Is Howard Kurtz actually a media Critic?
By John Amato Sunday Nov 18, 2007 6:00pm I watched in amazement last Sunday to the opening segments of his telecast of Reliable Sources. Kurtz covered the WGA strike and wondered if Jon Stewart and Jay Leno should just get off their asses and write some of their own material. And Stewart should maybe do more interviews. I'm not kidding, this is the Washington Post and CNN media critic and he has no clue how difficult it is to write one episode of a show. The Daily Show employs a football team of writers on their staff to come up with the brilliant TV that we see. We expect the wingnut critic Medved to feed into the "Hollywood is bad" meme so why does Leno suck come naturally to him, but Kurtz should know better. Pozner explains that the strike is all about union busting....
MICHAEL MEDVED:...And this clearly just weakens the whole institution of television.
It's also very disillusioning, as you were indicating before, Howie, that some of the funniest people in America who are famous for their adlibs and their quickness are so reliant on writers. I think it makes people like Jay Leno look bad.
KURTZ: I've sort of wondered myself why Leno and Letterman and Jon Stewart don't try -- and maybe they will eventually be forced to do this -- to put on a different kind of show without writers where you rely more on interviews and so forth.
KURTZ: Stagehands also went on strike yesterday, closing down all the major plays in New York. So it seems like there is a plague of this.
Jennifer Pozner, it kind of reminds me of baseball. There's plenty of money in TV, lots of profit being made. It seems like there should be enough money to work out a reasonable settlement.
Do you think that on some level the Hollywood studios want this strike?
POZNER: I think -- I think that they are looking to bust the union. I think that they know that Internet downloads, distribution to cell phones, iPods and even technologies that aren't in creation yet are the way that we, the majority of people, are going to be seeing television, you know, content, not on the actual tube.
The last time that the Writers Guild had an agreement, we didn't have DVDs. We didn't have the Internet. We didn't have any of the new technology and distribution systems. So what the writers are looking for is basically any type of piece of that pie. They're looking for fair compensation. It's a basic labor issue.
And as we know, corporate media companies are trying to drive every last red cent out of the writers' content. There would be none of these TV shows that, Michael, you said people want to see. There would be no content without the writers, and the writers are trying to get anything. It's the height of nickel and diming. Well, not even nickel and diming. They're not even asking for a dime.
KURTZ: Maybe...
POZNER: And they don't want to give them a nickel.
KURTZ: Maybe self-destructive for all sides.
"Self destructive for all sides," is Kurtz' answer. My god, who writes his material? Oh, he does, nevermind....
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First? Mmmm, I loves me some Jennifer Pozner...
Jon Stewart has more talent and personality is one hair folicle than Medved and Kurtz do n their entire bodies.
Jon Stewart is a god among men.
Kurtz is not.
Medved is insane.
brilliant tv , boy who knew , most tvs shit , sos leno!
SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, SHOULD RUN UP TO KURTZ AND THROW SOME PREPARATION H ON HIM ! THAT WOULD TAKE CARE OF THE WHOLE PROBLEM ...
Fox news demonstrates a need for writers at every opportunity.
Well shit, the 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour had a whole army or writers, and looked how THAT turned out.
What a moron.
What a maroon. Maybe Kurtz should follow in Falsenews' footsteps and show soft porn videos like O'Reilly does while screaming about the decline of America and the "Culture wars"
His RNC Whore wife writes his material. Isn't that obvious?
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't United Artists a film studio founded on a more cooperative, less top-down model? The big problem seems to be that the media giants are a pain to deal with. A few bands are exploring self-distribution and using alternative pricing schemes and marketing strategies. Maybe some of the great talent out there could found a production company. It wouldn't take more than half a dozen of the top-paid acting talent out there to pitch in with the venture capital to get the first few movies or series off the ground.
it IS about union bustiing but not exclusively -- it's also designed by the "new" corporate studio masters to keep americans ill-informed by knocking stewart/colbert/maher, et al off the air during the coming primaries... fucking OUTRAGE!
How much of their own shows did Sid Caesar, Jack Paar, Jack Benny, Steve Allen and/or Johnny Carson actually write?
