Fox News airs doctored photos
On Wednesday morning’s edition of Fox and Friends, the Fox News channel aired altered photos of two New York Times reporters to retaliate against a Times Saturday edition piece which pointed out some “ominous trends” in the show’s ratings.
Co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade showed the photos which portrayed Jacques Steinberg with yellow teeth, a wider chin, and big ears, and Times television editor Steven Reddicliffe with the same yellow smile and a receding hairline. The caricatures seem to be done with Adobe Photoshop ™ tools.
Doocy called the Times report a “hit piece” and claimed that Reddicliffe is still sore about losing his job as editor of TV Guide, owned by News Corp, Fox’s parent company. They also called Steinberg, the reporter who wrote the piece, Reddicliffe’s attack poodle.
Neither Reddicliffe nor Steinberg were available for comment. But Sam Sifton, Times culture editor did have some words for Fox. “It was straight news. This was a hit piece by Fox News. It is beneath comment,” he said. As for whether the Times would retaliate, Sifton said no: “”It is fighting with a pig — everyone gets dirty, and the pig likes it.” Methinks, them be fighting words.
Why do I bother with reality TV when all the drama is right there on the news?
TV Summer School: How to Have an Overall Deal
As we barrel toward the end of TV Summer School, we decided to chat up one of our favorite TV producers, Tim Minear, to find out about the mysterious TV industry phenomenon known as the overall deal. It is Tim's relationship with 20th Century Fox Television through his overall deal that has brought us the likes of Firefly, Wonderfalls, The Inside and Drive (even though all were sadly canceled before their time by another branch of the News Corp. empire, the Fox network). Read on for the breakdown on this deal and to find out about Tim's new project.
What is an overall deal?
An overall deal is when a studio has decided you are so valuable that they [contract for] all your services in television. So, if you have an overall with 20th, you're not going and developing a show for Warner Bros.
And you're working for a studio, not a network, right?
Right. Usually, when you go on a TV show, you have a contract with the show. Generally, that means you're hired for a certain amount of episodes, maybe 13, and there's usually an option in the middle of the year when they decide whether or not they want to pick you up and keep you on the show.
And normally, if you're a story editor or if you're a coproducer or a producer, you're paid, episodically, whatever your fee is, and then you write scripts, and you get paid for writing scripts, and if you direct an episode, you get paid for directing—but an overall deal encompasses everything you do.
Here's the difference: It's almost like going from being paid by the hour to being on salary. And, financially, you try to get a number that would be bigger than what you would be paid episodically as a producer on the show.
When and how did you first get approached for your own overall deal? Who suggested it to you?
Well, the way the way it happened with me—and I think the way it happens with most people—is that I was on Angel, and I was working out. They decided they didn't want me to leave, and they didn't want it to be that every year my option would come up, and they'd have to renegotiate.
It was [Angel creator] Joss [Whedon] who really did it. I think my agent probably approached the studio and said, you know, "Are you interesting in making an overall with Tim?" And they called Joss and said, "Is this guy somebody that we should be making an overall with?" And he's like, "Yes."
So, when you're not running a specific show, what kind of work are you doing?
Let's say you develop something like Drive, for instance, or like The Inside, when that show goes down, they will generally have other needs at the studio, like, we need a high-level writer-producer to come in and help this show that's starting. And they will assign you to go in to other shows and plug leaks and so on, which is what Standoff was, and they have me on another show right now (which will remain nameless) and that kind of thing.
Do they ever approach you about shows that you decline to do?
Yes.
What makes you say, "Not that one"? What are the red flags for you?
Well, generally, if I'm not doing my own thing, I don't really want to go work on someone else's thing. The red flag is having to work at all. You know, if you're on an overall, and your show goes down, and they say you're going to go work on show X, and it's not something you feel like you get or you really want to do, you don't have to agree to do it…but I don't think I've declined too much, I think I've gone where they've asked me to go. And what that does is that gives you incentive to develop something new, so that you can make a little dinghy and escape.
Are you looking to develop your own shows, or have you enjoyed taking ideas like Drive or The Inside that 20th already owns and building them out?
No, I want to develop my own stuff—and in fact, I have developed something, and I am pitching it now, and there is interest at a bunch of places.
I will tell everyone I know to buy Tim's show.
I actually don't think it's going to be a problem. In fact, a network president just called me before I called you, and said, "We really want your thing."
What advice do you have for anyone in the business who wants an overall?
Actually, of late, I've been wondering if it's something I should continue with, because it would be nice to be able to dance sometimes with the other people who are courting you, and I really haven't been able to do that. However, I like the money, and the question is, are you willing to cut off the spigot and believe you're going to find that elsewhere? And I probably could, but I'm kind of lazy, and I'm old.
Hey, me too! Anyway, this was great and really informative. And I hope whatever you're cooking up gets fully baked and delivered.
I think it will, actually, and I think I'm going to be working with Todd Holland again, so that's pretty exciting.
Awesome. And speaking of [your fellowWonderfalls executive producers] Todd Holland, and then Bryan Fuller—I can't imagine you could, because it's from Warner Bros., but could you do something with [Fuller's] Pushing Daisies?
I loved that pilot! And, well, that's exactly the thing of an overall deal: It's at a different studio, so, um…I can watch it.
Warner Brothers set to join Hulu
Online video site Hulu is already one of the best places to find full length episodes of network TV shows. And it looks like Hulu could be adding to its content library soon. Warner Brothers president Bruce Rosenblum says a deal with Hulu is “imminent.” Right now, all of the content available on Hulu comes from NBC and FOX News Corp.
At first glance, that means that you might be able to find WB-produced shows that air on the CW network on Hulu. But Warner Brothers also produces TV programs that air on other networks, such as NBC’s ER. The studio also produces movies, and while the movie section of Hulu isn’t as fleshed out as the TV section, we might soon see a few more feature length films on the site.
Hulu is still in private beta, but the service recently expanded its beta by allowing current users to send out 10 invitations to their friends. So if you’ve got a friend with an account, now might be a good time to start bugging him or her incessantly. Or you could wait a few weeks. There’s a chance Hulu will emerge from its invitation-only beta test in March.
[via NewTeeVee]
WGA, studios to meet this week
The Writers Guild of America is going to hold an informal meeting with studios this week in what looks like a first step in getting back to the bargaining table with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (I’m sure that the deal the Director’s Guild of America made on Thursday is what generated these talks.)
The Hollywood Reporter says that CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves and News Corp. President Peter Chernin actually held informal meetings with reps from the guild over the weekend, so maybe we’re on the way to seeing some sort of resolution to this whole mess. It’s been a month and a half since they last held talks.
I’m wondering if they could get some sort of temporary deal in place? That’s probably not realistic, since there would be no guarantee that the writers would get what they want. The article above does outline some of what the AMPTP doesn’t like: “reality TV and animation jurisdiction, the right to stage sympathy strikes, and forced arbitration in residual situations involving vertically integrated businesses.” That last one sounds very contract-ish, doesn’t it?
By the way, “informal meetings” means, of course, that they won’t be wearing tuxes.