Sleepless in Midland

Cosmo Kramer as teaching aid for entrepreneurship

The TV show "Seinfeld" has been in rerun mode so long that most of us have probably seen each episode at least once. But who would have thought that clips would be used in business school classrooms as teaching aids?

Sure enough, it's happening. And Penn State prof Jamey A. Darnell is promoting the idea in a paper titled, Yada, Yada, Yada...Successful Business! Using Seinfeld Clips to Teach Business Model Evaluation. Here's the premise:

One of the primary characters on Seinfeld is Kramer, the eccentric neighbor of Jerry Seinfeld, who often comes up with business ideas that are usually characterized as not feasible. A common activity of Kramer is the quest of creating something from nothing. The pursuits of these ideas often show the difference between an idea for a new business and a true entrepreneurial opportunity. Many of these Kramer examples are teaching opportunities and can be extended to discuss ideation, creativity, entrepreneurial behavior, foundations of entrepreneurship, innovation, market research, trend analysis, value proposition/differentiation, foundational business models, etc. ...

The goal of incorporating Seinfeld clips into the classroom is not necessarily to facilitate the creation of a specific business idea for a student, but rather to expose the student to the process of creating and evaluating business ideas.

Actually, some of Kramer's ideas could have been contenders. A bladder for oil tankers to prevent spills, for example:

Kramer: Bombs away (Uh oh).

Jerry: This is going to be a shame.

(SPLAT!)

George: Hello.

Kramer: Well, that didn’t work. Hey, how about this…ketchup and mustard in the same bottle?

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2:17 PM 5/13/2020

Groundhog Day Super Bowl ad with Stephen Tobolowsky

My favorite character actor is Stephen Tobolowsky. His most famous character was Ned Ryerson in "Groundhog Day" which got a revival in a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl the other day.

The commercial was very entertaining -- a Super Bowl commercial really has to be good since so much talent and money is put into them. However, with this one I had to use a search engine to remember what product they were actually trying to sell. So while a prize winning commercial might get the eyeballs, it might not sell the widgets.

"Groundhog Day" and/or Tobolowsky fans might enjoy the podcast featuring Tobolowsky's commentary to the movie.

Stephen Tobolowsky is a great story teller. And his podcast series ended way too soon.

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2:16 PM 2/16/2020

Don Imus was a good entertainer and good interviewer

I was a regular Imus in the Morning watcher back when Don Imus had a morning show on MSNBC. The show was entertaining -- one funny routine involved a Bill Clinton impersonator phoning in as "Bill, from Chappaqua." Although some of the humor was rather sophomoric, the good outweighed the bad.

And he was a good interviewer. Typically some famous politician was a guest, and Imus grilled him/her with enough skill to elicit information and leave the politician wanting to come back.

The staff at MSNBC hated him, and when he made some inappropriate joke about a women's sports team, they pounced. The staff won, and Imus got sacked. But he landed on his feet with a show on satellite radio.

Anyway, according to news reports, Don Imus passed away yesterday, December 27. May he rest in peace.

Meanwhile, several of those who worked for him went on to earn some success on their own. Janice Dean comes to mind. She is currently working as a meteorologist on Fox News Channel and is probably quite popular. The only thing about her I recollect while she was on Imus in the Morning was a comment she made that she had just watched Michael Moore's anti-gun movie, "Bowling for Columbine," and Dean said every American should see it. She exemplified the principle that anyone can make dumb remarks and still be successful.

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5:10 AM 12/28/2019

FBI warns us about our spying TV sets

Interesting press release from the FBI field office in Portland -- Oregon FBI Tech Tuesday: Securing Smart TVs. It reads like a blog post, but it contains some useful tips on how to prevent our TV sets from spying on us. The bullet points:

Know exactly what features your TV has and how to control those features. Do a basic Internet search with your model number and the words “microphone,” “camera,” and “privacy.”

Don’t depend on the default security settings. Change passwords if you can – and know how to turn off the microphones, cameras, and collection of personal information if possible. If you can’t turn them off, consider whether you are willing to take the risk of buying that model or using that service.

If you can’t turn off a camera but want to, a simple piece of black tape over the camera eye is a back-to-basics option.

