Hits, and misses

If, as a critic, you're going to take your subjects to task, when necessary, then you better be prepared to dish out deserved praise as well.

In a recent post, I criticized the media for obsessing on non-stories like the "Balloon Boy," while ignoring the arts. I'm happy to report that since then I've encountered a couple of good cultural pieces on the tube. Last Sunday, "NBC Nightly News" had an interesting report on artists arranging with Brooklyn landlords to fill vacant storefronts with their work, something collagist Elise Graham did last spring in Chappaqua. I hope artists and Realtors alike check out this segment and take the plunge.

Even better, "CBS News Sunday Morning" — which is geared toward a more sophisticated audience — had a whole program last Sunday devoted to body image. "Size Matters" included a provocative piece on the disparity between our culture's obsession with thinness and art history's voluptuous standard of beauty, a subject I first tackled in the 1980s. Kudos to Charles Osgood and company for taking a fascinating theme and running with it in several intriguing directions.

Of course, there are still oopses. The local CBS affiliate's report on Julie Andrews having surgery to restore her singing voice noted that she had a range of five octaves. (Really? Most coloratura sopranos, Andrews' voice type, have a range of three, three and a half octaves. The average choral singer has a range of two octaves. ) I once heard Matt Lauer state that Mariah Carey had a range of eight octaves. (Is she a piano?) These sound like the kinds of public-relations claims that need to be vetted before they're aired.

On WPIX's "Toni On! New York," which recently spotlighted The Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, Seth Kamil mixed up the dates for All Saints' Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls' Day (Nov. 2). The show does get points, however, for featuring Kamil's takes on local history at all.

Finally, LXTV's Sara Gore actually compared investing in a designer handbag to investing in a painting. As someone who understands bag lust, all I can say is that it would have to be one heck of a handbag.