I'm listening to a little of The Al Franken Show at the moment. He has on Ed Klein, the author of that new book on Hillary Clinton, and Klein was either very, very brave to come on the show or very, very dumb. Reporter Joe Conason is ripping the man and his book into teensy shreds, citing errors and forcing Klein to either admit he got something wrong or to defend it by saying, "Well, I heard that from someone," and of course, he can't say who that someone was. I missed the first part but I haven't yet heard Klein able to defend the accuracy of anything being discussed. No wonder Conservative pundits are distancing themselves from this guy.

It's interesting to me that some of Klein's critics have brought up what I always felt was an underrated aspect of all the Clinton-bashing that goes on…and it's true of a lot of Bush-bashing and other political extremism that infests our national dialogue, though the anti-Clinton folks brought it to a high art. It's the sheer profit motive. There's money in writing books and giving lectures that demonize polarizing public figures. A certain amount of America — surely not the majority but more than enough to make a book into a best-seller — wants to hear that the people they despise are even worse than anyone could imagine. And here's the key thing: It doesn't even matter that much if the "information" may be incorrect, just as it doesn't matter to most fans of Pro Wrestling that the outcome of the match is predetermined. They want to hate someone and to see that person get beaten up.

No one of any substance is willing to stand behind Ed Klein's book but according to some reports, he's going to clear something like $10 million from it, plus whatever advances he receives for his next few projects. He's not making that money because he's a good reporter. He's making it because he's giving a certain group of people what they want to hear.

My pal Peter David saves me the trouble of writing an even longer post about how brain-fogged ridiculous the anti-flag burning amendment is. Read him, then come back here and read the rest of me.

Given the low incidence of the supposed crime, we have here a cure for which there is no known disease…but there probably will be. No one's really burning American flags, at least not in this country. But with a law in place that dares people to do so, can anyone believe that some folks won't be more inclined to fire up Old Glory?

One point I haven't seen much of is that the proposed amendment would give Congress the power to write laws to stop flag-burning…but no one has seen these laws. Maybe no one has offered up a draft of what one might look like because they know any such example will be impractical and impossible to fairly enforce.

How do you write a statute that would effectively and efficiently empower authorities to prosecute flag-burning? Merely saying one cannot burn a flag won't do it since the established, proper way to dispose of a tattered or unwanted flag is to burn it. Someone will have to define what it means to "desecrate" a flag, and that discussion always reminds me of the time that infamous rebel Abbie Hoffman appeared on The Merv Griffin Show wearing an American flag shirt and CBS covered up that part of the screen. They decided that was a desecration despite the fact that during the Griffin broadcast, there was a commercial in which Roy Rogers wore the exact same shirt, and that was deemed acceptable. CBS was then in the impossible position of trying to explain why it was "desecration" for Abbie Hoffman to wear the flag while arguing against the war in Vietnam, whereas it was fine for Roy Rogers to wear it while selling fast food. How will any law against flag desecration not run into that kind of highly-arguable conundrum?

For that matter, how are they even going to define the American flag? Those shirts were probably not made out of actual flags but if they were, would it alter their legal propriety? If I take a length of red and white striped cloth and burn it, am I burning an American flag? What if the pattern has white stars on a blue background but isn't, in its whole form, a flag? Are they going to arrest me for burning something that kind of looks like an American flag? What if I burn a 13-star flag? What if I design a 56-star flag with fifteen stripes and burn it? What if instead of burning a flag, I rip it apart? What if I rip it apart and re-sew it into an American flag jacket or cummerbund? I'll bet I could think of a hundred things to do with a flag that some would think was desecration and others would think was honoring it. Suppose I shredded and charred one? Would that be desecration? What if I shredded and charred one in order to re-create a famous battle scene from American history in which soldiers hoisted a damaged flag? Supposing I write a movie in which someone incinerates Captain America…

This can go on forever and it's something the courts don't need. I think it speaks well of America if we believe it's so strong and enduring that it can't be harmed in the slightest by some punk somewhere trampling on one example of Betsy Ross's handiwork. Of all the insulting things I've seen said of this country, I don't think any have been as contemptuous as the suggestion that we are actually harmed by flag-burning.

