Yeah, this is pretty big TV business news.  You'd think AV Club would on it, but AVC's news judgement does not always match up with the general public. 

Yeah, it's a little ironic that the defining moment of Stewart's transitioning the Daily Show from talk show to Important Issues With Jokes* was when he went on Crossfire and told them they were what's wrong with the world.  He's as apt to get into angry fights as any public figure.  Remember when he called Truman a…

The Office had fine (albeit not great) ratings when it was good.  Sometimes the hipster elite and public at large both react to things the same way.

The real question is, so what?  If it's still interesting, who cares if they're trying to synergize ratings with Breaking Bad?  If that ruins your good time, you're going to have a bad time all the time.

The injury rate for NCAA football was 8.1 injuries per 1,000 "athlete exposures" (games and practices).  Men's soccer: 7.7/1,000; women's soccer: 7.3/1,000.  Football really isn't much more likely to cause injuries than other sports, and it also isn't terrible.  That adds up to a win.

This was also the first week of camp.  Hard Knocks does advance work, but they have to wait and let the story lines develop more than just about anything else on TV.  Something will happen in preseason games, or some player will be surprisingly entertaining, or some WAG will come by and steal the show, or something. …

I'm more offended that he called it a series instead of a season. 

Just assume every word you don't know is a racial slur. 

I'm pretty sure "Message for me!" would be my text message alert if I ever didn't use silent. 

Actually, this sounds like the most normal divorce dispute in the world.  Mom has primary custody, dad gets mad that the mom is jerking around his time with the kids, mom accuses the dad of harassment, dad says he's getting screwed by the system.  That's in the neighborhood of 100% of breakups with kids. 

Careful, pointing out how flimsy Elson's accusations of harassment are might seem like "harassment" to her lawyer. 

No, the musical Tarantino corollary is Girl Talk.  He takes other people's art, recombines it in interesting ways, and makes music without really being a musician so much as a creative sound engineer. 

Nah, just taunting Mitt Romney that megarich Democrats get away with saying things like this.  Also, that he can demand higher taxes on the rich while simultaneously continuing to minimize his tax liabilities in every way possible. 

@avclub-e3f5ab7f02122f95b801e13e2c586d6a:disqus Basketball is popular in urban areas, true, and partially for the reasons I mentioned: it's a small court that is accessible even in the inner city, where football, soccer, or baseball fields are not.  But when I think of where basketball is "important" the way football…

Wow, I just started educating myself on hardcore and first-wave posthardcore punk this year.  I had no idea I was part of a movement that included Urban Outfitters.  Makes me feel a little less special.

I think it comes down to what you watch for.  The NBA has made a conscious decision to be a player-oriented league, and have marketed themselves as such (and made the refs part of the marketing department, essentially) at least since Jordan became a household name.  If you want to see great players do great things,…

Let's not confound "women's basketball" and "the WNBA."  I love NCAA men's basketball, and yet didn't watch a single NBA game until the Finals this year.  I feel the same with women's ball: college good, pro bad.  If the WNBA were what it pretended to be for a while (better fundamentals, better game play) that would…

No, that's the brilliance of preferred groups: not treating people differently is just as discriminatory as treating people differently. 

"Today, I picked an employee of the month from the box."

On the Directors Series: The Work of Spike Jonze DVD, there is a running commentary with the Beastie Boys.  Horowitz tells a long, winding story about starting a fight with a band on Lollapalooza during a basketball game, and he spends about two music videos worth of time trying to remember who it was.  Turns out, it…