Don't Tell Me What Offends Me

So there was this big dust-up on THE VIEW yesterday.

The topic de jour was Jesse Jackson's recent remarks concerning Barrack Obama. Seems Mr. Jackson used the N-word while waiting to go on THE O-REILLY FACTOR. An overnight producer caught the whispered expletive when he was transcribing the tape for archival purposes.

That was last week.

Fast forward to yesterday where Whoopi Goldberg began to defend Jackson's right to use the word. Apparently using racial expletives is only a fireable offense if you're a cranky old white DJ.

Whoopi and a guest panelist took the position that white folks have no business being upset when black folks use the word. They have taken ownership of the word, diffused its power and even use the word as a term of endearment among family members.

Wonder if they'd accept the same argument in defense of the confederate flag?

NBC Wants You to Vote for Change

One wonders if NBC/Universal, the producer of FOX's hit drama HOUSE, receive a receipt for its recent blatant donation to the campaign of presidential candidate Barrack Obama...





I'd really like to know the story behind this one.

Was FOX aware/complicit of the blatant product placement?

Does its presence violate any equal time rules? Does the FEC even care?

Will the episode be available for repeats airings on USA (owned by NBC/U) within 90 days of the election?

If it airs inside that window, does it constitute a violation of McCain/Feingold?

If the sign had read "Build the Fence Now!" would liberals be asking the same questions?

Just wondering.

For some reason, the title of this post won't display. Hmm. A conspiracy!

What if they gave a concert and no one came?

This past weekend the greenest of the world's rockers (that Al Gore could convince to show up, or that had new releases to promote) flew a collective 225,000 miles (the carbon footprint equivalant of two centuries of SUV highway mileage) to sing to us about saving energy.

It gives me solace to report that less than 1% of the U.S. population tuned in to NBC Saturday night to see this .... stuff.

Yep, an average of all of 2.9 million folks checked it out in prime time on a Saturday night. NBC almost came in fifth for the night, but managed to squeak out a win over Univision by a tenth of a ratings point.

I think Americans might prefer our charity concerts when they're about sending relief to folks who need it - like starving kids in Ethiopia, tsunami victims or hurricane survivors.

Al Gore already has a crappy cable channel of his own to use to propagandize to his heart's content. Did he really need to take up several over the world of NBCU cable to get his message out? The concert aired on NBC in prime time, while the day long festivities aired at different times on Bravo, MSNBC, Univision, CNBC, Sundance, and Telemundo.

Interesting that they bypassed the one NBCU property on which the global warming fanatacism belonged - SciFi.

P.S. Al, it's snowing in Buenos Aires for the first time in 89 YEARS...

As the World Spins

Over the course of just 24 hours the world seems to have righted itself.

At the start of the week, the Senate was moments away from passing an immigration bill that seemed to please only the Senate. Conservatives, in particular, were feeling particularly disenfranchised. No one seemed to be listening.

Then there was Paris Hilton. Yet another celebrity who managed to pull a quick one on society by turning a 45 day sentence into a three day sleep over.

In both cases the rule of law was having its nose rubbed in some rather smelly stuff.

This new so-called immigration bill used language very similar to the last edition, with promises that this time we'd actually enforce the law. Many wondered if it might be prudent to at least experiment with enforcing the current laws before we went to the extreme of replacing them.

Had a pollster asked me if the country was headed in the right direction, I would have said no.

And then the Earth rotated once more in the heavens and something changed. Within a 24 hour window, Harry Reid was forced to pull this pitiful excuse for a bill from the floor - and the world watched as Paris cried from the back seat of a squad car - on her way back to justice.

Maybe Jack Bauer was involved.

Outside the chambers Senators railed against their collective lack of stick-to-it-iveness. Senator Feinstein wondered why the Senate was unwilling to see things through. Others talked about how victory could be assured - if only we would allow more time. Words that sounded eerily like discussions on events in Iraq.

