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In about 15 minutes, the 84th Annual Academy Awards will broadcast live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, hosted once again by Billy Crystal. Right now, the blogger of this blog is watching ABC's live Red Carpet coverage, which is winding down. And like the other times, this blog will be updated during the commercial breaks.
8:16PM- Actors being asked whom they are rooting for...
8:26PM- Well, it's about time, so I'm excited. It's Oscar night, and I've got my water and candy right beside me. Not leaving my seat, except during the commercials.
8:29PM- It's Time!
8:30PM- Morgan Freeman kicks the show off. "This magnificent event enables us to look at the present and acknowledge the past."
8:31PM- And like the eight other times in Oscar history, so it begins, the Billy Crystal Oscar open, first with The Artist, then The Descendants
8:31PM- "Say, I'm Batman. Hit me."
8:32PM- Next up, Moneyball...then, it's Midnight in Paris, where Justin Bieber gives Billy Crystal "the 18-24 demographic". "We're going to hang out with Hemingway and Fitzgerald...", "...and then we're going to kill Hitler."
8:33PM- The Help, followed by Bridesmaids' and their scenes of excrement
8:34PM- "Are you sure this is a Scorsese movie? Nobody's going to watch it." Hugo (taken to Mission: Impossible 3D)
8:35PM- Billy rides the coattails of the film reel through the green screen to the Kodak Theatre.
8:36PM- "That was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close..."- Billy Crystal, about the applause
8:37PM- "This is my 9th time hosting the Oscars, just call me War Horse."; "Welcome to the Chapter 11 Theatre."- Billy Crystal
8:38PM- "It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar"...first "The Artist" (parody of I Won't Dance), then "War Horse" (parody of Mr. Ed), then "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", then "Moneyball"..."They're serving cupcakes after the show", then "Hugo" (parody of That's Amore), then "The Tree of Life"..."I even heard it freaked out God", followed by "The Descendants" (parody of the Hawaiian War Dance), then "Midnight in Paris" (parody of The Last Time I Saw Paris", then "The Help".
8:41PM- Tom Hanks presents the first award of the Oscar night, but not before acknowledging a 59-year Oscar seat holder veteran named Carl.
8:42PM- Hanks presents the First Two Awards of the night, first up Cinematography.
8:43PM- Robert Richardson wins the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for "Hugo", previously winning for "JFK" and "The Aviator".
8:43PM- "I can't believe somebody put Cinematography first. You can only go up."- Robert Richardson, three-time winning Cinematographer
8:44PM- Art Direction is the next category.
8:45PM- Hugo wins the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Production Designer Dante Ferretti and Set Decorator Francesca Lo Schiovo.
8:46PM- Musicians playing in the balcony area taking us to the first Commercial Break.
8:50PM- "Welcome back to the 'Your Name Here' Theatre."- Billy Crystal
8:51PM- A clip show of past films: Forrest Gump, Titanic, LEgends of the Fall, The Princess Bride, Avatar, Amelie, Ghost, Jaws I, Apollo 13, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Hangover, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Arthur, Shawshank Redemption, Austin Powers, Something About Mary, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, French Connection, A Few Good Men, Star Wars, E.T., Raging Bull, Midnight Cowboy, When Harry Met Sally
8:53PM- "Please welcome a recurring dream of mine, Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz."- Billy Crystal
8:54PM- Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz present the Oscar for Best Costume Design, won a record eight times by Edith Head.
8:55PM- Mark Bridges win the Oscar for Achievement in Costume Design for "The Artist".
8:56PM- Lopez and Diaz are also presenting the Makeup Oscar, where there are three nominees.
8:57PM- The Makeup team from "The Iron Lady", Mark Coulier and Roy Helland wins the Academy Award for Achievement in Makeup.
8:58PM- "Thanks, Meryl for keeping me employed for the last 37 years."- Roy Helland
8:59PM- Interviews of Actors (including 11-time Razzie nominee this year Adam Sandler) about the movies.
9:00PM- "In the end, the good Gargantuan had to sacrifice himself to defeat the bad Gargantuan."- Brad Pitt (in the interview package)
9:01PM- No Baseball film has ever won the Oscar for Best Picture. Moneyball is the first baseball film since "Field of Dreams" to be a Best Picture nominee.
9:02PM- Commercial Break
9:05PM- Sandra Bullock presents the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
9:06PM- Sandra Bullock says something in Mandarin Chinese.
9:07PM- From Iran, "A Separation" wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Iran's first Academy Award in this category.
9:08PM- "You'll get to choose one on Super Tuesday..."- Billy Crystal
9:09PM- Defending Supporting Actor champ (and Batman) Christian Bale presents the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Four of the five nominees are first-times.
9:11PM- Octavia Spencer wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mississippi maid Minnie in "The Help", one of four first-time nominees in this category this year, and the third African-American in the last six years to win in this race.
9:14PM- Balcony musicians...again. "The Artist" is the first silent film to be nominated for Best Picture since 1928, and only the fourth Black & White film to be nominated for Best Picture since 1967.
9:15PM- Commercial Break
9:18PM- "Footage of 'Wizard of Oz' Focus Group" with the Christopher Guest film actors.
9:19PM- "I was somewhat perplexed."
9:20PM- "I loved the Flying Monkeys...if you can teach a monkey to fly, you can teach a monkey to talk."
9:20PM- "I didn't particularly care for the Rainbow song."
9:21PM- Catherine O'Hara sings a lyric of the parody of "Over the Rainbow".
9:21PM- They will be screening "Gone With the Wind" "next week".
9:22PM- "You're a lucky girl. He's a very good kisser."- Billy Crystal (to Stacy Kiebler on George Clooney)
9:22PM- Tina Fey & Bradley Cooper present the Academy Award for Achievement in Film Editing.
9:23PM- Last year's winners Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall return for seconds, winning the Academy Award for Achievement in Film Editing.
9:24PM- Angus: "Let's get out of here." Kirk: "We're editors. Thank you."
9:24PM- Cooper and Fey are also presenting the Oscar for Sound Editing.
9:25PM- Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty win the Oscar for Sound Editing for "Hugo".
9:26PM- "If I forgot anyone, you know who you are..."- Stockton.
9:27PM- Cooper and Fey make it three categories in a row as they are also presenting the Oscar for Sound Mixing.
9:28PM- "Hugo" wins its fourth Oscar of the night, this time for Sound Mixing for Sound Mixers Tom Fleischman and John Midgley.
9:29PM- Commercial Break. Cirque du Soleil is coming up after the Commercial Break.
9:33PM- Kermit T. Frog and his lovely bride Miss Piggy
9:34PM- "It's time Spielberg left some for the rest of us. How many Oscars does he need?"- Miss Piggy
9:35PM- Cirque du Soleil does their interpretation of "What Is It Like To Go To The Movies?"
9:38PM- So that's what it's like to go to the movies?
9:38PM- "Wow. I pulled a hamstring just watching it. We've got puppets, acrobats...we're just a pony away from being a Bar Mitzvah."- Billy Crystal; "He may be walking on the stage, just because he wanders off." (about Christopher Plummer); "When my grandfather was 82, we didn't allow him to go to the movies."
9:40PM- "84 and timeless, but the show isn't, so let's move on."
9:40PM- Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. present the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
9:40PM- Gwyneth: "What are you doing here?"; Robert: "I'm filming a documentary, 'The Presenter'."
9:43PM- "Undefeated" (not the Sarah Palin one, but I thought it was) wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay, and Rich Middlemas.
9:44PM- And the trio gets cut off.
9:45PM- Past Oscar host Chris Rock presents the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
9:46PM- "Rango", directed by Gore Verbinski, win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
9:47PM- "It was created by a bunch of grown-ups acting like children."- Gore Verbinski (about Rango) in his acceptance speech
9:48PM- Northern Ireland, France, Canada, Argentina, England, Mexico, and the United States represent the nations of our 20 acting nominees.
9:49PM- Commercial Break
9:52PM- Melissa McCarthy blocks Billy Crystal from the backstage door. Meanwhile, Emma Stone and Ben Stiller present the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
9:52PM- "This is my first time presenting an Academy Award."- Emma Stone (acting airy)
9:53PM- "We should have banter, where you act cocky..."- Stone (and she's taller than Ben)
9:56PM- The team from "Hugo"- Alex Hemmings, Rod Legato, Joss Williams, and Len Grossman, wins the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
9:57PM- "This is the year we said goodbye to Harry Potter. He made $ 7.7 Billion, and he only paid 14 percent income tax."- Billy Crystal
9:58PM- Last year's Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo presents the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
10:00PM- Christopher Plummer becomes the oldest Academy Award winner, winning for Best Supporting Actor for "Beginners". (Plummer receives a standing ovation)
10:01PM- "You're only two years older than me, but where you've been all my life...when I came out of my mother's womb, I've been practicing my acceptance speech."- Christopher Plummer, accepting his Oscar
10:03PM- Commercial Break (and more balcony musicians), then after that are the two Music categories- Score and Song.
10:07PM- "What's on their mind?" (Brad Pitt has six parent-teacher conferences in the meaning, Morgan Freeman narrating, George Clooney: "Billy didn't tell me that this kiss was being filmed", camera on Scorsese, Viola Davis: "I want to thank the writers for creating a strong, powerful black woman not being played by Tyler Perry", Peppy: "If I had him, I'd lick him." (What people are thinking)
10:09PM- A word from the Academy President Tom Sherak.
10:10PM- "Thank you for sharing our love for the movies."- Tom Sherak
10:10PM- "Thank you, Tom, and thank you for whipping the crowd into a frenzy."- Billy Crystal
10:12PM- Penelope Cruz and Owen Wilson present the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
10:13PM- Ludovic Bource wins the Academy Award for Best Original Score for composing the score/dialogue to The Artist.
10:15PM- Will Ferrell and Zach Galiafanakis (with cymbals) proceed up to the stage to present the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Get your coins ready for the coin toss (there are only two nominees, remember?)
10:16PM- "One of our nominees will join the ranks of songs such as..."
10:17PM- **Coin Flip** (and cymbals dropping) Bret McKenzie (of Flight of the Conchords fame) wins the Academy Award for writing "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets.
10:18PM- "If you get to meet (Kermit), he's nice in real life, and like everybody else, he's shorter in real life."- Bret McKenzie
10:19PM- Candy girls pass out popcorns as we head to another break. Nine SNL cast members (Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Robert Downey Jr., Joan Cusack, Michael McKean, Randy Quaid, George Coe, and the first SNL cast member to receive a nod while on the show, Kristen Wiig) past and present have been Oscar nominees. Will Kristen Wiig be the first to win one? Adapted and Original Screenplay up next, after, yup, you guessed it...Another Commercial Break.
