Bill C. sent me this link a few weeks ago and I've meaning to blog about it. Go check it out.

I think he's got some good points there, specifically as to what advertising is when you boil it all away. It's an interruption wanting to sell us one thing when we're in the middle of doing something else. This is true. When you go to Needcoffee, there's a better than average chance you're probably not wanting to see an ad for singles dating service. So there's been a huge mismatch between what might be relevant for you to see vs. what you're actually seeing. I think this happens better online than it does in the real world–in "real life," I would constantly be amazed at the offers I'd receive via snail mail. For example, a special deal on replacing the siding on my house–while I was living in an apartment. It just takes a little bit of checking to know that my address was an apartment at the time–and yet here I was getting mail about an offer I simply could not use.

The internet knows where you are just by your IP, so I'm assuming you're not seeing the same ads I am in some instances. But still, it's not working the way it should. So while I agree with some of the author's ideas in that article, I think the answers are a little simpler and less advertisageddonish.

[[ Continued ]]

So, Ken sent me this.

And while I absolutely agree in the concept of equal time for all candidates, I think the solution to this is to give exactly what is called for: equal time.

Comedy Central should be willing to provide a timeslot for a satirical talk show that any candidate is welcome to host, as long as he does so in character.

Same thing with Fred Thompson. Any candidate should be given a show on NBC where they play a D.A. There's enough cop shows where this would be possible. Hell, you could almost do that with Law & Orders.

See? Problem solved. Somebody pay me.

Here you go.

I can't tell you the last time I watched anything on television live. If anything, I watch a bit during dinner, but that's usually British television and it can take me three dinners to get through an episode of The F Word. I'll finish eating, watch to the next commercial break, stop and come back to it.

I used to watch Law & Order, but eventually ran out of time for even that. So.

Here's the article.

Okay, check this out.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps was also on hand at the conference and took broadcasters to task for their current content, speaking of "too little news, too much baloney passed off as news. Too little quality entertainment, too many people eating bugs on reality TV. Too little local and regional music, too much brain-numbing national play-lists."

That's right…the people that will bend over backwards to fine folks because a vast (vast!) minority of letter writers will bitch about anything and everything are going to tell television what's the right content they should have. The people who get their panties in a wad about profanity and nipples and don't trust you to change the channel if you don't like what you're seeing…are getting ready to use the police power of the government to regulate what can and cannot be shown on television.

Why? Because the networks show baloney and people eating bugs and that's not, in their estimation, quality.

Newsflash, you dumb pricks. The vast majority of people like baloney and bugs. If they didn't, and they tuned out, then the networks wouldn't show it. The networks are in this for one thing and one thing only: money. If high brow entertainment sold well, then Spike TV would be doing Merchant Ivory marathons instead of Bond.

Here's how this is going to work. Because Nanny Government thinks that you Americans aren't smart enough to pick your own radio and television programming, they're going to legislate it. Or lean on people so that they don't even have to go through Congress. And sadly, some of you Americans aren't smart enough to realize that this is a really terrible idea. Because first they're going to go after network television, then cable. They've already said they want to.

So ask yourself if the government, which can't protect our borders, protect our ports, get out of the military's way to let them do their jobs, balance their own checkbook, or teach your children, is who you want telling you what you can eat and what you can watch and what you can listen to.

And ask yourself if you want the government to have the power to dictate these things to you, especially when at any moment, your opposition could have control of the government. For you liberals, imagine what it would be like if right wing Christian conservatives had absolute power over television. For you conservatives, imagine what it would be like if left wing hippies had absolute power over television. Let your worst suspicions and nightmares run rampant.

Because that's what you're inviting in. Half of you might be partying, but the other half–the smart ones–are very patiently waiting for it to be their turn to fuck with your world.

Wouldn't it be so much safer just to not allow anybody that sort of power in the first place?

Kudos to Slashfood for presenting a problem, then presenting the solution.

Problem: kids watch too much advertising on television targeting them for stuff that's bad for them.

Solution: let them watch less television.

I know that sounds blindingly obvious, but it escapes many. Limiting the amount of television a kid can watch involves parenting, and that actually takes effort. So.

Oh, and here's what I love about the article they link to:

Advocates said the study adds to mounting evidence that food marketers are trying to hook the youngest children as lifelong customers.

