Cos For Alarm Or Celebration

 Depending on your point of view, either..

HOORAY! America's Dad, Bill Cosby, has been released from prison and returned to once again amuse and entertain audiences with the unique charm and wit that have endeared him for more than half a decade and the showbiz savvy that has introduced acts from Deep Purple to his beloved television family.

Or...

HELP! That old perv, Bill Cosby, has been released from prison! Lock up your daughters! Isolate the wife, sister, whomever, for just a FEW more, I don't know, days, weeks, months, YEARS, even, he's gonna rock your world, and I don't mean that in a good way!

While the rest of the world has been reopening for business while knowing that the Delta Variant won't stop until we surrender or we force IT to surrender, Dr. William H. Cosby, Jr. has been released from a Philadelphia prison and all charges against him have been dropped. Part of me remembers a more innocent Cos from the famous sitcom that bore his name in the 80's, the 90's Americanization on the Britcom "One Foot In The Grave," ,"The Electric Company","I SPY," and monologues on everything from the day he signed an affadavit promising the Temple University faculty he would not hit visiting Hofstra in the family jewels to Superman getting arrested for indecent exposure in the phone booth and hopes that Cos, and Fat Albert, Old Weird Harold, Mushmouth, Dumb Donald, and Little Bill can all come back. Another part believes it's too soon and Bill should serve his original sentence.

Since Bill was a proud member of the NBC Entertainment family for most of the six decades, I believe he should guest host a 2021-2022 episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE during which he should not only publicly apologize for all his past indiscretions, but also treat us to the full spectrum of his talents from sketch comedy to monologues and end with an all-star jam featuring some of Bill's all-time favorite jazz and soul acts and any stars of today that may tickle his fancy. (I'm sure he might like Lauryn Hill or recent SNL guest Megan Thee Stallion.) Hosting SNL would not only be great entertainment for us, but good penance for Bill. Of course, that's just my opinion. What do YOU Steveophiles think?

Something else happened in Philadelphia almost 250 years ago this Sunday: We declared our independence! Have a great weekend and stay safe!

Steve-celsior!

Clarification

I did NOT mean anything negative about my boss in my last blog! I meant the last blog purely in jest! I love my boss and I can't wait to work  again with him, so, Boss, PLEASE do not feel offended and PLEASE accept my apology! Nuff said!

FOX Report

 I have had the great good fortune(CUT!) I have had quite the experience (CUT!) I have been saddled by my boss with the burden of schlepping over to 1211 Avenue of the Americas, the worldwide headquarters of News Corporation, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, and FOX Corporation, which includes the FOX Network, the Tubi ad-supported streaming service, (Full disclosure: I've binged "The Honeymooners" on that service, and there's still nobody like The Great Gleason! He was a sweet kid!)and, of course, FOX News Media, and whether it IS news media is open to debate.

One thing that's undeniably true, to borrow a phrase from one of Jackie's greatest hits, is that FOX turned a loud-mouthed reality show star named Trump, who just HAPPENED to dabble in real estate, into a rising star in the GOP and, much to the world's eternal regret, the 45th President of the United States of America. Although there have been a lot of books about the phenomenon that is FOX News (FOX Opinion or FOX Propaganda would be more accurate names!), the only one to fully examine the symbiotic relationship between the network some Americans trust for fair(?) and balanced (?) news(?)  is HOAX:DONALD TRUMP,FOX NEWS, AND THE DANGEROUS DISTORTION OF TRUTH, by the Chief Media Correspondent of a truly fair and balanced news channel ,CNN's Brian Stelter. Brian is currently promoting the heck out of its just-released paperback edition (Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your favorite independent bookseller, so snap up your copy ASAP!), and rightly so, because while it was originally released last year, Brian treated the ending like a cliffhanger, because he had no idea whether FOX would guarantee Trump a return engagement at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but  a few months after that original release, FOX News called the election for our current President, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and instead of, as is the tradition, conceding and congratulating Biden, Trump accused the Democrats of a fraudulent election, and called his acolytes to DC to protest the certification of all votes on January 6. As the events of 1/6 unfolded, Brian felt compelled to add additional chapters to his already fascinating book, and the results...well, if it didn't actually happen it would have made a great movie!

I DID have the pleasure to see Brian promote the re-release of HOAX on a ZOOM lecture introduced by New York Times Opinion writer Frank Bruni, and he did raise a lot of interesting points, especially about the 8 PM Eastern hour on FOX News which used to be occupied by Bill O'Reilly ("Remember, the spin stops here, 'cause WE'RE looking out for you!") and is now the domain of alarmist Tucker Carlson. ("NOBODY's looking out for you!") The long and short of it, as expressed in both the lecture and Brian's book, is that with Friends like FOX, you DON'T need enemies! But, if you believe in a free press, you DO need this book, and if you need to see this lecture for yourself, head over to http://www.emanuelnyc.org/broadcast and hit the arrow on the Streicker Center logo. It's free, just like the American press should be.

Take care and stay aware, as my friend David Anthony Kraft ,who, unfortunately, died of COVID on May 19, ironically my birthday, used to say!

Steve