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FOX News, which regularly gets around reporting false news by posting it as a question (”Is Cloverfield Exploiting 9/11?”) rather than a headline (ex: Cloverfield - Another Movie Which In No Way Refers to 9/11), recently filled airtime by hiring a pundit to assess the many ways in which the (supposedly) insidious and manipulative film might possibly be applicable to events which occurred during 9/11. We’ll just go ahead and spoil the video - there aren’t any. But nothing stops Rupert Murdoch’s flagship from making a mountain out of a molehill if it can find a way to bring up 9/11 and spread around some panic, even if they have to accuse some random filmmaker of bringing up 9/11 and spreading around some panic to make it happen.

Perhaps the worse news is that FOX, which will be airing NFL Superbowl XLII on Feb. 3, plans to smear its political commentary all over the pre- and post-game. Add to that all the commercials for candidates sure to pop up during commercial breaks, and viewers are likely to get more than their fill of politics and pundits long before they get their fill of football.

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Workers Remove The Remains Of Tents In Duncan Plaza

Those of you who have been following the soap opera that is New Orleans City Hall will be glad to know that the council held a meeting today to address the city’s homelessness problem. You might remember a few weeks back, when the same council voted to demolish the three remaining low-rent housing complexes (refresher), which residents attempted to save from HUD. The council also recently closed Duncan Plaza, a grassy area downtown which had been filled with temporary shelter tents for 249 people unable to find housing elsewhere. Today the council heard from the NOPD and a variety of non-profit agencies which target homeless individuals. The NOPD officers complained (rightly, I expect) that the police are often expected to take responsibility for people who are both homeless and chronically ill.

But the majority of people who experience homelessness are not mentally ill, a fact which seems to elude Councilmember Stacey Head. When the employees of local shelters were questioned as to the cause of the problem, they looked with some measure of incredulity at the council and tried to say something more politic than “uh, you demolished all the low-rent housing.” An employee of Unity used the exact phrase “systemic issues related to the lack of affordable housing,” but it was New Orleanian David Nolbert who got right to the point, saying “There’s nothing wrong with our minds. We need houses. You need a structure. You need the foundation it’s built from.”

In other words, homeless people are not the problem. Homelessness - the state of being homeless - is the problem. And homelessness is solved only by providing homes - ones which people can afford. No amount of shelters or mental health facilities or policing will solve the problems of a slow economy and lack of affordable housing. So one might think that a council which clearly cannot fix the economy might consider the alternative option. Not our city council, which has chosen the least useful route of considering no options at all, other than to demolish the city’s low-rent housing and hold the same meeting again in two weeks. Perhaps next time they’ll decide to address the 250 homeless people who suddenly showed up under the Clayburn Ave. overpass.

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Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert To Return From Strike

Today marks two full months of the WGA strike. In continued solidarity with the writers (and completely ripped off from Best Week Ever), we share our list:

“Silver Linings Of The Writers Strike”

• Late Night takes pity - Or more likely Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert recognize that even the WGA doesn’t trump ensuring someone besides Fox covers the election year. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are both scheduled to begin re-airing four nights a week, starting Monday. Late night is ruled by David Letterman, who negotiated a separate contract with the WGA and can return at relatively full staff and with SAG’s support, meaning he can continue to book A-list celebrities. Meanwhile, Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmell will be swapping each other’s shows.
• Bored Writers - Who have to write somewhere after all. Some suspiciously timely new websites give us hope for a future with a sense of humor.
• Did you ever notice Harvey Levin of TMZ is the same guy who asks passersby on The People’s Court whether the defendent is guilty? TMZ recently reported that the show Judge Judy is being sued essentially for sending African American litigants over to tape on the Judge Joe Brown show. In weirder news, Harvey Levin has a law degree.
• American Gladiators - Amidst an era of steroid-panicked congressional witch hunts, Laila Ali and Father Of The Year Hulk Hogan will host this revival. Hogan has recently been in the news due to his son Nick’s DUI accident, which nearly killed his best friend and passenger. Hogan’s sudden but very public divorce proceedings may serve to protect his personal assets from any ensuing litigation. Either way, it would appear Hogan does not, in fact, know best.
• Reality Rescue - The best of the worst include Rock of Love 2 (Bret gets even girlier) and the raising of a new generation of douchebaggery…

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