10:24PM- "Please welcome the Original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Angelina Jolie."- Billy Crystal
10:24PM- Angelina Jolie presents the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay.
10:27PM- Alexander Payne, Matt Faxon, and Jim Rash win the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay for "The Descendants". Payne won seven years ago for writing "Sideways".
10:27PM- "We bow to our fellow nominees."- Alexander Payne
10:28PM- Jolie also is presenting the Original Screenplay category.
10:29PM- Woody Allen (who is not here, obviously) wins the Academy Award for writing "Midnight in Paris".
10:30PM- Another interview Q&A defining "What Makes a Great Film".
10:31PM- "I just really wanna watch some sick stuff."- Sacha Baron Cohen
10:31PM- "I don't know if I'm gonna get there."- Adam Sandler, nominated for as many Golden Raspberry Award nominations as Hugo has Oscar nominations for Best Picture
10:32PM- Commercial Break, then the three shorts categories.
10:36PM- Milla Jovovich recaps the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Awards.
10:37PM- The Bridesmaids (too many to name: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Ellie Kemper, and Wendi McClendon-Covey) present the three Short categories. First up, Wiig and Rudolph present Live Action.
10:40PM- "The Shore", produced by Terry and Orlagh George, shot and produced in Northern Ireland, wins the Academy Award for Live Action Short.
10:41PM- Byrne and McCarthy present the Documentary Short Subject. (**Someone yells Scorsese**)
10:42PM- "Saving Face" (produced by Daniel Junge and Charmeen Obaid-Chubay) wins the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.
10:44PM- McClendon-Covey and Kemper present the Animated Short Film.
10:45PM- "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mister Morris Lessmore" wins the Academy Award for Animated Short Film for William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg.
10:46PM- Will Scorsese win his second Oscar for Best Director? Or will the Director's Guild winner take the Directing Oscar for the 58th time in 64 years? Find out...after the Commercial Break.
10:49PM- "Our next presenter was occupying Wall Street before it was cool, please welcome two-time Oscar winner Michael Douglas."- Billy Crystal introducing Michael Douglas, who is presenting the Best Director Academy Award.
10:52PM- Michel Hazanavicius wins the Academy Award for Best Director, making it the 58th time in 64 years that the DGA winner has won the covetous Best Director Oscar. Tom Hooper, pass the rubber stamp to Michel Hazanavicius.
10:54PM- "14 times, she's had to sit there, pretending to act thrilled when somebody else wins."- Billy Crystal on Meryl Streep who is presenting the Governor's Award winners, who are Oprah Winfrey (Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award), James Earl Jones (Honorary Oscar), and makeup artist Dick Smith (The Godfather, The Exorcist, Amadeus; Honorary Oscar).
10:57PM- James Earl Jones, Dick Smith, and Oprah Winfrey receive a standing ovation.
10:58PM- Balcony time once more, you know what that means....Memoriam is next, then the final three categories. Will Meryl finally get off the schneid after 29 years, or will the streak continue?
11:02PM- Billy Crystal leads the Memoriam, which includes Gil Cates, whom produced 14 Oscar ceremonies, including six with Billy, and Laura Ziskin, another Oscar producer; Jane Russell, Annie Girardot, John Calley, Polly Platt, Ken Russell, Donald Peterman, Farley Granger, Whitney Houston, Bingham Ray, Tak Migashima, Burt Schneider, Michael Cocoyannis, David Z. Goodman, James Robmunsky, Peter E. Berger, Jack J. Hayes, Peter Falk, Cliff Robertson, Laura Ziskin, Sidney Lumet, Sue Mengers, Steve Jobs, George Kuchar, Hal Kanter, Theodoria Van Runkle, Tim Hetherington, Gene Cantamesse, Gary Vinick, Bill Varney, Jackie Cooper, Gilbert Cates, Richard Leacock, James M. Roberts, Marion Doughtery, Norman Corwin, Paul John Haggar, Joseph Farrell, Ben Gazzara, and Elizabeth Taylor were among the industry professionals in front of and behind the camera that we lost this past year. Esperanza Spalding sings "What a Wonderful World" (with the Southern California children's choir).
11:07PM- Commercial Break
11:12PM- "I never had any of those feelings."- Billy Crystal, about the short films during the Oscars
11:13PM- "Our next presenter is what little girls want to be when they grow up- smart, beautiful, and a murderous ballerina."- Billy Crystal introducing defending Best Actress champ Natalie Portman, presenting the Best Actor Oscar.
11:13PM- Natalie Portman presents the Best Actor Oscar.
11:18PM- Jean Dujardin dances his way to victory. Jean Dujardin wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in "The Artist".
11:19PM- "Tickets were five dollars, and the ceremony lasted fifteen minutes..." (the first Oscar ceremony, hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in 1929)- Jean Dujardin (in his acceptance speech)
11:20PM- Balcony time again, up next Colin Firth presents the Best Actress Oscar, and Tom Cruise the Oscar for Best Picture. But, until then, one final commercial break.
11:22PM- Angel hair pasta, green tea, sausage, and Bill Cosby's favorite dessert, Jell-O pudding were this blogger's main dinner fare. At the Oscar after parties, they'll be having more fancier feasts.
11:23PM- "In France, they must be going nuts right now."- Billy Crystal
11:23PM- Last year's Best Actor winner, Colin Firth presents the Best Actress Oscar.
11:24PM- Will Meryl get off the schneid, or will it be Viola's night?
11:26PM- "Meryl, Mamma mia. We danced, it was gay. I may have fathered your daughter."- Colin Firth
11:29PM- "The Streak Is OVER!!!!!!!!" For the first time since 1983, Meryl and Oscar meet. Meryl Streep wins the Academy Award for her role as The Iron Lady (Margaret Thatcher).
11:30PM- "Oh, my God!!! When I heard her name, I kinda heard half of America, saying, 'Oh, no, why her, not again.'"
11:31PM- "I really want to thanks, because I'll probably never be up here again..."- Meryl Streep
11:31PM- "For this inexplicably wonderful career, thank you so much."- Meryl Streep
11:32PM- Tom Cruise presents the final award of the night...Best Picture. Nine films nominated. Eight will lose. Which lucky film will join the ranks of Patton, Forrest Gump, The King's Speech, Rocky, and West Side Story? Can The Artist be the first silent film since Wings to win the Best Picture Oscar? Find out after this Best Picture montage. The Artist, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, Hugo, The Help, War Horse, The Tree of Life, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Moneyball are the nine films up for Best Picture
11:35PM- The Academy Award for Best Picture goes to...The Artist (Thomas Langmann, producer).
11:36PM- The Artist was the Only one of the nine Best Picture nominees filmed entirely in Los Angeles. The Artist is the first black and white film since Schindler's List to win the Best Picture Oscar, and the first film entirely shot in black and white since The Apartment to win the Best Picture Oscar, and most importantly, the first silent film since the very first Best Picture winner, Wings, to win this Oscar.
11:37PM- "I would like to thank three people. I would like to thank Billy Wilder, I would like to thank Billy Wilder, and I would like to thank Billy Wilder. Thank you very much."- Michel Hazanavicius during the Best Picture acceptance speech
11:38PM- "That's our evening, everybody! Good night, everybody!"- Billy Crystal, closing out the Oscars, which are running almost ten minutes over.
The Academy Awards were produced by Don Mischer and Emmy (24, Arrested Development) and Oscar (A Beautiful Mind) winning producer Brian (with an "I") Grazer. Billy Crystal created "The Focus Group" sketch.
The Artist and Hugo are tied with five Oscar wins, the most for any film. Like last year, there was a tie for the most wins. The Iron Lady went 2-for-2.
Tomorrow night (February 27th), a recap of the Oscars on The DJBC Happy Hour...LIVE (yup, LIVE!) at 8PM EST on WCRS, a low-power FM in Columbus, Ohio. If you don't live in the Columbus area, you can listen in live on http://www.wcrsfm.org (or listen to it later in the week, if there are technical glitches that are beyond our control).
14 Haziran 2012 Perşembe
66th Annual Tony Awards Live Blogging
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No, I am not blogging LIVE from the Tony Awards (which are at the Beacon Theatre in New York), but the 66th Annual Tony Awards air in about ten minutes, once again hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, who won an Emmy for hosting the 63rd Annual Tony Awards in 2010, and could be nominated for another Emmy next month for hosting last year's ceremony. All of the technical Tonys are handed out before the three-hour telecast, so that the more interesting races can be shown, and so that the musical performances can be accommodated into the three hour telecast (When PBS and CBS both aired the Tonys together, PBS aired the first 10 categories, while CBS aired the rest).
Final Predictions:
Best Play- Clybourne Park
Best Musical- Newsies
Best Revival of a Play- Death of a Salesman
Best Revival of a Musical- Follies
Best Actor of a Play- Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Death of a Salesman
Best Actress of a Play- Tracie Bennett, The End of a Rainbow
Best Featured Actor of a Play- Christian Borle, Peter and the Starcatcher
Best Featured Actress of a Play- Judith Light, Other Desert Cities
Best Actor of a Musical- Jeremy Jordan, Newsies
Best Actress of a Musical- Audra McDonald, Porgy and Bess
Best Featured Actor of a Musical- Michael Cerveris, Evita
Best Featured Actress of a Musical- Jayne Houdyshell, Follies
Best Director of a Play- Mike Nichols, Death of a Salesman
Best Director of a Musical- Jeff Calhoun, Newsies
Best Choreography- Christopher Gattelli, Newsies
Best Book- Harvey Fierstein, Newsies
Best Score- Alan Menken and Jack Feldman, Newsies
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7:58PM- One minute-plus and counting....
8PM- LIVE from New York, it's Sunday Night! Elder Price from "The Book of Mormon" goes to Ricky Martin's dressing room, who shuts the door, then Matthew Broderick, Cynthia Nixon, James Earl Jones, Judith Light all shut the door, and the cast of "The Book of Mormon" perform. (The Book of Mormon, written by the creators of the Emmy-winning animated series "South Park" swept the Tonys last year)
8:02PM- "Would you like a free religious book? It's written by Jesus."
8:03PM- "This Host Will Change Your Life..."
8:04PM- "Welcome to the 66th Annual Tony Awards, or as we like to call it, '50 Shades of Gay'."- Neil Patrick Harris, opening the ceremony
8:04PM- "Like with sequels, the third one comes with quality."- NPH
8:06PM- Harris goes out in song
8:07PM- "Crazy Dance Routines..."
8:08PM- Broadway legend Patti LuPone joins Harris in the opening number.
