Hasta La Gadget!

The Worldwide Developers Conference is just days away and Apple fans around the world are getting a little more than excited to see what the company has come up with … Continue reading

NEW YORK (AP) — Producers seeking teenagers who “party like a rock star” for a reality show about their lives say they were actually casting for the upcoming CMT intervention series, “My Dysfunctional Family,” not a show that glorifies teen rebellion.

But the producers and CMT, which is premiering the series on July 5, are distancing themselves from how participants were wrangled for the show. Through a casting service, the show’s production company had said it was seeking people as young as 13 who described themselves as “a modern-day teenage rebel with a hardcore lifestyle.”

A casting flyer was distributed with the message: “(expletive) parents. They’re old and they don’t know (expletive). It’s 4:20 and time for you and your friend Molly to tell your story.” Molly is the street name for a synthetic drug.

The notice, which appeared in the entertainment industry publication Backstage, advertised a show called “My Teen Life,” which doesn’t exist. Instead, producers now say the casting was for “My Dysfunctional Family,” which features “a self-styled commando family fixer” who helps troubled teens and their families deal with addiction and other issues.

Yet both CMT and the show’s production company, Shed Media US, say they did not see or approve the language in the Backstage notice and flyer for their show. And the casting company, Metal Flowers Media, says it circulated only approved materials, but wouldn’t say who approved them.

The casting language is not in the spirit of the show, CMT said in a statement on Thursday.

“‘My Dysfunctional Family’ is a positive show about bringing families together,” CMT said. “In no way does this show glamorize or even condone bad behavior from teenagers. We hope this show will serve as a conversation starter for families, with common sense advice every family can relate to.”

One casting call that CMT says it did approve is directed to parents of out-of-control teenagers. That notice said producers are looking for parents who are at their wit’s end with families that are falling apart. It directed responses to an email account at Shed.

Kristi Russell, president of Metal Flowers Media, said that while the show doesn’t encourage or accept bad behavior, troubled teens must be found before they can be helped.

“How do you find a troubled teen?” Russell asked. “You outreach to crisis centers, churches, exasperated parents, scared siblings and, most importantly, directly to the teens themselves in a language they relate and respond to.”

“My Dysfunctional Family” stars Dave Vitalli, who has appeared on the syndicated show “Maury” dealing with troubled families. It seems modeled in part after A&E’s popular series “Intervention,” where friends and family members of people with substance abuse problems demand that the person seek help.

Shed has produced several non-fiction series, including “The Real Housewives of New York City” for Bravo, “Basketball Wives” on VH1 and “SuperNanny” on ABC. The Metal Flowers Media website lists more than 100 television programs for which it has helped find participants.

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David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter @dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.

Univision anchor and rising star Jorge Ramos appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor” Friday night to discuss the role of the press in the United States, and he didn’t hold back in his criticism of American media — including Bill O’Reilly.

“Our mission,” Ramos said, “is to question those who are in power. And I’m not seeing that.” When he takes trips to Washington, he continued, “it feels like a club. They’re more concerned about keeping their contacts, than… getting the truth.” O’Reilly countered that there were exceptions to this rule, to which Ramos responded, “Of course there are exceptions. But we all have biases. You have your own biases, whenever you’re covering Obamacare, or Benghazi, or supporting more the Republican party than the Democratic party…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” O’Reilly interjected. “Have you ever seen me do a softball interview with anybody?”

“I’ve seen you doing tough interviews, but I’ve seen you also supporting more Republicans than Democrats,” Ramos said. “Maybe editorially, but never in an interview,” O’Reilly responded.

Later in the interview, the two disagreed again on immigration reform, with Ramos blaming John Boehner for holding up a bill in the House of Representatives, and O’Reilly, echoing the GOP platform by asserting that the U.S.-Mexico border should be more secure before new laws are considered.

Watch the whole thing above.

While watching Brian Williams’ interview with Ed Snowden, I actually agreed with Glenn Greenwald about something. Back in 2012, Greenwald referred to Williams as “NBC News’ top hagiographer,” using “his reverent, soothing, self-important baritone” to deliver information in its “purest, most propagandistic and most subservient form.”

It’s worth noting at the outset that Greenwald flew all the way to Moscow specifically for the NBC News interview, and he appeared on camera with Snowden and Williams, answering questions from this so-called “hagiographer.”

Now, I’m not a Brian Williams hater. I think he’s a fine news anchor. But his interview with Ed Snowden was yet another in a long, long line of deferential, uninformed, unchallenging genuflections before a guy whose story and motivations are more than a little specious. But it’s not a stretch to presume that Greenwald, the man who once aimed all of his wordy, caustic vitriol in Williams’ general direction, referring to him as possessing “child-like excitement” over gaining access to a source, probably loved every minute of it. However, don’t break out the champagne just yet, NBC News, Greenwald will immediately shift gears sometime very soon and continue to indict any and all mainstream news outlets, including NBC, as being impotent, pernicious, drooling shills for President Obama and the D.C. elite.

So what about the telecast itself? Here are the 13 most bizarre things from Snowden’s NBC News interview.

1) Snowden claimed he has “no relationship” with the Russian government and that he’s “not supported” by it. That’s odd, given how the Russian government has twice offered him asylum and one of his lawyers, Anatoly Kucherena, is an attorney with the Russian intelligence agency, the FSB (formerly the KGB). Tell me again why anyone should trust this guy?

2) “Sometimes to do the right thing you have to break a law.” So it’s really up to each of us individually to decide whether our own interpretation of “doing the right thing” necessitates breaking the law? A lot of awful things have occurred with that exact justification. Also, what if NSA feels the same way, Ed?

3) Snowden said that no one has been harmed by his disclosures. Yet. Already, though, one of his documents escalated tensions between Australia and Indonesia, and another document endangered lives in Afghanistan to the point where Greenwald refused to publish the name of that country. It’s only a matter of time, sadly.

4) Early on, Snowden said, “I’m not a spy.” Later he famously confessed to being “trained as a spy.” Huh?

5) Snowden said he destroyed his documents before going to Russia. This is really strange. I have no idea whether he really destroyed his NSA files, but he did in fact meet with Russian officials in Hong Kong, when he reportedly celebrated his birthday at the Russian consulate. Did he still have his documents at that point? Earlier, he said his goal was to fly to Latin America, so why did he anticipate being in Russia to the point where he destroyed his documents to prevent Russians from acquiring them? These are all follow-up questions that a journalist who was informed about the details of Snowden’s timeline would’ve asked. Williams was not and therefore did not.

6) NSA can “absolutely” turn on your iPhone, which is “pretty scary.” This section was like whiplash. Snowden started out by sounding reasonable by defining that NSA only acquires data when “targeting” drug dealers or terrorists. And then, BLAM!, this shitola about NSA being able to turn on your phone. If true, why hasn’t this been disclosed from Snowden’s NSA documents?

7) Snowden said that by googling the score of a hockey game, NSA can find out whether you’re cheating on your wife. Someone’s been wearing his tinfoil hat a wee bit too tightly.

8) NSA can observe people drafting a document online and “watch their thoughts form as they type.” Let’s assume for a second this is true. Reading your thoughts (IEEEEE!!!) is a hyperbolic internet-age method of essentially describing a wire-tap. A police detective can get a court order to have a suspect’s phone tapped and listen to that suspect forming thoughts on the phone, too. But to call it a “wire-tap” is too ordinary and familiar, so Ed went with mind-reading.

9) Snowden didn’t deny turning over secrets that would be damaging or harmful. He only said journalists have a deal with him not to do it. Just a reminder: we really have no idea how many reporters or organizations have copies of the documents or the total number of documents (it’s a Greenwald/Snowden secret), but we do know that Snowden documents have been reported by so many publications that the question arises: who doesn’t have Snowden documents?

10) Snowden’s watching HBO’s The Wire. The second season, he said, isn’t so good. He’s right.

11) Snowden said he can’t speak out on Russian issues because he can’t speak the language. Hey Ed, here. Free shipping, too. You’re welcome.

