During the late 1940s and early 50s, writer-director Norman Corwin was on the "gray list": "I was a self-acknowledged liberal, and liberal was almost as poisonous to attach to a person then as it was now."

Now 96, the radio legend, right, whose career was forged at CBS with many signature broadcasts from the golden age of broadcasting, called to share his thoughts on his friend Frank Stanton, the CBS president who died earlier this week at age 98.

Stanton's own career was colored in shades of gray, as he led CBS through the Red scare of the 1950s to Vietnam and Watergate in the 1960s and 70s. Although tributes and obituaries singled out his refusal in 1971 to comply with a government subpeona to turn over outtakes from a "CBS Reports" documentary, Stanton succumbed to pressure during the McCarthy era to impose a "loyalty oath" on CBS employees. Although he later expressed regret, many years later blacklisted writers and others expressed their disagreement when the New York chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave him a First Amendment Award in 1999.

Corwin called the hubbub over Stanton's award "one of the saddest products of this political disquiet."

"It may have been in the matter of the loyalty oath," Corwin says. "But in those days, it was tough to stand up to the constant pressure."

Overall, Corwin said that it was "remarkable" that Stanton was able to stave off government intrusion into broadcasting, "and I think he contributed to CBS's reputation as a liberal network."

As a freshman writer at CBS in 1938, Corwin says Stanton gave his career a big boost when he ordered 1,000 copies of a book of Corwin's plays, called "13 by Corwin." With a special forward by Corwin, the book was given to clients, advertisers, and politicians, "people of influence," Corwin says.

"I thought that Frank went out of his way to encourage talent," Corwin says. "For this man to use his position to further a career of a young man from the provinces, I thought that was remarkable.

"I always had his support in ways I am not accustomed to. I am not the kind of guy who trusts or is trusted by stockholders. Yet he would invite me to meetings of stockholders to address them. He was that kind of fellow."

As Corwin's career rose at CBS, he enjoyed unusual artistic freedom, directing and writing a half-hour show called "26 by Corwin," in which he was essentially given a blank slate to do what he liked. After the start of World War II, President Roosevelt suggested to CBS founder William S. Paley that they do a series on the British and what they faced, and Corwin was chosen to write it. He did it on the condition that the government not interfere with its content, and FDR agreed. The result was "An American in England," which Corwin made while working in Britain alongside such legends as Edward R. Murrow, Howard K. Smith and Robert Trout.

After being put in charge of the first wartime radio series, "This Is War!," Corwin was assigned to create a program that would run on the day of victory in Europe. Again, he was given leeway to create what he wanted and freedom from interference by network executives. "On a Note of Triumph," which ran live on May 8, 1945, with a Bernard Herrmann score, is regarded as a radio classic.

"Not once did they say to me, 'How much will it cost? What will be your slant?'" Corwin said. "They first heard the program when it was on the air. That could not happen on another network then, and it couldn't even happen on CBS now."

Through it all, Stanton was a "class act. Never was there a sense of a kind of Germanic discipline. It was always flexible and open."

Corwin's career wound down at CBS in the late 1940s, as Paley believed that the new medium of television demanded more commercial entertainment. During the McCarthy era, Corwin found himself accused of participating in some "subversive" broadcasts --- some of them done during World War II at the request of the network and the government --- but he was part of the blacklist. Although he had left CBS in a contract dispute, Corwin maintained what he called a "cordial entente" with the network, and remained friends with Stanton and Murrow. The relationship between Stanton and Murrow often was strained, and Corwin was distressed by it.

In the wake of the quiz show scandals, when, in a puritanical effort to diffuse government inquiry, Stanton demanded that programming be everything it purported to be. He even included Murrow's "Person to Person" on the list, suggesting that some of the newsman's interviews with celebrities and politicians were rehearsed. Murrow was furious.

"There were bitter statements issues from both sides," Corwin says. "It distressed me because I like Frank and I was a warm and close friend of Murrow's."

Through the years, as he pursued a career in film, Corwin stayed in touch with Stanton. Once, when the Rand Corporation issued a calendar of famous people's quotes and prose, he noticed that among them was one of his own:

            Freedom isn't something to be won and then forgotten.

            It must be renewed, like soil after good crops;

            It must be rewound, like a faithful clock;

            Exercised like a healthy muscle.

           Free men who forget that lose their freedom.

"That had to be the work of Frank Stanton, who was a trustee of the Rand Corporation," Corwin says.

He last saw Stanton in 2001, at a luncheon for him held at the Skirball Institute, where they shook hands and embraced one last time. And Corwin has kept letters he got from the former CBS chief, whose background was in psychology and audience research. He singles out one of his favorite lines, which read:

I will trade you a statistic for a sonnet anytime.

Note: The above artwork is a self-made Christmas card that Stanton sent to Corwin. Courtesy of Norman Corwin.

The Race is on: John Edwards is on his way to New Hampshire, by way of Iowa, after announcing that he will run for President on Thursday in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. Salon sums up his first day of campaigning in the Big Easy, "where a seat of poverty pornography has taken hold over the last year and a half---everyone from Brad Pitt to Juvenile has paraded through to pimp their pet projects. "People feel forgotten," Edwards said. He urged Americans to "get their hands dirty."

Farewell to Brown: James Brown was mourned at a public wake at New York's Apollo Theater on Thursday. Among those there was the Rev. Al Sharpton, his road manager in the 1970s. In a tribute, columnist Clarence Page writes that "when Mr. Sharpton married show business and civil rights activism, he learned from the master." Page writes that although Brown turned political in the 1960s with the well-known anthem, "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud," he prefers "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I'll Get it Myself.)"

"Musically, the song's compelling beat displays to full effect Mr. Brown's distinctive emphasis on "the ones" (the one and the three, instead of the two and the four) in his rhythms. Its message offers an important response to the many people who were asking in the midst of urban riots and a rising black power movement in the late 1960s, 'What do black people want?'

"If Mr. Brown's answer is what it sounds like in his songs, 'We want equal opportunity, not guaranteed results,' it should come as no surprise that he endorsed Richard M. Nixon in 1972 for president. After all, it was Mr. Nixon, not John F. Kennedy or Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the first affirmative action executive order into law."

CNN's Bill Schneider took a look at Brown's "funky" relationship with the political scene, which included entertaining every President from Nixon to Bush II, and being honored by Colin Powell, right.

Merger move: AT&T earned some points among consumer groups when it made a series of concessions to win FCC approval of its merger with Bell South.  The biggest is an agreement not to start charging certain websites more for faster Internet access --- the hot button issue that has been labeled "net neutrality." Jonathan Rintels writes on the Huffington Post that the concession is only temporary, and it is now up to Congress to take action.

Ford postscript: Gerald Ford was "so incredibly decent and good natured" about "Saturday Night Live's" parody of him, Lorne Michaels recalls to the New York Times. Speechwriter Mark Katz says that Ford was "smart about trying to get ahead of the joke," and even says that he was somewhat of a forerunner to the now typical stops that politicians make on Letterman and Jon Stewart. "The portrayal of me as an oafish ex-jock made for good copy," Ford once wrote. "It was also funny."

On Wednesday, Chevy Chase called Gerald Ford a "terrific guy" who inadvertently boosted his career. Originally hired as a writer on "Saturday Night Live," Chase was put on the show in 1975 in part because of his pratfall-filled, fumbling imitation of the President.

Chase told Reuters that when he originated the skits, Ford "had never been elected period, so I never felt that he deserved to be there to begin with. That was just the way I felt then as a young man and as a writer and a liberal."

"Later on we became friends and he was a very, very sweet man," Chase said in a telephone interview from a Colorado ski resort. "He took my wife and I on a whole lovely trip through Grand Rapids to show us where he had been as a child and what not. We kept in touch and he was just a terrific guy."

