Collected and Edited by Rick Kaempfer
Highlights and links to the big stories in the news this week about the media. This column appears twice a week at MEDIA NOTEBOOK
Viacom starts distributing "Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" on hulu.com
(Mediaweek) Mike Shields writes: "Viacom has struck its first deal with Hulu to distribute content from its family of cable networks, specifically Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report--as the company continues to steer clear of delivering any of its top series to YouTube, the reigning leader in the online video category. As of Tuesday (June 10) Hulu began featuring full length episodes of both Colbert and The Daily Show, bringing two of the more popular series among the Web savvy, clip-sharing generation to the increasingly robust video site, itself a joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal. The move represents both another stamp of approval for Hulu’s professionally-produced, long form video model by a major traditional TV producer, as well as another blow to Google’s YouTube."
Spielberg's $1 billion dream(Hollywood Reporter) Carl DiOrio writes: "Steven Spielberg aims to raise more than $1 billion in third-party financing to reinvent DreamWorks as a separate company that once again owns the movies it makes. As for distribution, Spielberg wants to bolt his roost at Paramount for Universal, which wants to land Spielberg and DreamWorks after losing out to Paramount in that quest a couple years ago. But on recommendation from his advisers, Spielberg has allowed a bidding war to begin among studios for the rights to distribute future DreamWorks movies. The chief suitors other than Paramount: Universal, Disney and Fox."
HBO joins forces with Funnyordie
(Variety) Cynthia Littleton writes: "HBO is getting into bed with Will Ferrell's FunnyorDie.com Internet vid venture. Pay cabler has bought a small equity stake in the 2-year-old comedy website and has commissioned 10 half-hours of programming from Funny or Die as part of the deal. The wide-ranging pact also envisions the two sides partnering on a host of future projects, from the live comedy tours that Funny or Die is developing to a possible Funny or Die-branded programming block on one of HBO's offshoot channels. For now, the website is focused on recruiting a veteran producer to help Ferrell and his Funny or Die partners -- Adam McKay, Chris Henchy and Judd Apatow -- shepherd the initial order of 10 half-hours."
CLICK HERE60 months in Bagdad
(NY Observer) Gilette, Haber, and Koblin write: "'It’s the oft-stated phrase that truth is the first casualty of war,' said Michael Ware, CNN’s Baghdad correspondent, on the telephone from Iraq. 'In this war, as in every other conflict, everybody lies to you. Your government is lying to you. The Iraqi government is lying. The insurgents are lying. The militias are lying. The U.S. military is lying. Even the civilians lie. Or in the best case, there’s confusion and exaggeration. The truth is the most elusive thing in war, particularly in an insurgency.' Sixty-two months into the war, this is the language of the American journalist in Iraq... As the American press corps gets older, wearier—and simultaneously younger and more untested as the veterans leave—there are truths that some of the reporters of Baghdad have learned about the war in Iraq. Chief among them is that even if you grab hold of a part of the truth, it has a way of becoming false. Second: If you manage to find a true story, don’t depend on anyone back home wanting to hear it."
The Internet Rumor Machine versus Obama(LA Times) Rumors have always traveled fast, but when it comes to politics, the whispering campaigns and defamatory leaflets of yesteryear don't hold a candle to the button that beats them all. "Forward": the marvelous technology that allows truths and untruths alike to be propagated widely, instantly, and at no cost to the sender. Thanks to Forward-thinking citizens, the online rumors are flying in this campaign like no campaign season before. Dozens and even hundreds of different e-mail chain letters -- most targeting Sen. Barack Obama -- are being circulated in the Internet's muggy back channels, where context suffers and falsehoods flourish. Add in the parts of the political blogosphere that survive on speculation and unsourced hearsay, and you have a petri dish capable of growing such vivid rumors that the best of them actually make it into the mouths of the Washington press corps -- without so much as a factoid to back them up. At Snopes.com, the urban legends clearinghouse run by a couple in the San Fernando Valley, Barack Obama's page has 18 entries, only one of which Snopes determined to be true. Of the rest, Snopes rated 11 false, four partly true and two undetermined.
Sean Hannity, Citadel and Clear Channel have agreed to a three-way deal.
(Radio-Info.com) Tom Taylor writes: "But don’t expect any press conferences until at least next week – it’s an agreement in principle and now goes to the legal types and the folks who resolve questions like who sells what and who handles what. But this is what I’m hearing: Citadel and Clear Channel will jointly own the Hannity show. (Citadel’s ABC Radio Networks owns it now.) Sean will get a significant signing bonus. The negotiating was done at the top levels of the various companies and they finished it over the weekend. And I’m told that everybody’s happy with the result. Now – could things go sideways or get delayed? Sure. It’s an agreement in principle and doesn’t exist as a signed contract yet."
