Morning Report - News from June 22, 2002

TELEVISION

CNN Envoy Smoothing Ruffled Feathers

Eason Jordan, CNN’s president of news gathering, arrived in Israel on Friday on a peace mission of sorts--a response to criticism of the network’s Middle East coverage and calls to have the network taken off that country’s airwaves.

Jordan visited the sites of the last two terrorist bombings and planned to meet with academic leaders, Israeli journalists, terror victims, Palestinians and government officials.

He said legitimate concerns have been raised about a handful of instances in which the CNN International network juxtaposed comments from victims of suicide bombings with people who applauded the acts.

“There’s a difference between fair and balanced when it comes to terrorism,” Jordan said. “Certainly, all sides should be heard, but we’re not giving as much time to terrorists and their supporters.”

A memo has been sent advising the news staff not to televise such statements “without an extraordinarily compelling reason to do so.”

Recent remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by CNN founder Ted Turner added fuel to the fire, despite the fact that he’s since apologized. “I would make the case that both sides are engaged in terrorism,” Turner told a London newspaper.

“Certainly his comments aggravated matters,” Jordan conceded.

The situation has provided an opening for CNN’s chief U.S. competitor, Fox News Channel. This week, Israel’s YES satellite company, with 310,000 subscribers, started airing Fox News programming--months sooner than Fox executives had expected.

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RADIO

Now You Hear Him, Now You Don’t

Citing complaints from “Morning Edition” listeners, KCRW-FM (89.9) pulled “The Tavis Smiley Show” from its morning lineup after only one week.

Smiley’s show, a one-hour newsmagazine, is the first National Public Radio production originating from Los Angeles and is the network’s first signature program by an African American host. It debuted nationwide in January and went on the air in L.A. on June 3--on KCRW at 5 a.m., in the middle of a 3-9 a.m. block of “Morning Edition,” and on KPCC-FM (89.3) at 8 p.m.

“The audience simply wouldn’t accept” [the “Morning Edition” interruption], said Ruth Seymour, KCRW general manager. “I’ve been well-known for changing programming, but this was too pervasive. The outcry was just enormous.”

Seymour said she had no plans to reinstitute Smiley elsewhere on the schedule. He remains on KPCC weeknights at 8.

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PEOPLE

Walk of Fame Unveils New Roster of Stars

Kevin Bacon, Robert Duvall, Susan Sarandon and Martin Scorsese have been chosen to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year.

Among others announced Friday by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce: Beau Bridges, Drew Carey, the Osmond Family, Isabel Sanford, Suzanne Somers, Kermit the Frog, Etta James, Carole King, Betty Garrett, Doris Roberts, Carmen Zapata, Gilda Radner and Richard Rodgers.

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THE ARTS

Getty Buys ‘Lost’ Gauguin Sculpture

The J. Paul Getty Museum has bought a Gauguin sculpture of a man’s head with horns that experts believe is partly a self-portrait. While the museum label says the work was bought from a private collection, it was actually purchased from Wildenstein, the Manhattan gallery, for more than $3 million, the New York Times reports.

“Head With Horns,” (1895-7) is particularly valuable because it was thought to be lost and was known to scholars only through photographs. The Getty’s first sculpture by the artist, it is now being displayed in a Gauguin exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. After the show closes on Oct. 20, it will head west to the Getty, where it will be joined by “Head of a Tahitian Woman,” an 1892 drawing the museum bought last year.

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QUICK TAKES

Three watercolors signed by Prince Charles were sold at auction in England this week, but they turned out to be copies, not originals. The buyers will get their money back.... “Les Miserables,” the second longest-running production on Broadway, will be the first Western musical to play in China. The production, to be performed in English with Chinese supertitles at the top of the stage, begins a 16-day run today, according to Eonline.... Jackie Chan will star in a remake of the 1956 movie “Around the World in 80 Days,” with Frank Coraci directing. He’ll play Passepartout, who guides and defends inventor Phileas Fogg, a role yet to be cast, as he traverses the globe in an effort to win a bet.... TBS will air “American Prince: The JFK Jr. Story” next winter, according to the Hollywood Reporter, with Jacqueline Bisset as his mother and Portia de Rossi as his wife, Carolyn.