CANDIDATES’ DEBATES have since 1960 become indispensable media elements in a presidential campaign — and so too have the full dress-rehearsals held in secret before them.
Last night’s first-of-three prompted me to tally up how many role-playing exercises, across three continents, I have engaged in ahead of such broadcasts. Continue reading “Limits to Make-Believe Prepping for Big Debate” »
One such remarkable if understated individual was the dogged and sharp sportswriter Linton Baldwin (1926-2012) — pictured here in a recent caricature — whose life was celebrated this week at a New York memorial service.
Dateline: Lancaster, England – THE WHOLE WORLD’S EYES, as they say, have been on Britain. And Britain’s own scrutiny of itself has also been intense – encouraged by an orgy of self-absorption among the British media.
The conclusion it has reached has proven somewhat unexpected, at least for this supposedly reserved and modest populace. Commenting on this week’s effervescent end to the London Olympics and Paralympics, The Guardian, the nation’s leading soft-left paper that I once wrote for when I lived here, said “Britain was forced to look in the mirror – and saw something it rather liked“. Continue reading “Brit Media Crow Over Triumphs – But Tensions Beneath?” »
I GOT TO RENEW a familiar old connection during this, my summer hiatus from writing THE MEDIA BEAT column on a weekly basis.
I recorded a video interview for PBS with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. We taped in London, where he’s still a very divisive figure, mainly because of the Iraq War — and to a much greater extent than many Americans realize.
Separately from the TV interview, American public radio got some sidelights when morning-show hosts Marshall Miles and Jill Goodman of WHDD — in Connecticut’s especially media-savvy northwest corner — quizzed me on that elusive concept … “the real Tony Blair.”
You can also catch the WHDD discussion at iTunes – click here
LIFE AFTER POWER has its inevitable fascination for journalists. The study I’ve been making of Tony Blair since he left the UK Premiership in 2007 hits the air this weekend on the PBS broadcast Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
The work of his Tony Blair Faith Foundation — with its idealistic aim of improving the world by getting its religions to work together rather than compete or fight — is well worth examining. Continue reading “Behind ‘Saving World Through Faith’ – TV Probes Tony Blair’s Foundation” »
