Day: 2/17/2010

Quote Of The Day: CNN vs. Fox News

Posted by on February 17, 2010 at 6:46 pm. 2 Comments :

This is just too good to let it go by. From the Hollywood Reporter:

Shari Anne Brill has long been considered one of the leading media researchers in the industry. The oft-quoted executive recently left Carat, marking the latest exit of a veteran researcher from an ad agency.

The Hollywood Reporter: What about CNN? Is there any way to overtake Fox News?

Shari Anne Brill: Smarter people need to be having more kids. I don’t know how else you can overcome it.

Good one, Shari. That would be a long term solution. In the short term we just need to convince people, particularly people in the press, that Fox is not a news network.

It is decidedly unfair to force real news enterprises to compete with an entertainment network that is also a Republican PR agency. It’s unfair to expect other news nets to comply with journalistic standards when Fox doesn’t have to. If the other news nets were inclined to make up stories, inject them with phony melodrama, and mold their own stars (both presenters and politicians), they could score higher in the ratings too, but then they wouldn’t be producing news. And the last thing we need is more networks like Fox.

Conservatives Gone Wild: CPAC Is All Up In Yo Face

Posted by on February 17, 2010 at 4:23 pm. 1 Comments :

The Conservative Political Action Conference will open tomorrow in Washington, D.C. and it promises to be totally off the hook. For those unable to attend, you might like to hear a bit about what you’ll be missing. Fox News provided this account of the festivities that, this year, will be making a special appeal to young conservatives.

“In a bid to make conservative chic, organizers of the annual meet-up of Republican Party faithful and right-wing firebrands are taking pains this year to gear their summit toward students and the under-30 crowd. Added to the menu are a slew of new media workshops and an entertainment lineup befitting a college campus.”

So what constitutes “chic” to these rightist party planners?

“The XPAC Lounge – a room one organizer dubbed the ‘hub of fun.’ That’s where the video games and the junk food will be.”

Well, if the video games and junk food will be there, then so will every young Tea Bagger in America. XPAC (Xtreme Politically Active Conservatives) is a CPAC spinoff created to appeal to America’s youth, whom Glenn Beck regards as useful idiots. That view is apparently shared by XPAC as demonstrated by their obvious contempt for young people. There is a presumption from this crowd that all kids care about is Wii, Xbox and Guitar Hero and, of course, Pizza, Cheetohs, and beer. They certainly aren’t interested in mundane pursuits like economics, foreign affairs, health care, education, etc. XPAC actually promotes their sideshow (which costs $20.00 on top of the conference registration) as…

“…a place to hang while the older crowd attends the high-priced nightly dinners.”

So it’s the kiddie table. And what about that “entertainment lineup befitting a college campus?” Did they snag Cage the Elephant or Dane Clark? Nope. Try Ann Coulter, Michael Steele and the Young Cons, a couple of white, Christians in business suits trying to rap. And then there was this enticing news from CPAC spokesman Ian Walters:

“I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody of Joe the Plumber stature came in three times a day to come in and rally the kids.”

Seriously? Stature? All the kids I know would be having fits if they thought they might be within arms reach of Joey the P. He’s so dreamy. And add to this roster of stars
Fox News BoratACORN-busting hooker and Fox News porn star, Hannah Giles. She and her pimp, James O’Keefe, will be receiving the “1st Annual XPAC Award for Impact.” But O’Keefe first has to get his parole officer’s permission in order to attend, as he was arrested in a senator’s office recently on potential felony charges. Now that’s impact. Giles will be introducing the pair’s mentor, Andrew Breitbart for the morning keynote disinformation.

Organizers are anxious to attract more young conservatives who, they say, are are “proving more adept at using new media.” They say that the conference agenda reflects that “fact” because it includes workshops and sessions on blogging and using Twitter. The obvious question is, if they are already more adept, then why do they need these workshops?

In addition to the must-see lineup above, you won’t want to miss Tom Tancredo, fresh from the Tea Baggers convention where he proposed reinstating literacy tests for voting and other racist Jim Crow-era atrocities. Gary Kreep will be on hand for the Birther contingent. Kreep was the lead council for Birther activist, “Rev.” Wiley Drake, who was also notable for his encouragement of prayers for the death of President Obama. Kreep is also the proprietor of the DefendGlenn web site that was a response to the wildly successful advertiser boycott of Beck’s show on Fox. And speaking of Beck, he will be giving the closing keynote speech on Saturday night to tie together all of the racism, birtherism, secessionism, militarism, and assorted propaganda that was dispensed throughout the conference. That’ll be the time to really get your paranoia on.

Prospective Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, will all be attending. The only one missing is Sarah Palin, who declined to attend in favor of the Tea Bagging in Nashville. Although why she could not do both is a mystery. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Tea Baggers paid her a hundred grand and the CPACers offered her zilch. Appearing under those circumstances is just not the American way.

Number Of Advertisers For Glenn Beck In The UK: Zero!

Posted by on February 17, 2010 at 12:34 pm. 7 Comments :

The movement to persuade advertisers from supporting Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue has been surprisingly successful. Thanks to the efforts of Color of Change and StopBeck.com, over 100 advertisers have now affirmed that they will no longer permit their ads to be aired during Beck’s program. That’s here in the U.S. In the UK the situation is a little different.

Glenn Beck’s program on Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News in the UK has run for the past six days without any advertisements at all.

That’s right. Glenn Beck has become a non-profit, commercial-free, charitable donation of airtime courtesy of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. Perhaps that is why Beck displayed a painting yesterday, that he says he did himself, showing George Washington in the style of Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster. Beck is probably “hoping” that his show will stay on the air even though it is scaring off advertisers faster than Osama Bin Laden’s dating video at eHarmony.

It is one thing to note that viewers have rejected Beck. His program is seen by less than 1% of the American population and polls show that 42% don’t even know who he is or have an opinion. However, it is another thing entirely when conservative corporations, including Wal-Mart and Home Depot, are embarrassed to be associated with his brand of hate and fear mongering. So here in the U.S. Beck has taken a considerable hit financially and is being kept afloat by dubious gold dealers and direct marketers.

But in the UK Beck is now completely ad-free. The significance of this, beyond the monetary, is that Rupert Murdoch must now be recognized as a brazen propagandist. He can no longer pretend to be a businessman making choices based on the best interests on his company. By granting Beck hours of free airtime despite the financial losses, Murdoch is neglecting his fiduciary duty to his shareholders. And he is doing it in order to continue the wingnut proselytizing of Glenn Beck. Perhaps the show should carry a disclaimer along the lines of PBS: “The Glenn Beck program is brought to you by a grant from Rupert Murdoch and the News Corporation.”

It will be interesting to see how long Fox can ignore this situation. The Advertiser Exodus began last summer, and critics at the time said it would be over by fall. Instead it has held fast and expanded. Someone needs to ask Murdoch how long he intends to carry this albatross at the next News Corp. shareholders meeting.