sunday, may 30, 2004
Stories and tinsel blogs
Earlier tonight, Mister Kyle and I went to “The Inside Story: Hollywood And The Media Deconstructed” at the American Film Institute next to my old school. I couldn’t borrow Lizzy’s laptop in time to blog it live (like at Mediamorphosis), but I’ll reconstruct the event from my scribbled notes. The official web page said the event was totally full, but some seats were empty after all.
Cecile Dubois blogged it live on Cathy’s (her mom) blog (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Advice Goddess blogged it live, too. And Sean Bonner (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
The first session was “The Real Tinsel: Hollywood Insiders Take On Hollywood”. A panel of four entertainment-business dudes talked about global politics, journalism, and the television business: Rob Long (TV writer/producer), Allan Mayer (PR guy), Mike Sullivan (Paulist Productions person), and Andrew Breitbart (Drudge’s “right-hand man”). Cathy Seipp (“journalist and blogmeister”) moderated.
Cathy asked questions and the panelists answered one by one (roughly). Later, the audience asked questions. First, Andrew put forth the idea that American television, with all its negative images and views, causes the rest of the world to hate us. Celebrities are the United States’ “unelected emissaries”. Mike agreed that television’s “zone of public civility” has changed a lot from the days of I Love Lucy.
Allan said journalists shouldn’t be seen as moral heroes; journalists today are clueless; the departments of the LA Times don’t even speak to each other. The entire panel agreed that Variety is horribly inaccurate and that journalists hardly ever report anything accurately. By this time, I noticed a few things: these guys (including Cathy) are all rather conservative, they all hate the LA Times, and they all seem quite cynical. If I’ve learned anything from my nascent school newspaper, it’s that journalism is really really hard and really important. These panelists are television people! I can’t stand most television, even “good” television, but I enjoy reading the newspaper.
After deciding what’s wrong with journalism, the panelists moved on to what’s wrong with television. According to Rob, the network executives interfere too much. Mike said that reality shows are popular because the barrier to entry is so much lower than with the two other kinds of shows (drama and comedy). Then, Cathy opened the stage to audience questions. Allan and Rob discussed runaway (outsourced) productions and concluded that they happen because costs are so high.
Andrew feels that Hollywood needs to be criticized more by bloggers, like how bloggers criticize mainstream journalism. I think journalism facilitates blogging: there’s an article to link to! Bloggers always need to link. Allan thinks criticism of Hollywood is relatively unimportant and continued about how disgustingly passive journalists are these days. Andrew said that the message coming out of Hollywood doesn’t show a balanced view of American life. Rob pointed out that the world’s consumption of American news consists of CNN and the New York Times — and how if that was the only thing you read about America, you’d get a horribly distorted view of it. Andrew believes that conservatives are ostracized in the entertainment business. At one point, things got quite heated between one audience member-questioner and a panelist.
After all that, it was reception time. Vegetarian food and cookies: yum! These media/blogging events always have the best food. Everyone schmoozed and ate the free food and drank the free drinks.
The second session was “The Real Story: L.A. Bloggers Take On Politics and the Media”.
That’s my sketch of moderator Cathy Seipp and bloggers Matt Welch, Charles Johnson, Kevin Drum, Roger L. Simon, Moxie, and Mickey Kaus. Somehow, their blogs’ URLs were left out of the official [and skimpy] paper program.
[i’m tired. will finish in the morning, maybe. there seem to be more than enough people long-form blogging this.]
comments (2)
Not sure if you would care but Cathy Seipp is Cecile's (the girl that got instapunditted) mother.
– mr. amoeba man on 5/30/2004 02:26:26
I think she knows.
– Cecile on 5/30/2004 07:37:29
