Entertainment Media

PETA Condemns Discovery Channel For Showing Anaconda Eating Man Alive As ‘Torment’ ‘Suffering’ ‘Abuse’... For Snake
By Kristine Marsh | November 8, 2014 | 8:44 AM EST

Earlier this week, Discovery Channel announced it would air a reality TV special December 7 called “Eaten Alive” in which filmmaker Paul Rosolie would let himself be swallowed by an anaconda, then make it out alive, without harm to him or the snake. Discovery Channel hoped the publicity stunt would boost slow Sunday night TV ratings.

Well, the ever-sensitive animal rights group PETA (“People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals”) didn’t like news that one bit. PETA released a statement condemning the stunt and urging Discovery Channel to drop the special.

Bozell & Graham Column: CBS Drives Away 'Anti-Gay' Catholics on 'Blue Bloods'
By Brent Bozell | and By Tim Graham | October 18, 2014 | 9:08 AM EDT

While the cultural commissars keep throwing praise and awards at raunchy shows on trendy Internet streaming channels, CBS has a series of highly-rated traditional police or military shows that get no attention or respect. “NCIS” keeps spinning off shows – this year in New Orleans – and “Blue Bloods” is a consistent Top 20 performer despite airing on Friday night. You won’t see its star Tom Selleck at Emmy awards time.

“Blue Bloods” deals with an Irish-Catholic family of cops, headed by New York police commissioner Frank Reagan, played by Selleck. But CBS just had to insist the Catholics are hopelessly "behind the times" in viewing homosexuality as a sin.

U.S. President in ABC Prime Time: ‘Right to Bear Arms’ in Constitution and ‘So Was Slavery’
By Brent Baker | October 9, 2014 | 3:00 PM EDT

ABC’s Scandal, which has a fresh episode tonight, last week featured “President Fitzgerald Grant,” supposedly a Republican, channeling Piers Morgan as he used the State of the Union address to plead for more gun control: “How many other people’s children are we going to let die before we put a stop to this?”

Yahoo! Style Outraged By Walmart's 'Sexist' Batman T-Shirt
By Matthew Balan | October 1, 2014 | 7:11 PM EDT

Lauren Tuck unleashed against superhero-themed T-shirts that are supposedly "displaying blatantly sexist messages" in a Wednesday post in Yahoo's Style section. Tuck cited a blogger who ranted against one such shirt at Walmart that features the slogan, "Training to be Batman's Wife." The writer not only targeted "chauvinistic apparel" involving DC Comics characters, but also two shirts related to Marvel Comics' "The Avengers" series.

'60 Minutes' Audience Craters For Obama Interview; Press Keeps His Name Out of Coverage
By Tom Blumer | September 30, 2014 | 2:37 PM EDT

Steve Kroft's interview of Barack Obama was the focus of this past Sunday's episode of "60 Minutes" on CBS. It has become noteworthy primarily because of Obama's statement that U.S. intelligence agencies "underestimated what had been taking place in Syria." As several previous NewsBusters posts have shown (examples here, here, here, and here), the press is working mightily to minimize how the intelligence community and the Pentagon are pushing back, hotly disputing the President's assertion.

Another noteworthy development is that the network's audience for the Obama interview was down 69 percent in the 18-49 demographic from the show's previous episode. The vast majority of press reports noting the ratings slide, as compiled by Kristinn Taylor over at Gateway Pundit, are not mentioning that it was Obama's show.

Hillarywood: New Fall TV Shows Inspired By Clinton, Gillibrand
By Kristine Marsh | September 16, 2014 | 3:24 PM EDT

It’s no secret that Hollywood loves Hillary Clinton, and now some network execs are openly basing their White House characters on her. The media’s new favorite, Dem. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is also an inspiration for some new Fall shows.

CBS will premiere “Madame Secretary” this Sunday night, Sept. 21. According to Politico, the show’s creators were inspired by both Clinton and Gillibrand in their portrayal of a female politician who struggles to juggle work and family life. The show stars Tea Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, a former CIA agent who becomes the new Secretary of State. The character Leoni plays is both blonde and the mother of two children, like Gillibrand. 

Branding Russell: Moonbat Ravings of a C-List Celeb
September 4, 2014 | 12:07 PM EDT

Somebody takes Russell Brand seriously. You know, the British comic actor? The one known mostly for his brief marriage to pop star Katy Perry? He’s that guy that did the abysmal remake of the classic movie “Arthur.” Maybe you know him for his drug use?

