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This Issue from John Kuczaj:
• Oh, Shut Up!
• Train Wreck Tonight
• New Year's Eve Sights
• Random Musings
Oh, Shut Up!
Miller Lite has a hilarious commercial that's basically a "Man Show" way of doing a commercial-two busty women having a cat fight in the mud & cement. The cable version ends with one suggesting they make out. Apparently some post-menopausal women think the spot is demeaning and are making a big stink about it, which means that it's giving Miller tons of free publicity on the news shows. Methinks the protesters need to learn the lesson that Terry Rakolta learned - better to let the sleeping dogs lie & fade away.
Okay, so anyway, on Friday's Fox News in the Morning, David & Tamron talked about the commercial and Tamron was suitably outraged at the degradation & exploitation while David couldn't help but be amused. A couple commercial breaks later, a promo spot ran for Fox's Friday night show "Fastlane". The promo featured what appears to be a kiss between a bikini-clad Tiffani Thiessen (nee Tiffani Amber Thiessen) and another bikini-clad woman. The audio tagline was "It's the kiss you don't want to miss..."
So, Fox promotes what looks to be a girl-girl liplock, but the Miller commercial is degrading. Uh-huh.
Train Wreck Tonight
During my irregular tuning in of Chicago Tonight, I noticed a couple of Phil Ponce interviews re-run. Which means that 1: Phil Ponce is a much better interviewer than his critics give him credit for or 2: They're running out of idea for the "topical" interview segment or 3: They're getting very lazy at Window to the World.
I also caught a show that was all-Ponce and no Bob. It ran quite smooth, which perplexes me. You'd think a radio guy would be smoother in a live setting. Of course, the deadest parts of the show are the transitions, where they crank up the boring classical music and we get to see a long shot of Bob moving from one part of the studio to another. It's a silly waste of time that smacks of amateurish cable-access. Fill the time with "Models on Parade" and move on.
New Year's Eve Sights
I was quite disappointed on New Years Eve that only Channel 7 & 32 bothered to do any local coverage of the festivities. The joke was on everyone else as Channel 7 pulled in massive numbers, with over half of Chicago viewing households tuned in at one point. Anyway, as one of the few times to see journalists wearing non-working clothes. Yeah, I had nothing else to do on NYE but scope news babes.
Channel 32 featured Tamron Hall and Eric & Kathy. All I can say is that Tamron looked fabulous as usual.
Channel 7 had team coverage with Janet Davis & Mark Giangreco anchoring while Doug Banks, Lou Canellis & Leah Hope were at remote locations reporting on the festivities and showcasing scantily-clad female revelers. Leah's a total babe, looked fabulous and probably would have been awarded my top prize if not for the fact that Janet Davies wore an amazing sexy form-fitting red dress that was just mesmerizing. I mean, wow. The director wisely used close & medium shots of Janet sparingly in favor of the long shot. Very nice.
Lou Canellis is definitely one-up on Clonaid because at the exact time he was doing a remote at a club, he was also doing "Sports Page" on CLTV. Somebody needs to investigate this guy.
Best part of Channel 7's coverage was when the director cut to Giangreco frenching Davies. Mark just leaned over and they started making out. It was pretty cool. Okay, that's not really what happened. Mark pretended then Janet made it very, very clear that mark was goofing around. Darn. In the spirit of NYE, that would have been one hell of a story.
Oh, and yes, I'm aware that I'm being a bit of a pig here, but at least I'm fully aware & calling myself out. Ya can't be serious all the time or you'll die young.
Random Musings
After I wrote last issue's ranting that the Reds had slacked off on the distribution at the Jefferson Park CTA terminal, the RedEye has been passed out by actual living beings for the past couple weeks. I'm sure I had nothing to do with that.
Anyone see PBS's "American Experience - Chicago: City of the Century"? Phil Rosenthal hated it, Steve Johnson liked it. Rosenthal wins.
Last ish I mentioned Steve Rhodes' excellent piece Richie Daley for Chicago Magazine. It's now online, so check it out if you haven't already.
Speaking of Rhodes, Chicagomag.com says "Press Box is on a really, really interesting assignment you'll all hear about in the very near future." Cool. I can only hope it's a story that involves cheese in some way.
On January 1, Carol Marin wrote a piece for the Tribune about how her son wanted to get a tattoo, so she went along and got one as well. I would like to thank the Lord that her son wasn't looking to get his nipples or genital area pierced--I'm not sure I could handle her accounts of that shared-experience.
On a National note, Arnold Diaz has left ABC's 20/20 for WCBS/New York. Since Geraldo left and Stossel lost touch with most Americans, I always looked forward to Diaz' Emmy Award winning "Shame On You". Bummer that he's gone from 20/20. Speaking of 20/20, what the hell happened to that show? Used to be great, now it's mediocre.
After Ex-Gov Ryan abused his power with the blanket commutations, I was so pissed off that I had about a dozen things I wanted to write about. I have a ton of respect for columnists who have to craft a 3-5 columns per week and generally have a whole day to do so (except for Richard Roeper, who has so many other distractions that the quality of his column had regressed to mediocrity). Anyway, I've been roasting Ryan's nuts at the Red Face and perhaps I'll get around to doing my own editorial soon. Until then, I'm quite amused at how the arguments for & against the commutations have a similar structure to the Pro-choice / Anti-abortion arguments. That being that the #1 argument against the commutations is that a blanket anything is unfair and that all cases should be judged on individual merit. Interesting that those who are happy with the commutations cannot reasonable argue that point. When confronted with that point, they twist it as if the speaker means that everyone should have remained on death row. Wrong. This is similar to the anti-abortion folks who don't grasp the concept of giving people their own choice to say "yes" or "no". In both cases, one side has one belief and the other has a more complicated belief. In the world of news, this is not a good thing. I was dying to see a reporter talking with one of the Law School folks about the blanket commutations and ask if doing it as in the "blanket (I'm now tired of that word) style" was the best route. I'd point out that racial profiling is blanket. Nothing done in the "blanket" style is fair, is it?
IN THE CURRENT CHICAGO RED FACE:
- Ryan Grants Clemency to all Illinois Criminals
- Matt Hale meets cellmate, denounces racism
- FBI searching for missing car owned by Loren-Maltese
- Daley Unveils Plans for Billennium Park
- Extra-terrestrial cloning message received
- Trib announces RedEye spinoff, Sun-Times copies
- Steed
- World braces for Kangaroo Jack
- LeBron gets Hummer from mom
- Jay Merryman: Reinsdorf, Williams are geniuses
Check it out at: www.chicagoredface.com.
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