....LMB: "Man Made Weather"....

January 31, 2003

War Talk Shifts From 'If' to 'When'- I have a problem with this NY Times headline. I don't remember a time when the war talk was "if."

FCC Chairman Ho-Hums Anti-War Ad Controversy- a group called the Anti-War Video Fund tried to buy advertising time on a Comcast cable outlet in Washington, DC to play an anti-war commercial on CNN twice a day for the length of this week. Comcast accepted, then changed its mind because the ad "fails to substantiate certain claims or allegations," specifically the one that "that the war was a violation of international law and was being conducted by 'mercenaries.'"

The group went to the FCC to complain that the media oligarchy in America resulted in this "censorship," and that they should do something about it. Said FCC chair and deregulation shill Michael Powell (no relation to Colin Powell. Oh wait, I mean "Colin Powell's son"), "'Issues like that have been around in the commission and in public policy since the beginning of time. That ad was about Washington, D.C. The fact that Comcast might own assets in another part of the country to which the ad wasn't even placed' doesn't matter."

Two main points here.

1) Let's not pretend that this commercial is like every other commercial. Most TV ads have all kinds of unsubstantiated claims, and everyone knows it. This is a political ad on a controversial issue that could cause a backlash against Comcast. Pretending that its about standards or media monopoly is disingenuous. Comcast didn't run the ad because they were afraid of negative consequences if they did.

2) I think there is a larger unspoken issue here that has a much more direct link to media consolidation and federal regulation than this specific ad. The reason that this organization felt the need to buy this advertising time is because the full spectrum of ideas and concerns about this war are not being covered by the broadcast media. The airwaves are supposed to belong to the people and serve the public interest. I can't think of a more important public interest than facilitating debate about whether or not the United States should spend hundreds of billions of its tax dollars and send its own soldiers to another region of the world to destablize and kill. The mere existence of this attempted ad purchase says more about American media monopoly than anything else.

Prominent Ohioans among members of Bush's all-star volunteerism team- ABC News reporter (? Anchor? Commentator? Mummy?) Cokie Roberts, and a number of other prominent public figures have joined "the president's Council on Service and Civic Participation" which will "will recognize outstanding volunteer service among children and adults." Conflict of interests, serving on a governmental committee that she is supposed to investigate? ABC doesn't think so. I'm not going to pretend to care one way or the other, because I don't give a damn what Cokie Roberts has to say about anything.

Coke to Slash 1000 Jobs- "Cost Savings to Be Put Toward Marketing." One more reason to hate advertisers.

DaimlerChrysler's Jeep Tricks- DaimlerChrysler recently bought a full-page ad in the NY Times to mourn the passing of cartoonist Bill Maudlin. Maudlin became famous during WWII for his comics in the U.S. military's publication Stars and Stripes. Why would DaimlerChrysler care? Because they own Jeep, and many of Maudlin's comics depicted soldiers fighting for freedom in U.S. Jeeps. Good way to commemorate a man who gave them free advertising, and to use his ghost for one last plug.

However, as the article above demonstrates, the cartoon used in the tribute ad is not one of Mauldin's. It is a Maudlin strip that has been altered.

The original was a picture of a sorrowful soldier about to shoot a damaged Jeep, as though he was sadly putting a wounded horse out of its misery.

The new version is a picture of a sorrowful soldier near a damaged Jeep-- holding a box of tissues. Cuz, like, his car is damaged, so he's, like, sad...

Good going, DC, eulogize the man by convincing the public that he's not funny.

Note: the title of this entry is from a quote from the movie Natural Born Killers, where Mickey Knox says that the media is "like the weather," except it's "man made weather." Always thought that line was kind of profound somehow.