Here's a joke that's making the rounds via e-mail…

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate illumination?

I'm as surprised as you may be, but on the issue of the Supreme Court decision on eminent domain, I agree with The Washington Times.

Veteran comic book artist Sam Kweskin passed away this morning at the age of 81. His career in comics was brief and almost wholly spent at Marvel. He began drawing (and occasionally writing) for the company in 1952, back when it was called Atlas, and appeared in books like Adventures Into Terror and Wild Western until the amount of available work declined around 1957. The cover pictured above is reportedly the only published cover he ever drew for comics.

Thereafter, Kweskin built a solid career in advertising art and storyboarding for commercials, returning to comics only for one short story — a war back-up for the 1967 Tod Holton, Super Green Beret. Around 1972, he did a small amount of work for Marvel — some of it under the pen-name, "Irv Wesley" — on Daredevil, Dr. Strange and Sub-Mariner. On Sub-Mariner, he worked with the strip's creator, Bill Everett, who was then having health problems. Kweskin was being groomed to take over the book but it was cancelled, and Marvel's editors were not impressed enough with the work he was then doing to offer him more. Kweskin returned full-time to advertising work and also dabbled in illustration work, most of it involving old airplanes and war scenes.

Some historical articles refer to Kweskin as having been a ghost artist for Bill Everett, even before their 1972 collaborations. This is apparently not true, even though Everett told it to interviewers. Years later, when comic historians tracked down and interviewed Kweskin, he said he had never ghosted for Everett or anyone, and couldn't understand how that rumor got started. Well, it got started because Everett apparently had some names confused. In any case, Kweskin was a good artist even if he wasn't Everett's assistant, and it's a shame there wasn't more room for him in comics.

I hear Don Rickles was in fine form on this evening's Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which was just taped. There's a story about Sinatra in Vegas and a bit of Carson remembrance that are supposed to be wonderful. He does not, however, call anyone a hockey puck.

A few guests' names will be added to panels as they confirm but for now, you can get an idea of what you'll want to see at the Comic-Con International…

Even John Podhoretz is appalled at that new book about Hillary Clinton. If it's getting trashed by folks like him, it's gotta be pretty distasteful.

Paul Cassidy, who was among Joe Shuster's first assistants on the Superman comic books and strip, has passed away at the age of 94. Cassidy spent most of his career as an art teacher but from around 1938 to 1940, he worked in Cleveland for the Siegel and Shuster shop, helping Joe to produce an ever-growing volume of stories and covers featuring their new creation. Scholars have argued over which work from this period is Cassidy's and which is Shuster's, but it would appear that many stories were done as follows: Shuster would do a rough layout of the pages, then Cassidy would tighten up the pencil art on the main figures. Then Shuster would ink main figures or, at least, heads. Finally, the page would be completed by Cassidy. The two Action Comics covers shown above are believed to be all or mostly all Cassidy's work, and he is said to have contributed several enduring refinements to the famous Superman costume and design.

Later Shuster employees — and there were many — had to deal with the fact that Joe was losing his eyesight. But Cassidy was around when Joe could still draw, so he assisted more than he ghosted. He left the job in 1940 and never ventured back into comics. This article tells more about his career.

