Category: News & Comment

Selling FOX News

Trish

Advertising Age (subscription) takes us behind the scenes during a FOX News presentation to potential advertisers, where the atmosphere is as full of hype as its programming.

Fox and the rest of the cable and broadcast networks are getting ready to sell their advertising space for the new TV season, which traditionally begins in the fall.

The presentation bashes the competition in pursuit of non-news budgets, “A&E, they’ve gone from high brow to unibrow,” jokes Kevin Brown, Fox’s vice president for East Coast sales. “CNN used to be known as the ‘crisis news network.’ We’ve broken that deadlock.” He continues to detail ratings highs on non-political stories such as the Scott Peterson verdict and the Asian tsunami, but adds that the death of Pope John Paul II was an exception.

“And why not the pope story?” Keeshan asks.

“It’s not a fast-moving story,” responds Rittenberg.

No, it fairly crawled, like my skin does when I think of FOX News and all those affluent households with it blaring away in the background.

On one slide, titled “Who’s Hot/Who’s Not for Upscale Delivery,” Fox News claims to be up 85% in households (adults ages 25 to 54) with income of more than $100,000 during prime time. According to the slide, CNN was up 32%, while ESPN and Comedy Central were down 5%, and Discovery and TLC were down 10% and 43%, respectively.

…Some PHD executives are reluctant to accept some of the arguments made, particularly since figures are from the fourth quarter 2004, which included the presidential election, a particularly good time for the channel…

Rittenberg disputes spinning the numbers. “We’re fortunate that most of the information shows us in a good light. No one’s saying our numbers suck,” he says, adding that first quarter 2005 also compares favorably with first quarter 2004.

Maybe your numbers don’t suck FOX, but your so-called news really blows.

Another Paid Bush Propagandist Revealed at Ag Dept.

Jon Ponder

USA Today:

A third federal agency has admitted it paid a journalist to write favorable stories about its work.

Documents released by the Agriculture Department show it paid a freelance writer $9,375 in 2003 to “research and write articles for hunting and fishing magazines describing the benefits of NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) programs.”

Three articles by the writer, Dave Smith, appeared late last year in two magazines aimed at hunting and fishing enthusiasts: Outdoor Oklahoma, published by that state’s Department of Wildlife Conservation, and Washington-Oregon Game & Fish, published by Primedia.

Neither identified Smith as having been paid by the government. The stories focused on how money from a 2002 agricultural subsidy bill had been used to help preserve wetlands that hunting and fishing enthusiasts enjoy in Oklahoma and the Northwest.

Schwarzenegger Considers Unleashing the Whirlwind

Jon Ponder

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s minions have collected enough signatures to put three of his initiatives on the ballot of the special election he has threatened to call this November. The three propositions would place (yet more) arbitrary controls on spending, do a “DeLay” (which in Texas they’re calling “Tommymandering”) on California’s electoral districting and delay tenure for public school teachers.

During the Recall election, Arnold undertook not a single serious interview with the media. He assumes he can win any political battle by doing what he did then – going on Oprah, “Entertainment Tonight” and Jay Leno’s show, flashing his fake teeth and doing his lame-ass “Everything is terrific” portrayal of Reagan.

Last week, Das Guber did two softball interviews on Fox News, the new last refuge of scoundrels. If he decides to hold the election in this off-year, not only will it cost a minimum of $70 million in state election funding, it will expose our pampered movie star governor to something I’m not sure he’s tough enough to take: Hardball questions from the state’s hard news media – and the unmitigated anger and disdain of millions of voters.

One Party Rule: Court Dismisses Cheney Task Force Charges

Jon Ponder

This is why the Republicans are doing everything in their power to pack the courts with rightwing judges:

A US appeals court has thrown out a lawsuit that sought details about Vice President Dick Cheney’s 2001 energy policy task force that critics say secretly formed policy favourable to the industry.

The unanimous ruling ordered a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit by the Sierra Club environmental group and the watchdog group Judicial Watch that sought to learn about contacts between task force members and industry executives.

“We hold that plaintiffs have failed to establish any duty, let alone a clear and indisputable duty, owed to them by the federal government” under the law in question, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Judge A Raymond Randolph wrote in the 13-page ruling.

All eight judges on the appeals court sided with the Bush administration and agreed the lawsuit must be dismissed.

Whining and Dining for DeLay

Trish

Are you going to the “Keep Tom DeLay Out of Jail” dinner tonight in Orlando? All you need is $250 and you can join the other 1,000 devoted followers.

Orlando Sentinel

It’s too early to know whether the dinner is the beginning of the end for DeLay or part of a comeback against the allegations.

“It’s usually a sign you’re in deep trouble,” scholar Norm Ornstein of the think tank American Enterprise Institute said of the dinner. “They wouldn’t do this if it was just a few pebbles.”

Of course, most of tonight’s diners have gotten much more than $250 from DeLay over the years. This is just a pittance, as paybacks go.

Florida Republican lawmakers have benefited from thousands of dollars in campaign donations from DeLay and his political-action committee, often just when some of them needed it most during tight races.

[Rep. Tom] Feeney, for instance, received $10,000 from DeLay’s political-action committee in his first congressional campaign. Rep. Ric Keller of Orlando got $21,000 from DeLay and his PAC in his first two elections. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Crystal River, received $20,000 in her first two elections.

Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr., R-Fort Lauderdale, who is in a swing district, has received more than $31,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics…

Shaw said the donations from leaders such as DeLay, which are common, are for the purpose of “maintaining the majority.”

“He is our leader, and in my opinion he will remain that leader,” Shaw said.

Funny they should mention Clay Shaw. He has own “DeLay Problem” at the moment. Read on.

Different Day, Same Republican Hypocrisy

Trish

U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, Florida, has a Delay Problem. While he claims a trip to Ireland was not paid for by lobbyists, he also says it doesn’t matter because the House ethics committee approved the trip. Is that like saying your dog never bit your neighbor and the neighbor had it coming anyway?

Palm Beach Post

Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. is one of five members of Congress who reported taking a 2003 trip to Ireland paid by a lobbying organization in violation of House ethics rules…

He said he originally misidentified the sponsor of the trip and plans to file an amended report naming the lobbying firm’s parent company — which is not a lobbying organization — as the actual sponsor.

In any event, he noted, the House ethics committee “signed off” on the trip in advance…

Small wonder that Shaw is doing the DeLay Waltz. The two are pretty tight.

Shaw has received $30,000 from Armpac, a political action committee run by DeLay, during the past three elections, and last fall gave $5,000 to DeLay’s legal fund.

Shaw and four other members of the House and Senate made the trip. Back then, they said it was paid by registered lobbyists Kessler & Associates, which represents Microsoft, Delta, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and other Big Pharma manufacturers.

The lawmakers and several of their wives stayed at the 13th century Ashford Castle, converted into a luxury hotel on 350 acres on the banks of Lough Corrib…

Shaw said he did not know at the time that Kessler was a registered lobbying firm. He listed Kessler as the sponsor because the trip itinerary was on Kessler letterhead stationery, he said.

Shaw said he now believes the sponsor was Century Business Strategies, a Cleveland accounting and consulting firm that is Kessler’s parent company.

All of this might not be so bad, except for the egregious hypocrisy involved. Shaw, after all, is the guy waging war on 527s, which, like the Internets, Democrats figured out how to use first.

An earlier story in the Palm Beach Post reported on Shaw’s full-disclosure initiative.

Shaw and his fellow sponsors of a new bill — Reps. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and Phil English, R-Pa. — said their 527 Transparency Act of 2005 would let Americans know who is behind the political ads on their televisions…

The bill would also provide information to politicians about their supporters, Foley said…

“Let’s find out who is writing the checks.”

Yes, let’s. Especially before we fly off to Ireland with our palms extended.

Huffington Blog Launch

Jon Ponder

LA.com

Arianna Huffington’s blog lives up to its hype. All the blogs that poked fun of it as it was gestating have stopped, in part because a lot of them are featured on the blogroll and will enjoy higher traffic because of it. Interesting to note that yesterday’s New York Times printed comments by Gawker Empire’s Nick Denton to the effect that blogging isn’t really the revolution it’s purported to be. The Huffington Post, which went live today, indicates that it is; its starpower and wealth of material push the genre forward a few steps. Blogging can no longer be thought of as the realm of snarky geeks and crackpots.