8:09PM- "The role of Cam will now be played by me."- Jesse Tyler Ferguson
8:10PM- The "Big Finish" of the Opening Number
8:11PM- Paul Rudd presents the first category (Featured Actress in a Play). "She's featured in this production, she's in it." (Rudd answering the question of what is a Featured Actress)
8:13PM- Judith Light (remember her from One Life to Live and Who's the Boss?) wins the Tony for Featured Actress in a Play for "Other Desert Cities".
8:15PM- Nick Jonas (really?) introduces the first Musical Nominee of the night, based off the 1992 movie (nominated for 6 Golden Raspberry Awards) based on the 1899 Newspaper Strike- "Newsies".
8:16PM- The cast of "Newsies" performs on stage (and unlike "Once", they are dancing on the stage)
8:20PM- "Once" won for Best Orchestrations
8:20PM- Commercial Break # 1
8:24PM- Christopher Gattelli won the Tony for Choreographing "Newsies".
8:25PM- "There's a trend of making movies into musicals." "The Towering Infer-No, No, Newsies", "The Exor-Sister Act", "Field of Dreamgirls", "Psycho Calcutta", "The Bridge of the River Kwai Baby", "My Left Footloose" ("Think of the Dance Numbers")
8:26PM- Amanda Seyfried (SI-FRED) presents the category for Featured Actor in a Musical.
8:27PM- Michael McGrath pulls off an upset for Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Cookie McGee in "Nice Work If You Can Get It", a category that was between former winner Michael Cerveris and "In Living Color" alum David Alan Grier.
8:29PM- Bernadette Peters introduces the Musical Revival Nominee "Follies" (a 1972 nominee for Best Musical).
8:30PM- Danny Burstein (Best Actor in a Musical nominee) performs "The God Why Don't You Love Me Blues" from "Follies".
8:33PM- Another Commercial Break
8:38PM- A performance from "Ghost the Musical"
8:41PM- John Larroquette presents the Tony for Direction of a Musical (followed by Direction of a Play).
8:42PM- John Tiffany wins the Tony for Directing "Once" in his Broadway directorial debut
8:45PM- Mike Nichols wins the Tony for Directing "Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman", which is his record 6th Tony, and he gets a standing ovation.
8:46PM- "You see before me a happy man."- Mike Nichols
8:47PM- "A Salesman has got to dream, it goes with the territory."- Mike Nichols
8:48PM- Ben Vereen presents the next Best Revival of a Musical Nominee, the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" (another 1972 Best Musical Nominee and the first of two Andrew Lloyd Webber revivals nominated tonight).
8:50PM- Josh Young (Featured Actor Nominee) and the cast perform "Superstar" from "Jesus Christ Superstar".
8:58PM- Neil Patrick Harris is hanging down (a la Spiderman) while Angela Lansbury and the President of the American Theater Wing, Theodore S. Chapin are on the stage.
9PM- Jessica Chastain presents the Tony for Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.
9:01PM- Christian Borle (the better half of the Marilyn Monroe musical composing team on "Smash") wins the Tony for Featured Actor in a Play for "Peter and the Starcatcher".
9:03PM- Matthew ("Don't Call Me 'Mr. Shoe'") Morrison presents the next Best Musical Nominee, "Nice Work If You Can Get It", full of extravagant dance numbers, Gershwin tunes, and co-stars Matthew Broderick (and Tony nominee for Best Actress) Kelli (with an I) O'Hara, and the ensemble cast.
9:06PM- Enda Walsh won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical for "Once".
9:07PM- Commercial Break
9:11PM- "Once" also won for Sound Design
9:12PM- James Marsden presents the Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical.
9:13PM- Judy Kaye wins the Tony for Actress in a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Duchess Estonia in "Nice Work If You Can Get It".
9:15PM- Ellen Barkin (40 New Productions- Plays, Musicals, Revivals, and Special Events, opened this past season on Broadway) introduces "The Year in Plays" (which includes Peter and the Starcatcher, Master Class, Man and Boy, The Mountaintop, The Columnist, Clybourne Park, Wit, Other Desert Cities, One Man, Two Guvnors, Magic Bird, Seminar, The Best Man, Chinglish, The Lyons, The Road to Mecca, End of the Rainbow, Relatively Speaking, Don't Dress for Dinner, Stick Fly, A Streetcar Named Desire, Venus Fur, and Private Lives)
9:17PM- An excerpt from "Peter and the Starcatcher"
9:18PM- An excerpt from "One Man, Two Guvnors"
9:20PM- An impromptu Judy Garland medley
9:22PM- Commercial Break
9:28PM- Neil Patrick Harris performs a medley of Best Score winners (South Pacific, CATS, Annie, A Chorus Line, Hello Dolly!, Evita, Avenue Q, The Light in the Piazza, Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, Titanic, Rent, The Wiz, and Man of La Mancha, to name a few).
9:30PM- Sheryl Crow presents the Tony for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics written directly for the stage), of which two of the nominees are NOT Musicals, but Plays.
9:31PM- Alan Menken and Jack Feldman win the Tony for Best Original Score, and Alan Menken finally wins a Tony for Best Original Score, for "Newsies".
9:32PM- "It has been an incredibly long journey for 'Newsies', from the film that made nothing at the Box Office and won us the Razzie for Worst Original Song."- Alan Menken, accepting the Tony
9:32PM- "It never occurred to me that it would take 56 years to accomplish this feat. Look, Ma, a Tony!"- Jack Feldman
9:33PM- B.B. Winans introduces the third Musical Revival nominee, the timeless 1935 classic "Porgy and Bess", featuring Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, and David Alan Grier.
9:38PM- Peter and The Starcatcher won for Sound Design of a Play earlier...
9:39PM- Commercial Break (first commercial this break is the promo for the film adaptation of "Rock of Ages", the 1980s rock musical based off the stage musical of the same name)
9:42PM- Peter and The Starcatcher also won for Costume Design of a Play.
9:42PM- Tyler Perry introduces the Best Revival of a Play category.
9:43PM- They did it again..."Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman" wins the Tony for Best Revival of a Play.
9:45PM- Josh Groban presents "Once", with the cast of "Once" performing a song from the musical.
9:50PM- Follies won the Tony for Costume Design of a Musical
9:50PM- Commercial Break
9:56PM- Peter and the Starcatcher won for Scenic Design of a Play
9:57PM- "While you were away, Tyler Perry just sold the film rights to 'Porgy and Madea'."- Neil Patrick Harris
9:57PM- Jim Parsons introduces the nominees for Best Play- starting with "Clybourne Park" (about a neighborhood in the 1950s that became a predominantly black neighborhood in the 2000s), then "Other Desert Cities" (about a woman about to publish a memoir about a family tragedy in their past), followed by "Peter and the Starcatcher" (about the journey of the origins of Peter Pan), and finally "Venus in Fur" (about a playwright who writes a serious novel).
10:01PM- Parsons presents the Tony for Best Play, which goes to "Clybourne Park". "Clybourne Park", written by Bruce Norris, wins the Tony Award for Best Play.
10:04PM- Cote D'Pablo introduces the fourth and final nominee for Revival of a Musical (and the other Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical in this category), "Evita".
10:05PM- The cast of "Evita" (led by Ricky Martin) performs a song from "Evita".
10:09PM- Commercial Break, but first "Once" won the Tony for Scenic Design of a Musical
10:11PM- First commercial, the promo trailer for "Les Miserables", coming out to the big screen just in time for Oscar season (aka Christmas).
10:13PM- The cast of "Godspell" performs a medley on the stage from the 1971 musical (normally, performances are reserved for shows that are Best Musical [or Musical Revival] nominees, but this is a good exception), the odd show out of a competitive Best Revival of a Musical category this year
10:15PM- Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, the stars of the original 1979 Broadway Musical of "Evita", and Mandy and Patti sing lines for Best Revival of a Musical while they present Best Revival of a Musical.
10:17PM- The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess wins the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
10:19PM- Harvey Fierstein introduces a LIVE performance on "Hairspray", direct from the Oasis in the Carribean
10:23PM- Commercial Break
10:29PM- Emanuel Azenberg won a Lifetime Achievement Award; Bernadette Peters with the Isabelle Stevenson Award; Actors Equity Association won a Special Tony; The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. won the Regional Tony Award
10:30PM- Deborah Lee Furness presents a Special Tony Award to her husband Hugh Jackman.
10:31PM- Hugh Jackman accepts his Special Tony Award.
10:34PM- "I just got terrible news that the cast of 'Hairspray' has been taken over by Pirates...of Penzance."- Neil Patrick Harris
10:34PM- Candice Bergen presents the Tonys for Leading Actor in a Musical, then Leading Actor in a Play.
10:35PM- Steve Kazee wins the Tony for Leading Actor in a Musical for his role as the Unnamed Boy in "Once". (Looks like "Once" will sweep the Tonys, dontcha think?)
10:37PM- "This ensemble, and this woman (Cristin Milloti) are some of the most incredible people I've worked with."- Steve Kazee
10:37PM- Steve Kazee dedicates his Tony to his mother, who passed away on Easter Sunday.
10:38PM- James Corden (from across the pond) wins the Tony Award for Leading Actor in a Play for his role as Francis Henshaw in "One Man, Two Guvnors".
10:39PM- "To be on a list with you is enough, and holding this, it reminds me there is no such thing as 'Best'."- James Corden, accepting his Tony Award
10:41PM- "She's my baby mama, and I can't wait to marry her."- Corden, acknowledging his girlfriend in his acceptance speech
10:42PM- Raul Esparza and the company from the late "Leap of Faith" perform as the fourth and final nominee for Best Musical, which coincidentally is this musical's one and only nomination.
10:45PM- Once won for Lighting Design of a Musical; Commercial Break...only three more categories left...
10:50PM- Peter and the Starcatcher won the Tony for Lighting Design of a Play.
10:50PM- Christopher Plummer presents the Tonys for Leading Actress in both a Musical and a Play. The latter is up first.
10:51PM- Nina Arianda wins the Tony for Leading Actress in a Play for her role as Bamba in the play "Venus in Fur".
10:52PM- "Sir, you were my first crush...when that whistle was blown in 'The Sound of Music', you made my day."- Nina Arianda, to Christopher Plummer, accepting her Tony Award
10:54PM- "I will not do this again..."- Nina Arianda, upon hearing the "cut-off music"
10:55PM- Audra McDonald wins her first Leading Actress Tony (after four Featured Actress Tonys) to win her fifth Tony, this one for her role as Bess in "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess".
10:56PM- "I was a little girl with potbelly and Afro puffs and overdramatic. I found the theatre, and I found my home..."- Audra McDonald, accepting her Tony Award
10:58PM- One last commercial break, and one last category, and then the creators of "South Park"- Trey Parker and Matt Stone will present the final award of the evening, the covetous Best Musical category. Who will win? Leap of Faith? Newsies? Nice Work If You Can Get It? Once? Find out in about 2 minutes.
