Charlie Rose has been accused by several women of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior. He has admitted indiscretions and apologized although he has said some of the allegations are inaccurate or false. Rose has been fired by CBS and his PBS show has been taken off the air. Bloomberg has also canceled the reruns on its network.
This post is not primarily about the current sexual harassment and assault issues we are now going through. I will say that it is a real problem and the culture needs to change. I feel bad for the women he took advantage of. I feel bad for all the people who worked on his PBS program and production company. I feel bad for his CBS This Morning colleagues, especially Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King. They were truly surprised and upset by the revelations.
I am personally pissed at Charlie Rose. He has been a regular part of my day for many years. Back in the 80's, he was the host/anchor of CBS News Nightwatch. Having often worked night shifts or irregular hours, I would be up during that show. In the 90's, Charlie started his interview show on PBS. I would often watch that show over the years. During the last five years, I have tuned into the CBS This Morning show when I have watched morning TV. I have also been recording The Charlie Rose Show on PBS. I would either watch it live at midnight or the next day. That means I have invited Charlie into my home for anywhere from one to three hours a day. Then there were also the segments he did for 60 Minutes or substituting on the CBS Evening News. I guess I've regained some time in my day now that he is gone.
Here is why I am pissed. It's not because I feel sorry for Rose, it is because his PBS show was a rare oasis in the bombastic, loud, ill-informed desert of what passes for news, commentary, analysis, and discussion on TV. He was prepared and informed for the interviews. When there were discussion panels, there was no shouting or talking over others. He had the best and the brightest guests. The show or segment topics were very diverse. It was not just a news or political show. Charlie's guests included, besides the usual news reporters and talking heads, authors, scientists, medical professionals, actors, directors, foreign journalists, diplomats, heads of state and on and on. The show was interesting, informative, and educational. That's a rare combination on today's TV landscape. It was an adult show.
Will someone or some show come along to fill that void? Maybe, but it is not a given considering the current state of TV news. Maybe there is already another host/show doing the same thing. At the least, I have to scour the channels and look for another adult show. At the worst, there is no other show like Charlie's. That's why I'm pissed at Charlie Rose. Because he couldn't keep his hands to himself and his dick in his pants, we lose an accomplished journalist. His TV career is over.
There will be more fallout from this shift in how we deal with sexual harassment. The shift is long overdue but it will be painful.
In conclusion, thank you, Charlie Rose, for all the good work on TV over the years. Fuck you for being a derelict behind the scenes.
wjh
My biggest problem with climate change deniers is, if they are wrong and we continue to pollute and abuse the environment, we may be doomed. If on the other hand, those who embrace climate change are wrong, there is no longterm harm done. Their programs to slow, halt, or reverse the effects of man on the climate have no real downsides.
Some of us are old enough to remember when air pollution, especially in major cities, was pretty common. Los Angeles actually did have a "brown LA haze". My hometown of Jacksonville often had a terrible stink from the paper mills. The DFW area still has ozone alert days but not as many. I'm sure many of you can remember other areas where air pollution was a problem.
The climate change deniers claim that the measures needed to reduce carbon emissions are financially crippling. That financial strain will be more severe for the US than others, particularly China and India. In fact, the renewable power industries create thousands of jobs. The technology research also has benefits in other industries. Solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, thermal, and other energy sources are already competitive with most fossil fuels. Coal is no longer financially viable for new plants and most older coal plants have been or are being shuttered. The biggest problem with the new energy sources is the lack of infrastructure to get the energy from where it is produced to where it is consumed. We have been building pipelines and railroads to deliver coal, oil, and gas for decades. Our solar and wind generation sites are new and not as well connected.
The scientists and climate change believers have mostly done a terrible job of convincing the populace of the real dangers. The main problem is that it is complicated and slow moving. The raw data is solid and mostly undisputed. The problems arise when the historic and current data are put into the numerous models. It is almost impossible to precisely predict when, where or how much that the climate change will affect the Earth in general and specific locations. It is also difficult or impossible to determine what percentage of our current warming is due to mankind and what percentage is normal climate fluctuations. It is not impossible to measure and predict trends.
We also have the alarmists and doomsday faction who think the world will end next week if we don't stop all carbon emissions immediately. They are no more useful to the discussion than the climate change deniers. Hyperbole is very rarely useful or convincing in the long run.
As usual, those in the middle of the discussion have the best chance to come to a workable agreement. Those who question (not deny) climate change must be willing to accept that the data indicates our global temperatures are rising. They must also be willing to accept that the polar ice caps are shrinking and the oceans are rising. Those are provable facts from measurements and photographs. The debate might be about what caused this and is it a trend or a climatic cycle. It can also be debated what part man played in this.
