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A Movie to Bring Out the Beast in You. The Five-Year-Old, Oprah and Obama. Familiar Yet Astonishingly Original

Oh God, I thought to myself, here we go again. I was being dragged to a movie that I knew I’d hate. It had several things going against it. First, it had won a major award at the Cannes Film…

Aug 23, 2012

#nbcfail Failed to See the Bigger Olympics Picture

One of the oddest items I’ve read lately about NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics was this sentence from SportsGrid.com: “The numbers [meaning ratings] are working in [NBC’s] favor, even if public opinion is not.” It’s nonsensical. The loudest shouting…

Aug 14, 2012

Reunion of Celebrity Couple Highlights ‘Mother of All Roasts’

“Welcome to menopause-apalooza,” said Jane Lynch, opening up the show. The star of "Glee," who is rapidly becoming the female equivalent of Neil Patrick Harris when it comes to classy/comedic hosting and in this case roasting, was likely referring to…

Aug 10, 2012

Aaron Sorkin Stares Down Critics of HBO’s ‘The Newsroom’

Flanked by series star Jeff Daniels and executive producer Alan Poul, Aaron Sorkin was in the hot seat as he took questions about “The Newsroom” during a spirited session last week at the Television Critics Association summer press tour from…

Aug 7, 2012

What NBC Can Learn From the BBC — and Vice Versa — About Televising the Olympics. Observations From the Former GM of an NBC Affiliate

[Note: This guest blog entry is written by Bill Bauman. For many years Bauman was the GM of WESH, Hearst Television’s NBC affiliate serving Orlando, Fla. He retired five years ago. We received the following essay along with this email…

Aug 6, 2012

Oprah Attacks Major Media Outlet for Kowtowing to Her Some Years Ago and Then Gleefully Attacking Her This Past March, During the ‘Worst Week’ of Her Life. Oprah Is Wrong on Both Counts

I was clearing out past shows on my DVR the other night, and one of the programs I was finally able to watch was the second part of “Oprah Builds a Network,” which debuted on OWN about two weeks ago,…

Aug 2, 2012