Archives: September 2010

A court-appointed mediator has endorsed the terms of a new agreement negotiated between the Tribune Company and two of its major lenders: Oaktree Capital Management LP and investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. The deal means the Tribune Company’s exit from bankruptcy protection appears imminent.

“The plan addresses two primary issues that are fundamental to a successful reorganization of Tribune,” Tribune’s chief restructuring officer Don Liebentritt said in a statement.

More from the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Liebentritt said the plan will allow Tribune to emerge from Chapter 11 protection under the control of some of its lenders, including Oaktree and Angelo Gordon. It also establishes a trust to pursue litigation related to the second phase of Tribune’s 2007 leveraged buyout….

The settlement comes one day after a group of so-called “step-one lenders”–14 lenders owed $730 million on the first of two financing transactions in Tribune’s 2007 leveraged buyout–filed court papers urging the bankruptcy court to reject an outline of a bankruptcy-exit plan for Tribune filed earlier this month by Oaktree and Angelo Gordon.

One week after snatching Bill Higgins from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter has hired former Angeleno Magazine editor-in-chief Degen Pener as its new culture editor, Peter Cury as art director, and Us Weekly fashion writer Carol McColgin as its new style editor. THR also picked up David Strick as a contributing photographer.

The reinvented magazine, under Janice Min, makes its new, glossy debut on November 3.

Previously on FBLA:

HBO’s True Blood is officially the gayest show on TV, which may just be why it’s so awesome. A media study released by GLAAD revealed that the number of gay characters on television has more than doubled in the past two years, with True Blood leading the way with six LGBT characters.

“The increase in lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters on primetime television not only reflects the shift in American culture towards greater awareness and understanding of our community, but also a new industry standard that a growing number of creators and networks are adopting,” said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios.

Don’t celebrate too much. LGBT characters only make up 3.9% of the characters on scripted shows. Only 1 out of 125 characters on the CBS network are gay. So things still have a ways to improve.

An exhibit of 60 soldiers affected by the military policy keeping gay soldiers from serving openly is currently on display at the Kaycee Olsen Gallery. We asked the artist Ken Sheng if this provocative project is photo journalism, activism or art.

“I consider my work to be mostly art,” Sheng tells FBLA. “Because the images are a collaboration between me and the subjects where we create and control the different gestures and poses for their pictures, it doesn’t register as traditional photo journalism. And while the work is inspired by politics and activism – and can certainly be used for those purposes – it isn’t a campaign. It is really my singular artistic vision of the issue, and I hope that the images register as strong works of art.”

Full press release and details after the jump.

Read more

Soo Youn, the only journo we know with a spoonerism name – joined the Law & Justice Unit at E! News covering court cases for E! News and EOnline.com. She previously freelanced for the New York Daily News, Agence France-Presse (AFP), and New York magazine. Youn previously worked as a staff writer at the New York Daily News and at Reuters in New York.

Congrats Yoo Soun!

LA Times reporter Jason Felch sat in on a panel at UC Berkeley yesterday to discuss the Times’ recent controversial series on teacher evaluations and the paper’s decision to publish the names and scores of the teachers in those evaluations. From the sound of it, Felch was on receiving end of some flack in the wake of the suicide of fifth-grade teacher Rigoberto Ruelas–who family members and teachers union officials say may have been driven to suicide by the Times’ publishing on his teacher evaluation scores.

The San Jose Mercury News has more:

Sophia Rabe-Hesketh, a UC Berkeley statistician, drew applause when she concluded that such data sets shouldn’t be used for high-stakes decisions. She said the current “value-added” models don’t take into account other factors that affect student test score gains, such as the school’s leadership, environment, materials and curricula.

“My solution to all these problems is do not use teacher value-added for high stakes decisions, and do not use them for naming and shaming,” Rabe-Hesketh said.

Anthony Cody, a former Oakland middle schoolteacher who now serves as a mentor in the district, said that while evaluations must improve, the series was an example of a growing hostility to teachers.

Cody went on to call Ruelas’ death “the first casualty in America’s war on teachers.”

Previously on FBLA:

MSNBC.com cartoonist Daryl Cagle offers his advice for aspiring newspaper cartoonists in today’s media climate. As he readily admits, the situation ain’t pretty.

Some choice cuts:

HBO’s “The Wire” may never have picked up big ratings, but it was a huge critical sucess, and now it just helped its creator David Simon pick up 500,000 bucks. Simon was awarded a MacArthur genius grant today–a no-strings-attached, half-million dollar award, doled out over five years.

Not bad.

“The great value of this award is that it will make it easier for all of us to argue for stories that might not otherwise be perceived as popular television,” Simon told the Baltimore Sun.

“I can’t wave around Nielsen ratings and I can’t wave around Emmy awards when I want to get these stories told. An award like this gives us more gravitas. It gives us a little more currency. And it indicates that this medium of television is capable of much more social good than has been demonstrated to this point.”

H/T Gary Scott

Former KCRW music director Nic Harcourt has a new online project with Buzzmedia called “The LiveBuzz.” The site will feature exclusive in-studio music recorded at LA’s Village Recorder studio, as well as live performances from around Los Angeles, curated by Harcourt.

The site will also feature reviews, industry news and music coverage from around the country.

“The LiveBuzz is about showcasing great talent via extremely high-quality video of intimate performances music fans would not typically be privy to,” said Harcourt in a press release.

More after the jump.

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Gawker took a look at America’s five leading celebrity magazines, and rated the accuracy of each. Cover and content had to be rated separately, as the two sometimes contradict each other.

The results show that US Weekly is the most accurate of the mags. Which is terrifying.