No such thing as bad publicity, and as long as they spell your name right, etc…I received a comment on my GreaterFalls.com site the other day from the morning DJ on a local station; he wants to do an interview about the site. And one of the local news anchors e-mailed me about doing a 2 or 3-part series on local bloggers. Well, since I’ve already conquered other media outlets, I guess it’s time to expand my media empire even further! Actually, since this is Blogtober, the timing couldn’t be better to talk about blogging and encourage others to get involved with blogging (either reading or writing).

Bloggify blogtober media

So AdJab (a very enjoyable site) has an entry up today about that delightful TV ad for Rozerem, which is a sleep aid. You know, the one with Abe Lincoln, a beaver, and a deep-sea diver. I absolutely hate stupid commercials and will go out of my way to not watch them, but this ad…oh, it’s good stuff. I never get tired of it. Glad to see that Rozerem has put it online for everyone to enjoy!

ABE: “Heeeeey, Sleeping Beauty!”
MAN: “I didn’t sleep a wink.”
ABE: “I know, we have the chess set all ready.”
BEAVER: “He cheats.”
ABE: “Hell-OOO, ‘Honest Abe…?’”
BEAVER: “Ch…whatever…”
…
ABE: “Just talk to your doctor.”
BEAVER: “TODAY?!”

It’s a beaver. And he’s playing chess. With President Abraham Lincoln. And he talks. And he’s eating what looks like breakfast (eggs and bacon?). That’s just cool. And what’s up with the deep-sea diver? He doesn’t have anything to say in this commercial; he’s just doing something over on the counter…maybe he made the breakfast for the beaver. Wouldn’t it be funny if Rozerem released a “director’s cut” of this commercial in which the diver gets some lines? And maybe then we could find out who is better at chess: President Lincoln or the beaver.
So how does this commercial rate with you? Annoying, or amusing?

abraham lincoln beaver commercial Laugh media rozerem

Yes, we all know that last Friday marked the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast episode of “Star Trek” - and I’m a huge Trek fan. Mostly TOS and TNG, but the whole enterprise (!) is great overall. But in all the excitement and hoopla over Trek, let’s not forget a significant milestone that occurs today: September 12, 1966, marks the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast episode of “The Monkees!” Good, good stuff — the music, the humor, the whimsy — the world is a much better place for having The Monkees.

hooray media star trek the monkees

While this news article about higher gas prices is certainly topical and designed to anger people, I’m not at all concerned about paying $3.21 per gallon. No, what angered me is the use of the term “pocketbook.” That term is used quite often in the news media, primarily when discussing fuel prices and the attempts to raise the federal minimum wage, and it just ticks me off. Why can’t they just say “wallet” or even “purse” instead of using a very dated word?

aggravant aggravants media pocketbook

BUMP: I remain absolutely amazed at the amount of traffic that I get from people looking for Sabine Ehrenfeld. She is to my site what Jill Wagner is to Costa’s Population Statistic.

UPDATE: thanks to YouTube, you can now see one of Sabine’s commercials anytime!

Very pretty lady in the Overstock.com advertisements; I don’t find her annoying, as some do (possibly NSFW text), but her beauty won’t convince me to shop at Overstock.com. I’ll admit to not looking away from the TV when her commercial airs, though. She’s got quite a fan-base. So - what do BLTB readers think of Sabine?

media overstock Random sabine ehrenfeld the big o

Looks like someone went and made a list of the 50 Best Sidekicks, with names such as Ed McMahon, Pedro Sanchez, and Art Garfunkel. Worthy names, to be sure. The EW site is too crappy for me to navigate through the entire list of 50, so I can’t be certain whether they included Kato, the “sidekick” (but much more) of The Green Hornet. I hope they did, ‘cuz he sure gets my vote as the #1 sidekick…with emphasis on the “kick” part, naturally. Which reminds me: if you like The Green Hornet, you must go visit Sam’s place and check out an amazing video that he found. It’s very interesting - and it sure does get me thinking about an eventual Green Hornet movie.

green hornet kato media sidekicks

TO: The Big Shots at Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN
FROM: David
SUBJ: Programming

1. I am a news junkie. I love watching news. I always have, going back to the mid-80s when CNN was the only option, and then growing to love CNN Headline News (which sucks now, but that’s another story). I enjoy knowing what’s going on in the world.
2. Devoting whole hours and programs to Natalie Holloway, the Duke Rape case, the teacher of the week who had sex with her student, and other such topics…frankly, it makes me sick.
3. When those “news” stories are on your stations, I turn the channel. Quickly.
4. I never watch the Dan Abrams show, the Greta Van Susteren show, or Larry King. I never will. What a complete waste of airtime and what could have been interesting news hosts. In fact, I initially had high hopes for Greta’s “On The Record” program, but it quickly sunk into lurid crime depravity. Cripes, coverage of this garbage even seeps into “Hannity & Colmes” and “Scarborough Country.” MSNBC has completely thrown in the towell on Friday nights, airing nothing but “true crime” crap.
5. I suspect that I’m not the only news junkie that feels this way.

Sincerely,
David

cnn fox news Hot Off The Presses media msnbc news news channels

First of all, who knew that Isaac Hayes was a Scientologist? Second of all, how on earth does Hayes decide that NOW is the time to bail out on the show, giving up his role as the wise, soulful Chef? After how many years of no-sacred-cows, no-holds-barred, potty-mouthed humor? Hm…I guess that poking fun at every other religion, ethnicity, country, and sexual orientation is just fine, but once his own religion got the South Park treatment, well…that was the last straw. Much more discussion over at MeFi. (via Tammy)

UPDATE, March 21: looks like it may not be accurate — apparently Isaac Hayes suffered a stroke back in January, and it appears that someone (Scientology rep?) might have announced that Hayes was leaving South Park WITHOUT Hayes’ permission.

civics isaac hayes media south park

When I linked the humorous (and blasphemous!) video titled “The Passion Of The Benny Hill,” one of my readers wondered if I would also post anything about the “anti-muslim” cartoons that have triggered violence. The commenter, Frosty Nuggets, seems to believe that I have an anti-christian bias, when in fact I am biased against ALL religions. I am also biased against superstition, psychics, ghosts, and other such nonsense. So in answer to Frosty Nuggets, and to demonstrate that all religions are equal in my eyes, here is one of the Danish cartoons that sparked such a firestorm (click here to see the rest):

atheist cartoons civics media religion

As Tammy Bruce points out, there is an awful lot of real news going on in the world…how on earth the media (nets AND cable newsers) think that the Cheney story qualifies as somehow being more important, relevant, or interesting than the REAL news absolutely baffles me. Sure, I know the adage about “if it bleeds, it leads,” and most of the Big Media would love nothing more than to have Cheney hung out to dry for any reason…but Whittington is doing quite well, by all accounts, there was no criminal intent, Cheney is remorseful, and that’s it. End of story, at least as far as the public is concerned. On the other hand, watching the talking heads babble on and on about the Cheney incident is surely better than what’s coming next: non-stop Entwhistle bullcrap, served up via steaming, gooey piles of breathless, senseless Larry Abrams Van Susteren-speak.

cheney civics hunting media real news

Regarding the Mayor Nagin idiocy, here’s another angle that I hadn’t considered, but which does indeed seem spot-on: when Pat Robertson went bat-crap loony with his “God’s vengeance” spiel a couple of weeks ago in reference to Ariel Sharon’s health, the media went into overdrive, beating itself into a righteous, frothy lather, trashing him (and rightly so) soundly. But notice: when Mayor Nagin utters roughly the same hateful words — this time equating God’s vengeance with destructive hurricanes — he seems to be given quite a pass and the media instead focus all their energy on his “chocolate city” remarks. Well, sure, that was stupid, too, but at least he attempted to backpedal the black/white stuff, while allowing the God’s Wrath stuff to hang out there. Mayor Nagin even tried to link God’s Hurricane Wrath with America’s presence in Iraq. Earth To Media: it is hypocritical to roast Pat Robertson on a stick because he’s “conservative” and white, while allowing Nagin to get away with it because he’s black and a Democrat.
Also: great graphic!

civics god media nagin robertson

I read the transcript a few days ago, and I finally got around to watching the 11-minute clip of Bill O’Reilly on David Letterman’s show from a couple of weeks ago. I think Letterman is one of the funniest guys in TV history, and he’s definitely an intelligent fellow. He’s also a part-time resident a few miles up the road from me, which scores him about +25 Cool Points. But when he tried to play it serious with O’Reilly, Letterman came across as an ignorant celebrity trying desperately to rack up some laughs when he realized that he had no firm ground to stand on. That’s OK: Letterman is an entertainer, and isn’t supposed to go head-to-head with pundits like this. He should have stuck to funny topics, rather than trying to paint Cindy Sheehan as some sort of Gandhi-like figure, and rather than simply saying, “I don’t believe you” when O’Reilly mentioned several of the “War On Christmas” anecdotes, and rather than admitting that he doesn’t even watch O’Reilly’s show.

civics letterman media oreilly