I suggest Mr. Kurtz shop NOW for his own stable ASAP
(Howie: it's a buyer's market! won't last long!!)
I say all tv just devolve into I Love New York sequels, male sports and propagandist pundit tv. Just get it over with, already! Rot my brain NOW!
:P
Um, How-ee, if Jon Stewart just sat down and wrote his own scripts during the strike that would be "scabbing" - if Jon's a member of WGA. And he probably is. Ellen Degenerate is having the same prob - her contract says she must perform her show daily, but without any writers. She has to ad lib (and it's showing) her opening monologues because she, too, is a member of WGA.
Slightly OT - a week ago last Thursday when it was clear that this strike would go on awhile, the local cable company (Charter) pulled the plug on my cable (which I'd been getting *free* for the past four years when their tech pixies didn't pull the plug after I'd canceled way back then). I guess they're finally preparing to start coughing up some residuals (ick!) for the writers' work. I thought the timely of the plug pulling was vewy intewesting... (:>
Kurtz obviously has no clue on how creative people operate, or the relentless way TV consumes original content so that even funny original people like Leno are reliant on writers when they are on every evening. What a putz -- it's just one more level of putz-ness on Kurtz in addition to his artificial elite "fair & balanced" pretence in both his newspaper and TV venues.
Yeah, UA was founded by star film performers Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford so as to have control of their own films and profits.
Eventually, it was sold to others and became just another Hollywood operation.
Cary @ 9:
hgibson @ 11:
Perhaps, and the answer would be, for the most part, quite a bit. Allen and Carson were very hands-on with the writing, and Benny, Caesar and Parr all did quite a bit as well.
Jon Stewart and Jay Leno both came up writing their own stand-up material, and both also write for their respective shows now. And both are in the WGA.
So, the lesson, unsurprisingly, is that Kurtz is an ignorant douchebag.
Michael Medved became a conservative when he found out he didn't have the talent to cut it in Hollywood as a writer.
And like a lot of failed Hollywood hacks he got angry and bitter and blamed the Hollywood establishment for his lack of talent, becomes a neo-conservative and makes a living at being a right wing blowhard.
The right wing media is full of losers who couldn't cut it in the real world. Limbaugh, Hannity, Medved, Savage, etc.
If Medved had the talent he'd still be a leftist and happily working in Hollywood. But losers become neocons when they can't cut the mustard in the entertainment industry.
In the headline John asks:
No, he is not.
This has been another case of....
I always wondered how one becomes a "critic" or "expert."
A lot of the critics have no background on the field they critique, most literary critics have never written a novel (and if they have, most of the time have been complete and utter flops), most movie critics have never even been involved in the film industry or study film, most food critics are just a set of assholish gluttons who could cook their way out of a wet paper bag, etc.
We live in a world in which the media seems to be stacked with way too many pundits, opinion mongers, and general buffoons and not enough actual journalists.
I am shocked by how oblivious Kurtz appears to be about the very industry he covers - and also, it seems, about plagues. Doesn't he know strikes don't come in plagues? But clearly critics do.
MICHAEL MEDVED:…And this clearly just weakens the whole institution of television.
Television has never been and will never be a strong institution - television is a brain drain, it provides mindless entertainment and promotes ideas which are largely shallow, false, empty and vestigial. Television is good for nothing. Turn it off, go outside for a walk, read a book, speak to your neighbor, disconnect your cable and reignite your imagination through any activity.
Big fan of Jennifer.
That clip was idiotic. Kurtz should know working in tv news that a show depends on a team...though he is likely one of those arrogant fucks that think music, graphics, lights, and words appear just because he showed up.
Thank God there are still unions around with any teeth. I've worked plenty of 65-70 hour weeks with no compensation after the 40 mark, no comp time...actually paying money to have to work those extra hours.
Can you hear me screaming? I can't take these f*cking morons any more. Sheesh.
Tom @ 16:
Well, I don't think they necessarily wrote the material. Amongst Caesar's writers were Mel Brooks & Woody Allen. Benny, even back in his "stand-up" vaudeville years bought jokes from, and always thanked the kids in the hall who sold him jokes (and, yes, that's where The Kids In The Hall got their name from). Berle, of course, stole from everyone.
