Friday, June 19, 2009

CBS Seems to be Pulling Anti-Palin Material.

Letterman attacked Palin over and over and over. You can look it up on Youtube but a few of his routines have been removed by CBS. I am only speculating but the frequency of Letterman attacks could be a potential PR problem for the Tiffany network.

Just speculating.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Does Brian Williams Think Kennedy Ran Against Eisenhower?

Let's be fair. It is possible that Williams misspoke. That he knew that Kennedy never ran against Eisenhower but that Nixon (Eisenehower's vice president) was an extension of the Eisenhower Administration. Maybe he accidentally misstated the facts. But he did not clarify as well as he should have.

Williams then repeats the analogy. And in the context, it appears that he does believe Eisenhower ran against Kennedy because McCain the war hero is sort of the political Eisenhower of his era. He is certainly comparing Eisenhower and McCain.

Is Williams a moron? If the standard is beyond reasonable doubt, he has a chance at acquittal. If the standard is a preponderance of evidence, the viewers and the voters will be rewarded damages.

Oh, and you might notice that Mensa member Dave does not correct his intellectual twin on his absurdities.


PALIN HAS NEVER UTTERED ANYTHING HALF THIS STUPID

Why is Palin So Threatening to the Media Elite.

Even in defeat Palin is still the object of hate for the upper crust.

THE $32 MILLION DOLLAR MAN PUMMELS THE SMALL TOWN GIRL

Letterman and McClellan

I disapprove of Bush because he spent too much money (a drop in the bucket it would turn out, when compared to that Obama fellow.) But Cheney and Bush took the defense of our country, and the West, seriously. Letterman cannot even concoct a half-baked conspiracy theory. How is it again, that the oil companies benefitted from the Iraq War?

Dave is like so many other Dems in that he knows who he is supposed to hate but does not know why. His muttering about privatizing the military and replacing them with Haliburton. So what, Dave? Doesn't that mean that he's taken soldiers out of harm's way (and replaced them with despicable Haliburton employees?)

McClellan provides the perfect backdrop to deliver the unbridled silliness. Two manifestations of Judas. McClellan betrayed Bush. Letterman betrayed his audience. No wonder you're in third place in the ratings, Dave.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Letterman, Imus, Stern

I saw a news report about an anti-Letterman protest in NYC. The people shown were as frightening as Obama supporters. One should advise against overkill. It is wise to keep one's attacks proportional or one can easily turn the aggriever into the aggrieved.

Bill Clinton was gracelessly attacked by Kenneth Starr and the news media and those attacks solidified his approval ratings. Like most Americans, I saw the Starr hearings as a witch hunt, a fishing expedition, a giant farce. I never voted for Clinton but I felt sorry for him and I had no sympathy for the petty people who publicly humiliated him.

Something similar might happen with Letterman. The people outside the CBS studio were chanting "perv" and calling him a sex offender. People, your greatest weapon is the truth. Letterman is to be despised because he is spineless, gutless and ballsless but his verbal attacks on a 14 year old girl were anything but sexually motivated. Nor is Letterman part of a widespread conspiracy against women and his comments do not promote the sexual abuse of anyone (I would take exception to Palin's comments on this issue but then again that was not Governor Palin talking, it was Mother Bear Palin talking. She has more license.)

As with Don Imus before him, Letterman's larger sin is that he has ceased to be funny. You can get away with anything if you are funny. Howard Stern gets away with much more edgy material than his rivals because he is not simply outrageous; he is outrageous in a humorous way.

Imus got run off the air for calling the Rutgers basketball team "a bunch of nappy-headed ho's." That line is DOA. No comedian who ever lived could make that line work because there isn't even an element of humor to it. "It's the difference between 'your momma's so stupid she has to call information to get the number for 9-1-1' and 'your momma sucks.' Imus's comment did not even rise to the joke level.

But Imus's non-joke was delivered in the context of declining ratings and a career that was always of dubious quality. Imus's slogan could have been "I am not Howard Stern." People who hated Stern wanted a Stern-Lite to knock the King on his ass. Imus was that guy. But Imus never delivered the goods. He was the Joey Bishop of radio who just kept going and going and going.

Whereas Imus was never funny, Letterman is a bona fide has been. He was probably always bitter but for years he masked his bitterness in humor. When the humor vanished a decade or so ago, we were left with distilled bitterness and bad ratings. Dave never regained his edge.

Letterman, Imus, Opie and Anthony: their downfall was never "going too far." Their downfall was a chronic lack of humor. When Howard Stern is no longer funny, he might join the list. But for now, Stern is king. You can get away with anything if you are funny.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Letterman Trashes Palin, Strokes Obama.

Everyone knows Palin's an idiot. The media elite did everything in their power to get that message across. Dave shows the powers that be why he is worth $32 million (sure as hell ain't the ratings.)

