PR 101

I don’t watch a lot of late night television. Like most people in my generation, I watched Johnny Carson now and then. However, I was more into the “Midnight Special” and “Saturday Night Live” when it was good. Now, if I watch anything past 10:30 p.m., it is either Nightline, Letterman or once in a great while, Craig Ferguson.

Jay Leno

None of those shows are essential viewing for me. So maybe that’s why I don’t understand all this brouhaha over Jay Leno forcing Conan O’Brien off the air. I mean, come on, these are two people who make their living by helping celebrities plug their latest project. Neither man is one-tenth the interviewer Charlie Rose or Tavis Smiley are.  They never, ever tackle a controversial subject. What’s the big deal?

Conan O'Brien

It is not as if one of them had their research grant pulled just as they were about to cure cancer. Or, they served in Iraq or Afghanistan. They are comedians, for goodness sakes.

Heck, I remember a Leno-hosted  “Tonight” show when far right pundit Ann Coulter was on. The other guest was the late left-wing comedian George Carlin. Now, this could have been great television. Coulter and Carlin could have verbally slugged it out. Instead, Leno asked Coulter a bunch vapid questions while Carlin said quietly on the couch. It was just boring.

O’Brien can be very funny. When I worked nights as a reporter, I used to wind down watching O’Brien on “Late Night.” He came on at 11:30 p.m. in the Midwest. I later the discovered I could do the same reading a good book. But you know what – I miss Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow Show. Now there was a great interviewer. Sadly, I don’t think most people today would appreciate Snyder.

Okay, so from a public relations standpoint, NBC really messed up

Yeah, I know NBC messed up the transition. How they handled the switch should be taught in public relations and marketing classes as the way not to do something. Or, conversely, if the goal is to generate tons of negative publicity, handle it the way the people at 30 Rockefeller Center did.

Still, I still don’t get what all the fuss is about.

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I had a lot of comments on my last rant about the Microsoft commercials. Apparently what I missed was that two individuals were fantasizing about what they thought they looked liked when they came up with Windows 7. What can I say; I rarely give Microsoft points for subtly. But, I apparently I didn’t get the joke – which might say something about the ad’s effectiveness.