Ramblings on politics, film, music, literature, current events, pop culture, lists, dirty words, trapezoids, birds, cartoons and any other damned thing that strikes my synapses. A 39ish-year-old freelance journalist and writer living with his wife and baby daughter in the hardscrabble environs of Oklahoma, Chase McInerney now spends much of his time frozen in stark, cold sweat-inducing, gut-percolating fear. For it will be soon .
.. yes, very, very soon.
Sweeps, God and Governance
The suits at KFOR, Oklahoma City's NBC affiliate, could be a little more subtle about their deeply entrenched devotion to consultants. While it cannot be proved without the compliance of a mole in either the station's promotions or news departments, a consultant clearly informed the station that its road to dominance in Nielsen "sweeps" periods was a, shall we say, divine path.
But this pandering to viewers' soft spots finds its equal in those who are planning legislation, referenda and talking points for the run-up to the November mid-term elections.
The mobilization of National Guard troops along the Mexican border? It's really no different from having Madonna walk on for some slap-happy hijinks on "Will Grace."
For those without a passing knowledge of sweeps, it is the period when the television industry and A.
C. Nielsen measure viewership and thereby determine advertising rates for individual programs. What has evolved from this focus on February, May, July and November is an unhealthy reliance on stunts, which means wacky guest-stars on sit-coms, awkward made-for-television movies about the bird flu, and local television news ratcheting up its shrillness.
This often takes the form of "fill-in-the-blank can kill you" stories on everyday consumer goods like lipstick or bottled water, or involves dropping a car into a lake, a ravine, a vat of meat by-products or straight into the ground to illustrate what happens "when seconds count." It can involve the dating habits of local radio personalities or the terror that awaits your children outside your heavily fortified front door. But this month at KFOR, the abiding concern has been with all things God.
When one subject becomes polyglot, it becomes obvious that a consultant is turning the knobs. "You know what people in Oklahoma City love? No, not Tex-Mex food and gated communities -- they love God and God accessories.
You get on the right side of God, and the ratings shall be bountiful, verily I say unto you!"
But instead of serious stories on religion, KFOR indulged in Godsploitation during the nearly-completed sweeps. The 10 p.
m. Monday edition concentrated on "Holy Spirits" -- sightings of heavenly orbs or Casper or Slimer or some such nonsense in some photos taken in a Texas church. But that was only one in a series of super-special God stories.
The station ran stories on "Religiously Transmitted Diseases" (the subject of a local pastor's book on misconceptions among the faithful), "Dying for God" (a package on a Cushing, Oklahoma, congregation that does not believe in basic medication, and that God heals everything), "House of God" (church services taking place in private homes), the self-explanatory "Angels on Tape," and "Rebels With a Cross," a story about skate-punks for Jesus.
This has been an ongoing theme during KFOR sweeps for some time, but never has it reached the intensity and frequency that the May "Jesus Sweeps" achieved. Then, as soon as the ratings period ends, so does the Godsploitation.
KFOR gets what it wants from the Christians, and then it's back to house fires and the 4-Warn Storm Tracker.
The bizarre part comes when government begins acting like a local news team stunting for ratings. In the coming months, we'll see congressional votes, ballot initiatives or just a rhetoric free-for-all on a gay marriage ban amendment, tax cuts, flag burning and limits on stem-cell research, along with the current bugaboo on everyone's minds, immigration.
But while television ratings stunts amount mainly to cheap thrills, election sweeps stunts tend to fray our political fabric. Cynical political gamesmanship turns real-life problems and issues into talking points, and the discourse invariably gets dumbed down into the kind of parlor game, in which the powers that be try to confuse the electorate sufficiently that they'll just throw up their hands and vote for the incumbent, or the latest "American Idol" winner or something. As Iggy Pop once sang, "Well that's like hypnotizing chickens.