11:01PM- "Winning the Tony Award for Best Musical can transform your life forever."- Matt Stone; Matt Stone and Trey Parker present the Tony Award for Best Musical.
11:02PM- "Once" wins the Tony Award for Best Musical.
11:04PM- "If I Had Time, I Would Sing A Little Song Recapping The Awards..."- Neil Patrick Harris singing a little ditty to close out the show
11:06PM- That's the end of the Tony Awards. Now, I am off to finish the Bryan and Silver Garbage Award Shortlists and edit sketches for tomorrow night's show. And now, the late night news... 'Night, All!
Final Predictions:
Best Play- Clybourne Park
Best Musical- Newsies
Best Revival of a Play- Death of a Salesman
Best Revival of a Musical- Follies
Best Actor of a Play- Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Death of a Salesman
Best Actress of a Play- Tracie Bennett, The End of a Rainbow
Best Featured Actor of a Play- Christian Borle, Peter and the Starcatcher
Best Featured Actress of a Play- Judith Light, Other Desert Cities
Best Actor of a Musical- Jeremy Jordan, Newsies
Best Actress of a Musical- Audra McDonald, Porgy and Bess
Best Featured Actor of a Musical- Michael Cerveris, Evita
Best Featured Actress of a Musical- Jayne Houdyshell, Follies
Best Director of a Play- Mike Nichols, Death of a Salesman
Best Director of a Musical- Jeff Calhoun, Newsies
Best Choreography- Christopher Gattelli, Newsies
Best Book- Harvey Fierstein, Newsies
Best Score- Alan Menken and Jack Feldman, Newsies
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7:58PM- One minute-plus and counting....
8PM- LIVE from New York, it's Sunday Night! Elder Price from "The Book of Mormon" goes to Ricky Martin's dressing room, who shuts the door, then Matthew Broderick, Cynthia Nixon, James Earl Jones, Judith Light all shut the door, and the cast of "The Book of Mormon" perform. (The Book of Mormon, written by the creators of the Emmy-winning animated series "South Park" swept the Tonys last year)
8:02PM- "Would you like a free religious book? It's written by Jesus."
8:03PM- "This Host Will Change Your Life..."
8:04PM- "Welcome to the 66th Annual Tony Awards, or as we like to call it, '50 Shades of Gay'."- Neil Patrick Harris, opening the ceremony
8:04PM- "Like with sequels, the third one comes with quality."- NPH
8:06PM- Harris goes out in song
8:07PM- "Crazy Dance Routines..."
8:08PM- Broadway legend Patti LuPone joins Harris in the opening number.
8:09PM- "The role of Cam will now be played by me."- Jesse Tyler Ferguson
8:10PM- The "Big Finish" of the Opening Number
8:11PM- Paul Rudd presents the first category (Featured Actress in a Play). "She's featured in this production, she's in it." (Rudd answering the question of what is a Featured Actress)
8:13PM- Judith Light (remember her from One Life to Live and Who's the Boss?) wins the Tony for Featured Actress in a Play for "Other Desert Cities".
8:15PM- Nick Jonas (really?) introduces the first Musical Nominee of the night, based off the 1992 movie (nominated for 6 Golden Raspberry Awards) based on the 1899 Newspaper Strike- "Newsies".
8:16PM- The cast of "Newsies" performs on stage (and unlike "Once", they are dancing on the stage)
8:20PM- "Once" won for Best Orchestrations
8:20PM- Commercial Break # 1
8:24PM- Christopher Gattelli won the Tony for Choreographing "Newsies".
8:25PM- "There's a trend of making movies into musicals." "The Towering Infer-No, No, Newsies", "The Exor-Sister Act", "Field of Dreamgirls", "Psycho Calcutta", "The Bridge of the River Kwai Baby", "My Left Footloose" ("Think of the Dance Numbers")
8:26PM- Amanda Seyfried (SI-FRED) presents the category for Featured Actor in a Musical.
8:27PM- Michael McGrath pulls off an upset for Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Cookie McGee in "Nice Work If You Can Get It", a category that was between former winner Michael Cerveris and "In Living Color" alum David Alan Grier.
8:29PM- Bernadette Peters introduces the Musical Revival Nominee "Follies" (a 1972 nominee for Best Musical).
8:30PM- Danny Burstein (Best Actor in a Musical nominee) performs "The God Why Don't You Love Me Blues" from "Follies".
8:33PM- Another Commercial Break
8:38PM- A performance from "Ghost the Musical"
8:41PM- John Larroquette presents the Tony for Direction of a Musical (followed by Direction of a Play).
8:42PM- John Tiffany wins the Tony for Directing "Once" in his Broadway directorial debut
8:45PM- Mike Nichols wins the Tony for Directing "Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman", which is his record 6th Tony, and he gets a standing ovation.
8:46PM- "You see before me a happy man."- Mike Nichols
8:47PM- "A Salesman has got to dream, it goes with the territory."- Mike Nichols
8:48PM- Ben Vereen presents the next Best Revival of a Musical Nominee, the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" (another 1972 Best Musical Nominee and the first of two Andrew Lloyd Webber revivals nominated tonight).
8:50PM- Josh Young (Featured Actor Nominee) and the cast perform "Superstar" from "Jesus Christ Superstar".
8:58PM- Neil Patrick Harris is hanging down (a la Spiderman) while Angela Lansbury and the President of the American Theater Wing, Theodore S. Chapin are on the stage.
9PM- Jessica Chastain presents the Tony for Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.
9:01PM- Christian Borle (the better half of the Marilyn Monroe musical composing team on "Smash") wins the Tony for Featured Actor in a Play for "Peter and the Starcatcher".
9:03PM- Matthew ("Don't Call Me 'Mr. Shoe'") Morrison presents the next Best Musical Nominee, "Nice Work If You Can Get It", full of extravagant dance numbers, Gershwin tunes, and co-stars Matthew Broderick (and Tony nominee for Best Actress) Kelli (with an I) O'Hara, and the ensemble cast.
9:06PM- Enda Walsh won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical for "Once".
9:07PM- Commercial Break
9:11PM- "Once" also won for Sound Design
9:12PM- James Marsden presents the Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical.
9:13PM- Judy Kaye wins the Tony for Actress in a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Duchess Estonia in "Nice Work If You Can Get It".
9:15PM- Ellen Barkin (40 New Productions- Plays, Musicals, Revivals, and Special Events, opened this past season on Broadway) introduces "The Year in Plays" (which includes Peter and the Starcatcher, Master Class, Man and Boy, The Mountaintop, The Columnist, Clybourne Park, Wit, Other Desert Cities, One Man, Two Guvnors, Magic Bird, Seminar, The Best Man, Chinglish, The Lyons, The Road to Mecca, End of the Rainbow, Relatively Speaking, Don't Dress for Dinner, Stick Fly, A Streetcar Named Desire, Venus Fur, and Private Lives)
9:17PM- An excerpt from "Peter and the Starcatcher"
9:18PM- An excerpt from "One Man, Two Guvnors"
9:20PM- An impromptu Judy Garland medley
9:22PM- Commercial Break
9:28PM- Neil Patrick Harris performs a medley of Best Score winners (South Pacific, CATS, Annie, A Chorus Line, Hello Dolly!, Evita, Avenue Q, The Light in the Piazza, Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, Titanic, Rent, The Wiz, and Man of La Mancha, to name a few).
9:30PM- Sheryl Crow presents the Tony for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics written directly for the stage), of which two of the nominees are NOT Musicals, but Plays.
9:31PM- Alan Menken and Jack Feldman win the Tony for Best Original Score, and Alan Menken finally wins a Tony for Best Original Score, for "Newsies".
9:32PM- "It has been an incredibly long journey for 'Newsies', from the film that made nothing at the Box Office and won us the Razzie for Worst Original Song."- Alan Menken, accepting the Tony
9:32PM- "It never occurred to me that it would take 56 years to accomplish this feat. Look, Ma, a Tony!"- Jack Feldman
9:33PM- B.B. Winans introduces the third Musical Revival nominee, the timeless 1935 classic "Porgy and Bess", featuring Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, and David Alan Grier.
9:38PM- Peter and The Starcatcher won for Sound Design of a Play earlier...
9:39PM- Commercial Break (first commercial this break is the promo for the film adaptation of "Rock of Ages", the 1980s rock musical based off the stage musical of the same name)
9:42PM- Peter and The Starcatcher also won for Costume Design of a Play.
9:42PM- Tyler Perry introduces the Best Revival of a Play category.
9:43PM- They did it again..."Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman" wins the Tony for Best Revival of a Play.
9:45PM- Josh Groban presents "Once", with the cast of "Once" performing a song from the musical.
9:50PM- Follies won the Tony for Costume Design of a Musical
9:50PM- Commercial Break
9:56PM- Peter and the Starcatcher won for Scenic Design of a Play
9:57PM- "While you were away, Tyler Perry just sold the film rights to 'Porgy and Madea'."- Neil Patrick Harris
9:57PM- Jim Parsons introduces the nominees for Best Play- starting with "Clybourne Park" (about a neighborhood in the 1950s that became a predominantly black neighborhood in the 2000s), then "Other Desert Cities" (about a woman about to publish a memoir about a family tragedy in their past), followed by "Peter and the Starcatcher" (about the journey of the origins of Peter Pan), and finally "Venus in Fur" (about a playwright who writes a serious novel).
10:01PM- Parsons presents the Tony for Best Play, which goes to "Clybourne Park". "Clybourne Park", written by Bruce Norris, wins the Tony Award for Best Play.
10:04PM- Cote D'Pablo introduces the fourth and final nominee for Revival of a Musical (and the other Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical in this category), "Evita".
10:05PM- The cast of "Evita" (led by Ricky Martin) performs a song from "Evita".
10:09PM- Commercial Break, but first "Once" won the Tony for Scenic Design of a Musical
10:11PM- First commercial, the promo trailer for "Les Miserables", coming out to the big screen just in time for Oscar season (aka Christmas).
10:13PM- The cast of "Godspell" performs a medley on the stage from the 1971 musical (normally, performances are reserved for shows that are Best Musical [or Musical Revival] nominees, but this is a good exception), the odd show out of a competitive Best Revival of a Musical category this year
10:15PM- Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, the stars of the original 1979 Broadway Musical of "Evita", and Mandy and Patti sing lines for Best Revival of a Musical while they present Best Revival of a Musical.
10:17PM- The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess wins the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
10:19PM- Harvey Fierstein introduces a LIVE performance on "Hairspray", direct from the Oasis in the Carribean
10:23PM- Commercial Break
10:29PM- Emanuel Azenberg won a Lifetime Achievement Award; Bernadette Peters with the Isabelle Stevenson Award; Actors Equity Association won a Special Tony; The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. won the Regional Tony Award
10:30PM- Deborah Lee Furness presents a Special Tony Award to her husband Hugh Jackman.
