Kid entertainment makes people mad
I have a quick moment here, since the Sprout is watching Caillou. This is a cute, educational — and sickeningly innoffensive — PBS cartoon I found via Netflix online “Watch Instantly” feature. The Sprout finds Caillou very entertaining.
I had never heard of it, so I went to the Wikipedia entry to read more. Believe it or not, the Caillou post is locked against editing because of so many controversial additions and deletions being made.
From the discussion page I see that some people think Caillou is inappropriate for children because Caillou models “whiny” behavior. (He gets upset, which kids do, and then describes why he’s upset to his parents.) Some people also think Caillou has cancer because he’s bald.
Since then I’ve seen a lot of extraordinary angry commentary about Caillou; people claiming it’s damaging to children, parents with violent fantasies about Caillou. I just can’t get it.
If something like Caillou is inappropriate for children, I wonder what people will think of us letting the Sprout watch the Muppets.
Cable news wastes my time
Cable news wastes my time. Time which could more profitably be spent leveling 63 troll mage to WOW endgame. I mean, if I play WOW at least I have something to show for it at the end of the day, whereas cable news can only make me stupider.
For example, instead of killing ogres in Zangarmarsh and recovering those stolen boxes of mushrooms I could have been watching what Digby was watching: a CNN report about how (gasp) Republicans are critical of Barack Obama.
Once upon a time I took a communications class and the prof explained that “dog bites man” isn’t news, so it doesn’t go in the newspaper, but “man bites dog” would definitely be news because it is an unusual occurrence. Nowdays, apparently, we run the “dog bites man” stories because, well, those are just so easy to write.
Anyway, I didn’t watch this on CNN because I was gathering mushrooms instead and thus saved the Bog Lords and the fungal city of Sporregar from a famine war. So that was time well spent. (Plus I dinged 64.) Then I went to read a few weblogs and saw Digby’s post, which means even without watching CNN or indeed without cable at all cable news still managed to waste my time. And now I am helping it waste yours. It’s like an infection. Cable news must be stopped.
Your liberal media at the Washington Post
The woman who wrote the “women are naturally dumb” Post at the Washinton Post is not just a random contributor or Post staffer. According to No More Mister Nice Blog, she is an established anti-feminist writer and blog editor for the anti-feminist Independent Women’s Forum. (You can tell it’s a right-wing group because it has a misleading name.)
Often when an established contributor with a clear political agenda gets published in a major newspaper it’s followed with a little explanation of who that person is and who he or she works for. The Post only provided an AOL email address. So unless it occurs to you to Google the author’s name (it didn’t occur to me), you don’t know where she’s coming from and that she might have a larger political partisan agenda against Clinton and Obama.
Alexis Debat: Fake War Reporter?
I’m not sure what coverage is like in the news outlets and weblogs you are reading, but I find it surprising I haven’t seen more bloggy coverage of the Alexis Debat debacle (Debatle?)
Alexis Debat was a consultant to ABC and the source of several inflammatory news stories and interviews that now appear to have been faked.
The renewed scrutiny has been driven by revelations about Mr. Debat after a French news Web site, Rue 89, reported this week that an interview supposedly with Senator Obama was entirely made up. Mr. Debat, who could not be reached last night, sent an e-mail message to ABC yesterday saying the allegations against him ââ
Going to be a long Congress
Vacations are hard. Just this: on the subject of the speaker vote, see August’s commentary and comic.
Air America: No Really, Some of it is Worth Listening To.
Let’s just put all the self-defeatist chatter, and “oh-I-could-have-done-it-better-but-I’m-too-busy” snark about Air America aside for a moment. I am really enjoying two shows right now:
- Rachel Maddow (she’s on 7-9).
- Marc Maron
Honestly, I didn’t care for Marc Maron’s original show much, but he’s far better solo. And although “Unfiltered” — Maddow’s original show — was OK, her new show is great.
I think the key here is that they’re not sharing the stage any more with other folks. This is especially important for Maron, who’s schtick doesn’t stick if he’s constantly interrupted.
Customer Service is our Middle Name
A couple of interesting stories about genuine customer service fiascos. First, via Engadget Sprint’s collections department number is unfortunately close to that of a small-business map publisher.
[It is nearly the same as the number of] a small business owner in the Boston area who says he’s received and logged about 8,000 calls from Sprint customers during the past 2 Ã
Bump
The Elf and I have been watching Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. Every now and then they run a “bump,” which is generally some text saying something flippant or some response to fan mail. And we always stop zipping the commercials to watch the bump.
Today’s Tivoed bumps were Adult Swim obituaries for Johnny Carson. They were genuine. Someone at that station has class. It’s so strange to feel there’s a moment of human connection with a massive media conglomerate, but there you go.
Providing balance
So, Face the Nation is a damn liberal media propaganda machine because they had an entire show with Kennedy as the only guest? Well, it’s not the only time Face the Nation has not provided balance within the show.
Bob Schieffer: You know, we’re a half-hour broadcast. And I don’t think it’s necessary every time we have a Democrat on to have a Republican on. I mean, we have had, I think, Senator [Bill] Frist [R-TN] on for the entire show, the Republican leader in the Senate. We have had Secretary of State [Colin] Powell on for the entire broadcast. In one broadcast, we had three Republicans on and didn’t have a Democrat.
And here’s the talking-head list from primetime yesterday. And from Thursday’s innauguration coverage.
Yup. Ted Kennedy unfiltered for thirty minutes. That’s a real threat to “balance.” Also known as “Republican Talking Points.”
Thanks to Atrios for both links.