war

War, what is it good for?

It's good for Ken Burns, we know that much. The documentary filmmaker behind the hugely popular Civil War documentary series is preparing to delve into war yet again with a new PBS documentary about World War II. Burns originaly didn't want to do another war documentary, but decided the story needed to be told while there were still people alive who fought in the war.

The War will air starting on September 17 and will be the first new series created by Burns after he inked a deal to have his work shown exclusively on PBS until 2022. The 14-hour documentary does include some swearing from soldiers who describe their time serving during the war, which means two versions of the series might be offered to stations who want to avoid any FCC problems. I would hope stations opt to show the uncensored version, since a few curse words seems perfectly appropriate when describing one's personal war experiences.

Bill Maher appeared at the TCA to tease the upcoming fifth season of Real Time with Bill Maher (that's already four Bill Maher mentions between the headline and this -- I hope the check's in the mail). He let us know that he wishes (hopes?) that he could get Bill or Hillary Clinton as a guest, and that they have trouble getting a lot of conservatives to appear because, "most of them are in bed by 8PM on a Friday night, getting ready for church."

Real With Bill Maher (*cha-ching*) premieres on February 16th.

Quotes from Bill:

• "Truth is like sex. It's best when it's a little painful."
• "HBO pays me the same whether I listen to the guests or not. It's all: bullshit, bullshit, bullshit -- my line."
• "Fox News hates us, for good reason, I make fun of them a lot ... and for good reason, they suck."

On tonight's PBS special When Parents are Deployed, Elmo gets some sad news - his father Louie is leaving for parts unknown. While no specific branch of the military is mentioned, it's clear that Louie is being shipped off to either Iraq or another war-torn country. Elmo, the army brat, is in for some heartbreak. And, from the sound of the New York Times' review of the special, so are we. Elmo's segments are played between interviews with actual soldiers and their often traumatized children.

(S05E10) Did this episode seem weird to anyone else? Weird as in something that shouldn't have even been tackled by Horatio and his team? One character even pointed it out during his interrogation: "Isn't Iraq a little bit out of your jurisdiction?" My thoughts exactly. Maybe it's just me, but damn near everything in this episode seemed like a bit of a stretch.

If anything, I appreciated that the writers for this show were willing to take on a tough subject like the war in Iraq but I think they handled it the wrong way. The episode had a clear negative view on the war (which was great) but I didn't agree 100% with the way they negatively portrayed the Marines and their recruiters. They made everyone seem so devious and two-faced which came across as disrespectful if you ask me. Although it is only one interpretation of what's going on and as I said, you have to at least give them a pat on the back for going near the topic.

Stoney Creek, a hotel chain based in my homestate of Iowa, has removed CNN from its rooms after the cable news network aired footage of insurgents killing American troops in Iraq. James Thompson, president of Stoney Creek Hospitality Corporation, made the decision to pull the channel from the cable lineup in his hotels, saying that CNN's decision to air the footage was supporting terrorism. CNN has been removed from Stoney Creek's rooms in cities in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. If we ever win the war on terrorism, I guess we'll have this hotel chain to thank.

Years ago I actually worked in the hotel business, and while living in Des Moines I even applied at the Stoney Creek Inn. At the time I was a member of the "Association of Left-handed Q-Bert Advocates and Equine Dalmatian Artistry," an organization dedicated to southpaws who loved to play Q-Bert and paint images of dalmatians riding horses. The organization had the unfortunate acronym of A.L. Q.A.E.D.A. I'm guessing it was my "Proud Member of A.L. Q.A.E.D.A." t-shirt that cost me the job. And that, my friends, is what we call working way too hard for a joke. I hope you learned something here today.

(S18E05)

Homer: I'm not gonna surrender. You've seen what the U.S. Army does to prisoners. How would you like to be stacked naked in a pile with a hillbilly girl pointin' at you and laughin'?

Cletus: That was our last Christmas card.

Homer: Yeah, Marge always loved your cards.

If you missed the premiere of the Simpsons Movie trailer, check it out here. July can't get here soon enough, and being in Minnesota, I mean that in more ways than one.

I've written for newspapers and magazines, but I've always been apprehensive about calling myself a journalist because it was never my major in college. In fact, my college didn't even have that as a major. I've always been fascinated by the career itself, however, and learning about all the obstacles that go along with getting a story.

If you share my interest in anything having to do with the media, and independent media especially, you'll probably enjoy Democracy on Deadline, which appears as part of the PBS series Independent Lens on November 21 at 10 pm. The documentary looks at independent journalists in several parts of the world, from right here in the United States to places like Russia and the Middle East. In the US, the problem for journalists is breaking through the wall of secrecy put up by the Bush White House during the days leading up to the Iraq war, and during the war itself. The documentary does not, however, place all blame on the government, it also points out how shoddy journalistic standards and a disinterested public have played a significant role in slowing down the flow of information.

