Every weekday in 2014, I'll be keeping an eye on what's happening in the national media. My focus will be on some of my favorite subjects...the moguls, the pundits, the broadcast news biz, and Hollywood. (Read "$everance" if you want a crystallization of my positions on those subjects.
The moguls...
~Rupert sells his yacht.
Whew. I was getting worried he wouldn't find a buyer. He sold it for $29.7 million. I wonder if his ex-wife Wendy gets part of that money.
~New Roger Ailes book coming out on Random House
Anticipating that Fox News and the conservative echo chamber will trash it, Random House has created a website to counteract the misinformation. This will be a fun story to watch.
~Equador Navy Airlifts Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
He had a kidney stone. I'm sure they would have done the same for you or me.
The pundits...
~David Brooks smoked pot?
He admitted it in a column over the weekend, as did Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus. Let's be honest here, Baby Boomers. Is there really a significant portion of our generation that NEVER sampled it? I think not, so let's stop pretending that we're shocked please. By the way, it's legal in Illinois now...for medicinal purposes.
TV News...
NBC posts a video for Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show
The hype machine is just beginning. His first show will be February 17th. Hopefully this goes better than the whole Conan thing did.
More changes coming to CNN primetime lineup
It feels like I'm writing that headline every other day now, but here's the Jeff Zucker quote: "It's safe to say 2014 will be the year we shake up prime time."