10:31PM- Hugh Jackman accepts his Special Tony Award.
10:34PM- "I just got terrible news that the cast of 'Hairspray' has been taken over by Pirates...of Penzance."- Neil Patrick Harris
10:34PM- Candice Bergen presents the Tonys for Leading Actor in a Musical, then Leading Actor in a Play.
10:35PM- Steve Kazee wins the Tony for Leading Actor in a Musical for his role as the Unnamed Boy in "Once". (Looks like "Once" will sweep the Tonys, dontcha think?)
10:37PM- "This ensemble, and this woman (Cristin Milloti) are some of the most incredible people I've worked with."- Steve Kazee
10:37PM- Steve Kazee dedicates his Tony to his mother, who passed away on Easter Sunday.
10:38PM- James Corden (from across the pond) wins the Tony Award for Leading Actor in a Play for his role as Francis Henshaw in "One Man, Two Guvnors".
10:39PM- "To be on a list with you is enough, and holding this, it reminds me there is no such thing as 'Best'."- James Corden, accepting his Tony Award
10:41PM- "She's my baby mama, and I can't wait to marry her."- Corden, acknowledging his girlfriend in his acceptance speech
10:42PM- Raul Esparza and the company from the late "Leap of Faith" perform as the fourth and final nominee for Best Musical, which coincidentally is this musical's one and only nomination.
10:45PM- Once won for Lighting Design of a Musical; Commercial Break...only three more categories left...
10:50PM- Peter and the Starcatcher won the Tony for Lighting Design of a Play.
10:50PM- Christopher Plummer presents the Tonys for Leading Actress in both a Musical and a Play. The latter is up first.
10:51PM- Nina Arianda wins the Tony for Leading Actress in a Play for her role as Bamba in the play "Venus in Fur".
10:52PM- "Sir, you were my first crush...when that whistle was blown in 'The Sound of Music', you made my day."- Nina Arianda, to Christopher Plummer, accepting her Tony Award
10:54PM- "I will not do this again..."- Nina Arianda, upon hearing the "cut-off music"
10:55PM- Audra McDonald wins her first Leading Actress Tony (after four Featured Actress Tonys) to win her fifth Tony, this one for her role as Bess in "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess".
10:56PM- "I was a little girl with potbelly and Afro puffs and overdramatic. I found the theatre, and I found my home..."- Audra McDonald, accepting her Tony Award
10:58PM- One last commercial break, and one last category, and then the creators of "South Park"- Trey Parker and Matt Stone will present the final award of the evening, the covetous Best Musical category. Who will win? Leap of Faith? Newsies? Nice Work If You Can Get It? Once? Find out in about 2 minutes.
11:01PM- "Winning the Tony Award for Best Musical can transform your life forever."- Matt Stone; Matt Stone and Trey Parker present the Tony Award for Best Musical.
11:02PM- "Once" wins the Tony Award for Best Musical.
11:04PM- "If I Had Time, I Would Sing A Little Song Recapping The Awards..."- Neil Patrick Harris singing a little ditty to close out the show
11:06PM- That's the end of the Tony Awards. Now, I am off to finish the Bryan and Silver Garbage Award Shortlists and edit sketches for tomorrow night's show. And now, the late night news... 'Night, All!
6 Haziran 2012 Çarşamba
What's New
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It's been a long time since I've been here. August was hectic- most of it good, some of it not so.
Our landlord at our beloved "little house" at the shore died. He was a good man and a good friend and I will miss him. We do not know yet the disposition of the house, so we don't know if we will be able to go back.
Much of August was spent in Florida- with Auntie for almost a week, then a week at Disney World. We had a wonderful time throughout. We did some preliminary house-hunting in the area north of Tampa and found a neighborhood we really like- so we are that much closer to my dream of a home in Florida!
We drove home being chased up the coast by Hurricane Irene- it was an interesting trip, lol! I attended the funeral of the father of 3 of my students, who had died suddenly, the morning the hurricane started here. Lived through the hurricane with minimal damage, thank goodness, then as soon as the weather cleared, drove to the shore to attend our landlord's funeral the day after the hurricane.
We were able to spend Labor Day weekend at the shore and it was quiet and relaxing, except for all the packing up.
Then came THE STRIKE! We, the Catholic high school teachers in Philadelphia, are on strike. The issues are too many to go into here, but it comes down to changes in work rules that would be so punitive that we could not agree. Those changes were proposed in March and in May we had a general meeting where the teachers voted unanimously to strike if certain clauses remained among the demands of the Office of Catholic Education. Well, come the end of August and OCE continued to demand their way. The teachers' union has offered, repeatedly, to work under the old contract with a mediator during continued negotiations, but the Archdiocese refused and closed the schools.
Now we are walking picket lines and kids are at home. OCE officials go on TV and talk to the newspapers and run us down. One of the Archdiocesan negotiators, an assistant superintendent, said on TV the other day that the union members "are not educators"! Parents are calling us lazy, greedy union thugs. How can I go in front of a class of students who have been hearing and reading all this? Needless to say, I am severely depressed.
Those who have read here for any length of time know how I feel about my students and my job. However, after the pain of the closing of Cardinal Dougherty, the stress of adjusting to a new school, and now this, I am so discouraged I don't know what to do.
For now, I think I'll just go back to bed, pull the covers over my head, and wish it would all be a bad dream.
Our landlord at our beloved "little house" at the shore died. He was a good man and a good friend and I will miss him. We do not know yet the disposition of the house, so we don't know if we will be able to go back.
Much of August was spent in Florida- with Auntie for almost a week, then a week at Disney World. We had a wonderful time throughout. We did some preliminary house-hunting in the area north of Tampa and found a neighborhood we really like- so we are that much closer to my dream of a home in Florida!
We drove home being chased up the coast by Hurricane Irene- it was an interesting trip, lol! I attended the funeral of the father of 3 of my students, who had died suddenly, the morning the hurricane started here. Lived through the hurricane with minimal damage, thank goodness, then as soon as the weather cleared, drove to the shore to attend our landlord's funeral the day after the hurricane.
We were able to spend Labor Day weekend at the shore and it was quiet and relaxing, except for all the packing up.
Then came THE STRIKE! We, the Catholic high school teachers in Philadelphia, are on strike. The issues are too many to go into here, but it comes down to changes in work rules that would be so punitive that we could not agree. Those changes were proposed in March and in May we had a general meeting where the teachers voted unanimously to strike if certain clauses remained among the demands of the Office of Catholic Education. Well, come the end of August and OCE continued to demand their way. The teachers' union has offered, repeatedly, to work under the old contract with a mediator during continued negotiations, but the Archdiocese refused and closed the schools.
Now we are walking picket lines and kids are at home. OCE officials go on TV and talk to the newspapers and run us down. One of the Archdiocesan negotiators, an assistant superintendent, said on TV the other day that the union members "are not educators"! Parents are calling us lazy, greedy union thugs. How can I go in front of a class of students who have been hearing and reading all this? Needless to say, I am severely depressed.
Those who have read here for any length of time know how I feel about my students and my job. However, after the pain of the closing of Cardinal Dougherty, the stress of adjusting to a new school, and now this, I am so discouraged I don't know what to do.
For now, I think I'll just go back to bed, pull the covers over my head, and wish it would all be a bad dream.
Censored in 2010, Part 1
To contact us Click HERE
Censored in 2010, Part 1
Media Rants
By
Tony Palmeri
From The January 2011 edition of THE SCENE
Annually since 1976, Project Censored has identified news stories "underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored in the United States." Censored 2011 (Seven Stories Press) cites the efforts of global leaders with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to begin the process of replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency as the top censored story of 2010. The Project argues that “If the world leaders succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value; the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket; and interest rates will climb.”
Inspired by the Project, every year I dedicate two columns to ranking what I see as the ten stories most censored during the year. An important recent study by worldpublicopinion.org, demonstrating that the mainstream press misinform voters, shows the importance of Project Censored style work. And now the censored stories:
No. 10: Bobfest Shutout Again. By now even the organizers of Ed Garvey’s annual September Fighting BobFest at the Sauk County Fairgrounds expect the event to be censored in the mainstream press. But the censorship was especially absurd in 2010 as the corporate press couldn’t wait to cover Tea Party rallies in every part of the state. A Tea Party rally in Racine attracted half as many attendees as BobFest on the same day, yet the latter still earned little press.
No. 9: Forever Censoring Howard Zinn and Chalmers Johnson. Especially since 9/11, mainstream media have agonized over the “why do they hate us” question. Networks and cable stations trot out establishment historians and pundits to assure us that for all its flaws, America is at the end of the day a force for good in the world. That comforting mythology was challenged for years by two great thinkers who passed away in 2010. Professors Zinn and Johnson were war veterans (Zinn a WW II bombardier, Johnson served in Korea) who, in the tradition of America’s greatest patriots, dared tell the truth about their country’s behavior around the world.
Zinn’s A Peoples’ History of the United States is required reading for anyone interested in an account of our past not clouded by narrow, nationalistic ideology. Johnson’s Blowback series chronicles and exposes the effects of militarism and empire building on our safety, freedoms, and economy. That the insights of Zinn and Johnson are regarded in the mainstream press not as starting points for additional investigations but as “alternative” and marginal is a testament to the great power of the press to blind the masses.
No. 8: The 2010 South African World Cup. Invictus in Reverse. Watching USA coverage of 2010’s World Cup in South Africa, you’d have thought that the obnoxious sounding plastic horn, the vuvuzela, was THE story of the event. Another view was presented by Dave Zirin, one of the few American writers to reveal the social consequences of the tournament for South Africa:
“The present situation in South Africa could be called ‘Invictus in reverse.’ For those who haven't had the pleasure, the film Invictus is about the way Nelson Mandela used sport, particularly the near all-white sport of rugby to unite the country after the fall of apartheid. The coming World Cup has in contrast, provoked the camouflage of every conflict to present the image of a united nation to the world . . . All of these steps: displacements, crackdowns on informal trade, even accusations of state-sponsored assassinations, have an echo for people from the days of apartheid. It's provoked a fierce, and wholly predictable resistance.”
Evidence of resistance was difficult to find in the US press, unless it was about resistance to the vuvuzela.
No. 7: Obamacare Unconstitutional!!! In December district court judge Henry Hudson (appointed by George W. Bush) ruled the individual insurance mandate of Obamacare to be unconstitutional. This was a top news story on virtually every network and cable television news program, front page above the fold in lots of mainstream newspapers, and all the buzz on talk radio. Politicians like Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, who supported the mandate in the 1990s, said the opinion was a “great day for liberty.”