After newsman Dan Rather left was fired from was forced out of departed CBS after four decades plus, a lot of people had no idea what the hell he was going to do. But then came news that he had signed on to Mark Cuban's HDNet, and now comes word that Rather's show will start on November 14 at 8pm.

It will be a news show called Dan Rather Reports, with Rather as the anchor, and will feature three segments: the war, a focus on the middle class, and politics. In other words, it sounds a lot like other news shows, but I guess the secret is in how they'll do it.

And to answer the next question you have, no, he really hasn't seen what Katie Couric is doing in his new seat. He's been too busy.

You knew they'd have to get around to it sooner or later. The final segment of the upcoming Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episode on November 5 will take a few not-so-subtle shots at the current conflict in Iraq as aliens Kang and Kodos (who are featured in every "Treehouse of Horror") attack Springfield before the humans can get their hands on "weapons of mass disintegration". The connection to the Iraq war is made obvious, and there's even a line at the end in which a character evokes the actual Iraq debacle. Executive producer Al Jean says the line may be too obvious and not make it into the episode. It'll be interesting to see how the show handles the segment, though I wonder why they didn't try to tackle this subject as a full "regular" episode, which I think they could have done fairly easily. Then again, they may still have plenty of time to do just that.

CNN will offer an insider's look at a combat hospital in Baghdad on Veterans' Day, November 11 at 8 pm and 11 pm with a special titled CNN Presents: Combat Hospital. The special, which will repeat on November 12 at 8 pm and 11 pm, will not use any narration or musical score, but will simply follow the doctors and nurses in a combat hospital located in a building once used by Saddam Hussein himself as they try to help anyone who arrives wounded, whether it be US soldiers, civilians, coalition forces or insurgents. While I find this topic very interesting, such things can often be ruined by poor or misguided coverage, but this special sounds like it was done in a tasteful manner. I certainly like the idea of not using narration or trying to emphasize the drama with a musical score. It seems enough to just have the cameras there to record the chaos.

You know things have gotten really bad in Iraq when the chosen form of respite for those living in the area is to watch Dr. Phil on television. It seems that some Iraqis have been watching the show to escape, if only for awhile, the fighting and conflict that still envelopes the country. I don't know how much this actually has to do with Dr. Phil personally, I would think watching anything on television that has nothing to do with war and murder would be a welcome escape for the people living in that country. I'm sure if they showed reruns of Hee Haw they'd tune in to that once a week just to get their minds off the dark reality they face every day. Then again, maybe reruns of Hee Haw would actually result in more fighting. You never really can predict these things.

(S01E04) Is the bar in Jericho asking patrons to pay money for the food and drink they're consuming during this crisis? I ask that because in the opening scene of tonight's episode, the power goes out and the woman behind the bar tells everyone to go home. And I'm thinking, wait a second...the world might be coming to the end and the only comfort these small town citizens can find is with each other, and the bar is making them go home at 9:30? Shouldn't this bar be sort of a meeting place, since it has food and drink and a television?

I think I can say with some certainty that whatever cable or satellite provider you use, you probably have at least one channel that airs episodes of M*A*S*H on a fairly regular basis. Well, if you also have TV Land you'll have even more chances to catch the men and women of the 4077 because episodes of the long-running series will be hitting that channel starting in January. The match makes sense, I guess, because you don't get much more "classic TV" than M*A*S*H, but is there really much of a point when the series is already rather ubiquitous on the TV landscape anyway? It's not as if TV Land has exclusive rights to the episodes. Eh, whatever, when I get that occasional itch to watch M*A*S*H it'll give my TiVo more chances to catch an episode or two.

CBS has been heavily promoting this new drama (if you watched The U.S. Open, it was teased approximately 2000 times), and we gave our quick first impressions several weeks ago, but here's a little more about the show.

Basically, it's The Day After: The TV Show. A loner (Skeet Ulrich) goes back to his small hometown in Kansas, just to stay for the day, to finish some business, when some sort of nuclear (?) explosion happens in the distance, perhaps Denver. The town is completely cut off from the outside world. They can't communicate with anyone. But what worries is that one of the kids in the town was talking to his parents on the phone when the blast occurred. They were in Atlanta, and a blast happened there too. Or did it?

From the Good News department comes word that CBS reporter Kimberly Dozier is making a "miraculous recovery". Those are the words used by CBS News president Sean McManus, who is not a doctor. Still, two-and-a-half months after being critically wounded in Iraq, she's about to be released from Bethesda Naval Hospital. Dozier sustained shrapnel injuries to her head and legs on May 29 when a bomb detonated near the convoy she was traveling with in Baghdad. Her cameraman, Paul Douglas, and soundman James Brolan were killed in the blast. McManus said that Dozier will have full use of her legs and she apparently didn't suffer any brain injuries because he describes her as "sharp as a tack" and says she plans to return to Iraq.