You may have heard that the White House seems to have declared war on Fox News. President Obama has even gone as far as not appearing on one of the Fox News Sunday morning shows even though he appeared on every other network that morning. Now other White House spokespeople are openly saying that the network can't be trusted.
I've never noticed how often the hosts at CNN - almost all of them - say the phrase "we'll have to leave it there" when they run out of time when interviewing a guest. But The Daily Show noticed it, and last night they were all over CNN about it.
Glenn Beck is a controversial, political show host and author now, but he used to be a crazy radio DJ. You can probably still see some of that in his work. Here's a promo he did for for Y95 back in the 80s. It has all of the things that are now cliche, including wacky sounds, animals, and the term "morning zoo." Actually, they were probably cliche back then too.
Maddow was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the other night, talking about healthcare and cocktails and comic books and other things. At the start of the interview she also drops some news about why she was gone from MSNBC a couple of weeks ago that some might find surprising.
Earlier today I posted a video from last night's Daily Show where Jon Stewart took FOX News to task for flip-flopping on their coverage of protestors. But let's be fair. Here's Stewart from the night before, dumping on CNN for their ridiculous new segments.
If I was to make a list of ten things I hate on television, I think polls would be one of them. The news channels (cable and local news) are always asking us to text or call in with our opinion on some poll question. But you can't believe the numbers, as Jon Stewart showed last night on The Daily Show. (Video also here.)
You don't usually get the mom of a reporter on television defending her son, but that's what happened earlier today on MSNBC. Dylan Ratigan (always a controversial guy) aired hidden camera footage of reporter Jonathan Capehart eating a bagel. It was meant to be a joke, but Capehart's mom didn't like it at all and let Ratigan know it live on the air.
I haven't watched MSNBC since my cable company took it off the basic digital package I have, and between the bizarre Keith Olbermann/Chris Matthews feuds and stuff like the video below, I might have to upgrade. It's from yesterday, when David Shuster and Tamron Hall were interviewed by a New York reporter about a story she wrote. It gets very odd. If she couldn't hear them, how did she answer so quickly? And if she was reading the screen and answering some questions, why not answer the others?
This isn't just the week for prime time Emmy nominations, we also have the nominations for news.
Here's the list of news and documentary Emmy nominations. There are many categories, including several for the cable news channels, but a few of the big nominations include Charlie Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin for Outstanding Interview (really?), NBC Nightly News coverage of Tim Russert's death for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story, 60 Minutes taking three of the four nominations in the Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine category (Primetime took the other), and three nominations for The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
It's always odd when The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are on vacation. So many news stories to make fun of that they miss. The clip below has Jon Stewart talking about how the news framed President Obama's walk down some stairs on his recent trip overseas and also the overdone media coverage on the death of a legend.
This clip from The Soup will bring a smile to the face of every reader who thinks that TV coverage of Michael Jackson has gone too far. I guess that would be all readers. Joel McHale introduces montages about how the gossip shows and news channels reveal too much info about his death, wonder where his body is, and speculate wildly. The funeral is tomorrow, so we can imagine what coverage is still to come. (Video also here.)
There are about 20 funny lines in this short segment from last night's episode of The Colbert Report. Colbert goes after CNN's Anderson Cooper for getting the exclusive story on what happened to Bubbles, Michael Jackson's former pet chimp. "Crank up the AC!"
We've talked about this a lot here at TV Squad, how the word "exclusive" isn't used correctly in TV news these days. In fact I'll go one step further and say that networks often lie when they say something is an "exclusive." They'll say that an interview with a famous celebrity or a politician is an exclusive, but you realize you just watched an interview with the same person on another network the night before, or there's an interview with the same person the next day.
Now, some networks will say they have an exclusive before another interview airs, so in that case I guess we can say they're right (if we give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't know the other interview was coming, that is), but more often than not they know it's not an exclusive.
There's been so much coverage of Michael Jackson's death that there's bound to be great stuff and ... well, not so great stuff. In fact, lots of not so great stuff. Last night The Daily Show gave awards to the worst moments. This is really funny. Did Geraldo really use a whiteboard like that, and did CNN actually have an animation of his heart? Amazing.
Shep Smith is one of my favorite people on TV, and I never miss his show at 3 PM each day. Today we might want to make a special effort to watch.
You may have heard that the White House seems to have 
This isn't just the week for prime time 
We've 
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