Check the manufacturer’s ability to update your device with security patches. Can they do this? Have they done it in the past?

Check the privacy policy for the TV manufacturer and the streaming services you use. Confirm what data they collect, how they store that data, and what they do with it.

Maybe painting an eyeball over the camera eye would serve as a reminder of who's watching whom.

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1:49 PM 11/29/2019

What we watch on TV allows direct marketers to target us

A few years ago my cable TV provider switched from analog to digital and required customers to upgrade to a box that would accommodate the new system. During that transition a technician explained in simple terms what the new box would do and happened to mention that a tiny bit of information was sent back to the company.

I assumed it meant the box was telling the cable provider what I watched and that the information was sold to advertisers for direct marketing purposes. Turns out that was right.

You watch TV. Your TV watches back provides a brief overview of that process and what happens to the data. The public rationale is that it is used to provide customers with a better viewing experience. Oh, and of course, it will provide the viewer with commercials for products you might want or need. How convenient.

BTW, Roku does it too. So streaming may not provide an escape.

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2:22 PM 10/30/2019

Tom Selleck selling mortgages says not his 1st rodeo

There's a commercial airing regularly featuring Tom Selleck peddling reverse mortgages. It's too soon to call this a good ad or a bad ad -- the test is how many widgets a commercial sells.

But one notable feature of a version of that ad has Tom Selleck beginning his spiel by telling the camera lens this isn't his first rodeo. What exactly does that mean in this context? This is not his first commercial? Buying a reverse mortgage is like mounting a bucking bronc, and he's done it before?

Grammarist.com defines it this way:

This ain’t my first rodeo means I am not a novice to this situation, I have experience in this area and I am competent. The idiom this ain’t my first rodeo is mostly used in instances where a less experienced person is trying to give advice to a more experienced person, and is meant to establish superiority.

It doesn't quite fit. The TV viewer is not trying to give Tom Selleck advice, it's the other way around.

In any event, an IMDB search dug up a made-for-tv movie in which he played a rodeo rider. The movie is Ruby Jean and Joe summarized thusly:

The elderly and fading rodeo-rider Joe Wade (Tom Selleck) picks up the young female hitchhiker Ruby Jean (Rebekah Johnson). Even though that Joe is constantly being corrected by Ruby Jean their beginning friendship is growing. Their conversations on the road puts both of them in a position to deal with their lives.

Ah ha. It's getting clearer now. Selleck is getting old and has to deal with new things as he ages. He assumes his audience is too. It's starting to make sense now. But sorry, Tom. I'm not in the market for a mortgage, reverse or obverse.

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1:43 PM 10/27/2019

TV stations use of Star Spangled Banner cheapens it

Decades ago when there were typically three TV stations available and all the sets had antennas, the night time sign off included a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. After watching some horror flick on a Saturday night with sleep-over friends, that was a signal it was time to turn of the TV and get on with some other preadolescent late night activity.

When the Star Spangled Banner played, it didn't have much significance to our young minds. That song had it's place -- sports events, Fourth of July celebrations, events in the school auditorium and that sort of thing. It really didn't have a place on TV.

Fox News channel plays it when the station begins its programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings. So what are viewers supposed to do? Stand up at the breakfast table, place our hands over our hearts, and sing along?

Nah. The ritual has it's place. But it's not as bumper music for a program transition.

This news: More than 170 television stations will start daily broadcasts with Star-Spangled Banner seems more of a virtue signal than it does a sign of allegiance to these great United States.

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2:51 PM 9/21/2019

Related: from Babylonbee: Man Who Put Mini American Flag Up In House Hasn’t Sat Down In 5 Years

Will Ken Burns ruin country music?

There's a TV show that reruns on truTV called "Adam Ruins Everything" in which Adam Conover "ruins" some popular theory by debunking any myths about it that can be ridiculed. Meanwhile, he bores the audience with over-explanation.

I'm reminded of that TV show by the promotions by PBS NewsHour and C-Span of Ken Burns' upcoming series called Country Music, a film by ken Burns.

In both the PBS "news" segment and the C-Span interview Burns goes directly to the feminist movement with remarks about how liberated Loretta Lynn was back in the day.

My reaction, as someone who grew up listening to that old country music, is that it looks like an east coast progressive going out into the sticks to do a documentary about those weird people who inhabit that wilderness out there. The documentary isn't meant for country music fans, it's meant to entertain the progressives on the coast -- like a wildlife show, or maybe more like Adam Ruins Country Music.

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5:07 AM 9/14/2019

The Conners' Rotten Tomato score is creeping upward

It's always interesting to see Rotten Tomatoes' "Approved Tomatometer Critics" scores diverge from the "Users" scores for controversial TV shows.

The Conners, you'll recall, was the spin-off that resulted after Roseanne got fired from the show that bore her name in the title. So take a look at this divergence re The Conners.

The one on the left was snipped from the website about a month ago -- November 20, 2018. The one on the right was snipped on December 18, 2018.

It's a mystery why the divergence was so great -- but the two sides are creeping together, although at a very slow pace.

Perhaps the negative Audience Scores were posted by people who disapproved of Roseanne getting fired and used this scoreboard as a way to display their feelings about it. And the newer posters got over it and decided the show wasn't that bad. But who knows?  As to why the experts are so far off from the Audience is still a mystery, too.

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2:49 PM 12/18/2018

Hugh Hewitt's show gone from MSNBC

It probably wasn't a very good fit, and the broadcast time -- 7:00AM CDT Saturday -- was atrocious.

So it shouldn't be that surprising that MSNBC pulled the plug on The Hugh Hewitt Show. Watch his announcement at mediaite.com: Conservative MSNBC Host Hugh Hewitt Announces Cancellation of Show.

I made a practice of recording the show for later watching. But as to the suggestion that Hewitt's competition was Fox News, I would suggest that C-Span's Washington Journal might have more appeal then either of those shows.

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10:42 AM 7/1/2018

Fox News has undergone some changes, but at least we can be grateful it won't be going to Disney if their offer for Fox Broadcasting Co. is accepted

Reporters tell us that a 21st Century Fox shareholder vote will take place on July 10 to decide whether to sell the company to Disney.

Disney, as you know, owns ABC which famously fired Roseanne Barr the other day because of a mean tweet. In a lot of minds, that was highly hypocritical in light of some of the things that have been said against Trump, Republicans, or the whole universe of conservatives out here in flyover country.

Many of us may have been concerned that the possible acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney would destroy Fox News. Well, we needn't worry about that particular transaction. If the deal as proposed goes through, it will not include Fox Broadcasting Co. which owns Fox News.

That's a relief, because to many of us deplorables Fox News Sunday and Special Report with Bret Baier are the only TV news shows that we can count on not to deliver news with a heavy slant toward Democrats.

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1:55 PM 6/1/2018

Lake Superior State University banished tons of words in 2018

Until recently there was a cable TV company advertising itself as having tons of movies on demand. Tons? I wondered if I was the only one bothered by the use of a weight to measure a quantity of digitized movies. It just doesn't compute.

So it's nice to see that Lake Superior State University has finally -- in 2018 --  banished the word "tons" as a reference to an exaggerated quantity. It's about time! Hooray!

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9:16 AM 5/23/2018

The Greatest Story Never Told -- an unfortunate typo in TV schedule

The morning paper typically contains a schedule of the TV shows for the evening. And it's a convenient way to plan in advance if something good is on.

This isn't a fact-checking blog, but there was an amusing typo in regard to an old movie shown on TCM the other night: "The Greatest Story Never Told." It looked like a spoof of a famous old biblical movie.

But no. Turns out it was the old movie, "The Greatest Story Ever Told." Ever? Never? What a difference a letter makes.

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11:12 AM 4/1/2018

Letterman's new show headed full speed left

I was a David Letterman fan years ago. But he lost me when his lefty politics consumed his routine. Unfortunately, that shtick caught on, and the late night comics, sans Leno, all copied it.

Those Letterman fans who remained loyal will undoubtedly tune into his new show on Netflix. And to be sure he targets he audience, his guest will be none other than Barack Obama. See Letterman Nabs Obama as First Guest for New Netflix Show.

I won't be watching. But there's a drinking game just waiting to happen: One swig for every mention of Trump. Sleep late the next morning.