"
Reuters quotes White House spokesperson Maria Tamburri as saying that President George W. Bush assured Mexico President Vicente Fox that "the United States considers Mexico a friend and that what is being considered is not militarization of the border, but support of border patrol capabilities on a temporary basis by National Guard personnel."
Temporary?
You bet. Just like a full month of "Desperate Housewives" without reruns or KFOR's love of "Jesus On a Tortilla" stories, once the election/sweeps period is over, it's back to business as usual. But as long as it guarantees high ratings/turnout of the political base, well then, "mission accomplished.
"
What Happened to Chase? By Cassandra DFor those of you who are wondering why Chase hasn't posted in a while, let me, er.
..cut to the chase.
It is my solemn duty to inform everyone that a few nights ago Chase was whisked away in the dead of night in a dark sedan by men wearing earpieces and navy blue suits. We think he was sent to Gitmo or to one of the CIA's black sites. Our only clue: in his draft of tomorrow's Sex Tape Derby were photos of the Bush twins.
Actually,
Chase wanted me to send his apologies for being absent. He's had a rough week but hopes last night was the worst of it. It seems that last night he and Mrs.
Chase were up with little Apple Rosebud, cleaning up puke and, uh, poopy in the baby's first ever illness. He tells me that she is much better today but it was a rough night. Apparently watching a five-month-old throw up is rather alarming, kind of like watching a smelly liquid flamethrower in action, with the added worry that the kid might choke.
Chase'll be back for STD tomorrow, without the Bush twins.
But before Republicans continue to paint trial attorneys as only slightly less evil than Islamist terrorists, child molesters and aluminum-siding salesmen, it is worth noting a recent on the matter.
Researchers concluded:
"One popular justification for tort reform is the claim that 'frivolous' medical malpractice lawsuits ..
. enrich plaintiffs’ attorneys and drive up health care costs. A new study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital challenges the view that frivolous litigation is rampant and expensive (emphasis added).
"The researchers analyzed past malpractice claims to judge the volume of meritless lawsuits and determine their outcomes. Their findings suggest that portraits of a malpractice system riddled with frivolous lawsuits are overblown. Although nearly one third of claims lacked clear-cut evidence of medical error, most of these suits did not receive compensation.
In fact, the number of meritorious claims that did not get paid was actually larger than the group of meritless claims that were paid."
In fact, researchers determined that the vast majority of malpractice claims involve medical error or serious injury, and that claims with merit were far more likely to be paid than claims without merit.
Nevertheless, the spin from the news media was a bit different than how the researchers interpreted the data.
Check out these headlines: "Four Out of 10 Malpractice Cases Are Groundless" (from AP) or "Study Casts Doubt on Some MD Tort Suits" (from UPI).
Why should the news media attempt to fully examine tort reform, after all, when it is a given that attorneys are evil swine? What journalists, doctors and too many Republicans refuse to recognize are the implications of the chief sticking point in tort reform, that being a cap on noneconomic damages.
Under that scenario, only the wealthier Americans would have a real shot at judicial redress. All men might be created equal, but apparently it is impossible that they would suffer equally.
Give That Man an Award! By Cassandra DI hereby propose the creation of the "Sons of Liberty Award," and I humbly suggest that the first recipient be former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio. From detailing the warrantless collection of call records from millions of Americans:
According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA's assertion that Qwest didn't need a court order — or approval under FISA — to proceed.
Adding to the tension, Qwest was unclear about who, exactly, would have access to its customers' information and how that information might be used.
***
Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.
In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.
Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court.
According to the sources, the agency refused.
The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled.
For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office.
A second person confirmed this version of events.
And I stand by my nomination even though the article goes on to say this about my newest hero:
In June 2002, Nacchio resigned amid allegations that he had misled investors about Qwest's financial health.
Oh well.
Can't be perfect, right?
I figure the Sons of Liberty Award is very appropriately named, as its recipients will surely be S.O.