As fer hands on...well, yeah, guys like Carson, Allen & Parr were, they had to be, because they were out there sellin' soap with their own personalities. They all approved their material.
The first thing that struck me about this was the slamming of Leno. The guy is STILL telling Clinton sex jokes and he's been pretty soft on conservatives, including Bush. In fact, he's talked about how he and his wife have different politics because she's a Democrat. Then came the answer... he's on the picket lines. Damned union-loving librul!!! Bash! Bash! Bash!
Medved is wrong about people tuning in to TV shows for the stars, not the writing. Some shows are star-driven, some are driven by the writing. Think of any ensemble show on TV. Does it really matter who the actors are? Had most people ever even heard of the actors on "Lost" or "Friends" or "ER," to use just three of many, many examples, when those shows started? Of course not. They became stars because the quality of the writing and production made the shows very popular, thereby making the actors very popular. Are Kurtz and Medved really media critics? They obviously don't know enough or think critically enough to claim that title.
Medved has no business commenting on TV. He says he doesn't own one, doesn't watch it and won't allow his family to watch TV.
Tom @ 16:
While I agree with your conclusion, the fact is that Leno and Stewart are as hands on as the others, if not more so. Caesar's staff included Mel Brooks AND Woody Allen (not bad), and all had a staff of at least a dozen. Carson, Leno, Maher, and Letterman have taken free lance jokes as well. Letterman currently has one guy, Bill Scheft doing the entire monologue, with a staff writing the other stuff, but Scheft is a rare joke savant.
Caesar, Parr, Allen and Carson all had Jack Douglas on their staffs, and in addition to penning jokes for them wrote four best sellers and at least four other hilarious books of semi-fiction. Anyone who wants to know about the biz of comedy writing should read his "A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to the Grave." (His third tome)
The only show that was close to self written was the first two seasons of SNL. In Second City style they improved most of the sketches, but still had help from Al Franken and Tom Davis, Michael O'Donnahue, and one other whose name escapes me.
None of these shows stands without writers, and as soon as all the sitcoms go into reruns in January, this will end. I wish the writers nothing but the best. They are getting hosed big time. Kurtz is a know-nothing.
Kurtz is more of a shill that blends with the latest trends flowing through the media at the given time.
well all of them, and i mean all of them, from ceasar to leno, relied on staff, independent contractors (kids in the hall) and themselves.
i've run a comedy room, and believe me, it's more than just taking good jokes and skipping the bad ones. a head writer (which stewart and leno and parr and carson and benny and ceasar ultimately were on their own shows) takes a joke that's good and tweaks it to make it great.
also, i am reminded of the monologue that dave letterman did on the night that it was announced that johnny carson had died. he did a number of jokes, some good, a couple down right hilarious, and then at the end he announced that all the jokes were written by johnny carson, who had a habit of sending letterman jokes that he had written in his retirement.
i was going to point out that leno and stewart are members of the wga but donald and tom beat me to it. and i was also going to give the history of united artists, but stus beat me to that. but he left out dw griffith who was part of that early team who founded the studio.
on a related topic, some writers have started a campaign to send as many pencils as they can get to the hollywood execs in a symbolic gesture. the idea was born on fan support sites, and is hubbed at united hollywood. you can help by merely donating a dollar for a box of pencils via paypyal. details at skippy.
You know, it might not be all that hard to write one espisode of a show. But having finally finished that, now do another for next week, and another for the week after that, and keep going cause the weeks keep coming. Back in the olden days of my youth, some car mag scribe said that a lot of racers could take a corner as fast as Dan Gurney. A single corner. But taking corner after corner, for hours on end, as fast as Dan Gurney could take corner after corner for hours on end... well, that's something else entirely.
mike irwin @ 28:
David Ehrenstein @ 8:
I really wish that THAT would be pointed out more often. It won't happen, but media matters and C&L should point that out every day or at least in every post about that scum.
Ronnie Ann @ 20:
What is kurtz NOT oblivious to?
SpAz @ 21:
medivac will be pissed when he finds that out. :)
Fairness Doctrine @ 27:
so kurtz picks people who are as ignorant as he is. eh!
