Ted Couldn’t Blast Him Back Into His Foxhole
Amid all the fuss over television violence, let’s not overlook the war of words between Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox Broadcasting Co. plans an all-news channel to compete with Turner’s CNN.
“Ted Turner has been particularly energetic in describing what I’m all about. And I appreciate his help,” Murdoch said in a talk to the National Press Club.
“Ted, last week, called me ‘the schlockmeister.’ To this, I guess I must plead guilty … if your idea of ‘schlock’ is ‘The X-Files,’ the Times of London, NFL football, ‘The Simpsons,’ our Fox educational children’s programs, NHL hockey, feature films like ‘Waiting to Exhale’ … We do, however, draw the line at professional wrestling and brown-nosing foreign dictators. You’ll have to turn to Ted’s channels to see that.”
Loose talk
Peter Jennings, ABC’s “World News Tonight” anchor, on his medium: “I never play the television. It’s a curse, you know, television.”
Any chance he could beam up Pat Buchanan?
James Doohan turns 76 today.
He’s not ready to be put out to pasture
Arthur Kent, the “Scud Stud” whose live NBC reports on Iraqi missile attacks during the Gulf War made him into a celebrity, has joined CNN as a London-based correspondent and anchor. Kent was fired by NBC after allegedly refusing an assigment to Croatia.
She’d give him the same ratings as his ex’s
Serial divorcee Larry King flirted with Fox News’ Rita Cosby on the Bob Dole campaign trail, leering: “Who are you? How come I don’t know you?” Told he should invite her onto his TV talk show, King replied: “If I did, it would be a private booking.”
And none of us really look like him, either
Robert Redford regrets that his role as Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men” helped lead to today’s media sensationalism. “To have seen so many (people) being drawn to journalism for the wrong reasons - less of truth-getting and more about getting exposure - is just a sad fact of life,” he told “Extra.”
Luckily, most of them got watered down
Ted Gup, who worked under Woodward at the Washington Post, writes in GQ that he came up with some “pretty harebrained” assignments: “The most dangerous time to be around Bob was within an hour after he emerged from the shower. When he bathed, he would let his mind wander and become inspired with ideas for his minions.”
He keeps veering right, then left, then …
Sweet 16 Chelsea Clinton’s parents may have rejected those three cars radio stations offered as gifts, but Bill is teaching her to drive - despite having had a chauffeur for the past 12 years. Said a spokesman: “I think the president has been learning a lot by driving with Chelsea.”
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino