News Cut: July 28, 2009 Archive

'Nightline' fights back

Posted at 8:11 AM on July 28, 2009 by Ken Paulman (3 Comments)
Filed under: Media

Remember "Nightline"?

When Ted Koppel left the late-night news program in 2005, it was written off for dead. A news show, without the star power of its lead anchor, had no hope of competing against Leno and Letterman, or so went the conventional wisdom at the time.

But according to a story in the New York Times, the program is not only holding its own, it sometimes comes out on top.

Granted, a lot of those ratings can be attributed to coverage of the death of a certain pop singer, but the executive producer also notes that the program beat the talk shows with a show about Afghanistan and an interview with President Obama.

"Nightline" is not exactly Charlie Rose. It's not even "60 Minutes." But amid such topics as "Does Satan exist? Debating the Devil" and "Hookers for Jesus preach to unlikely flock" you'll find segments on consumer protection, endangered species and the Iranian election.

A common refrain is that with all the Internets and the Tweeters and whutnot, we've become so preoccupied with pop culture that we're no longer in touch with important issues (as opposed to a generation ago, when people ignored such temptations as "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Laugh-In" and instead gathered the family around the woodstove to recite the speeches of Abraham Lincoln). So on one hand, the fact that people are switching off Letterman and turning to the news instead is a Good Thing. But one could also argue that TV "magazine" shows give short shrift to serious issues in favor of slick, candy-coated segments designed to draw an audience, and that we end up less informed as a result.

But in the end, can the fact that one of the major networks still sees journalism as one of its top contenders be anything but positive?

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Texting behind the wheel

Posted at 12:17 PM on July 28, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (6 Comments)

The splash made by a Virginia Tech study of texting while driving wasn’t so much about whether texting is a bad idea, but about just how bad it is. Truckers behind the wheel were 23 times more likely to be involved in a collision while they were texting.

The New York Times put together a texting and driving game that lets you test your texting meddle, without actually getting behind the wheel and becoming a public safety hazard.

Minnesota’s texting while driving went into effect last August, and a few incidences have been publicized, though typically in connection with another offense. Embattled auto mogul Denny Hecker plead guilty last week to careless driving; his attorney said he had been texting while driving when an accident sent him to the hospital last December.

A Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesman told me state troopers are writing tickets regularly, though, compared to infractions like speeding, its more difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Somewhere, studies are probably underway to determine how other startling activities people take up behind the wheel — reading, eating, or putting on makeup — affect one’s driving abilities. For example, my fiance called me the other day to say she’d seen someone behind the wheel playing a guitar.

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Keeping up with Congress

Posted at 5:00 PM on July 28, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (0 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

It's 5 o'clock. Do you know where your Congressional representatives are?

Sen. Al Franken (D) railed on "judicial activism" today as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) said she was "irritated" by "mostly anonymous" critiques of Sotomayor's judicial temperament.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) yesterday briefly held up a House resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood. The resolution was ostensibly designed to pinch Republican lawmakers who have skirted the edge of the "birther" movement by noting in the text that President Barack Obama was indeed born in Hawaii.

Salon reports that the resolution later passed the House unanimously with Bachmann voting "yea."

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