Particularly in light of the problems that we’re having in Afghanistan, which has continued to worsen. We’ve got to shore up those efforts.

Kroft: Where does capturing or killing Osama bin Laden fall?

Mr. Obama: I think it is a top priority for us to stamp out al Qaeda once and for all. And I think capturing or killing bin Laden is a critical aspect of stamping out al Qaeda. He is not just a symbol, he’s also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against US targets.

Kroft: How close are you to settling on a cabinet?

Mr. Obama: Well, I think that I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’d like to see. But it takes some time to work those things through.

Kroft: When are you gonna make your first announcement?

Mr. Obama: Soon.

Kroft: Next week?

Mr. Obama: Soon.

Kroft: You met with Senator Clinton this week.

Mr. Obama: I did.

Kroft: Is she on the short list for a cabinet position?

Mr. Obama: You know, she is somebody who I needed advice and counsel from. She is one of the most thoughtful public officials that we have. Beyond that, you’re not getting anything out of me Steve.

Kroft: Will there be Republicans in the cabinet?

Mr. Obama: Yes.

Kroft: More than one?

Mr. Obama: You’re not getting more out of me.

Kroft: You’ve spoken to some former presidents.

Mr. Obama: I have.

Kroft: Any advice, any good advice they gave you?

Mr. Obama: You know, they were all incredibly gracious. But I think that all of them recognized that there’s a certain loneliness to the job. That, you know, you’ll get advice, and you’ll get counsel. Ultimately, you’re the person who’s gonna be making decisions.

And I think that even now, you know, I – you can already feel that fact.

Kroft: What are you reading right now? I mean, have…

Mr. Obama: A lot of briefing papers.

Kroft: A lot of briefing papers?

Mr. Obama: Yeah. I’ve been spending a lot of time reading Lincoln. There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful.

Kroft: Put a lot of his political enemies in his cabinet.

Mr. Obama: He did.

Kroft: Is that something you’re considering?

Mr. Obama: Well, I tell you what, I find him a very wise man.

(CBS) Kroft: Have you been reading anything about the Depression? Anything about FDR?

Mr. Obama: You know, I have actually. There’s a new book out about FDR’s first 100 days and what you see in FDR that I hope my team can– emulate, is not always getting it right, but projecting a sense of confidence, and a willingness to try things. And experiment in order to get people working again.

And I think that’s what the American people expect. You know, they’re not expecting miracles. I think if you talk to the average person right now that they would say, ‘Well, look, you know well, we’re having a tough time right now. We’ve had tough times before.’ ‘And you know, we don’t expect a new president can snap his fingers and suddenly everything is gonna be okay. But what we do expect is that the guy is gonna be straight with us. We do expect that he’s gonna be working really hard for us.’

‘We do expect that he’s gonna be thinking about ordinary Americans and not just the wealthy and the powerful. And we do expect that. if something doesn’t work that they’re gonna try something else until they find something that does.’ And, you know, that’s the kind of common sense approach that I want to take when I take office.

Kroft: There’s been talk on Capitol Hill and a number of Democratic congressmen have proposed programs that are part of sort of a new New Deal. The possibility of reviving agencies like the Home Ownership Loan Corporation.

Mr. Obama: Two points I’d make on this. Number one, although there are some parallels to the problems that we’re seeing now and what we say back in the ’30s, no period is exactly the same. For us to simply recreate what existed back in the ’30s in the 21st century, I think would be missing the boat. We’ve gotta come up with solutions that are true to our times and true to this moment. And that’s gonna be our job. I think the basic principle that government has a role to play in kick starting an economy that has ground to a halt is sound.

I think our basic principle that this is a free market system and that that has worked for us, that it creates innovation and risk taking, I think that’s a principle that we’ve gotta hold to as well. But what I don’t wanna do is get bottled up in a lot of ideology and is this conservative or liberal. My interest is finding something that works.

And whether it’s coming from FDR or it’s coming from Ronald Reagan, if the idea is right for the times then we’re gonna apply it. And things that don’t work we’re gonna get rid of.

Kroft: Are you gonna make a lot of speeches? Are you gonna talk a lot to the American people on television and radio?

Mr. Obama: You know, I’m not sure that the American people are looking for a lot of speeches. I think what they’re looking for is action. But one of the things that I do think is important is to be able to explain to the American people what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. That is something that I think every great president has been able to do. From FDR to Lincoln to John Kennedy to Eisenhower. I mean, I think that they were people who were able to say ‘Here’s the direction we’re going. Here’s why I think it’s important. Here are the possible dangers or challenges. But ultimately, you know, this is gonna lead us to a better America.’ And I want to make sure that I can recreate a bond of trust between the presidency and the public that I think has been lost.

TV Briefs: Gary Unmarried, Worst Week, Medium and Monk all renewed

Duncan Riley — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:53:00 +0000

Renewal season is in full swing, with some shows being axed, and others being renewed.

Fresh off the renewals list today:

CBS gave an additional seven-episode to “Gary Married” which starts Jay Mohr, Paula Marshall and Jaime King. The new order is on top of a previous 13 episode order.

CBS also extended situational comedy Worst Week, the American version of the UK sitcom The Worst Week of My Life. The show only has a short reprieve, getting only a 3 episode order, after initial strong ratings have fell away mid season.

NBC has ordered a half dozen more episodes of Medium according to THR. The show is being positioned as a mid-year replacement. More episodes may be ordered.

USA Network has picked up the eighth, and what it calls the final season of “Monk.”

USA has ordered 16 episodes of Monk for its eight seasons, but is billing the order as the final season.