Gerald Ford, who died today, not only restored the presidency following the tumult of Watergate, but he almost immediately improved relations with the media, still stinging from the imperial years of Richard Nixon.

Declaring, famously, "our long national nightmare is over," Ford immediately opened up access to his office and often talked with reporters several times a day, a sharp contrast to the zeal with which his predecessor tried to protect his image. It may not have helped him in public opinion, particularly after he granted a pardon to Nixon, but it was in keeping with his desire to restore the office to a spirit of transparency.

"I believe it is always better to err on the side of more exposure and access rather than less," Ford wrote. "At that time, the media and the general public still resented any hint of 'imperial' trappings in connection with the presidency or the White House."

And while his tenure lasted just 2 1/2 years, the Vietnam war was over, and he presided over a more carefree era in American culture, marked by the Bicentennial, the ERA and disco. His wife, Betty, even made a highly publicized cameo appearance on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." His press secretary, Ron Nessen, hosted "Saturday Night Live," then one of the hottest new shows, and Ford taped the introduction, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Although a star athlete, Ford's occasional falls and tumbles on the ski hill, in addition to slices on the golf course, drew the attention of writers on "Saturday Night Live." The klutz image was reinforced by Chase in ongoing, pratfall filled skits, and Ford took it in stride. After his presidency he even invited Chase to the Gerald R. Ford Library in Grand Rapids, Mich., for a seminar on presidential humor, and Ford even wrote a book on it. He later admitted that the klutz image may actually have had an impact on the public's perception of him in the 1976 presidential race, which he lost to Jimmy Carter. "I enjoyed, up to a point, Chevy Chase's impersonations," Ford once said in an interview. "I have learned over the years in the political arena that you cannot be thin skinned. You have to take the good with the bad."

Ford did get back at Chase at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in 1975. As recounted in the Palm Springs Desert Sun:

When emcee Bob Hope introduced him, President Ford got up from the table, "accidentally" caught the tablecloth in his trousers and dumped silverware in Chase's lap. As he approached the podium, he pretended to trip, prompting the pages of the speech he was carrying to fly into the audience.

When he got to the microphone and the laughter began to diminish, President Ford reached into his coat pocket, pulled out the real script and said, "Good evening. I'm Gerald Ford and you're not."

In later years Ford was a mainstay in Rancho Mirage and the Palm Springs area, where he could be counted on to hobnob with the likes of Hope and other celebrities of his generation. Guided by William Morris' Norman Brokaw, he secured lucrative book contracts and speaking engagements. And he appeared, along with other ex-presidents, on a special episode of "The West Wing," and even made a cameo appearance on "Dynasty."

In a final note, it was Ford who was the subject of the last real moment of suspense at a political convention, when the Republicans met in Detroit in 1980. On the day before Ronald Reagan accepted the nomination, reporters scrambled as rumors spread that Ford would take his spot as No. 2 on the ticket, in a kind of "co-presidency." During the evening Walter Cronkite marvelled at the historic nature of the ticket --- a former president agreeing to the VP slot. But the deal eventually collapsed, and Reagan chose George Bush as his running mate.

A campaign ad from 1976:

Frank Stanton, who died Monday at age 98, not only was a pioneer in the development of television broadcasting but a key figure in defining and defending the First Amendment against government intrusion. As CBS founder William S. Paley's right-hand man from 1946 to 1973, he became the broadcast industry's chief spokesman in Congress, as federal watchdogs cast a wary eye on everything from violent content to news programming to the quiz show scandals.

In addition to clearing the way for television's first presidential debate in 1960, Stanton launched "CBS Reports" and, according to a memoir he gave to Minnesota Public Radio, "demanded a firewall between news and entertainment programs." It was, to say the least, a different era.

Stanton expressed some regret at his role in demanding that CBS employees take a loyalty oath during the blacklist era. When George Clooney made his movie "Good Night, and Good Luck," about Edward R. Murrow's face off with Sen. Joe McCarthy, Stanton was noticeably left out of those people who were depicted.

Perhaps his most courageous moment came in 1971, when CBS broadcast the documentary "The Selling of the Pentagon," which created a Congressional outcry. Stanton risked going to jail for contempt of Congress, when he refused a House committee's subpeona to protect the network's First Amendment right to withhold notes and outtakes of the broadcast from government scrutiny.

He told a Congressional hearing: "If newsmen are told that their notes, films, and tapes will be subject to compulsory process so that the government can determine whether the news has been satisfactorily edited, the scope, nature, and vigor of their news-gathering and reporting activities will inevitably be curtailed ... a fundamental principle of a free society is at stake."

The audio memoirs of Stanton are here.

For Christmas, Political Ads: It is still 2006, but the holiday weekend will see Barack Obama and Duncan Hunter political ads. None come directly from the prospective candidates themselves, but from other groups. Obama, expected to announce whether he will run for President next month, is the subject of a "draft-Obama" ad (see below) that will debut in Hawaii. An ad featuring Republican contender Duncan Hunter of California, financed by by a political action committee, warns of China's trade advantage over the United States. It is appearing in North Carolina and a couple of other states. Meanwhile, a D.C. court ruling could clear the way for even more campaign-season ads, including commercials from corporations.

Schwarzenegger Goes Green: The Washington Post examines Hummer-driving Arnold Schwarzenegger's lurch toward environmentalism that the California governor says is akin to Nixon's visit to China. Schwarzenegger's stances on the environment are unexpected given his pro-business positions, he says. "There is a whole new movement because of the change of people sent to Washington," Schwarzenegger said in an interview this week, referring to the Democratic Party's impending takeover of Congress. "We want to put the spotlight on this issue in America. It has to become a debate in the presidential election. It has to become an issue."

NRA Draws on Michael Moore: Wonkette posts excerpts from a new NRA graphic novel that features a star-studded lineup of foes including Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell, among others.

Note: In earlier versions of this post, Warren Bell's quote below, "I think I got the idea from an episode of 'The West Wing'," was incorrectly written. For reasons that can only be blamed on pre-holiday haste, we cited the show as "Sesame Street," which actually makes no sense. W&W apologizes for the error.

Following his appointment to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, TV comedy-writer producer Warren Bell denied that he ever said that he wanted to "dismantle" public broadcasting. Rather, he tells W&W he wants to "keep public broadcasting as strong as it can be" and boost PBS's scripted-fare offerings with his contacts and experience in Hollywood.

President Bush slotted Bell, a self-avowed conservative, on the CPB board in a recess appointment on Wednesday. Attempts to confirm his nomination in the Senate were scuttled in September when Democratic members raised objections. They raised fears that he would be an idealogue along the lines with embattled former chairman Kenneth Tomlinson, who during his tenure sought to correct what he saw as a liberal bias in PBS and NPR programming.

Bell, executive producer of "According to Jim," believes that he ultimately got pegged as another Tomlinson, and got swept up in the rhetoric of a political season. He says that he intends to work in a nonpartisan fashion and "has a year to prove" critics wrong, given that the recess appointment lasts until the end of the next congressional term. A comedy writer by trade, he also writes an irreverent column and blog on National Review Online, and some of his humor has rubbed people the wrong way.

He says that the former "According to Jim" writers who say they heard him make the comment about  "dismantling" PBS actually mischaracterized what he said. Bell says he was expressing an opinion that "Sesame Street' shouldn't get government funding because it can support itself through licensing and merchandising. "It is a widely held belief," Bell says. "I think I originally got it from an episode of 'The West Wing.'" He says he since learned that CPB does not provide funding to the long-running children's show, anyway.

Bell will be but one voice on the nine-member board, but he hopes to draw on Hollywood's creative community to develop PBS shows, especially projects that, for whatever reason, can't be done on commercial networks. He also will continue on "According to Jim," which It goes on hiatus in three weeks. Should it return, he's worked things out with ABC so he will have time to attend CPB meetings.

