monday, june 28, 2010


THE RELIABLE SOURCE


A collectible that


you won’t see Justice Sonia Sotomayor happily signs autographs — but not a baseball. Here’s why. C2


Style ABCDE C S MUSIC REVIEW


Too-brief blossoming The National Orchestral Institute’s young orchestra played its last concert. C3


FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL Cultural flavors


On the Mall, from Cambodian dance to the taste of tortillas. B1. Schedule: B4


3LIVE TODAY @ washingtonpost.com/discussions Media Backtalk with Howard Kurtz Noon TV PREVIEW


ABC’s ‘Huge’: A bit flabby, but likable The fat-farm series


makes hay from an outworn issue


by Tom Shales Isn’t it about time that this


“fat” thing played itself out and we all moved on to some other neurotic national obsession? Fat — as a subject of dis-


cussion, gossip and social con- cern — comes at us from every cranny of media and now the White House, and some of the same people who have earned fortunes making America per- haps the fattest country on Earth now make new fortunes selling fat cures. Just like the credit card companies, which seduced mil- lions into burying themselves in mountains of debt and now oper- ate a sideline industry of bad- credit cures. “Huge,” a new drama series from the ABC Family cable net- work, seeks to cash in on the fat- ness thing one more time. Nikki Blonsky, whose insipid grin be- came a tormenting horror in the movie-musical “Hairspray,” has


wiped that smile off her face and gone from dopey to mopey, now playing a woman named Will (for Willamina) who rebels against authority at the fat camp she’s forced to attend. “Inside me, there’s an even fat- ter person just trying to get out,” Will tells others at the camp — one of the few smart, tart lines in the show, which otherwise leans toward the pallid, pouting de- meanor of its flabby leading lady. In the premiere, Will balks at


every rule and regulation and shuts out what wisdom the camp counselors attempt to impart. “I’m down with my fat,” she an- nounces. “Everyone wants us to hate our bodies. I refuse to.” It begins to seem as though the show will take a refreshingly con- trarian stand against all the for- your-own-good advice people are always forcing down fat folks’ throats (and after telling them to keep their mouths shut, too). But Will is set up as a frumpy grump who’s due for moral and social re- alignment; all indications are that in succeeding weeks, she will see the error of her ways and, while maintaining a token inde-


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We’ve done quite a bit of making room for the extra


thought.” — Diane Sawyer, anchor of ABC’s “World News”


“ BRUCE BIRMELIN / ABC FAMILY


NOT A HAPPY CAMPER: Nikki Blonsky, front, plays Willamina, who struggles with the demands of a weight-loss camp.


JENNIFER S. ALTMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


McChrystal’s major folly: Violating president’s rules on media management


by Jason Horowitz


For a cerebral president intent on projecting a united front of seriousness to the public, the story couldn’t have been further off message. The general leading the grim war in Afghanistan presented himself not as a hardened warrior- scholar but as the military’s most decorated con- sumer of Bud Light Lime. When Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal opened his inner sanctum to a Rolling Stone reporter, he vi- olated more than just the military chain of com- mand. The general broke core tenets of Presi- dent Obama’s code of conduct: When it comes to the media, keep your guard up, your mouth shut and control of the situation. Instead, McChrystal and his merry band of


Team America comrades sank their ship with as- tonishingly loose lips, revealed that the “lively debate” in the administration’s foreign policy upper echelon may be a euphemism for jagged division and showed that high rank may be evi- dence of valor but not worldliness. There’s a long track record of powerful gener- als using reporters to stroke their outsize egos, then getting burned when the coverage doesn’t work out as they had planned. In the mid-19th century, Gen. Zachary Taylor took advantage of the burgeoning newspaper in- dustry to herald his exploits. Emboldened by the coverage, he not only took strategic liberties in the war with Mexico, but also demonstrated dis- dain for President James K. Polk (D). When Polk


mcchrystal continued on C3 McChrystal


There’s a long track record of powerful generals using reporters to stroke their outsize egos.


I


Diane Sawyer’s sharper edge


ABC anchor pushes for a ‘conversation’ with viewers new york


t is not yet 9 a.m. and Diane Sawyer is shaking her head in amazement. “Unbelievable,” she says, having


woken up to the news that Gen. Stanley McChrystal had denigrated President Obama’s team in a Rolling Stone piece. “Oh,my gosh, it had to have been off the record. . . . What do you do if you’re the Obama White House?. . . . This is not the general we knew.” This is the non-glamorous side of


Sawyer, who at the moment — with her untamed hair, pale skin, black-rimmed glasses and plain white shirt — looks like a 64-year-old housewife in need of a cup of coffee. She sits in a row of eight desks at ABC’s Columbus Avenue newsroom, conducting a rolling conversation with her staff, peppering them with endless questions about the stories taking shape. In six months as anchor of “World


HOWARD KURTZ Media Notes


News,” the longtime morning star hasn’t changed the newscast’s second- place status, but she has brought a sharper edge to the aging format. By pushing her reporters to brandish documents on the air and investigate e-mail questions from viewers, by complaining about official intransigence, she is forging what a top ABC executive calls an “advocacy” program. “We’ve done quite a bit of making room for the extra thought — allowing


ourselves to tell you the one thing we found fascinating,” Sawyer says. “It’s become a real conversation we’re having with you, that we would have if we were sitting in your living room. I think it gives us some freedom to be ourselves.” Sawyer’s exacting standards don’t end with the staff. She says she asks herself about each broadcast: “Is it as alive as it could be? Are you conveying your own sense of excitement and not falling into formulas?” Jon Banner, the executive producer,


calls Sawyer “the most curious person I’ve been around in a long time. She is constantly pushing us to ask the next question.” To avoid the overheated hoopla that surrounded Katie Couric’s CBS debut in 2006, Sawyer succeeded Charlie Gibson in low-key fashion four days


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OnLove online What’s the secret to a good marriage? The folks


behind the growing marriage education movement think they’ve got the answer. Ellen McCarthy explored the movement in yesterday’s Post Magazine. To chat with her and Diane Sollee, founder of Smart Marriages, an organization that promotes marriage education, visit washingtonpost.com/liveonline at 2 p.m.


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