Hearts & Ears: Recent News

VIDEO: CBS News music for fiscal cliff special reports

In the above clip, David Letterman parodies the fight-or-flight quality of much TV news music. Below, a collection of intros and bumpers can be heard in all their epically sweeping/foreboding/blustering glory (the “NFL on Fox” theme  is thrown in for good measure):

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Follow the link here for a report on political protest music in post-Mubarak Egypt. The song “Ya Sayed Ya Masul” by indie band Salalem–its title translates to “Mr. In-Charge”–is critical of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi’s self-granted unlimited powers and divisive provisional constitution. A stark ballad for the most part, the band rock out briefly toward the end:

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Shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the National Rifle Association cancelled a planned event with country music rapper Colt Ford.

In a 2012 publicity campaign, the NRA begun honoring a country-music-artist-of-the-month who endorses their organization (Read the “NRA Country Mission Statement” here). In the lead-off single to his latest album, “Answer To No One,” Colt Ford portrays himself as a “flag flyin’ bible totin’ son of a gun” who demands the “right to tote the weapon of [his] choice”: