Commercials

Was watching “Watters’ World’ last night and it finally hit me how many commercials are being crammed into the programming breaks. In one, I counted six ads ... mostly 30 seconds each. I swear there was more time dedicated there to commercials than to programming content. Is this legal? The answer is yes ... see: Tampa Bay Times Answer. I seem to remember when such drivel was limited by FCC regulation. If this has changed, me thinks that greed is overtaking entertainment in our media.

Watch out advertisers ... there will be a tipping point! For me it is very close!

Filters

“And that’s the way it is”  Walter Cronkite

Traditional news outlets, radio, TV and newspapers have acted as our information filters to the world. Their value-added has been the collection, collating and prioritizing of supposed facts about what was happening around us  ... for which they were paid, often handsomely. Basically, we consumers of news relied on these filters to present us a consistent and reliable view of things so that we might take action. And, in exchange, we bought and perused their ink or listened to their advertisers. There was a certain comfort in knowing what slant a particular outlet would bring to their reporting ... and this slant or filter often became more important than the facts themselves.

No matter how much such media claim to be fair and balanced, they always slip back into a point of view. And the only way that consumers can get a rounded view of things is to partake of multiple news outlets ... a time taxing task ... one that too few choose.  So we live and have lived on a politically polarized nation. And even more so now that many additional internet news channels, Twitter, Google, Facebook, blogs, etc. have appeared. This seems a good development, not a bad one. Variety is the spice of life. The shortest route to national consensus would be a state-sponsored  media (like PBS or NPR) as the only news filter ... a bad thing.

Our founding fathers designed our government to be inefficient and contain opposing forces. And so constant conflict within our media is also a good thing. The danger posed is that one news filter (like Facebook) becomes so dominant as to overwhelm all others. This  should worry us all.

Headlines

'If they won the House he wins big': Trump loyalists see upside in impeachment

Sen. Elizaberh Warren: Trade deals help companies not workers

Aretha Franklin dead ... Queen of Soul

Report: SEC subpoenas Tesla

Senior Chinese governmeant delegation to visit U.S. for trade war talks

The way you ger TV and Internet at home is aboit to change dramatically --- for the better

[Andrew] Cuomo: America never that great ...

Fed's take custody on New Mexico Muslim cult leader

Trump pulls security clearance of ex-CIA director , John Brennan

Trump may get his slowdown in [Fed.] rate hikes, but foe rhe wrong reason

Twitter demands 'healthy' behavior ...

Poll: Donal Trump's BlackAapproval Rating almost double that of  last year

Cough Sufferers

The social, cable and network media are all abuzz over Stephen Colbert's comment that President Trump's mouth was good as Putin's cock holster ... with many calling for Colbert's ouster for this "homophobic obscenity." First, I don't believe that this "joke" was homophobic. This argot is a well-known idiom in the gay community and was likely retrieved by one of his writers in a monologue creative session. Second, yes this line is obscene and, as such, the CBS network and Colbert's Late Show show producer should suffer any FCC financial repercussions for allowing this taped smut to go out on the air.

Obviously the Late Show is on late and doesn't have a large underage audience. But this comment became social-media viral and has since been seen by a great many little Johnnies and Janes. Therefore, some additional FCC wrist slapping might be in order ... maybe asking Colbert for a sincere social media apology ... if he could pull off eating such a big portion of crow. I kinda doubt it. I suspect that he would take it as an opportunity for even more mockery.

Instead, maybe Trump could counter in kind with a tweet suggesting that Colbert and his writers might be a little under the weather ... "cough sufferers" ... easier to get this "punny" passed our sleeping TV censors.

Pajama Party

Watching [too] many of the talking-heads programs on TV has suggested to me one such show is the equivalent of a  high school pajama party and the inane gum-chewing banter that takes place therein. Here is some imagined gossip during a talking-heads sleepover:


"Ja'hear that Priebus won't sit with Bannon at lunch anymore!"

"Ivanka's Daddy gave her a new sports car over the weekend! Gee, I think she's his favorite!"

"You won't believe what Bernie Sanders did after the Senior Prom?"

"I was told that Principal McConnell yesterday was cursing out the teacher's union! And our Latin teacher, Schumer, swore that he would get even with him!"

"Someone blabbed our Blues had a beer pong party after the game Saturday and half of them ended up blowing lunch!"

"Who wants to go out on a date with Mikey Pence?"

"Psst, Slick Willie , on his Facebook page, said he had the hots for Sarah Palin!"


Actually these back-and- forths are a lot less catty than that actually seen on the boob tube ...