Okay, hold up there, Sherlock. Let me keep anybody from straining themselves. Food marketers–whose job it is to market–trying to hook young children as lifelong customers? Um, fuck yes they're trying to do this. With every fiber of their being, you dumbshits. I'll take whatever leftover funding you had for your ridiculous study now. You're welcome.

Previous studies have found that kids as young as 3 who see TV ads are more likely to request and eat advertised foods high in fat, sodium and sugar.

Request? Yes, I can see that. So wait…they requested it from whom? God? The Maker machine in their kitchen? The dog? No, last time I checked, three-year-olds can't drive out to the store and pick up a pack of Twinkies or whatever stuff kids are eating these days. They have to have adults to do that for them. Usually adults that spend the majority of time with kids that age are parents, but if they're just giving kids whatever they want, with no regard for nutrition or anything else, then they're not really parenting, are they?

Diane Levin, of Wheelock College who is also a co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, criticized Disney and PBS for breaching viewers' trust.

You know, there's a really simple way to have a Commercial-Free Childhood, Diane. It's called Turn the Fucking Television Off. Last I checked, there weren't any advertisements in the best children's books. Nor do I remember in my childhood there being a bunch of billboards that followed me around while I was running about the neighborhood. Whose responsibility is it to protect kids from things? Right. That pesky P-word again. And what is "viewers' trust"? Who the hell trusts a channel on television, anyway? What exactly are you trusting them to do?

Now, it's not clear in here that anybody's looking to restrict ads through legislation–they don't mention the G word explicitly–but when we've got studies that are still searching for evidence that kids are being marketed to (which, in my mind, is like 60 Minutes doing investigative reporting about that fishy heliocentric theory) and this entire conversation happening without parents being mentioned (except here and on Slashfood–another blog), then I get worried. It's much easier to abdicate responsibility to Nanny Government than to actually tell your kid, no, you can't have a cupcake.

Widge's bulletized review:

• The look and feel of the show are like Law & Order and ER had a kid together. This is not a compliment.
• Too many characters. Or, put another way, it takes a good writer to juggle as many plotlines and characters in a single show and not confuse the audience as to who is doing what and why. This show does not have that writer.
• It took me all episode to finally come up with the pecking order of the characters and who supervises whom in the office. While this was perhaps an attempt to have us associate ourselves with the Very New Guy Who Just Started Work That Day, it's kinda hard to do that when A) he's fighting for screentime along with everyone else and B) he's a fucking idiot–so why would we want to have anything to do with this bozo? No, this is just, if not bad writing, bad writing masquerading as trying to be clever. This is a Dick Wolf show. And does anyone sit down to a Dick Wolf show and want clever?
• I was looking forward to this show because I always did like Stephanie March…but here she's apparently the head ADA in this game and thus has maybe a dozen lines.
• Not that I'm a prude or anything, but did we really need the obligatory Two Hot People in Bed sequence? What is this, Las Vegas? And the final sequence which promised that, whoo-boy, there are hook-ups to come…! God, who the hell cares? One of the strengths of L&O is that only the hardcores know about the lives of the characters, which is why you can sit down in front of any flavor L&O, from any season, with any characters, and enjoy yourself without having to worry about anything you might have missed. It's obvious that with these Young and Gorgeous Stars we're going to get some bad NBC boom-chicka for our buck. Ugh.
• I am glad to see Eric Balfour do something after both he (and I, for that matter) had to slog through the Texas Chainsaw remake. Elias Koteas is always welcome–sorry to see he was just a guest star.
• The dialogue in this thing is just bad. Not wincingly so, but just enough to make your eyebrows throb.
• …though not as bad as the music. Please fire whoever picked that crap and decided to put it behind every Important Scene.

I'm very disappointed that Trial By Jury died and now this thing is here to take its place. I won't bother to watch again. I'm torn between thinking it'll die after a few episodes or, because things that are bad tend to be embraced by the Great Unwashed, it'll run for eight years. Yawn.

Music Postscript: Turbonegro's enjoyable "All My Friends Are Dead." When it hits your MP3 list, it sort of acts the bully to any stray modern pop songs you might have hiding out. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Found via callmeMICKEY.