Archive for August 27th, 2006
I’m amazed that my favorite shows were so well represented at the Emmy Awards. The Fox show 24 won an Emmy for the best drama, and NBC’s The Office won for best comedy. The Daily Show walked away with two awards, one for best variety show and another for best writing. 24’s Keifer Sutherland and Monk’s Tony Shalhoub won for best actor. Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Julia Louis-Dreyfus of The New Adventures of Old Christine took home lead actress Emmys. And West Wing’s Alan Alda and Entourage’s Jeremy Piven were named best supporting actors.
August 27th, 2006
A New York businessman from Pakistan is facing conspiracy charges for distributing Al Manar, a television outlet generally accepted to be from the Hezbollah. 42-year-old Javed Iqbal enabled New York customers to receive Al Manar via satellite. The government arrested him for violating a law that bars direct financial aid to terrorists. It’s a First Amendment case, to be sure. Those who support Iqbal say he’s entitled to free political speech. Those opposed cite precedence for outlawing speech that advocates or incites violence.
August 27th, 2006
At the National Convention of the Society of Professional Journalists this past weekend in Chicago, a number of interesting resolutions were passed. Among them, a call for a federal shield law, a “Free Joshua Wolf” resolution, support for the two reporters in the Barry Bonds expose who are now being ordered to give testimony in federal court, and a call for tighter self-policing of the use of VNRs. Best line in the document comes in the VNR resolution: “Be it further resolved, that the FCC should leave the regulation of news content up to journalists.”
August 27th, 2006
Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, held court at the SPJ convention over the weekend. For the past couple of years, Bob has been interested in adopting a statement of ethics at the MBA. (Disclosure: I am a board member.) The first try was met with a ton of rancor. This time around, Bob’s making a mission out of hearing what professional journalists think of bloggers and trying to find some middle ground. Journalists need to understand that bloggers are not the lunatic fringe enemy. Bloggers need to understand that professional journalists aren’t going away. Understanding is a good place to start.
August 27th, 2006
The boards of SAG and AFTRA have agreed to two-year extensions for actors who appear in commercials. The rank and file have to vote by Sept. 26. The extension gives actors’ unions and advertisers time to figure out who gets what when an ad appears on various digital platforms.
August 27th, 2006
Log on to NBC.com during the Emmy Awards and you’ll see live a behind-the-scenes webcast and blog, as well as a synchronized trivia question game. The game is sponsored by Target, which is giving away $500 gift certificates at random. Writes Kevin Newcomb in ClickZ, “By providing a connection with the show and other viewers, NBC is hoping to shore up ratings on the awards show, which is seen by many critics as a network TV dinosaur that needs to be retooled to be relevant in today’s media environment.” If you play along, let us know how it went in comments…
August 27th, 2006
Every so often, I’ll visit GuitarTabs.com to find out how to play a new song on my guitar. I’ll search for the song, then pick from a list of tabs — basically a simplified sheet music written by someone who has taken the time to reverse-engineer the song down to its guitar components. Sounds innocent enough, huh? Well the music industry has suddenly deemed them a copyright violation — even if they’re inaccurate — and is threatening to sue to shut the sites down. (Read the threatening letter here.) “People can get it for free on the Internet, and it’s hurting the songwriters,” said Lauren Keiser, who is president of the Music Publishers’ Association. I, like many other strictly amateur guitarists, would never buy sheet music or a guitar tab. In effect, we’re fans of the artist, and the guitar tab sites are basically fan sites. But again, the music industry’s unbelievable lack of creativity — why aren’t guitar tabs part of their existing fan sites? — why wouldn’t you want to maximize the number of people privately playing your artists’ songs? — has led to a legal crackdown.
August 27th, 2006
