http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/ en-US 2009-07-17T18:49:41-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/president-obama-on-cronkite.html The White House issued this statement from President Obama on the passing of Walter Cronkite: "For decades, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted voice in America. His rich baritone reached millions of living rooms every night, and in an industry... Ted Johnson 2009-07-17T18:49:41-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/and-thats-the-way-it-is.html Watching the remembrances of Walter Cronkite, there seems to be one theme emerging, that TV news will never see his like again, someone who wielded so much trust and whose Q score was never anything other than in the stratosphere.... Ted Johnson 2009-07-17T18:48:19-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/walter-cronkite-ten-top-moments.html Walter Cronkite outlived the length of his tenure in the anchor chair at "CBS Evening News," a fact that provided dozens of opportunities for perspective and retrospective. A generation has never seen him deliver an evening news broadcast, live, but... Ted Johnson 2009-07-17T17:47:06-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/the-pain-of-discrimination-is-still-felt-in-america-by-african-american-women-paid-less-for-doing-the-same-work-as-colleague.html The Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs hosted a book party at his Hollywood home on Thursday night for the Rev. Eric Lee, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. While Lee was there to sell... Ted Johnson 2009-07-17T16:59:12-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/thought-id-mention-it.html That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap. A few items of interest that I never got to this summer week... Glenn Beck topped even himself in hysterics. Why is the RIAA offering its office space to a group... Ted Johnson 2009-07-17T13:05:45-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/the-return-of-harry-and-louise.html There's something a bit bizarre about a new ad that will start airing this weekend. It's the return of "Harry and Louise," the couple that the health insurance lobby featured in an ad blitz ($14 million) back in 1993 and... Ted Johnson 2009-07-16T18:43:15-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/frankens-snl-skit.html NBC has posted Al Franken's first stint at Senate questioning at a confirmation hearing --- from a 1991 "Saturday Night Live" spoof on the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill fracas. It was pretty hilarious, and Franken, as Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), spends... Ted Johnson 2009-07-16T17:48:03-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/splainin-to-do.html That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) took some heat for his Ricky Ricardo quote at Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing on Wednesday. The coment was made in a light-hearted moment, when Sotomayor was explaining... Ted Johnson 2009-07-16T12:35:55-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/apollo-plus-forty.html Today marks the 40th anniversary of the liftoff of the Saturn V rocket that took astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon. What very few non-space buffs realize is that the only footage that exists of... Ted Johnson 2009-07-16T10:04:05-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/franken-asks-sotomayor-about-internet-rights.html In his debut as a Senate inquisitor, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor whether there was a "fundamental, overriding First Amendment right for Americans to have open access to the Internet." She gave a very non-specific... Ted Johnson 2009-07-15T12:58:06-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/pop-and-pomposity.html Updated That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap. It had to come up. At today's confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotamayor, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked the nominee how she made decisions as a prosecutor. Sotamayor cited Perry Mason.... Ted Johnson 2009-07-15T11:52:09-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/ww-on-the-radio-sotomayor-bruno-and-the-next-right.html On the latest Wilshire & Washington On the Radio, we look at the state of bipartisanship, six months into President Obama's term. The focus has been on the fireworks at the hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, but they have nothing on... Ted Johnson 2009-07-15T09:10:25-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/jerry-browns-advantage-spielberg-katzenberg-and-geffen-.html California's attorney general Jerry Brown has yet to announce whether he is running for governor, but has he already landed a few of Hollywood's most lucrative endorsements? Last month, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen each contributed to his... Ted Johnson 2009-07-14T16:58:58-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/cameras-in-the-court.html Updated That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap. Justice David Souter once said that "they'd have to roll over my dead body" to get cameras in the Supreme Court, but Sonia Sotomayor is at least a little more... Ted Johnson 2009-07-14T11:06:14-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/bruno-worries.html Universal will offer an edited "tamer" version of "Bruno" in the U.K. Meanwhile, the man identified as a terrorist in the movie is considering legal action and says he's long ago severed his ties to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Ted Johnson 2009-07-13T14:57:48-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/senator-al-on-sotomayor.html Updated and edited That, and other news, in today's Roundup and Recap. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) spoke at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in his first high-profile appearance since being sworn in. The senator at first... Ted Johnson 2009-07-13T12:43:26-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/the-moment-that-stood-out-for-me-in-hbos-teddy-in-his-own-words-a-high-caliber-biography-of-edward-m-kennedy-was-a-clip-o.html The moment that stood out for me in HBO's "Teddy: In His Own Words," a high-caliber biography of Edward M. Kennedy, was a clip of a 1970 interview he gave with Barbara Walters. It is almost a year after Chappaquiddick,... Ted Johnson 2009-07-13T00:08:35-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/the-latest-column-the-franken-effect.html Al Franken's success at winning a Senate seat inspired predictions that a cascade of celebrities will seek elective office. But his experience actually may have the opposite effect, and may give entertainment figures pause in their political aspirations. That's the... Ted Johnson 2009-07-10T22:03:26-07:00 http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/07/glaad-denounces-bruno.html The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation issued a statement late today officially denouncing the new Sacha Baron Cohen film "Bruno." The org had screened the movie in late April at the invitation of Universal, and had sent the studio... Ted Johnson 2009-07-10T21:54:56-07:00