PALIN GETS THE LETTERMAN TREATMENT



OBAMA GETS THE LETTERMAN TREATMENT

Sarah Palin: Punching Bag

The logic is mind-numbingly twisted. Because Palin has always been a punching bag of the media elite, she has no right to complain about Letterman's recent attacks. The window of protest has closed, decrees Shannyn Moore.

First, Ms. Moore, there was an upcoming election the first time the media bigwigs attacked her. Yes, there was overt bias and pronounced bile--that would have been labled hate speech if it had been directed against a media-sanctioned candidate--but it was in the context of a presidential election. It was extremely biased political speech but it was political speech nonetheless. It is harder to make that case against CBS's recent insults of a 14 year old girl.

Second, Palin could not possibly defend herself from the series of ambushes by the media elite. The sheer volume of those attacks amde it impossible to defend herself. No other public figure has been the lightning rod that was Palin 2008.

Thank you, Ms. Moore, for chronicling a series of attacks (the tip of the tip of the iceberg) against Sarah Palin and her family. Ironically you make the point that I have tried to make, that the media are in the tank for Obama and they will use every weapon in their arsenal to crush anyone who dares criticize their pampered superstar. You illustrate just how frequently and how visciously the smears piled up.





For the complete link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/top-10-reasons-sarah-pali_b_215468.html

Monday, June 15, 2009

Oprah Winfrey: Kingmaker.

I am as quick as anyone to dismiss the old media. Just two weeks ago Katie Couric scored the lowest ratings EVER for "CBS Evening News" and other news channels not named Fox are not doing so well either. "The Boston Globe" is on life support and it's fending off other rags for use of the ventilator. But just because the industry as a whole is doing poorly does not mean that everyone's doing poorly.

Oprah Winfrey is perhaps the most powerful woman in America, if not the world. Her role in Obama's success has been trumpeted but her influence might have gotten lost in the crowd. When 99% of the media sing from the Obama song book, it is easy to overlook the influence of one mighty voice. Not all endorsements are created equal.

Winfrey was a factor in the 2008 election and she will continue to be an influence on matters of public concern. The report is scholarly and dry and it's 59 pages long. But it does its job of spelling out the titanic influence of Oprah Winfrey.

http://econ-server.umd.edu/~garthwaite/celebrityendorsements_garthwaitemoore.pdf

Sunday, June 14, 2009

An Open Letter to Sarah Palin

Sever all ties with the mainstream media. Please don't repeat the mistake your running mate, John McCain, made. He thought he could trust the media to be fair. That judgment, or rather that lack of judgment, cost him dearly.

If you bank on "New York Times" to be fair, you deserve to lose. Remember the innuendo The Gray Lady spread about the senator and a certain lobbyist? Facts be damned! Do you remember the sleazy tabloid hit pieces that NYT used to smear Cindy McCain? This was the same organization that killed a highly relevant ACORN story just weeks before the election. All the news that's fit to spike.

Governor, you are a lightning rod because you share the values, hopes and dreams of most Americans. For that reason, elitists hate you. The media elite hate you even more. These are people who profess their love for working people but tremble at the possibility of a blue collar person holding public office. They despise working people, people who come from working families, people from small towns, people who did not attend the right schools and worst of all, they despise outsiders. As in, people from outside The Beltway.

But please do not grow discouraged by the slings and arrows of outrageous media. The fact that they hate you--and yes, they do hate you--shows the rest of us that you are probably a good person and possibly a worthy presidential candidate. Now is the time to show the effete snobs just how obsolete they really are. In an era of blogs, websites and digital video, you don't need the mainstream media for publicity. You can reach your audience directly.

We were all taken aback by Letterman's comments. But why did you appear on "The Today Show" later in the week? Granted, you are a ratings boost, and giving NBC face time sends a message to CBS. But pitting the media against one another won't work for very long. They maintain their genteel rivalries, but they will never be enemies. The members of Meadowbrook Polo Club do not pummel the members of the Oakbrook Polo Club with their trusty mallets. They hammer away at a little white ball and sip champagne with their competitors afterward. You will always be that little white ball. Keep that in mind.

But you don't have to show up at the polo grounds. Don't sit down with them! They can have the same access to your speeches and town hall meetings that everyone else has. Let them Twitter and Facebook and search Youtube. Do not participate in your own crucifixion.

Ironically, the mainstream media might help you in the long run. There are plenty of voters--like me or instance--who are uncomfortable with terms like liberal and conservative but who will vote against big media in a heart beat. When our enemies find a new enemy, it rekindles our interest in public affairs.

"I didn't come here to earn your good opinion." Live by your words, Governor Palin. Stop trying to earn their good opinion. Remember your next line. "I came here to serve the people of this great country." The choice is obvious. Serve your country or earn the media's good opinion. You cannot do both.