It's a shame some on the left are more passionate about legalizing illegal immigrants than they are about securing victory over folks who want to do us extreme harm.

Jerry Falwell died a couple of weeks ago, but the silent majority he called the Moral Majority stood up and made a bit of noise this week. Grass roots outrage was heard on both coasts. As a result, a judge in L.A. threw the book at a celebrity debutante, and politicians in D.C. bailed on a very bad bill in order to save their hides.

The immigration bill is dead. Paris is back in jail. Law and order seems to be taking hold after a bit of a vacation, and the country seems to headed in the right direction.

For this week at least.

NBC Explains Cho

Politics and television continue to intersect.

From TVWeek.com: NBC Explains Decision to Air Cho.

Meanwhile, the world waits for ABC to explain their 1994 decision to air Margaret Cho's ALL AMERICAN GIRL.

Too soon?

I Blame Cable

So this Imus thing.... it lingers.

It's morphing faster than the T-1000 at the end of TERMINATOR 2.

First it was Imus, the racist.

Now left wingers are screaming for the heads of all the right wingers on the radio. (So much easier than debating the so-called Fairness Doctrine.)

Other cultural defenders are decrying the hypocrisy of Sharpton and Jackson, and rightfully curious as to how these two became the judge and jury as to what constitutes offensive speech.

One argument against Al & Jesse is that they've never come out against hip-hop and rap lyrics. Sharpton has promised that they're next. I doubt that this is a good development.

Bill O'Reilly and others have proclaimed that rap music is mostly to blame for the decline in Western culture, for the coarseness of everyday conversation and for the foul language used by our children.

I disagree.

I blame cable.

Follow me on this one...

HBO arrived in my home in Northeast Arkansas sometime in 1980, I believe. At that time, we received all of 13 channels. Four stations from Memphis, four from Little Rock, one from Jonesboro, WTBS from Atlanta, KXTX from Dallas, WGN and this new thing called HBO.

For the first time in the history of the American living room, uncensored movies were available over the magical little box that parents had trusted for 40 years.

Naked people, crude swear words, unbleeped comedy - it all came pouring into our homes - and we loved it.

Now, my satellite dish brings me FIVE different channels of HBO, along with a solid handful of cable channels that delight in providing the American public with lightly censored or uncensored material.

I'm in control of watch I watch on TV, no doubt about it. I don't blame Hollywood for making it all available to me.

But I DO wonder if our day to day life might be just a bit more civil - if maybe youngsters wouldn't be subjected to teenagers dropping F Bombs in McDonald's - if those bombs weren't going off with such regularity at home.

Duke vs. Rutgers

I spent a lot of time on the road today. And while I drove, I listened in to Rush, and Sean and Bill O'Reilly while they commented on the day's developments in the Duke LaCrosse case.

It occurred to me that there was a connection between the recent Imus flap and the Duke case. Never in my life have I been so desperate for a clear cell phone connection in order to call a national talk radio program.

My idea was that brilliant. It had to be shared with the rest of the world.

Immediately.

My point was this: A lot of folks have spent the last few days in a tizzy because a Don Imus, a talk show host, failed miserable at an unwise attempt at humor. We have been mortally OFFENDED that a basketball team has been called a name.

Meanwhile, because of some unethical actions by a Prosecuting Attorney, three young men at Duke have spent 395 days with the label "accused RAPIST" hanging over their head. Yes, the charges have no been dropped - but they should have been dropped long ago.

I'm guessing "Accused RAPIST" is probably a lot harder to get over than 'nappy headed ho.'

Shouldn't we be a bit more outraged about the Duke case than the Imus case? (And if you don't think race played a part in the media frenzy at Duke, you're sorely mistaken!)

Well, that was the brilliant idea.

And then, there I was - working in the office tonight, listening to Glenn Beck. (We don't get his show live around here)

Mr. Beck made my brilliant argument EXACTLY. (Unfortunately, he also made it much better than I did.)

Further evidence that Glenn Beck is a GENIUS.