He downplays his political bent, pointing out that even his National Review postings are more humorous than partisan, and that he doesn't "follow politics that closely."

"I have been inside the Beltway exactly twice," he says. He's also met Bush twice, but only in brief photo op meet and greets.

What is certain is that he'll probably keep more careful tabs on his humor. Among one of the jokes that rattled D.C. insiders was a riff he made on incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He wrote on National Review Online in May 2005: "I could reach across the aisle and hug Nancy Pelosi, and I would, except this is a new shirt, and that sort of thing leaves a stain."

On his blog on Wednesday, he apologized for the joke, and said that it was "genuinely unfair" to make such quips of a personal nature.

He wrote: "Some pretty nasty things were written about me in the last few months, and I didn't like it one bit. I took a totally unprovoked swipe at Ms. Pelosi for no good reason, other than I thought it might be funny. Now that I know how it feels, I'm not going to do that again. I think I can be funny without it."

Of the whole confirmation process, he tells W&W: "The most enlightening thing that I have learned is that there is a wide gap between the humor in Washington and the humor in Hollywood. In Washington, they take themselves very seriously."

President Bush made a recess appointment of Warren Bell, writer and producer of "According to Jim," to fill the remaining vacant seat on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The move is raising hackles because Bell has reportedly said he'd like to "dismantle" public broadcasting, and his name actually was taken off the agenda when Bush tried to push his nomination through the Senate in September because some Democrats registered complaints.

Bell has said that he is "thoroughly conservative in ways that strike horror into the hearts of my Hollywood colleagues.” But he also said that he has no intention of letting his personal political beliefs influence his role on the board, although he is a gifted comedy writer. When he was first nominated he wrote on his National Review Online blog that he I intends "to open my confirmation hearing thusly: 'Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate, three words:  No.  More.  Elmo.'" 

The recess appointment means that his term will last until the new Congress adjourns. Bush did the same thing when he appointed John Bolton as U.N. ambassador. Bolton faced opposition in a standard Senate confirmation process, and resigned earlier this month.

The Center for Digital Democracy's Jeff Chester told B&C that Bell's appointment is like "a Christmas gift to the right wing of the media establishment." But there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room for major changes to public broadcasting with Democrats --- traditional allies --- now in control.

As for whether Bell actually said he wants to "dismantle" public broadcasting, that's a view that is itself open to debate. Here's what the newspaper Current published in September:

"Although Bell’s own writings fueled grassroots opposition to his nomination, a letter from two former Hollywood colleagues influenced the Senate committee’s decision to drop Bell from the hearing agenda. Jeffrey Hodes and Nastaran Dibai, who worked with Bell on According to Jim, said he told them years ago that he was opposed to federal funding for public broadcasting.

In an interview, the couple recalled a lunchtime conversation about public broadcasting in which Bell said he would “dismantle” publicly funded stations.

“This was what he stated before he was up for the job, so this must be his true feelings,” Dibai said. “He has modified his position since being nominated.”

Hodes and Dibai decided to contact the committee because other former colleagues who joined the lunchroom debate still work for Bell.

“We felt that someone had to stand up who had nothing to gain and something to lose,” said Dibai. “This is not personal and it’s not professional, but we need to say, ‘This is the wrong person for the job, based on his views and his own public statements.’”

Another "According to Jim" writer, Ron Hart, who still works with Bell, said he’s discussed public broadcasting with Bell and never heard him say “anything remotely close to ‘It should be dismantled’ or ‘It shouldn’t exist.’” He’s vouching for Bell on his own volition, he said. “The sense I get from Warren is that he thinks his background in scripted programming could be helpful to PBS, and he could inspire or motivate a new emphasis on scripted programming,” Hart said. “There’s been a void there.” 

Stars for Pelosi: In lieu of an inaugural ball, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is throwing a $1,000-per-ticket concert on Jan. 4 honoring incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi. Tony Bennett, Carole King and Wyclef Jean are among the performers and Amy Brenneman and Richard Gere will make appearances. The fete will be at D.C.'s National Building Museum.

DeNiro on "Shepherd" Accuracy: At the Variety screening of "The Good Shepherd," a fictionalized version of the early years of the CIA, director Robert DeNiro said that the pic is "more like a projection of the mythology of the way the CIA at this time in history was perceived. It's not a literal translation." Scribe Eric Roth said that "90% of it did happen." Meanwhile, the AP notices that the pic has made DeNiro a tad more talkative --- just a tad.

Phone Companies Get a Break: The Federal Communications Commission passed new rules designed to make it easier for telcos like Verizon and AT&T to offer TV services and compete with cable companies. A new ruling requires that local governments decide within 90 days whether to grant competitors a franchise to enter a market, removing an important bureaucratic hurdle that has slowed the entree of telcos into the market. Already there is speculation that cable companies will challenge the new rule and take the FCC to court, charging that it has exceeded its authority.

From a Variety screening a few weeks back, Al Gore talks about why he was initially reluctant to make "An Inconvenient Truth," whether he thinks the movie is changing popular opinion and why he thinks the electoral process is broken. Video link here.

In a hearing today at the New York Circuit Court of Appeals, judges appeared a bit dubious about the federal government's stance on indecency, at once even chiding the FCC for not doing any studies of the effect of fleeting profanity on children.

The case has drawn media congloms and Hollywood's creative community together in what they say amounts to a challenge to free speech, while the feds say that their effort is narrow in scope and is aimed at clearly defineable instances. The networks are challenging the FCC's crackdown on content, saying that it is both confusing and a bit arbitrary. Among other things, Cher and Nicole Richie's use of the "f-word" on two different Billboard Music Awards shows earned Fox heafty fines.

That view seemed to get some understanding from the court. Reports Variety's Bill Triplett: When FCC attorney Eric Miller was repeatedly labeling the profanities "gratuitous," Judge Peter Hall quickly interrupted, asking whether C-SPAN's live coverage of the oral arguments would be liable for indecency because the very words were being used in court. Miller said no because that would be considered news.

Another judge, Rosemary Pooler, was even more dubious. She asked whether "the Nicole Richies of the world" shouldn't be afforded similar protections. She also asked how it's possible that "The Early Show" was exempted because the FCC had declared it to be a news segment when in fact the segment focused on a former contestant from a reality TV show.

"Under that definition, anything could be news," Pooler said.

Apparently within C-SPAN there was a bit of discussion about whether it would be opening itself up to fines, as the entire hearing was laden with expletives. Although it can't do anything about TV shows, it does regulate radio, and C-SPAN broadcasted the hearing in full. It even plans rebroadcasts, and it apparently will not be fined for that, either, according to the FCC's Miller.

Kick Off: With so many presidential contenders vowing to decide over the holidays whether they will run for President, January is bound to be chalk full of events tied to announcing a candidacy and launching a race. John Edwards, who revealed on "The Daily Show" in 2003 that he was in the race, is planning to do so this time around in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, which was hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, according to the Washington Post. Barack Obama has said that should he run, he would make an announcement on Oprah Winfrey's show. And Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack already has keyed into Jon Stewart's show to keep attention focused on his race in an otherwise difficult time to draw attention. Chris Cillizza of the Post rounds up students' suggestions from a political communications class of where other contenders should make the plunge. Among them are Hillary Clinton on "Saturday Night Live" and Michael Bloomberg at a U2/Toby Keith concert.

Braving the opera: Slate's Anne Applebaum goes to Deutsche Oper's "Idomeneo" in Berlin, where Muslim groups have protested because of a finale that includes the head of Mohammad getting chopped off. She finds the evening rather uneventful, and at the cresendo "some in the audience booed. More shouted 'Bravo.'" "What more can one ask from a night at the opera?" she writes.

