“Show me Night Rider drunk on the floor and I won’t care about a lack of health care for my kid.”
So said Tim Robbins yesterday to a roomful of broadcast suits gathered in Vegas for the annual NAB-RTNDA event. Robbins, an obvious choice to deliver the keynote address, urged the assembled broadcast deciders to “leave the focus groups behind” and “lift us up” “instead of catering to gossips and voyeurs.”
Some other highlights from TVNewser (they’re blogging the whole convention!):
In contrast to Robbins, ABC News’ Sam Donaldson believes “people in this business are doing a better job than ever before.” In a “rousing if a bit rambling speech,” Donaldson named-checked “Kennedy and Nixon, Reagan and Stockdale, Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Matt Drudge and Perez Hilton.”
Former CNN and NBC News anchor Mike Boettcher was in Vegas promoting his new Web project. Boettcher and his 21-year-old son will embed with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan for 15 months and provide reports (“blogs and vlogs”) free to the Web sites of local TV stations around the country (paid for by advertising on his own site).
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.