Here's a whole article by the LAT's media critic about how Meghan McCain is the next big media superstar. I mean look, she has the famous name, the Twitter, the opinions about issue things, the TV shows, the internet, the tattoo, the youth, the rebel, and the politics stuff. Downside, she's dumb.


Your daily BusinessWeek update, whether you like it or not: With Wasserstein out of the running, looks like Bloomberg's gonna get it. Stay tuned for more daily BusinessWeek updates!


Now that Glenn Beck has been eradicated from the face of television through ad boycotts, some other non-Republican people are organizing a boycott of Lou Dobbs. Good luck to you haters.


The Atlantic's launched a new site that ranks the top 50 political pundits, making it the Mediaite list of drab political punditry, and equally useful. In a review, David Carr says he "generally gets his fill of opinions from his cab drivers." Well so does Thomas Friedman, and he's #4 on The Atlantic's list, so this site is still useful.

Color of Change, the advocacy organization co-founded by Glenn Beck's archnemesis Jones, began calling on advertisers to pull their ads from Beck's show in early August, shortly after Beck accused Obama of having a "deep-seated hatred for white people." Since then, 62 advertisers—from Geico to Proctor & Gamble to Men's Wearhouse—have pulled their ads from his show even as his ratings surged.

Fox's stock response to the boycott has been that, while some advertisers may have moved their spots to other shows on the network, no one was pulling ads from Fox outright, so the whole hubbub wasn't affecting the network's revenues. But today, citing "data analyzed from industry sources," Color of Change announced in a release that Beck's weekly ad revenue dropped from $1,060,000 in the first week of August, when the boycott began, to $492,000 in the first week of September. The chart above shows the drop.

Color of Change's release doesn't say where it got that data, but we've been told the source and shown the raw data on the condition that we don't reveal where it came from: a well-known firm that tracks advertising revenue and sells its proprietary data. The firm monitors advertising on shows and uses rate-cards, ratings information, and its own industry contacts to estimate how much advertisers paid for each spot. While the firm sometimes performs analysis for the media, it generally doesn't like its proprietary information becoming public, which is why Color of Change won't let anyone say where it came from. While the numbers are only estimates and can't really account for the sorts of deals networks make with advertisers all the time, the firm is respected and regularly used as a best-guess estimate of ad revenue.

The chart puts the lie to Fox's claim about ads just shifting around the network—that may be true, but salesmen sell shows, and at some point the dearth of people who are willing to use Beck's paranoid sideshow to promote their brands has to affect pricing. And as we've shown before, he's been pretty much reduced to shilling for penis-enlargers and miracle egg-cookers. We've asked Fox for comment, but they haven't responded and almost certainly won't. UPDATE: They did! Kind of—a Fox spokeswoman directed us to the response they offered to TVNewser: "The Color of Change figures are wildly inaccurate on all fronts — revenue has not been affected in any way."

The irony here is that the revenue plunge comes during a month when Beck's ratings were off the charts, and Fox couldn't even capitalize on it. And in Beck's defense, the biggest week-to-week drop—from nearly $900,000 during the week ending August 16 to to just over $500,000 during the week ending August 23—came when he was off the air.

The 80-year-old made the announcement on his blog:

I am not yet certain whether I would advocate a travel boycott by others of the state of Arizona; I want to learn more about Arizona's gun laws and how they compare with those of other states. But I am shocked beyond measure by reports that earlier this week, nearly a dozen persons, including one with an assault rifle strapped about his shoulders and others with pistols in their hands or holsters, were openly congregating outside a hall at which President Obama was speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona.

According to the Phoenix, Arizona, police, people with guns including assault rifles do not need permits in Arizona, but can simply carry such weapons with them, openly and brazenly, when they gather to protest a speaker at a public event. The police also acknowledge that about a dozen people carrying guns, including one with an AR-15 assault rifle, milled about outside the event at which President Obama spoke.

I would feel as I do regardless of the political identity of the speaker whom these thugs attempted to intimidate. The continued tolerance of extremists carrying guns is a frightening development which strikes at the heart of the political process and endangers the ability to carry out a reasoned debate. Is there any responsible citizen of the United States who believes that people should carry guns to a public debate or speech? If Ronald Reagan were delivering a political talk in Phoenix, Arizona, would they have felt it was proper for protestors with guns to mill about outside the hall from which he would leave?

Whatever, unless you're a golfer or college student looking to score drugs and easy ass, there's really no need to visit Arizona anyway. So good on you Arthur Frommer.

