RE: Patt Morrison for Friday, March 9, 2012

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Friday, March 9, 2012

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

The new culture of white-collar unemployment

Our boom-and-bust economy over recent decades has made repeated layoffs a part of life. Nearly every large company has experienced seismic shifts in fortune, and white-collar employees have had a hard time keeping their footing.  The promise of a long-term career – complete with gold watch – has become a thing of the past.  How are today’s skilled workers responding? The answer is a new definition of employment in which rootless workers have come to think of themselves as a “company of one.”  Networking events, career seminars and the emergence of sites like LinkedIn.com, are just some of the ways recent generations have adapted to the insecurity of the corporate job market.  Can the man (or woman) in the Grey Flannel Suit stay relevant in the 21^st century?

 

Guest:

Carrie Lane, associate professor of American Studies at California State University Fullerton and author of “A Company of One: Insecurity, Independence and the New World of White-Collar Unemployment” (Cornell University Press, 2011)

IN STUDIO

 

 [BREAK]

 

2:06 – 2:40

Battle over lowering MPAA’s “R” rating of “Bully”

The battle over “Bully” is heating up. The new documentary film on bullying, set for release March 30 by The Weinstein Company, got an R rating for language, but fans say a film that could help kids cope with bullies shouldn’t be off limits to those kids. Katy Butler, a 17-year-old high school student in Michigan who was bullied in middle school as a lesbian teen, started a petition through Change.org asking the Motion Picture Association of America to change its rating of the film to PG-13. The R rating, she said in the petition to MPAA, is “robbing many teenagers of the chance to view a film that could change their lives, and help reduce violence in schools.” In just 10 days, Butler’s online petition collected 200,000 signatures, which she presented in five boxes to the MPAA in Los Angeles on Wednesday. More than 250,000 people have now signed the petition. The Weinstein Co. appealed the R rating, but the MPAA has declined to change it. One too many bad words earned an R rating for The Weinstein Co.’s 2010 best picture Oscar winner “The King’s Speech,” also a movie about overcoming obstacles. Should the MPAA change the rating for “Bully” to PG-13? Do ratings systems need reviewing?

 

Guests:

John Horn, Los Angeles Times film writer

Katy Butler, a 17-year-old Michigan high school student who started a petition through Change.org for the MPAA to change the rating for “Bully” from R to PG-13.

 

·         The petition has collected more than 250,000 signatures.

·         In middle school, Butler came out as a lesbian, was taunted at school, and one time, a group of boys pushed her into a locker, which broke her finger.

 

UNCONFIRMED

Cynthia Lowen, “Bully” producer

 

 

2:41:30 – 2:58:30

How much is too much to pay for popcorn at the movies?

A Michigan man is fed up with the cost of popcorn and concessions at the movie theater and has decided to do something about it.  He isn’t brining his own snacks (he tried that, but the theater prohibits it) or refraining from buying popcorn in protest; he’s filing a class-action lawsuit against AMC Theaters for price-gouging.  Joshua Thompson is willing to pay a little extra for popcorn, sodas and candy, but paying up to four times the cost of a box of Goobers is taking it too far.  Some legal experts doubt whether the suit will be successful because movies theaters are exempt from Michigan’s price-gouging statutes, but that’s not going to stop him and his lawyer from trying.  Theaters make a large percentage of their profits from concessions, should there be caps on how much they can charge?

 

Guest:

UNCONFIRMED

Kerry Morgan, attorney representing Joshua Thompson