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Infotainment

TV's 17 Best Issue-tainment Shows of All Time

Evan Shapiro | Posted 06.19.2012 | TV
Read More: 16 and Pregnant, Intervention, Mike Wallace, The Wire, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Brick City, The Daily Show, Classic TV, Television, 60 Minutes, Degrassi, Infotainment, I Love Lucy, Mash, Great Tv, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, The Colbert Report, South Park, The West Wing, Video, TV News
Evan Shapiro

TV is a medium of great power, influence... and profit. One can simultaneously entertain and inspire (enspire?) -- and garner big ratings while doing it. Here is my list of TV's 17 Best Issue-tainment Shows of All Time.

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Help Me Understand...

John Joss | Posted 03.19.2012 | Media
Read More: Broadcasting, Television, ' Mammon, Advertising, 'Infotainment, Ethics, Radio, Morals, Network Television, Network Radio, Media, Communications, Media News
John Joss

... how supposed news reporters can get away with being advertising spokespeople. Lots of our local (San Francisco) radio people -- for example, spor...

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Financial Journalists Fail Upward

Thomas Frank | Posted 05.25.2011 | Media
Read More: Jim Cramer, Financial Crisis, Jon Stewart Jim Cramer, Financial News, Jon Stewart, Cnbc, Infotainment, Media News
Thomas Frank

If the world of financial infotainment can itself be described as a "market," it is a market where accountability does not seem to exist.

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The World Is Ending, Or, What I Had For Lunch With My Friend, The Ambassador

Kevin Morris and Glenn Altschuler | Posted 05.25.2011 | Green
Read More: Energy, Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism, Infotainment, Thomas L. Friedman, Norman Mailer, Hot Flat and Crowded, Global Warming, Hunter S Thompson, Book Reviews, Green News
Kevin Morris and Glenn Altschuler

New Journalism has gone cold, flat, and crowded, as too many books, movies, and TV talking heads showcase journalists calling attention to themselves. Paradigmatic example: Thomas Friedman's new book.

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Lawyer Lawyer Hero Hunter

Kevin Morris and Glenn Altschuler | Posted 05.25.2011 | Politics
Read More: Bill Clinton, John McCain, Paris Hilton Ad, Bono, Joe Biden, Elito Spitzer, Barack Obama, 2008 Presidential Election, Infotainment, Elizabeth Edwards, Sara Palin, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Drew Westin, Celebrification of Culture, Politigation, Politics News
Kevin Morris and Glenn Altschuler

Two "personalities," the patriotic prisoner-of war and the earthy "frontier" governor are trying to appropriate "change" as their theme -- and run against The Firm, headed by an empty suit and a bloviating senior partner.

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Dum Dum Bullets Swaddled in Angora

Kevin Morris and Glenn Altschuler | Posted 05.25.2011 | Media
Read More: The Today Show, 20-20, Star Jones, Nbc, The View, The Barbara Walters Special, Barbara Walters' Memoir, Audition: A Memoir, Infotainment, Barbara Walters, Autobiography, Roy Cohn, Memoir, ABC News, Alan Greenspan, Lew Walters, Edward Brooke, Latin Quarter Nightclub, 60 Minutes, Media News
Kevin Morris and Glenn Altschuler

The accomplished Barbara Walters is not that different from the beleaguered little girl: a victim and a beneficiary of the glitz and glamour of showbiz.

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