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Thursday, September 5, 2002
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Does Keith Olbermann Read This Weblog?
Not to sound like too much of a fanboy, but Keith Olbermann has been a hero of mine ever since he was fired (or canceled) from ESPN after being led into calling Bristol, Connecticut (where both of my parents grew up) the "most Godforsaken place on the eastern seaboard". And The Big Show, which he did on MSNBC, was great until it was hijacked by Monica Lewinsky. He had disappeared into Fox Sports for a few years, but now he's back with a column at Salon.
While reading today's column, I couldn't help but notice the thematic similarity of the first section, about WNEW-FM broadcasting live sex from St. Patrick's Cathedral, to an earlier entry in this Weblog. For instance, I wrote:
The disc jockeys on whose show this occurred are of course responsible as well, as is the station--not just because they're responsible for whatever they broadcast, but because they specifically hired these disc jockeys to do this sort of thing. The disc jockeys have been fired in Massachusetts for inappropriate behavior, and they have been fined by the FCC during their tenure at WNEW. I would imagine that the publicity stemming from these incidents were worth far more to the disc jockeys and WNEW than the cost of the firing and the fines. WNEW cannot credibly claim that this latest incident was unexpected--they hired these disc jockeys to do exactly this sort of thing.
And Keith (we're friends now that he may have read my Weblog) wrote:
In other words, their employers knew exactly what they wanted from these guys. They got it, and only after it arrived with a bonus hailstorm of criticism, did they stop the show--but not the paychecks... Of course the company knew something like the cathedral incident was a possibility. These two men were available to them only because they'd been offed by a Boston station for having falsely reported, on April Fool's Day in 1998, that the city's mayor, Thomas Menino, had been killed in an automobile accident.
This may just be a case of me building a conspiracy out of coincidence, but I want to believe that Keith has read this Weblog. And I don't mean to imply that he is simply regurgitating my (or anyone else's) thoughts in his column--he takes the topic in a different direction than I did, and illuminates it with his own insights. But columns, like Weblogs, are part of a cultural dialogue and are spurred by the things that the columnist saw, read, or heard. Maybe he just happened to read my Weblog. It could happen.
12:53:56 PM 
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What Did They Put In the Craft Services Beverages On the Set of Battlefield Earth?
The Onion's A. V. Club has summarized the commentary tracks on some really awful DVDs, wherein the all manner of sad, bizarre reactions to failure can be found. For instance, Roger Christian, director of Battlefield Earth, believes that:
...Battlefield Earth is a visionary "independent little film" that worked wonders on a tiny budget, thrilling audiences and wowing filmmakers like George Lucas...
Christian sees the film as years ahead of its time, wistfully remarking, "One day this film will be seen in its true light," apparently by people who can appreciate its "many layers of richness." Christian blames negative reviews on critics' innate hatred of science-fiction films, citing the initial reviews of 2001, Blade Runner, Aliens, and Contact as examples.
8:04:15 AM
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Want to Experience That Shining Feeling?
An orchard in Connecticut has made a corn maze for charity. So if you're in the Middlefield area between September 7th and November 3rd, be sure to stop by.
7:53:42 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Morgan N. Sandquist.
Last update: 11/2/03; 10:27:19 AM.
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