We’re in the final stretch of a long presidential campaign, which is a watershed election for many reasons. The more obvious having to do with the race and gender of the candidates. However, there are lesser ones which are important as well. One aspect that people tend not to think as deeply about is the fact that we are increasing getting the most insightful political commentary from comedians like John Stewart of the Daily Show, David Letterman, and Tina Fey and the other cast members of Saturday Night Live. This observation is not my own, Charles Kaiser of Full Court Press, among others, have long championed Stewart and his staff writers for their dead-on political analysis.

With the country spending $10 billion a month on the war in Iraq, US banks struggling to survive and the world slipping in global recession, the increasingly ugly political presidential race blares onwards towards November 4th. This moment should be the time for journalists to step up and make sense of the world. And yet they seem two steps behind the joke makers. As long running dailies are turning weekly, traditional news outlets such as print newspapers, need to be making themselves more relevant, not less.

John Stewart’s interview with Peggy Noonan a few weeks ago was telling.  In the interview, Stewart at one point, gives an impassioned plea to his guest on how the politicians can get away with rhetoric which treats the public like children. The reason of course is that the people as well as journalists allow it to happen. (It’s the same reason for why the debate have been reduced to 90 second sound bite speaks which are so tightly controlled, that nothing meaningful is said.) It was so rare to as any journalist or tv personality show that he really cares about the country’s well being, rather an partisanship or sidestepping responsibility in the name of staying objective.

Similarly, the McCain / Letterman bro-mance turning sour was amusing to watch from start to conclusion. What does Letterman have to lose by a continuing barrage of criticism after being personally lied to by McCain on a phone call saying that he has to go to Washington to deal with the financial meltdown. Letterman’s cut to McCain getting make up with Katie Couric, during the taping of Letterman’s show he skipped was priceless. Further, in McCain’s kiss and make up appearance (which reeked of PR control,) Letterman pursued him on the qualifications of Palin and if he really thought Obama was a terrorist, in a way that journalist rarely dare to attempt. McCain tried to side stepped the questions, with rhetoric of “many words are said in politics.”

I can’t help but wonder if one of the main problems is that the journalists fear criticizing and questioning politicians, will result in losing access to their sources. Just like fashion writers who shred shows and don’t get invited the next season. This fear may make short term sense, but journalists will lose out in the long term. Stewart, often uses his television home of Comedy Central, the airer of South Park, as cover for expressing honest political views. “I can say whatever I want, because I follow potty mouthed cartoon boys!”  Actually he can say what he wants because he gets a lot of viewers online and offline, people blog about his segments, and lots of people of all ages do consider the Daily Show as an important source of political analysis. For this reason, he knows he can dig and deconstruction of McCain, as well as, Obama, because he knows that politicians realize his influence. Especially because the Daily Show will go on with or without them. The show doesn’t need direct access, so they don’t worry about being blacklisted.

Traditional journalism, especially newspapers and magazines are in trouble, and I’m really surprised by the response when there is so much to talk about. I usually don’t rant like this here, so in my follow up post, I’ll offer an alternative path on how journalism can regain it’s relevance.

Links to blogs with smart things to say about journalism:

Press Think – Jay Rosen

Buzz Machine – Jeff Jarvis

Unclaimed Terrortory – Glenn Greenwald

Video Source: youtube.com

I was in Pittsburgh a few weekends ago, and finally made it to the Warhol Museum. Regardless if you like his aesthetics, Warhol’s influence on post-modern culture is unquestionable. Our current ideas of celebrity, selling out, authenticity, urbanism, mass brands, and cultural production (to name a few) can in some way be traced back to Warhol, whose life was as much of his art as the objects his produced. Many say that if he didn’t do what he did, then someone else would have. But someone didn’t and Warhol did, which makes the point moot.

His appearance on the Love Boat with the parents from Happy Days (which I remember seeing in re-run in the 80s) pretty much encapsulates this influence. From just being on the show, to interacting with middle America sit-com icons to proving the mass appeal of his art, the clip shows it all.

Kevin Martin, chairman of the FCC just released a plan proposing to allow for more consolidation of the media industry, by relaxing the rules governing media ownership. The biggest move would be to remove the prohibition of owning a newspaper and television station in the same market. In the age of online news, cable and web tv, the rule might not have as much relevance as it 30 years ago. Despite the decentralization of media content that the Internet encourages, big media production is still plays a crucial role how the society functions. The vertical and horizontal integration of the media industry is only going to constrict the flow of information. With an election coming up, I’m not sure why this is being brought up now. When the former commissioner tried the pass a similar measure, it failed against a loud dissent.

Quick tidbit from media bistro, via biz.yahoo.

Nielsen has started combining Hispanic station rating with the English-speaking ones. Spanish language channel Univision beat out all five networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW) in its first week as combined. I’m not sure why they couldn’t have figured out before this week, that so many people were watching Univision. We know know, because they won every night, Monday through Friday. Also, they had nine of out of the top twenty shows. I’m interested in how this will affect the future mix media for marketers and advertising buyers. In any event, it appears that the list of television networks in the US is now six.

Image source: fcc.gov

I got a little behind writing here the last week, because my spare time writing was taken up by finishing my flow column on Kevin Martin, the chairperson of the FCC.

It’s up, so I thought I’d link to it.

What is the blog etiquette on cross-posting?
Good thing? Bad thing?
I’d be curious to hear your opinions.

Image source: heroswiki

I love this study that NBC did, looking to see if people remember anything about the commercials they skim over then they fast forward them using their DVR. They used vests with sensors to record physiological data including, heart rate, respiration, galvanic skin response and physical activity, on 20 viewers of Heros (of course they had to choose that show.) The researches found that the volunteers in the study were just as physiologically responsive to the fast forwarded commercials as people watching at normal speed. Further, they had about the same brand recall as the others.

They raises some very interesting questions. First, to what extend are people susceptible to messages that they made have a physiological response, but may or may not recalled them. What the ethics of tapping into those responses?

Another question is more practical, how should brands, marketers and agencies react to finding out that audio-less micro-version ads have a similar response and recall to the million dollar full length originals?

image source: marcelstvmuseum

I admit that I watch very little television on a traditional set. Most of my viewing is on my laptop, via WebTV or DVD. However, millions of people in the US do watch on traditional sets. On February 17, 2009, analog television signal will be turned off, and over the air television signals will be strictly digital, and analog televisions will go black. The impending switch over to digital makes this study by the American of Public Television Stations on the public awareness of transition more than a little disturbing.

Although it was study was done in last January, it seems to be getting attention from the media and government only now. Groups including the AARP, National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights presented their case last week.

22 million US households still get this television signals over the air. Of these households, a ghastly 66% or 14.5 million households are not aware of the switch over. Unfortunately, people who do not know tend to be marginalized groups, such as those respondents aged over 65. Of this group, 24% of them received this programming over tha air (versus 19% of younger households.) Further, of those 65+ aged viewers, only 17% of them owned a digital television.

A huge push to education the country needs to be done in the next 18 months. I hope that broadcasters and government agencies comprehend the magnitude of the problem.

Dtv.gov has information coverage the transition, however, the obvious problem is that you need to know to go there. It does have information on program which runs from Jan. 1, 2008, to March 31, 2009, where U.S. households can request up to two coupons, worth $40 each,to buy digital-to-analog converter boxes.

images source: ClaireOnline.com

I liked Sen. Clair McCaskill (D-Mo.) response to John Kneuer of the Commerce Department and Cathy Seidel of the FCC:
“They’re not going to call you. They’re going to call me, and they’re going to be mad. When people start calling in, I’m giving them your numbers.”