Brothel Advertising, Ted Stevens: Who is this guy?? and Free Money In Japan
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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.
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It's the last day of July, which is a little scary for two reasons. One: Summer is half over. Two: That means tomorrow is August 1st, which means our show goes live in exactly two months! So we have 60 days to post our rundowns, roll out our webcasts, take your comments and critiques and mix it all into one big cup of news each and every weekday morning.
So if we were on the air today, here's the brew we'd serve piping hot today. Or iced if you prefer. With room for skim and foam.
NEWSCAST: The tumble that sent Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to the hospital was caused by a seizure. The Taliban claims to have executed another Korean Hostage and a new deadline was set for the 20 remaining hostages. Tropical Storm Chantal forms in the Atlantic. Energy bill is being discussed in Congress, it included billions for nuclear energy. The FCC may decide if Google can bid on wireless bandwidth. The Bancroft family accepts Rupert Murdoch's 5 billion dollar offer to buy the Wall Street Journal. Iraqi parliament goes on vacation until September without resolving key issues.
GUESS WHO IS COMING TO DINNER? The answer: The FBI and IRS. (If you are Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.) The longest serving Republican senator -- he is 83 -- has not been charged with any crime, however, he is being investigated for perhaps helping some contracts find their way to an oil engineering company. That same company may have overseen a nice remodeling job on the Senator's home. And yes, this is the same Senator Stevens who managed to get hundreds of millions of dollars for a bridge to connect an island with 50 people to a town with 8000 people. Who is Ted Stevens and what's his record. Guestlist: John Wilke of the Wall Street Journal has been covering this.
HOOKERS 'R US AD CAMPAIGN? Imagine a commercial boasting about the skills and services rendered at the Shady Lady brothel in Nevada. Two weeks ago a federal judge struck down a 1979 law banning brothel advertising. The law even applied to counties where the oldest profession is illegal. Okay, so now that a house of ill-repute can advertise, will mainstream magazines or papers print the ads? We would pose this challenge to some hot shot ad agency to come up with a tagline and ad campaign that could make it in the media. We've already gotten back one suggestion: LET US ADULT ENTERTAIN YOU! Also please submit any suggestions you have...and do keep it clean!! To flesh out the segment, pardon the pun, we would also discuss the state of cheeky advertising (pun again!) considering condom ads won't fly in some markets, and in New York City there's an outcry over a billboard showing some bare bums to sell bidets.
GET MY TAPE OFF YOUR TUBE! We have all seen the video of Reginald Denny being pulled from his truck and attacked after some L.A. police officers were found not guilty of beating Rodney King. The video has been posted on YouTube in various forms and that really ticks off Bob Tur, the photojournalist who shot that iconic tape. He is suing and had been suing a pre-Googlefied YouTube to take down the tape because he owns it and video tape is how he makes a living. Big companies like Viacom are doing the same thing and Tur claims some have asked him to step aside and let them handle it. He won't. For him, it is a matter of principal and paycheck. Some people say he is an opportunist and serial suer -- he has gone after Disney and Reuters. Who is right? Guests: Bob Tur and/or Chad Hurley. Full disclosure...I tried to find the isolated tape on YouTube today without much luck.
TWO WEEKS LATER: And 21 year old Greg McCullough is still in a coma. It is medically induced. Perhaps it is for the best right now, because 80 percent of his body is burned after the tow truck he was driving was blasted by steam when a pipe exploded in New York City on July 18th. His medical bills will likely climb past one million dollars. Yesterday at a press conference his family said they may sue Con Ed. Also the man who pulled McCullough from the wreck spoke emotionally. In their own words, we would play a long piece of the conference so you could hear from those for whom this isn't just a story that has passed through the news cycle.
THE CONGRESS GETS ETHICAL: Today the House of Representatives passed an Ethics Reform bill. It now goes to the Senate. Democrats want this one badly so they can say they did something they promised to do this year. What's in the bill? Well, that's what's up for debate. Guest list: NPR's Andrea Seabrook knows a lot and we would bug her to explain it to us.
RAMBLE (STORIES WORTH AN HONORABLE MENTION): New rule proposed to put nutritional information on all alcoholic beverages, Tacoma police will begin playing classical music at bus stops/hubs to keep gang members from congregating, mysterious envelopes of cash (as much as 1 million yen or 17K) are appearing around Japan.
10:08 AM ET | 07-31-2007 | permalink
