Opinion: Tina Brown's analysis of Sarah Palin, followers based on total ignorance

In case you weren't watching MSNBC this morning (yeah, neither was I), Tina Brown appeared on Morning Joe.  Tina Brown, if you don't remember (as I didn't), is apparently some sort of journalist/author/expert-on-everything*; she is apparently also one of the many liberals who thinks they have a unique insight into the minds of conservatives.  (MSNBC seems to attract these types for some reason.)

Anyway, Ms. Brown chose to focus her piercing insight into the minds of people with whom she disagrees on the current very popular book tour of one Sarah Palin.  Apparently Governor Palin and President Obama have quite similar approval ratings, and this just would not stand, and so Ms. Brown stated that Gov. Palin's confidence is based on "total ignorance", and that there was "no substance to any of her arguments."  Video follows:



Let's get this straight, Ms. Brown:  the lion's share of Sarah Palin's popularity is not about hating anyone else.  (I'm not gonna speak for everyone, though Ms. Brown seemingly has no problem doing so.)  Sarah Palin represents the direction in which we would like this country to go:  smaller government (particularly less governmental intrusion into our lives, such as, for example, cap-n-tax, healthcare takeovers, etc.), energy independence using all resources (rather than kneecapping ourselves), and basically allowing business to do what it does quite well on its own, which is to create jobs and resources without the government's help.

And to say that Gov. Palin is not knowledgeable is pretty darn ignorant, to say the least.  Look, for example, here, here, and here for some examples of substance-rich, well-written columns about real issues.

So who's operating out of total ignorance here, Ms. Brown?

*Information from Wikipedia must be taken with the usual several grains of salt.

How NOT to attract customers with your junk fax

As a public service to junk fax spammers, I present the following list of things you shouldn't do if you want to attract customers, based on the incredibly dumb fax I pulled off the machine this morning.

Things Not To Do:

1.  Send junk faxes in the first place.

Well, that seems rather obvious, doesn't it?  I mean, it is possible, if you're clueless enough to put your contact information on your fax, for the recipient to sue you (this site shows how).  But let's assume that you've already decided to send your junk fax and deal with the consequences, of which you are sure there will be none.


2a.  Don't put your contact information on the fax except for a toll-free number, or
2b.  Be located somewhere other than the United States.

This just screams out "I am not to be trusted!" for US customers.  Heck, why not just include a solicitation for me to help you get my long-lost relative's money out of Nigeria?  (Aside:  our company actually did just receive a similar fax.  Apparently e-mail is too advanced for some people...)  Let's face it, there are not a lot of things that most companies need for which they need to contact foreign entities.  And that is particularly true for the service offered in today's offending fax (more on that later).

3.  Use misleading information/make your customer think they'll be getting something for nothing.

What, do some companies just not read their faxes before responding with "Golly gee, that sounds like a great idea!" or something?  Today's offender, yellowpage-texas.com (no link--it's not worth it), is offering, of course, the wonderful opportunity to have our company listed on their website.  And even better:  their offer includes free submission to Google!  Um, yeah, the real Yellow Pages (and AT&T's online site, yellowpages.com) already list us, thanks.  And, actually, so does Google.  And it has for years.

Oh, and I didn't mention:  this wonderful submission to this other non-AT&T-or-any-other-reputable-company-that-I-know-of site costs only $89 per month (!!) for two years.  That's rather hidden in the small print.  So, if someone responded to this and thought it was free, they'd be on the hook for $2,136.

Now, if those three items weren't enough, this last one's way over the top:

4.  Use a blatantly insulting gesture as your logo.

Seriously, what were you thinking?  This company decided it would be great to flip AT&T's traditional Yellow Pages logo (and isn't it still trademarked?) upside-down and assume no one would notice.  Well, first of all, if the two fingers are pointing up, it no longer means that you are letting your fingers do the walking (remember that?  I'm old), but also, in some countries, it is a very insulting gesture. 

The UK, as anyone who has watched Are You Being Served? knows, is one of the countries in which this gesture is seen as an insult.  And where is yellowpage-texas.com's parent company based?  You guessed it:  Manchester, UK.  I'm quite sure that the owners knew what they were doing:  they were basically flipping the bird to prospective clients and assuming no one would notice.

So, there you have it, junk fax senders.  Happy spamming!

Entertainment Tonight whines: Sarah won't talk to us!

