Chopping Up Truth In Media Since 2009
Two very popular websites and what they posted at exactly 3:00 PM Pacific time today (October 2nd).
The real question going into the debates tomorrow isn’t who will win – Obama or Romney? (FYI, Fox News has already declared Mitt Romney the winner.)
The real question is which website will be able to bring down the candidate they hate before November 6th?
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
Also declaring Mitt Romney a winner are Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.
How is that possible? The debate doesn’t even happen until October 3rd.Â
Here’s how: Fox News is really pushing a specific storyline about the upcoming debate. They are calling it “Do or Die” for Mitt Romney.
If that’s true, do you really expect the Fox News election team to sit there after the debate and say “Mitt Romney lost the Presidency tonight”? Â “Boy did he lose that one.” Â “I’ve never seen such a horrible performance.” Â “Barack Obama got my vote tonight.”
Of course not.
They will say, guaran-freakin-teed, that Mitt Romney easily defeated President Barack Obama in the debate. They’ll say “Romney was up against the wall and he came out fighting.”  “It was ‘Do or Die’ and Romney is still very much alive!” etc. etc. etc.
Romney could come out, stare into the camera and complete freeze up – never saying a word and Sean Hannity would say “Frankly, he was just speechless over how bad the Obama presidency has been.”
Romney could come out and throw up all over the stage and Limbaugh would say “It was a very real moment. Â I wish more of our Presidential candidates would have the courage to throw up on national television.”
Romney could come out and punch Obama right in the mouth and Hannity would say “It was great. He was just expressing how so many Americans feel about President Obama’s job performance.”
He could do that bit about holding a gun to a puppy’s head and say “Vote for me or the dog gets it” and Ann Coulter would say “See, he likes animals. He didn’t actual shoot that dog.”
There is absolutely no question about. I’m sure they already writing the script for Wednesday night’s broadcast. They don’t need to see the debate to decide what they are going to say. That’s for the losers in the real news business.
According to Fox News (and many others on the Right), Mitt Romney has won a debate that hasn’t even happened.
And that’s some seriously fucked up shit.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
P.S. – And spare me the “But NBC News has already decided Barack Obama is the winner of the debate…” argument – nobody is as predictable or as harmful to the country as Fox News.
SCREAMING BUY!
YHOO is headed for $50/share.
Marissa Mayer is a perfect choice.
Great for Yahoo!
Great for Silicon Valley.
It’s a stunning move – completely shocking and unexpected.
If you’re worried about her pregnancy – then shame on you.
Her pregnancy makes me even more bullish on the stock.
Marissa is going to make this work and no one should question it (especially the loser stock holders who, for some reason, were holding Yahoo! stock before this announcement).
I, frankly, didn’t think the Yahoo! Board had the cojones to make such a choice.
Well done.
And next year, at Herb Allen’s Sun Valley Conference crap-fest for moguls, there will be a new Woman of Sun Valley (sorry Sheryl Sandberg).
And if, for whatever reason, things don’t work out (very small chance), Ms. Mayer can take comfort that like her predecessors Scott Thompson, Jerry Yang and Carol Bartz, Manka Bros. will offer her a job.
Good luck, Marissa (don’t read too many blog comments).
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
Andrew Breitbart died just after midnight last night.
He was 43 years old.
I offer my deepest condolences to his family and friends. Â A sudden death like this is incredibly tragic.
Yes, he was an asshole (at least in my mind) and a much hated Right Wing Conservative political bomb thrower. Â He rarely cared who he verbally stepped on, attacked or ruined.
To be fair, he was also much loved (I suppose) by the Far Right.
But politics is not the point here.
The point is – the man died last night.
The media has already flashed the “Breaking News” alert, flooded social media, analyzed his impact on society, put forward ideas on who will replace him on the bomb throwing Right, etc.
The man has been dead for less than 9 hours!
It immediately reminded me of CNN’s 9/11 coverage. Â I distinctly remember Jeff Greenfield standing on CNN’s roof with the World Trade Center still standing far in the background with smoke pouring out after the planes hit (and minutes before the collapse) and he’s basically summing up what it will all mean historically and what can we learn from this tragedy.
News coverage today is a complete joke and further proof that the world’s attention span is completely shot. Â With one final TWEET, Andrew was gone – forever.
What kind of a world are we living in when Davy Jones’ death (yesterday) is old news?
