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Commentary: Do we make bad assumptions about the news coverage we see?
Recently I was struck by a conversation I had with a progressive friend. When I noted the significant decrease in extreme world poverty over the past two decades — a remarkable achievement that has attracted relatively little news coverage — he responded by confidently denying that this was so. His reasoning was instructive: If this were true, he said, he would have heard about it by now. Reasoning from an absence of news is a familiar, and often justified, phenomenon. If you are worried that your favorite sports team is thinking of trading its star player, it would be reasonable to regard the...
Chicago Tribune
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Steve Martin eyes retirement once ‘Only Murders’ concludes
Only retirement on the horizon. You might not see Steve Martin popping up on your screen for much longer. The Emmy-winning comedy star, 76, told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview that once Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” concludes, he intends on retiring. “We were very happy just doing the live show,” Martin told the outlet of his most recent tour with “Only Murders” co-star Martin Short, “You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today!” “There may be a natural end to that — somebody gets sick, somebody just wears out — but I wouldn’t do it without Marty,” he said. “When this televi...
New York Daily News
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Television Q&A: Why is show 'America's Got Talent' when contestants come from all over?
You have questions. I have some answers. Q: I’m curious if you know why the show is called "America’s Got Talent“ when so many wonderful acts come from other countries? Some of these acts come a long distance, and I’m guessing at great expense to perform. Some acts come from countries that have their own talent shows. Maybe they should call it “The World’s Got Talent.” A: The show is American branded in part to distinguish it from the many, many other “Got Talent” shows in countries around the world. In addition, the rules for the show require an American connection: that contestants be either...
Tribune News Service
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Nina Metz: It’s alarming when TV shows and movies vanish off streaming services, but there’s a long history of this
Last week, HBO Max quietly pulled a number of TV and film titles off its streaming service. They have been removed indefinitely, as far as anyone knows. While none were major hits, they’re not obscure either. They’re of recent vintage and feature big-name stars. Some of the shows affected: “Mrs. Fletcher” starring Kathryn Hahn, “Camping” starring Jennifer Garner and David Tennant, and the Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese-produced music industry drama “Vinyl.” On the movie side, the list includes “An American Pickle” starring Seth Rogen, “The Witches” starring Anne Hathaway, “Superintelligence” ...
Chicago Tribune
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Motormouth: Follow the instructions
Q: You recently advised to follow the owner’s manual in choosing a grade of gas. Does that advice still hold if the manual says regular is fine but, for reasons long forgotten, the owner has been pumping nothing but mid-grade over the car’s entire 17-year life? If it matters, the car is an RX330 with about 120,000 miles. W. K., Lake Geneva, Wisconsin A: The only harm you have done is to your wallet. Q: Since my 2016 Ford Explorer had a recall performed for the high-speed cooling fan motor relay, the fan turns on very loudly every (approximately) 30 seconds at idle when the A/C is on. It is so ...
Tribune News Service
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Editorial: On Mar-a-Lago search, GOP sides against the law with a lawless ex-president
It will be some time before the nation knows exactly what the FBI was looking for, and what it found, during Monday’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home and resort. But the known factors so far all point to a strong presumption of legitimacy for the operation. FBI Director Christopher Wray is a Trump appointee. Attorney General Merrick Garland is known for his caution. A judge had to affirm the probability of finding evidence of criminality before granting the warrant. And Trump himself has a documented history of mishandling classified records. Yet Republicans from Florida...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Commentary: Biden should consider pardoning Trump — for the sake of our nation
Among my earliest attempts at fiction was “The Misfit,” a short story about a brilliant, competitive, though anti-social and paranoid college student. The writing was amateurish, but the story was centered around a gimmicky surprise that enabled me to sell it to Aim magazine in 1978: After a climactic confrontation at the end, the principal character is identified as the young Richard M. Nixon. In real life, Nixon was the only U.S. president to resign, following the Watergate scandal. And Americans my age remember the outrage triggered when President Gerald Ford granted him a pardon in 1974. F...
Chicago Tribune
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Kenan Thompson of ‘SNL’ to host 2022 Emmys
Live from the Emmys, it’s Kenan Thompson. The “Saturday Night Live” funnyman will host next month’s TV awards show, NBC announced Tuesday. “Being a part of this incredible evening where we honor the best of the television community is ridiculously exciting, and to do it on NBC — my longtime network family — makes it even more special,” Thompson said in a statement. “Like all TV fans, I can’t wait to see the stars from my favorite shows.” Thompson, 44, has been a staple at the Peacock network, currently as the longest-running cast member on “SNL,” where he’ll begin his 20th year this fall. His ...
New York Daily News
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Amazon's new 'League of Their Own' tells more female baseball stories
When producers looked at the history of women in baseball, they realized “A League of Their Own” only scratched the surface. Underneath, there were stories about the players’ personal lives and the challenges they faced in a less-than-friendly sports world. Working off that 1940s history, creators Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham found material that could fill multiple seasons of television. One scene in Penny Marshall’s 1992 film, for example, prompted a secondary plot in their new Amazon Studios series. A foul ball is picked up by a Black player and tossed back to Geena Davis. “That’s supposed ...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Editorial: Republicans brave the risks to support same-sex marital rights
It took guts, perhaps along with a careful look at polling results, for 47 House Republicans to join their Democratic colleagues in approving a bill late last month to codify interstate recogniton of same-sex marriages. Rep. Ann Wagner was the sole Missouri Republican to support it. In these hyperpartisan times, any such vote risks putting Republicans on a target list for removal for veering even slightly from strict conservative orthodoxy. The Respect for Marriage Act, which faces a difficult but not insurmountable climb in the Senate, was necessary only because of the Supreme Court’s reversa...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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