Neither side can continue to summarily deny science that does not fully support their views. Any study funded by a person, group or institution that has a financial or political stake in how we deal with climate change must be taken with many grains of salt and skepticism. That goes for studies funded by the fossil fuel industry, by alternative energy companies, and even by the Sierra Club. Claims about the benefits of "clean coal" by the coal industry are suspect, just as the benefits of wind power by a wind turbine company are.
As I've mentioned in other opinion pieces about current behavior and its effect on the future. Except for maybe nuclear war, none of these issues will directly affect me. I'm too old for climate change to destroy the planet before I'm gone. I do have children and grandchildren. I would like them to have a long, healthy, and happy life. I hope they don't look back on our generation and blame us for ruining the environment and wonder what in the hell we were thinking.
Let's give cleaner energy and other anti-pollution measures a chance. What could it hurt?
wjh
- Were the original Houston Colt 45's (now Astros) named after the gun or the malt liquor?
- Sometimes in sports, especially in baseball, we talk about a player air-mailing a throw, pass, shot. Is air-mail still even a thing?
- Somebody needs to write an app that shocks people when they say "like" or "whatever" or "you know" or "I mean". Other obnoxious phrases to be added as needed.
- Most popular does not mean BEST.
- I wonder which baseball player discovered you could make a double play? Was the first one a traditional 6-4-3 or was it a line drive that caught the runner off the base?
- I hate it when a website won't display the price of an item or event until you get most of the way through the checkout process. Show me the price upfront.
- Where and how do you think those Taco Bell fried egg "taco shells" are made? A perfect but off-center yolk.
- I think the baseball "championship" celebrations have become too staged and predictable. It used to be spontaneous and mostly beer. Now it is champagne, goggles, plastic draped locker rooms, cameras, and preprinted t-shirts and hats. Plus, we now have division, wildcard, wildcard game win, divisional series, championship series and finally the World Series celebrations. That's a lot of champagne.
- I get crazy about the righteous indignation of politicians, both Republicans and Democrats.
- When I was a kid, my Mom would tell me not to pick at scabs. Didn't work then and I still do it today.
- Wouldn't it be nice if TV broadcasts turned down the background noise so that we could hear the people speaking? Sports are the worse, but not the only offenders. Old ears have trouble separating background from foreground.
- OK Apple. We now have the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X (10). Where is the iPhone 9?
- I just opened a bottle of cheap wine to be used in a recipe. It is OK for cooking, but you wouldn't really want to drink a bottle. Largely displayed on the label is 600+ Medals Won. Doesn't say what color or who awarded them. Marketing BS.
- There are two baseball stadiums named for orange juice companies. The Astros Minute Maid Park in Houston and the Rays Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg (Tampa Bay). Has anyone ever actually drank orange juice at a ballpark? Now Coors Field and Miller Park make perfect sense.
- Remember that old commercial for the United Negro College Fund? The tagline was "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste". I often think I have been wasteful.
- Oxymoron - The Korean demilitarized zone is heavily militarized.
- Does every damn 30 second video on a webpage full of advertisements have to have a 15 second video advertisement?
- Why is it that sometimes I can point the remote directly at the TV/cable box and it doesn't work? Other times I can barely touch it while it is pointing in the wrong direction and the channel changes.
Anybody who has followed this blog knows I am a fan of late night comedy TV. One of the latest entries is The Opposition with Jordan Klepper. It airs on Comedy Central right after The Daily Show.
I guess you could consider this as a spinoff. Klepper was one of the fake correspondents on the Daily Show, usually playing a counterpoint to the opinions expressed on the show. He was the establishment white guy although always with tongue firmly in cheek. Some of his pieces during the 2016 campaign were very good.
His new show is supposed to be a satire on today's right-wing conspiracy theory media. Much like the old Colbert Report was a take-off on Fox News shows with their pompous, bombastic hosts. Colbert primarily used The O'Reilly Factor as a model. The Opposition seems to be a toned down satire of Infowars with Alex Jones. Lots of conspiracy theory, fake news, and lies.
The show is not as over the top or as loud as Alex Jones. In fact, I'm not exactly sure what it is. I suspect the show's producers, writers, and stars don't know exactly what it is yet. Sometimes it is an outright satire of the wacko right and sometimes it seems like another version of The Daily Show.