CLICK HERE
Actor drops $10 million lawsuit against Corolla
(Radio Online) An actor who filed a $10.5 million negligence suit against syndicated radio host Adam Corolla, late night talk host Jimmy Kimmel, "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville claiming he was tricked into putting his penis in a mousetrap during Coralla's show has dropped the suit. Perry Caravello filed the suit in May, 2007, after the event was captured on video without Corolla's permission and surfaced on the Internet. The trio was sued by Caravello, who claimed that Knoxville promised to pay him to promote the DVD release of the 2003 TV movie "Windy City Heat" on Carolla's show if he agreed to place his genitals in a mousetrap. Caravello also claimed he was humiliated when clips of the incident appeared on the web. The suit was dropped last week and it's unclear whether the suit was being dropped due to a settlement or for some other reason.
The Clear Channel Memo: Cash & Consequences(Wall Street Journal) This makes me physically ill...Sarah McBride writes: "Clear Channel Communications is the beneficiary of a near-miracle: its buyout, once near death, came through with full funding from its investment banks. That’s why Clear Channel is going to make sure nothing goes wrong now — and specifically, making sure that the company has more than enough cash on hand in case a lot of shareholders choose to take cash for their shares rather than use the stub equity option. So, a couple of weeks ago, CFO Randall Mays has sent top executives a memo telling them to cut costs before the deal closes. That’s because, if enough shareholders demand cash, the biggest stockholders, including executives, would end up having to roll over their shares into stub equity in the private company. Here’s the risk: if Clear Channel finds itself without a healthy supply of cash on hand when the deal closes, those executives won’t be able to cash out their shares when Clear Channel’s deal to privatize finally closes — so the buyout won’t be as lucrative for them."
Networks, Olympic Organizers clash in China
(Associated Press) Television networks that will broadcast the Beijing Olympics to billions around the world are squaring off with local organizers over stringent security that threatens coverage of the games in two months. Differences over a wide range of issues — from limits on live coverage in Tiananmen Square to allegations that freight shipments of TV broadcasting equipment are being held up in Chinese ports — surfaced in a contentious meeting late last month between Beijing organizers and high-ranking International Olympic Committee officials and TV executives — including those from NBC. In response to the complaints from broadcasters, Sun Weijia, head of media operations for the Beijing organizers, asked them to put it in writing, only to draw protests about mounting paperwork.
Mark Cuban eyes buying the Cubs
(Chicago Tribune) Phil Rosenthal writes: "Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, one of the Major League Baseball-approved bidders for the Chicago Cubs, expects to receive confidential financial data on the team any day now and said Friday on a Chicago radio show that it is his "job" to convince everyone he is the best choice to own the franchise. Cuban also told WMVP-AM 1000 hosts Marc Silverman and Tom Waddle he "definitely would want Wrigley Field to be part of the deal," despite the fact Tribune Co., which is parent of the Chicago Cubs, has considered selling it separately, either to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority or a private buyer."
Jim McCay passes away
(New York Times) Litzky and Sandomir write: "Jim McKay, the genial ABC Sports broadcaster whose calm voice and trustworthy demeanor were synonymous with the network’s Olympic broadcasts and the celebrated sports anthology series “Wide World of Sports,” died Saturday at his country estate in Monkton, Md. He was 86. The death was confirmed by LeslieAnne Wade, a spokeswoman for CBS Sports, where Mr. McKay’s son, Sean McManus, is the president."
CLICK HEREMancow writes about his buddy Chris Farley
(Chicago Sun Times) Mancow writes: "There were 30 frantic messages to me on my home answering machine the night Chris Farley died. I never heard the full messages. Erase. How had it gotten to this point? Erase. He was a huge comedy star and had been a dear friend. With a new book out about Farley, today’s reality reminds me of my fallen friend. Toward the end of his life I cringed at the thought of even talking to him. In those final messages there was a sound of real desperation in his voice. The next day he was dead. He was a comedic version of the Roman god Janus — one smiling public face rooted in this world and the other tearfully looking into the spirit world. Was he calling for help or did he just want me to be a part of that dramatic final act? I’ll never know."
Sam Brownback holding up XM/Sirius merger
(Mel Phillips) Mel writes: "On May 27th the Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio (C3SR) sent a letter to the FCC in opposition to the Sirius-XM merger. Understand this: 1) The coalition’s name speaks for their agenda regarding satellite radio (and) 2) C3SR is funded by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Enter senior senator from Kansas, Sam Brownback who still believes Toto resides in his state. He also believes that Congress may have been misled in its prior hearings on the merger. Brownback claims that Mel Karmazin wasn’t being candid about the companies’ effort to make and market “interoperable” receivers or radios that can receive both Sirius and XM signals. Brownback now wants redacted portions of the May 27th letter made public."
Chicago Radio Spotlight Update(Chicago Radio Spotlight) Last weekend I spoke with Java Joel Murphy, the former Kiss-FM night time jock about his time in Chicago--his controversial interview with Justin Timberlake, and his even more controversial racial remark that led to his firing. Coming this weekend: famed music programmer "Jukebox Jimmy" Jim Smith.
