The Cranky Media Guy

I’m confused.  I thought that, according to Fox News Channel, America’s college campuses were filled with filthy, pot-smoking, hippies.  What’s FNC doing making a deal with college “journalists” (translation: Commies) for content?

Why does Fox News Channel hate America?

Fox News gives students national voice

Cryptcaster Don Imus, who is poised to make a comeback on WABC radio in New York City, apparantly has a deal pending to simulcast his show on TV.  Hmm, which major cable network is going to put the I-Man back on television?

RFD TV.   What do you mean, what’s RFD TV?  It’s the cable network that broadcasts “Cattlemen to Cattlemen,” silly.  It’s also the network that broadcasts Big Joe’s Polka Show, a program I once watched with my then-teenage daughter.  She had never heard polkas before and I asked her what she thought of them.  “Well, it’s happy music,” Christa answered.  Damning with faint praise, perhaps, but accurate.  I mean, I’ve never heard the Funeral Dirge Polka.

Imus used to be seen on MSNBC, the bargain basement of cable news channels.  OK, maybe MSNBC isn’t the hottest thing on cable, but at least you’ve heard of it.  I suspect that some of the people who work at RFD TV haven’t heard of RFD TV.   If I told you I’ve seen an entire show on RFD TV about tractors, you’d think I was kidding, wouldn’t you?  I’m not.

Now that I think about it, though, maybe RFD TV is precisely the right place for Imus to appear.  I mean, he does have something in common with a lot of tractors; they both look like they were left out in a field in the sun too long.

Imus on the Farm?

Wow, a real blogger actually agrees with me on the Oprah Network sale and the failure of all of Oxygen’s Big Multimedia Plans.

Silicon Alley Insider: Oxygen’s Dashed Synergy Dreams

NBC Universal and Fox have put their Large Media Conglomerate heads together and come up with a sure-fire idea: a web site where you can watch video, including stuff from TV shows.

What’s that you say?  It sounds like YouTube?  And why does the world need yet another YouTube clone, especially one that won’t let people upload whatever stuff they want, which is perhaps the biggest thing YouTube has going for it?  Gee, you ask good questions.

The answers to your questions are:

Yes, it SOUNDS like YouTube, until you get to that “you can’t upload whatever you want” part.

And,

The world doesn’t need yet another one of these things.

You’ll know this thing is on its deathbed when some publication prints its shitty hit count and an executive from either NBC Universal or Fox makes a statement like, “Hit count is not the only way we measure the success of our web properties.  We’re very satisfied with Hulu’s performance.” 

If you work at Hulu and you see that statement, immediately run, do not walk, to the Xerox room, lock the door behind you and start cranking out copies of your resume. 

NBC/Fox Video Site May Have Missed Video Tide.

So, a group of Big Media Conglomerate executives admit that they don’t know what their customers want.

OK, so explain to me why these people are Big Media Conglomerate execs.

Execs admit plenty of missteps in new media world