Jordan Klepper is a funny guy. He did good work on The Daily Show and does some good bits on The Opposition. Unfortunately, the supporting cast is very weak. As mentioned, the writing and focus are disjointed.
I've watched eight or ten episodes and they are not getting any better or more consistent. If it remains on the air, I'll check it out again in a couple of months. I realize that some new shows need to find their voice. Right now, I don't think it is worth the ½ hour investment four nights a week.
After the first couple of weeks, I have to rate this show a C-. If we are lucky it will find it's footing and get better.
wjh
It seems to me that whenever something controversial shows up in the news, at least one side says "now is not the time to discuss or debate" whatever the issue is.
The most recent was the horrible terrorist attack by a wacko in Las Vegas with a large cache of automatic weapons and ammunition. But this is not the appropriate time to talk about our gun laws. It wasn't the right time after Orlando, Sandy Hook, Charleston, Columbine, and dozens of other tragic shootings.
When NFL players knelt or sat during our national anthem, that was not the proper time or venue to protest.
When unarmed people, usually Black males, are killed by police, we shouldn't rush to judgment and protest.
When you protest the glorification of Confederate leader's statues all over the South, you are trying to obliterate (white) history.
We can go back decades on this issue. When Rosa Parks wouldn't give up her seat on the bus, that was the wrong approach. Blacks should never have disrupted the white lunch patrons at the Woolworth's lunch counter by doing a sit-in. Martin Luther King should never have marched in southern, segregated, cities. The students at Kent State University deserved to be killed for protesting the Vietnam War and refusing to follow National Guard directions. The protesters at the Democratic convention in Chicago were just asking to be clubbed by out of control police.
It seems to always be the protester's fault. They just don't seem to know when, where, or how to protest. Of course, the real issue is that they are protesting something that is not actually a real problem.
Here's the deal, if the majority of the country agreed with the protesters, there would probably be no need to protest. If most of the country thought racial discrimination was a problem and wrong in 1960, MLK wouldn't have needed to march. Rosa Parks wouldn't have had to defy the bus driver. If many Black athletes didn't feel the system was still prejudiced they wouldn't be kneeling during the national anthem.
The LGBT community shouldn't show up at Columbus Day or St. Patrick's parades because they are traditional events and family-friendly celebrations. Apparently, LGBT people don't have families or as some think, shouldn't be allowed to have families.
The only way protesters get any attention is when they make a large segment of the population uncomfortable or inconvenience them. Sitting at the Woolworth's counter wouldn't have much impact at midnight. Rosa Parks would never have caused a stir except that it was evening rush hour and white folks wanted a seat. You have to get people's attention. The NFL players got traction because millions watch the games on Sundays and then Trump personally challenged them.
Some protests get out of hand and cause damage or injuries. That is just like what is being protested, the protested actions sometimes cause damage and injuries, often times deaths.
If you are on the protesting side of the issue, it is almost always the right time and place to protest. If you don't agree, there is no appropriate time, place, or venue for the protests. In fact, there is no reason to be protesting.
This country was founded on protest. The second amendment supporters say they need their weapons in case the government gets out of hand. The Confederate states protested against the Union and many still honor their effort.
As long as we are a free speech country, there will always be protests. There is no right or appropriate time, just as there is no wrong or inappropriate time. The protesters get to decide. That is the free speech part of the equation.
If you see injustices, now is the right time to protest in whatever way you feel appropriate. My way today is to publish a blog.
wjh
- I'm pretty sure that almost every TV action series of the 1950's and 60's had at least one "quick sand" episode. A mostly fake peril created by TV & movie writers.
- Same deal, every old western had a cholera/typhoid fever episode.
- Just saw an episode of 77 Sunset Strip. The bellhops and cabbies were tipped with coins. Don't try that now.
- I've noticed on the late night product advertisements that the latest marketing slogan is "atomic". We have atomic lanterns, atomic flashlights, atomic security lights, atomic gloves, even atomic wallets. A couple of months ago, everything was bamboo. Next up, atomic bamboo.
- If I'm a person in the DACA program, I would not have any confidence that Congress will have a resolution in six months or six years.
- I find it funny that some businesses brag about being established in 2005 or some other relatively recent year. As the saying goes, "I have ties older than that".
- Is it just my old ears or are there way more annoying voices on TV these days?
- Does anybody really want that flap of rib meat attached to chicken breasts bought at the grocery store?
- There apparently are designated bad driving days. The other day, I had to avoid a couple of bad drivers on the road, then in the parking lot, and finally shopping cart drivers in the grocery store.