L. when it comes to dealing with the Bush Administration.
Talk About a Sense of Entitlement! By Cassandra D
I just don't get some people. I posted earlier about the balls of Stephen Colbert, but his look puny next to the collective huevos of certain folks in the Middle East.
It takes outlandishly, ridiculously enormous cojones for the Palestinian people to vote in Hamas and . They elect a group of terrorists who deny that Israel has any right to exist and who blow up people riding on buses and sitting in cafes. They think we ought to pay for that?
And I thought we were a little dim in expecting Iraqis to greet us with flowers and kisses!
By Daniel Gale-Grogen
This week, the New York University College of Journalism's blog posited a that seems as frequent as the bell tolling for "Saturday Night Live": Can Rolling Stone, once the flagship for rock 'n' roll and counterculture, ever regain its footing?
Blogger Rebecca Ruiz commented on the magazine's upcoming three-dimensional cover celebrating its 40th anniversary. This promotional act of desperation prompted Ruiz to write, "By the looks of things, the magazine's website may be all that's left a few years from now.
"
The problems with Rolling Stone can be boiled down to one overarching illness: the magazine does not know what it is supposed to stand for anymore, and neither does its readership. It seems to be whatever publisher Jann Wenner wants it to be on any given week, whether its a lad mag, a music source, a left-leaning political magazine or a generic culture watch pub. But it has not been an access point for bleeding-edge culture for many years, as one of Ruiz' readers, Adam Raymond, posted in her comments section:
Rolling Stone should be holding on for dear life [emphasis added].
I can't remember when that magazine was ever relevant. Perhaps that's because they haven't been in my lifetime. It can bust out all the 3-D covers and other strange marketing campaigns it wants, but until it gets its finger back on the pulse, it will continue to stink to high heaven.
Rolling Stone had its finger on the pulse through much of the '80s, when writers such as Hunter S. Thompson, Dave Marsh, Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus and the pre-MTV Kurt Loder still populated the masthead. But as pop culture became more diffuse, Rolling Stone had difficulty keeping up.
When the magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1987, it was coasting on the '60s revival of the time. Granted, it was looking back on its legacy, but many of its cover stories were dedicated to aging boomer heroes such as The Grateful Dead, George Harrison, Paul Simon, and Pink Floyd, along with retrospective covers featuring Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie. This wasn't a bad time to be stuck in the past, since the zeitgeist of 1987 was lacking in heroes beyond U2.
But the magazine was losing steam, and it did not really revive until rock 'n' roll itself revived in 1991 with the grunge movement.
But when Kurt Cobain died and much of the style he popularized died with him, Rolling Stone did not know what to do with itself. It tried to make time with teens when the neo-pop movement took over, devoting two covers a year to Britney Spears and 'N Sync, but teens did not want to read a magazine written and published by people their parents' age, mainly because Rolling Stone felt like a 40-year-old at a Backstreet Boys show: uncomfortable and not fitting in, even though it had gelled its hair, sculpted its beard, Nair'd its chest and worn a white suit with no shirt just for the occasion.
But the 2000s have been downright pathetic. Faced with dwinding circulation and ad revenue thanks to the proliferation of "lad mags" such as Maxim, FHM and Stuff, as well as Maxim's music magazine, Blender, Rolling Stone hired FHM's editor, Ed Needham, to run the place in 2003. That was the year RS ran the cover stories, "Mary-Kate and Ashley: America's Favorite Fantasy," and "Housewife of the Year: Jessica Simpson.
" Many longtime subscribers chose that year to hang up for good.
Needham is long gone, having been richly rewarded for his RS debacle by becoming editor-in-chief of Maxim. Rolling Stone righted itself somewhat and has stopped running peg-free "trend" stories on teenage sex addicts and out-of-place features on the latest in hot weaponry, but it still seems adrift, unable to tap into a culture that prefers Defamer over "Random Notes" and gets its record reviews daily from Allmusic.
com and Pitchfork instead of waiting two weeks for that tired old thing to plop down on the newsstand.
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