Frank Magid, RIP

We should note the passing of Frank Magid, the Iowa "consultant" almost single-handedly responsible for the demise of journalism on television and the substitution of happy talk news.

He became rich by understanding that numbskulls vastly outnumber smart people and advising television stations (and later networks) on how to win the maximum number of fools to the nightly newscasts. He did it with "surveys." He asked viewers if anchor Jane was prettier than anchor Jill. He had folks discuss whether Dan really looked nicer in a sweater .

The sum total of his recorded wisdom about news broadcast content was: "If any story runs more than one minute, the Russians had better be in New York Harbor."

It worked, and the advertisers loved it. This explains things like "L'Oreal, because you're worth it."

Frank, not to speak ill of the dead, and I appreciate that lunch back in the '70s, but you have one Hell of a lot to answer for.

Jocko's Doc

(sigh)

We could save a lot of ink and air time and general exasperation among the literate classes by suspending the relevant Constitutional provisions for 30 minutes, declaring him guilty by acclamation, fining him 50 bucks, and handing him a carton of Luckies on his way down the court house steps. When the Founding Document is restored, leaders should talk up the stuff against double jeopardy.

Ah so, Toyada-san, Part Three

Please jam this fish in the fan belt. It can't hurt.

This WSJ writer will not be invited to the Cherry Blossom Bash in Kamakura.

(H/T to my buddy Anne of The Valley)

Death to the Memory Hole; an apology

Gentle Readers,

My small blog and I cherish reader comments, and for that reason -- along with all sorts of high-toned moral considerations related to free and unfettered exchange of ideas et cetera --I am embarrassed. Also pissed at an oriental person or imitator thereof.

The McGee Reader default is, "Comment Moderation: Never." A few days ago someone found a way to slip in a long spam in Chinese. I had it translated , then opened the dash to dump it. Naturally, I forgot to turn comment moderation back to "off." A kind reader alerted me and I +almost+ fixed it. The same reader re-alerted, and I have just fixed the fix.

Two points:

1. The word "luddite" appears in the blog address for a very good reason.

2. Maybe I should have left the spam alone. It pointed Chinese-reading persons to about 20 porn sites. Some of them weren't bad, and it arrived about the time to nicely complement Tam's Roxxxie report. :)