Idiot Box

We smell the smolder of cremation. Ick.

Today's 'Good Morning America' featured an excerpt from an interview with pop icon Rihanna. This marks the first time Rihanna has spoken publicly about the night she was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. The full interview with Diane Sawyer will air Friday night on ABC's "20/20."

"Really? This random and somewhat eccentric grab bag of election are not only a referendum on the last election but predictive of elections several years in the future?" wonders Jon Stewart.

Carrie Prejean lost her Miss California crown back in June for being a brat - so she sued the pageant organization for religious discrimination and defamation. The Miss California org countersued for the $5,200 they had spent on Prejean's breast implants. Sadly, both lawsuits have been dropped. TMZ has the details:

We just received the following statement from Miss Cali USA: "Carrie Prejean, Keith Lewis, and K2 productions have dropped their claim against each other and wish each other the best in their future endeavors."

"We are moving forward from the past and looking towards the crowning of two winners and the new look of the upcoming MISS CALIFORNIA USA pageant, telecast live on November 22nd."

Previously on FBLA:

"Michael Jackson's death no longer a mystery..."

This is KTLA's Brandon Rudat doing what he claims is "one of the most interesting stories ever done on KTLA" about the late Michael Jackson. It's a seance with a weeping "psychic" channeling the King of Pop and discussing what he's thinking and feeling these days.

Way to cheapen celebrity journalism.

Delaware-based advertising agency Denizen scored a patent for product placement back in 2005. And now, The Hollywood Reporter explains, the delusional little company is suing a media agency called Mindshare for "stealing an idea to integrate a brand of Vaseline into a Lifetime miniseries called Maneater."

Richard Rushfield of Gawker took the time to read the patent, and has posted it on the Gawker site. He declared:

This legalistic rabbit hole's silliness is so profound that it makes us think that it might be time to throw the entire judicial system out the window and muddle by on mob rule for a few decades.

Rachel Maddow points out,"Expression of an opinion of the new reporters cover is, frankly sometimes part of covering the news." She plays clips of Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith after Hurricane Katrina.

Maddow then shows a promo of the Tax Party Protests,"The difference between Fox and news is Fox is actively promoting a protest against the US government." She then points out mustache man John Stossel, recently hire by Fox is touring the country headlining forums against health care reform.

Maddow adds,"One of these things is really not like the other."

Via Milk and Cookies

Below is a short film produced in 2007 by Chris Ware for This American Life's television incarnation on Showtime. Of special interest to those of us who work in the media-

Found via Boing Boing

Former GOP veep candidate/Alaska governor Sarah Palin is scheduled to appear on Oprah Winfrey's day-time talk show on November 16th, according to Roger Catlin at the Hartford Courant.

She has a book coming out. It's called "Going Rogue." Watch those typos or it's Going Rouge. Which sounds like an even worse medical condition then just "going rogue."

The question really is, will Sarah Palin actually appear on the show? Not big on the follow-through this one. If her running mate can lie and flake out on David Letterman...who's to say?

We smell a stunt. We expect Palin to find some "liberal bias" excuse to not show up and somehow make her apologists swoon over her "standing up" to mainstream media.

Previously on FBLA:

"I don't deserve to have a show because I don't know what I'm talking about."

Good job Current TV. Their season will premiere on Nov. 12 at 11 p.m./10 C