MEDIA: Chump, the Meiselas brothers new book, AMERICAN HOSTAGE, THE LIZZIE BORDEN STORY, NEWLYWEDS and LINE OF FIRE

NETFLIX earns the honors with MONSTER: THE LIZZIE BORDEN STORY -- worst TV series of the fall.  The eight-episode, fourth season of the anthology series MONSTER wants to be so much but musters so damn little.  

 

 

Among its failures?  It wants to talk about women.  That's great.  Let's look at society in 1892 when Borden's parents were found hacked up. Let's talk about women's roles and societal norms at the time.

 

But they don't do that.  They can't address women.  So they go with woman and they offer such topics as Lizzie's menstruation. By staying in a tight shot on Lizzie, they never deal with women and the way society judged women. 

 

But it fails mainly in the watchable category.  Like Jon Hamm's AMERICAN HOSTAGE on MGM+, watching it to the end leaves you feeling like time's been wasted and you're never getting it back.  Both are rather obvious storylines and are executed in a paint-by-number manner.  There's not a genuine moment of surprise that ever flickers across the screen.  At least on Hamm's program the dialogue is often strong and the performances are strong. Both shows feel as though their scripts were written by AI.  Predictable is the term that applies to both.

 

 Predictable appears to be the results we'll get on Tuesday when the midterm voting ends.  

 

For nearly two years now, Donald Chump, convicted felon, has destroyed the United States in a similar manner to what he did to the White House's East Wing.  The moody, hysterical and attention seeking Chump is like an obscenely fat man stomping through a china shop -- not a bull, mind you, a very fat man whose girth may not fit down the aisles.  Wiggle those wide hips jut a tad too much and he's knocking everything over.

 

And that's how he's spent the last two months.  Knocking over his own party's attempts to win the midterms.  Last week, Matthew Rozsa (ALTERNET) reported:

 

A pair of journalists who have written inside information-filled accounts about President Donald Trump explained his brazen corruption simply: He does not care if Americans are angry or Republicans are hurt at the polls.

"Where are we?" MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace asked on Thursday to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. "We’re five days out from an election where every single poll I’ve seen that’s become public, whether it’s commissioned by Democrats or Republicans, has Democrats very likely taking over the House, potentially the Senate as well."

 

Chump scheduled a party convention for Dallas, Texas.  It took place over two days in September.  Most Republicans skipped it.  The few who attended or watched it on screens were left underwhelmed because Chump offered nothing new.  It was all about him.   That's not at all surprising if you were paying attention in June and July when he turned America's semiquincentennial into a self-celebration.  

 

In their new book WTF AMERICA?!: THE WAY OUT OF THIS HELL AND BACK TO DEMOCRACY,  Ben, Brett and Jordy Meiselas  chart their own rise via MEIDASTOUCH NEWS as the contrast to Chump's rise to power.  They emerged during COVID as Chump was in the White House telling his lies and being ineffectual but not the monster he'd become ahead of January 6, 2021 and later.  That's because he had some grown ups in the room who told him "no." The grown ups are gone and Chump has no one left who questions his worst impulses and criminal desires.

 

The Meiselas brothers saw truth as the power to be used against Chump and knew that they had to hit hard.  And they have hit hard.  It's an interesting book, well written and involving, with a clever turn of phrase (such as "Just His Department" for the Justice Department) popping up regularly.  

 

Well written and with cleaver turns of phrases describes the two best shows for fall -- both on NBC -- LINE OF FIRE and NEWLYWEDS. The latter is a sitcom starring Tea Leoni and Tim Daly that was created by Gail Lerner and Jamie Lee Curtis with the plan that Jamie Lee would star in it as the newlywed wife.  Instead, Tea Leoni is playing that part with real-life husband Tim Daly the newlywed husband and Jamie Lee shows up as Tim's ex-wife.  The cast is first-rate and also includes Bill O'Neill, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, Emma Meisel and Al Madrigal.  Tea's doing her just-woke-up character and it fits perfectly with Tim Daly's more caffeinated performance. Best of all is Jamie Lee Curtis who starts off strong in the first episode but grows stronger with each episode. You care about all the characters.  We think this could be a long running and popular sitcom.  We hope that anyway.  After the sixth episode, Gail Lerner was fired.  We're hoping this won't mean a crash in quality.

 

LINE OF FIRE is a drama (soap opera)  about a family who works for the government in various department.   Peter Krause is Mike Hollingsworth (Secret Service), Hope Davis is his wife Jane (US Marshals Service), Kat Cunning is daughter Clare (FBI), Tommy O'Brien is son Junior (like Mike Sr., Junior is Secret Service), Taylor Bloom is son Russ (Dept of Justice National Security Division) and  Charlie Barnett is son Jack (presumed dead by his family but working for the CIA apparently).  There are all sorts of secrets and confidences being hidden and broken. 

 

It's got the kind of non-stop drama you expect from a TV series.

 

Which is also the kind of non-stop drama Chump brings to the Oval Office which, being real life, not only doesn't entertain, it doesn't sustain. 

 

Joe Sommerlad (INDEPENDENT) notes: 

 

Republicans are bracing themselves for a Democratic blowout in Tuesday’s midterms, with some expecting “a brutal evening” and already expressing resignation about losing their majorities in Congress, according to a report.

President Donald Trump has placed himself front and center of GOP campaigning, attempting to encourage conservative turnout by urging voters to behave as though he himself were on the ballot, rather than zeroing in on specific issues. 

The strategy threatens to backfire, however, given his deep unpopularity and historically low approval ratings, currently the lowest of his second term at 30 percent – according to Pew Research – and the worst of any sitting president going into the midterms since Harry Truman in 1946.  

 “It could be quite a brutal evening,” one senior Republican strategist told Politico. “Once the dominoes start falling it becomes hard to stop them.”