I personally do not like the mandate or Obamacare in general, as I believe coercing people to purchase a defective product from the corrupt private insurance industry is immoral and wrong. But from a media criticism perspective, I found it extraordinary how the feeding frenzy over one judge’s opinion minimized (and in many cases flat out ignored) the fact that eleven challenges to the insurance mandate were dismissed by courts and in two others judges ruled the mandate to be constitutional.
No. 6: What did Bernie Sanders Say? Another December story was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ filibuster against the Obama/Republican deal on extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Ralph Nader wrote that “Sanders tore the covers off an oligarchic driven Congress and a concessionary President with eight and a half hours of nonstop presentations of facts and figures and a plea for fairness and justice.” Absent in most coverage was any emphasis on what Sanders actually said in 9 hours; e.g. ExxonMobil paid no federal income taxes last year, made $19 billion in profits and somehow even managed to get a $156 million refund from Uncle Sam.
Next month: the top five censored stories of 2010.
Media Rants
By
Tony Palmeri
From The January 2011 edition of THE SCENE
Annually since 1976, Project Censored has identified news stories "underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored in the United States." Censored 2011 (Seven Stories Press) cites the efforts of global leaders with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to begin the process of replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency as the top censored story of 2010. The Project argues that “If the world leaders succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value; the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket; and interest rates will climb.”
Inspired by the Project, every year I dedicate two columns to ranking what I see as the ten stories most censored during the year. An important recent study by worldpublicopinion.org, demonstrating that the mainstream press misinform voters, shows the importance of Project Censored style work. And now the censored stories:
No. 10: Bobfest Shutout Again. By now even the organizers of Ed Garvey’s annual September Fighting BobFest at the Sauk County Fairgrounds expect the event to be censored in the mainstream press. But the censorship was especially absurd in 2010 as the corporate press couldn’t wait to cover Tea Party rallies in every part of the state. A Tea Party rally in Racine attracted half as many attendees as BobFest on the same day, yet the latter still earned little press.
No. 9: Forever Censoring Howard Zinn and Chalmers Johnson. Especially since 9/11, mainstream media have agonized over the “why do they hate us” question. Networks and cable stations trot out establishment historians and pundits to assure us that for all its flaws, America is at the end of the day a force for good in the world. That comforting mythology was challenged for years by two great thinkers who passed away in 2010. Professors Zinn and Johnson were war veterans (Zinn a WW II bombardier, Johnson served in Korea) who, in the tradition of America’s greatest patriots, dared tell the truth about their country’s behavior around the world.
Zinn’s A Peoples’ History of the United States is required reading for anyone interested in an account of our past not clouded by narrow, nationalistic ideology. Johnson’s Blowback series chronicles and exposes the effects of militarism and empire building on our safety, freedoms, and economy. That the insights of Zinn and Johnson are regarded in the mainstream press not as starting points for additional investigations but as “alternative” and marginal is a testament to the great power of the press to blind the masses.
No. 8: The 2010 South African World Cup. Invictus in Reverse. Watching USA coverage of 2010’s World Cup in South Africa, you’d have thought that the obnoxious sounding plastic horn, the vuvuzela, was THE story of the event. Another view was presented by Dave Zirin, one of the few American writers to reveal the social consequences of the tournament for South Africa:
“The present situation in South Africa could be called ‘Invictus in reverse.’ For those who haven't had the pleasure, the film Invictus is about the way Nelson Mandela used sport, particularly the near all-white sport of rugby to unite the country after the fall of apartheid. The coming World Cup has in contrast, provoked the camouflage of every conflict to present the image of a united nation to the world . . . All of these steps: displacements, crackdowns on informal trade, even accusations of state-sponsored assassinations, have an echo for people from the days of apartheid. It's provoked a fierce, and wholly predictable resistance.”
Evidence of resistance was difficult to find in the US press, unless it was about resistance to the vuvuzela.
No. 7: Obamacare Unconstitutional!!! In December district court judge Henry Hudson (appointed by George W. Bush) ruled the individual insurance mandate of Obamacare to be unconstitutional. This was a top news story on virtually every network and cable television news program, front page above the fold in lots of mainstream newspapers, and all the buzz on talk radio. Politicians like Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, who supported the mandate in the 1990s, said the opinion was a “great day for liberty.”
I personally do not like the mandate or Obamacare in general, as I believe coercing people to purchase a defective product from the corrupt private insurance industry is immoral and wrong. But from a media criticism perspective, I found it extraordinary how the feeding frenzy over one judge’s opinion minimized (and in many cases flat out ignored) the fact that eleven challenges to the insurance mandate were dismissed by courts and in two others judges ruled the mandate to be constitutional.
No. 6: What did Bernie Sanders Say? Another December story was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ filibuster against the Obama/Republican deal on extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Ralph Nader wrote that “Sanders tore the covers off an oligarchic driven Congress and a concessionary President with eight and a half hours of nonstop presentations of facts and figures and a plea for fairness and justice.” Absent in most coverage was any emphasis on what Sanders actually said in 9 hours; e.g. ExxonMobil paid no federal income taxes last year, made $19 billion in profits and somehow even managed to get a $156 million refund from Uncle Sam.
Next month: the top five censored stories of 2010.
Media Rants: Censored in 2010, Part 2
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Censored in 2010, Part 2
Media Rants
By Tony Palmeri
Last month I identified half of the top ten censored stories of 2010. They were: (10) BobFest Shutout Again, (9) Forever Censoring Howard Zinn and Chalmers Johnson, (8) The 2010 South African World Cup. Invictus in Reverse, (7) Obamacare Unconstitutional!!! (6) What did Bernie Sanders Say? Each story was underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by corporate media in 2010.
And now the top 5.
No. 5: Beck and Byron. Jared Lee Loughner’s January Tuscon massacre sparked a wave of corporate media blathering about the role of heated political rhetoric in creating a climate conducive to pushing lunatics over the edge.
Unfortunately the blather featured too little substance delivered much too late. Months earlier, in July of 2010, deranged felon Byron Williams set out to assassinate San Francisco members of the ACLU and the obscure Tides Foundation. A traffic stop leading to a shootout between Williams and the Oakland police foiled the plot.
The story disappeared from the corporate media until October, when Williams in a jail cell interview with John Hamilton of Media Matters for America described how his actions were influenced by Fox News’ self-described “progressive hunter” Glenn Beck. Describing Beck’s conspiratorial TV rants (Beck had condemned the Tides Foundation 29 times before Williams’ action), Williams said that “I look at it more like a schoolteacher on TV, you know? . . . And it was the things that he did, the things he exposed, that blew my mind.”
Why did it take the efforts of relatively small, left leaning media watchdog organizations like Media Matters and Democracy Now! to do the work necessary to link Byron to Beck? Beck’s fantasizing about the death of his political opponents is something that requires repeated exposure and denunciation from more than just the political left. Thankfully, the New York Times finally got around to reporting on how Beck’s mindless assaults on activist professor Frances Fox Piven have put her life at risk. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/business/media/22beck.html?_r=2)
No. 4: FBI Thwarts Own Investigation. Sometimes it seems as if salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald is literally the only journalist asking serious questions about the conduct of the so-called War on Terror. In November the FBI released an affidavit alleging that 19 year old Mohamed Osman Mohamud planned to detonate a bomb at a Christmas event in Portland.
As noted by Greenwald, mainstream media reporting on the event relied exclusively and uncritically on the FBI affidavit. Greenwald grants that it might turn out that the FBI lawfully foiled a nefarious act, “But it may also just as easily be the case that the FBI, as they’ve done many times in the past, found some very young, impressionable, disaffected, hapless, aimless, inept loner; created a plot it then persuaded/manipulated/entrapped him to join, essentially turning him into a Terrorist; and then patted itself on the back once it arrested him for having thwarted a 'Terrorist plot’ which, from start to finish, was entirely the FBI's own concoction. Having stopped a plot which it itself manufactured, the FBI then publicly touts, and an uncritical media amplifies, its ‘success’ to the world, thus proving both that domestic Terrorism from Muslims is a serious threat and the Government's vast surveillance powers, current and future new ones, are necessary.”
No. 3: War Disappears from 2010 Midterms. In a November Gallup Poll 68% of Americans said they were very (31%) or somewhat (37%) worried that the costs of war will make it difficult for the U.S. to address its domestic problems. That’s one reason it was shocking that Afghanistan and Iraq virtually disappeared as issues in the 2010 midterm elections, with Tea Party candidates like Ron Johnson allowed to pacify the press with Republican Party talking points. Shameful.
No. 2: Press Backs Away From Assange. Thanks to WikiLeaks, 2010 will go down as the year the first visible dent appeared in the armor of the military industrial complex. Yet as reported by McClatchy’s Nancy Yousseff, American journalists remain hesitant to defend WikiLeaks or its founder Julian Assange even though the survival of the First Amendment is literally at stake. Watching the mainstream American journalistic establishment bullied and intimidated by the Obama Administration on this matter is nothing short of sickening. To fight back, be sure to follow WikiLeaks on Twitter (http://twitter.com/wikileaks).
No. 1: Veterans For Peace Protest Outside White House. The mainstream press’ message to the oh so slightly dented military industrial complex seems to be, “don’t worry, we’ve got your back.” Case in point: More than 130 people, mostly war veterans, protested outside the White House in mid December. The event was completely censored in the corporate press. Former New York Times Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, a participant in the protest and author of the recently released Death of the Liberal Class, told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman that the shutout was par for the course:
I think we’ve seen a kind of a withering of corporate media, including my own paper, the New York Times. As advertising rates decline and as circulation drops, they become even more craven in their service of the power elite and reportage that in no way offends the structures of power. So, you know, events like that one are nonentities for mainstream news organizations.
Media Rants
By Tony Palmeri
Last month I identified half of the top ten censored stories of 2010. They were: (10) BobFest Shutout Again, (9) Forever Censoring Howard Zinn and Chalmers Johnson, (8) The 2010 South African World Cup. Invictus in Reverse, (7) Obamacare Unconstitutional!!! (6) What did Bernie Sanders Say? Each story was underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by corporate media in 2010.
And now the top 5.
No. 5: Beck and Byron. Jared Lee Loughner’s January Tuscon massacre sparked a wave of corporate media blathering about the role of heated political rhetoric in creating a climate conducive to pushing lunatics over the edge.
Unfortunately the blather featured too little substance delivered much too late. Months earlier, in July of 2010, deranged felon Byron Williams set out to assassinate San Francisco members of the ACLU and the obscure Tides Foundation. A traffic stop leading to a shootout between Williams and the Oakland police foiled the plot.
