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Despite Scandal: Country Singer Morgan Wallen Has 20 Singles in the iTunes Top 100, Album Sales Rose 16% This Week

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Country singer Morgan Wallen may have really shown us a referendum on stupidity and ignorance.

After being exposed by TMZ in a video using the “N word,” Wallen saw sales of his music rise dramatically. To his fans, it was just a tempest in a teapot.

Wallen has 20 of the top 100 singles on the iTunes charts. A fifth of the chart!

“Dangerous: The Double Album” rose 16% according to hitsdailydouble.com. The album sold 152,596, with the bulk of that — 120,493 — in streaming.

Wallen’s “If I Know Me” rose 34%, selling 21,868 copies, again most of it streaming.

The streaming part is important because it’s easy and cheap, part of a subscription, doesn’t require much effort and can be done over and over.

Wallen’s fans not only didn’t care about the N word controversy, they seem to have applauded it.

Morgan’s all white record company, Big Loud, said they “suspended” him, whatever that means. They certainly accepted the money from those sales this week.

Fox News Fires Lou Dobbs, Cancels His Show After He’s Named Defendant in $2 Billion Lawsuit

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Lou Dobbs just wheezed on and on for months about election fraud on his Fox Business show every night. The former CNN anchor had a lot of crazy, outrageous theories about how Joe Biden stole the election from Donald Trump.

Then the election technology company, Smartmatic, filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation and Fox News. They named anchors Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanne Pirro. Last night, Fox fired Dobbs. His show is gone. Poof! He carried their water, encouraged by them, and they killed him.

Just like that. There’s no honor among thieves.

Could Bartiromo and Pirro be next? Cross fingers. They were also encouraged to act like lunatics on the Fox News airwaves. They did what they were told. They should be fired, too.

There are no tears for Lou Dobbs. When I knew him in the 1990s at CNN, he was loathed. He was a miserable creature who tortured everyone around him. He used to dress down the anchors on CNNfn on camera in front of the whole studio. They were talented people who wound up leaving the business.

When he brought his shoe-polished head to Fox News, it made sense. No one else would have him. After an interim job with with something no one ever figured out– Space.com– he returned to CNN and became a birther. Yes. Lou Dobbs was a proponent of the fake news that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US. He was ousted from CNN a second time in 2009.

Don’t worry about Lou. I’m sure he’ll wind up on Newsmax or with OANN or some other crazy right wing fringe organization. He’s 75, but he’ll go down swinging. And he’ll be remembered as a footnote in the saga of how fake news tried to hoodwink the uneducated viewer.

He’ll also remain a defendant in that lawsuit. Good luck with that.

 

RIP “Midnight Train to Georgia” Songwriter Jim Weatherly, Gladys Knight Says: “We were must made for each other”

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Singer songwriter Jim Weatherly has died at age 77. He wrote Gladys Knight’s biggest hits of the early 70s, including the incredible songs “Neither One of Us” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

Weatherly also wrote “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,” “Where Peaceful Waters Flow,” and many other hits for Gladys and the Pips as well as many other country stars.

In 2002, Weatherly won a landmark case against Universal Music Publishing for underpaying him on royalties for “Midnight Train.”

Gladys said in an interview just this past Saturday with Clive Davis on his Zoom pre-Grammy gala that the song had originally been titled “Midnight Train to Houston.” She said, “I’m from Georgia, and that’s where that train is going!”

“Neither One of Us” was Gladys and the Pips’ exit hit from Motown. They’d already left the label and moved to Buddah Records and scored with “Midnight Train.” Someone at Motown went back and looked at their most recent album, discovered “Neither One of Us” just sitting there, and rushed it out to radio. The effect was that in 1973, Gladys Knight and the Pips — whose big Motown successes were in the late 60s — were revived big time, mostly thanks to Jim Weatherly.

Gladys wrote on Twitter: “We were just made for each other. We grew our lives together. I’m gonna miss him terribly and love him always.”

