Media Notes

The N.Y. OBSERVER's Koblin & Aleksander noted recent Columbia School of Journalism graduate Vinnie Rotondaro, who writes for Columbia's blog Brooklyn Ink and has only "five bylines" on the site, received one of two "one-on-one interviews" last week with Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov. Rotondaro said that he "received an email about three weeks ago" that was "light on details." Rotondaro in the e-mail was "asked if he would be interested in an exclusive interview with someone really important," though it "didn't say who." When he called the number that was in the e-mail, a handler said that Prokhorov "wanted a Brooklyn blogger to interview him." Rotondaro before the interview "was told there would be no restrictions" and that he "could ask anything he wanted, and write anything he wanted." He met with Prokhorov on Wednesday, and they "chatted for 40 minutes." A Prokhorov spokesperson in an e-mail said Prokhorov "believes in supporting young journalists and Vinnie just graduated this week from one of country's most prestigious programs, the Columbia School of Journalism." Prokhorov also was interviewed by WFAN-AM's Mike Francesca (OBSERVER.com, 5/21).

I'M DYNAMITE: TNT will use AC/DC's song "TNT" as the network's theme for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series coverage this year. The song will serve as the primary musical bed for all six TNT Sprint Cup races, as well as for the net's multiplatform marketing campaign surrounding the coverage. The net's full-length NASCAR video featuring "TNT" will debut tomorrow during TNT's postgame "Inside the NBA" coverage following Game Four of the Lakers-Suns Western Conference Finals (TNT).

NO PUNCHES PULLED: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir wrote SportsNet N.Y.'s Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and Bob Ojeda, who were all members of the Mets' '86 World Series-winning team, are "providing daily, widely heard commentary on a club that is hardly as inspiring." Ojeda serves as a studio analyst on the net's postgame coverage, and the show's "burden is to be candid without turning off core viewers." The postgame shows are "maintaining about 40 percent of the game's audience, showing that Mets fans have an appetite for prolonged suffering." Ojeda: "What they want is honest answers from a guy who's played. They want someone to tell them what the players are doing wrong and what they're doing right" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/22).

OTL GOES SPANISH: CABLEFAX DAILY reports ESPN Deportes has announced plans for "ESPN-Investiga." The net said that the show is the "1st prime news-magazine sports program on Spanish-language TV dedicated to long-form investigative journalism" (CABLEFAX DAILY, 5/24).