The story disappeared from the corporate media until October, when Williams in a jail cell interview with John Hamilton of Media Matters for America described how his actions were influenced by Fox News’ self-described “progressive hunter” Glenn Beck. Describing Beck’s conspiratorial TV rants (Beck had condemned the Tides Foundation 29 times before Williams’ action), Williams said that “I look at it more like a schoolteacher on TV, you know? . . . And it was the things that he did, the things he exposed, that blew my mind.”
Why did it take the efforts of relatively small, left leaning media watchdog organizations like Media Matters and Democracy Now! to do the work necessary to link Byron to Beck? Beck’s fantasizing about the death of his political opponents is something that requires repeated exposure and denunciation from more than just the political left. Thankfully, the New York Times finally got around to reporting on how Beck’s mindless assaults on activist professor Frances Fox Piven have put her life at risk. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/business/media/22beck.html?_r=2)
No. 4: FBI Thwarts Own Investigation. Sometimes it seems as if salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald is literally the only journalist asking serious questions about the conduct of the so-called War on Terror. In November the FBI released an affidavit alleging that 19 year old Mohamed Osman Mohamud planned to detonate a bomb at a Christmas event in Portland.
As noted by Greenwald, mainstream media reporting on the event relied exclusively and uncritically on the FBI affidavit. Greenwald grants that it might turn out that the FBI lawfully foiled a nefarious act, “But it may also just as easily be the case that the FBI, as they’ve done many times in the past, found some very young, impressionable, disaffected, hapless, aimless, inept loner; created a plot it then persuaded/manipulated/entrapped him to join, essentially turning him into a Terrorist; and then patted itself on the back once it arrested him for having thwarted a 'Terrorist plot’ which, from start to finish, was entirely the FBI's own concoction. Having stopped a plot which it itself manufactured, the FBI then publicly touts, and an uncritical media amplifies, its ‘success’ to the world, thus proving both that domestic Terrorism from Muslims is a serious threat and the Government's vast surveillance powers, current and future new ones, are necessary.”
No. 3: War Disappears from 2010 Midterms. In a November Gallup Poll 68% of Americans said they were very (31%) or somewhat (37%) worried that the costs of war will make it difficult for the U.S. to address its domestic problems. That’s one reason it was shocking that Afghanistan and Iraq virtually disappeared as issues in the 2010 midterm elections, with Tea Party candidates like Ron Johnson allowed to pacify the press with Republican Party talking points. Shameful.
No. 2: Press Backs Away From Assange. Thanks to WikiLeaks, 2010 will go down as the year the first visible dent appeared in the armor of the military industrial complex. Yet as reported by McClatchy’s Nancy Yousseff, American journalists remain hesitant to defend WikiLeaks or its founder Julian Assange even though the survival of the First Amendment is literally at stake. Watching the mainstream American journalistic establishment bullied and intimidated by the Obama Administration on this matter is nothing short of sickening. To fight back, be sure to follow WikiLeaks on Twitter (http://twitter.com/wikileaks).
No. 1: Veterans For Peace Protest Outside White House. The mainstream press’ message to the oh so slightly dented military industrial complex seems to be, “don’t worry, we’ve got your back.” Case in point: More than 130 people, mostly war veterans, protested outside the White House in mid December. The event was completely censored in the corporate press. Former New York Times Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, a participant in the protest and author of the recently released Death of the Liberal Class, told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman that the shutout was par for the course:
I think we’ve seen a kind of a withering of corporate media, including my own paper, the New York Times. As advertising rates decline and as circulation drops, they become even more craven in their service of the power elite and reportage that in no way offends the structures of power. So, you know, events like that one are nonentities for mainstream news organizations.
Media Rants: Scott Walker and the WI Media's View From Nowhere
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Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Media’s View from Nowhere
Media Rants
By
Tony Palmeri
Back in January of 1991 I traveled to Milwaukee to participate in a protest against Bush #41’s invasion of Iraq. Thousands rallied. An hour into the event, less than a dozen counter protesters showed up to back Bush. I went back to Oshkosh and eagerly anticipated news of the event.
Watching the mainstream media coverage, a few things stood out. First, the protest event itself was framed as a kind of political Olympics, an arena battle between competing teams. Second, the reporters and editorialists situated themselves as being outside the arena; just spectators watching and commenting on the action. Third, the coverage seemed lazy; i.e. simple “here’s what team ‘A’ says about the claims of team ‘B’” as opposed to a systematic and rigorous search for the truth. Fourth, after concluding that both teams were “outside the mainstream,” the media referees announced their own “moderate” views that were supposedly “objective” and ruled by reason and common sense not found in the rhetoric of the passionate Olympic teams.
Media treatment of the revolt of large numbers of working Wisconsinites against Governor Scott Walker’s plan to decimate public sector unions reminds me of that war coverage. Bill Lueders of the Madison Isthmus sees the pattern in the Wisconsin State Journal’s editorializing: “Two days after saying that moves to strip the collective bargaining rights of almost all public employees ‘aren't justified,’ it now urged that this be done, albeit just for the next two years, until June 2013. It also opined, ‘The chaos we're experiencing in Wisconsin is simply the extreme manifestation of politics as usual,’ suggesting that all sides are equally to blame for their inability to let go of excessive partisanship.”
The local Oshkosh Northwestern has been more critical of Mr. Walker’s bill, including a fine February 15 editorial exposing its draconian and unfair features. But then on February 19th the paper went back to an “objective” stance and concluded that both Republicans and Democrats were at fault for practicing a “politics that push issues to the far edges of ideology.” Thank goodness the editorial writers are always so moderate and responsible. (Sarcasm intended).
Mainstream television and radio coverage of protest events is typically much worse than newspapers, and that’s certainly been the case in Wisconsin. From TV especially it’s almost impossible to tell who is telling truth in the conflict. Instead, the “objective” newscaster tells us what each side says, with sensational pictures as a backdrop.
New York University Professor of Journalism Jay Rosen refers to the dominant style of American journalism as “the view from nowhere.” When I first became aware of Rosen’s idea in the mid 2000’s I thought he was perfectly describing the coverage of that earlier Iraq War protest and virtually all other substantive issues. As we shall see, the idea captures what’s going on in the Wisconsin media’s construction of Scott Walker’s row with unions.
Influenced by philosopher Thomas Nagel’s book of the same title, Rosen describes three elements of the “View from Nowhere”:
In pro journalism, American style, the View from Nowhere is a bid for trust that advertises the viewlessness of the news producer. Frequently it places the journalist between polarized extremes, and calls that neither-nor position “impartial.” Second, it’s a means of defense against a style of criticism that is fully anticipated: charges of bias originating in partisan politics and the two-party system. Third: it’s an attempt to secure a kind of universal legitimacy that is implicitly denied to those who stake out positions or betray a point of view. American journalists have almost a lust for the View from Nowhere because they think it has more authority than any other possible stance.
I can guarantee you that the folks who run the Wisconsin State Journal and Oshkosh Northwestern, along with every other mainstream print and electronic news source in Wisconsin, would defend their reporting and editorializing as “balanced.” They would say something like, “pro Walker readers think we are too liberal. Pro union readers think we are too conservative. We must be doing our jobs very well if we offend every side of the political spectrum.”
In contrast Rosen says “The View from Nowhere . . . encourages journalists to develop bad habits. Like: criticism from both sides is a sign that you’re doing something right, when you could be doing everything wrong.” Allowing constant repetition of false or inaccurate claims is one of the worst characteristics of a View from Nowhere news operation.
To their credit, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tries to hold public figures more accountable with a “PolitiFact” section. Reporters research statements of public figures and rate them on a “Truth-O-Meter:” True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False and “Pants on Fire” for utterly ridiculous statements.
The Governor’s political opponents have shown some blatant distortions in Walker’s rhetoric, and even the Journal Sentinel gave him a “pants on fire” rating for the claim that the budget keeps collective bargaining “fully intact.” Media still let Walker and his fans get away with that claim or variations on it.
All news outlets need a Truth Meter to apply not only to statements of public figures, but to their own reporting and editorializing.
Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Media’s View from Nowhere
Media Rants
By
Tony Palmeri
Back in January of 1991 I traveled to Milwaukee to participate in a protest against Bush #41’s invasion of Iraq. Thousands rallied. An hour into the event, less than a dozen counter protesters showed up to back Bush. I went back to Oshkosh and eagerly anticipated news of the event.
Watching the mainstream media coverage, a few things stood out. First, the protest event itself was framed as a kind of political Olympics, an arena battle between competing teams. Second, the reporters and editorialists situated themselves as being outside the arena; just spectators watching and commenting on the action. Third, the coverage seemed lazy; i.e. simple “here’s what team ‘A’ says about the claims of team ‘B’” as opposed to a systematic and rigorous search for the truth. Fourth, after concluding that both teams were “outside the mainstream,” the media referees announced their own “moderate” views that were supposedly “objective” and ruled by reason and common sense not found in the rhetoric of the passionate Olympic teams.
Media treatment of the revolt of large numbers of working Wisconsinites against Governor Scott Walker’s plan to decimate public sector unions reminds me of that war coverage. Bill Lueders of the Madison Isthmus sees the pattern in the Wisconsin State Journal’s editorializing: “Two days after saying that moves to strip the collective bargaining rights of almost all public employees ‘aren't justified,’ it now urged that this be done, albeit just for the next two years, until June 2013. It also opined, ‘The chaos we're experiencing in Wisconsin is simply the extreme manifestation of politics as usual,’ suggesting that all sides are equally to blame for their inability to let go of excessive partisanship.”
The local Oshkosh Northwestern has been more critical of Mr. Walker’s bill, including a fine February 15 editorial exposing its draconian and unfair features. But then on February 19th the paper went back to an “objective” stance and concluded that both Republicans and Democrats were at fault for practicing a “politics that push issues to the far edges of ideology.” Thank goodness the editorial writers are always so moderate and responsible. (Sarcasm intended).
Mainstream television and radio coverage of protest events is typically much worse than newspapers, and that’s certainly been the case in Wisconsin. From TV especially it’s almost impossible to tell who is telling truth in the conflict. Instead, the “objective” newscaster tells us what each side says, with sensational pictures as a backdrop.
New York University Professor of Journalism Jay Rosen refers to the dominant style of American journalism as “the view from nowhere.” When I first became aware of Rosen’s idea in the mid 2000’s I thought he was perfectly describing the coverage of that earlier Iraq War protest and virtually all other substantive issues. As we shall see, the idea captures what’s going on in the Wisconsin media’s construction of Scott Walker’s row with unions.