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
And that’s fine with me.
In 2010, when the Tea Party won quite a few House seats and a couple of Senate seats , many people were wrongly tricked into believing that a serious political movement had begun and a rise of the Far Right was imminent.
(Frankly, I believe these were ‘protest candidate’ candidates that were elected mostly because the country was at the height of the Great Recession and there was a lot of misery and demand for change out there.)
Well, the call for change is coming to an end, the country is on the mend and the Republicans that want to keep their jobs are drifting back to the center.
And if they don’t drift to the center they will, most likely, be voted out of office because the wacko Right is no longer a viable alternative.
And, I believe, much of this rejection of change is because of a Sean Hannity EPIC FAIL.
It turns out, the majority of Americans do not want to live in Sean Hannity’s world.
His is a world of constant conflict for the sake of ratings. Â A world of hammering a message over and over and over again turning his audience into something similar to school children in North Korea.
And it’s a message that never wavers: Â “Anyone but Obama…” (The Republican pundit establishment has apparently changed that slightly – “Anyone but Obama or Romney…”)
Well, because of this message – and the millions who follow Mr. Hannity – the Republicans may well be stuck with Rick ‘The Stick’ Santorum (just as they nearly got stuck with Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry).
I can now confirm, with 0% of the vote counted, Rick Santorum has LOST the 2012 general election to President Obama. Â
There is no question Santorum has already lost without one vote being counted.  Bob Dole’s loss to Bill Clinton in 1996 will be considered a close race compared to an Obama vs. Santorum election.
Santorum will, most likely, get the lowest number of female votes in the history of Presidential elections (unless you count the Presidential races in which women did not have the right to vote).
However, Santorum will, most likely, win the Fascist vote as he is the candidate with the most images on the internet with a Hitler mustache Photoshopped onto his face.
Now, what’s crazy about all this is I firmly believe Sean Hannity, deep down, doesn’t care how people live their lives. Â Â I firmly believe that if the ratings dictated a different point of view, Mr. Hannity would shift on a dime to the Left and still claim that his moral compass has never wavered.
He would refute this claim vehemently.  And, to be fair, he has never had to face that problem because there are millions of Americans that he has focused on that love the bomb throwing, the red meat and any other political metaphor you can think of.
But because of this extremism and, yes, short-sighted view of the world, Sean Hannity is costing his political party the chance to win against a vulnerable incumbent.
It is obvious we are living in a crazy time when Ann Coulter is the voice of reason at CPAC. Â Say what you want about her, she is not a stupid person. Â She knows there is only one candidate that has a slight chance against President Obama and that is Mitt Romney.
Why the Republican establishment hasn’t thrown everything behind Mitt is beyond me. Â Perhaps it’s because there is also a feeling Mitt Romney cannot win either. Â (I am one of those people.)
But he’s really the only choice there is to even get close to the lofty John McCain numbers of 2008.
Of course, Sean Hannity (and Rush and all the others) could swing things by full on endorsing Mr. Romney. Â But if he did, he would lose half his audience and his street cred as a bomb throwing ‘lover of freedom’ (though most people would consider ‘love’ and ‘freedom’ two things that are lacking in his political philosophy).
Mr. Hannity really doesn’t care who is President. Â It is probably more fun for him to criticize President Obama than it was to defend President Bush. Â And it certainly won’t be fun for him to have to defend President Santorum (who, remember, has 0% chance to win).
Like I said – it’s completely fine with me. Â The implosion of the Grand Old Party is actually quite amusing.
God speed, Sean Hannity – you are President Obama’s best friend these days.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
First of all, I am not a television critic. Â I am a critic of the television industry – but not really on the content itself.
That said, last week, while at a Manka Bros. corporate retreat, I actually sat and watched a full episode of “The X Factor” – and it was terrible.
Seriously, this is a really bad, over-produced mess.
A massive train wreck.
I can see now why the ratings have been just “okay” (considering the enormous pre-season expectations).
I thought this was going to be a huge show and even killed “American Idol” last year after it was announced that Simon Cowell was leaving (to ultimately start “The X Factor”).
I will admit now, my killing of “American Idol” was wrong. Â That show is alive and surprisingly well after more than a decade.
That’s more than I can say for “The X Factor”.
