Patt Morrison for Wednesday, June 27, 2012

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Wednesday, June 27, 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 – 1:19                 

[open]

 

1:21 – 1:39                 

College presidents approve football playoffs

Are you ready for some football… playoffs? After years of anticipation, college football will finally have a playoff series. Come 2014, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) will be extinct. Yesterday, it was announced that a committee of university presidents approved the BCS commissioners' plan for a four-team playoff to begin in the 2014 season. The approval comes after the commissioners’ six-month process of developing a new method for determining the major college football champion team. Instead of simply matching the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country in a championship game after the regular season, the way the BCS has done since 1998, the new system will create a pair of national semifinals where No. 1 will play No. 4, and No. 2 will play No. 3. The winners from each semifinal will advance to the championship game. How will this monumental format change impact college football? How excited (or disappointed) are you about having a college football playoff?

 

Guests:

TBD

 

1:41:30 – 1:58           

Walter Cronkite, the anchor of middle America

History is shaped by many, but perhaps even more so by journalists and members of the media, whose choices about what stories to follow and questions to ask influence much of public dialogue (like it or not). Walter Cronkite, who delivered newspapers as a boy in Houston, grew into one of the most prominent members of this special circle, coming into his own as a television anchor at the same time that television itself began to usurp radio and print media as a news source. Cronkite covered everything from the space race and the Vietnam War to the first Earth Day in 1970. His special ability to predict the next story was strengthened by both a strong work ethic and an earnest desire to reach the general American public, not the intelligentsia – according to author Douglas Brinkley, President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America.” At 667 pages, Brinkley’s biography of Cronkite approaches the weighty influence of the man himself, but you can get a snapshot tomorrow when Brinkley joins Patt to talk about the life of one of the most famous U.S. news anchors of all time.  Did you grow up watching Walter Cronkite on CBS news? Do you have memories of a specific broadcast? What are the differences you see between news then and now?

 

Guests:

Douglas Brinkley

 

2:06 – 2:30

Ask the Chief

Call in with your questions and comments as Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck sits down with Patt to discuss the issues facing the LAPD.

 

Guests:

Charlie Beck, Los Angeles Police Department Chief

 

2:30 – 2:39

Remembering Nora Ephron

She was the writer behind When Harry Met Sally and Julie and Julia, as well as the author of I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. In her films, her books, and her life, Nora Ephron was unafraid to delve into topics that many didn’t want to consider – “women’s issues” like daily duties, money, romance, and divorce. Ms. Ephron died Tuesday, June 26, 2012, of pneumonia, at the age of 71. Patt spoke with the humorist and essayist in 2010; on today’s program we’ll listen to the interview and remember the woman who claimed she remembered nothing.

 

Guests:

Nora Ephron

ON TAPE

 

2:41:30 – 2:58:30

Are we the most partisan Supreme Court in history?

This week, the Supreme Court handed down a controversial judgment on Arizona’s SB1070, and is expected to rule on the Affordable Care Act in the coming days. In the past, the Roberts court has frequently been divisive between the conservative and liberal wings, with decisions on major cases being ruled 5-4 or 6-3.

Are we in the most partisan Supreme Court in history? Or has the court always been viewed as legislating from the bench? Is it even possible to have a non-partisan Supreme Court?

 

Guests:

Vincent Bonventre, Professor of Law at Albany Law School, and author of New York Court Watcher