connecting*the*dots

Stephen Colbert delivered his show the other night at the White House Correspondent Dinner. Being that he has already captured the admiration and imagination of the 18 - 34 demographic, I think it’s safe to say that with this speech, Colbert is giving Pappa Bear O’Reilly a run for his money in the numbed, geriatric demographic.

My favorite moment:

Most of all, I believe in this president. Now I know there are some polls out there saying that this man has a 32% approval rating, but guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.”

And reality has a well known liberal bias.

So Mr. President, please, please, pay no attention to the people that say that the glass is half-full.

32% means the glass… heh… (looking directly at the president) it’s important to set up your jokes properly, sir. Sir, pay no attention to the people that say that the glass is half-empty.

Because, 32% means it’s two-thirds empty… There’s still some liquid in that glass is my point… But I wouldn’t drink it… The last third is usually backwash, okay…

Unbelievably unflappable.

UPDATE: The mainstream media isn’t covering this event at all. Chris Durang:

…Stephen Colbert was the star attraction at the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday night, and his performance was thrilling or insulting or uncomfortable, depending on your point of view. Apparently, according to Editor and Publisher.com, President and Mrs. Bush looked very uncomfortable, and quickly left right afterward.

But the mainstream media is apparently ignoring this part of the evening, and instead is covering the early entertainment where Bush and a look-alike imitator do a “he says this, he’s really thinking this” routine. Moderately amusing, but very mild.

This, by the way, is the same Washington event where Bush previously charmed many (and horrified others) by pretending to have trouble finding Weapons of Mass Destruction (after we’d started to realize they weren’t in Iraq), and wandered the room looking under tables. Really cute, huh? They should send videos of that to the families of soldiers killed…

Fox News knows that body armor wouldn’t have helped. The enemy is far too deadly.

The Guardian
Internet means end for media barons, says Murdoch
· Magnate hails second great age of discovery
· Power ‘moving from the old elite to bloggers’
Owen Gibson, media correspondent

Rupert Murdoch last night sounded the death knell for the era of the media baron, comparing today’s internet pioneers with explorers such as Christopher Columbus and John Cabot and hailing the arrival of a “second great age of discovery”.

The News Corp media magnate nurtures a long-held distaste for “the establishment” but last night confided to one of the few clubs to which he does belong - The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers - that he may be among the last of a dying breed.

“Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry - the editors, the chief executives and, let’s face it, the proprietors,” said Mr Murdoch, having flown into London from New York after celebrating his 75th birthday on Saturday.

Far from mourning its passing, he evangelised about a digital future that would put that power in the hands of those already launching a blog every second, sharing photos and music online and downloading television programmes on demand. “A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it,” he said. Indicating he had little desire to slow down despite his advancing years, he told the 603-year-old guild that he was looking forward, not back.

“It is difficult, indeed dangerous, to underestimate the huge changes this revolution will bring or the power of developing technologies to build and destroy - not just companies but whole countries.”

The owner of Fox News added: “Never has the flow of information and ideas, of hard news and reasoned comment, been more important. The force of our democratic beliefs is a key weapon in the war against religious fanaticism and the terrorism it breeds.”

[…]

Until Murdoch implodes the Fox News Channel and those religous propaganda nutso’s, Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson, I’ll continue to take everything he says with a grain of salt, but this degree of a proclamation — from the master of all mainstream media empires — *must* be a good sign to those of us who are already knee deep in this revolution.

Speaking of mainstream media empire builders, I wonder where Jason Calacanis sits on the future of the web…

Yes, this is prank is old and completely immature, but it had me giggling like a twelve year old boy for a few minutes.

With thirteen simple words, David Letterman expressed to Bill O’Reilly what the entire blogosphere has been squaking with post after post for the past month or so:

I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap.

Well, that just about sums it up for me. You know, I tried my best to stay away from this “War on Christmas” meme, but when David Letterman dropped that gem on Bill O’Reilly last night, I had to get a word out on this contrived issue.

To begin with, Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson may be a lot of things, but they’re not idiots; neither of them believe the bullshit they spew for one single minute. Both O’Reilly and Gibson are key, prime-time players in the Fox Broadcasting Channel ecosystem, the modern day network equivalent of a Bill Veeck run ballclub. Not familiar with Veeck’s antics for filling seats back in the day? Check out this quote from ESPN Classic:

Just as he predicted, Bill Veeck, for all his accomplishments, is best remembered as the guy who sent a midget to the plate. And yet, Eddie Gaedel’s lone major league appearance, while the most famous of Veeck’s stunts, may not even have been his most bizarre.

I wonder where this “War on Christmas” meme will rank in the annals of Rupert Murdock’s broadcast network legacy.

See, the problem I have with the coverage that Media Matters, Think Progress and the rest of the well-meaning blogosphere has given this topic is, well, it’s on multiple levels. To begin with, the meme had no legs until the blogosphere chimed in. A large percentage of this country — not “dumb middle-America” mind you — considers this form of opportunistic stupidity a cheap form of simple entertainment. With the costs at the theatre and the ballgame, can you really blame them? I’d be extremely interested in seeing someone create a model to express the amount of free advertising the ’sphere provided The Factor with it’s coverage of this meme.

