…of US “private contractor workers” torturing Iraqi prisoners, the Guardian wonders why U.S. newspapers are so eager to not discuss it.

Globe and Mail TV writer John Doyle wrote about the Faux News Channel’s attempts to get onto Canadian cable systems. Doyle said his countrypeople should get the chance to see the channel so they could laugh at it.

Bill O’Reilly, on said channel, urged his viewers to send insulting emails to Doyle, as if Doyle would be impressed and won over by people calling him dumb names.

Doyle’s follow-up article sez: “The people who support Fox News must be the most uncivil and foul-mouthed creatures on the planet. This is an informed opinion. They’d give English soccer hooligans a run for their money.”

…gets to become a bigtime movie star. His ol’ pal Squiggy gets to become a Mariners assistant scout. (Scroll to bottom of page.)

…in the coolness department: the new Vancouver affiliate of Toronto broadcast trailblazer City TV. Imagine: A commercial VHF station in a region no more populous that ours that’s got local cooking shows, local ethnic-cultural shows, local filmmakers’-showcase shows, serious arts documentaries, old silent movies, sex documentaries, uncut soft-R movies after midnight, and a Speakers’ Corner where citizens can videotape themselves ranting about anything they want.

…chopping away at our (and broadcasters’) rights? Sign the Stop FCC petition.

…as previously posted here. Along the way, I’ll post some tidbits about its milieu, the world of television production.

The first thing word people forget about TV is how word-dependent TV really is. No scripted program works without a decent script. And that includes the news. Evidence: The official BBC Style Guide. In 92 brisk pages, it gently instructs how to write copy with the authoritative yet understandable BBC house style:

“It is our job to communicate clearly and effectively, to be understood without difficulty, and to offer viewers and listeners an intelligent use of language which they can enjoy. Good writing is not a luxury; it is an obligation. Our use, or perceived misuse, of English produces a greater response from our audiences than anything else.

“It is in nobody’s interest to confuse, annoy, dismay, alienate or exasperate them.”

TOM RUNNACLES offers up a fine li’l tribute to Alistair Cooke. Some email respondents to him then go and spoil the proceedings by noting that Cooke’s BBC Radio essays had become steadily more reactionary over the past two decades. (Cooke, like Sinatra, had apparently fallen in love with the Reagan crowd as saviors of a more genteel past.)

…there was another cross-studio team-up of animated favorites, the justly forgotten anti-drug screed Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue.

(via the Guardian): “MTV is no longer the home of ‘cool music.'”

And I’m looking to talk to people who’ve worked in local television, here or elsewhere, for research purposes. Email me to set up the details.

MAKE UP LYRICS for your favorite local TV newscasts! Start by downloading the audio files. Then sing along.

Here’s some more detailed refutation of the US right-wing smear campaign against the new Spanish government. No, Fox News, Limbaugh, WSJ, et al., Francisco Franco is still dead.

…disseminating faked pro-Bush TV news reports under the guise of “electronic press releases.” Why didn’t they just let Fox do it like they always do?

CREATE YOUR OWN Law and Order plot!

JUST WHEN HE SEEMED to have disappeared off the face o’ the earth, Bill Maher roars back with a fervent plea for some politician somewhere to unapologetically support gay marriage: “The only thing abominable about being gay is the amount of time you have to put in at the gym.”