I'm sure I'm making more of this than the event was worth but, heck, that's what weblogs are for. Rick Scheckman sent me a batch of newspaper clippings about the John Daly/Mike Wallace tempest. It's interesting that in those days, it was permissible for John Daly to work all week as an exec in the ABC news department…then, some Sunday nights, he would put on his tuxedo and brave the puns of Bennett Cerf to host a game show on a competing network. (Wallace had his own game show connections. He hosted several, including the pilot of To Tell the Truth, and even turned up as a panelist on some of the imitations of What's My Line? produced by the same production company, Goodson-Todman.) Although the dispute was over the Mickey Cohen interview in particular, one does get the feeling that there was also a breach of styles fanning the flames. Mike Wallace was then a kind of in-your-face TV host who supposedly — it didn't happen as often as people later remembered — got someone in the guest chair and cross-examined them until they revealed something they might have preferred not reveal on television. Daly was an enormously polite man — What's My Line? was sometimes so thick with etiquette as to be laughable — and he clearly resented what others called "rude journalism." He didn't think it was journalism at all.

In another clipping Rick sent me but which is too big to post here, Daly defends his position by noting that What's My Line? was a live, ad-lib show. Therefore, he said, there was the chance that the Mickey Cohen interview might somehow come up in conversation, and Daly didn't want that.

Interesting to note that in the article, Mr. Cohen is referred to as an "ex-gangster." In 1957, there were those who would have quibbled with the "ex" part. Four years later, he was in Alcatraz, serving his second sentence for income tax evasion.

Jeff Boice was nice enough to send in this additional info about an item I posted here the other day…

You talked about the What's My Line? episode where John Charles Daly objected to having Mike Wallace appear as the Mystery Guest. The back story is this: Mike Wallace started the Mike Wallace Interviews show on ABC the previous month (4/28/1957). Wallace was hired by Leonard Goldenson over the objection of Daly, who was the head of ABC News at the time. Daly made it clear that he considered Wallace to be a "mere interviewer" and not a real journalist, and that ABC News would have nothing to do with him. He also warned Goldenson that the Mike Wallace Interviews show would end up getting ABC in lots of trouble

And that trouble occurred on the show which aired the week after Mother's Day, 1957. Wallace had as his guest the gangster Mickey Cohen, who made a number of slanderous comments about L.A. Police Chief William Parker. Parker sued ABC for $2,000,000 (it was settled out of court for $45,000 and an on-air apology). As Wallace notes in his book, Close Encounters, "In the aftermath of the Cohen experience, he (Daly) was able to say 'I told you so' — and did."

If your date for the What's My Line? show was correct, it was the week after the Mickey Cohen interview. Daly probably felt that appearing with Wallace would have been seen as a display of support for Wallace from both him and ABC News. Of course, he should have also known that refusing to appear in public with Wallace would also be newsworthy, and he should not have been so upset when it made the papers.

Someone here will have a suggestion. I need to record some interviews, and I also want to audio-record the panels I'll be moderating at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. (By the way, one panel has fallen through so I'm down from 15 to 14. I have no idea what I'm going to do with all that free time since there's nothing to see at the con and no one interesting to talk to.)

I want to find a small MP3 recorder with a great built-in microphone for this purpose…something that records to either a hard drive or a Compact Flash card. I have MP3 players that will record but I don't like the results I've gotten with them. Anyone have a nomination?

The national executive committee of the Screen Actors Guild has voted to reject the recent deal negotiated for voicing video games, so you can ignore most of this item. Here's the latest news. This sounds like a major rift in the union that will lead to much yelling and little solidarity.

In other Hollywood labor news, the Writers Guild is making a major effort to organize the folks who write reality shows. Actually, there's an aspect of this story that's not being mentioned, which is that writers on reality shows were routinely covered by the WGA, once upon a time. I worked on a reality show in the eighties that was fully covered by the Guild. What happened over the years was that reality show producers started to realize they could avoid paying WGA rates for writers by not calling the people who were writing their shows "writers." They began calling them "segment producers" or "researchers" or some other title but still expecting these folks to create a script.

