This is the set where Gwen Ifill does Washington Week. I got a chance to visit the studio today. Neat!
The Washington Week studio is in the same room as the NewsHour studio, separated by a few walls that could be pushed out of the way as needed.
It always strikes me as amazing how great a set can look on TV with components dominated by a collection of wires, lights, plastic filters, duct tape and cheap carpeting.
This is a pretty harsh treatment:
For the past three years, whenever you say “The Wire” white people are required to respond by saying “it’s the best show on television.” Try it the next time you see a white person! Though now they might say “it WAS the best show on television.”
So why do they love it so much? It all comes down to authenticity. A long time ago, someone started a rumor that when The Wire is on TV, actual police wires go quiet because all the dealers are watching the show. Though this is not true, it seems plausible enough to white people and has imbued the show with the needed authenticity to be deemed acceptable.
White people so crazy! Seriously though, The Wire WAS the best show on television. And yes, I’m white.
Barack Obama likes The Wire, which is, IMNSHO, the best show on television.
His favorite character? Omar.
One of Omar’s best lines: “You come at the king, you best not miss.”
Drew Carey has my eternal respect for the video series he’s producing for the Reason Foundation.
This one is perhaps the best thus far.
Does anyone wonder why I love King of the Hill:
When the Arlen City Council bans the sale of foods containing trans fats, Sugarfoot’s Restaurant goes out of business. Hank, who feels the ban is an infringement on freedom, encourages Strickland to fix things. Strickland’s solution to the problem is to sell his delicious, trans-fatty foods on a lunch truck so he can evade the law. Bribery and police corruption ensue, and Hank begins to have second thoughts on his activism to repeal the ban. However, before he can back out, a rival lunch truck (Rooster’s Roost) terrorizes the Sugarfoot truck, and a turf war develops. The fierce competition convinces Hank to stay on board with Sugarfoot’s until they can shut Rooster’s down. With the help of a reporter, Hank puts his best investigative skills to the test and becomes determined to unearth evidence to bring Rooster’s down and show the city council that sometimes the world just needs tasty, unhealthy fare in the “Trans-Fascism” episode of KING OF THE HILL airing Sunday, Feb. 10 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (KH-1202) (TV-PG ) CC
Stephen Colbert’s ThreatDown recently included a law firm’s ad that included, yes, bears. In the ad, a bear is holding a small child, as if to suggest that the firm has struck the right balance between, I suppose, bloodthirst and coddling. The fair and balanced ad critique from a WSJ law blog reader:
“As long as Bingham is allowed to advertise with a bear holding a baby, personal-injury lawyers should be able to do whatever they want.”
Clever as the ad is, it really is no different than the woman who morphs into a tiger for an ad I’ve seen in Louisville. It’s not much different from the ads featuring another local plaintiff’s attorney lifting a car. That ad, I believe, is syndicated among dozens of lawyers across the country.
I wonder, though, if Bingham thought to include the standard disclaimer at the bottom of its ad, “Not an actual client. Also, bear is not a member of the bar.”
I can too.
C-SPAN is currently asking trivia of its callers. They’re not doing too well, but I have noticed the calls are far more consistently civil, so there probably is a kind of prophylactic effect.