From what I saw (to be fair – on my one viewing), this show is complete disaster and won’t be alive two years from now (much less a decade). Â I know it was renewed for next year but I have a feeling that was part of the original deal (though they made a press announcement like it was a big surprise). Â Maybe there’s a chance this show could improve and grow into something – but I doubt it. Â There are too many problems.
The main advice I have for this show: Â Calm the fuck down.
Here are the key problems as I see it:
1) Â SIMON COWELL. The man who single-handedly turned “American Idol” into a must see phenomenon, is the biggest hindrance of his own show.
Why?
Because he has to DO stuff on this one. Not just sit in the chair, look disinterested, and throw out barbs that make America scream at the television. Â That was the biggest strength of “American Idol” – his laziness.
Now, he’s pitching products, reading off cue cards – it’s a disaster. Â He is so far out of his comfort zone that he has destroyed the one thing “The X Factor” has going for it – himself.
He needs to fire himself – simple as that.
2) THE OTHER JUDGES. No chemistry and embarrassing to watch – especially when they try to stir up some sort of controversy or generate angry banter.
The carefully choreographed verbal jabs between the judges is as convincing as a 6th Grade production of “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?”.
Why is that?
Because we all know Simon hired all the judges (in almost a reality show of its own) and we know that Paula was sort desperate for this gig – so any little “fights” she has with Simon ring false.
On “American Idol” it worked a little better because they were all hired guns that negotiated separate deals. Â Simon negotiated all of “The X Factor” judges deals. Â He owns them which is why it doesn’t work.
3) THE TALENT. Is it just me, or does nearly every act in the Final 12 suck?
As I was watching them all perform, there were so many moments that took me out of the music – bad notes, awkward stage presence – so many moments that I yelled at the television: “These people are singing for $5 million bucks?!”
Maybe because there are so many singing competitions on TV these days the talent pool is getting shallow – but, to me, this is a pretty pathetic crop of finalists. Â Especially the children!
4) THE PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Good God, the product placement is completely out of control. Â Seriously. Â The Verizon X Factor App (or whatever)? Â And Simon introduces the Verizon App while drinking a Pepsi. Â It’s comical.
They are probably looking for ways to sponsor the sponsorships: Â “The Verizon App brought to you by Pepsi and Depends disposable adult diapers (so you don’t have to miss one second of “The X Factor” – just go in your pants!).”
5) THE PRODUCTION VALUES. What in the Hell is up with that set design? Â These crappy singers are singing in a pinball machine from 1986. Â The lights and the moving panels and the smoke and mirrors and lasers.
What the fuck?
We all know whoever wins is going to be singing at County Fairs with Kellie Pickler this summer. Â The sets there will be bales of hay and deep-fried bacon machines. Â Just calm the fuck down.
Plus, there are those power “X Factor” dancers that gyrate around these poor contestants as they try to make it through “Moon River” without their voice cracking.
On “American Idol”, Simon always used to emphasize that it was a “singing competition”.
He could obviously care less about that now.
Other than that, it’s a pretty awesome show. Â Fox has done it again!
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
OK – so the U.S. got downgraded by S&P (AA+) for the first time in its history. Whatever. It’s all just a game anyway.
Most talking heads throughout the weekend will say Monday will be a bloodbath on Wall Street and that many investors will be clamoring to yank out their cash.
But I must remind anyone who has money in the market (me!), out of the market and all those on the fence that “nobody knows anything.”
This phrase, coined by William Goldman in “Adventures In The Screen Trade” (worth a read even for non-screenwriters), is absolutely true in almost all industries and in almost all cases where someone is trying to predict the future.
In the movie business, the phrase was basically referring to the major studios’ inability to know what movies would work at the box office and what movies would fail. As it turns out, with all the historical data at our fingertips… nobody knows anything.
And the same goes for Wall Street:
Meredith Whitney, hotsy-totsy Queen of the Double-Dip, has no clue where the markets are going (though she seems to be praying for a downturn – probably more out of concern for her reputation than for the country).
That whack job Ray Dalio – founder of Bridgewater Associates (subject of a brilliant piece by John Cassidy in the New Yorker) – has no clue where the markets are going (though, to be fair, the whack job has been more successful than most in guessing lately).
The government, your parents, your children, Warren Buffett, CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, your friends on social networks – nobody knows anything.
If they did, then Wednesday night I would have received a text or seen a tweet or a Facebook status update that said “The Dow will fall 512 points tomorrow – you may want to make a couple of portfolio moves.”