In my FabLog posts I consistently refer to him as "Mr. Sheri Annis," ConIntelPro.
Somebody has to!
Why is my guess that Stewart supports the strike? I was fortunate enough to be a member of the live boradcast of the Daily Show during the Governators election night. All I can say is, if you haven't been to a taping of a show before, especially a live one, you don't know what goes on before the cameras role. to claim that Jon Stweart should be writing his show, while also being fresh enough to add the same level of spontaneity that he does is interviews, is just silly. It's going to be one or the other for most. If Stewart was responsible for the majority of the writing on that show, it wouldn't be the same as he simply wouldn't have the same creative energy once the cameras roll. While this may not make sense for all, I'm a lawyer, and it's about the same as asking me to both prepare and argue a case in front of a jury on the same day. It's not a reality.
Assumption Media And Democratic Priorities
What is hurting the process of media , which should be reflective of what and who it covers, is the right-wing media's never ending assumption style of covering news. It is when the Howard Kurtz of media says things like the writers strike is “Self destructive for all sides." After appearing to have a collective all encompassing group of commentators lending to the impression that all assessments lead to "his" conclusion.
Opinion opinion opinion, twenty-four seven, all day long opinion news. That is how the right-wing media tries to indoctrinate their viewers. With some it has the opposite affect. I am so tired of the everyday indoctrinations of how bad Hillary Clinton is for our country. Especially when she is the only one being bashed continuously. Big lead equals all day bashing. I have never scene it so focused on one candidate in my life time. It appears to be gaining ground at times as the Republicans have found away to turn the left in on itself.
The Democratic primary campaigns of Barack Obama and John Edwards are examples of Republicans handy-work. When Robert Novak wrote a column stating that "someone" had something on Obama, the next want to be our president candidate, Obama, bit into it like it was stated directly to him, coming directly from Clinton. The problem is Novak never gave a name; Obama crated the conclusion. I am not sure I want someone in the WH making unfounded decisions that may have dire consequences.
I think you call it divide and conquer, or divide the Democrats and re-elect another Republican to the WH. Hell, even this site has sponsored negatives against Clinton.
I am not saying we should not engage in the process of putting our best in the driver's seat. I am saying not to take our best and put theme in the trunk of the car. We are not Republicans and should never resort to doing work that they can use to "stay" in control. If we don't send the best, we stand just that much of a chance of re-electing another Republican. The way it stands now, the Republicans are trying to position the Democratic Party to burn their own front runner. Why would they do that? It is obvious. At some point, the Democratic candidates have to stay away from the right-wing media assertions, conclusions, and what appears to be support for their campaigns.
Joseph
I can't bring myself to watch this again to find the exact quote. Medved says something along the lines of "The writer's position is weak because there are a lot of people out there who want to do what they do."
What a god damn tool. I would like to play professional baseball, but on the off chance that there is another strike in that profession I do not anticipate anyone being willing to shell out $$ to watch me drag my fat ass around left field in front of the green monster. Well maybe for one day as a novelty act.
What a maroon. What a nin com poop.
I don't know whether it was Mike Medved or Mike Gallagher (I think it was Medved, but I get them confused, wonder of wonders) I was listening to on the radio the other day but they went into a whole schpiel about how unions are outdated and unnecessary and should all be broken. I really think the neo cons think that the world was just effing great circa 1890, and if we can bring it back, but this time with cable and cell phones to amuse the masses, everything would be just great.
Medved is quickly leading a charge to become the poster boy for the complete idiocy of the right, and that is no mean feat.
On a somewhat brighter note, anyone not familiar with the issues involved with the strike could check out Kung Fu Monkey. His write ups are pretty good, and he links to a number of in depth pieces as well.
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Frankly, I hope this strike lasts a long, long time. Long enough where Americans actually start to not watch T.V. for their entertainment diet.
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Yes, Kurtz is now also a movie critic. But even more impressive is the polymath Michael Medved - who is now in addition to a movie critic, also an Intelligent Design Scientist at the Disco Institute.
http://www.discovery.org/
;)
Another thing that drives me nuts about Kurtz [in addition to his all-encompassing stupidity], is that when he writes a book [as he's just done], he's welcomed to pimp it on every show imaginable. It's such a circle-jerk with all of these "author"/pundit/experts etc.