Yesterday's broadcast of Beck's show was guest-hosted by Andrew Napolitano. There were 13 paid spots totaling 15 minutes. We're not saying to boycott these companies or anything—how can you enlarge your penis without patronizing the good people at Extenze? Just thought it would be fun to see who Beck is shilling for now that the high-class clients have left the building.

Ironically, Beck is enjoying his best ratings since he joined Fox—last week he averaged 2.5 million viewers and was the second-highest-rated program in all of cable in his timeslot. So here are the advertisers that Fox News is delivering that enormous audience to:

Extenze penis-enhancing pills


Inogen One portable oxygen concentrator


Brez anti-snoring nose inserts—Brez's director of public relations writes: "We instructed our advertising agency earlier this week to insure that no further commercials for Brez are run on the Glenn Beck show. Owing to the way TV advertising is purchased, AirWare Inc. was not aware in advance that its spots were to run on the show."


Egg Genie and Baconwave egg cooker / bacon microwave rack


The Jewelry Exchange


SmartForLife cookies


The Akin Mears mesothelioma hotline


Jupiter Jack


Rosetta Stone


Speed Channel


Oreck Vacuums


FreeScore.com

NOTE: We initially reported that the Mesothelioma Hotline advertised on Beck's show. We were confused about the ad, which was actually for a mesothelioma hotline maintained by a law firm called Akin Mears. The Mesothelioma Hotline says it has never purchased ads on Beck's show, and we've changed the list to reflect that.

David Letterman made a joke about Bristol Palin being impregnated by Alex Rodriguez, because that is basically your standard "man famous for sleeping with famous people sleeps with lady famous for sleeping with people" monologue joke format, and both of those people are famous for sleeping with people (Madonna and Levi Johnston, not respectively).

Because she is the world's worst human being, Sarah Palin seized on the opportunity to creepily, just really creepily, accuse Letterman of making a "rape" joke about "raping" her other daughter, Labyrinth Willow. Palin said rape many, many times! And she repeatedly called Mr. Letterman a "pervert," in order to suggest, to anyone listening, that the old pervert wanted to rape her 14-year-old daughter. This is actually pathological. Why does she continue to insist, on the TV, that everyone wants to rape her daughter, when no one has ever suggested this thing? Being her child sounds basically like the worst thing in the world, besides maybe being her running mate.

Now obviously Governor Palin (she is a governor!) is not doing this on her own! She is not just on her bear couch, by herself, complaining about the creepy man to Todd, or whatever! She is being aided, of course, by the mass media, who interview her, a lot, because she is a celebrity who attracts attention and coverage (like this blog post).

And also she is being aided by the various culture warriors of the internet, who have started a petition, or something. 100 years ago, they got a man they didn't like fired from CBS, and they are pretty sure they can do it again, if they complain a lot. (Why oh why won't they turn their attention to Leno?)

They have totally won an important victory! Embassy Suites is pulling advertising from CBS's website. And, hey, one of the Teabagging party guys is involved in this. The one who Twitters a lot and doesn't pay his taxes.

Anyway this loss of website sponsorship will probably cripple CBS and they will replace Letterman with famous comedian Glenn Beck tomorrow. Another win for the terrible liberal "PC Police."

Terkel and the lefty activist group she works for, Clintonite John Podesta's Center for American Progress, have been trying to get an advertising boycott of Factor going based on the ambush incident. It involves the usual annoying tactic of having total strangers forward some kind of redundant form letter, by email.

But this campaign is actually working. After promising "further investigation," shipping company UPS released this statement the next day, about as close as you get to "ya, he's an a-hole so we pulled our ads" as you get in the corporate world:

UPS Statement (3/27/09)
Thank you for sending an e-mail expressing concern about UPS advertising during the Bill O’Reilly show on FOX News. We do consider such comments as we review ad placement decisions which involve a variety of news, entertainment and sports programming. At this time, we have no plans to continue advertising during this show.

Actually, a Ford spokesman sent Terkel an even more blunt email about how terrible Factor host Bill O'Reilly is, but the struggling car company quickly and hilariously retracted this accidental disclosure of one flack's true feelings:

Ford
...while I agree with you about the rantings of the hopelessly pig-headed Mr. O’Reilly, recognize that I am just an innocent bystander in this email letter silliness... Frankly, as a mainstream company, we advertise everywhere there are good ratings. That is not an endorsement of the show — that is recognition that people are watching the show. Don’t know why they watch that mindless ranting....

I saw the tapes of O’Reilly ambushing Hertzberg of the New Yorker a few month back. It demonstrated how moronic O’Reilly really is. I still read Hertzberg weekly in the New Yorker. And I never, ever watch Bill O’Reilly. Don’t know when he is on. Don’t care...