 

As the saying goes, "From your lips to God's ears." 

 

While they're worrying about losing their seats, Chump's only been concerned with himself.  Daniel Wolfram (DAGENS) points out, "He has held nearly 30 campaign rallies over the past two weeks. However, instead of trying to highlight his candidates and address problems that Americans are facing, Trump is deeply occupied with male physiques, personal vendettas, the renovation of golf courses, and the White House."  Pablo O'Hana (METRO) adds:

 

'I'd say 90% of the reason I took the governor…EUGH…I took the governor and I put her over at the United Nations, because I wanted this guy to become governor.' This is a direct quote from US President Donald Trump, as he gave a speech last week at his rally in South Carolina. Instead of saying former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's name, he made this surreal sound. It wasn't the only time during the speech when he lost his words. He goes on to describe the military strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats with the sound effects 'pew, pew, pew' to imitate gunfire. If you're confused, you're not alone. I know it may read as though I've just thumped my fist on my keyboard to create a series of random sentences, but I've not, and that's the point. Donald Trump's verbal blunders are becoming increasingly pronounced and increasingly concerning.

 

 Chump bumbled along for weeks and weeks and he took the GOP down with him -- something he actually began doing on January 21, 2025.  He's attacked Venezuelans in boats, he's overthrown the leader of their country, he's attacked Iran, he's attacked the White House, The Kennedy Center, The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, on and on it goes.  It's never ending.  In fact, it's exhausting just watching him tear apart America, tear apart democracy and tear apart our justice system.

 

In WTF AMERICA?!: THE WAY OUT OF THIS HELL AND BACK TO DEMOCRACY,  Ben, Brett and Jordy document how Chump bullies people into silence, how he avoids answering questioning with the promise of two-weeks-from-now but how the two-weeks-from-now never actually arrives (regardless of whether it's Melania providing proof of her immigration process or the Iran War ending or whatever) and how he creates scandals to distract. 

 

The Meiselas brothers note in their book:  

 

No wonder Donald Trump so obviously despises the legal system when it functions how it's supposed to. When claims are tested. When information is vetted. When lies are revealed. Does any of that sound like anything Donald Trump would want? That's why his answer isn't to honor the American legal system. His answer is to abuse it. To destroy it. To exploit the system in a way that’s designed to create injustice.

 

And it's the kind of honest truth told powerfully that the country needs.  It doesn't always get that from the media.  Commercial media has its own constraints including those sanctions and directions imposed by owners.  The brothers note that there is also the built-in of trying to get 'both sides' but, as when Chump was lying about some huge water spigot that California Governor Gavin Newsom was refusing to turn on that would deliver melted snow from Canada to the fires in California, there's not an other side when the other side -- Chump -- is just lying and making things up.

 

And there's no excuse for the media when so many refused to note last week's Congressional report from House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee detailing Chump's participation in joining Jeffrey Epstein in assaulting young girls and women (see Tuesday's snapshot).  Repeating: There is no excuse for that large media silence. 

 

The brothers do a good job throughout their book.  But we should note that they are reinventing the wheel to a degree.  That's most obvious when they touch on MSNBC's history and fail to note it was a sewer.  There's the cancelling of Phil Donahue's program because Bully Boy Bush was going to war with Iraq, there's the dreaded racist Don Imus who it felt for years that we right here were alone in calling out, there were vile and disgusting jerks like Michael Savage (thank you to the Gates -- but especially Melissa -- for making clear to MSNBC that he couldn't continue on air).  The media failings are many and some are built in features.  But to know that, you're media awareness has to go beyond 2000.  We saw Eric Alterman display his vast ignorance of media critiques in his awful WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA which ignored  a huge body of work including Nora Ephron's ground breaking media criticism which she did for ESQUIRE in the 70s.  Izzy Stone and so many others have documented the problems with our media and done so accurately in the 20th century.  We would do well, as media consumers, to be aware of their work.

 

Unlike Alterman, the Meiselas brothers don't pretend to be writing the history of the media or of media criticism.  They're focused on Chump -- to the point that it may leave loyal viewers of MEIDASTOUCH NEWS (we'd include ourselves in that group) fearful that when Chump leaves the White House, the MEIDASTOUCH will shut down.  Their work has been too important for them to pull a United For Peace and Justice move and shut down their organization because someone got elected.  (UFPJ shut down days  after the November 2008, election -- we covered it here and you can see our exchange with GOOGLE AI that took place today here.)

 

It seems doubtful that they'd take that move because they clearly find it rewarding to take on the powerful and to uplift We The People.  But you're reading this at a site that started as a weekly site in 2005 and is now published only about every six weeks.  Things change, life gets in the way.  

 

For now, we've got the Meiselas brothers and we are thankful for that because this country has never needed voices like Ben, Brett and Jordy Meiselas more than it does currently.  

 

 

Media: BIG MISTAKES, PROUD, LUCKY and anti-Blackness

Some things you wait on turn out to be worth the wait.  In TV, that would include REACHER's season four this summer.  However, other things just aren't worth it.  That would include HBO's LANTERNS this summer of which Stan rightly noted:

 

I may give it a try next week, I may not.  I was not impressed.  Especially with the lack of special effects.  It's like they've done it on the cheap.  You do Green Lantern, you need to be doing huge special effects.  At one point, he is taking on a 'bomb' and even that ends up off camera.  It's just rinky dink, cheap ass, no budget b.s.  

 

There are some shows you can do on the cheap.  A show revolving around Green Lanterns?  No, that's not one.  

 

Expectations are too high for the bearer(s) of that ring.  

  

 

BIG MISTAKES, PROUD and LUCKY.    Those are three programs that were worth catching. 

