s>l|p Satfy ®ar MM NICK PARKER YOU'LL GET CAUGHT UP IN IT T.V. news drops ball with poor coverage It’s no big secret Tbcker Carlson is a dick. The right wing co-host of “Crossfire” screams when his points aren’t strong enough to stand on their own, treats educated liberals like a gang of roving idiots and bla tantly ignores the basic failings of President Bush’s administration. Plus, he expects America to take him seriously even though he sports a bow tie. No one ever respected Pee Wee Herman’s politi cal views the same should hold true for Carlson. But when Jon Stewart, host of the Emmy award-winning “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” called Carlson a dick on Friday during an appearance on “Crossfire,” he wasn’t criticizing Carlson’s political leaning. He was pointing out a much graver problem in “Crossfire,” CNN and broadcast media at large: They’re failing in their sacred democratic duty to protect the American public. Instead of providing a context for the news, acting as a watchdog over the government or putting politicians’ feet to the fire, the media are lobbing up softballs. It all plays right into the political game. Shows like “Crossfire” could address serious, contentious and important issues, but they don’t. They throw hot-headed pundits what Stewart called “hacks” in front of the camera for what boils down to a partisan dogfight. The end result is more of a mouthpiece for the politicians than a forum for criticism, debate or gasp! the truth. And the American public is the victim. We lose expert analysis, hard-hitting news and pertinent information. But despite what Stone Phillips’ apocalyptic proph esies would have you believe, we aren’t helpless. The New York Times gives us hope; The Washington Post is our savior; Newsweek brings sweet salvation. When broadcast news organizations rush blindly through complex issues, the print media are there to pick up the pieces and make some sense of the mess. News analysis and op-ed pieces whether investigating the crucial arguments during a presidential debate or highlighting some con nection between pop culture and politics (ahem) provide an infi nitely greater context for the infor mation they contain. Broadcast media have their place. There’s no quicker or cleaner way to cover breaking news. Just look at the scandal in Florida dur ing the 2000 presidential election. But to frame and fully explore the intricacies of an issue, there’s no substitute for the written word. No matter how many talking heads CNN fits on the screen, it can't compete with the competence, cohesion, completeness and clarity of a strong print article. If you really want to know what’s going on and what it really means, you have to read. Find the writers with whom you agree. Read what they on the other side of the fence. Read all of it and any of it. The point is to read —a lot. Ferrell Guillory, one of my pro fessors and probably the smartest guy I know (honestly, this is in no way brown nosing nothing I could say could salvage my grade), was working out on a treadmill at his fitness club last week. He was watching several news casts on a group of televisions that were muted with the closed cap tioning turned on. As Guillory was reading the white text scroll under the broadcasts, he realized the shal lowness of what it was saying. When you have to listen to Wolf Blitzer speaking with flair and passion, pouring profundity into his every word, it sounds good, it looks good and it sells well —but the words coming out of his mouth don’t really mean anything. That’s why citizens have to seek out good written analysis. That’s why “Crossfire” is poison to the uninformed. That’s why “The Daily Show” anchor called Carlson a dick. Stewart said it best: “Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.” Contact Nick Parker, a senior journalism and English major, atpanic@email.unc.edu. ‘Sun’ sets on R.E.M.’s reign BY NICOLE BOBITSKI STAFF WRITER R.E.M. has been around the block quite a few times musi cally speaking, at least. That said, the band’s newest release, Around the Sun, hardly conveys its experience or talent, and instead jumps on the band wagon of groups that follow up greatest hits CDs with poorly done comeback albums. While bands such as the Cure, have managed to avoid this fate, R.E.M. follows the longer list of bands that should’ve thought longer and harder before trying to cash in on their dedicated fan base. It’s sort of like the sports hero say, a Carolina alumni who used to play for the Chicago Bulls returning from retirement only to wish that he had just remained a well-missed icon. The album opens with “Leaving New York,” a weak, piano-saturated ballad lead singer Michael Stipe described as a love song to New York written shortly after the Sept. 11,2001, terrorist attacks. That’s about as far as R.E.M.’s usual brand of social commen tary goes on this album, the rest of which seems uncharacteristi- Existential film ultimately flawed BY SALEM NEFF STAFF WRITER It begins with a coincidence. A Sudanese doorman, very tall, about 18, collects publicity shots of celebrities. Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) runs into Sam that’s his name— three times. Why? Thus begins our mystery: David O. Russell’s existential comedy “I Heart Huckabees.” Except the mystery is no psychological thriller; instead, we’ll call it a philosophical quest. And our detectives are no ordi nary Sherlock Holmes. Vivian and Bernard Jaffe (Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffinan) uncover the clues to the meaning of life. In short, they believe in existentialism and the “blanket,” symbolic of the reduction in impor tance of absolutely everything. Albert, our primary quest-seeker, presides over an environmental charter and writes heartfelt but sim ply awful pdfetJy’MJrHifes including “You rock, rock.” The Jaffes attempt to center his focus, and in order to solve the case, they must follow him wherever he goes, including the bathroom. Clues can be found any where. The tension between Albert and Brad (Jude Law) attracts the detec tives to the workplace. Although Brad, a Huckabees Corporation climber, excuses Albert’s resentment as an attraction to Dawn (Naomi Watts), his girlfriend and Huckabees spokeswoman, the anger lies deeper. 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