Anyway, people actually watch Brand’s Youtube video channel, “The Trews,” for his take on the issues of the day. The Huffington Post, NPR, Upworthy, The Washington Post and The Guardian have published his opinions. That’s despite (or more likely because) the fact that those opinions are unoriginal, often hate-filled, intolerant left-wing rants that run to conspiracy theories about corporations and “power structures.” He’s a celebrity of sorts eager to communicate opinions that news and entertainment media elites mostly share, so they’re happy to give him a platform. 

Is ‘Weird Al’ the ‘Court Jester’ for ‘America’s Twisted Brand of Capitalism’?
By Tom Johnson | August 9, 2014 | 1:00 PM EDT

Imagine a movie that 1) sympathetically portrays Occupy Wall Street and 2) features songs by “Weird Al” Yankovic. If you think 1) and 2) seem incongruous, you might get an argument from writer Lynn Stuart Parramore.

In a piece that ran Wednesday on Salon and originally appeared on AlterNet, Parramore claimed that Yankovic’s recent chart-topping album, Mandatory Fun, contains a “deeply moral theme…about how capitalism’s servants — narcissism, greed, vulgarity, and all-around douchiness — have to carry out its orders to beat us into a pulverized pulp of compliance.” She also exulted that in one of her favorite tracks, “Al skewers the corporate capitalism which promised us all the wonders of efficiency, harmony and prosperity, only to deliver us to Dilbert’s cubicle of despair.” From Parramore’s story (emphasis added):

Column: Lois Lowry's 'The Giver' a Portent of What Might Be?
By Cal Thomas | July 29, 2014 | 9:45 PM EDT

With his approval numbers sinking to 39 percent a week ago, according to the Gallup tracking poll, President Obama isn't alone in having a bad summer. So isHollywood.

Entertainment Weekly calls gross receipts for what should have been a blockbuster July 4-6 weekend "downright terrifying." Writes EW, "Not only were grosses down 45 percent from last year's holiday, according to Boxofficemojo.com, but it was Hollywood's worst July 4weekend since 1999. (And that's not taking into account inflation. In fact, this was the worst July-holiday weekend for ticket sales since the summer of Dragnet in 1987.)"

Chris Matthews's Galactic Gaffe: Darth Vader 'Cut Off His Own Son's Arm'; Sorry, Tingles, It Was Just His Hand
By Ken Shepherd | July 24, 2014 | 8:35 PM EDT

Hardball host Chris Matthews is quite the cinemaphile, frequently working movie references into his banter on the MSNBC program. So it was rather surprising when the MSNBC anchor made a whopper of a gaffe on his July 24 program regarding an iconic moment in the climactic lightsaber duel in the middle chapter of the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back. It seems Matthews remembers Luke Skywalker losing the duel when Darth Vader cut of his arm, not merely his right hand.

The botched movie reference was made by Matthews as he relayed how the fictional villain has a higher favorability rating (58 percent) than any real-life 2016 presidential prospect, including Hillary Clinton (55 percent). Here's the relevant transcript (video follows page break):

HBO’s ‘True Blood’ Mocks Ted Cruz, ‘Republic**ts’, 'A**holes'
By Kristine Marsh | July 21, 2014 | 2:08 PM EDT

Editor’s note: this article contains objectionable language.

The Democrat party is the pro-woman party right? Well on Sunday night’s episode of HBO's "True Blood," the left-leaning characters inadvertently reveal their hateful attitudes towards women, all the while mocking conservatives.

In the July 20 episode, vampires Eric and Pam are looking for the parents of their enemy, who happen to be conservative. To do this, they must go incognito at a Ted Cruz fundraiser held, (where else?) at the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas. Beforehand, the vampires are warned “They only let in a**holes.”

Pro-Abortion Film 'Obvious Child' Tanks at Box Office
By Jill Stanek | July 8, 2014 | 7:20 AM EDT

The abortion industry did its best to pitch the movie Obvious Child as an “unapologetic” but “hilarious” romantic comedy about abortion, even as the director and star eschewed such a depiction. And therein lies the irony.

Abortion proponents want desperately to remove the stigma surrounding abortion, and they desperately hoped Obvious Child would be a “game-changing” vehicle to entice and persuade pop culture.