 

BIG MISTAKES was released in April but we didn't find time for it until July.  It's the latest from Dan Levy.  As with SCHITT'S CREEK, Dan co-stars and co-created BIG MISTAKES which revolves around his character Nicky and Nicky's sister Morgan (played by Taylor Ortega).  He's a pastor who is out to his congregation but not prepared to tell them he has started a relationship.  Morgan's far less grounded.  Their grandmother has passed away and their mother is on a manic tear so they end up at a pawn shop looking for some thing for their grandmother to be buried with.  Morgan finds a cheap necklace and the guy won't sell it to her. But, as they leave, Morgan's grabbed the necklace.  

 

And their mother loves it and the grandmother is buried wearing it.  

 

And after that?   

 

The pawnbroker shows up wanting the necklace back.  Or else.  

 

And the or else gets worse and worse and the man's part of the mob and the necklace is, in fact, very valuable.  It was a big mistake for Morgan to have taken the necklace and for Morgan and Nicky to have allowed it to be buried with their grandmother. 

 

BIG MISTAKES is a very funny show.  

 

The only problem?  Laurie Metcalf.  

 

She plays their mother.  And sometimes she's perfect in the role.  When she is, she recalls her work in ROSEANNE and JFK and INTERNAL AFFAIRS.  And when she's not?  It's like watching her in SCREAM II when she's playing the bad guy and she can't carry it off. This happens when she goes so far over the top and, yes, we know Metcalf goes over the top in pretty much everything.  But when she goes so far over the top that she's a parody of herself. 

 

She needs to reign it in or the character needs to be revamped so that she's not someone people would vote to be mayor and someone who runs the family hardware store and is seen as a pillar of the community.  

 

PROUD is a Polish series with a dubbed in English version that streams on HBO.  Ignacy Liss stars as Filip -- a partying model -- who has been living with his sister and his sister's infant child Tosia.  His sister dies and Filip wants to raise his niece but suddenly roadblocks emerge because he's gay.  This a powerful drama which really pulls you in.  

 

As does LUCKY, an APPLE TV+ series starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Lucky -- a con artist raised by a con artist.  That con artist is played Timothy Olyphant who is wonderful in the role and that's true of Taylor-Joy, Annette Bening, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor . . .  There's not a bad performance in the cast.  It's really something to watch the actors work individually and as an ensemble.  LUCKY is a thriller and there are enough twists and turns to hook you and keep you hooked.  

 

Those are three programs -- a comedy, a drama and a thriller -- and each one is special and worth watching.  

 

Worth watching because it's quality television.

 

Some things are worth watching because they inform.  

 

Last week, we got informed that Wajahat Ali and Rula Jabreal are racists.  This was conveyed when Rula appeared on Wajahat's podcast and began trashing US House Rep Hakeem Jeffries.  Joe DePaolo (MEDIAITE) reports:

 

Democratic lawmakers denounced left-wing Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal for referring to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as an “AIPAC monkey.”

Jebreal made the comment during a podcast interview with progressive commentator Wajahat Ali earlier this week, and it has since gotten traction on social media.

“He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey,” Jebreal said. “With all due respect — and I don’t mean it in a racist way. He is just basically an errand boy, and we’re done and tired.”

 The Congressional Black Caucus promptly denounced the remark — and called out Ali for platforming it.

“To be clear, there isn’t a non-racist way to call Leader Jeffries—a Black man—a ‘monkey’ or ‘errand boy,'” the caucus wrote, in a statement on X. “@WajahatAli, this is what happens when we hold ourselves to such low standards for what’s allowable in our discourse—people get comfortable being openly bigoted. We have to stop platforming and trafficking in anti-Black racism, whether it’s on the political right or the left.”

 

 Pretty clear.  

 

Now Tabitha of TABITHA SPEAKS called it out immediately in a short on YOUTUBE.  And then she offered this video about the pushback Wajahat and Rula were attempting. 

  

 

The first documented in the video was Wajahat offering Rula an attempt to spin it and then Joy Ann Reid joins them to spin it further.   

Joy-Ann Reid's argument is that "monkey" is something a non-American might not be aware of and we have to understand that Rula -- Wait.

 

Just stop lying, Joy-Ann.  

 

Rula stated in the original interview, "He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey. With all due respect  and I don't mean it in a racist way. He is just basically an errand boy, and we're done and tired."

 

"I don't mean it in a racist way."  

 

She knew it was racist.  Don't give us, Joy-Ann, that b.s. about Rula not knowing it was racist because she's not from the US.   And then shoring it up with some tale that your father told you.  Deal with the facts.  We know you're not a Democrat anymore.  We caught that announcement when you made it.  But whatever you are now, you need to deal with facts.  

 

But Joy-Ann and Wajahat didn't want to deal with facts which is why neither of them pressed Rula about her use of the term "errand boy" which was also racist.   

 

 We're tired of it.  We're tired of people making excuses for anti-Blackness.  

 

"We should stand together against fascism and hate and not be divided."

 

 Wajahat Tweeted that Saturday.  

 

If you really think that you wouldn't have had that conversation with Rula to begin with.

 

There are people running in Democratic Party slots for the midterms -- 57 days from now.  Guess what?  Some of them we don't like.  

 Guess what else?  You don't see us attacking those people.

 

We grasp that the Democrats have to take control of the House in the midterms.  Have to.  And, hopefully, will also take control of the Senate.  

 

The primaries are over.  There's no point in trashing whomever won them on the Democratic Party side.  Not if we're focused on winning back the House (and hopefully the Senate).   

 

 "We should stand together against fascism and hate and not be divided."

 

Wajahat says that -- in defense of Rula.

 

To take heat off Rula, he says that.

 

Well guess what, Hakeem is up for re-election in  57 days.  Wajahat had no concern about us all standing together against fascism and hate with regards to Hakeem.  He let Rula spit her hate at Hakeem and her racism.  And, to be clear, when she said it in real time, he didn't push back, he didn't even touch on it until it became an online issue at which point he brought her back on and did the I-know-you're-not-racist bit with Rula.  

She is racist.  Her comments were racist.  And Wajahat is racist for letting those comments go unaddressed when she originally made them. 

Joy-Ann?  Well she's got her own history of making remarks that she shouldn't have and then lying about them.  Or are we to forget her homophobic remarks from the '00s?  And when she was confronted with those remarks -- those posted online statements -- she denied them.  So she's probably not the one, Wajahat, to run to in order to shore up someone's credibility after they made offensive remarks.

 

"We should stand together against fascism and hate and not be divided." 

 

 But Rula was the one who divided us -- with Wajahat's permission -- by attacking Hakeem.  

 

Media: Two programs full of life and one running on fumes

MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED?  In the land of Chump, you know that's a con. But there are moments of distraction and, sometimes, you can find some solid joy in a program or two.  APPLE TV's MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED and AMAZON-MGM's RIDE OR DIE are two programs that have delivered recently.   

 

 

The former stars Tatiana Maslany who was so great in ORPHAN BLACK but manages to top that performance here.  She's playing a fact checker for a magazine and shares custody of her daughter with her ex-husband played by Jake Johnson.  She's lonely for adult companionship and ends up having an online relationship with a camboy (Brandon Flynn).  Then things get complicated and violent.  

 

And each episode whips the story around in another direction.  Throughout the ten episode run (hopefully, there will be a second season), you are constantly surprised and -- even in the last minutes of episode ten -- you learn a new detail that adds another layer to the story.  In that regard, it's a lot like ORPHAN BLACK and it's the deepening of the character that gives Tatiana so much to work with -- and she runs with everything she's handed. 

 

RIDE OR DIE is a thriller as well but relies more on action for the thrills.  The thing that makes this series so enjoyable is the chemistry between leads Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingtham.  They play two best friends going back two decades where only one was being fully honest.  While Octavia's Debbie is pretty much who and what she says, Hannah Waddingham's Judith is revealed to be an assassin early in the first episode of the eight episode season and not the forensic accountant she's presented herself as for 20 or so years.  

 

Debbie and Judith are on the run and there are thrills and twists but the main selling point is the chemistry between Octavia and Hannah.  

 

Of course, everything that streams and airs doesn't live up to the levels of MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED and RIDE OR DIE.  Take last Thursday when CBS aired Convicted Felon Donald Chump's twenty-six minutes of tired ravings about 2020.  

 

As he whined and lied and claimed the 2020 election was stolen, he came across like Francis Buxton in PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE -- an overgrown, whiny and jealous man-child who covets what others have. 

 

Francis has money and all the toys he could want as a result of his dim-witted father -- he sounds like Donald, doesn't he? -- but he has to have Pee Wee's bike, he has to. 

 

And that's how Chump came off Thursday night.  

 

And that's how he's always came off.  

 

The crazed ravings reminded us that he started the Iran War and thought it would only last 48 hours and then thought it would only lat two weeks and then four weeks and then?  

 

Well it continues to this day.  

 

Remember June 14th?  Remember what Chump was doing then?  He wanted good press so he was lying and claiming to have ended his war with Iran with a cease-fire.  AP reported that day, "President Donald Trump marked turning 80 on Sunday by hailing an agreement to end the war in Iran hours before a birthday celebration that once would have seemed unfathomable: a cage-fighting show on the storied South Lawn of the White House."

 

And on Friday? 

 

John Ismay, Aaron Boxerman and Leily Nikounazar (NE W YORK TIMES) report:

Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third service member was missing after an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan on Friday, the U.S. military said. The American troop deaths were the first from hostile fire since a truce in early April.

The Jordanian base came under fire from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, according to a statement on Saturday from U.S. Central Command. Sixteen U.S. service members have been killed since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February.

Chump lies.

He lied about the supposed cease-fire.  He lied Thursday night.

His 'big' speech to the nation.

For 26 or so minutes, he yammered on. 26 minutes and this is what he said about Iran:

We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.

That was it.  26 minutes and the most he could say about the war was one sentence.  

 

Of course, he didn't speak to the American people when he launched the war.

No, he taped a message that was released later at 2:30 am. the morning he started the war.  Didn't feel the need for a live address then.  

 

The Epstein Files, the Iran War, the attempt to put his trashy name on The Kennedy Center, the reflecting pool, the 250th anniversary of our democracy,  so many failures, so many scandals, so many embarrassments and there he was last week whining about . . . the 2020 election.  

 

He's running on fumes. 

 

TV: Hope amid crashes and burns

Some things don't work out.  Take PARADISE.  Season one was tight and focused and really delivered.  But season two meandered and was all over the place, introducing too many new characters and giving the impression that they had the plot for two episodes and decided to stretch it out into eight episodes.  Everything was a distraction and nothing really mattered after the first episode until the eighth episode.

 

 

Marking time, that's all it seemed PARADISE was doing.

 

It's what some CBS NEWS friends believe David Ellison's doing. 

  

Not a week goes by since the family friend of Donald Chump took over CBS in the merger  between SKYDANCE and PARAMOUNT+ that CBS NEWS doesn't suffer.  Sometimes it's because the 'ombudsperson' Bari Weiss has mutilated or  killed another report because it would have embarrassed the White House.  Last week,  William Vaillancourt (THE DAILY BEAST) explained:  

 

Bari Weiss “meddled” in an Israel-related story on a new front at CBS News: CBS Sunday Morning.

The MAGA-curious editor-in-chief involved herself in an April 5 story about Israeli archeological digs in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory that Israel has been occupying for 69 years, Zeteo reported on Wednesday. Four sources told the outlet that Weiss made edits and script changes shortly before the report went to air. 