Anti Hillary ad: Republican donor Dick Collins has a new website called StopHerNow.com, with animated episodes of "The Hillary Show." The latest has Barbra Streisand waving a donation check in front of Clinton while demanding more taxes and liberal judges, among other things.

New Lennon files: The FBI has released the last of its surveillance documents on John Lennon to a UC Irvine historian who waged a protracted legal battle to obtain them. The documents contain details of Lennon's tied to leftist and anti war groups in the 1970s, but nothing that indicates he was a serious threat, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Today, we can see that the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning," professor Jon Wiener said.

The Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldstein sits down with retired CIA agent Milton Bearden, technical adviser to "The Good Shepherd" and a 30-year veteran of clandestine services. Among other things, Bearden hooked director Robert DeNiro up with ex-KGB agents in Moscow so he could gather their tales of Cold War skullduggery. But Bearden also comments on the film's accuracy, in that it features a scene where a Soviet defector is being tortured by the CIA. It's hard not to think of the present day debate over waterboarding of suspects.

Says Bearden: "If you mean 'Did we ever beat the [crap] out of someone till they jumped out the window?' I'd have to say 'No,' Torture is just [bull]. It's used by people who want an admission for their checklist. It doesn't elicit real information. When agency people who've seen the film say, 'Hey, that's not accurate, we never water-boarded anybody,' I tell them, 'No, you just stuck a [expletive] defector in a solitary cinderblock for 3 1/2 years.' We may not have water-boarded guys in 1957, but we're doing it all the time now, so I don't think it's a dishonest portrayal at all."

"Impeach These Bastards": Sean Penn accepted the Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award from the Creative Coalition on Monday night with a fiery speech that questioned why the Democrats have taken impeachment of President Bush "off the table." In the text of his speech posted on Huffington Post, Penn said: "If we attempt to impeach for lying about a blowjob, yet accept these almost certain abuses without challenge, we become a cum-stain on the flag we wave. You know, I was listening to Frank Rich this morning, speaking on a book tour. He said he thought impeachment proceedings would amount to a "decadent" sidetrack, while our soldiers were still being killed. I admire Frank Rich. And of course he would be right if impeachment is all we do. But we're Americans. We can do two things at the same time. Yes, let's move forward and swiftly get out of this war in Iraq AND impeach these bastards."

No vote: FCC commissioner Robert McDowell says that he won't vote on the AT&T/Bell South merger after all, leaving the commissioners in a 2-2 stalemate. Becuase he had a conflict, McDowell had recused himself from voting. But in what critics called a Republican attempt to let the merger sail through, the FCC's general counsel had studied the situation and said that McDowell should be allowed to vote. Nevertheless, McDowell called it "an ethical coin toss frozen in mid-air." Democratic commissioners would like to see more conditions placed on the merger.

Perenchio In: Univision chairman A. Jerrold Perenchio, routinely one of the country's most prolific donors, is the national finance co-chair of John McCain's exploratory committee.

Fox "Mattered": He didn't make Person of the Year, but Michael J. Fox was among Time magazine's "People Who Mattered" in 2006. With his support of candidates who in turn supported stem cell research, "the fact of 2006 is that he helped swing the Senate to the Democrats, which means that the chances of expanded stem cell funding passing again and surviving another presidential veto have substantially increased."

Damon and DeNiro on "Hardball": Promoting "The Good Shepherd," director Robert DeNiro and star Matt Damon offer some insightful political commentary. Tonight DeNiro is interviewed by Variety's Peter Bart after a screening at the ArcLight.

Addendum:

Smithsonian restrictions: The Government Accountability Office says two filmmakers were refused access to the Smithsonian's collections since the institution signed a 30-year semi-exclusive contract with Showtime. But they said it was "too early" to tell the long-term impact of the contract.

File-Sharing Truce: The Recording Industry Assn. of America is staunchly opposed to file-sharing, but that didn't stop them from featuring Barenaked Ladies at their D.C. holiday party. The Canadian group is "at the forefront of sharing permissiveness," says the Washington Examiner.

New Zucker ad: David Zucker, the "Airplane" and "Scary Movie" director who did spots for the RNC in 2006 and 2004, has a new one out mocking the Iraq Study Group and comparing James Baker to Neville Chamberlain.

Expect huge crowds and attention tonight as Rudolph Giuliani's presidential exploratory committee throws its first fund raiser at a hotel near Times Square. He's dubbed "America's Mayor," with a celebrity cache that has earned him a hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live," and has poll numbers that exceed even John McCain's. Nevertheless, there are doubts that Giuliani can win GOP primaries with left-leaning positions on gay marriage, abortion and gun control.

But his blend of fiscal conservatism, strong national security and social liberalism actually may help him draw support among Hollywood Republicans and independents, even a few Democrats, particularly those turned off by the entree of the religious right. It's hard to fathom that staunch liberals like Norman Lear or Rob Reiner would crossover, but Giuliani could prove an attractive crossover to centrists, security-minded independents and also New York transplants.

In recent private gatherings, his supporters have been reaching out to industry sources as they prepare for a wave of fund raisers, and Giuliani has made the rounds himself in Southern California. Among those who have contributed to his leadership PAC are Paramount Chairman Brad Grey and Brillstein-Grey's Jonathan Liebman, as well as Carl Icahn, Kelsey Grammer, former Viacom exec Michael Dolan and James L. and James M. Nederlander. 

Particpant Prods. is offering 50,000 copies of the Al Gore doc "An Inconvenient Truth" for free to school teachers across the country. It follows a highly publicized brouhaha in the past few weeks in which the National Science Teachers Assn. declined to accept the copies to distribute to its members, saying that it would violate a policy of not endorsing a product.

But in an editorial in the Washington Post and in an entry on her Huffington Post blog, "An Inconvenient Truth" executive producer Laurie David said that the Science Teachers Assn. also had expressed concerns over what impact accepting the offer would have on other funders. She pointed out that among the supporters of the association are ExxonMobil and Shell Oil, as well as the American Petroleum Institute. She added that the association distributed a video by the American Petroleum Institute called "You Can't Be Cool Without Fuel," "a shameless pitch for oil dependence."

"A petroleum institute memo leaked to the media as long ago as 1998 succintly explains why the institute is angling to infiltrate the classroom: 'Informing teachers/students about uncertainties in climate science will begin to erect barriers against further efforts to impose Kyoto-like measures in the future,'" David wrote. 

But in a rebuttal, the association says that total support from energy companies is 3.77% of its budget, and that the NSTA is "solely responsible for developing, directing and implementing the programs we offer to teachers." They add further that they no longer partner with the American Petroleum Institute, and can find no record of "having a role in the development or mass distribution of the video."

The NSTA did offer to link to a site where teachers could obtain a free copy, among other ways of promoting the DVD, but Participant has set up this disbursement on their own. They will be available through Jan. 18, 2007 on a first come, first served basis at www.participate.net, with the major requirement being that teachers provide their school's tax ID number.

Networks will argue on Wednesday that the FCC's crackdown on indecency violates their freedom of speech in a federal appeals court hearing that will be shown live on C-SPAN. The agency's former chief of its enforcement bureau, David Solomon, added more fuel to the fire this week by predicting that the agency will lose its attempt to expand its powers. "I think that there's a significant likelihood that they will lose," he tells the Associated Press. If so, the agency would likely have to rewrite its rules.

It's interesting that the latest brush up over broadcast indecency started in January, 2003, when Bono used the phrase "f---ing brilliant" on the Golden Globes. The agency later ruled that his use of the phrase was not indecent, but their review created what the networks now say is a confusing and contradictory means of judging content.

Bono, meanwhile, was on Capitol Hill last week to lobby for funding to combat AIDS and malaria in Africa. Apparently, he was a bit disapppointed that he came away empty handed after meeting with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi yet failed to get firm commitments from them.

