MMMM # 149 -- The NEW News on CBS.

     Of course I have some bias on this MMMM topic, working now for a CBS affiliate, and having worked for another in Birmingham. But I have to say CBS hit it out of the park with a solid but unsensational first week of news anchored by Scott Pelley.

     And I say unsensational in a complimentary way.

     After night number one, the Washington Post's critic wrote about an immediate and significant difference: how they all handled Weiner's admission of guilt and cover up.

     It's a distance race, of course, not a sprint, but I would say Pelley is off to a great start, treating the evening news with a seriousness and lack of smarmyness and fake sincerity that seems so common elsewhere.

    You go Scott! Back to the future!



[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

MMMM # 147 -- Media Futures

     A long-awaited FCC report on the future of the media concludes that TV news is more important than ever. According to a story in Broadcasting & Cable, the report will come out on Thursday during a regular public FCC meeting. The actual name of the report is "The Technology and Information Needs of Communities". Much clearer than the working title of "The Future of Media", no? 

-----------

  Speaking of broadcasting and cable, I read a Birmingham News column last month in which TV critic Dave Sharp was listing Summer Cable TV premiers. He commented that...

"...the cable networks who, more and more, are giving those big boy networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and The CW) a major run for their money in the storytelling department."

  Come on Dave...Breaking Bad manages to attract 3 Million viewers on its best night...CBS's Two and a Half Men (without Sheen)  attracts more than 10 Million viewers. Storytelling without an audience is, what? A non-profit venture?



     And besides, with NBC buying Comcast (or was it the other way around?), consolidation will likely mean cable and broadcasters become the same, competing on a market by market basis for subscribers.

     At some point, probably many years for now, the whole idea of maintaining expensive transmitters and towers will end. It will be all cable and all Internet distribution. The virtual end of free TV. Another victory for the "subscription economy".

     In the meantime, the cable shows fight for whatever time the audience will be willing to invest watching TV during the busy Summer days---DVD/downloads notwithstanding,



[UPDATE: Speaking of over-the-air TV....a new report out suggests MORE Americans are using it.



[ALSO: The Rep. Weiner-Tweet story has an interesting media angle...did The N.Y. Post get an interview by posing as a non-journalist? Read the story here in the Washington Post.



[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

MM(A)MM #142 --Where's The Video?

     So after the 40 minute firefight resulted in Osama Bin Laden being shot in the head and killed, his body was carried away from the compound in Pakistan on foot (since one of the helicopters had a mechanical malfunction and had crashed), and the body was then taken to a U.S. Naval ship.....

An official at today's Pentagon briefing said the body, once aboard the USS Carl Vinson, was washed and placed in a white sheet. It was then placed in a "weighted bag," and a military officer read prepared "religious remarks," which were translated into Arabic by a "native speaker" who was not further identified.

     Evidence of identification of the body was obtained, including photos, but none was released. And no video is being released of either the body or the burial. But you know it has to exist. I'm a DINFOS graduate. The military has people taking video everywhere. So where is it, any why not release it to prove their case?

     Without video, or at least stills, rumors will begin about the identity of the body. Or rumors that American service personnel were allowed to write obscene F-You messages on the "white sheet" the way they did on the bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. And was the body desecrated before or after it was washed. Did anyone take an ear as a souvenir like in "Nam?

     You do have to admire the entire burial procedure. The U.S. Miliotary says it used Islamic Law as the reason for dumping the body at sea, which also conveniently solves the problem of  his grave becoming the site for massive protests and pilgrimages.

    An amazing operation!

    And goodby to a mass murderer.

    I would advise the sharks to steer clear of the body. It will taste foul.



[The Monday Morning (and sometimes afternoon) Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]



[UPDATE: Some Muslims question the "burial at sea".]



[UPDATE: CBS Report: Will U.S. release photos?]

M(T)MMM #137 -- The New Media Landscape

     Here's the way a Yahoo! Sports Editor (Yahoo? They have Sports Editors? Yahoo! is producing enough journalism to need editors?) explains why he deleted a quote by an NFL player, comparing the league to slavery:

"I want to give him the opportunity to provide context as opposed to just running with it...I just feel like he should have been advised a little differently."

    Read the entire story on CBS (They DO have editors) here.

      So now the "editors" are there to protect the people being interviewed? Why not set up a PR firm on the side and offer questions in advance and let the players' reps select which parts of stories they like before they are broadcast or posted or printed?

      And a second thought: When in the history of the institution of slavery has a slave been paid enormous amounts of money...multiple-millions...to play a game?



[The Monday Morning (and sometimes Tuesday afternoon) Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]