- The old TV show Highway Patrol is back in rotation on MeTV. What a terrible show with even worse scripts and acting. Still fun to watch. Mid 1950's cars, old phones, etc. They drive Oldsmobiles and Buicks. 1955-6 Buicks to be exact, the model we had when I learned to drive. They were tanks.
- If the North Korean mess results in a hot war, we, or at least history and our descendants, will look back and say, "this could have been avoided". Just like every other major conflict in the past 100+ years. Let's avoid it now and be on the right side of history.
- A sign of the times. On 9/12, the new iPhone X, 8, & 8+ received more news coverage than Irma, Harvey, North Korea, and other important news stories.
- How come a familiar word is suddenly impossible to spell?
- Or, when spelled correctly it looks wrong?
- Why in the hell does Twitter recommend that I follow Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift?
- When something is advertised as under $100, best case scenario is it is $99.97 instead of $99.99.
- Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the first amendment. Even if you don't agree with the speech. Actually, especially if the majority disagrees.
- Weather folks on TV always introduce themselves as meteorologist so and so. Should the rest of the TV news people follow that practice? Hi, I'm news anchor Bob Smith or I'm news reporter Suzie Jones or I'm sports reporter Biff Ballgame.
- It is very hard to be tolerant of those who are intolerant of those who are different or have different views.
- Why is it not OK to kneel during our National Anthem but it is OK to honor the Confederate flag? A flag that represents those who wanted to dissolve our country. I'm confused.
- Leave it to Americans to find a new issue to disagree on when the hot topic begins to cool. Statues give way to the National Anthem.
- What exactly is the proper and appropriate way to protest?
wjh
We went to the new Cinépolis movie theater in Euless the other night. This is the first Cinépolis in Texas. The chain has theaters in California, Florida, and the northeast. It is located in the Glade Parks shopping center close to Dave and Buster's. The complex has twelve screens, a concession stand with a varied menu, and a full bar. I'll get to the food/bar in a little bit.
Being brand new, the whole place is very clean and has that new car smell. The auditorium we were in had what has become a fairly standard configuration. There are a few rows close to the screen, a large aisle where you enter the auditorium then several rows on a steeper angle to the back. We usually choose seats in the second or third row above the large dividing aisle. It is all reserved seating. The seats are comfortable recliners with electronic controls to adjust the recline and footrest. I'm not sure if the seats are leather or faux leather. They are very comfortable and have a swinging tray and cup holders in the arms.
The lobby is spacious but rather stark and cold with several ticket kiosks on one end. I did not see a traditional manned box office or counter. There may be one, maybe at the concession stand but I wasn't looking for it since I bought our tickets online at their website. They have their own ticket website and do not use another site like Fandango. One problem I see is that you get one barcode sent to your phone (or to print) for the whole order. In our case, that was not a problem since it was only for two tickets and we arrived together. I'm not sure how that would work for a party of four or more who maybe show up at slightly different times but are on one ticket purchase order. I guess the whole group would have to congregate in the lobby before proceeding to the screening auditoriums. Keep that in mind when going with a group.
On the other end of the lobby are the concession stand and bar. There are also several tables in this area. We didn't go to the concession stand, but it looked like there were several ordering/cashier stations. The bar is rather small, maybe 10 stools. There were about 1½ bartenders. That wasn't a problem when we first arrived, but when I went for refills, there was a significant wait to be served.
Here's the problem, although they have a decent food selection and a full bar, there is no wait service in the auditoriums. You have to go out to the lobby to get your food or drink. That's damn inconvenient if you want something after your movie starts. Especially if it takes some time to get through the line. I'm also not sure how they will control access to the screening area. Do you have to remember to take your ticket or phone with you when you go for a popcorn refill?
This is a new establishment, so maybe they'll work out some of my concerns. It is a nice place to watch a movie. It will be interesting to see what first run movies Cinépolis shows. One of my gripes now is that the two closest theaters usually show the same movies while other hits are at more distant or crappier theaters.
Here is our conclusion for at least the time being. If the movie we want to see is playing at the Bedford Movie Tavern or the Colleyville Studio Movie Grill, we'll go there first. They both have in theater servers that bring the order right to your seat. No missing parts of the movie while you get a refill or completely new order. Prices are comparable, the facilities are at least as nice if not nicer, the food and drink selections are about the same and the seats are just as plush. All three cinemas have multiple dining choices close by if you want to eat before or after the movie.
Cinépolis is a nice addition to the area and if they show different movies than our favorite places, I'm sure we'll go again.
wjh
