Wink and a Nod to Gates From Brokaw and Sawyer

Shticking for dollars . . .

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates rolled the dice in Las Vegas Sunday, and came up Tom Brokaw and Diane Sawyer.

Although reeling from a huge court setback in Microsoft’s antitrust tiff with Washington, Gates was reportedly in good spirits as keynote speaker for Comdex, the giant computer and software show whose opening traditionally features a comedy video that spoofs media as it promotes the industry’s wares.

The stars of Sunday’s video included Gates himself (dressed in velvet as Austin Powers, and joining Warren Buffett and Judge Judy in another sketch), Leslie Nielsen (who related Bob Dole’s TV ads about erectile dysfunction to “hard-drive dysfunction”), the ever-vamping pundits of “The McLaughlin Group” and a parody of MTV’s “Real World.”

Starring?

Brokaw and Sawyer as roommates.

There’s nothing wrong with a little fun, of course, and Brokaw (anchor of “NBC Nightly News”) and Sawyer (co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America”) are nothing if not TV performers as well as news megastars.

You have to wonder, though, about them appearing in a video that, even humorously, was a pat on the back for Microsoft and the computer and software industry. Especially a video so closely associated with the controversial Gates, who’s been making big news lately because of a judicial ruling largely supporting the government’s contention that Microsoft is a monopolizing bully that has stunted innovation in the industry.

Does this mean that Brokaw and Sawyer are endorsing Gates or Microsoft? Not at all. Not necessarily. Perceptions do have a way of becoming reality in the public eye, however.

Brokaw, in particular, should be keeping his distance from Gates in non-news situations--if only for appearances sake regarding a potential conflict of interest--given how tight NBC and Microsoft are as partners in the 24-hour news channel MSNBC. A channel where Brokaw himself logs duty from time to time.

This is one more incestuous, media-connecting corporate linkage to be wary of in an era of bigness when such partnerships are exploding.

Somewhat lower on the food chain, for example, are gossiping KTTV and the New York Post, which are joined at the boardroom as well as the brain.

More evidence came Monday when “Good Day L.A.,” KTTV’s torrentially rambling and trivial morning show, affirmed that it never met a juicy rumor it didn’t relish spreading. Especially when the source is that screaming tabloid paper, the Post, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling media empire. As is KTTV.

“We’ve been talking about this story all morning,” said Dorothy Lucey, who keeps her eye on entertainment and pop culture for “Good Day L.A.” by keeping her eye on everyone else’s stories.

This one was the front-page headline in Sunday’s edition of the Post. “THEIR HEARTBREAK,” it shouted, referring to alleged troubles, and worse, in the marriage of the late John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn.

Only last July, media everywhere were crying oceans over their deaths, along with that of Carolyn’s sister, Lauren. But what are such celebrities if not objects to be built into icons of worship by the media so that they can be torn down?

“Boy, in this story the devil is in the details,” reported Lucey. “And man, these details are nasty.” It was, she added with a wince en route to a grimace, “almost painful to read.”

A dirty job, yes, but give Lucey credit for not shrinking from it--the horror--despite her own great pain.

“The story is based on interviews with friends of both John and his wife,” Lucey buzzed on, “and I sort of say ‘friends’ in that way, because I don’t think friends talk to the media and tell the world stuff like this.”

Not that anyone in the media is obliged to repeat it.

“Here,” Lucey went on, “is what the alleged friends said.” Note the attachment of “alleged” to “friends,” but not to the scurrilous poop attributed to those “friends,” which Lucey accepted at face value while “Good Day L.A.” displayed an item-by-item graphic for viewers who weren’t quite bright enough to get the message.

End of story? Not . . . quite, for there was Lucey Tuesday morning, in just as much pain while bravely reporting the “fallout” from the earlier John-and-Carolyn story, this time quoting MSNBC.

“In case you missed the story,” she began, repeating the rumors as “Good Day L.A.” showed footage of the late couple together. “It’s hard to say that looking at those pictures,” said Lucey, who after all, is not made of stone.

There, there, Dorothy.

She was less emotional Monday when spreading innuendo about “Moesha” star Brandy Norwood that she attributed to ABC News, adding: “That’s ABC News, not us.”

Norwood’s publicist said last week that the performer had been hospitalized because of dehydration. Lucey predicted her bible, the tabloids, would differ. Before which, this intrepid, ever-probing reporter publicly asked the question that has been on the minds of viewers everywhere:

“What is going on with my bladder?”

For details, check the tabloids.

Media Funnies: A great cartoon in the New Yorker is only slight hyperbole regarding this generation’s media priorities. A TV reporter doing a live stand-up outside a burning building tells viewers: “Luckily, none of the people inside appear to be celebrities.”

Which recalls an earlier New Yorker cartoon of a man informing a woman at a cocktail party: “I’m not really a journalist. I just play one on the evening news.”

Fearmonger: “What is making our teenagers violent?” wonders host Leeza Gibbons at the start of “Teen Files: The Truth About Violence.”

Public concern is palpable concerning the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo., and other disturbing episodes of school violence. And if Friday’s two-hour UPN program saves just one life or persuades a single wayward kid to change, three cheers.

Yet the program emerges from a false premise.

“In the last 10 years,” Gibbons says, “juvenile arrests for weapon possession, assault and murder have reached epidemic proportion.”

Say what?

The FBI begs to differ. Figures it released last month show crime nationwide falling in general, continuing a trend, but diving even faster among juveniles than among adults. Arrests of juveniles for serious and violent crimes fell 11% from 1997 to 1998, say the feds.

Robbery registered the steepest decline, at nearly 17%. But arrests for murder dropped 11.6% and weapons charges 8.3%, figures all the more remarkable given a corresponding population rise among the same 12-18 crowd.

Aside from that, an epidemic.

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Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be contacted via e-mail at calendar.letters@ latimes.com.