“Oh yeah, she definitely meddled,” a senior CBS News staffer said of the anti-woke opinion journalist, who had no prior television broadcasting experience before being named head of the newsroom.

A network insider added that Weiss, who has described herself as a “Zionist fanatic,” had “never jumped in editorially on a Sunday Morning story until this one.”

The Sunday Morning report had been in the works before Weiss took over as editor-in-chief last October.

A CBS reporter weighed in that “this piece is the first time she’s pulled like a CECOT on the show,” referring to Weiss’ last-minute delay of a 60 Minutes report on the notorious prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration sent deportees.

 

Bari's other problem is Tony Dokoupil, the new anchor of THE CBS EVENING NEWS.  Each week, Bari and Tony manage to run more viewers away.  As April drew to a close, Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) noted:

 

CBS Evening News is experiencing a catastrophic collapse in viewership under Bari Weiss's leadership and veteran television executives are sounding the alarm that the controversial Free Press founder's editorial direction — marked by flagrant Trump support delivered by handpicked anchor Tony Dokoupil — is driving longtime viewers away in unprecedented numbers. 

 According to media watchdog Status, the damage is undeniable and accelerating.

The numbers are disastrous, writes Oliver Darcy, founder of Status. Nielsen data obtained by the media watchdog demonstrates that during the week beginning April 20, CBS Evening News hit its lowest viewership since Dokoupil took over the broadcast. The program averaged just 3.7 million viewers — "slipping below the once-unthinkable" 4 million threshold. In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, the show averaged only 467,000 viewers.

 

And last week Leigh Kimmins (THE DAILY BEAST) reported:

  

Tony Dokoupil’s ratings crisis at CBS Evening News is spiraling as viewer figures hit free-fall mode.

Dokoupil became the de facto face of the new regime when MAGA-friendly Bari Weiss was installed as the boss of CBS News, despite having no broadcast experience. She promoted Dokoupil from CBS Mornings to the prime-time slot.

 

Christiane Amanpour noted her concerns publicly last week.  And non-publicly, in conversations with us, many other CBS NEWS employees are growing increasingly bothered.  However, one producer says that there may be a welcome change around the corner.

 

Before we get to that, let's note the criticism is largely around what Bari interferes with and the ratings.  Outside the network, that is the focus. 

 

But April 25th, feeling we needed to do a piece for April, we sat down to catch CIA in its repeat, Saturday broadcast, while we looked through things people had sent us about their own shows.  And we were half paying attention to CIA when they had to break in with live coverage.

 

It was the White House Correspondents' Dinner and far from the party a shooter had shown up and been tackled to the ground.  

 

But that's not what we got.  Tony was present.  And he had Bari whispering in his ear and egging him on.  The anchor of Saturday's EVENING NEWS was on camera and tossed to him.

 

And he spoke with the sound going in and out.  

 

She had to toss to another and fortunately CBS NEWS had two others present at the dinner who could comment.  

 

Then Bari was adamant that the news 'star' Tony be brought back on.   And he was.

 

And, yet again, his cell phone cut in and out.  Was it his carrier?  They tried to make excuses but it hadn't happened like that for the other two news members.  

 

The third or fourth time they tried tossing to Tony, he managed to explain that the shooter had been shot and was dead.

 

Really?  We immediately went to THE NEW YORK TIMES website to see what they were saying.

 

Guess what?

 

They weren't saying the shooter was dead. Nor were they saying the shooter had been shot.  Because?  Because the shooter wasn't shot, let alone shot dead. 

 

This was a live, breaking news moment and Tony demonstrated yet again that he wasn't up for the job promotion he'd been awarded.

 

He didn't have the brains to swap phones with one of the two CBS NEWS staff members whose phone were working and he didn't have the brains to nail down the facts before going on air.  He didn't even do a correction.  The news break ended before they could do that.

 

So the problem isn't just that Tony's a MAGA idiot, it's that he can't even get the facts right during a live, breaking news event.

 

Hope?  YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS is airing on AMAZON PRIME, season two.  While PARADISE became an embarrassment in season two, YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS has gotten richer and deeper in season two.  Things can improve, even when, like YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, they were already solid in season one.

 

And hope is what some CBS friends are holding out for.

 

Are they deluding themselves?

 

Maybe.

 

But the rumors are that Bari Weiss will soon be let go.  It'll happen after PARAMOUNT+-SKYDANCE absorbs WARNER BROS.  They need Chump on their side for that.  But it that merger does go through, shortly after, a few are swearing that Bari Weiss will be let go. 

 

She doesn't know what she's doing and her actions have hugely harmed CBS NEWS' reputation and its ratings.  They're confident her time is limited.  

 

 

Media: Going Through The Motions -- deceivers who aren't as smart as they think they are

Going through the motions.  That appears to be the theme of late.  Whether it's Donald Chump's war on Iran, Mark Robinson's purity tour or VANISHED.

  

 Something isn't right

I don't know how I know
But baby, it's despite
Your dog-and-pony show
I can hear it coming
You're only going through the motions, baby
With your engines humming
You're just going through the motions, baby
-- "Going Through The Motions," written by Aimee Mann, first appears on her THE FORGOTTEN ARM.

 

 

Let's start with the purity tour.  A cheap and sleazy politician running for higher office gets outed by the press and denies it and threatens to sue only to quietly drop the lawsuit after the election and now, nearly two years later, shows up playing the God card.

 

Em Steck and  Andrew Kaczynski (CNN) report:

 

Former North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson admitted he lied about a bombshell CNN KFile investigation during the final months of his 2024 gubernatorial campaign, uncovering his extensive history of posting inflammatory and racist comments on a pornography website.

