NPR: Young Lefties, Middle Aged Movie Cops, Old Spy Docs: It Must Be The Morning Meeting

Young Lefties, Middle Aged Movie Cops, Old Spy Docs: It Must Be The Morning Meeting

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"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Good day, everyone. The day is going to be long and hot, again. But not as hot as southern Europe, where the temperatures have been getting up to 115 degrees in places like Bosnia, Croatia, Turkey and southern Italy. We should be happy to have our 90 degree weather. But we're not, of course.

On to the meeting...

NEWSCAST: A new poll by the New York Times, CBS and MTV says that younger Americans are leaning left, the CIA bears its family jewels, Republican Ohio Senator George Voinovich joins Senator Dick Lugar in calling for troop withdrawal, the House of Reps prods the National Park Service to reopen crown of Statue of Liberty, the Senate blocked a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize in non-union workplaces, T-Mobile to roll out phones that use your home wifi connection for better reception, Massachusetts' health plan goes into effect next week, US Weekly blacks out Paris coverage, and the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating champ is out of next week's big contest because of an injured jaw.

THE CIA's "FAMILY JEWELS": The CIA released a stack of papers known as the "Family Jewels." The documents detail some of the spy agency's dirtiest secrets, which include assassination plots, secret drug experiments and domestic surveillance. It's the big story today, and some of the details are fascinating. A conversation about what's in the documents with either an NPR reporter following the case or another fine reporter who has seen the docs.

THE KIDS IN AMERICA: A new poll out from The New York Times, CBS and MTV says that young Americans between 17 and 29 are "leaning left." Some poll snapshots: The age group is paying attention to the presidential race more than in the past, they are optimistic that the Iraq war will conclude successfully, they think their vote can count, but at the same time they say that their generation will be worse off than their parents'. It's a mixed bag, and a conversation with the pollsters on the data would be great for today.

BLAIR RESIGNS, BROWN STEPS IN: Tony Blair's historic 10-year run as British Prime Minister came to an end today. In a farewell speech, Blair told the House of Commons, "I wish everyone, friend or foe, well, and that is that, the end." (sniff) He then trooped over to Buckingham Palace and submitted his resignation to the Queen; she gave him a stately nod and he went about his merry way. Actually I have no idea whether there was a nod, stately or otherwise -- one just assumes. Shortly after he left the palace, Gordon Brown waltzed in and the Queen invited him to form a new government as Britain's new prime minister. We're going to talk to some one tomorrow about the changing of the guard in Britain.

DITKA ON THE HILL: Mike Ditka testified before the House subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law about the treatment of old players in the NFL. Coach Ditka, and a host of other former NFLers, says the National Football League disability and pension plans are inadequate and leave many former players in financial straits and with poor health care. The NFL says the pension plans are improving. Coach Ditka, line 1?

BENOIT QUESTIONS: The murder-suicide of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit and his family has raised several questions about steroid abuse in professional wrestling. Authorities discovered anabolic steroids in the wrestler's home, which led many to believe that the murders were a result of 'roid rage. It's an interesting conversation about how steroids are regulated in professional wrestling, if at all. Former wrestling stars have spoken out about the rampant use of steroids in pro-wrestling. We'll have more on this tomorrow.

J.B. HANDELSMAN: We'd remember New Yorker cartoonist J.B Handelsman, he died on June 20th from lung cancer. We thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about the mysterious and, from what we hear, byzantine process by which cartoons are chosen for the New Yorker. My big question, how do some of the most unfunny (IMHO) manage to get printed?

LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD: I'm guessing that by the end of the latest Die Hard movie, America will be living free and the bad guys will be dying hard. Very hard. Just a hunch. I am a mad fan of Bruce Willis' John McClane character, so I am over the moon about this latest installment. If I could, I would run out and see it right now. But I'd settle for just talking with someone about the movie. Dan proposed we have a conversation about how sequels in bad movie franchises only seem good after some time has past. He posits that we get all nostalgic about characters and forgive their trail of bad movies. Yippee ki-yay mother......

Matt Martinez

10:33 AM ET | 06-27-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Am I just being cynical? US Weekly announcing that they aren't going to cover an overhyped celebrity still qualifies as covering her.

Sent by Sioux | 1:56 PM ET | 06-27-2007

The family jewels are one of the most fascinating things to have come out of the government for a long, long time. I'm very interested in these files' ramifications for the world today.

After the death of Eddie Guerrero in 2005, quite a lot was made about 'wellness policies' from the two national wrestling federations (WWE and TNA). The common belief appears to that the big stars - such as Benoit - continued to be on steroids from implied pressure from above, while 'lesser' employees would get tagged for use.

I was remarking to my wife in this regard about the amount of terrible things that have happened to wrestlers in the past decade or so, and how much it makes me think of it as the last gasp of the Studio System of the last century, where a set of film stars were constantly used and leaned upon to make money for their sponsors...and how often these stars would combust in tragic ways.

The Scottish/English angle is a fascinating one in regard to Gordon Brown. Called 'The Scottish Question' by many of the Tories and newspapers, the problem of a man from Scotland controlling the English HoC was brought up a great deal in the past year. In fact, I look forward to the sidelong sneers in this regard during the upcoming PMQs.

I also am very curious as to how this changing of the guard will alter the Special Relationship. All signs point to Gordon being a great deal more circumspect in his ideas about the mideast wars.

Sent by Drew | 3:27 PM ET | 06-27-2007

Great newscast-- learned something + entertained. Going with the poll it might be interesting to do an informal survey before the next election, take a look at what if anything President Bush has done well? There has to be something, right?! Think of it as a report card given by his grandmother. All I've seen in the news are report cards from mean math teachers
-e

Sent by Elyse (e) | 8:40 AM ET | 06-28-2007

I'm so glad you got the jaw arthritis in there. I was just about to send it. The Cyclone is 80 but the hot dog eating champion has jaw arthritis! This means something.

Sent by Diantha | 12:12 PM ET | 06-28-2007

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