Television News Trying To Make GM and Ford Look Smart

Defending the Empire

Rattlesnakes Are Smarter Than 16% Of U.S. High-School Biology Teachers

It turns out that rattlesnakes in Arizona are starting to lose their rattles, apparently in reaction to human encroachment of their habitats. As people build houses in the desert, trample the earth to build golf courses, and roll their RVs into previously virgin territory, banging smack into wildlife, they – we - have a tendency to react badly to nature, which results in a lot of dead rattlesnakes. A handful of the rattlesnakes that haven’t ended up deceased are those that manage to keep quiet and slide on by – in other words, the rattlers that can’t rattle.

Spanish Spoken Here

The U.S. Census Bureau recently coughed up a bunch of fascinating statistics, and not only fascinating, but also depending on how your mind words, frightening, depressing, and/or mind-boggling.

And we’ll start with one little fact: Nearly three quarters of the 727,070 residents of El Paso, Texas speak Spanish at home, even if they are fluent in English. The numbers also show that 1 of every 5 living in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California, use Spanish, not English, at home.

Think about that.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah

John McCain will lose come November, and he will lose by a lot. That’s the way it has been for a long time now, and nothing’s going to change it. And when John McCain loses, he will fade from the national scene, and not long after, disappear from the Arizona political landscape as well. And that will be that.

And then we will be left with Sarah.

Dear God, Not Sarah Palin

Let us bow our heads, my friends, and make short work of Sarah Palin: I won’t bother to repeat the details of her “unusual” family history, which promises to dip into the truly bizarre and probably unpleasant before long. Nor will I raise her dubious political story, from her duplicitous tale about the Bridge to Nowhere, and her attempted banning of books, on and on; rest assured all that will be thoroughly vacuumed in short order.

No, my issue is simple enough, and it is this: The United States of America cannot have a vice president who believes in creationism, intelligent design, or anything other than basic science.

Hilary Clinton gave her speech at the convention and she said everybody should vote for Barack Obama. Okay, she said a little more than that, she said, I did this, I stand for that, I’m really terrific…and the other guy is okay, too – but that just about summed it up.

The reaction from the media was predictable. CNN loved it, MSNBC practically swooned, and Fox thought otherwise. (Actually, if Abraham Lincoln himself had been reanimated to say something nice, a Fox host would have dismissed him, claiming the Great Emancipator maybe wasn’t a real Republican, as he hadn’t been around to vote for Reagan.)