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1:04 PM 1/7/2018

You wouldn't know it from watching the late shows, but there are some conservative comedians out there

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be much of a market for them. The networks don't want them. College circuits reject them, and comedy clubs are afraid of the social media mobs.

David Letterman drove most conservative viewers away from the late shows, and now they are dominated by progressives who rail against conservatives and Donald Trump, especially. Jeff Mordock provides some examples in Conservatives get canceled, liberals quit laughing: How Trump’s election killed comedy:

The tectonic shift left is not just in comedy clubs’ brick walls but in our living rooms. Johnny Carson’s middle-of-the-road political comedy has been replaced with Stephen Colbert (host of CBS’ “The Late Show”), John Oliver (host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight”), Trevor Noah (host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”) and others bashing all things conservative on a nightly basis.

Jimmy Kimmel has turned his late-night program on ABC into a seminar on health care. Although his rants have been judged as inaccurate and misleading, it doesn’t stop them from being shared across social media, where they become gospel for many Americans.

But look at this from Ranker.com, The Funniest Conservative Comedians of All Time:

1 Tim Allen
2 Dennis Miller
3 Jeff Foxworthy
4 Steven Crowder
5 Adam Sandler
6 Adam Carolla
7 Larry the Cable Guy
8 Ron White
9 Nick DiPaolo
10 Norm Macdonald
11 Rob Schneider
12 Bill Engvall
13 Jeff Dunham
14 Victoria Jackson
15 Bob Hope
16 Evan Sayet
17 Joe Rogan
18 Joe Piscopo
19 Jackie Mason
20 Chonda Pierce

They are out there, but they just don't have a venue.

Aside: I would like to see Greg Gutfeld make such a list. But he may be more of a humorist than a comedian.

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2:31 PM 12/28/2017

Keep Portland Weird means you can crap in the street

I watched the TV show "Grimm" on occasion while it was still being broadcast. The creative types came up with some interesting monsters that would transform themselves into ordinary looking humans when they were off duty. But there was something about the show that I was reminded of recently.

One of the secondary characters made a casual remark, "Keep Portland weird." The first time it sounded like one of those lines that just get thrown into a script. The second time could have been a coincidence. But the third time was a clear signal that this line was one of the requirements from the city of Portland, Oregon, for the right to make the show there.

Then along comes this article -- Portland’s Disgraceful Anarchy -- which tells us just what "weird" means to a leftist city like Portland. It's a retelling of how storekeepers are frequently intimidated and sometimes robbed by transients.

Certain repeat offenders of the city’s vagrant population, along with other agitators, have issued death threats and broken into cars; one Columbia employee had to run into moving traffic after a stranger followed her and threatened to kill her.

But this is disgusting:

She also recalled that a surveillance camera caught a man defecating outside of her front door, and that this wasn’t the first time that it had happened.

Maybe those monsters from Grimm were real.

I believe it was the progressive metropolis of Austin, Texas, which first adopted the "Keep ___ Weird" slogan. Hopefully, the folks in Austin have more common sense than the government leaders of Portland when they strive to keep their city weird.

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1:41 PM 12/19/2017

Disney is kicking the tires at 21st Century Fox

There are several articles out there about this. Here's one: 21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Disney: Sources. That would be a big move and would definitely bring about changes. 

However, I suppose this part should be good news for fans of Fox News:

The company could not own two broadcast networks and would therefore not buy the Fox broadcast network. It would not buy Fox's sports programming assets in the belief that combining them with ESPN could be seen as anti-competitive from an antitrust standpoint and it would not buy the Fox News or Business channel. Disney would also not purchase Fox's local broadcasting affiliates, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

But the handwriting is on the wall -- the Fox assets are for sale. And eventually someone will buy Fox News and give it a big makeover. In the meantime, conservatives should enjoy it while we can. There really should be some competition for conservative viewers among broadcasters instead of efforts to extinguish conservative viewpoints from TV.

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2:55 PM 11/17/2017

NorKor military leaders watch Morning Joe -- CNN hardest hit

I'll never forget Wolf Blitzer's reaction some years ago when a correspondent told him that Kim Jong Un watched CNN and was a big fan. Blitzer almost blushed when he thanked the reporter and said he was very proud of that. It seemed at the time that only an enemy of the United States could be proud of that.

Now we are hearing that the current crop of military officers in North Korea are big fans of Morning Joe. See NBC News correspondent: Senior North Korean officials watch 'Morning Joe':

“He quite plainly said he believes President Trump is mentally ill,” Simmons told "Morning Joe" co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. “And he was unequivocal in saying he believes North Korea could win a war with America.”

Joe and Mika must be as proud as Wolf was back in the day. Poor Wolf.

Meanwhile, we should be grateful if they've convinced the North Koreans that Trump is crazy. Convincing an attacker that you're crazier than he is is a pretty good defense.

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11:36 AM 10/21/2017

NBC doesn't know how to take full advantage of Megyn Kelly

I would speculate that Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews, and the other Democrat stars at NBC and MSNBC flexed their muscles to prevent Megyn Kelly from invading their anti-Trump turf.

I was not a fan of Magyn Kelly when she had a show on the Fox News Channel. I tuned her out early on when she blasted conservatives for the contention that child rearing is best done with a mom AND a dad. Then it came out that she claimed that her ex-husband abused her, however, she later admitted it was a lie. Whose favor was she trying to curry with a lie like that?

Nevertheless, she must have had a following at Fox, other than the boss man, Roger Ailes.

Then when she ripped into Donald Trump during a debate, her path was set. I predicted on these pages that she would end up on MSNBC. That was a near miss. She signed on with NBC and is now hosting a morning show which is getting terrible reviews.

She made a bad career move. And there are probably some FNC fans who are chortling at her misfortune.

But NBC has to shoulder the blame here, because her skill is in skewering conservatives with Democrat dogma thrown in for good measure, not in entertaining viewers of morning TV shows. NBC will eventually find a place for her, but she would need to take a few giant steps away from progressivism before conservatives would be tempted to watch a show of hers again.

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2:17 PM 10/20/2017

Could the tide be about to turn on political correctness in comedy?

Not too long ago I made the observation that TCM omitted "Blazing Saddles" from their movie selections which were supposed to pay tribute to the late Gene Wilder. Political correctness was the most obvious reason. However, the movie did show up on the small screen some time later, but no one could have convinced me that the tide had turned. Now, I don't know.

Stephen Cobert's angry, unfunny, political diatribes have probably hurt the profession as much as anything. However, his audience must eat it up. But many prominent comedians have publicly decried political correctness and how it has worked to destroy their professions -- Jerry Seinfeld, for example. So maybe there is a backlash brewing.

Mel Brooks is currently the topic of a Dailymail article, to wit: Our PC world is the death of comedy, says Mel Brooks: Veteran comedian claims society is 'stupidly politically correct' and that many of his films could not be made today. Here's an excerpt:

The producer and director said many of his films – including 1974 comedy western Blazing Saddles, which satirised racism – could not be made today.

But try to reconcile that with this one:

Brooks said he thought his 1974 comedy musical Young Frankenstein was among the few of his films that could be made now. He has turned it into a West End show, starring Ross Noble and Lesley Joseph, and said he hopes to do the same with Blazing Saddles.

Has the corner been turned? Blazing Saddles returns as a play? We can hope.

Meanwhile, they may not have killed comedy, but comedians like Jimmy Kimmel certainly seem to be trying. David Letterman lost a lot of fans when he went full bore political, and Kimmel is headed down that same road with his very personal attacks on conservatives. Kimmel helped get Adam Carolla into the biz, so there's one thing which should earn him our gratitude. But otherwise, Kimmel is just another typical Democrat.

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9:15 AM 9/23/2017

Sweet Caroline -- sweet ad for Hyundai

I love that commercial. A dude driving a Hyundai in stop-and-go traffic is singing along with the song "Sweet Caroline," apparently coming from his radio. Then lo and behold, an attractive young woman in the car next to him looks at him then starts singing the chorus along with him. What a cute meetup. Yeah, it's totally unrealistic, but maybe that's the appeal -- an attractive woman singing along with an anonymous stranger.

As the famous ad man David Ogilvy once advised people in the business, their job was to sell the product, not to win awards. I don't know whether the commercial generated any showroom visits, but it was fun to watch.

Anyway, you can watch the ad and judge for yourself at this Youtube video.