I didn’t get that message from any of those people who “know so much”. Just like I won’t get any correct message this weekend about what will happen on Monday. Because nobody knows anything about what will happen on Monday!
So this weekend, as we all think about our personal finances, don’t make knee-jerk decisions based on something someone says on television or an internet blog.
This may sound overly simplistic, but just go with your gut and calm the freak down. There are a lot great healthy American companies out there and they deserve your confidence.
But, then again, I don’t know anything either – and I certainly don’t know how “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is going to perform this weekend – perhaps $35 million, perhaps $65 million. It’s a crap shoot.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
For the past week, I’ve been instructed by a few Facebook friends to update my status by cutting and pasting a sentence or phrase that reflects their outrage of the current Debt Ceiling Impasse...
… or to email my Congress person…
… or to Tweet THIS if I want change…
… or to text someone that ‘I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.’
And after all that updating, and reposting, and retweeting, and Google+ing, what’s the result?
–Â Debt ceiling impasse.
–Â Unstable global financial markets.
–Â Multiple stories about the inevitable downgrade from our AAA credit status and a coming stock market collapse.
Now, perhaps there are a few young congressional aides that are monitoring the ‘Facebook Status Update Situation’ and how many constituents actually posted the sentence of choice – but, really, is Congress listening?
Of course not.
Support or dissent from social media is like “American Idol” voting. So silly – but since it’s so easy to participate… why not?
It’s just another reason I feel Facebook is worthless. Superficial passion. “My day was awesome!” “My kids are the best students!” “Here’s the greatest recipe for Apple Pie!”
On “American Idol”, viewers are urged to phone or text (standard text message rates apply) as many times as they can for their favorite contestant. If you can’t get through – please keep trying!
Millions and millions of “votes” for Scott McCreary. Millions and millions for Lauren Alaina. Yet more millions and millions for Haley Reinhart (why, I’ll never know – don’t be hating me Haley fans – I just don’t think she’s talented).
And the winner is? Oh, I don’t know… we don’t care. The producers have agreed on… I mean, America has voted on… let’s say… Scotty!
You realize the votes aren’t counted, right?
If they actually did count the votes, the viewers would see those counts. Because that would add an interesting dynamic.
But producers can’t do that because then they wouldn’t be able to kick off the contestants they don’t like.
The same thing applies when social media takes on politics. When one person can re-post something a thousand times, it’s a superficial reading of what is really going on.
“Millions of emails have flooded the in-boxes of members of Congress.” Yeah, millions and millions of emails from three guys in Utah. And all went straight to the Congressional Spam folder.
And every political party is doing it – which creates nothing but muddle.
I am fairly certain the Tea Party people are flooding their status updates with “Don’t Raise The Debt Ceiling At All. Take Back America!”
And Republican Facebookers are pasting “Make Obama a one-term President.”
And the Democrats:Â “Don’t let the corporate jet owners win again!”
Is there anyone counting who is updating their Facebook status the most times? What do you think? And what do they win if they post the most? At least Scotty McCreary gets a record contract. Social Media activists get… ignored.
We all know where the Debt Ceiling Impasse is headed no matter how many Tweets are Tweeted – and so does President Obama. The U.S. will be kicking the can further down the road and a six month or one year debt ceiling extension that will accomplish very little and will be reluctantly signed on August 1st or 2nd.
Then Congress goes on vacation for the month of August.
The issue will be taken up again in early 2012 – two weeks or so before another possible default. And the Facebook status posting and Tweeting will begin another cycle… just in time for the new season of “American Idol”.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
Today, I read an analyst report written by Vasily Karasyov of Susquehanna Financial Group titled “The Death of Superheroes”.
Salacious title? Certainly.
A title that would get the attention of every media executive around the world? Absolutely.
A title that’s total bullshit? Definitely.
According to this report, over the past ten years movie studios have plucked 16 superheroes (or super groups) from the obscurity of the basements of geeks and put them smack dab in the global spotlight for everyone to see.
Some have been really good, made lots of money and spawned sequels, rebirths and regurgitations (e.g., “Spider-Man”, “Batman”, “Iron Man”, “X-Men”).
Others were shit and lost a lot of money (basically the rest of them).
For the most part, that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Good = success. Bad = no success.
Over that same time, about 2,000 other movies were released to varying degrees of success. These included huge non-comic book movies like “Harry Potter”, “Lord of the Rings”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “The Hangover”, and, sure, even Woody Allen’s biggest hit ever “Midnight In Paris”.