This post from Brad Hall and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is pretty funny:

Like most Americans, I had hoped that the Defense of Marriage Act would do just that: defend my marriage. Apparently not. Look around and you’ll see the gays getting gay-married all over the place, and, to quote, well, everyone: gay marriage destroys real marriage. Now, when I come home to my wife, I feel nothing. How could I? SHE COULD BE A MAN. Thanks a lot, gays. Thanks for rendering our vows obsolete. Thanks for illegitimizing our sons. Thanks for tearing asunder a great institution that has heretofore withstood Las Vegas, Elizabeth Taylor, Larry King and Britney Spears combined.

It is pretty interesting. Lots of short tasty bits. I understand why she’s positioning it as a blog but it’s really an online magazine like Slate or Salon.

The Microsoft Evangelist and His Ministry of Hate

Jon Ponder

Ken Hutcherson, right, is the former pro football player turned religious extremist who put Microsoft in a spin, reversing itself and then re-reversing itself, regarding legislation to ban discrimination against gays in the workplace. I happened to see him interviewed last week and I agree with this assessment of him by Connie Shultz, a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Here’s what I find so scary about the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, the latest gay-bashing preacher in the news.

It’s not the clever way the Seattle-area minister bends the Bible to berate an entire group of his fellow human beings. He’s got plenty of company on that one.

It’s not his threat to start a national boycott against Microsoft if the company supported an anti-discrimination bill that included gays and lesbians. That was a boycott that would have failed if only Bill Gates and Co. hadn’t crumbled.

What I find most troubling about Hutcherson is the charm he brings with every blow to civil liberties. His wit and self-deprecatory humor make for real entertainment, and laughter is a great way to disguise the hate he’s peddling.

JUMP: Read the rest of the article.

Florida Might Be Red, But It Blushes Purple

Trish

I never thought it would be fun to be a Democrat in Florida again, but the headlines following the close of the state legislative session on Friday were pretty satisfying.

Florida Times Union (Jacksonville):

Governor, His Major Initiatives Left in Cold

This winter, Jeb Bush sent the Legislature a wish list of Medicaid reform, class-size amendment changes and school voucher expansion.

On Friday, legislators crumpled it up and threw it back…

Tallahassee Democrat:

Session Showed Gov. Bush Era Waning

Gov. Jeb Bush hopped the globe to monitor aid for tsunami victims in Asia and mourn Pope John Paul II in Vatican City, but it was a more humbling year at home.

Halfway through the next-to-last year of his second term, Bush no longer can crack a whip and get all fellow Republican lawmakers to follow…

Orlando Sentinel:

Legislators Cut Gov. Bush’s List Down to Size

Like his brother in the White House who is struggling to sell a Social Security overhaul to a reluctant Congress, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush might have reached too far during the just-completed state legislative session…

Miami Herald:

Rebuffs Reduce Gov. Bush’s Power

After a six-year reign as arguably the most powerful governor in state history, Jeb Bush met mortality last week at the hands of his fellow Republicans…

What these stories, and the session itself, showed is that a one-party system doesn’t automatically produce accord. Florida’s Republican governor couldn’t get his signature projects through the Republican State House or the Republican State Senate. And the Republican House and Senate couldn’t get many of their slam-dunks into each other’s baskets.

Why? My theory is that we have a one-party system in Florida, not because everyone thinks Republican, but because the GOP has done such a thorough job of selling the message that the only way to win here is to have the R-label. Hand in hand with that, stacking districts helped a lot too. So now a whole bunch of people who aren’t REALLY Republicans have little elephants on their lapels. And the Jebs of the world still don’t always get their way.

GOP Proposes ‘Vanity’ CA Tax Laws for Tycoons

Jon Ponder

Here’s one that is a top candidate for the Brass Cajones World Class Chutzpah Award:

A Wall Street tycoon accused in the 1980s of cheating thousands of investors out of their savings in one of the biggest financial scandals in history now says the state of California cheated him. So he has launched a campaign to change the state tax code — retroactive to 1992 — in hopes of getting $5 million back.

The “tycoon” is Peter Ackerman who worked for Drexel Burnham Lambert, along with “Junk Bond King” Michael Miliken. As a result of the scandal, Miliken went to jail but Ackerman walked away with a fine and, reportedly, $500 million.

JUMP: Read the rest of the article.