Conan vs. Jay & Limitless Corporate Spending on Elections (Or, Talk Shows & Campaign Finance)

Week of January 25, 2010

News Item: The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien debuted in September 2009 after Jay Leno, who came on board in 1992 upon Johnny Carson’s retirement, left to host a prime-time nightly talk show. NBC is bringing Leno back to late-night later this March, but not before spending a reported $32 million to buy out the remaining two and half years of O’Brien’s contract. Go here to read more about TV talk shows.

Also in the News: The Supreme Court handed down a 5 to 4 decision that allows companies, unions, and other interest groups to spend as much of their own funds as they want on things such as campaign ads in candidate elections, thus giving corporations First Amendment rights and freeing them from government restrictions on political speech.

Talk Shows

Coming after Oprah: Cultural Fallout in the Age of the TV Talk Show
By Vicki Abt and Leonard Mustazza. Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997
Call Number: PN1992.8 .T3 A28 1997

Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show
By Ben Alba. Prometheus Books, 2005
Call Number: PN1992.4 .C28 S45 1987

Johnny Carson: An Unauthorized Biography
By Ronald L. Smith. St. Martin’s Press, 1987
Call Number: PN1992.4 .C28 S45 1987

The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night
By Bill Carter. Hyperion, 1995
Call Number: PN1992.77 .T63 C37 1995

Leading with My Chin
By Jay Leno with Bill Zehme. HarperCollins, 1996
Call Number: PN1992.4 .L382 A3 1996

The Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows
By Linda Grindstaff. University of Chicago Press, 2002
Call Number: PN1992.8 .T3 G75 2002

Show Runner: Producing Variety and Talk Shows for Television
By Steve Clements. Silman-James Press, 2004
Call Number: PN1992.75 .C53 2004

Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke
By Russell L. Peterson. Rutgers University Press, 2008
Call Number: PN1992.8 .C66 P48 2008 (Also available online via NetLibrary)

Talking with Television: Women, Talk Shows, and Modern Self-Reflexivity
By Helen Wood. University of Illinois Press, 2009
Call Number: PN1992.8 .T3 W66 2009

Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show
By Bernard M. Timberg. University of Texas Press, 2002
Call Number: PN1992.8 .T3 T56 2002

Television Talk Shows: Discourse, Performance, Spectacle
Edited by Andrew Tolson. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001
Call Number: PN1992.8 .T3 T45 2001 (Also available online via NetLibrary)

Vulture Culture: The Politics and Pedagogy of Daytime Television Talk Shows
By Christine M. Quail et al. Peter Lang, 2005
Call Number: PN1992.8 .T3 Q35 2005

Campaign Finance

Choices and Changes: Interest Groups in the Electoral Process
By Michael M. Franz. Temple University Press, 2008
Call Number: JK2281 .F73 2008 (Also available online via NetLibrary)

Coining Corruption: The Making of the American Campaign Finance System
By Kurt Hohenstein. Northern Illinois University Press, 2007
Call Number: JK1991 .H57 2007

The Election After Reform: Money, Politics, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
Edited by Michael J. Malbin. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006
Call Number: JK1991 .E54 2006

Expression Vs. Equality: The Politics of Campaign Finance Reform
By J. Tobin Grant and Thomas J. Rudolph. Ohio State University Press, 2004
Call Number: JK1991 .G73 2004

The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform
By John Samples. University of Chicago Press, 2006
Call Number: JK1991 .S26 2006 (Also available online via NetLibrary)

The Federal Election Commission: Policy, Politics, and Administration
By Maurice C. Sheppard. University Press of America, 2007
Call Number: JK1991 .S45 2007

Money, Power & Elections: How Campaign Finance Reform Subverts American Democracy
By Rodney A. Smith. Louisiana State University Press, 2006
Call Number: JK1991 .S58 2006

The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook
By Anthony Corrado et al. Brookings Institution Press, 2005
Call Number: JK1991.N48 2005

The Power of Money in Congressional Campaigns, 1880-2006
By David C. W. Parker. University of Oklahoma Press, 2008
Call Number: JK1991 .P37 2008

Public Financing of Congressional Elections
By R. Sam Garrett. Novinka Books, 2008
Call Number: JK1991 .G37 2008

Votes for Sale? (DVD)
PBS Home Video, 2006
Call Number: JF2112 .C3 V68 2006 (At Jupiter)