If I had more time, I’d visit ThinkProgress.org. Too busy trying to get Ford back on its feet though. That is important. What Bill O’Reilly does or says is not important.

– spokesman Mark Schirmer, 3/25/09, speaking for himself and not on behalf of the Ford Motor Company

UPDATE: Mark Truby, Director of Corporate Communications at Ford Motor Company, tells ThinkProgress over the phone on 3/25/09, Shirmer’s “comments don’t represent the view of Ford Motor Company.”

One would think any media buyer worth his salt would be familiar with the O'Reilly Factor's long history of controversy, and expect these sorts of boycott efforts. But apparently actually physically following someone from her apartment into another state, without so much as a phone call first, is too much even for strong-stomached advertisers.

Sharpton said it's worse than Don Imus' derogatory comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. The Post, Sharpton said, seems to play into the old stereotype of African Americans being monkeys.

There you have it! Hard to tell from the midday news tight shots, but it looks like they got at least a semi-respectable number of protesters out there, not that anyone at News Corp gives a fuck. Sharpton says if the Post doesn't "take some action" against Delonas and his editors, he'll lead a boycott of advertisers. To which Col Allan, we imagine, finished his Hot Pocket, licked his lips, turned to his editors, and said, "Fuck Al Sharpton." [CBS2]

(The petition seems to be from last week, but wouldn't you know, the kids didn't actually get around to emailing it out until today.)

NORML's protest will surely have devastating effects on the cereal business, at least once the chips run out. "Tell them that you oppose their decision to drop Michael Phelps," NORML instrusts, "and that, as a result of their actions, you will not be purchasing any Kellogg's related products for the next three months (or until the company decides to reinstate the Phelps as their spokesperson)." Three months! That'll teach 'em.

Here is what they recommend you send to the Kellogg's corporation:

"Hi, my name is _____________ and I'm a frequent consumer of Kellogg's products.

Nearly one out of two Americans has used marijuana. This includes tens of thousands of prominent, highly successful Americans - including our current President. Michael Phelps should not be stigmatized nor condemned for private behavior that he, and millions of others, engage in.

The majority of the public, as well as those in the media, are standing behind Michael Phelps and so am I. I will no longer be purchasing Kellogg's brand products until your company reverses its decision and reinstates Michael Phelps as your spokesperson."

Just make sure to sign your missive "Dave" so Kellogg's can write back "Dave's not here, man."

The boycott talk is coming from outside the industry, not inside. So far, calls for a boycott are mainly coming from bloggers, not influential directors, producers, and actors. We don't see that changing, unless the cash-poor Harvey Weinstein decides to make a dramatic nonattendance statement as a way to save face (and plane airfare).

A boycott big enough to matter is unlikely. The young filmmakers accepted into the festival would crawl over their own mothers to be there, and the Sundance hangers-on like Paris Hilton have never been bastions of activism. Without enough straight allies who could bear to part with their tickets to Park City, there's no chance to make a big dent, because...

The gay presence at Sundance has waned. Back before your associate editor took up blogging and adopted the royal "we" at Defamer, I held a regular gig as The Advocate's film critic and attended several Sundances working the gay beat (not as hustler-ish as it sounds!). Though the film festival has a deservedly gay-friendly rep, it's gone through some pretty sparse queer years as of late. At the 2007 festival, the gay slate had so little on it that the centerpiece was a Chad Allen movie. If Sundance was boycotted by gay filmmakers and queer-themed films, the lineup wouldn't change that much.

We're all about new and novel ways to protest (what's this we keep hearing about "A Day Without a Gay"?), but the Sundance idea seems DOA to us, especially when everybody's already got their plane tickets set for January. Next year might be a different story — there'll be a lot more lead time — but let's hope there won't be reason to protest then, OK?

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Gay Activists vs. Utah and Sundance [Variety]

First, Mr. Brown updated the [Doublemint "Double your pleasure"] jingle and recorded it with hip-hop producer Polow Da Don. Then, during the same Los Angeles recording sessions in February, paid for by Wrigley, Mr. Brown added new lyrics and made a 4½-minute rendition of the tune, titled "Forever."

In April, Mr. Brown's record label, Jive, released the song to radio stations and digital download services as a single. After the song became a hit, Jive added it to his 2007 album, "Exclusive," and re-released the album in June. "Forever" reached No. 4 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart last week.

