Memo to MSNBC

Below, Rachel Maddow's statement vis-a-vi Keith Olbermann. The relevant/implicit "bigger picture" comes in at about 5:25...



MSNBC? Yes, including you Rachel - although I still maintain you run the best show on cable news. Guys? This is getting SAD.


Everyone gets it. You didn't like Jon Stewart putting clips of you in the mix with clips of Beck and Hannity at the Sanity Rally. It stung, it hurt your self-esteem, you probably do sincerely think it was a "false equivalency."

Get the fuck OVER IT.

You're still "better" than Fox because Fox outright lies and you only "spin." You're still "cooler" than Fox because you're dialed-in to the sensibilities of college kids, movie stars and the rest of the world - which are cool; while Fox is dialed-in to NASCAR and Branson - which are not cool. The writers and stars of The Daily Show still like you better; they basically HAD to put you in there or risk losing the point of their own rally and damaging their own "firing at all sides" reputation. Most of the kids at the rally, and in TDS's audience, still love you. Take note: Mattering enough to be goofed-on by TDS means you are doing something right - notice who WASN'T in there as much? CNN. Because nobody gives a damn.

Someone told a joke about you. It happens. Deal with it. Stop acting like a two year-old (or Sean Penn) about it. Put on some tea and toast, have a popsicle, watch a John Hughes movie...

And get the fuck OVER IT.

...oh, and then get rid of Ed Schultz, quietly shuffle a browbeaten Olbermann into his late slot and give Maddow "Countdown's" old timeslot. There, now you're lineup sucks at least 40% less ;)

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Olbermann is out

As you've no doubt heard by now, MSNBC has suspended Keith Olbermann "indefinitely and without pay" when it was discovered that he donated money to three political candidates in the recently-concluded election.

Supposedly, this was in violation of NBC corporate policy, i.e. journalism-division employees are supposed to ask permission about donations and maintain a sense of impartiality. But then it get's tricky...

According to some, MSNBC's openly-partisan editorial-commentators (Olbermann, Matthews, Maddow, etc) have been "exempt" from that rule for some time. So... what's going on here?

The shortest and simplest explanation is likely to be that MSNBC wants to get rid of Olbermann, and this was the opportunity his bosses decided to take to do so. Also, if the rest of the staff gets "on message" about it it's a potentially GREAT "big move" to differentiate themselves from Fox: "When our guys screw around, they're GONE - so why are you still employing Beck, again?"

The broader story at MSNBC is that the network is having a difficult time getting everyone on the same page as they transition from "flashier version of CNN" to their new identity as "Left-Wing version of Fox" - not all of their employees are going to be as comfortable as others in being seen as "commentators" rather than "journalists." Did you see how angrily/humorlessly they reacted to the "false equivalency" of Olbie's rants mixed in with Beck's at the Daily Show rally?

Ironically, Olbermann is pretty-much the guy who "engineered" his network's transformation; but it hasn't done anything to change his reputation in the business - his ego and short temper are the stuff of legends. One senses that this writing has been on the wall ever since Rachel Maddow guest hosted his show for a month or so, did a better job of it and got her own show right afterwards. You only need to see the two "acts" side by side to see the problem: Maddow is easily the most "partisan" person on the network, but she runs the LEAST blowhardy show (with the added bonus of being one of the best interviewers on Cable, period.) It also doesn't help that "other new guy" Lawrence O'Donnell does the "mournful sanctimony" bit better, too.

It'd be too early to "put money on it," but this seems like it might be the end for Keith, at least as an MSNBC contributor. If so, I can't say I'm broken-up about it: His show had become both obnoxious and redundant... though it'll be a REAL loss if Maddow or others "follow him out" in protest.

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Escape to the Movies: "Four Lions"

"Intermission" is also about "Lions" (link on site currently broken, use this one)

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Somber, Authoritative Voice to Recite Famous Motto in Tremendously Unnecessary Film (UPDATED!)

Or, to put it another way, Martin Sheen is the new Uncle Ben Parker in "Spiderlight."

The "cute" angle on this, of course, is that both Uncle Bens will now have been played by men who also played JFK. That'll be a trivia question that endures much longer than the film is likely to...

UPDATE! Deadline says they want Sally Field for Aunt May. That's... on the nose and completely uninteresting, honestly. She'll essentially be playing Forrest's Mom again.

Honestly, this is really the only bit of casting that I'm willing to call "pretty cool" on this. It's not really "good" casting, there's nothing about Sheen that screams "perfect for it" other than the fact that "With Great Power..." is going to sound really, really good in his (very, very familiar) voice in all the trailers - which, let's face it, is what they've hired him for; he'll probably also score the voiceover gig for the innevitably crappy video-game tie-in, too.

This particular turd is still scheduled to be floating in the superhero-movie punchbowl sometime in 2012.

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girls in cages

New trailer for "Sucker Punch," from Zack Snyder, aka "Michael Bay with talent and taste."



Near-universal truth of modern moviemaking: The absolute worst filmmakers are guys who never aged past 22 (see: Bret Ratner.) The BEST are the guys who never made it past 15. Snyder is the second type.

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what is best in life

Behold President Barack Hussein Obama. A good man. A nice man.

A man of compromise, who believes in the Middle Path - that by making concessions, seeking the humanity in enemies, and working toward common ground one can get opponents to meet you halfway.

Behold a man who loses.


A first-year poly-sci student with a C+ average could've told him that the mere presence of a young black liberal in the White House was going to cause legions of rural/white/Christian-nutcase folk to lose their shit and treat him like an "extremist" no matter what he did. Doubtless, some of his advisors must've told him the same thing (hey, did professional ass-kicker Rahm Emmanuel just up and quit? Hmm...) but he didn't listen.

To be "nice" he didn't simply tell the Pentagon to go fuck itself and rip down DADT when he had the power (re: both houses) to do so. To not seem "extreme" he compromised Healthcare into a toothless near-nothing. What was the response? The Teabaggers - a whole army of organized-idiocy who regarded anything he did as "extremist" and mobilized accordingly. His prize? Gridlock - two years (and counting) of legislative stalling tactics. That's what comes of playing "nice." That's what comes of bringing an olive branch to a knife fight.

The president has been noted to be, amusingly, a fan of Robert E. Howard's "Conan," at least as a comic book. Too bad, it would appear, that he never saw the movie...



Lesson over.

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Halloween

Pix/vids will be up sooner or later, but for now the rundown is things went pretty good for mine.

My weekend schedule was attending a friends' wedding Saturday (congratulations, guys!) followed directly by a film festival from midnight to noon Sunday, then all day in Salem MA for Halloween itself. So... about 30-32 hours awake and in a Mario costume for me.

Good times.

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