Time's Best: HBO's "The Wire" was named the top TV show of the year in Time's Person of the Year issue, capping a season in which its depiction of the drug trade and its impact on four inner-city schoolboys was interspersed with a cast of politicians and government officials seemingly stuck in inertia to do anything about it. Time's columnist Joe Klein gave the show's creator David Simon one of his Teddy Awards, given to people who made their mark in the year. Klein writes: "It is, quite simply, the smartest show I've seen about the drama of public life, the corrosive cynicism of bureaucracies, the creativity and futility of the inner-city poor. And next season Simon is taking on the Baltimore media. I cringe and can't wait." With his "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore also gets a Teddy.

Air America Sale: There's a letter of intent to sell the liberal broadcaster, although details are sketchy. The New York Times covers the ups and downs of the network, and looks at the emergence of Ed Schultz as a new competitor to Al Franken. Franken is likely to run for the Minnesota Senate seat held by Norm Coleman, who faces reelection in 2008.

Buster is Back: Even though underwriters dried up, PBS's children's show "Postcards from Buster" has returned this season. The show, which stars and animated bunny and his friends, came under fire last year when Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was offended by an episode featuring a Vermont family with two moms. With new backers including the Annenberg Foundation, the show only has enough money for 10 episodes but it is still tackling such issues as the war in Iraq and the U.S.-Mexican border. And next season Buster will go to China, Africa and the Middle East.

Damon Stirs the Pot: On his tour for the CIA history pic "The Good Shepherd" along with director Robert DeNiro and actress Angelina Jolie, actor Matt Damon suggests that maybe there should be a draft for the war in Iraq. He says on Chris Matthews' "Hardball": "If you're gonna send people to war, ahh, if, if we all get together and decide we need to go to war then that needs to be shared by everybody. You know and if the President has daughters who are of age then maybe they should go too…" Damon, DeNiro and Jolie appear on Charlie Rose tonight.

FCC Vote: Bills to make it easier for Verizon and AT&T enter the TV business --- and compete with cable operators --- stalled in Congress this year, but the FCC will vote on Wednesday on a measure designed to make it easier. The telcos still have to go to each local government to get approval, but the FCC measure would limit City Halls to a 90-day review and would prohibit them from adding extra requirements like new playgrounds and parks as the cost of entry. Texas and California already have laws permitting statewide licenses. While the argument in favor is increased competition, there already has been skepticism that will happen. With statewide franchises, cable companies benefit in their own way, but it hasn't appeased angry customers. And in California, there's been much grumbling about Time Warner's conversion of the former Adelphia systems having left many customers with service interruptions, forcing customers to complain at the state, not local, level.

Olbermann Seeks Raise: B&C's Max Robins reports that MSNBC's newly emboldened host Keith Olbermann is seeking a pay increase "north of $4 million a year."

Warner in Race Again?: Former Virigina Gov. Mark Warner is said to be having second thoughts about running for President, after all.

"You" Reconsidered: NBC's Brian Williams laments Time's Person of the Year, which is "You." He worries about the effect that it will have on democracy, because we'll be so obsessed with posting our thoughts or looking at our Blackberrys. (Here: Guilty as charged). He writes in Time: "The danger just might be that we miss the next great book or the next great idea, or that we fail to meet the next great challenge ... because we are too busy celebrating ourselves and listening to the same tune we already know by heart."

That is the word from Democratic officials, who say that the 2004 hopeful and former North Carolina Senator will announce his bid sometime between Christmas and New Year's Eve. No surprise, given that Edwards all but told Jon Stewart that he was about to announce when he was on his show several weeks ago.

Edwards has been raising money for quiet some time through his One America Committee, a 527 committee with a recent $25,000 contribution coming from Edie Wasserman. During his 2004 primary campaign, he garnered support from such industry figures as Casey Wasserman and Skip Paul, along with producer Steve Bing. Actor Dennis Hopper held a fund raiser for him at his home.

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) says he's not running for President, saying the odds of winning were too great to overcome.

From the AP:

"The odds were always going to be very long for a relatively unknown candidate like myself, a little bit like David and Goliath," Bayh said in the statement. He added that beyond the question of "whether there were too many Goliaths or whether I'm just not the right David," his chances were slim.

Bayh had been a favorite among a handful of Hollywood supporters, and there had been some speculation that he would fill the hole with the departure from the race of centrist Mark Warner, who considered running but declined to several weeks ago. Among those who have contributed to Bayh's All America PAC in the last two years are National Assn. of Theater Owners chairman John Fithian, Classic Media's Robert Friedman and Emmis Communications' Jeffrey Smulyan.

But Bayh was overshadowed by Barack Obama on a vist to New Hampshire last weekend, and apparently felt that he wouldn't be able to emerge from what looks to be a crowded field of contenders.

George Clooney will brief Kofi Annan today on his latest Darfur mission that took him to China and Egypt. He visited with actor Don Cheadle and Olympic athletes, presumably to put pressure on the Chinese government to do something about the region in advance of the 2008 Beijing games.

C-SPAN is pressing the new Congress and incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi for greater access to its proceedings, including the ability to pan the chamber and gather reactions shots.

Angelina Jolie did not show to a D.C. conference on malaria, but participants were taken by the presence of "Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington.

Public interest group Free Press --- concerned with greater concentration of media ownership--- plans a summit in Memphis with Bill Moyers, Jane Fonda, Phil Donahue, Geena Davis and Helen Thomas.

For her support of cancer research and stem cell initiatives, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is giving Sherry Lansing its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Dennis Kucinich drew some snarky media responses to his annoucement this week that he will again run for President, but the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz points out that his position on Iraq is actually what most Americans now believe.

Almost as surprising as the fact that the multi-national pic "Babel" garnered the most Golden Globe nominations is that "Bobby" also scored a best picture nod, after having been virtually ignored at the box office.

As expected, political ad spending boosted the fortunes of local TV stations in the third quarter, with revenues up more than 10%. Another boost came from telcos pitching the idea of video franchise reform.

And stations may even get a boost in the first quarter of 2007: A draft Barack Obama group is launching a spot in New Hampshire.

Fox and NBC issue more briefs in their challenges of the FCC's indecency rules, with the Peacock network denying that Cher actually meant anything sexual when she used the f-word.

Former CNN chief Eason Jordan is launching a new Iraq-themed website, Iraqslogger.com.

B.B King and David McCullough will be among the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Friday at the White House.

Angelina Jolie campaigns in D.C. today on behalf of malaria prevention.

Even though "Home of the Brave" is a new take on William Wyler's "The Best Years of Our Lives," director Irwin Winkler says that the pic is "antiwar."

Some public interest groups are criticizing the Federal Election Commission's fines imposed on three so-called "527" groups as too little, too late, and doubt that they will have any impact on stemming the flow of attack ads in 2008. The FEC fined Swift Boat Veterans for Truth almost $300,000 for its now-fabled 2004 hit campaign against John Kerry. They also imposed a $150,000 fine on the liberal MoveOn.org and $180,000 to the League of Conservation Voters. The FEC says that all three groups exceeded the limits of their tax status when they engaged in electioneering that year, mostly through negative campaign commercials.

Will this spell the end of 527s, the IRS term for such independently financed groups? Hardly, according to the Campaign Legal Center.

They wrote on their website: "Not only did the complaints against these 527 groups take more than two years to resolve, but the fines were so small that regrettably many political operatives will see them as no more than the cost of doing business."

Swift Boaters say that the FEC's move was an "agressive move to impugn the First Amendment (free speech rights) of citizens," while there is no statement yet from the other groups.

