A Little More Optimism

My father emailed me this morning and said “I’d like to see a little more optimism on your web page… I don’t think it’s the end of the world!” I appreciated the sentiment, but discounted it just a little bit given the global condition. But then my buddy Matt in L.A. emailed me this afternoon…

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Screwing The Pooch

If I hadn’t spent the vast proportion of my weekend alternating between radio, television, internet, newspaper, and magazine coverage of this war with Iraq; if I weren’t a little frazzled from the anxiety all the news, background and commentary had created; if I weren’t hungry despite a steady diet of Starbucks coffee and Lean Cuisine…

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Light Reading On War, Death & Conspiracy

The Wall Street Journal ran an OpEd piece this morning on MTVNews.com‘s coverage of the war in Iraq (see “Gen Y Goes to War”). “While surfing through the news section of MTV’s Web site,” they write, “We happened to stumble across its “At War With Iraq” link, and it sure belies the cable network’s spoiled,…

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Bombs Ove Baghdad (Or, The New Normalcy)

We continue to endeavor towards normalcy at the MTV. That is, in addition to publishing three war-related updates and a fistfull of military emails every day (these are actually emails from kids “in theater,” as they say), we’re posting news on Snoop, J. Lo, and the likes. REM has a protest song (see “Lenny Kravitz,…

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Missing The War

I had Saturday off. I cherished the sunshine, the blue sky, the cottonball clouds. I sat at Lincoln Center drinking coffee and reading every word of The New York Times’ coverage of the war. The War. I still don’t like the sound of it. I spent today at work. We published three war-related updates, covering…

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On “Shock & Awe”

So the “shock and awe” of this war with Iraq began yesterday afternoon. I watched CNN gape jawed, motionless, in my office. I kept thinking, ‘Please stop. That’s enough. Please stop.’ We ran downstairs to go live, but aired just a five minute brief, then returned to our plan to do a live half hour…

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Life During Wartime

It’s way too late, and I’m way too tired to articulately communicate everything that’s happened, and everything I’ve been feeling, these last 27 or so hours. Moments after MTV News leadership sent most of the teams home, what is now being refered to as the “surgical strike” began. I was tipped off by the VP…

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Godspeed, God Bless, And God Help Us

I’m sitting in my office at The MTV here in Times Square waiting for the “deadline” to pass, waiting to see whether we’ll be at war tonight or tomorrow (never no longer being an option, apparently). We had a “script runthrough” this afternoon — talent (John, Gideon, Kurt, Sway, etc), floor producers and directors —…

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In The Crosshairs

Heaven forbid “The Terrorists” attack Disneyland. Or The Oscars are delayed. I’m watching Peter Jennings, waiting for MTV News’ third (and presumably final) “war contingency rehearsal.” I kinda’ have the shakes. I can’t get warm. Or shake this headache. And I can’t stop fiddling with this one lose stitch in my gums. And I’m hungry,…

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Mister Rogers On “Fresh Air”

Here’s a link to Mister Rogers on NPR’s “Fresh Air” that I found and listened to last night. In this time of global conflict and discord, you might wanna’ have a listen. Click Here

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