We spend all week ranting about local media, but reserve Fridays for raves ....
1. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it's a delicious one. Today on "Insight" (at 2 p.m., KXJZ 90.9 FM), host Jeffrey Callison will interview former Attorney General John Ashcroft (at right) in a segment. After that, the Sac State theater department will perform a scene from "The Crucible."
Arthur Miller would have loved the irony.
2. Channel 3 anchor Edie Lambert's series of candidate profiles are must-sees. She manages to tell the personal side of a candidate without becoming maudlin, while also weaving in the candidate's position on the issues.
Take her two profiles this week of insurance commissioner candidates. She made a salad in Cruz Bustamante's kitchen and talked about how much weight he's lost. Now, that might sound like an Oprah-like moment, but Lambert related it to Bustamante's health initiatives. The next night, she profiled opponent Steve Poizner at a 911 call center - he made millions developing emergency tracking technology for cell phones - and engaged him in talk about how to computerize the current "clipboard record keeping" at hospitals.
Often, TV news directors stay away from politics because they feel it's a dry-as-dust topic that will turn off viewers. Lambert (at right) proves otherwise.
3. "Good Day Sacramento's" segments with psychic Nancy Bradley are just too funny - in an over-the-top way. Bradley sits at the anchor desk, bejeweled and with the heaviest eye makeup we've ever seen, and fields viewer calls, while "Good Day" anchors sit there and nod sagely.
In Friday's segment, host Marianne McClary had an exchange with Bradley and said, with a straight face and not a hint of irony, "Yes, just because you knew him in a previous life doesn't mean he's right for you in this life."
Great TV.
4. DJs Monica Lowe and Keith Brooks of The Zone (KZZO, 100.5 FM) did a great bit on "cankles" this week. The station's Web site polled listeners on whether they were offended by the term. The results: 52 percent said no, 7 percent yes, and 19 percent didn't know what cankles meant.
Here's a cankles primer for those of you who are curious.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.