Month: November 2005

The Bill O’Reilly Enemies List Is Being Compiled Now

Posted by on November 16, 2005 at 12:57 am. NO Comments :

Who would have thought that Pat Robertson, after having called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and admonishing the residents of Dover, PA, not to turn to God if a disaster befell them, could get bumped from the stage of national loonies? Leave it to O’Reilly. Last Tuesday, Bill O’Reilly used his radio program to give permission for terrorists to attack San Francisco. Referring to the city’s decision to remove military recruiters from their schools, the Factor Cat said…

“If Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco.”

But wait…There’s more!

The ensuing controversy over his provocation brought little remorse. In fact, after first insisting that it needed to be said, he shifted ground to claim that it was merely satire. Then he set upon his critics whom he described as guttersnipes.

But wait…We’re not through yet!

Not content to defend advocating terrorism in America, he is now taking names of those he feels have besmirched him.

“I’m glad the smear sites made a big deal out of it. Now we can all know who was with the anti-military internet crowd. We’ll post the names of all who support the smear merchants on billoreilly.com. So check with us.”

Well, I, for one, am putting Billy on notice. If he does not put me on that list, I will sue his ass. The public embarrassment of such an ommission would cause irrepairable harm to my reputation. Consider this an official demand for inclusion.

Anyone similarly situated and who desires inclusion on O’Reilly’s Enemies List, is welcome to post a copy of this image with a link back to News Corpse. Let’s help make Billy’s list a long one.

Television Whores Just Can't Get Enough

Posted by on November 10, 2005 at 3:19 am. NO Comments :

Nielsen Media Research has released data for last season that confirms NBC’s status as the top whore in television. NBC acheived this milestone by doubling the number of its product placements in the 2003-04 season. CBS came in second with Fox close behind in 3rd.

Primetime product placements increased more than 30% on all 6 national broadcast networks combined. That represents more than 70,000 product insertions into program content. That’s on top of the 25% increase in actual minutes of commercials per hour (to 16 1/2) over the last decade. So to summerize, for every hour of TV you watched last season, you saw 16 1/2 minutes of commercials. And the the remaining 43 1/2 minutes contained 1000’s more commercial messages. It might make you wonder when TV programs will actually contain no entertainment content at all and just be one long commercial. Oh wait, I forgot about The Apprentice. The future is now.

Commercials themselves have become platforms for product placement as Arnold Schwarzenegger proved by inserting the products of his corporate contributers into his campaign ads.

For people who don’t mind having sales pitches thrust in their faces 24/7, maybe these numbers will generate little concern. But by sucking ever more revenue from corporate advertising clients, the strangling addiction can’t help but impact the media conglomerates who become increasingly reliant on their largesse. This gives the advertisers more leverage to influence program content throughout the network, including the news, which networks just regard as more shelf space, no different than sitcoms or soap operas.

Conflicts are sure to arise when an advertiser, say General Electric, objects to a news item critical of their refrigerators. Even worse, they may object to a news item that questions our participation in a war which would consume GE’s many defense products. How much pressure would it take to dissuade a network dependent on GE’s cash, from altering or scrapping such a story? How much pressure would it take if GE owned the network itself, as it does NBC?

The incestuous relationship between corporate America, corporate media, and corporate-owned politicians is hastening the erosion of what’s left of our nation’s press. This prowling triplex is far more dangerous than the military/industrial complex President Eisenhower warned us about 45 years ago. If it isn’t stopped, we can forget about reliable news outlets; we can forget about open government; we can forget about Democracy itself.