RIP Edwin Newman

The gruff but lovable broadcaster, who relished life, language and levity, has passed away at the ripe old age of 91. I always enjoyed his bits on Saturday Night Live, but probably not as much as he enjoyed doing them. Here's the famously stone-faced newsman back in 1978 interviewing rock superstars KISS, in a report that is practically a blueprint for the classic mockumentary This Is Spınal Tap.

Hey Rubes

Check here to see if this little Johnny Depp-narrated documentary is coming to a theater near you on July 4.

Matt Taibbi questions America's sanity

Progressive icon David Sirota says writer Matt Taibbi—who followed William Greider and the late, great Hunter Thompson at Rolling Stone—is "the best American journalism has to offer." I concur, and not just because I had the great pleasure of interviewing the brilliant madman myself.

Taibbi's new book The Great Derangement goes on sale May 6 and he and Eric Merola have put out a promotional video for it that roasts a corrupt White House and an acquiescent corporate media for eight years of greed, terror and blatant, murderous lies.

His fellow citizens aren't exactly spared, either. "Americans are now supposed to make their own sense of the world, but are the right messages even reaching our collective brain?" asks Taibbi. "Are the halves of that brain even connected? Do we know who we are anymore? Are we sane? It's a hell of a problem for a nuclear power."