No wonder they're so hostile to the blogs: we keep shouting that they have no clothes. Ew, the mental picture of Howie with no clothes . . . .
Otay @ 42:
Here's a better link:
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=4303
When the bureaucracy, of fat men in fancy clothing pulling all the strings and holding all the money, gets too greedy....What should we do America?
Kurtz likes to mainstream eugenics like when he called whites only drinking fountainist Malkin "charming"
While I sympathize with the writers, nobody is taking into consideration how this affects the entirety of the rest of the crew. The crews for virtually all of these talk shows and comedies are going to be laid off, literally hundreds of people, minus Letterman's since he owns his show. I can't blame Ellen for trying. By trying to swindle every cent they can, the studios are almost literally shitting on everybody by forcing this confrontation. Kurtz isn't far off the mark with his comment, but "Devastating to all sides" would be more appropriate.
hgibson Says:
How much of their own shows did Sid Caesar, Jack Paar, Jack Benny, Steve Allen and/or Johnny Carson actually write?
----------------------------
Very true.
You,ve watched Dick Cavett plus a slew of others write for great TV hosts over the years.
The hosts are good. The writers make them greats.
I’d like to comment on Ms Pozners performance in this segment on a scale of 0 to 1…
I’d give her one.
Tyler @ 47:
Nice canard... please put the responsibility of the lay offs on the people in charge of them: management. Last time I checked the fat guys on top with all the money are the ones writing them pink slips, not the people writing the shows.
"Nobody wants to watch a show because of who wrote it" - a bad paraphrase of Medved.
Excuse me? This past season, many shows promoted themselves based on who created them and who'd be writing. The names of writers are becoming better known to smart viewers and the industry is using this; Medved is obviously out of touch.
Stewart paid the salaries of his and Colbert's staff for two weeks, as did Letterman.
All of these guys are WGA members, and support the strike.
As do the union crews of these shows who are hoping for a positive outcome for this strike when because they don't want to have to strike when their contracts are up.
You might be surprised to know that many, many union members are forced to cross picket lines by their contracts, and would much rather stay home because they know the more a show is shut down, the more motivated the producers are to come to the table.
Think how improved Kurtz's show will be when his cameramen quit.
A pair of assclowns, pretending they didn't understand. They are towing the union busting line. Kurtz is easily the most clueless person that has the word "media" in his title. A pair of pretenders.
How come Fox News is not on strike? They have a big staff of writers coming up with amazing fiction day after day.
Andy K @ 25:
Hahaha! It's funny 'cause it's true.
Lynnianaa @ 57:
Imagine what the world would be like if fellow right-wing hack Joel Surnow (aka The Man Who Introduced Jack Bauer To The World) had also failed as a Hollywood writer.
My guess: He'd have his own radio talk show.
But Surnow is a great example of what right-wingers dream about, and what kind of fiction they write about: Big, strong manly men who don't sleep, don't eat, can torture anything out of anybody and are just general bad-asses.
Surnow also wrote for the 1/2 Hour News Hour, proving that talent is indeed very selective.
I can't think of anything he's written that's of any interest to anybody...
There is an old saying, "When you have failed and everything else, become a consultant. The same can be said about critics. Those who can do, DO. Those who can't, COMPLAIN.
Preacher Boob @ 53:
CNN got rid of the cameraman already,, its a robot.
WHO is Kurtz related to. He has not gotten as far as he has on merit; he is a dull normal.
He MUST be related to someone with influence.
I think of him as a Jonah Goldberg without the charisma.
Not to mention that writing their own stuff is like crossing the picket lines; can you spell "scab"?
MeMyselfAndI @ 50:
"By trying to swindle every cent they can, the studios are almost literally shitting on everybody by forcing this confrontation."
I did. And I do not sell ducks.
fafa fohi, this is actually a Howard Stern talking point from a week ago. He suggested they try doing the show anyway, "without writers". He thought they should be smart enough to b.s. their way through it. To be fair, a "show" writer may have given him this idea.
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