This was all done in secret. Tomorrow the company holds a big press conference revealing the whole scam, presumably with the expectation that music fans will clap with delight and declare Wrigley to be their new favorite gum manufacturer. I would suggest that the more fitting response would be a bonfire of Doublemint, angry sloganeering, and boycotts of the company and Chris freaking Brown and his record label.

The man who came up with this whole scheme was, predictably, Steve Stoute, who specializes in hooking up corporate America and "urban" America through terrible marketing partnerships. Although this is certainly the masterpiece of engineered selling-out of Stoute's career.

Here's why this is important: It will be the first of many. It will usher in a new standard way of doing business. It will erode the public's expectation of what "music" is. In a few years, kids won't see any problem with the fact that all of their favorite songs are ads for one company or another. The very idea that music—pop music, anyhow—could be created purely for the sake of artistic expression will be antiquated.

And who does it hurt? THE CHILDREN. This is insidious shit. Huge corporations are reaching out to children by buying up their favorite musicians in secret. As saddening as it is to see an artist you like do a regular commercial for some crappy product, its ten times sadder to see them spring it on you after their song has already become a hit.

This is not about a naive belief that pop music is untainted by any commercial concerns. This is about the simple desire to be able to listen to any new music and be secure in the knowledge that it's not an undercover ad. They come for the bad pop music first. Then they come for the music that you like. You think that your favorite indie bands and underground rappers won't be subjected to this same tactic as soon as it proves successful? Ha. This is one tactic that just can't be justified. At least tell us we're being sold to, you shameless, soulless corporate apologists. Some people still believe that music is worth something by itself.

Boycott Wrigley, please.

[WSJ. You can contact Wrigley here.]

MEDIA ADVISORY

Staten Island Organization calls for Boycott of Belmar New Jersey
if Mayor fails to visit Staten Island

Staten Island, New York- John "JE" Englebert President of the Staten Island Good Neighborhood Association is calling for a boycott of Belmar New Jersey by Staten Islanders. An apology is not good enough. The group wants the Mayor Kenneth Pringle who insulted Staten Island to spend 24 hours in the crown island jewel of New York. He would be treated to the local cuisine including a night at the Staten Island Hotel. The Staten Island Good Neighbor Association wants to take him on a tour of the place people love to dump on.

If he refuses the group plans a fundraiser to give for the candidate that runs against him in the next election and boycott ads will be placed in local newspapers across Staten Island. The groups website is http://www.statenislandgoodneighborhoodassociation.com

"JE" Englebert is a life-long resident of Staten Island. He is owner of New York City nightclubs including Suzie Wong and Prime. The Organization is a non political group that is dedicated to the health, safety and well being of Staten Island. It acts as a community watch dog organization for good government and civic activities for the people of Staten Island.

Some of what the mayor wrote [via Newsday]:

The more time we spend on the NJGuido site, the more we think of Guidos as a kind of rare bird: they flock to our shore towns during the warm months, and are as welcome as, oh, Canada Geese. They're always tanned to the color of coconut shells, and easily identified by their plumage: satin shirts and short skirts on the females; Armani Exchange T-shirts and artfully distressed jeans on the males. The females favor bold hair styles and colorful makeup; the males tend to strut and flex their pumped up muscles. The call of the Guido is bellowing, and frequently slurred, invariably starting with the sound, "Yo," followed all too often by some creative variation on an expletive beginning with the letter, "F."

On Friday, The A.P. issued a statement defending its action, saying it was going to challenge blog postings containing excerpts of A.P. articles “when we feel the use is more reproduction than reference, or when others are encouraged to cut and paste.” An A.P. spokesman declined Friday to further explain the association’s position.

Now they're not setting these standards yet, and they say they won't go around suing bloggers, but that has not stopped outraged internet people from announcing their intention to give the AP exactly what they want. It's boycott time! Jeff Jarvis will fuck you up.

* Remember, AP, you declared war on the bloggers. Remember that.

* I don’t really give a damn what your guidelines are. I have my own guidelines. I stated them below. The point of fair use and fair comment is that there can be no set guidelines. That’s just ridiculous.
[...]
* One last bit of advice for the AP before I get on my plane: Back off.

The moral here is that no one understands fair use, at all. Not the copyright holders, or the bloggers. Or the courts?

Will Gawker join the boycott? Yes. From now on the only wire service we'll link to is UPI, because their reports have that hint of nutty Moonie-owned desperate madness that we love.

Christian Group Denounces Starbucks

Over New Logo of Naked Mermaid

(San Diego, CA) Starbucks has recently introduced a new version of their logo which features a topless mermaid with her legs spread, which has caused outrage from a nation wide Christian media watchdog organization. The Resistance, with has over 3000 members nationwide, is boycotting Starbucks across the country saying their new logo is inappropriate.