12) “People have unfairly demonized the NSA to a point that is too extreme.” Why is Snowden an apologist for the surveillance state? Drooling! Vast!

13) Snowden said he can “sleep at night” because of his actions. Well, good for him.

Ultimately, Snowden is his own worst enemy and his ongoing ability to say crazy things in a calm, collected voice continues. What’s abundantly clear at this point is that no one will ever land an interview with Snowden who will be as adversarial against the former NSA contractor as Greenwald has been in his own reporting in defense of Snowden. It’ll never happen.

Cross-posted at The Daily Banter.

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Prompted by the health care overhaul law, several states are updating their rules for insurance networks to better reflect who is covered and how people shop for and use their benefits.

Laws governing health insurance vary, but states generally try to ensure that health plans give residents reasonable access to a sufficient number of primary care and specialty physicians, said Tyler Brannen, a health policy analyst for the state of New Hampshire. Yet that aim hasn’t kept up with changes in how and where people access health care, he added. For example, nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants now provide a significant share of primary care, and many consumers head to urgent care clinics instead of scheduling office visits, he said. And the current focus on hospitals ignores the reality that virtually every service provided during a short-term hospital stay is now available in other settings, including ambulatory surgical centers.

“There’s going to be an emphasis on types of services, versus types of providers,” he said of the new standards being put in place.

New Hampshire recently began working to revise its 2001 rules, and while its first step in that direction came after a consumer challenged them under the Affordable Care Act, Brannen said he realized years ago that the standards were outdated. Washington state just implemented new regulations, and discussions are underway in several others, including Arkansas, Minnesota and California.

Also changing is how many people have insurance and who makes up that group, with previously uninsured residents gaining coverage through the health overhaul law and the expansion of Medicaid, which in New Hampshire will involve using federal money to buy private health coverage.

“We’re now talking about people with different health care needs, and different abilities to travel to providers,” Brannen said.

Similar discussions are playing out elsewhere, said John Weis of Quest Analytics, a Wisconsin company that provides software and consulting services for health plans, employers and government agencies seeking to measure network adequacy.

“States are saying, ‘Boy, you know what? The process I had in place wasn’t really sufficient,'” he said. “What you’ve witnessed over the last six months is consumers saying, ‘Hey, my provider’s not in the network, my hospital’s not in the network, these networks are so skinny, there’s no access to care,’ because there weren’t any rules that prohibited plans from doing that.”

Given the relatively quick implementation requirements of the health overhaul law, however, most states did not have sufficient time to revamp their process, Weis said. Regulations vary by state, and states are taking different pathways to update them. Legislative approval is required in some states, while in others, insurance departments have the authority to make changes.

Anna Odegaard is head of an advisory committee representing consumers and small businesses in Minnesota. She believes the standards adopted when the state created its marketplace, MNsure, aren’t strong enough because they only focus on how far patients live from providers and not on whether those providers are actually accepting new patients.

Her committee has heard complaints from providers who believe their specialties are not well represented in the marketplace and from navigators who helped people sign up for coverage. Many new enrollees had no idea whether their doctors would be included until after they signed up, she said.

“The conversation right now is: How do we get MNinsure or the Department of Health to do the data collection to substantiate that there really is a problem, so we can come back around with solutions?” she said.

Washington state’s insurance department began developing a new network adequacy rule in September, and the approved changes took effect Monday. The new regulation was designed to give consumers more information about the networks, according to Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler. In a statement, he said many consumers were upset to find their health plan no longer included their trusted doctor or hospital.

“The Affordable Care Act increased benefits, but it also expanded the role consumers are expected to play when shopping for health insurance,” he said.

The previous network rules dated back to 1998 and hadn’t been modified since 2003. Under the rule, insurers must supply detailed geographic information illustrating how their networks meet the needs of all their enrollees. It doesn’t prohibit narrow networks but requires all networks to guarantee timely and adequate access to care.

“I also want health insurers to innovate, especially if it helps keep costs down for consumers, but innovation cannot be at the expense of a consumer’s ability to access care,” Kreidler said.

Balancing access with affordability, while increasing transparency for consumers, also are key goals in New Hampshire, Brannen said.