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A great stink cometh. Hollywood and the White House have been working in a secret alliance to covertly plant anti-drug messages into popular TV shows such as "ER," "Beverly Hills 90210" and "The Drew Carey Show." So says Daniel Forbes of Salon.com, and last night Salon published the report of his six-month investigation in which he reveals all the details of this Orwellian deal. Forbes says the White House Office of the National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), headed by drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey, arranged to give back tens of millions of dollars worth of underpriced TV ad time it had bought in exchange for the right to meddle with the content of primetime shows. The ONDCP was modifying scripts to its liking, unbeknownst to producers or writers—or to viewers. The report quotes officials of the WB affirming that they had presented scripts to the ONDCP for approval. New today on Salon is a story chronicling how the ONDCP dictated the content of an episode of the WB’s "Smart Guy."
O for
Oprah: Hearst has a title for new title
Oh, in case you were wondering, the new Oprah
Winfrey magazine from Hearst finally has a name. It's O. Or, to be more precise, "O,
The Oprah Magazine." The name got the thumbs-up from the requisite focus groups, and
Winfrey herself also approved, saying that "O" is a nickname her friends use for
her. In a press release, O (the magazine, not the person) is touted as "the women's
personal growth guide for this new century." The magazine has already pre-sold 500 ad
pages for this year, with full-year commitments from 100 different marketers. The first
issue, with Winfrey on the cover, will go on sale April 17th with a May/June
issue and an initial press run of 850,000. The second issue will also be a double, and the
title will go to a monthly frequency in September.