Influenced by philosopher Thomas Nagel’s book of the same title, Rosen describes three elements of the “View from Nowhere”:
In pro journalism, American style, the View from Nowhere is a bid for trust that advertises the viewlessness of the news producer. Frequently it places the journalist between polarized extremes, and calls that neither-nor position “impartial.” Second, it’s a means of defense against a style of criticism that is fully anticipated: charges of bias originating in partisan politics and the two-party system. Third: it’s an attempt to secure a kind of universal legitimacy that is implicitly denied to those who stake out positions or betray a point of view. American journalists have almost a lust for the View from Nowhere because they think it has more authority than any other possible stance.
I can guarantee you that the folks who run the Wisconsin State Journal and Oshkosh Northwestern, along with every other mainstream print and electronic news source in Wisconsin, would defend their reporting and editorializing as “balanced.” They would say something like, “pro Walker readers think we are too liberal. Pro union readers think we are too conservative. We must be doing our jobs very well if we offend every side of the political spectrum.”
In contrast Rosen says “The View from Nowhere . . . encourages journalists to develop bad habits. Like: criticism from both sides is a sign that you’re doing something right, when you could be doing everything wrong.” Allowing constant repetition of false or inaccurate claims is one of the worst characteristics of a View from Nowhere news operation.
To their credit, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tries to hold public figures more accountable with a “PolitiFact” section. Reporters research statements of public figures and rate them on a “Truth-O-Meter:” True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False and “Pants on Fire” for utterly ridiculous statements.
The Governor’s political opponents have shown some blatant distortions in Walker’s rhetoric, and even the Journal Sentinel gave him a “pants on fire” rating for the claim that the budget keeps collective bargaining “fully intact.” Media still let Walker and his fans get away with that claim or variations on it.
All news outlets need a Truth Meter to apply not only to statements of public figures, but to their own reporting and editorializing.
Media Rants: On Legacies; Ellis, Moore, and Us
To contact us Click HERE
Note: The Media Rant below was submitted to the SCENE before the controversy erupted involving UW Madison Professor William Cronon and the Wisconsin Republican Party's requests for his emails. Like Cronon's New York Times op-ed, mine makes use of a Joe McCarthy/Scott Walker analogy. I agree with Professor Cronon that "Scott Walker is not Joe McCarthy," though my piece argues that Mr. Walker has divided Wisconsin in ways that McCarthy could not have even dreamed. But I am less interested in Walker and McCarthy as much as how RESPONSES to divisive politicians build a legacy for the person(s) doing the responding. Read on for more.
On Legacies: Ellis, Moore, and Us
Media Rants
By Tony Palmeri
from the April 2011 edition of THE SCENE
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. Michael Moore in Madison, March 5th 2011
In office for barely several months, Governor Scott Walker’s already managed to divide our state in ways the late commie hunter Joe McCarthy could not. At least Tail Gunner Joe could be excused as a bumbling alcoholic or inevitable product of anti-Communist hysteria going on at all levels of the federal government in the 1950s. And when the cameras were off McCarthy befriended his political opponents; the New York Times reported recently that he would often have lunch with Milwaukee’s Socialist Mayor Frank Zeidler.
In contrast, Walker breaks bread with supporters or sycophants. He found 20 minutes for a phone chat with a person he believed to be billionaire Republican operative David Koch, yet could not find 20 seconds for any Democrat who could have helped resolve the impasse over the “Budget Repair” bill. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank listened to the Koch call and heard in Walker an “unprincipled rigidity” that sees politics as tribal blood sport featuring a “never-ending cycle of revenge killings.”
One good thing about politicians like McCarthy and Walker is that they force people in a position to influence current events to show their true grit. Well known politicians, pundits, business leaders, educators, and others end up intentionally or unintentionally building an entire legacy around their response to the McCarthy or the Walker.
Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith in 1950 stood up to McCarthy as she delivered her courageous “Declaration of Conscience.” She left a legacy of integrity, arguing that the Republican Party should never ”ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” (Someone needs to get that speech to Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee, among others.).
Edward R. Murrow became an icon of American journalism as a result of his WW II radio broadcasts, but his 1954 defense of the right to dissent and denunciation of McCarthyite excesses solidified his legacy as a champion of free speech and free association. Of McCarthy, Murrow said that, “his primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind,” a statement that sounds eerily contemporary as we listen to Mr. Walker’s mantra that the reason the state is “broke” is because of public worker wages and benefits.
The controversy over the Governor’s curtailing of collective bargaining rights and balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class and poor represents a legacy producing moment. Democratic Senators left for Illinois to filibuster the legislation, while their GOP counterparts (with the exception of Dale Schultz) rubber stamped the governor or, like West Bend’s Glenn Grothman, served as his unofficial attack dog. I predict history will judge the Fab 14 more kindly than Walker groupie Glenn.
But I want to single two public figures out for special mention: Neenah Republican Senator Mike Ellis and film maker Michael Moore. Ellis lost, and Moore left, a populist legacy in the state of Wisconsin.
Mike Ellis, who served in the Assembly from 1970 to 1980 and in the Senate since 1982, was always known as an independent Republican. His strong stands against pay to play politics and for good government gave Republican Tommy Thompson heartburn. His ideas for dealing with the state’s structural deficit never included repealing the right of public employees to have a seat at the bargaining table. He’s truly been a source of provocative and often progressive policy ideas.
Until now. When the people most needed Mike’s voice to push an extremist governor to moderation, he chose to shut up. Worse, when he did speak he often spread the stale GOP party line: “pass the governor’s bill or lose 1,500 jobs.” A formerly principled reformer with a populist edge now leaves a legacy as a political hack. Saddest. Transformation. Ever.
In contrast, film maker Michael Moore came to Madison and passionately defined the moment for thousands of rally participants. He demonstrated, in a pointed and clear way, that the current attacks on workers because “we’re broke” represent merely a continuation of the same dynamic that gave us the taxpayer funded Wall St. bailout in 2008. He challenged the mainstream media to just once state a truism:
Right now, this afternoon, just 400 Americans, 400, have more wealth than half of all Americans combined. Let me say that again. And please, someone in the mainstream media, just repeat this fact once. We’re not greedy; we’ll be happy to hear it just once. Four hundred obscenely wealthy individuals, 400 little Mubaraks, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi trillion-dollar taxpayer bailout of 2008, now have more cash, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Politifact meter rated Moore’s claim as True. Unfortunately what’s also true is that mainstream media moguls have no intention of repeating Moore’s claim with a frequency that might make it as well known as Charlie Sheen’s Twitter stats or Lady Gaga’s new look.
Moore predicts that the people will fix the broken moral compass of the rulers and “steer the ship ourselves from now on.” That would be a noble legacy for our generation to leave.
Tony Palmeri is a Professor of Communication Studies at UW Oshkosh
On Legacies: Ellis, Moore, and Us
Media Rants
By Tony Palmeri
from the April 2011 edition of THE SCENE
America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. Michael Moore in Madison, March 5th 2011
In office for barely several months, Governor Scott Walker’s already managed to divide our state in ways the late commie hunter Joe McCarthy could not. At least Tail Gunner Joe could be excused as a bumbling alcoholic or inevitable product of anti-Communist hysteria going on at all levels of the federal government in the 1950s. And when the cameras were off McCarthy befriended his political opponents; the New York Times reported recently that he would often have lunch with Milwaukee’s Socialist Mayor Frank Zeidler.
In contrast, Walker breaks bread with supporters or sycophants. He found 20 minutes for a phone chat with a person he believed to be billionaire Republican operative David Koch, yet could not find 20 seconds for any Democrat who could have helped resolve the impasse over the “Budget Repair” bill. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank listened to the Koch call and heard in Walker an “unprincipled rigidity” that sees politics as tribal blood sport featuring a “never-ending cycle of revenge killings.”
One good thing about politicians like McCarthy and Walker is that they force people in a position to influence current events to show their true grit. Well known politicians, pundits, business leaders, educators, and others end up intentionally or unintentionally building an entire legacy around their response to the McCarthy or the Walker.
Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith in 1950 stood up to McCarthy as she delivered her courageous “Declaration of Conscience.” She left a legacy of integrity, arguing that the Republican Party should never ”ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” (Someone needs to get that speech to Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee, among others.).
Edward R. Murrow became an icon of American journalism as a result of his WW II radio broadcasts, but his 1954 defense of the right to dissent and denunciation of McCarthyite excesses solidified his legacy as a champion of free speech and free association. Of McCarthy, Murrow said that, “his primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind,” a statement that sounds eerily contemporary as we listen to Mr. Walker’s mantra that the reason the state is “broke” is because of public worker wages and benefits.
The controversy over the Governor’s curtailing of collective bargaining rights and balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class and poor represents a legacy producing moment. Democratic Senators left for Illinois to filibuster the legislation, while their GOP counterparts (with the exception of Dale Schultz) rubber stamped the governor or, like West Bend’s Glenn Grothman, served as his unofficial attack dog. I predict history will judge the Fab 14 more kindly than Walker groupie Glenn.
But I want to single two public figures out for special mention: Neenah Republican Senator Mike Ellis and film maker Michael Moore. Ellis lost, and Moore left, a populist legacy in the state of Wisconsin.
Mike Ellis, who served in the Assembly from 1970 to 1980 and in the Senate since 1982, was always known as an independent Republican. His strong stands against pay to play politics and for good government gave Republican Tommy Thompson heartburn. His ideas for dealing with the state’s structural deficit never included repealing the right of public employees to have a seat at the bargaining table. He’s truly been a source of provocative and often progressive policy ideas.
Until now. When the people most needed Mike’s voice to push an extremist governor to moderation, he chose to shut up. Worse, when he did speak he often spread the stale GOP party line: “pass the governor’s bill or lose 1,500 jobs.” A formerly principled reformer with a populist edge now leaves a legacy as a political hack. Saddest. Transformation. Ever.
In contrast, film maker Michael Moore came to Madison and passionately defined the moment for thousands of rally participants. He demonstrated, in a pointed and clear way, that the current attacks on workers because “we’re broke” represent merely a continuation of the same dynamic that gave us the taxpayer funded Wall St. bailout in 2008. He challenged the mainstream media to just once state a truism:
Right now, this afternoon, just 400 Americans, 400, have more wealth than half of all Americans combined. Let me say that again. And please, someone in the mainstream media, just repeat this fact once. We’re not greedy; we’ll be happy to hear it just once. Four hundred obscenely wealthy individuals, 400 little Mubaraks, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi trillion-dollar taxpayer bailout of 2008, now have more cash, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Politifact meter rated Moore’s claim as True. Unfortunately what’s also true is that mainstream media moguls have no intention of repeating Moore’s claim with a frequency that might make it as well known as Charlie Sheen’s Twitter stats or Lady Gaga’s new look.
Moore predicts that the people will fix the broken moral compass of the rulers and “steer the ship ourselves from now on.” That would be a noble legacy for our generation to leave.
Tony Palmeri is a Professor of Communication Studies at UW Oshkosh
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