Syndicate

Television News Trying To Make GM and Ford Look Smart

Written by Len Sherman
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
In the industry’s increasingly desperate attempt to revitalize its fortune, some local TV news stations are making a couple of extra bucks by accepting product placement on their sets. This is in lieu of actually trying to improve the quality of their reporting. I hate to give away the ending, but here it is: It won’t work. From The New York Times: In recent weeks, anchors on the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, KVVU, sit with cups of McDonald's iced coffee on their desks during the news-and-lifestyle portion of their morning show. The anchors rarely touch the cups. Executives at the station, one of 12 owned by Meredith Corporation, say the six-month promotion is meant to shore up advertising revenue and, as they told the news staff, will not influence content. “There was a healthy dose of skepticism, and I’m pleased there was — it means they’re being journalists,”said Adam P. Bradshaw, news director of KVVU. The product placement was first reported Monday in The Las Vegas Sun. The arrangement does raise questions about potential conflicts between the intended message and news content. The ad agency that arranged the promotion said the coffee cups would most likely be whisked away if KVVU chooses to report a negative story about McDonald’s. Oh yeah, that’l lwork. “Stop the presses! We’ve got an exclusive about McDonald’s funneling Big Macs to al Qaeda! Quick! Ditch the Ronald McDonald wigs!” After all, who ever heard of money interfering with the pursuit of truth and justice? The reason for this not only unethical but also tacky deal is simple enough: Internet advertising is taking the dollars away from television, a situation exacerbated by the worsening economy. The Vegas station is not the only one in on the deal. Other Meredith stations, including WFSB, the CBS affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut, and WGCL, the CBS affiliate in Atlanta,are profiting from product placement. And other broadcast groups are eating from the McDonald’s trough as well, including Fox’s WFLD in Chicago, theTribune’s Company’s KCPQ in Seattle, and on Univision 41 in New York City. Again, from TheTimes: Arrangements like these are anathema to journalists and media watchdogs. And the broader issue of product placements is under scrutiny at the Federal Communications Commission, which is weighing tighter rules for how sponsorships on TV showsare disclosed. “Expanding this into news raises very troubling questions,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president for the Media Access Project, a consumer advocacy group. “Viewers, when they see news programs, are expecting to see things that reflect the marriage of the things reported, and do not look in the credits of these programs to see if there’s some small disclaimer that people are being paid for product placements.” Paul Karpowicz,the president of Meredith Broadcasting Group, said that product placements on his stations were limited to morning news shows. “If something happens and we have to report something about McDonald’s, we’ll report it,” said Mr. Bradshaw of KVVU. “I would not put product placement into any of my traditional hard newscasts. I would not run it in my 5 p.m. or my 10 p.m.” He said he was not allowing the McDonald’s cups on the so-called straight news portion of the morning report, which is before 7 a.m., but on a lighter, news-and-lifestyle show that goes from 7 to 9 a.m. In 2005, the F.C.C. issued a reminder to broadcasters that they must disclose when they use certain video news releases provided by corporations. The inquiry that the agency opened in June is focused on entertainment shows rather than news, but could easily be broadened. Herbert Jack Rotfeld, a professor of marketing at Auburn University, said that product placement deals on news shows could backfire for both sides. “In the end, they just make the audiences even more skeptical of everything.” he said. Don’t improve the news, don’t demand better broadcasts, don’t hire people for their brains and knowledge and insight instead of their looks. Making a buck off a coffee cup to save a slowly dying industry is like Detroit sticking another layer of chrome on their cars instead of improving gas mileage. One more time: It won’twork.
Last Updated ( Monday, 04 August 2008 )

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Border/Immigration

Mexico Finally Seals Border, Stops Americans From Buying Cheap Gas, Keeps Lanes Open For Drugs

Whoever said Mexicans couldn’t or wouldn’t control their border has just been proved wrong. Yes, our friends and allies to the south have finally stepped up and shut down traffic…traffic, that is, bearing U.S. plates and carrying containers fuel, looking to save a few bucks with cheap Mexican gas.
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Mexico Invades America – Again

Mexican soldiers on Arizona soil held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint Sunday night. The Mexicans retreated after backup agents responded.

This is far from the first time the Mexican military, and/or those wearing Mexican uniforms, most likely members of Los Zetas, have crossed over the border, in support of drug and illegal immigration operations. Though both governments have sought to downplay such incidents, the increasing number of these sometimes violent incursions – over 200 confirmed incursions since 1996 - makes the situation difficult to sweep under the rug.

Mexico is finding that dealing with the devil is not a deal without consequences. And those consequences are coming home to roost in a most horrific way.

Not long ago, the Mexican government maintained an “understanding” with the drug traffickers: Don’t cause problems in Mexico, and roll your drugs into the United States without too many hassles. Oh, and don’t forget the payoffs.

Whichever side you’re on in the immigration debate, the landmark raid at the Iowa meatpacking plant back in May, which rounded up 389 illegals, proves that this is an issue that demands action and resolution. The political void has resulted in a situation that is simply intolerable in a nation of laws and liberty.

To begin the abuses: More than 20 of those arrested were underage workers, some as young as 13, forced to work shifts of 12 hours or more in dangerous conditions, sometimes through the night, six nights a week, using razor-edged knives and saws to divide up freshly slaughtered beef.

The Fence Cuts Both Ways

The fence, any fence, hasa certain basic appeal: separate Us from Them, the latter consisting of the bogeymen of your choice. With the immigration crisis in full bloom, the idea ofa fence sounded as simple and as direct as a solution could be. Stop them from coming by stopping them from coming.

Ah, if reality was so black and white. Or, in the case, so American and Mexican.