Peter Boyle, who died last night, established his career with politically charged roles in "Joe," in which he played a blue-collar member of the "silent majority" who goes on a rampage against Hippies, to the savvy and somewhat desperate campaign manager Marvin Lucas who gets California Senate candidate Bill McCay (Robert Redford) into office. That 1972 film, and his role, remains a favorite of political consultants and scholars such as author Garry Wills, who consider it ahead of its time because of the way it depicted the influence of money and image into politics.

TV movies included "Tail Gunner Joe," where he played Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy; "Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago Eight," where he played jailed political protester David Dellinger and "Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North," in which he was Vice Admiral John Poindexter.

A man known for a quick temper and also a wicked charm, Boyle called himself a "conservative radical," a designation that perhaps came from experience.

From the New York Times:

"He was living in Chicago at the time of the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and never forgot the ensuing explosion of violence and the reek of tear gas in the streets. Early on, he described himself as a 'conservative radical.'"

Peter Boyle, famous for his role in "Everybody Loves Raymond" but also as Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate," has died at age 71.

The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel sizes up the pending Gore-Nader race---for the Oscar.

Leonardo DiCaprio fields solutions to glabal warming on Yahoo! site.

If John Kerry runs for President, he'll have a huge Internet database of donors --- and he's already taken advantage of it.

In a move intended to send a chill for '08, Roll Call reports that the Federal Election Commission is likely to hand out significant fines soon against two 527 groups --- the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and on the other side of the spectrum, America Coming Together.

C-SPAN plans to televise the oral arguments in the networks' challenge to the FCC's indecency fines, according to B&C. The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York granted the cabler's request to cover the Dec. 20 hearing --- a rarity for the court---and of course the big question is going to be just how profane and indecent these arguments will get. The center of the dispute is Fox's airing of a Billboard Music Awards where Cher and Nicole Richie used the S-words and the F-words, but other networks are challenging the FCC's fines as arbitrary and confusing.

An update to a previous post: Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, blasted the FCC's general counsel today for allowing commissioner Robert McDowell to vote on the AT&T/Bell South merger. McDowell had recused himself from voting on the pact because he had repped a group that opposed the merger. That left the commission deadlocked, and chairman Kevin Martin sought an opinion from FCC's legal wonks to clear the way and break the logjam.

McDowell still hasn't said whether he will vote on the merger, even with the lawyerly blessings, but Markey suggested that he still sit out the vote.

"The FCC General Counsel's response highlights that there is no direct of persuasive precedent for 'un-recusing' Commissioner McDowell. I trust that Commissioner McDowell will find the FCC General Counsel's weak legal arguments, and even weaker rationale for a compelling government interest, of little comfort when deciding whether to abandon the ethical high ground upon which he currently stands."

Fellow Democrat John Dingell (D-Mich.), expected to be chairman of the Commerce Committee, also criticized the general counsel's decision, charging that a government ethics official has said that McDowell should not vote.

Charging that the FCC is beholden to religious right interest groups and the telecom lobby, Ad Age's  Simon Dumenco calls on chairman Kevin Martin to resign. Dumenco is inspired by an episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" in which the network accidentally broadcasts the f-word.

In Nashville, country legends George Jones and Porter Wagoner lamented media consolidation at a special FCC hearing, with Wagoner claiming that Dolly Parton never would have a chance to be heard in today's environment.

Irwin Winkler talks to the Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldstein about his inspiration for "Home of the Brave," the pic about returning Iraqi veterans which opens Friday. He also shares his views on what went wrong: "Everyone in the Bush administration clearly thought, 'Oh, we'll knock out these guys in a few weeks and be outta there. You could say the same thing about the Israelis counter-attacking against Hezbollah. Or the Japanese in World War II. Did they know when they attacked Pearl Harbor that they'd end up with an atom bomb in their lap? If you start something, you better know where it's going to end."

On Saturday, Al Gore is hosting a network of 1,600 house parties to watch "An Inconvenient Truth," and he will address them all by satellite hook up.

Sierra Leonans who fled the civil war in that country screen "Blood Diamond" and say it accurately portrays the violence they witnessed.

About 30 people protest at Jimmy Carter's book signing outside of Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. Critics have charged that his book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," is anti-Israel.

Barack Obama's announcement on "Monday Night Football"? He wants the Chicago Bears to "go all the way." (Video below)

New York Film Critics gave best picture to "United 93," while the Catholic Church scandal doc "Deliver Us from Evil" takes the non fiction prize. "United 93" was among the best picture nominations for the Broadcast Film Critics Awards, along with "Babel," "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Blood Diamond" and others.

Fran Drescher successfully lobbies for a gynecological cancer bill, approved in the last hours of Congress, then causes a minor sensation at Morton's.

Plans for a new brand of Green Mountain coffee called "PBS blend" draw complaints that the taxpayer-supported network is getting too commercial.

Can't get enough of Obama? Don't forget to respond to the well-timed "Pushy Question" on Variety.com today, "Is U.S. Sen. Obama a viable Democratic candidate in 2008?"

It can be hard to grasp the politics of the FCC --- its body of regulation can seem like minutiae to those outside of D.C. But a recent decision that could end a stalemate over the pending merger of AT&T with Bell South could have ramifications beyond combining the two companies. Last summer, commissioner Robert McDowell recused himself from voting on the AT&T-Bell South pact because he once worked for a telecom corporation involved in lobbying on the merger. That left the FCC split, with two Republicans in favor and two Democrats against. But on Friday, the FCC's general counsel said that McDowell, a Republican appointee, was free to vote on the merger, citing past precedents.

Why is this important? Democratic commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein have refused to support the merger because they want so-called "net neutrality" provisions attached to the deal, writes John Nichols of The Nation. Such provisions would prevent telecom companies from setting up a "two-tier system" where it is much easier for users to "visit Internet sites that pay for special treatment." As Nichols writes, that would give a well-paved information superhighway for sites that pay up but a dirt road for those who do not. Nichols says that FCC chairman Kevin Martin is anxious to get the merger through in part because he's entertaining the idea of running for governor of North Carolina, with a heavy dose of telecom contributions.

Of course, Congress could still pass such "net neutrality" provisions, but where that is remains to be seen with the Democrats about to be seated in the majority.

"Letters from Iwo Jima" lands top prize from the Los Angeles Film Critics, while "An Inconvenient Truth" wins best documentary. Paul Greengrass wins best director for "United 93." Meanwhile, "Borat," "Babel," "United 93" and "Iwo Jima" win top film prizes from the American Film Institute.

Merriam-Webster calls Stephen Colbert's "truthiness" the "word of the year."

B&C picks up on the FCC's criticism of the V-chip as ineffective, and what it means for further crackdowns on program content.

On his way out of office, California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante throws premiere for 9/11-themed doc "Divided We Fall."

Along with News Corp., former Attorney General John Ashcroft plans to invest in a new faith-based channel on Direct TV.

Studios see a more powerful ally in Democratic-controlled Congress with Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) heading a key copyright subcommittee.

The surest sign that Barack Obama is running for President? ABC News says it is an appearance tonight on "Monday Night Football," right on the heels of a superstar-worthy visit to New Hampshire over the weekend.

With the anticpation of an Obama '08 run at a fever pitch, largely fueled by his own making, there's little doubt that the Illinois Senator will have trouble rounding up a following, not just around the country but in the entertainment industry. Arianna Huffington claims that David Geffen already has declared for the Obama camp. Hollywood heavyweights like Haim Saban are firmly for Hillary Clinton, but following a recent Obama visit, in which he did a meet-and-greet at the home of Ari Emanuel, several industry donors called Obama's reps anxious to throw him a fund raiser.

What is it that makes him so appealing? Several commentators, including Slate's John Dickerson today, write that Obama has what Clinton does not: a coherent "narrative" that can guide his run for President. Voters can easily respond to the storyline and its overriding message if they understand what it is. It's something that the GOP has mastered (George Bush: "You may not agree with me, but you know where I stand"), but the Dems have largely failed to do in recent elections. In 2004 John Kerry was starting to create one before he was swift-boated, and in 2000 Al Gore suddenly went from Clinton legacy to roll-up-your-sleeves populist.