Remember Diane Dimond?  She is probably best known for breaking the Michael Jackson scandals that dogged him for the last 15 years of his life.  She worked on a couple of reputable news networks (or quasi-reputable, in the case of MSNBC) for a while.  But now poor Ms. Dimond has fallen on hard times, apparently, as she is slumming with that bastion of hard news, Entertainment Tonight.

Currently, ET has Ms. Dimond following the Sarah Palin Going Rogue tour.  (Here's the link one more time.  Disclosure:  if you buy using the link, I get money.  So buy it!)  For the past several days, Ms. Dimond has reported on the thousands of people waiting to greet Governor Palin at these stops, and has talked about how much people love her...

...until today, that is.  Today's report featured Ms. Dimond complaining that Sarah Palin is staying away from the media, that she's not talking to them, blah blah blah.  (From there, she went right into saying that Gov. Palin had talked with Barbara Walters, and others, completely destroying her previous point.)

Gee, I don't know...why wouldn't Sarah Palin want to talk to Entertainment Tonight?  Surely it couldn't be because of stories like this one (a story teased multiple times by Ms. Dimond on yesterday's show), could it?

Note:  I have only been watching Entertainment Tonight this week because of Sarah Palin.  So there.

Not another one: is a format flip coming...to 102.3?

Rumors have appeared that Clear Channel may be about to pull the plug on 102.3 the River. 

The River, which debuted on KPEZ almost four years ago, started out as strictly contemporary Christian, but has added some family-friendly adult contemporary music in recent months/years.  (They were playing Sara Bareilles's "Love Song" over a year ago, I know.)  Mrs. Snowed was a big fan of the River, and I would listen to it occasionally when I wasn't listening to Bob or whatever.  102.3 had a much better signal than the three different much-lower-power stations serving the Austin area with the syndicated "K-Love", and because the River was a commercial station, it wasn't always asking you for donations like Candle 88.  (True story:  someone once related to me that Candle 88, in the midst of what seems to be an ongoing pledge drive, said that if listeners didn't pledge, they were grieving the Holy Spirit.  Yikes...)  So the loss of the River may be a sad development, at least for Mrs. Snowed and other contemporary Christian listeners.

Anyway, what I have heard so far (with no verification whatsoever, so take this for what it's worth) is that 102.3 will go all-Christmas on Thanksgiving Day, and once the holidays are over, so is the River.

I'm sure the loyal listeners of the River will not be thrilled to hear this, but keep in mind that these are just rumors...there were rumors circulating about 105.9 for years before that CC finally dumped its format, so this may turn out to be totally unsubstantiated.  We will see.

Entertainment Tonight Spotlights Palin-Hater

Sure, anyone who has watched Entertainment Tonight recently has seen that they have covered Sarah Palin's book tour.  (Also, anyone who has watched this show in years has my sympathy.  But that's another story entirely.)  Of course, every episode I have seen that showed the Going Rogue book tour (have I mentioned I get paid if you buy through this link?) just had to include clips of Levi Johnston, publicity hound and father of Gov. Palin's grandson.  (Hey, did you know he did a photo shoot for what's essentially a porno mag?  Who freaking cares?)

But their show tonight (19-Nov) appears, at least to me, to show where ET's political leanings lie.  Sure, they spent a couple of minutes highlighting the many, many people who waited to see her today, but they spent most of the show hyping an article about a "new book" that would supposedly shed some light on what Gov. Palin is really like.  The title: The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power.  (If for some strange reason you don't like Palin but frequent my blog--hi Dad--you can click that link to buy the book, and I'll get paid for that link too.)  As far as I'm concerned, spotlighting this book is not equal time (Levi got enough of that this week); this is simply a cheap shot at Sarah Palin during her moment in the sun.

Why do I think it's a cheap shot at her?  For starters, the book doesn't even come out until April.  Secondly--and ET didn't think this was worth mentioning--the author, Geoffrey Dunn, is a frequent contributor to the ultra-left Huffington Post.  This casts a bit of a shadow, at least in my mind, on the idea that this book could display anything resembling impartiality.  I see this book more as a smear job.

And why do I think it's a smear job?  Mr. Dunn has, in recent weeks, had an obsession rivaling that of self-described conservative Andrew Sullivan (no, still no link, Andi) with Sarah Palin.  He has already posted columns on HuffPo detailing so-called lies from Going Rogue that he managed to determine despite not having read the book.  And no, I'm not going to link to them, either.  Instead, I will direct you, dear reader, to Conservatives 4 Palin's takedown of Mr. Dunn on all counts.

