Sept. 24: Guns, Dan Rather and TV lists

*Rudy sucks up
Heaven help Rudolph Giuliani if he ever has to face
the families of the Miami-Dade and Broward County
police officers who have been killed and wounded in
recent months:

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/23/Opinion/Giuliani_shamelessly_.shtml

He’s not the only one; Democrats have wimped out on
the issue of gun control ever since they decided to
try to court Southern hunters. Hey, Bill Clinton is a
Southern hunter, too, and he signed the Brady Bill and
the assault weapons ban that was stripped away three
years ago.

*Being rather charged up over Rather
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post makes some good
points about the lawsuit Dan Rather has filed against
CBS:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/23/AR2007092300715.html

It’s time to see a full public vetting of the process
not just of this story, but that CBS News went
through. The division’s slow decline started in the
mid-1980s, when Lawrence Tisch, who owned the network,
started chopping away at employees. Andrew Heyward,
who headed the news division for almost a decade,
completed the disintegration.
Rather, who is a natural reporter, was never cut out
to be a news anchor, though he had the ambition for
the job. However, CBS blew it in its treatment of him
at the end. I’m not entirely sure that it wasn’t the
plan all along for Les Moonves and company to tell him
so long, one way or another, and the mess over the
Bush/National Guard story gave the needed excuse.
HD.net is now posting a number of Rather’s reports
online. His next one will be an interview with former
Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Recent ones
focus on Iraq, voter fraud, Somalia and the safety of
the planned 787 plane:

http://www.hd.net/danrather.html

TV critics can rip him all they want, but he ain’t
chasing Britney and O.J. He’s still doing journalism
that’s truly important.


*Happy 40th to 60
Speaking of important journalism, 60 Minutes, now in
season 40 (wow!) still practices plenty:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-09-20-60-minutes_N.htm

I don’t agree that the Greenspan interview was boring;
I think it gave personal insight into a man who has
had a great deal of power over the last two decades,
but who many Americans don’t really know.
Scott Pelley is now the “go-to” interview guy, the
role Mike Wallace had for so many years. (I thought it
would be Bob Simon, but the one-time Middle East
correspondent who was a prisoner during the first Iraq
war seems to be going soft.)

*The goat and Wayne Huizenga
I agree with Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo:

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2007/09/the_dolphins_real_problem_curs.html
In fact, any number of South Floridians (including me)
probably wouldn’t mind laying claim to inflicting the
curse after the Marlins breakup.


*Television’s top 100
Let’s start some new arguments, as Time magazine’s
television critic does:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/completelist/0,,1651341,00.html


The nice thing is (Take a lesson, American Film
Institute) the public’s comments are put right below
the list. Those comments include virtually all of what
he left out.
Omissions included:
1. Omnibus—1950s program that showed the arts and
predated PBS and its programs (Live From Lincoln
Center, Great Performances, etc.)
2. Perry Mason: Set the standard for every legal show
that followed.
3. Bonanza: Gunsmoke may have lasted longer, but this
one set the standard.
4. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: The children’s program
that not only made “Sesame Street” possible, but also
proved nice guys finish first, as Fred Rogers did in
gaining the respect of a nation.
5. The Beverly Hillbillies-Not only side-splittingly
funny, but subversive in poking at the upper classes.
6. Get Smart: Terrific spoof of spy movies and shows.
Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, who would go on
to do some other things……
7. Mission Impossible: Good morning, Mr. Phelps, you
have the Cold War down pat. Much better than those
noisy Tom Cruise films.
8. The Fugitive: The greatest chase in television
history.
9. Hawaii Five-O: Went out – way out – on location and
changed the way police shows looked and sounded. There
would have been no “Miami Vice” without “Hawaii
Five-O.”
10. All My Children: General Hospital may have gotten
the headlines in the 1980s, but this drama was the one
that started to break taboos.
11. The Waltons: A quiet family drama that captured
viewers’ hearts.
12. The Rockford Files: Answering machines have never
been so much fun.
13. Maude: I know he left out spinoffs, but this one
(from All in the Family) developed a life of its own.
14. Cagney and Lacey: Took the sharpest look at women
and their ups and downs.
15. Murphy Brown: No show ever did a better job of
poking fun at Washington.
16. Designing Women: Ripped away stereotypes and
tackled AIDS, abuse, obesity, plastic surgery and the
challenges of aging.
17. Frasier: Better than Cheers, with a great deal
more heart and scripts that suggested the best in
farce.