The Giants of Broadcasting, Grand Hyatt, New York
October 1, 2009

Do you take yourself too seriously?  Does your mood swing if your Twitter follower count drops off, or if no one reblogs you on Tumblr?  Do you chest-bump with your peers at the big media sale you made and then accidentally make out with your officemate due to too many jaegerbombs, hoping your wife doesn't see the Facebook photos of it that you thought were private?  If not, don't do this exercise -- you're still human, you're still doing good work and we all respect you.  If you DO, rifle through your posts and expense reports to see if you've ever interviewed hostile heads of state.  See if you've ever looked Sarah Palin in the eye while she says "betcha."  See if there's a picture of you dragging bodies out of wreckage while dragging names and details out of a shell shocked mayor of a now flooded city.  Can't find them, but you consider yourself a pretty big internet cewebrity? Then get over it.  You're not changing the world and you haven't experienced change in the world (upgrading to the iPhone 3Gs doesn't count) the way some of the Giants of Broadcasting have, which -- segue of all segues -- is the luncheon event I covered today.  Those of you who ARE changing the world -- kick. Butt.

Note to self: I'm not a big deal. 

This was my first time covering ANYTHING at the Grand Hyatt, which humps Grand Central Terminal on the 42^nd Street side.  It was a great space and, after the cocktail hour (11:30 a.m, people, this is serious business!), the rest of the chew time was back-lit by flailing pedestrians and the symphony of sirens and vehicular impatience. 

My table, in case you were curious, was tucked at the furthest reaches of the room, but I didn't mind, I had already snapped my shot of the 5'3" Katie Couric, her perfectly formed hairdo, and her "I know you've seen my colon and I don't care" warm smile, AND it gave me time to get to know the guest to my right.  He was Jules Peimer, a deep-voiced man who has seen more years than I have, associate publisher at 15minutesmagazine.com, and writer at Broadway After Dark (.com). Jules was once profiled in the New York Times -- and I just spit water all over my laptop when I read this piece:

"A lifelong bachelor, Mr. Peimer has dated his share of women. But priorities change.

''Now when I take a woman back to my apartment,'' he said, ''I'm just hoping that she cleans it.''

To my left was Lisa Taylor, Advertising Sales Pro formerly of Petrie Media, currently on the loose and spending quality time volunteering with Sunflower Children Funds, an organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged children.  To the right of the precocious Mr. Peimer was Nyla Saleh, Account Supervisor with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, and her photographer, who prefers to be noted as "just a photographer."  They were covering the event for LG as Dr. Woo Paik, father of digital television, was being honored. 

You're probably asking, "What did they say that made you begin your column by telling us to check our heads?"  Amidst the "Giants as football" and "Giants as something I'm not vertically" jokes, I starred some quotables:

Donald West, President and CEO of the Library of American Broadcasting foundation: The library exists with the "hope that the history of broadcasting, unlike the medium itself, does not disappear into the air."  Honoring history is not the same as repeating it.

Chris Rohrs, president of the Television Bureau of Advertising: "Anyone can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to sell it." Ahem, that's like saying "the machine does all the work" when talking about photographers (thank you Bluetooth Virgin, for that line).  AND "TV's bond with the American consumer is strengthening," not, as you've heard, weakening.  In Rohrs' eyes, it's the bond consumers have with programming that makes them want to find it everywhere.

Barbara Cochran, former president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Foundation (RTNDA ), and leading advocate for First Amendment Rights: Referring to her early career years and news organizations: "It was acceptable to exclude women, and the National Press Club was one of them." She described how women weren't even allowed to cover an event from the same physical vantage point as men.  "They would be seated in the balcony, no lunch, no questions."  I shrunk a little in my seat.  I boohoo about seating arrangements, but if this were 50-60 years back, I'd be hungry AND unable to see.  Again, we are not a big deal. "New journalists get to design new journalism."  That's like Boomers saying, "Yeah, we screwed up the environment, now you get to figure it out."  The "new journalism" should be a mix of years of experienced advice and fresh ideas and skills, not just the problem of the incoming class.  Challenge is great, but cleaning up a growing pile alone isn't.

Ed McMahon and Bea Arthur's posthumous honors both drew big laughs -- I mean seriously, if you don't laugh at "The Golden Girls," you may be the living dead -- but nothing drew as much laughter as the clip of Sarah Palin saying to Katie Couric, "I'll try to find ya some and I'll bring 'em to ya!" when pressed for examples of McCain favoring regulation over deregulation.  Regardless of your political stance, it's a funny clip.

Katie Couric, accomplished journalist on a multitude of levels: "I want to be Ken Burns [of PBS fame, also an honored 'Giant'] when I grow up... minus the facial hair." She noted a critically burned woman who ran from the World Trade Center, the Central Park Jogger, and Capt. Sully Sullenberger [pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 that skidded into the Hudson] as people, heroes, she respects.  The reel honoring her work spanned political leaders, environmental disasters, horrific tragedies, strange polkaing, and her own public colonoscopy, which she referred to as her "body of work." And this is what gets me thinking about those of who take themselves too seriously when they haven't had someone else's blood or charred remnants in their hair and when they haven't shown a picture of piled-up dead bodies outside of a concentration camp to a man who denies it happened.  I mean, shoot, I had steak for lunch and talked about Wyclef.

The only thing that bugged me about Katie Couric's acceptance speech was this quote that I'll leave you with.  Some of you and I are referred to as bloggers, some as journalists who publish their content online (which is not synonymous with blogging), some as writers of opinion either in print or digitally, so I want to know what you think about this:

"Bloggers express opinion without portfolio."

Ok, and one more: she quoted someone else, but showed support for, the statement that "objective journalism and an opinion column are about as alike as The Bible and 'Playboy.'"  I happen to know  some men who think "Playboy" is The Bible, so...

All honorees: Bea Arthur, Ken Burns, Barbara Cochran, Katie Couric, Ed McMahon, Dr. Woo Paik, Norm Pattiz, and Chris Rohrs.

Also, when I popped out of the ceremony to use the restroom, Katie Couric was exiting as I was entering.  I could have asked her to spare a square!

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!

The photos are up on Flickr! *edited at 6:37p.m to add photo link*