Robinson initially denied the report and sued CNN for $50 million that fall as he marched on with his gubernatorial campaign. Robinson eventually lost to current Democratic Gov. Josh Stein by more than 14 points.

Now, in a recent podcast interview, Robinson has acknowledged his deception and that he had an “obsession” with pornography and sex. He says he lied about the CNN report to protect those around him, including President Donald Trump, because it was “the most expedient thing to do.”

“I won’t say that I completely lied, some of the things about the whole story. Some of it — there’s some truth to it,” Robinson said on Thursday.

But “if I had to ignore the truth at that moment for their expediency, I felt like it was the right thing to do,” said Robinson.

 

 Christopher Wiggins (THE ADVOCATE) notes:

 

The reported posts also included explicit sexual commentary, including statements about watching pornography involving transgender women. That detail drew intense scrutiny because Robinson had repeatedly attacked transgender people in public speeches and policy positions.

As lieutenant governor and a gubernatorial candidate, Robinson made opposition to LGBTQ+ rights central to his political brand. He described LGBTQ+ identities as immoral, opposed protections for transgender people, and backed policies restricting their rights, framing those positions as part of a broader moral crusade.

 

 And he wants to play this as a redemption tour.  by talking about his porn obsession now, he can help others he believes.   Edward Helmore (GUARDIAN) notes:

 

He added that he believes people like him, who struggled and came back from a porn “obsession”, are the best messengers to help others in the same situation.

“The only shame in it is staying in it,” he said on the podcast.

Asked if he would make the same decision again to deny authorship of the comments in furtherance of the larger political cause, he confirmed he would.

“It wasn’t about me,” Robinson said. “They knew that they could use me to destroy, the people around me, up to and including the president, they would do it. And so I’d make the exact same decision.”

 

 People like him?  Raging hypocrites trying to take away the rights of transgender people while getting off on transgender porn?  

 

Or people like him who admit that they'd do the whole thing over?  William Vallencourt (DAILY BEAST) notes:

 

The story, he claimed, “wasn’t about me.”

“For the people who were doing it to me, it wasn’t about me. It was about a cause much bigger than that,” he said. “And they knew that they could use me to destroy the people around me, up to and including the president. They would do it. And so I’d make the exact same decision.”

 

[. . .] 

Robinson, when asked if he would deny the initial report again if he could go back in time, said he would do “the exact same thing.” 

 

 And this is the redemption tour?  He'd do the exact same thing  He'd lie again.  Then he hasn't learned anything except possibly that everyone already saw him as a liar before that interview and he thought he might get some sympathy if he copped to the fact that he lied.  Any sympathy he might have garnered for that admission instantly vanishes when he maintains he'd do it all again.

 

Vanishes?

 

VANISHED is a four-episode series on MGM+.  A woman goes on a vacation with her boyfriend of four years only for him to disappear on a train.  She then looks for him and teams up with others.  The others include Sam Claflin as the boyfriend.  He's perfect in the role and in THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO which starts airing tonight on PBS.  In fact, everyone's perfect . . . except for the lead.

 

 Kaley Cuoco.

 

She's playing Kaley again.  That's the only thing she knows to do.  She's 40 and she's called a "girl."  She's 40 and she still hasn't learned how to act.  She can't create a character.  At 40, after playing in many shows and a few movies, she still can't create a character.  It's Kaley reacting to this or that and with no connection to what came before.  There's no sense of growing horror or tension in her performance, there's just her indicating what she's feeling at that moment.  And it's never connected to what she was feeling seconds before.  

 

In 2020, as she was 'acting' on THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, we noted:

 

At 35, Kaley's another stupid personality who never learned to act.  On the sitcom, she said her lines correctly and was surrounded by funny people so little thought was given to how little she was actually doing in each episode.  There's a reason that Mayim Bialik was nominated for an Emmy and Kaley never was. Mayim and Melissa Rauch created actual characters.  Kaley traded on her looks.  It's why she got the boob job in 2004.  

 

 The only change we would make to that paragraph?  "At 40, . . ."  Five years later and she still hasn't bothered to learn how to act.  

 

This is a problem when you're playing the main character that people are supposed to be drawn to and worry what happens to them.  

 

We're going to do spoilers now.

 

Her boyfriend who disappears?  She's told he's sex trafficking.  When they are finally together and there are sex trafficked people in the scene as well, he still tries to save her.  Then we learn he was working for Interpol.  And she kisses him and they go to bed and have sex -- lost of sex -- and then he wakes up to find a letter where she says at least she left a goodbye note -- as opposed to cutting out on the train.

 

Does it make any sense?

 

None at all.  And a real actress -- especially one who's got a production credit on the show -- would've objected, would've pointed out that if she wasn't in love with him ad couldn't forgive him, she's not going to get passionate with him in bed.  Why?  If she doesn't forgive him, she blames him and no woman wants to go to bed with some man they're blaming before waking out on him.

 

Kaley's a celebrity, not an actress.  And too many more projects like VANISHED and she's not going to be  cast in the lead of anything worth watching.

 

Also eyeing the exits is Donald Chump.

 

Why did he start his war with Iran?  He never sold it before going to war.  

 

After he and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu started the war, Chump gave various reasons, shifting constantly.   None stuck.  

He's completely unbelievable.  

 

He says, for example, that no one could have guessed that the Iran would stop travel through the Strait of Hormuz.  Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared before the Senate Inetlligence Committee.

 

Senator Mark Warner: You chose to omit the parts that contradict the president.  The president continues to say as well that you know he had no idea. He was shocked that the Iranians had moved to take over the Strait of Hermoz. Did you provide any intelligence that would say that it would be -- that it was not likely that the Iranians would try to move on this trade.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard: I'm not aware of those remarks and I think that those of us here at the table can point to the fact that historically the Iranians have always threatened to leverage their control.