A lot of writers protested to the WGA. Some turned down such work because they didn't want to write without getting full guild benefits and protection and, of course, a writing credit. Others, for economic necessity, took those jobs but went to the Guild and said, "Can't you do something about this?" The problem was that the Guild didn't address it when it was a matter of two or three shows. The WGA covers a field of different writers doing different kinds of writing, and there's a kind of short-sighted democracy that causes it to ignore the issues that don't immediately impact the majority of members. Most WGA members do sitcoms, one-hour dramatic series or features, so those are the areas that receive most of the attention, and the needs of the game show writers and soap opera writers and variety show writers (and so on) get neglected. The reality show scam wasn't addressed for a long time because it didn't affect a lot of people…and now that it does, it's a more difficult problem to handle. One of these days, if and when variety shows make a big comeback, we're going to be in similar trouble. For over a quarter-century, variety show writers have been pointing out abusive employment practices in their area but since there have been so few of them, their grievances never became a high priority. Someday, when rectifying them will be more difficult, they'll be a major issue.

Mark miscalculated. The episode of To Tell the Truth with Baby LeRoy doesn't air on GSN until Wednesday morning. Sorry.

The episode of What's My Line? which ran this morning (just now) on GSN had a bit of history to it. It was from 5/26/57 and had Errol Flynn, of all people, on the panel. A few hours before the live broadcast, host John Daly learned that the Mystery Guest would be Mike Wallace, who was then gaining a reputation as a hard-hitting TV interviewer. Mr. Daly had some sort of personal dislike of Mr. Wallace or maybe it was a feud between newsmen who also hosted game shows. Whatever the reason, Daly announced that if Wallace set foot on their stage that evening, he [Daly] would not. He could not be dissuaded from this ultimatum so the producers of What's My Line? cancelled out Wallace and hurriedly replaced him with Sammy Davis, who was then appearing at a New York nightclub.

The next day, a story appeared in one of the New York newspapers detailing the switch. Daly was embarrassed and angered by the leak and though the account was unsigned, he was certain it was the handiwork of What's My Line? panelist (and newswoman) Dorothy Kilgallen. He didn't speak to her, except as necessary for his on-camera hosting responsibilities, for months after.

By the by: If you're following GSN's late night reruns, you might like to know that the What's My Line? broadcast tomorrow morning will have Mystery Guest Eddie Cantor (plus his daughter). Thursday morning's has Johnny Ray. Friday morning's has Peggy Lee. Saturday morning's should be Gene Kelly. And Sunday morning is Sal Mineo.

The reruns of To Tell the Truth which air just before What's My Line? have had some interesting folks, too. The one yesterday had Barbara Hammer, who was identified as a "fur model turned comedy writer." Ms. Hammer wrote for Danny Thomas, Ray Bolger, Pinky Lee and others, but her big credit was that she was a writer for Mr. Magoo cartoons, including one Oscar winner. She was credited on at least six U.P.A. cartoons from 1954 and 1955 and, given her background, I'm assuming she's the same Barbara Hammer who wrote an unsuccessful TV sitcom pilot in 1962 called His Model Wife, all about a model turned homemaker.

Question to anyone who knows: The classic 1962 animated TV special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, was written by someone named Barbara Chain. Ms. Chain also was credited as a writer on the 1950 Crusader Rabbit cartoons and on the 1965 Three Stooges cartoons, and it sorta sounds like Barbara Chain and Barbara Hammer might be the same person. The Internet Movie Database credits Barbara Chain also with work on the 1970 series, Villa Allegre, and the 1985 animated series, MASK, but I'm thinking this may be a different Barbara Chain. In fact, I feel like I met the Barbara Chain who worked on MASK, and she wasn't born when Crusader Rabbit was on. Or maybe I'm confusing her with Barbara Hambly, who wrote on MASK and later went on to become a top writer of fantasy books and comics. Anyway, my question is whether anyone can sort out all these Barbaras and tell us which of them, if any, might qualify for the title of first female animation writer.

If I've figured correctly, tomorrow morning's To Tell the Truth should feature a spot with Melvin Purvis, the G-Man who nabbed many famous gangsters, including John Dillinger. It's from 9/24/57. And next Monday, one of the subjects is the grown-up actor who'd once worked under the name of Baby LeRoy, getting kicked and hassled by W.C. Fields.