Writes Dickerson:

"Obama was calling the country to a new sense of purpose but he also seemed to be offering a preview of his campaign narrative. The audacity of hope, as he described it, is a calling to use your will and imagination to take on impossible tasks. He traced that spirit through America's history, arguing that it animated the founders, the abolitionists, and the immigrants who came to the country looking for a better life. Those causes were ennobled because they were carried out against great odds and when cynical voices said nothing could be done. This narrative will serve two political purposes if Obama runs. It makes his inexperience a virtue—he's not a part of the cynical system he's uprooting—and it gives Obama historical gravitas by linking his attempt to change politics to those sweeping social changes he cites."

The prospect of an Obama race certainly changes the dynamics, and there is much speculation that his "audacity of hope" candidacy would hurt other potential contenders, like John Edwards with his "one America" message, more than it would hurt Clinton. That is why potential candidates are spending the holiday season fielding potential donors, and even raising money under the guise of their exploratory committees or PACs --- they want to be taken seriously as a "Hillary alternative."

But it is still very early. After all, only one candidate, Tom Vilsack, has officially said he would run. Obama even says, "I am suspicious of the hype." And a reality check came into play over the weekend when one influential donor, Norman Lear, declared his intention to wait and see. He'll spread his wealth among Clinton, Edwards, Obama and Vilsack. He writes on Huffington Post: "It comes from the naive belief that those members of the electorate who tend to lean or drift or blink to the left just enough not to be deemed centrists, might have something to gain from a vigorous discussion of issues and policies."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) vows to try to strip the NFL of its antitrust exemption to level the playing field between teams and broadcasters, but there are doubts that his bill will go anywhere.

Arianna Huffington says that David Geffen has already committed to backing Barack Obama should he run for President.

Jimmy Carter, Bill Maher and Al Franken get Grammy nominations in the spoken word category. Each done audio book versions of their political tomes. In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, Carter defends his book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," against accusations that it is anti-Israel, but says that major newspapers have all but ignored him.

The ACLU of Southern California honors this year's five-time Grammy nominees the Dixie Chicks Monday night at its Bill of Rights dinner in Los Angeles. Also being honored: screenwriter Paul Haggis and Atlantic Records' Kevin Weaver.

Minority groups give ABC the highest marks for hiring actors of color, but say much more work needs to be done.

Britain's Channel 4 orders up drama about Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Diamond merchants, which launched an aggressive marketing campaign to counter "Blood Diamond," report that sales actually are up this year. The movie, which opens today, has drawn mixed reviews. Meanwhile, stars Jennifer Connelly and Dijmon Hounsou will appear in new public service ads for the U.N. World Food Program.

Reviews are better for Mel Gibson's "Apocalpyto," although Mayan descendants object to the depiction of theur ancestors as savages.

Paramount screens "Dreamgirls" to the Congressional Black Caucus, but even they get anti-piracy sweeped for recording devices.

Spike Lee is developing a Universal feature called "L.A. Riots," about the events before and after the 1992 Rodney King beating verdicts. In a bit of irony, when the riots broke out Lee was screening "Malcolm X" for at Warner Bros. for the first time for Bob Daly and Terry Semel.

Nearly lost in the news that the National Board of Review had picked "Letters from Iwo Jima" as its best picture was that it also chose "An Inconvenient Truth" as best documentary.

On his way out as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) accused the media of overhyping global warming, adding that there is a "media obsession" with "An Inconvenient Truth." His successor, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) , begs to differ.

Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain has picked GOP operative Terry Nelson as his national campaign manager. Nelson was the strategist who headed up an independent expediture committee that aired the controversial blonde bimbo "Harold, call me" ad against Harold Ford's Senate campaign (the spot also was labeled "Hollywood values.)

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) unveil PSAs today informing parents about ratings for videogames.

At a panel Wednesday, TV showrunners lamented stepped up network censorship, with "King of the Hill"'s Greg Daniels revealing that he was only able to depict Hank Hill as constipated when he explained that he was performing a public service to get viewers to have colonoscopies.

With Jonathan Demme's documentary crew in tow, Jimmy Carter appears Monday at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. Demme also has a new twist for the doc: New questions are being raised about the accuracy of Carter's book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," as a Carter Center scholar resigns and says that the ex-presidents tome includes factual errors, omissions and plagarism.

As the nation wonders if President Bush will change course in Iraq, Peter Bart compares the President's  stubborness to that of Alfred Hitchcock. Given the elegant showing Bush and wife Laura made at the Kennedy Center Honors, Bart asks Bush if he'd ever be up for attending the Oscars. "I think there's too much on my plate to make that trip."

After an onslaught of criticism from the networks that its indecency rules were arbitrary and vague, the FCC finally fought back. The lowdown: Networks should steer clear of the seven dirty words in prime time. And the FCC adds in a brief filed in the New York Court of Appeals that even if the commission has allowed uses of cuss words in some instances but not in others, it is free to change its policy. The networks claim that they can't discern what the FCC policy is, given that the use of the "f---" word on a Fox broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards was declared indecent while a fine against CBS's "The Early Show" was dropped because the use of the expletive was found to be fleeting. But the FCC says that it has made its explanations of its decisions amply clear. Swearing in a broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan" was OK, but that was a case where the use of profanity has artistic merit. Fox never claimed that the Billboard incident had such merit, the FCC said. The Commission also said that broadcasters have "only limited First Amendment" protection and that the V-chip was "ineffective."

Another sign that Democrats will be wary of relaxing media ownership rules: Six senators sent FCC Chairman Kevin Martin a letter urging him to finish a study on a local community's media needs. Dems signing were Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), John Kerry (Mass.) and Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Republicans were Trent Lott (Miss.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine).

Rudy Giuliani's first fund raiser for his presidential exploratory committee --- almost as good as collecting money for an '08 bid --- will be in New York on Dec. 19.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be on hand tonight at the California Museum's induction of recipients to its first ever California Hall of Fame. Among those honored will be Clint Eastwood, Walt Disney, Ronald Reagan and Alice Walker.

Sam Waterston throws his weight behind Unity08, an effort to field a bipartisan ticket for the White House with an online political convention. He's friends with Gerald Rafshoon, former aide to President Carter and one of the organizers of the effort.

A Kentucky blogger with a penchant for drafting candidates is pursuing George Clooney to run against incoming Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell in 2008, even if Clooney has indicated that he doesn't have the stomach for a brutal campaign.

The diamond industry already has mounted a campaign to counter "Blood Diamond," which opens this weekend, and now the U.S. government has stepped in. Hoping to stave off questions raised by the movie, state department officials held a briefing with reporters to assure them that international efforts have been successful at reducing the illicit trade to "siginifantly less than 1 percent," according to deputy assistant secretary of state Paul Simons. The film, set in the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, shows how the trade in diamonds in conflict zones has helped pay for brutal wars in Africa. State department officials, worried that the pic will misinform the public, say that the movie takes place before an international initiative was started to control the trade, estimated as at much as 15% of diamonds sold at one point. Human rights groups still have concerns, and even U.S. officials gave the pic their endorsement. "We feel the film provides a good historical snapshot of the diamond industry," Simons said. It may placate concerned citizens, but probably not DeBeers.

Comedy Central plans politically themed mobile content show, "Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States," with a school-age George W. Bush leading a band of kids including a little Condi and little Cheney.

The FCC has set Dec. 11 in Nashville for its next hearing on media ownership. Naomi Judd and Porter Wagoner will be among the panelists.

Stuart Townsend is directing the indie "Battle in Seattle" in Vancouver with Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson and Channing Tatum. Pic is about the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in the great northwest city.