Remember, conversations don’t always subvert hypocracies, they can also reinforce them.

Last year, while working on the Media Matters redesign, I posted about O’Reilly’s incessant whining regarding MM’s coverage of his “60 percent of crap,” I ended the post with a bit of baiting:

So put on your seatbelt, Billy Boy. If you don’t stop spewing misinformation from a projected position of “news,” your rough ride is going to continue to get worse.

Now, imagine if you can that Fox and O’Reilly actually decided to see how far MM and the ’sphere would go to frame his retarded crusade as a litmus test for the network (with the running premise that all data is good data). Just a month prior to defending Christmas, O’Reilly went on a media blitz, admitting that he was worn out and considering retirement; what if that was the grand bait and switch of all bait and switches?

1. He plays gimpy in the mainstream media, drawing in his “smear sites”
2. He gets us salivating over the prospect that just one more major O’Reilly campaign from the blogosphere will get him to call it quits
3. He launches the War on Christmas meme, and like clockwork, the sphere bites hook, line and sinker

I’m all about framing propaganda for easy digestion by the public, but the War on Christmas? Call me paranoid, but don’t you think it’s possible that Fox and O’Reilly learned their collective lesson when their trademark lawsuit made Al Franken’s book a top seller on Amazon? Just by going after him and dedicating airwave time to the battle, they exposed Franken to a whole new audience (which he greatly appreciated).

All I’m saying is that sometimes a softball isn’t necessarily a softball. Sometimes it’s an iceball packed by evil, elves aiming knee-high.

In either case, thank you Dave!

UPDATE: While trekking across the web today, I found this gem from O’Reilly, where in 2001, just a month after Clinton left office, he claims that Letterman can smell bullshit from a mile away. Ha!

Hopefully, free from the airwaves… soon.

O’Reilly would probably classify this post as another “attack post” to mount it on the cross he’s bearing on his current media tour, which began the other night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Apparently, Bill is tired of being the “warrior” for good. He’s tired of having to deal with the hatred that "famous news broadcasters" face. I know, O’Reilly and "news broadcaster" in the same sentence is pretty humorous.

O’Reilly’s second stop on the path to martyrdom was The Today Show. Once his complaining and self-aggrandizing came to a pause, Couric wondered out loud, why not try a different approach to help reduce the antagonism and stress of the job, maybe "an intelligent discussion" of the divisive issues? Bill’s response served as the pillar for his self-fulfilling prophesy of being driven to a ball of stress and hatred:

…If I start to go in there and be Mr. Rogers, no one is going to watch me…

In other words, loud, venomous, “entertainment” sells. There’s a market out there that needs to be served, and by hook or crook, Bill O’Reilly and Fox Broadcast Channel are going to serve them. But man… this hatred stuff takes a toll on the mind and body.

Well, Mr. O’Reilly, now that I understand your predicament, I feel it’s my duty to help you spread your deceitful hatred to my small neck of the woods. Your buddies at Media Matters did a great job documenting yet another of your "intelligent discussions" of a divisive issue; Border Control. Your selective quoting of Macarena Hernandez, and your historical perspective of illegal Mexican immigrants as being vessels of death is a clear example of your "intelligence" and "righteousness."

Good luck with your growing security detail and stomach ulcers.

I was introduced to David Kline as a public figure, per chance, by catching him the other day on The O’Reilly Factor. While I almost exclusively review O’Reilly segments by visiting Media Matters (O’Reilly’s favorite site, mind you), I tuned into this particular segment about slanderous websites. I admit it; I wanted to see O’Reilly spinning reality within a realm I know a thing or two about.

As the "balanced guest from the left" Klein was immediately blown away by the conversation topic. O’Reilly’s patented tactical approach to force feeding his guest the Billy Boy perspective overwhelmed Kline, as he was completely uninformed regarding the blogosphere. He actually admitted, on-air, to have never heard of Media Matters (the site that O’Reilly focused his vengeance upon for the entire segment).

Media Matters is one of the most popular media watchdog/misinformation sites on the web, so much so that many well-known political bloggers use them as a source for their posts. Intrigued by such a naive understanding of the media ecosystem, I proceeded to browse over to Kline’s blog and become involved in a few of his posts. The first is basically an open apology to the left and to bloggers for how he allowed himself to be used and abused by O’Reilly. Hundreds of people posted comments, with the majority slamming him for his lack of preparation when appearing on such an obvious ambush show.

My reaction? As uniformed as he seemed to be, I shrugged it off as a poor showing and gave the guy a break. Today, my perspective has changed. Go to his site—blogrevolt.com—and scroll down to the lower right side of the page. His site is being managed by Christian Sarkar, a marketing guy that has coined his own website marketing strategy called, "Double Loop Marketing."

Let me get this straight.

