Patt Morrison for Thursday, July 7, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Thursday, July 7, 2011

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

 

1:06 – 1:30

OPEN

 

 

 

1:30 - 1:58:30

Marketing sugar to kids: has the government gone too far, or not far enough?

The advertising associated with sugary cereals has captured the imagination of children who grew up watching Tony the Tiger proclaim “They’re Grrrreat!”  But not everyone agrees that “they are magically delicious” or that “Trix are for kids.” A few years ago Congress asked the FDA, the CDC, the FTC and the Department of Agriculture to devise some guidelines for how “fatty, sugary, or low-nutrition foods” are marketed to kids. Those recommendations have been served up, but an equally long list of private sector groups including advertisers, broadcasters, grocers and food manufactures aren’t too happy about them and are asking the administration to take a second look.  They assert that the voluntary guidelines limit too many foods, even some flavored milk from being advertised to children under the age of 17.  Why does the government care so much about what our children eat? One reason: The childhood obesity rate has tripled since 1980. Currently, almost 30 percent of our nations’ children are obese and many experts believe those numbers represent a public health crisis. But is regulating what our kids eat the responsibility of the U.S. government or parents? In 2009, Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity analyzed the numbers and found that the least healthy cereals are the ones marketed most heavily to children.  By contrast, junk food cannot be advertised to children in the U.K.  So should the U.S. be more restrictive and mandate the recommendations, or less restrictive and let parents decide?  Is the industry putting its bottom line above children’s health, or just selling what parents and kids want?  A representative from the FTC blogged that the recommendations are just that and noted that the industry should “switch to decaf.” But the grocery manufactures say they are taking these guidelines seriously and counter that the rules governing what they can advertise to children are too strict.  So how much sugar is too much for kids and who should make that decision?

 

Guests:

SHE CAN ONLY STAY FOR 6 – 10 MINUTES (ON ALONE)

Michele Rusk, staff attorney, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 

CALL HER @

 

SHE WANTS TO LIMIT ADVERTISING TO KIDS (ON ALONE)

Michele Simon, member of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood’s steering committee and the author of Appetite for Profit

CALL HER@

 

UNCONFIRMED – REPRESENTING INDUSTRY CONCERNS

Representative, Grocery Manufacturers Association

Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of government relations at the Association of National Advertisers

 

 

 

2:06 – 2:19

OPEN

 

 

 

2:21 – 2:39

Patt’s night at the museum: Thomas the T. Rex invades Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum

Back in its heyday, about 67 million years ago, it was truly the tyrant lizard king, measuring up to 42 feet in length, its skull alone weighed 1,000 pounds and was by far the largest carnivore in its environment.  Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the largest known land predators in the history of the world, and one T. Rex in particular has invaded Los Angeles.  Thomas the T. Rex and several of his friends, including two other younger T. Rex specimens, will all be on display at the new Dinosaur Hall exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.  Open to the public on July 16^th the hall includes some of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever assembled, as well as several real dinosaur skulls that are simply massive in their size and scope.  A 66-million-year-old Triceratops greets visitors when they first enter the hall, assembled from fossils discovered by the NHM’s own Dinosaur Institute; a 150-million-year-old Stegosaurus is fighting with an Allosaurus, a cousin to T. Rex; dinosaurs that lived in ancient seas and flew in the Jurassic skies are all on display throughout the hall.  Patt takes a walk through Dinosaur Hall with Luis Chiappe, the man who personally dug up most of the fossils in the exhibit, and gives a preview of the dinosaur invasion of Southern California.

 

Guests:

Jane Pisano, president & director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

ON TAPE from NHM

 

Luis Chiappe, director of the Dinosaur Institute & curator at the Natural History Museum Department of Vertebrate Paleontology

ON TAPE from Dinosaur Hall

 

***Watch exclusive video of KPCC’s tour of Dinosaur Hall at http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/

 

 

2:41 – 2:58:30

Writing Movies For Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too!

Writing isn’t always fun, but it can be profitable! Learn the secret screenwriting techniques taught elsewhere only by monks of the Tibetan Plateau. Robert Ben Garant of The State and Thomas Lennon of Reno 911 shine some light into the hidden cash crop of Hollywood, screenplays. Robert and Thomas have made over a billion dollars using their secret system and now you can too! Just look at what Paul Rudd of California-acting fame had to say “These guys are proof that with no training and little education, anyone can make it as a screenwriter.” That sounds convincing.  Remember that you don’t have to like what you’re writing, or even make your material particularly creative, you just have to make it marketable. Hear all about their book Writing Movies For Fun and Profit and learn how to make your fortune in the wildly lucrative world of script writing!

 

Guests:

Thomas Lennon, member of comedy group The State, co-creator of Reno 911 and prolific Hollywood screenwriter

IN STUDIO

 

Robert Ben Garant, member of comedy group The State, co-creator of Reno 911 and prolific Hollywood screenwriter

IN STUDIO

 

 

 

Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org