Robert DeNiro tells Time that the CIA was "very helpful" while he made the upcoming "The Good Shepherd" and that the movie will differ from other political spy pics in that he "looked for more original ways that somebody gets their comeuppance. Kind of like what happened the other day in London with [poisoned Russian spy Alexander] Litvinenko."

A plug for Variety's screening of "An Inconvenient Truth" on Thursday: Video highlights from the event are now posted, click on the image below to view them.

Participant Prods., responsible for "An Inconvenient Truth," turns to another Democratic leader who has rebounded from a stinging political defeat with a new documentary on Jimmy Carter. Jonathan Demme has been following the ex-president during his book tour for "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid," a new tome that has inspired its share of protest. In his doc titled "He Comes in Peace," Demme says he hopes to capture the spontaneous moments in verite style, rather than rely on talking heads. (He even gets Carter swimming at New York's Peninsula Hotel. Demme certainly got that with a recent Carter appearance on C-SPAN's "Book Notes," in which one caller labeled him an anti-Semite.

A little late this a.m., so...

Kennedy Center honorees Steven Spielberg, Smokey Robinson, Zubin Mehta, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Dolly Parton mixed entertainment and politics in D.C. over the weekend, including a reception at the State Department. Variety's Army Archerd spoke to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who said he has no plans to see "Bobby." "I don't think I'd ever be able to look at it," he said. Archerd also talks to Sid Ganis, who is preparing a feature version of Nancy Pelosi's daughter's doc "Journeys with George."

Ralph Nader may have helped cost Al Gore the 2000 election, will he now cost him the Oscar race? The doc "An Unreasonable Man," about Nader's life and times, is short-listed in the Academy's documentary race and will get a Jan. 31 release.

Peter Morgan's play "Frost/Nixon," soon to be a Ron Howard movie, actually makes people like the late President.

Liz Smith finds Hillary Clinton has a steel-trap mind when it comes to greeting curious media types.

Jack Valenti marks the 40th anniversary of MPAA's film ratings by noting that the often-controversial system has staved off censorship from local boards.

In his first post-midterm interview, President Bush chats with Fox News's Brit Hume tonight.

The New York Times looks at the 1960s-era episodes of "Combat!" directed by the late Robert Altman and finds them still disturbing in their realism.

Gwyneth Paltrow says she's "lucky to be an American" and that supposedly anti-American statements attributed to her by a Portuguese newspaper were misconstrued. "obviously I need to go back to seventh grade Spanish," she tells People.com.

Barack Obama, in Southern California for World AIDS Day, guested on Jay Leno where the host tried to goad him into announcing a presidential bid. "I know there is a tradition of making announcements on this show...but I'm committed to the Food Network," Obama quipped.

The Illinois Senator said he plans to announce his decision early next year, and when asked whether he would consider running for vice president, he said, "You don't run for vice president, so I don't think about it as much."

Obama said that he believed much of the excitement over a possible bid was because "I think I'm sort of a stand in right now for the American people being interested in a new kind of politics."

Earlier in the day he appeared at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church along with Sen. San Brownback (R-Kansas), another presidential contender. Warren defended Obama's appearance against conservative Christian critics upset with his stance on abortion.

"Everyone was reporting on me going to church," Obama said. "It was like, a Democrat in church!"

Obama's star status grew out of his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address. On Leno, he noted what a difference that experience was from 2000, when he couldn't even get a floor pass and "got access to the restrooms."

"That was my first convention experience," he said. "The second was better."

His standard response is that he "has no plans" to run for President, but Al Gore deftly worked crowds, roused audiences and whipped up further interest in "An Inconvenient Truth."

It was hard not to notice that his swing through California this week --- which included a guest spot on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," an award from the California League of Conservation Voters and (a bit self-serving here) an appearance at a Variety screening series --- allowed him to mix in contributor and key supporter circles while at the same time promoting the DVD of "Truth" and, hopefully for all of those involved, landing an Oscar nomination.

Backers of "Truth" insist its message is non-partisan --- after all, who isn't for saving the earth? --- but is all but impossible for Gore not to get quite political.

"You know, [on DVD releases] some of the movies have alternate endings," Gore quipped before hundreds at the Conservation Voters event. "Let the audience vote. One of the alternate endings is that the President of the United States wakes up and gets it and starts working to solve global warming."

He had particular digs for the Bush administration's arguments in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, in which states are pressing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In the case that Slate called "Bush vs. Gore's movie," administration lawyers argued that there was still insufficient evidence that carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming, and therefore there is no reason to impose such regulations.

The League's exec director Susan Smartt said the film was the "tipping point" in the public consciousness about global warming. But California Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, also being honored along with the team behind "Truth," was a bit more flippant: "If you could just do your slide show to the Supreme Court, or maybe Justice Kennedy."

Later Thursday evening, at the Variety screening, Gore said he couldn't predict how the Court would decide the case --- and drew more than a few laughs when he deadpanned that he hasn't had the best of luck with the justices.

Joining Gore were director Davis Guggenheim and producer Lawrence Bender, in a session in which the former Vice President blended plenty of irreverence (often at his own expense) with a mini-speech on a whole other front: the influence of political ads. Although Gore says he has high hopes for the Internet in opening up the political discourse, it's not there yet, and campaigns on both sides of the aisle amounted to a barrage of commercial messages, many of them negative. The intensity of his "system-is-broken" argument got so passionate that you couldn't help but think that maybe another movie was in the offing.

Although the film may have shifted some public opinion --- Pat Robertson and Rupert Murdoch are now pressing for action --- Gore says he hasn't heard anything from the White House, or whether anyone there had seen the movie. In fact, he seemed a bit puzzled that the question even was asked, given that Bush has said he has no plans to see it.

Paramount Vantage is pushing "Truth" for an Oscar, along with a song by Melissa Etheridge, and so far the pic is in the list of 15 selected by the Academy's documentary committee, which will pare it down to five for the nominations. Guggenheim says that such awards attention would naturally keep the pic in the public eye. Given Gore's popularity in the entertainment industry, it would seem a slam dunk, but the doc committee has been famously unpredictable.

Gore was a bit more candid when he talked abiout the making of the movie. He said that he may have not done the picture at all had he known how biographical it would be (he talks about the 2000 election, his sister's death from lung cancer, and his son's serious accident), "truly I would not have gone forward."

"That is not false modesty," he said. "I did not know what I got to know later and trust Davis's judgments and instincts and then I sat through it. Among Davis' many skills are the interviewing skills of a documentarian. The answers that you have used that have sufficed pretty well for years are simply met with 'Yes, but why?'"

For more on Gore, read Sharon Swart's interview on Variety.com, and watch a clip of the event.

The political media descends on Saddleback Church in Orange County today for potential '08 contender Barack Obama's appearance with pastor Rick Warren on World AIDS Day. Later, Obama guests on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Fellow book-tourist/1600 hopeful John Edwards visits Southern California with an appearance Monday night at All Saints Church in Pasadena.

The FCC's indecency crackdown gets a full-frontal assault from the ACLU, Hollywood's talent guilds and even two former commission officials, who file friend of the court briefs in the network's case against the commissions authority. The FCC vets say that the recent actions "have all the earmarks of a Victorian morals crusade."

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), proponent of net neutrality, full PBS funding and the V-chip, looks to be chair of the House Telecom subcommittee.

"Blood Diamond" star Leonardo DiCaprio is surprised at diamond industry's reaction to the film; but he's pleased with the Dems coming to power and that the country has "taken a turn for the better."

Former Canadian prime ministers like Brian Mulroney take part as judges in new Canadian reality show "The Next Great Prime Minister."

Ben Karlin resigns as executive producer of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report."

In wake of "Borat," Kazakh news crew has trouble covering U.S. elections.