The House Next Door

Ouch! Matt, this article, and the Anchorman reference had me cracking up all morning. It's funny they feel they need a sign off at all -- that's putting the cart before the horse.

I don't see any new audience, and anecdotal evidence (mainly two grandfathers) suggests that the 22-minute network format is over. Even the normally reliable oldster crowd will jump ship and become addicted to cable news the first chance they get. They'll still tune in to the local, of course, because wild horses couldn't drag these gents away from the weather. Just the other day I sat and watched my grandfather surf cable news for upwards of three and a half hours, and I had to chuckle when around 5:03 he looked at his watch and said "Oh shit --It's time for the news!"

Thank god you get paid to watch this. Unbearable. "..democracy and all that...what?..shit?" Everything that you quoted from Katie was...inappropriate, inept. We're looking forward to the 5th anniversary of 911?! I sure hope the Daily Show knocks her down a few pegs. Here's one of her quotes from the 2004 Olympics.."The ladies on the Greek team are all wearing leather handbags. Greece is known for it's leather goods."

Marvelously done, pal.

I didn't watch the show myself... which is a good thing, as the sight of that self-enamored circus-geek Morgan Spurlock being asked to chime in on a national news broadcast would probably have sent me into an Elvis-esque TV-shooting frenzy.

We had SUPER SIZE ME at my theater for months, and I allowed my staff to happily chow down on their McDonald's lunches in full view of the patrons -- the majority of whom hadn't been anywhere near a fast food reastaruant in at least ten years, but were happy to fork over their $9 so they could cluck their tongues and wag their fingers and feel superior to poor people with bad taste, all the way to Whole Foods after the show.

It wasn't a movie, it was JACKASS for the SUV/NPR set.

Real shocking news that if you stop exercising and eat nothing but fast-food then bad shit happens to your body. I do hope Spurlock makes another documentary soon... I think I heard somewhere that cigarettes might not be good for you.

Or, as your pal Armond says in today's NYPRESS: "The contemporary documentary was ruined when Michael Moore encouraged the abrogation of credibility in favor of sarcasm."

Yes, but how did her legs look?

Wagstaff: I concur about the future of evening newscasts. They don't make sense for most people; Americans have gotten used to checking in on the news when they feel like it, and consuming it in a form that lines up with their personalities, political convictions and lifestyles. There is almost nothing you can do to an evening newscast that will make it special enough for people to want to tape it and never miss an episode -- unless, perhaps, each night Couric challenges a different guest to a duel to the death with meat hammers. I'd probably DVR that.

Kino: The whole trend of "warm" anchors and TV hosts appointing themselves the people's representative reminds me of that circa 1985 Doonesbury parody of USA Today, each frame of which was strewn with USA Today graphic elements and headlines that seemed radical at the time but have since become common to daily newspapers. One of them was a compact little chart with a headline that declared, "We're eating more beets!"

Sean: Spurlock is just too hambone for me. Moore is a blowhard, a cheeseball and an egomaniac, but also a ferociously effective muckraking filmmaker who can't be ignored. Spurlock just seems like a hustler to me. The best thing he's done yet was to ally himself with producer R.J. Cutler on "30 Days." Cutler's treading in the same quasi-exploitive waters as Spurlock and the Jackass gang, but I think he uses the form provocatively and with sensitivity to social reality, and never as a mere sideshow attraction. Spurlock as host/narrator/frontman is basically a fig leaf hiding the fact that Cutler's still a documentarian and social critic at heart, and the show you're about to enjoy will actually have substance as well.

Louis: re Couric's legs: The master shot in Couric's interview with Friedman showcased her gams, but only for a second. But I can say without hesitation that she looks a lot better in a skirt than Dan Rather.

Sorry, did I write that out loud?

I've been reading Daniel Okrent's book about being the NY Times ombudsman, so maybe objectivity is more on my mind than usual. I mention it because i don't know if you saw Couric, Night 2.

A significant portion of the show was taken up with an interview with President Bush and an exclusive report from inside the anti-terrorist nerve center. I don't know if Couric thinks that presenting the Bush line uncritically equates with having gravitas, but the show was essentially a GOP campaign ad.

The "Free Speech" segment is a good example of why people distrust media. People are invited to speak superficially about very serious issues. If there was time, what about a twice-weekly roundtable a la the George Stephanopolous show?

(I didn't see "Super Size Me" but liked the episode of "30 Days" where Spurlock and his girlfriend got minimum wage jobs.)

Simon: "The 'Free Speech' segment is a good example of why people distrust media. People are invited to speak superficially about very serious issues."

Yes, and that's a problem throughout the so-called mainstream media (which, format-wise, includes Fox News, a place where almost no one is allowed the luxury of completing a thought). The worst part of Spurlock's debut segment was that he didn't actually say anything at all, except, "America has more similarities than differences, believe you me. And am I not the world's greatest guy for believing that?"

I'm probably revealing my generational tilt here, but the whole segment reminds me of that old "Tonight Show" sketch featuring Johnny Carson as the hunter-capped nitwit Floyd R. Turbo. His statements made no sense at all -- or Chico Marx sense at best -- but man, did he seem outraged about something.

Matt: "unless, perhaps, each night Couric challenges a different guest to a duel to the death with meat hammers." Now I'll watch that. more honest.

Um, at the risk of starting a small war, I want to stick up for one hour of news on Fox News: Brit Hume's hour. He does allow guests to finish thoughts.