 

He was briefed, he chose not to listen.  Tonight, Aaron Boxermanm,  Julian Barnes and Isabel Kershner (NEW YORK TIMES) report:  

 

Fresh Iranian and U.S. threats to attack critical civilian infrastructure risked imperiling millions of people across the Middle East, as President Trump warned that he could target Iranian power plants and Tehran vowed that such attacks would lead to retaliation against vital energy and water facilities.

Iran dismissed Mr. Trump’s ultimatum that if the Strait of Hormuz — the vital oil shipping route choked off by Iran — were not fully reopened by Monday night, the United States would strike Iranian power plants. Tehran said the strait would be “completely closed” if its energy infrastructure were attacked. It also said that energy facilities in countries that host American troops could be targeted, along with desalination plants that are a lifeline for much of the Middle East.

The war across the region, now in its fourth week, showed no signs of winding down.

 

And Chump shows no signs of ending the war -- which he and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth now insist isn't a war -- or, even now. of understanding it. 

 All three are just going through the motions and trying to put something over on us.  Kaley wants to pretend she's an actress, Mark wants to pretend he's rehabilitated while telling the world that he would lie about it all over again, and Chump wants you to call the Iranian War whatever terms he's using at the moment and justify it based on whatever lie he's telling the media.  They're all just going through the motions and their fake assery harms us all in small ways and big ways. 

 

 

MEDIA: Consummate actresses and federal judges

Two new shows and federal judges had us realizing how important someone who knows their job is.   

 

Convicted felon Donald Chump has ensured that his own lack of credibility would be the hallmark of his administration.  He and those serving in his cabinet have lied repeatedly -- to the American people and to the courts.  And it's the latter that has harmed the administration more than anything else. 

 

Nia Prater (THE INTELLIGENCER) noted last month:

Jeanine Pirro’s tenure leading the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., has been marked by a poor record in court. The former judge and onetime Fox News host has seen several cases she has brought against protesters and other anti-Trump figures fall apart in front of grand juries, including a well-publicized failure to indict a resident for hurling a sandwich at a federal agent stationed in the capital city last year.

Now, following another one of those setbacks, her office is reportedly dropping its pursuit of a group of Democratic members of Congress whom President Donald Trump has accused of treason. Sources tell NBC News that the U.S. attorney will stop seeking legal action against the six Democratic lawmakers who filmed a video urging members of the military and the nation’s intelligence community to refuse illegal orders, in a clear shot at Trump and his administration.

The reported move comes just weeks after a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., rejected Pirro’s efforts to obtain an indictment against the Democrats, a once rare occurrence that has become common during Trump’s second term.

 

They couldn't get an indictment from the grand jury.  Because their reputation is in tatters, destroyed by the administration itself.  They've lied too often to the courts.  

Last month, Matt Naham (LAW & CRIMES) reported: 

 

 A federal judge unloaded on the Trump administration for continuing to subject noncitizens already present in the United States to mandatory detention despite hundreds of court rulings to the contrary, drawing the conclusion that the federal government "knows" the practice as applied is "illegal" and yet its behavior does not change.

 In an effort to put a stop to this "intentional misconduct," U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi on Thursday ordered federal immigration authorities to "immediately" release Diana Elizabeth Cartagena Hueso from custody.

Expressing frustration with the Trump administration's behavior in this habeas corpus case and many others, Quraishi, a Joe Biden appointee, recounted how he ordered the government to hold a bond hearing and not to transfer the 29-year-old Salvadoran woman out of New Jersey, only to learn that she had already been moved to Oklahoma.

After moving the detainee to Texas and then back to Oklahoma — three total transfers in a two-day span — the Trump administration has "not bothered" to offer an explanation and claims it doesn't have to bring the woman back to the Garden State, the judge said.

 [. . .]

By Quraishi's count, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey has violated 72 court orders and "expressly admitted" violating 56, albeit unintentionally, as "[i]mmigrants are swept up into custody and shifted repeatedly around the country without warning or explanation." The judge found that "objectively appalling" and said the formerly Habba-led office has "eroded" the presumption of its credibility.

"That number by itself is objectively appalling, but at least one judge has indicated that it underreported," the judge remarked. "The U.S. Attorney's Office has counted these citations as unintentional. Sadly, the well-deserved credibility once attached to that distinguished Office is now a presumption that 'has been undeniably eroded.'"

In a final blow, the judge threatened to force prosecutors or DHS officials to "testify under oath" and provide explanations if the mandatory detention cases continue to come before him.

"The government's continued actions after being called to task can now only be deemed intentional," Quraishi concluded. "The undersigned will not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today."

 

 This is the reputation that they have earned.  As we've pointed out, Judge Judy would have washed her hands of their claims long ago.  You lie to the court once, you destroy your reputation.  And that's a basic.  But Chump has hired so many idiots that they don't grasp that and they lie and lie and lie and outrage members of the judiciary.  

 

ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS noted last month:

 

Another day, another humiliating setback for President Donald Trump’s Justice Department — and another awkward moment for Attorney General Pam Bondi, repeatedly tasked with executing the president’s hard-edged agenda only to see it stall under judicial pushback.

Federal agents swooped into a Virginia home in January, boxing up laptops, a recorder, a hard drive, even a Garmin watch. The target wasn’t a dangerous suspect but a Washington Post reporter who had done nothing more than her job. At the time, the Justice Department framed the raid as a routine leak investigation carried out in the name of national security.

Weeks later, the very judge who authorized the takedown took a second look and reached a different conclusion: the government investigators now asking for trust no longer deserved it.

Earlier this week, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Porter made that judgment explicit, blocking the Justice Department from searching the seized devices of journalist Hannah Natanson and sharply rebuking prosecutors for how they handled the case. 

