Douglas Howe: July 2009 Archives

Well, the news is out--Michael Vick gets another chance.

The Huffington Post told the story clearly:

"Michael Vick is back in the NFL," wrote Barry Wilner. "Now all he needs is a team to play for."

One of the foremost young talents the league has seen in a long time fizzled on the field and burned out off of the field, and was arrested on a number of charges, including the financing and hosting of a dog fighting operation in Virginia where he lived.

Did you know that Rush Limbaugh made $54 million dollars last year? And, he's not not even on the top of the list of the wealthiest celebrities.

According to a current Forbes magazine report, Oprah made $275 million even in a year when advertising revenues are down due to the current economic challenges. Phil McGraw ("Dr. Phil") is making $80 million. "American Idol's" Simon Cowell ($75 million), Sirius radio's Howard Stern ($70 million) and Donald Trump ($50 million) join Limbaugh on the top half of the list.

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." -Genesis 2:24

"...as long as we both shall live." -traditional wedding vow

Apparently, vows don't count much in Hollywood anymore. USA Today is focusing on the topic, proclaiming "they're all out of love but the spotlight lives on." I wonder how much the star power of divorce sets a cultural trend that isn't quite so great.

On Thursday, the news broke publically that Amy Winehouse's two-year marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil had ended. Mr. Fielder-Civil called her "intolerable to live with." This was the latest in the current string of celebrity break-ups.

I haven't kept up with all of them, but apparently the list includes Billy and Katie Lee Joel, Nas and Kelis, Usher and Tameka Foster Raymond, the 16-year marriage of Bradley Whitford and Jane Kaczmarek and the 28-year marriage of Mel Gibson and Robyn Moore. And, of course, Jon and Kate Gosselin, who I've really heard enough about lately.

It's it times like this that I root for them to do the same kind of story--and give the same kind of graphics, pictures and focus to the couples who are staying together. There are actually more than you think.

He was the last trusted anchor.

He was the man in the cultural pulpit.

He was the one whom we trusted.

He was what we once knew every night: the one who brought an unbiased representation of the news of the day.

Before Brian Williams. Before Charlie Gibson. Before Katie Couric. Before Tom Brokaw. Before Peter Jennings. Before Dan Rather. Before Larry King. Before Wolf Blitzer. Before even Hannity and The Factor, there was the honorable, the revered, the respected and the trusted Walter Cronkite.

Walter Cronkite died at 92-years-old late Friday night. He was a wonderful and inspiring man. More than Michael Jackson, more than Farrah Fawcett, more than Karl Malden, more than Billy Mays, more than Ed McMahan...a man has died whom countless Americans trusted.

And it's been a long time since we've trusted anyone as much since then.

40 years ago this Monday, my neighbor, Neil Armstrong, walked on the moon. I'm not sure which is more unbelievable to me: the fact that it happened, or the fact that he and I now have mutual friends (I've never met him). It was, truly, an emotional moment for our country!

For the first time ever, a human being stepped onto the surface of a piece of land not on earth. Neil Armstrong was the moon's first E.T., and Buzz Aldrin was second. Most of America--and the world--watched live. I watched as Walter Cronkite momentarily lost his journalistic bravado and got weepy. Wally Schirra, an astronaut on the air to provide color commentary, was equally speechless. And the nation beamed with pride during an achievement that began in politics, was achieved through vision, science and faith, and was completed with some saavy astronauts piloting through computer errors and nearly a loss of fuel to complete their victorious journey on the most public stage the world had ever seen.

It was September 12, 1962, when John F. Kennedy went before a crowd at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and announced publically the following: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." His speech was not only visionary but also realistically practical, as he acknowledged the cost and the long odds and made a case for why we needed to go anyway. (Read the complete speech.)

The Emmy nominations were announced today, which for me is a good-news-bad-news thing. In fact, it's bittersweet. For the record, "30 Rock" and "Mad Men" absolutely dominated the nominations. "30 Rock" led the comedy side of the slate with an...

Many celebrities do really nice things for charity, but every once in a while they not only take on a cause, but they're willing to get uncomfortable doing it. Such a sacrifice will be made next week above New York...

We like to keep things positive here at Idol Chatter. The intersection of pop culture and faith is a dynamic and inspiring corner of the blogosphere. But I'm struggling to find what's positive or inspiring about Sasha Baron Cohen's latest...

Well, we borrowed "American Idol" from Britain, and I say it's time to borrow another TV show. This one's from, of all places, Turkey! It's designed to do something you'd never think is possible in a country like that--nor ours...

Apparently death isn't a strong news story if there's too many at one time. I fear our pop culture has become such a strong force in our nation that it may have more of an impact than it should upon...

You may like her. You may not. But regardless of what the majority of politicos and pollsters are saying about her, Sarah Palin is emerging as one of the most recognizable pop culture icons of our time. She is the...

Sometimes sports television crosses over into the world of pop culture, and this year's July 4th weekend certainly marked such a time. Roger Federer won his historically best 15th Grand Slam tennis title, and Tiger Woods won the tournament he...