The Cranky Media Guy

Fuck your “bliss.”  That’s right, wage slave, take whatever job the
Huge Corporation offers you with whatever salary they’re paying and
shut the fuck up about it!  USA!  USA!  USA!

Do What You Love and Starve - Kiplinger.com

According to this article, there are many advertisers prepared to pay top dollar to buy ads on TV shows which the networks are putting on the Internet.

This confuses my simple mind.  Television writers are on strike as we speak because the show producers and networks say that there’s no money to be made on the ‘Net, therefore there’s nothing to give to the writers.  How can we reconcile this seeming contradiction?  Why, it’s almost as if the executives at the Big Media Conglomerates are LYING!  Nah, can’t be.

Web Ad Action Surprises Nets - TVWeek - News

Michael Eisner, former head of Disney and the man who thinks he can propel the never-has-been-funny Bazooka Joe to superstardom, has some advice for the striking Hollywood writers.  He thinks their strike is stupid.  Go figure.

I’m pretty dumb about business as humans go, but I have learned one thing: when someone whose interests are diametrically opposed to yours offers advice to you, feel free to give him the finger and walk away.

Michael “I-Fucked-Up-Disneyland” Eisner offering “advice” to employee writers is like when Newt Gingrich goes on Fox News Channel to “help” the Democrats by telling them what he thinks they should do. 

About halfway into this article, FNC’s Neil Cavuto asks the question I’ve been asking (inside my skull, sure, but asking): if there’s no money being made on the Internet by the Big Media Conglomerates, what’s the harm in giving the writers a bigger percentage?  After all, any percentage of zero is still zero.  Eisner did his impression of a Republican presidential candidate answering a question about the unpopularity of the Iraq war; he ducked it.

Bottom line, writers: if Eisner is “helping” you by telling you your strike is stupid, STAY ON STRIKE UNTIL YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT!

Media Blog - Mixed Media by Jeff Bercovici: Michael Eisner Calls Writers Strike ‘Insanity’ - Portfolio.com

Hey, China!  Yeah sure, your underage workers make shoes for Wal-Mart and poisoned Thomas the Tank Engine toys for the children of America, but OUR eight-year-olds are putting in their time in high-tech settings.  Our march backwards to 19th Century Dickensian England is MUCH more advanced than yours.  Nyah nyah nyah-nyah nyah (”neener neener neener” for our West Coast readers).

Eight-year-old tests chips for Actel, owns an oscilloscope

Washington Business Journal: Sales Moves

Yeah, you’ve noticed this trend for restaurants and other businesses to offer either Coke OR Pepsi but not both.  Sucks, doesn’t it?

About five years ago, my wife, daughter and I were living in Boise.  The “little woman” and I took a ride up to Idaho City, a teeny town north of Boise a ways.  There was (and probably still is) a small hot dog stand up there on the road through town.  As I ordered our lunch, I noticed that the place offered both Coke and Pepsi.  I said something about how unusual that was to the lady who took my order, who turned out to be the owner of the establishment.

She told me that the local Coke distributor had offered her incentives to drop Pepsi from her menu.  When she said she thought she should have both for her customers, Mr. Coke Guy informed her that the price for delivering Coke syrup to her was going to be higher than he had told her, since she was so out-of-the-way and all.

She explained to me that she couldn’t pass the higher price along to the customers, as people wouldn’t pay more for one cola than for the other.  I asked her why she continued to offer both sodas.  She told me, “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let someone tell me how I can run my business,” referring to the Coke distributor.

You’ve gotta admire that kind of spirit.  She wasn’t going to take any shit from anyone and good for her.  I hope she’s still there, running the hot dog stand in Idaho City and I hope she’s making a ton of money from it.  Fuck big corporations!