 In a blistering 22-page opinion, Porter reversed course after initially authorizing the seizure, ruling that the DOJ, led by Bondi, could not be trusted to police itself in light of its omissions, shifting explanations, and priorities that put hunting down leaks ahead of protecting First Amendment freedoms. 

 

 The court determined it could not trust the administration to protect the First Amendment.  That's a huge blow to the image of the Justice Dept.  Pam Bondi, Attorney General, has sullied the reputation of the department and revealed herself to be a partisan operative and not a functioning Attorney General.  

 

She acts like a crazed fool.  That's in front of Congress when she takes her slam book with her filled with insults and that's when she's popping off on social media.  On the latter, Josh Gerstein (POLITICO) explains how the Justice Dept made a request of the courts but then Bondi's social media actions rendered the request moot:

 

In an order earlier this week, Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster said Bondi’s posts on X including the names and, in many instances, photographs of the defendants shortly after their arrests “violated a court order” placing those cases under seal. 

Foster leveled the criticism in connection with the prosecution of Nitzana Flores, a South Haven, Minnesota, resident accused of assaulting two Border Patrol officers during a scuffle last month in Minneapolis surrounding the arrest of another person for allegedly ramming a government vehicle.

The judge said Bondi’s posting of the names and arrest photos undercut prosecutors’ request for an order to prohibit defense attorneys from publicly disclosing personal information about immigration agents involved in the case against Flores. The requested order would also prohibit any defense counsel from sharing that information with their client.

Foster said Bondi’s social media posts made the government’s request for court-ordered discretion for its agents “eyebrow-raising, to say the least.”

“The government failed to respect Ms. Flores’s dignity and privacy, exposed her to a risk of doxxing, and generally thumbed its nose at the notion that defendants are innocent until proven guilty. The post also directly violated a court order sealing the case,” the judge wrote. “Notwithstanding, the government now seeks an accommodation from the Court that it blatantly failed to give Ms. Flores and her codefendants.”

 

 

Federal judges of all stripes have stood firm over the last year and counting and have delivered verdicts rooted in the Constitution and precedent.  Actors who know their craft are overcoming weak material as well.

 

Take THE MADISON.  Like most Taylor Sheridan TV shows, it's gorgeous to look at.  Some of the scenes in the first episode don't play at all.  But Michelle Pfeiffer delivers a powerhouse performance and that keeps the show going.  By the third episode, the actors all appear to have found their characters but Michelle still the one delivering every episode.  

 

She plays a widow dealing with loss and dealing with guilt.  And she's good in the role while her husband is alive but after he dies, she burns down to the embers of the character and is haunting.  

 

AMAZON PRIME's  SCARPETTA is another show saved by the lead performances.  Or two of them.

 

Nicole Kidman has been delivering in one series after another: BIG LITTLE LIES, TOP OF THE LAKE CHINA GIRL, THE UNDOING, NINE PERFECT STRANGERS, ROAR, LIONESS, EXPATS and THE PERFECT COUPLE make up an incredible body of work. 

 

SCARPETTA delivers but it's the weakest of her projects since she started doing TV shows.  That's not her fault and it's not Jamie Lee Curtis' fault.  In fact, the two of them are what makes the show watchable and a pleasure.  

What hurts the show?

 

It's telling us a story from two different time periods.  And someone decided that Nicole and Jamie Lee couldn't play their characters in their 20s and 30s so two new actresses were brought on to play them.  And to play Bobby Cannavale and Simon Baker's character.  

 

Nicole Kidman's voice and speaking manner are distinctive.  When you have an actress playing her as the same character abut 20 years younger, you need to have a voice that sounds similar.  Jamie Lee's voice may seem less distinctive to us because we're American and so is she but it is distinctive and it's jarring to hear another adult actress playing her same character but with a different voice and a different way of speaking.

 

Maybe it would have been smarter to have allowed Nicole and Jamie Lee to do voice overs for the younger actresses?  

 

The two actresses playing Nicole and Jamie Lee's younger selves also don't look like them.  That's especially true of the younger actress playing Nicole's character and especially true of the actress' nose.

 

We go back and forth in time over and over in each episode.  

 

It's jarring.  

 

It's takes out of the story and out of the mood.  

 

Then we switch back to Nicole and Jamie and one of them or both of them does something so original and inspired that we're back in the story and vested all over again.

 

Three actresses who know what they're doing and then some make two new series worth watching.  Federal judges across the political spectrum who know what they're doing are saving the Constitution and the country.  

 

It's why, last week,  Gabe Whisnant (NEWSWEEK) was able to note:

 

A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump ruled Tuesday that his administration’s effort to shut down New York City’s congestion pricing program was unlawful, allowing the tolling system to remain in effect.

U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman said the U.S. Department of Transportation lacked the authority to unilaterally revoke federal approval for the program, which charges drivers to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street. In a 149-page decision, Liman vacated a series of letters sent by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that threatened to withhold federal funding unless the tolls were halted.

 

 While the federal courts have shown a willingness to obey the Constitution, the Supreme Court has not and Chief Justice John Roberts has shown no inclination to protect the federal judges.  Joe Patrice (ABOVE THE LAW) points out John Roberts' silence on the attacks on the federal judges:

 

He’s sat around as Trump spent the next year attacking lower court judges in terms that generated a 327 percent increase in threats against the federal judiciary. Federal judges sounded the alarm that they feared for their lives, telling NBC News that the Supreme Court “doesn’t have our backs.” One judge said flatly that if nothing changed, “somebody is going to die.”As the leader of the judiciary, Roberts responded by issuing a year-end report about how Thomas Paine would probably yearn for a return to the monarchy and collecting a funding boost for Supreme Court security. 

 

Maybe it's time to recast the Supreme Court.