The Starbucks logo has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute, explains Mark Dice, founder of the group. Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves, Slutbucks.

The all-brown logo is a replica of the one the chain used when it opened its first store in Pike Place in Seattle in 1971. The woman is actually a siren, not a mermaid, which in Greek mythology lures people to them with their beautiful songs, and then kills them, explains Dice.

The Resistance has made international news for rebuking various Hollywood celebrities for their ridiculous behavior, including Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, 50 Cent, Tom Cruise and others. They also demanded that Duke University change the name of their Blue Devils sports team to something not offensive to the Christian community.

# # #

[What about asking them for some lemons while you're at it, Resistance?]

This is clearly a vain attempt by the Weinstein Company to avert Star Wars fans' impending boycott of all of their films. Well, guess what? It's not going to work, Darth Weinstein!

There was never any doubt that you would release both versions of the movie on DVD — probably months apart, so as to leech as much money from Star Wars fans as possible! ...

There is only ONE VERSION OF FANBOYS - THE ONE THAT WAS MADE BY STAR WARS FANS! ... If you release your mutilated anti-fan version of FANBOYS in ANY FORM, you can look forward to a lifetime boycott of your studio by every Star Wars fan on the planet.

As such, the Fanboys supporters are sticking to their picket plans for this weekend, with sizable protests scheduled in both New York and Los Angeles. Knowing what we know about Harvey, though, we expect this to be all the compromise these guys are going to get. Moreover, where the hell are all the Wong Kar-wai fans to protest Harvey's cut of the long-delayed Norah Jones / Jude Law / Natalie Portman road flick My Blueberry Nights, finally opening April 4 with an ugly, sludgy sheen added in edit bays sequestered deep inside the Weinstein Death Star. Even Roosevelt and Stalin had the common sense to ally against the Axis 65 years ago; with art-house romantics and and sci-fi geeks on the same page, we're confident Harvey Scissorhands wouldn't have a prayer.

• Geeks Get Their Movie... Kinda [The Hot Blog]

• DARTH WEINSTEIN MAKES A DESPERATE LAST-MINUTE ATTEMPT... [Stop Darth Weinstein]

Ford targets German lesbians:

As well as German gays:

Jaguar has no problem with gay customers [via Queerty]:

Volvo invites homosexuals to purchase their products:

Yea yea, it's all part of capitalism. Everything pure eventually gets taken over for monetary gain. We're all familiar with the thriving Che Guevara t-shirt industry. That doesn't make it any less objectionable. [Nike-owned] Converse's new campaign, "Connectivity," shows Dr. Gonzo side by side with a bunch of living and dead "icons," including the Sex Pistols' deceased frontman Sid Vicious, who would no doubt also be pleased to make a contribution to the sneaker industry. See, HT and Sid are "connecting" to basketball player Dwyane Wade and globo-hip-hop singer M.I.A, all for the love of the Converse brand!

So what if Hunter Thompson wore Converse on his dirty feet when he was alive? "Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of 'the rat race' is not yet final," he wrote in 1979. Dude, Converse is so about that too! It kind of makes you want to puke. But mostly it makes you sad.

It's not an across-the-board condemnation. Some celebrities were shiny commercial vehicles during their lives, and keeping them at it after they pass away isn't really sullying anything. Fred Astaire and Lucille Ball have made ghostly ad appearances, but would they really be upset, judging by their level of celebrity while alive? Not quite as clear-cut as Sid Vicious, who, if he stood for anything besides drugs and self destruction, probably stood for "Fuck the system." Which, it turns out, is exactly the image people want in their cheap canvas shoes.

Consider Apple's "Think Different" campaign: Martin Luther King, Einstein, Gandhi. Being used, indirectly, to sell computers. On the scale of disgust, it would have to rank lower than Converse's crime, because at least the "Think Different" spots were promoting some faux-version of peace on earth and goodwill among men. Whereas if one were to emulate Hunter Thompson by, say, sniffing a ton of coke, dropping acid, and running up in the Converse corporate headquarters shooting a shotgun at the company logo, the company would probably lose its enthusiasm for the implications of their endorsements.

Whenever the dead stop messing around in the afterlife and come back to earth in zombie form, they won't be happy about this. Zombie Gonzo will be dining on the bursting brains of the young cool creative minds that dreamed up his ad appearances. And we should all want a bite.

This is exactly why I only wear Adidas.