What do octuplets’ mom Nadya Suleman and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich have in common? They both share a desperate/obsessive need for drama played out in the media. Wednesday, the embattled Blagojevich pleaded not guilty to 16 federal criminal counts stemming from a variety of corruption and kickback schemes that included an exchange of money for the Senate seat vacated...

“Some people hope for a miracle cure Some people just accept the world as it is But I’m not willing to lay down and die Because I am an innocent man…”             – Billy Joel, “Innocent Man,” 1983 Considering the “cure” that happened last week when a federal judge dismissed the ethics conviction against former Senator Ted Stevens,  » Read more about: An...

Jay Leno: “Please welcome President Barack Obama.” (Applause) President Obama: “Thank you.” (Applause) Obama: “…Let me just say, I think Kevin (the band leader) looks good in a suit.” (Laughter)  “He looks a little like Secret Service.” (More laughter) Nice opening line.  Did he write that one himself? Leno: “Now it’s only, what, 59 days now…  Is it fair to judge...

Doesn’t he know that movie stars belong in the tabloids… police arrested… D.U.I. photo on TMZ? What’s this, Ann Curry interviewing him in Darfur? Must be a movie shoot or something.  I turn up the volume. Watching the NBC Dateline story, I learn that Clooney has travelled to Darfur a number of times not only in his role as United Nations messenger of...

Who do you believe – entertainment or news? That’s not a trick question. Last Thursday, CNBC’s lead financial reporter and host of Mad Money Jim Cramer paid a visit to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show on Comedy Central.  It was a showdown of sorts. Stewart had been running video clips of CNBC gaffs like Rick Santelli’s rant against an Obama policy announcement and Jim Cramer’s videos showing him...

I don’t think Rush Limbaugh really likes being called an entertainer. What’s wrong with being an entertainer, Rush?  Jay Leno’s an entertainer.  He entertains millions and makes a lot of money doing it, too.  Jerry Seinfeld’s an entertainer and makes a lotmore money doing it! The problem is that Rush thinks he’s something else.  He thinks he’s Big Daddy from Cat on a Hot...

Nixon had Watergate, Clinton had Lewinsky, Cheney his “Scooter” Libby.  Now, we have Rod Blagojevich who seems determined to turn hubris into a new category at the Academy Awards. For your consideration:  “They’re just hanging me… [They’re] trampling the constitution… The good guy is up against the establishment.” However, when Illinois state senators begin their impeachment trial today based on the governor’s...

Heavy snow fell the night before the inauguration. On Friday, January 20, 1961, I sat in my seventh grade homeroom class while the teacher rolled in a black and white television and announced that we would all be watching history take place today.  (Me, I always liked a good excuse to watch TV.) What I was unprepared for was how...

No, not that change.  We already know that in 11 days, former Illinois Senator Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States. I’m talking about a few other changes taking place in Washington. Former Idaho Senator Larry Craig has (finally!) given up efforts “to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from his 2007 arrest in a Minneapolis airport bathroom,” the Washington...

Looking at two recent films, I was struck not only by the similarities in deception but how the underlying aspect of fear transports individuals to act in unethical ways. Frost-Nixon is about the final disintegration of a man’s character. (For some, that would be assuming Nixon had any character to begin with.) But what the film shows us is how easy it is...