(in part via Variety)

ZDNet is morally bankrupt

Duncan Riley — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:20:59 +0000

It’s a dog eat dog world, people grabbing stories from other people, sometimes pictures. Sometimes there’s a legal angle, sometimes there isn’t. Journalists like to say that they hold themselves to higher standards then bloggers, and yet this isn’t always the case.

The blogosphere has had some basic fairness rules in place for many years. One is if you take an exclusive story from a blog, you link back. So you’d think that major blogs would follow that, even more so when run by major media companies…but you’d be wrong.

We broke the story this week about the Australian Prime Minister joining Twitter. When I say broke, we were the first news site OR blog to run the story. About 80-90 minutes after our post went up, ZDNet Australia ran the same story with identical talking points. Not out and out plagiarism, but the similarities were very strong. The next outlet to run with it was 2 hours later again. When I put the post up, I’d manually linked to the post on Twitter because I thought it might be of interest as well.

I don’t begrudge the fact that ZDNet lifted the story at all, or even basically copied the talking points with a slight re-write. But I do take great umbrage with the fact that they didn’t attribute it. I Twittered my disgust on Tuesday, and thought really nothing more about it until today, when I receive a tweet from ZDNet News Editor Renai LeMay asking for details. I sent him my concerns, and this is the response I got.

Firstly let me say that I completely understand your concerns. Thanks for your email, and I hope everything is well at the Inquisitr.

I respect what the Inquisitr is doing as an independent Australian media organisation, and what you are personally doing as a leading light of new media internationally and in this country.

The article you were referring to was written by Alex Serpo, one of our in-house journalists, and edited by myself.

Firstly, let me say that I think this email exchange illustrates the fact that there are different points of view on this sort of issue from different media organisations.

When a story breaks elsewhere, that ZDNet.com.au wants to have on its site, we attempt to find primary sources (eg, a press release, or calling people up for info), and write our own article.

We don’t usually refer to or use material from other media organisations as we have no way to verify whether their information is correct (and they may have left something out).

Given we are part of CBS, and our articles are re-published worldwide, for us to take any other approach would be inappropriate.

We don’t generally link back to whoever has broken a story first. I am aware that this is a standard technique in the blogosphere, but we don’t follow it here as per current editorial guidelines.

The bolding is mine, but it’s the key line. We also WERE the primary source.

And then he takes the cowards defense after all but fessing up to the fact they’d lifted the story. I’d note at this point that 2 hours after they posted, news.com.au in their article noted that they were unable to confirm the story with the Prime Ministers office or ANY OTHER PLACE; so ZDNet magically got a better source than Australia’s largest media organization? The story wasn’t on either the KevinPM site or the official PM site, there was no press release, nothing at the time (I did my homework…indeed, I’d sat on the story for nearly an hour trying to confirm it). The only thing confirming at the time was a link to the Twitter account from the KevinPM site. Also I’d note, the talking points they ran were nearly IDENTICAL to our post. I don’t believe in coincidences, at least not this many.

In this specific case, that story broke simultaneously in a number of different ways — on the Inquisitr, on Rudd’s own site, people messaging us to let us know, etc. With this in mind, we went back to primary sources (Rudd and Turnbull’s own pages, and our own kn) and wrote our own story.

Most of all I’m disappointed by LeMay; he was a great journalist at the Financial Review, but anything he learned in journalism school has been replaced by him doing his employers bidding. This idea that your don’t source stories in rubbish; mainstream media sites reference stories day in, day out, in both articles and blogs, and give me 2 hours and I could probably find thousands of examples in the mainstream media of them doing so; at the least saying where it came from without a link, with best practice with the link.

ZDNet, at least in Australia, is morally bankrupt. If what LeMay says is true of the whole organization, then the entire company is.

Tina Fey Makes a Great Sarah Palin, But What Do You Think?

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:05:45 +0000

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live treated us to another spoof on Katie Couric’s recent interview with Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. While the audience sounded like they loved it and I kept thinking about Fey and Palin’s resemblance (among other things), I want to know what you think. Was it dead-on? Was it funny? Was it offensive or even sexist? I’ve included the original interview for you so you can run a comparison.

Whether you find it funny or not-so-much, one thing’s certain: SNL won’t be running out of fodder. Not only will Palin debate Joe Biden on Thursday, but CBS will run coverage of “Vice Presidential Questions.” Katie Couric interviewed both Sarah Palin and Joe Biden as a part of the series, but Palin’s responses were branded as possibly “embarrassing” by Howard Kurtz. I’m on the edge of my seat!

Don’t forget to tell us what you think of SNL’s spoof this time around.

CBS Signs Deal With Yahoo

JR — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:21:58 +0000

You’ll soon be able to watch CBS programming on Yahoo.

The Eye network announced plans this morning to partner up with Yahoo in a new distribution deal. Yahoo will gain access to CBS’s online entertainment content, including complete episodes of sitcoms and other CBS shows. The programming is ad-supported.

CBS says the addition of Yahoo to its staple of 300 other online partners will let its content reach 92 percent of the American web audience. Yahoo had already been showing limited CBS programs and had been supplying segments to locally owned and operated CBS station affiliates.

CBS Acquires CNET for $1.8 Billion

Duncan Riley — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:30:20 +0000

CBS has entered into an agreement to acquire CNET Networks for $11.50/ share or $1.8 billion.

According to a company release, the acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide.

San Francisco based CNET Networks owns sites including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic.

CNet has had a troubled year that started with an attempt by a group of shareholders to take over the board, followed by large scale staff layoffs and even rumors of a possible investment by Google.

The $11.50 per share offer is a 45% premium on CNET’s closing share price of $7.95 Wednesday.