Hard News

Thanks for dropping by. Let's take a look at the arts-and media news:

CAUGHT RED HANDED DEPT.: A British TV commission recently placed a $3.2 million fine on Canton Communications, a production company for faking an award-winning documentary (which aired in the U.S. in June `97 )about Colombian drug smugglers. CBS's 60 Minutes had to apologize on the air for the fakery

Houston TV station KTXF was fined an unbelievably low $10,000 last October for running full length commercials (GI Joe, Sonic the Hedgehog, & Disney characters) as programs, 4 times. If you or I ran the FCC we'd pull their license right? But apparently big Cos have nothing to fear in that dept. (Broadcasting & Cable)

PIRATE RADIO CHASED UP A TREE DEPT: An article in a Dec. San Francisco Chronicle chronicles the tale of a 40-watt pirate radio (powered by car batteries) broadcasting from a tree top! The tree station operated 24 hrs. a day for 8 days from a tall redwood at Willard Park (at the time of this article) and as of yet the feds have refused to assault the 3 wooden platforms 50 ft above the ground! If caught they'll face imprisonment and/or heavy fines. We think the ban on pirate radio should be lifted, and common sense rules substituted for the police raids.

THE MS. IN MS. MAGAZINE IS BACK DEPT. Founding editor of Ms. Magazine, Gloria Steinem, has bought it, along with other investors. Will she be able to turn it around? We'll see. But one thing Musea salutes Ms. magazine for is that the magazine WILL NOT ACCEPT ADS! When asked why Steinem said, "Advertisers won't buy ads for women's products unless the magazines provide complementary copy-fashion articles, food articles, beauty articles. We wrote a story about Russian women and lost (a major advertiser) because they said they didn't have enough makeup on. (Newsweek) NEA IN A NEW DIRECTION DEPT: National Endowment for Arts communications director Cherie Simon says, "The agency needs to more equitably distribute its funding geographically, and we are making a conscious effort to do that. That really is the direction that we have been told to go in, not just by Congress, but by arts groups around the country." (ArtNews). And in related government news, this quote from a Wall Street Journal article by E Volokh entitled "How Free Is Speech When the Government Pays? " Government controls the post office, most public places and much of the educational establishment. The power to withhold these subsidies from certain disfavored activities can be a threat to the open marketplace of ideas." (Musea example: What if an art group asked for a grant to do a show/exhibit on how much they detest the NEA. Would it be funded?)

OUR HOMETOWN HICK DEPT: Chancellor Media Corp (Owner Dallasite Hicks) owns more country-formatted radio stations than anyone else (they're the largest radio owners period). And the radio group Pres., Jimmy de Castro says why not eliminate the middlemen and start a CHANCELLOR RECORD LABEL. The idea is simple enough-own all the stations, then play your own artists all the time, Well why didn't I think of that? Maybe because it stinks, it's pure monopoly, and it is (in my reading of it) AGAINST THE LAW! (Broadcasting & Cable) And speaking of loco locals, D A.M.N (Dallas Morning News) is having some hard times, Editor & Publisher magazine says, "Due to softening ad revenues and economic uncertainty (our interpretation: due to lousy sales!) A.H. Belo Corp's flagship, The Dallas Morning News is offering voluntary early retirement to 200 employees, 9% of the staff," But lower readership of newspapers is not just a Dallas phenomenon. Between 1970-97 the share of American adults who regularly read a daily paper fell from 78% to 59%, And among 21-35 age group it's even worse! (World Press Review)

DISNEY BREASTS ON RECALL DEPT. Corp. Art Conglom, Disney is having tough days. Disney announced the recall of 3.4 million videotapes of "The Rescuers" because naked female breasts can be seen in the background if you view it frame by frame. Then even more diabolical is the dropping attendance at ALL theme parks, with the percentage of the top 5 being The Magic Kingdom-down 8%/ Disneyland-down 4%/ Epcot-down 10%/ Disney/MGM Studios-down 10%/ Universal Studios Florida-flat. (Newsweek, USA Today).. .And finally this quote (and I'm really really not making this up to show how greedy Disney execs are. This is real and accurate. I can't MAKE this stuff up): Scott McCarthy, vice pres and general manager of Radio Disney, "As we continue to rapidly roll out across America, we will become an increasingly important part of kids' lives in this country and increasingly effective to the marketers who desire to reach them and their parents." (A.Brumley)

THE MEDIA STILL WON'T TELL THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH DEPT: You've seen those well meaning pleas for aid for drought victims right? Well here's the rest of the story. It seems that at the core of almost ALL tragedies requiring western relief aid is a WAR. And no one: media or aid world "wants to talk in public about the diversion of food aid to fighters, the manipulation of aid workers by combatants and the reinforcement of the authority of a nasty government and warlords by agencies working in their territory." Real aid may best be: first an end of the fighting! And that's something your government should be doing, not your charitable wallet! (World Press Review)

I KNOW YOU DON"T WANT TO HEAR THIS BUT: The Big Four networks shoveled 3 hours and 17.5 minutes more commercial time into their prime-time schedules this year than last. And two reasons for the increase are 1) to soothe advertisers with extra commercial time when the shows don't get the ratings promised and 2) to promote the shows that are loosing ratings more. It's a vicious loop that, in my opinion, will just loose more viewers. (USA Today)

.And speaking of the networks, here is the world we're seeing on the air, "a world where men outnumber women 2-to-1, and women start to vanish after age 30. Where people over age 60, some minority groups and the poor are virtually never seen, where the worst villains are mentally ill or foreign-born." That according to a SAG (screen actors guild) report recently. (USA Today)

AND FINALLY FOR GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND STUDY GROUPS: If a museum collects chairs as art objects, can you the public appreciate them (artistic value, functionalism, etc.) if the museum DOESN'T let you sit on them? (Idea from San Francisco Magazine J Keats.)

Clippings and news stories for this and other Musea sections compiled by Musea Reporter-at-large, ALDEN SCOTT CROW and Musea.