Culture Briefs

Terrorist support

“Two days after Conan O’Brien vaguely criticized Jay Leno on ’60 Minutes,’ the host of ’The Tonight Show’ hit back on his own show - sort of.

“Last night, Leno revolved part of his monologue around Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomb-scare suspect who also happens to be on Facebook. For a bit, Leno imagined what Shahzad’s Facebook page would look like (Activities: Beach Volleyball, Rollerblading, Blowing up Nissan Pathfinders … badum-ching!), and included ’Team Coco’ in Shahzad’s ’Member of’ section.

“Okay, so it wasn’t necessarily a dig on Conan, just the devoted group of followers who have spent the better part of 2010 ridiculing every high-pitched word Leno’s uttered. But, still, is it funny or crass to insinuate that terrorists prefer Conan?”

- Kate Ward, writing on “Jay Leno jokes Times Square bomb suspect is Team Coco” on May 5 at the Entertainment Weekly blog Popwatch

Fallen ’Idol’

“The last time ’American Idol’ endured ratings so low, Brian Dunkleman was the co-host, George W. Bush was president, and Simon Cowell was just some jerk from Britain.

“But on Tuesday, with the show’s contestant field whittled to five, ’Idol’ dropped to its lowest overall audience since August 27, 2002, its first season on the air.

“The Fox reality competition show was watched by an average of only 17.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals, and was actually beaten in that benchmark by ABC’s ’Dancing With the Stars’ (averaged 19.6 million watchers). …

“But the erosion of ’Idol’ this season, which has struggled amid the departure of longtime host Paula Abdul and the pending exit of Cowell, is undeniable, with the show dropping 13 percent from last week’s episode. And that’s not a good thing, considering that April 17 broadcast was off 17 percent from the comparable week in 2009.”

- Daniel Frankel, writing on “’Idol’ Gets Lowest Ratings Since 2002,” on May 5 at the Yahoo TV blog

Bloody fight

“This month, San Jose State University President Jon Whitmore decided to continue a two-year-old policy of suspending all blood drives on campus. The reason? Because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bans men who have had sex with other men (MSM) from donating blood. According to SJSU, this violates the University’s policy against sexual-orientation discrimination. …

“The FDA policy does not discriminate based on sexual orientation. The policy on its face applies to conduct - men who have sex with other men - not status. In fact, the policy also prohibits donations from other persons who have engaged in other potentially risky conduct, such as intravenous drug abuse, sex for money, or travel to certain countries. And notably, the FDA does not ban donations from women who have sex with other women. So what is behind SJSU’s decision?

“SJSU’s application of its nondiscrimination policy to blood drives reveals that it ultimately seeks to make sexual conduct itself a protected class. The ramifications of this are staggering. Under this interpretation, every nondiscrimination policy that includes ’sexual orientation’ would become a license to engage in any sexual conduct whatsoever. Sexual desire would trump the rule of law and the safety or health of others … this is what the advocates for the homosexual agenda and their partners in academia have wanted all along. SJSU has simply made it clear that it will push this agenda at any cost.”

- Joe Martins, writing on “Blood Battle: San Jose State University Chooses Sex Over Life & Liberty,” on May 3 at the Alliance Defense Fund’s blog Speak Up