Regardless of whom you like for president—or vice president—we’re pretty sure most everyone would vote for a moratorium on the word “maverick.” Unless, of course, that’s the name of your beloved NBA team.

Dallas Mavericks owner and HDNet chairman Mark Cuban has had enough of the McCain-Palin campaign co-opting the “maverick” brand—and he’d like it back.  

On his blog—fittingly titled “Blog Maverick”—Cuban lambasted the press last month for its part in perpetrating Sen. John McCain’s maverick mythology. And just last week, he used the start of the NBA pre-season to celebrate his team as “the only Mavericks that matter.”

“Watching Tina Fey on SNL is hysterical,” writes Cuban, referring to ...Read More

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Paris Hilton’s campaign for president continues.

As you may recall, the hotel heiress was inspired to join the political fray—via a spoof ad on FunnyOrDie.com—when Sen. John McCain’s campaign fielded an ad mocking his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, as Paris Hilton-esque celebrity status.

While she didn’t exactly make good on her threat to “see you at the debates, bitches,” Hilton has returned with a new video in which she seeks advice on being “fake president” from one TV’s most popular fake presidents, Martin Sheen.

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In our editorial for this week's issue of B&C, we took television news—and the broadcast networks in particular—to task for failing to carve out some primetime air for a special report that would help American viewers understand what is happening to the global financial market and how it affects them. Something along the lines of what WBEZ's This American Life has done for public radio listeners with their "Giant Pool of Money" episode. 

Last night, em>60 Minutes took a stab with a report from Steve Kroft. We've posted it below. And if you've seen other examples of instructive TV reports on the financial crisis, we'd love to hear from you in the comments section below.

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If you happened to catch the season premiere of NBC's Chuck last week, your eye may have been drawn to an unusual bit of product placement.

During the opening credits, the titular hero (played by Zachary Levi) is seen breakfasting on a bowl of cereal. On the table, conspicuously framed in the shot, is a cereal box bearing the name “Nuts & More.”

A new brand from General Mills? The latest feat of product integration masterminded by NBC Entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman? Nope—just a generic cereal box prop.

But if “Nuts & More” struck you as strangely familiar—as it did B&C special correspondent Jennifer Cimi...Read More

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We have a saying back in my hometown of Scranton, Pa.*: Don’t hate the playa—hate the game. But when it comes to the much-maligned mainstream media, haven’t we had more than enough game-hating?

I’m with my colleague John Eggerton: When politicians attack the press as a devious “filter” that stands between them and the American people—as Gov. Sarah Palin did once again in last night’s vice-presidential debate—they sound “more petty than populist.”

Palin sounded the same note again in an interview today with Fox News’ Carl Cameron in which she took particular aim at CBS News’ Katie Couric.

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Tonight’s vice-presidential debate will be the first opportunity for American TV viewers to spend quality time with Republican nominee Sarah Palin since she accepted the nomination a month ago.

Apart from that rousing primetime speech, we’ve seen precious little of the previously unknown Alaska governor in the five weeks since Sen. John McCain tapped her to be his running mate. Catching only glimpses of her in news clips and in her interviews with ...Read More

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The first presidential debate Friday evening was rather anticlimactic after the surreal drama leading up to it.

The financial crisis sent Republican nominee Sen. John McCain into his avenging hero posture as he vowed to skip the debate in order to be in Washington where he would lead his party’s negotiations of the Treasury’s $700 billion bailout of the nation’s cratering financial systems. By Thursday, McCain seemed to soften, saying he would come if there was a plan in place. On Friday morning, he finally ended the suspense and agreed to show up.

His opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, all the while coolly asserted that he would be in Oxford, Miss. – with PBS’ Jim Lehrer (the moderator) and the attention o...Read More

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“I’m on a crusade here,” said Dylan Ratigan, the host and co-creator of CNBC’s kinetic investment roundtable Fast Money. “I’m all worked up.”

As the catastrophe in the financial sector has subsumed the headlines and thrust the American taxpayer into the thicket of Wall Street arcana, Ratigan and his colleagues at the financial news network have approached their jobs with renewed passion. 

And so it was fortuitous that last Friday Fast Money was the last of four national forays out of the show’s usual studio at the NASDAQ in Times Square. There have already been pilgrimag...Read More

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Dave Letterman has nothing but the highest respect for John McCain, “a true American hero” as he called him last night on The Late Show. Unfortunately McCain was not around to hear the praise. Although he was scheduled to chat with Letterman, McCain called the host personally to cancel at the last minute, repeating his stated need to suspend his campaign to work on the economic crisis.

The snub already got Letterman’s hackles up. But what really ticked him off was finding out that McCain, who was supposed to be on a plane headed back to D.C., was instead sitting in CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric’s interview chair, getting made up for their chat.

Letterman sidekick Paul Schaeffer actually got the best lines in during his...Read More

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For anybody new to Chicago electronic media, there are only two necessary things to know from the start: The lake is always East and read Robert Feder. 

Feder, for 28 years the TV/radio reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, announced in his column Tuesday he was accepting a buyout offer from the paper, which has seen large circulation declines.

There's hardly any way to overestimate the power of Feder's radar scope on Chicago TV and radio, and since so many Chicago journalists end up going elsewhere, he enjoyed a network of sources who make his column a must read. He was rarely scooped.  (For the record, this reporter was Feder's cohort as the TV critic at the Sun-Times and later his boss as the entertainment editor.)&...Read More

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The five nominees for best reality hosts kicked off the Primetime Emmys with thanks for being welcomed into the Emmy family. I’m not sure the feeling was mutual.

From where I sat, which was neither in the audience nor in front of the TV, the experiment with having all five as hosts fell pretty flat.

But as the nominees came back to the press room, there was an undeniable air of resentment, beginning with Jeremy Piven expressing confusion at the opening bit and peaking—so far—with Kirk Ellis, whose acceptance speech for winning as the writer of John Adams was cut short by the music.

Asked what it was he was trying to say—about the importance of free speech, I believe—he vented at the scourge of reality TV.

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The big question for the writers of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report: who should play the Obamas on Saturday Night Live.

Stewart suggested…Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

But Colbert offered another take on the McCain-Palin ticket.

He picked Rickles to play McCain—as Rickles and Kathy Griffin riffed on during the broadcast—then suggested himself to play Palin.

“Because I have absolutely no business being vice president.”

By Joel Topcik

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