A weekly program focusing on the arts and entertainment

It's been a tough season for idols. And Arts and Entertainment Editor Bob Sokolsky illustrates that fact by pointing to recent events involving Michael Phelps, Chris Brown and A-Rod.

But it's always been open season on such folks, he adds, citing such once admired past and present figures as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Fatty Arbuckle and Michael Richards, all of whom fell out of public favor for allegedly doing wrong.

However, Sokolsky says, other idols have managed to escape some of their more vivid moments. Errol Flynn even became the punch line to a number of jokes, good and bad. And Richard Burton was excused by claiming his criticism of Winston Churchill was nothing more than a drunken rant.

In Burton's case, Sokolsky notes, some of the media were as much at fault as the actor. And he wonders why Burton's remarks were even considered worthy of publishing.

But then, he notes, "if an idol can make an occasional mistake why can't a journalist?"