Here’s Jim and country star Lynn Anderson (“Rose Garden”) performing “Midnight Train”:

Ratings: Rachel Maddow Opens 1 Million Viewer Lead Over Sean Hannity Wednesday Night as Fox News Tumbles Again

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On Wednesday night MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow beat Fox News’s Sean Hannity by 1 million viewers.

Maddow had 3,898,000 million viewers tune in to her erudite, entertaining show.

Hannity, spewing baseless theories and alternative facts, crumbled. He invited in 2,890,000 million misinformed guests.

This was the third night this week that Maddow ate Hannity’s lunch. She did it all last week, too.

Maddow’s success spilled over onto Lawrence O’Donnell’s equally insightful program at 10pm. He scored 2,835,000 million.

His Fox News competition, Laura Ingraham, had to settle for 2,096,000.

Fox News is in a free fall. Only Tucker Carlson is pulling in an audience, and it’s unclear if they’re just snoozing until someone comes to put them to bed. What’s also happening at 8pm is that Anderson Cooper on CNN and Chris Hayes on MSNBC are splitting the intelligent audience at that hour. Their audience together is over 5 million, much larger than Carlson.

Is it really that Fox News has lost its ultra right viewers? Or are thinking people just turning away as the Republicans lose their minds, endorse racism and hate, ignore the pandemic, and unemployment?

 

 

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Contrition Ends, Congresswoman Calls Democrats “Morons” For Giving Her Time to Speak

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Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Greene must be removed from the House at once. She is demented, and off her rocker. After being stripped of the ability to be on committees in Congress, this morning Greene lashed back at Democrats. Last night before the vote, she appeared to be contrite about her racist statements and her insane theories.

But today she called Democrats “morons” for lettering her speak on the floor of Congress. She wrote on Twitter:

“I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving some one like me free time.

In this Democrat tyrannical government, Conservative Republicans have no say on committees anyway.

Oh this is going to be fun!”

She also wrote: “First 10 who voted for the impeachment of President Trump.

Then 11 who voted with Democrats against me, opening the door for every Republican to be taken.

The base is keeping list of these type of “R’s.”

They’re fed up.

This type of betrayal will cost us the majority in ‘22.”

They’re going to have vote to not just censure her but remove her now. This is unacceptable.

That Was Fast! Nick Cannon Restored to All Jobs 7 Months After Anti-Semitic Comments and Farrakhan Backing

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Hollywood has a short memory.

It was only seven months ago that Nick Cannon lost his jobs with Viacom and his talk show was put on hold after he was caught making anti-Semitic remarks. He also thoroughly backed Louis Farrakhan. His You Tube channel was full of interviews supporting Nation of Islam ideals.

But then Sherry Redstone of Viacom, whose first husband was a rabbi, took offense. So Nick was fired from Viacom and “Wild n Out” show. He threatened to sue and said he owned the show. (He didn’t). He was also bounced from MTV and Viacom.

His syndicated talk show from Debmar-Mercury was put on hold.

The only company that didn’t fire him was Fox, for hosting “The Masked Singer.”

Nick started an apology tour, sucking up to rabbis and so on. He never really rebuked Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam.

But you know, that was then. This is now. Nick is back. All has been forgiven. These people are so stupid, it hurts. But there we are.

Listen, Morgan Wallen used the “N” word this week, and he’s barely suffered a scratch. If there’s money to be made, no one’s going to hold a grudge.

 

“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” Eyes Revival with “Schitt’s Creek” Actress But No One Can Replace Louise Lasser and Mary Kay Place

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The brilliant satire from the mid 1970s, “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” is going to be revived. Good luck.

“Schitt’s Creek” actress Emily Hampshire will play an updated Mary. No other cast has been announced.

The original show, a parody of soap operas before Susan developed “Soap,” ran for two seasons (325 episodes), and was created by Gail Parent, Ann Marcus, Jerry Adelman and Daniel Gregory Browne. It was broadcast in syndication Monday through Friday at 11:30pm, five days a week. The result was a worn out cast that had to respond to overnight fame and incredibly popularity. The star, Louise Lasser, barely made it to the end.

“Mary Hartman” spun off two shows, “Fernwood Tonight” and “Forever Fernwood.” The former featured Martin Mull and Fred Willard, basically turning them into stars, as well. The rest of the “Mary Hartman” cast included Mary Kay Place, Dody Goodman, Phil Bruns, Graham Jarvis, Debralee Scott, and Greg Mullavey. Goodman and Bruns were already well known. Place — who was the hilarious aspiring country singer Loretta Haggers — has gone on to a stellar acting career of four decades. The sublime Marian Mercer and Dabney Coleman played the memorable Jeeters.

Lasser, who was burned out from “Mary Hartman,” retreated after the series into a semi-retirement. When she took the role, she was famous from Woody Allen’s “Bananas.” She was also the director’s second wife.

“Mary Hartman” depended on a kind of subversive knowledge of the culture, a sublime way to poke fun at suburbia and middle America. It’s a sense of humor that doesn’t exist anymore in the PC world. That kind of satire might exist in some indie film space, but I doubt these new people will get it, or be allowed to do it. As awful as the people of Fernwood were, that’s what America has become.

To wit: Loretta was a guest on “The Dinah Shore Show.” It was her big break. Live on the air, Dinah told Loretta she was Jewish. “Them’s the people what killed our Lord,” Loretta replied. Trust me, we’re not going to hear that now.

This will be a disaster, but that won’t stop anyone from trying to make money from it.

 

UPDATE Morgan Wallen’s Record Company Is 99% White, Maybe the Reason He’s Indifferent to Using the N Word

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America loves a good old boy.

Morgan Wallen, who’s being “shunned” and “punished” for being caught using the N word, is really suffering.

This afternoon has four of the top five albums on the iTunes chart. People have really rejected him!

How is this happening? Are his fans just ordering and ordering?

And what of Big Loud Records? I’m curious how their suspension of his contract is going. So far, so good, I’d say. Maybe later today he’ll have all of the top 5.

Big Loud’s website is worth checking out, by the way. All but one of their employees is white. Yee-hah! That could be the reason he’s indifferent to using the N word. He’s living in a bubble.  On their website they feature 21 smiling faces, all but one is Caucasian. The very last guy on the page, bottom right, appears to be non white. Whew!

 

 

Trump to SAG Prez Carteris: “I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership.Who cares!”

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Donald Trump celebrated the SAG Awards today by insulting the org’s prez, Gabrielle Carteris.

He wrote to her resigning from SAG and blasting her at the same time.

He is, to use a good juvenile word, a nincompoop.

Melania asked: “I don’t care, do you?” Now Trump says: “I don’t care!”

Thus, he is prevented from appearing on television again as a performer. Soon, he won’t be able to run for federal office again.

Says Bill Withers, it’s a lovely day.

Not April Fools! Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler Reunion Set for April 1st on “SVU” to Launch “Organized Crime”

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This is not an April Fools joke!

NBC has set April 1st for the long awaited reunion of Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler.

“Law and Order: Organized Crime” starring Christopher Meloni will debut with a “Law and Order: SVU” crossover on that fateful day.

The two-hour event will begin with a new episode of “SVU” at 9 p.m. ET, followed by the debut of “Organized Crime” at 10. The crossover will reunite Meloni and “SVU” star Mariska Hargitay onscreen for the first time since Meloni departed “SVU” after the show’s 12th season in 2011.

The new series sees Stabler return to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss– maybe his wife is dead, which will open up romantic possibilities. Stabler will aim to rebuild his life as part of a new elite task force that is taking apart the city’s most powerful criminal syndicates one by one.

That Meloni is back is great news for “SVU” fans. It’s also good news for him. When he was on the show he was in constant contract re-negotiations and was always unhappy with how NBC and Dick Wolf’s company remunerated him. But time has a way of healing everything.

Now let’s get Tamara Tunie back on the show more!