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2:23 PM 9/22/2017

Do the hurricane reporters remind you of the sales people on the TV shopping networks?

The cable news networks are all hurricane, all the time. It's non stop, 24-7. The network producers probably love hurricanes because they don't have to produce any original content. They just let the on-air personalities talk and talk.

Mike Rowe on a podcast described his gig on a TV shopping channel. In the hiring process he was handed a pencil and told to talk about it for several minutes. He got the job. That has to be similar to the application process for the cable news channels' on-air jobs, because they seem to be able to produce endless babble.

We can't forget Dan Rather's contribution to the genre -- a reporter standing outside describing the wind and rain. Now that particular cliche is a staple of TV news.

Hurricane Irma must have seemed like a golden opportunity for them. But viewers not in hurricane range tuned them out. And those in range were probably trying to evacuate. So the only people who really appreciated all that coverage were those reporters who were standing out in the rain.

Good ad featuring nice ball handling by Stephen Curry

We have a good time on these pages poking fun at bad ads. So in fairness, the good ones deserve some recognition, too.

There's a good one airing these days for Infinity, the car. The ad features some fine basketball handling by Stephen Curry. He dribbles two balls in synchronization. It's very impressive. Watch it at this Youtube video if you haven't seen it already.

BTW, Mr. Curry made a smart move by doing this. His name appears on a screen during the ad, and it was a good thing. You probably know who he is, but I didn't know before looking him up on Duckduckgo. Now I know, too, and he's got a new fan.

Fox News Channel's new star Eboni Williams reminds viewers why they tuned out MSM

Fox News Channel's drift to the left is becoming more obvious all the time. A case in point is the program that replaced "The Five" in the afternoon slot. The new show is Fox News Specialists which originally featured Eric Bolling. But he's on the outs now due to some unsubstantiated charge of texting lewd photos.

Fox News Specialists now features a new hire, Eboni Williams. The other day she let loose with a tirade against Donald Trump with the same venom that followers of the news have been inundated with lately. Anyone who hasn't heard that side of the issue would have had to have their heads buried in sand.

Anyway, there may be good news on the horizon. "The Five" might be returning to the original afternoon time slot. Peter Barry Chowka tells us about it in Big Changes Imminent at Fox News. You can read the whole thing to get speculation of those changes. However, he does quote Eboni Williams, to wit:

President Trump, I do not know your heart, but what I do know for sure is that you've clearly done the math. You've decided that the portion of your base that is absolutely racist is so significant, so valuable that you hesitate – even in the face of blatant, flagrant hatred – to risk turning them off and thereby crippling your political stronghold[.] ...

You remember when you said your base would stick with you even if you shot someone on Fifth Avenue? I think you are right. I think they will stick with you through anything[.] ... They will even stick with you while you calm their fears and deep-seated anger around their perceived depreciation of the intrinsic value of whiteness in this country. Let's be honest: That's what this is all really about.

So another lefty had to get something off her chest. TV viewers can get that from MSM. For example, take a look at this breathless title: 'He is president of the white nationalist movement': Joe Scarborough cuts vacation short to deliver impassioned denouncement of 'despicable' Trump on his MSNBC morning show.

To get the other side you have to seek it out. People tune into Fox News to get the other side. Roger Ailes was onto something. We shall see if he had a lasting impact.

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12:26 PM 8/16/2017

Door jam head bumps -- another Trump joke taken too literally by Dems

Saturday morning I had the TeeVee tuned in to MSNBC waiting for Hugh Hewitt to come on. And a rerun of Chris Hayes' show was on. He was interviewing a NY Republican Congressman about Trump's speech to law enforcement officers. The part of the speech Hayes replayed was where Trump told the cops not to be so careful about bumping a criminal's head on the car door jam. Hayes did his best to put the Congressman on the spot to defend Trump, who according to Hayes, was encouraging police brutality. Hayes is using an old playbook.

What was it they used to say during the campaign? Oh yeah, the press took Trump literally, but not seriously, whereas Trump’s supporters took him seriously, but not literally.

Jerry Seinfeld may have been the first, or at least the most prominent, comedian to joke about cops and car door jam head bumps many years ago. In fact, Slate is claiming that Trump stole the joke. At least Slate got it.

That said, as disingenuous as this stuff is, it continues to inflame Democrats and probably will as long as Donald Trump is in office. And their aim is to take back the House or Senate in 2018. Will they be successful? It often appears as though Trump's distractions, e.g., the obsession with Sessions, are doing more to help than hinder that movement. But I was among those who didn't think Trump would win the presidency, so what do I know?

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1:22 PM 7/29/2017

Fox News becoming the newest New Coke

Roger Ailes was a TV innovator, and Fox News Channel was a welcome relief when the news was dominated by the left leaning networks. That's changing. Ailes is gone, and Rupert Murdoch has shifted control to his sons who have less faith inclination to cater to the conservative audience.

Oh, I'll still watch my favorites, Fox News Sunday and Special Report with Bret Baier, but the word "loyalty" seems misplaced when applied to a TV channel.

FNC has always had a few outspoken Democrats available to make their case on the air. Juan Williams comes to mind. Williams is articulate, credible, and cordial. If they lose him, that would be a big loss.

But their newest arrival, Ezekiel Emanuel, leaves a lot of us wondering about the new direction the Murdoch boys want to take the network. Emanuel, you will recall, was one of the geniuses who wrote Obamacare with the goal of making it so ingrained that Republicans could never repeal it. His strategy seems to be working, and at least he was honest about that.

Dr. Emanuel reminds me of Thomas Frank who was hired by the Wall Street Journal to placate Democrats on the staff there when Murdoch's company bought that paper. Thomas Frank was one of those Democrats who seemed to hate the political opposition with a passion. And that passion came through in his WSJ columns. It prompted some observers to speculate that his hiring was part of a scheme to discredit Democrats by exposing them at their worst.

Maybe Zeke Emanuel was hired with that in mind, because he isn't someone FNC viewers want to see regularly. I would suggest that if they want to give him a job then give him his own show, like they did with Shepherd Smith, and keep him off the panels that appear on the regular news shows. That way viewers can vote with their remote controls.

Meanwhile, here are some articles related to this subject: Fox News Takes a Sharp Left Turn; Fox News squanders its reason for being; and finally, The New Coke Flop.

Hugh Hewitt will be a breath of fresh air to MSNBC watchers

One of the radio stations here in Midland, Texas, used to broadcast late same-day reruns of Hugh Hewitt's radio show. But when he contracted with another outfit, he vanished from local radio.

Now it looks like his fans may get another opportunity. See MSNBC Gives Conservative Radio Host Hugh Hewitt a Show.

Hewitt's self-titled show will air on Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. ET, beginning this week, as part of an expansion of the network's weekend programming in July. TVNewser first reported the news Thursday, which was then announced by the company.

In giving Hewitt his own show, MSNBC is sure to raise eyebrows, considering that it has been doing well mostly on the strength of left-leaning opinion journalists like Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. NBC News chairman Andy Lack is known to favor hard news and has programmed the network to feature a broader range of editorial opinions in addition to traditional newsmen like Brian Williams.

Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. ET isn't exactly prime time for TV, and the only people watching will be Hewitt's fans and a smattering of Democrats. Democrats should watch it, though, to get an intelligent presentation of conservative views. But if they are searching for validation for their hatred of conservatives they should stick with Maddow.

Fox News no longer fair and balanced -- actually they only ditched the slogan, but they do seem headed in a different direction

Roger Ailes did conservatives a huge favor when he helped develop Fox News. No longer would news be infused with Democrat talking positions. And we could actually hear both sides of a political issue.

"Fair and balanced" was a catchy slogan, and it was appropriate. The MSM tried to ridicule it, regular viewers appreciated it. Now comes Nymag.com with this: Fox News Is Dropping Its ‘Fair & Balanced’ Slogan:

It is hard to overstate the significance of what shedding “Fair & Balanced” means for Fox News. (It would be like the New York Times giving up “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”) Ailes invented the slogan when he launched the network in 1996, and over the years it became a quasi-religious doctrine among Fox’s anchors and viewers. The effectiveness of Fox News as a vehicle for conservative ideology depended on it. “If you come out and you try to do right-wing news, you’re gonna die. You can’t get away with it,” Ailes once told a reporter.

Fox News is undergoing a makeover after several key departures -- Roger Ailes believed in making stars out of the presenters. However, some of those stars turned on him alleging that he expected a bit more out of them. And many of the familiar faces exited -- some on their own volition, some had help out the door.

And Rupert Murdoch seems to be easing himself out the door, too, with his two sons set to take over. At least one media observer makes a convincing case that the Murdoch sons want to make the network less conservative and more progressive. We'll have to see where they take the network. And if they make it simply another MSM voice then they'll lose the audience Rupert and Roger cultivated over the past several years. And that audience will be yearning for a conservative competitor should one come along.

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2:19 PM 6/18/2017

Lost to the left -- late night comedy shows

Late night comedy's latest outrage is Stephen Colbert's crude suggestion about Donald Trump performing oral sex on Vlad Putin. Most of us can't really picture that, but Colbert's audience loved it. It's his audience, he knows them, and he gives them what they want. It's that simple.

Aside from Greg Gutfeld, there aren't any prominent conservative comedians. And late night shows are are another genre the right never had but if definitely lost to them now.

David French makes that clear in Don’t Fire Colbert — Fire His Crowd:

If you want an explanation for why the Colberts of the world say the things they do, there it is in the adulation of the audience. He is their voice. He’s speaking out their rage. He’s not leading them; he’s riding their wave of progressive scorn, anger, and hate. If he fell, another would rise to take his place. Angry progressives demand cathartic mockery, and they shall have it one way or another.

He makes an analogy to AM talk radio's conservative voices and notes that they and the comedians are following their audience, not leading them, by simply telling them what they want to hear. Good point.

Then this:

The problem is that this silent majority is largely irrelevant to the prevailing discourse. Our political and cultural agenda is typically dictated by those who care the most, and right now those who care the most also tend to hate their opponents on the other side with a fiery, reflexive passion. ...

In short, the people who truly care move this country, and the people who truly care are truly angry. Their anger is so all-consuming that it often forecloses the possibility of a debate about ideas. One of the more remarkable things about the 2016 election was that it was simultaneously the most vitriolic of my adult lifetime and the least ideological.

Hmm -- "Silent majority." Shades of the 60s. In any event, the tone is set. And odds are it will get worse before it gets better. But it will get better.

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10:04 AM 5/4/2017

What exactly did Bill O'Reilly do, anyway?

Sometimes it seems like there's a new sport called, "pin the tail on the celebrity male."

There was Bill Cosby. Women came out of the woodwork to blame him for sexual misdeeds. Surely not all of them were non-consenting in their relationships with him. But social mores changed over the years, and they were transformed into victims.

Also Roger Ailes. Gretchen Carlson, according to her petition, was a Stanford University graduate, a former Miss America, an accomplished concert violinist, a best selling author, an award-winning journalist and a Trustee of the March of Dimes. But apparently, she didn't have the wherewithal to tell the boss to back off. Here's a quote from said petition:

22. During that meeting in Ailes' office on September 16, 2015, Ailes stated to Carlson: "I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you'd be good and better and I'd be good and better," adding that "sometimes problems are easier to solve" that way.

Boy, if only Ailes had known that what would have been laughed off a few years ago would cost him his job and his boss millions of dollars. Read the whole petition and one comes away thinking that with all of Ms. Carlson's accomplishments she could have handled Mr. Ailes with her verbal skills. Nope.

Aside: Years ago my girlfriend at the time worked at a small corporation owned by the boss. One day he hugged her and tried to feel her ass. She pushed him away and said, "You dirty old man!" It never happened again. God, I loved that woman!

So now O'Reilly is the target. His attackers will walk away with millions, and he will be left looking for another job. If he is as popular as the media claim, he'll land on his feet -- after spending time with the family, of course. But what exactly did he say or do? We need to know so we can decide who is the real villain.

There's a current trend telling us we are supposed to believe the woman in a he-said-she-said dispute, even if she's set to win money in seven figures.

But this brings to mind another recent news headline -- Mike Pence's habit of not dining alone with woman other than his wife. One has to wonder how many of those people chortling about Bill O'Reilly's fate also snickered at Mike Pence's approach to avoiding false claims. Careful men could learn something from Mr. Pence.

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4:16 PM 4/20/2017