So while it seems every other movie that comes out is a comic book movie, nothing could be further from the truth. But that’s not the point I want to make.
Here’s the point: People are not tired of Superheroes. You cannot blame the superhero for the failure of corporate mortals.
If every comic book/superhero movie were unbelievably great, audiences would flock to them and they would all be huge hits.
Seriously, if the studios would have put out 16 awesome, well-made, true to the source comic book movies, they would have had, guaranteed, 16 big hit, profitable movies.
But this didn’t happen and it never will happen. Why? Because movie studios always try to make good movies. Regardless of what some people think, the executives at movie studios are not trying to suck.
Every movie that is made (with all those millions of dollars at stake) start off with a single dream – to be really good and to make money (maybe not in that order). Everyone, at every level, works very hard to make these films as good as humanly possible.
But somewhere along the chain – from concept to the day of release – something happens to make them suck.
And in most cases, lots of things happen to make them suck.
The movie-making process is subjective. One person’s gold is another person’s shit.
What Hollywood IS GUILTY OF is genre rape.
Once one high-concept or genre film hits it really big (i.e., “Alice In Wonderland”) suddenly every studio in town needs to have that high-concept or genre type film in the pipeline ASAP.
Because of “Alice In Wonderland”, over the past year every studio had to have as many fairy tale scripts as they get their hands on including THREE FREAKIN’ “SNOW WHITES”!
My God, even Manka Bros. – my studio – bought the rights to “Hey Diddle Diddle” and plans to spend well over $150 million to produce something we know will fail. Sorry, boss.
Go down any list of genre and you’ll see one movie that started the entire feeding frenzy. “Scream” spawned hundreds of crappy horror movies. “Harry Potter” got everyone out there trying to find the next great children’s fantasy series. Vampires, zombies… it’s just a case of mass brainlessness.
But here’s the shocker. What do I think needs to be changed? Nothing.
Movies should continue to be made and they should be made as well as possible.
Some should be based on comic books because it’s really great source material.
Others should be based on the Bible, or Dickens or Broadway . Because it’s really great source material.
And yet others should be based on ideas people think up on their own (imagine that!) – because the brain is capable of coming up with a really great source material.
“Hollywood” isn’t broken and the Superhero isn’t dead (Christopher Nolan could turn any deep catalog comic book character into a franchise – even something like “Gerbil Girl”) – everyone involved in the process just needs to concentrate more on entertaining the audience and less on just filling a summer slot.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
P.S. – Why the hell is “Glee” at Comic-Con? If you want to talk about something that’s dead… it’s Comic-Con. And IT WAS killed by the movie studios. If you want a good laugh, read the transcript from Khan Manka, Jr.’s keynote address to last year’s Comic-Con.
With one mighty slap, Wendi Deng Murdoch may have saved her husband’s company.
No longer was the story about hacking or impropriety or ethics, it was about a wife coming to her 80-year-old husband’s defense when he was attacked.
Rupert Murdoch is a hated man, obviously. He runs a company without ethics or moral compass with a history of crushing anyone who got in his way.
At the Phone Hacking Scandal Hearing, as question after question came from the Members of Parliament, he denied denied denied.
Rupert sat there stone-faced, acted like he couldn’t hear questions (maybe he actually has bad hearing) and then calmly placed blame on junior executives.
James Murdoch sat there red-faced, embarrassed – a completely worthless deer-in-headlights.
All of their answers were the answers of cowards.
Social networks were salivating at the possibility that Rupert’s empire would fall. The press were poised to rake them over the coals without mercy…
… and then he was attacked by an idiot comedian with a pie tin full of shaving cream (or whipped cream) – and Wendi Deng Murdoch went into action without thought or fear. She smacked that guy with a mighty right hand and he went down.
With one slap, the narrative of the story had changed, the old man got a little boost of sympathy and the entire hearing became a circus.
Any public judgments against News Corp. or Rupert or James had been pushed to the back – almost forcing news outlets to refocus the story on “Who is Wendi Murdoch and Where Did She Learn To Punch?”
Splitting the media attention was what was needed to get Rupert off the hot seat and this dumb ass activist being punched to the ground by Wendi Deng Murdoch accomplished that to perfection.
It makes you wonder if it was planned that way by News Corp.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea