Anderson Cooper’s much anticipated interview with Stormy Daniels on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday – was both what you might expect and revelatory. In some ways, Daniels seemed to be the cliché of the adult star. Her looks are hard and voluptuous, with lines and dark circles under the eyes and a big chest that appears particularly broad in a horizontal-striped top.
Her attitude suggested a woman who’s been around the block as well. She was knowing, sassy and utterly credible.
Perhaps the most surprising thing was that for a woman whose profession must require a degree of self-protection and self-awareness, Daniels came across as less self-aware and more vulnerable than you might imagine. ...
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Read MoreSometimes, it’s hard to know where to begin – with the rage and frustration at what’s happening in this country, I mean.
I just filed my taxes, which have increased almost $5,000, thanks to no itemized deductions any longer, a cap on property tax deductions and the elimination of the deduction of state taxes from federal taxes. How again is the tax cut this supposed to benefit the middle class? Oh, that’s right...
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Read MoreWas it mere coincidence that Charlie Rose’s interview with Sean Penn – about his Rolling Stone interview with El Chapo – should air just as a story broke about match-fixing in tennis?
Both say much about the sorry state of journalism.
No less an authority than Penn pronounced the Fourth Estate to be in trouble. And with him netting cover assignments it’s little wonder.
For those who’ve been on planet Pluto, Penn snagged an interview with the dealer of all drug dealers – who had escaped from a Mexican prison – basically because El Chapstick was hot for some actress, Kate del Castillo, who facilitated the encounter.
For all his bluster, “60 Minutes”’ Rose failed to ask Penn two pointed questions ...
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Read MoreWhat a terrible week for journalists. The Brian Williams debacle. Jon Stewart’s departure from “The Daily Show. “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon’s death in a car crash. Media columnist David Carr’s fatal collapse in The New York Times newsroom.
What I want to touch on here is Simon’s death, for at a moment when Williams is being castigated for exaggerating his war correspondent cred, Simon was the real deal. Vietnam. The Yom Kippur War. Tiananmen Square. The Persian Gulf War, in which he and four members of his TV crew were held in Iraq, an experience Simon wrote about in his book “Forty Days.” How ironic that a man who survived a dangerous professional life abroad should die on the streets of New York, the city in which he was born and raised, although maybe it’s not so ironic when you consider the livery driver’s rap sheet.
But this is a sports/culture blog, and so what I’d like to leave you with is another side of Simon, who profiled Novak Djokovic for “60 Minutes” on March 27, 2012. ...
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