According to the New York Times, NBC has announced part of its fall lineup. Returning series include Friday Night Lights–yeah!!!

True confession, I’m a football junkie. Grew up going to church with Joe Paterno and my Nittany Lions on Saturday and the Steelers on Sunday. When we trained our puppy to stay out of the dining room, the command we taught her was “Off Sides!” My nephew’s first words were “Touch Down!”

So combine the inside life of a high school football team, no bars held when it comes to the realities most kids face these days (sex, drugs, booze, steroids), the small town that lives and breathes football and hunky coach Kyle Chandler and I’m sold!

Kudos to NBC!

Except, the Times went on to dish out this redux nugget:

The drama that is certain to get the most instant recognition is “Bionic Woman,” a 21st-century remake of the 1970s series. This one stars Michelle Ryan as an accident victim remade with bionic parts who is embroiled in a secret government project, which also includes a previous bionic prototype, played by Katee Sackhoff. The series was once thought to be in trouble, but the pilot is now getting some of the strongest favorable reviews inside NBC.

Are they for real? The Bionic Woman is the best they got???? And it’s getting “the strongest, favorable reviews”????

Jeezit, NBC, just drop me a line next time you’re shopping for a new series with kick ass heroines! I’ve got several manuscripts I’d love to show you–and all of my characters are real women, not silicon!

What do you think? Did NBC just set back the women’s movement by twenty years or what?

According to the Associated Press, 2.5 million Americans are NOT watching TV this spring:

NEW YORK (AP) – Maybe they’re outside in the garden. They could be playing softball. Or perhaps they’re just plain bored. In TV’s worst spring in recent memory, a startling number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show.

As a writer, I’m hoping they’re all reading!

As a pediatrician, I’m hoping they’re all out there playing with their kids and being a family of do-ers instead of a family of couch-potatoes!

What would you do instead of watching TV?

Me, I have a stack of to-be-read books calling my name like a siren’s song and a new idea for a novel (very dark and twisted!) that wants to come out and play!

I write fiction. Yes, a lot of it is loosely based on real life medical cases, as well as real life heroes, tragedies, crimes and their effects on real people.

But when I write, I stay very aware that my main purpose is to entertain my reader. I hope that I also enlighten and educate, but the main reason for anyone to spend money for my books will be for enjoyment.

Matt over on CrimeRant has a great blog today about how the news media has crossed the line between news and entertainment. Here’s a snippet:

Just two weeks ago, Cho Seung-Hui’s mass killing rampage was 24/7 coverage. And now it’s Paris Hilton’s turn. The word fleeting comes to mind. And that is the sad part of this: all these people affected by crime and their stories the media uses to fill airspace one day, just disappear the next. I guess it’s the nature of a rapidly turning world of crime. The networks decide what is a major crime story and we either watch or shut the TV off.

I think he has a good point. When I want news, I want the facts, not glorified “reality” TV. I could care less about the celebrity talking heads, the trumped up pitch-fever hype, or gossip. I certainly don’t want cameras shoved into the faces of grieving victims and relatives for the sake of “the public’s right to know.”

I want facts revealing in a cool and level-headed way all aspects of a story, including those that I might not have thought of myself. Because of this, I supported NBC’s decision to edit Cho Seung-Hui’s video down to two minutes but to show it so that the rest of us could have some insight into his psyche.

What do you think? Do you want Hollywood Hype to take the place of reporting? Has the news media crossed the line into entertainment?