1. A guy with practically zero hours put in as a blogger (his archives go back two months at the time of this post) writes, authoritatively, about the future of blogging—"Blog! How The Newest Media Revolution Is Changing Politics,
   Business and Culture"
2. He has someone managing his site? A marketing guy? Apparently, creating a blog template is too much for this "blogger" so he hires a marketing guy to build his blog, along with providing a strategy to pitch his book on the future of blogs to a specific demographic, which includes bloggers that come to his blo… I mean… site?
3. He somehow is booked to appear on The O’Reilly Factor, completely unable to defend the position of free speech and media accountability via the means of blogging.

No wonder Billy Boy’s staff picked this guy; he was ripe to be "found." I wonder what part of the "Double Loop" we were experiencing during the O’Reilly segment, let alone the part this post plays in it’s cycle of awareness and sales. Bill O’Reilly didn’t "stoop" to anything…

I’m sorry, but how can you not call this spade a spade.

Two days ago, Bill O’Reilly ran a 10 minute segment dedicated entirely to blasting Media Matters for America for "making stuff up about me… everyday of my life." And in order to validate his position, he stoops to pulling a bait and switch on David Klein to passively defend his position.

No class. None.

Well, apparently on the very same day, O’Reilly moved over to the radio mic and delivered his perspective on slavery, making the case that the Irish flight in the 19th century was the equivalent to the capturing, shipping and selling of African slaves.

Now, I’m a proud 25% Irish and happen to know this particular aspect of the history of our struggle. Beyond a shadow of doubt, O’Reilly is way off base.

The Potato Famine of 1846 - 1850 was horrible on numerous levels. In a nutshell, when the potato crops (which were the Irish peasants only form of food, barter and payment) became diseased and non-edible, absentee British landlords who owned most of the Irish land took advantage of the situation by running the tenant population out of house and home, driving many into starvation or to cargo ships heading to the New World, all in order to establish eminent domain in a foreign land.

2 million Irish men, women and children died — about 25% of the total population.

For the Irish who decided to undertake the many month-long trek to America on huge cargo ships, they fought disease, rape, murder and famine in the bowels of the vessels for the chance to make a new life in the new world. Upon landing in New York City, they were treated terribly by the established ethnic groups, beginning their uphill battle for a place in society, though already numerous steps ahead of generations of African slaves.

There’s a terribly beautiful and moving monument to this injustice and struggle located in Battery Park, Manhattan called the Irish Hunger Memorial. And if you want to read a stirring blow by blow account of the Irish potato famine, pick up a book called, “Paddy’s Lament, Ireland 1846 - 1847: Prelude to Hatred.”

While the book will open your eyes, it cannot excuse O’Reilly for his historically inaccurate portrayal of African slavery in this country.

As terrible as the circumstances surrounding the potato famine were, the Irish fled to America; bringing our names, our history and our culture along for the perilous ride.

Irish immigrants supported new arrivals of family with earned money, helping pay for their escape from the clutches of mother nature and British rule.

Africans, on the other hand, were dragged out of their villages by colluding terrorist states such as the Portuguese and the Dutch (two other parts of my ethnic DNA) and sold into slavery as a possession — like cattle — in The New World (Order). They lost their religion, their customs and their namesakes.

There is no comparison.

So I guess congratulations is in order, Bill. You poked your historically inaccurate paws into the bee-hive of Media Matters and then smeared their honey all over your face… all in the same day.

And you wonder why you get stung?

Chump.

Yesterday on The O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly invited two guests onto his program to whine about being held accountable by watchdog web sites for the things he says on-air. Number one on his “smear list” is Media Matters for America.

Personally speaking, I couldn’t have been more delighted.

You see, I’m in the midst of finishing up my part as the information architect on the next version of the mediamatters.org web site. When the site launches, it’ll be even easier for Joe Q. Public to provide media misinformation tips to the Media Matters analysts. The information retrieval system will be advanced as well, improving direct navigation and contextual browsing to topical items of interest. All in all, it’ll be a more educational, interactive and intuitive user experience.

Media Matters for America has a noble charge; to frame conservative misinformation as it occurs within any aspect of the American media ecosystem. Bill O’Reilly should be scared… as should Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and the entire mainstream media establishment. Media Matters is not about smearing, they’re about accountability.

If you don’t report the facts, Media Matters will point you out.
If you present a racist or immoral opinion, Media Matters will expose you.

The American press is supposed to operate out of principles of integrity and ethics, serving as the fourth estate, the public check and balance of government. That isn’t happening, as the media ecosystem has turned for the worse, pimping information for advertising dollars. So Media Matters, and thousands of blogs, now have a role in contextualizing the reported news, providing perspective and keeping the paid professionals in check.

If the American news machine actually cared more about exposing the truth of a story, and not constructing their format around an advertising model — placing a burden on editors to choose between the news and fact checked news — Media Matters wouldn’t exist.

So put on your seatbelt, Billy Boy. If you don’t stop spewing misinformation from a projected position of news, your rough ride is going to continue to get worse.

UPDATE: It turns out that O’Reilly and his producer goons baited David Kline to come on to discuss political blogging in general, and then switched format midstream to whine about Media Matters. Typical O’Reilly. Well, I’m sure Media Matters will thank him for the unpaid advertising. I would’ve thought that FOX learned their Marketing 101 lesson after hitting Al Franken up with a lawsuit. I guess not.