MICHAEL DAVIS: Reading is Fundamental
My friend Tony Isabella has mentioned that I give a good rant, Tony; this is about to be the rant to beat all rants!
I am soooooo pissed. I had two columns ALREADY written so I could get ahead on my ComicMix deadlines. I have a great deal of work to do with my comic book line, a new project called The Adjuster (you will hear about that soon enough) and The Underground from Dark Horse, so I wanted a few S-No-C’s in the can so I could deal with those projects but then…
LAST SATURDAY I WATCHED THE TV SHOW CNN’S NEWSROOM!
I have no idea why they call this show CNN’S Newsroom. News is supposed to be reported fairly. This show was SO biased that it reminded me of the McCarthy witchhunts of the 50s.
The host of any news show should be impartial. The host of this show was about as impartial as a Jewish mother who has the choice between saving her child or Hitler from falling off a cliff.
The show focused on Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) hard-hitting satirical video Read A Book that asks the viewer to (wait for it) read a book. The key word in all of this is satirical, as in satire.
The creators of the video were on the show but were never given a chance to complete a thought. The host kept cutting them off. He would ask them a question and not let them answer. That’s real journalism right? They should change the name of the show from CNN’S Newsroom to Shut up while the host talks.
The “panel” consisted of concerned parents. In another journalistic milestone, there were NO parents on the opposing side. All the parents on the show hated the video. I told Reggie Hudlin when he first showed me Read A Book some months ago that some people would have a issue with this. I said some people.
Little did I know that the chorus CNN choose to sing would only include parents that hated the video? How fair is that? Let’s see, let’s have a new show debating the war in Iraq. Our panel will be George Bush, Dick Cheney and… that’s it! All you will need for CNN’S Newsroom.
Yes, it’s true. The Wachowski Brothers, who started writing comics for Marvel before they went on to direct The Matrix trilogy, wrote and produced the V For Vendetta movie, publish Burlyman Comics (home of Doc Frankenstein and Shaolin Cowboy), and now making Speed Racer, exist no longer.
For over 75 years, this copy has put away more bad guys than Batman, the CSI Guys and Joe Friday combined. He’s gone from comic strips to radio, movie serials, TV, comics and even a big screen flirtation with Madonna. Now there is a group working hard to give Dick Tracy the credit he deserves – and you can help! On other fronts, today’s Big ComicMix Broadcast tells you how NBC makes sure you don’t miss a new show, DC gives you some big hoops to jump through to get variant covers and Canada gets a really cool cartoon channel!
After a successful pilot was aired at the end of last year, the second Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, will begin airing in England the end of this month.
Spoiler Alert: This week I’m discussing the three Jason Bourne movies and I may wind up revealing plot points, especially of the most recent film out, The Bourne Ultimatum. If you’re planning to see the movie, go see it first. More fun that way.
Want to start a lively discussion with your comic fan buddies? Ask them who has the best costume and watch the sparks fly. Get the heat started when we fire up the Big ComicMix Broadcast and tell you where to find the list of what some fans call "the best" — plus the holiday is over and it’s back to the comic racks for a run of new titles out this week, and a great line up of DVDs, too, especially if you are a TV fan.