So with this kind of track record, what has Mr. Dunn done to deserve a multi-minute spotlight from Entertainment Tonight?  Apparently, the only criteria for getting such attention is not liking Sarah Palin.  Such is the state of our media at present.

KGSR to 93.3; 107.1 to flip to Regional Mexican

Following up on Tuesday's entry:

Emmis Austin announced today that KGSR, currently at 107.1 FM, will move to 93.3, replacing the defunct Hot 93.3, effective tomorrow, 11/20, at 5pm.  This will make KGSR's format available to many more people, since 93.3 broadcasts at twice the power.

In order to help listeners make the transition, KGSR will broadcast on both the 93.3 and 107.1 frequencies for ten days.  Then, on Monday, 11/30, 107.1 will move to a Regional Mexican format, apparently in an attempt to fill the void left by BMP's blowup of multiple stations three weeks ago.

You can read the press release, and more information, at the Statesman's website.

Daily Kos diarist openly plans smear campaign against Palin

Via Conservatives 4 Palin:

Bob Johnson, diarist of no note at Daily Kos, plans to perpetrate an act of defamation/libel under the guise of "satire".  Meh.  Bob Johnson apparently wouldn't know satire if it hit him in the face.

Quoted in full, since, as he freely admits, he's going to try to destroy the evidence without being caught.  (As of now, this entry has already been erased, though C4P has screenshots.)  All emphasis his, including the word "fictional". 

Undercover subversive satire project: Please participate quickly!

by Bob Johnson

Share this on Twitter - Undercover subversive satire project: Please participate quickly!

Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 12:25:51 PM PST

NOTE: This diary will self-destruct within the hour. Copy the dialogue box below the fold and post it across the Internet.

BarbinMD's current front pager on Palin's latest idiocy got me thinking about a little payback for Palin's part in promoting the "death panels" nonsense.
By linking to the Politico story on Palin's appearance on Limbaugh's radio show, highlighted in Barb's post with this graph:

Palin painted the race as part of "a clearer and clearer picture that what Americans are seeking – even in a district there in New York – they are seeking common sense conservative solutions to all the problems that we are facing."

... and suggesting the fictional copy block, below, contains the full Palin quote, we will be giving Palin a dose of her own medicine. Most people will read the quote and believe Palin really did say something that inane. And I would love for her to have to refute it the same way she had to refute Tina Fey's "front porch" quote.

PALIN: I think it (NY-23 race) made a clearer and clearer picture that what Americans are seeking – even in a district there in New York – they are seeking common sense conservative solutions to all the problems that we are facing.
LIMBAUGH: What kind of "common sense conservative solutions" are you talking about?
PALIN: You know, Rush, like all these contracts let out willy-nilly under the stimulus package to repave roads and the like that could have gone directly to hard-working Americans who would've been more than happy to pave their own roads like the streets in front of their homes themselves with stuff they could have bought from the Home Depot so we could have not only been repaving the roads but also stimulating our economy by having millions of hard-working Americans, regular Joe Six-Packs, buying paving stuff at Home Depot or their local hardware stores and the like.

Again, please note: Sarah Palin did not say this. This is a lie. This is defamation. This certainly is not satire, as its intent is to mislead.

Please do not let this falsehood become ingrained in culture the way the "I can see Russia from my house" quote (from Tina Fey) has.

Robert Stacy McCain writes so I don't have to

Fellow blogger (a much more well-known one than I am, of course) Robert Stacy McCain describes what he expects the media to do in covering the book tour of Sarah Palin (hey, did you know she has a book out, and did you know I get paid if you buy through this link?) in this American Spectator column.

Salient points, which Mr. McCain fleshes out quite a bit more than I will here:

1. They (the MSM, that is) will ignore Gov. Palin's popularity (even as people are lining up hours in advance for her book tour events).
2. They'll focus on the crazies.
3. They'll postulate that this means that the Republican Party is in trouble.

All this is par for the course for most of the media, I suppose, but we may as well call them out on it.

As an added bonus, Mr. McCain takes a well-deserved shot at self-described conservative (since no one else will still do it) Andrew Sullivan, best known these days as Trig-Truther #1.  Money quote:

We look forward to Andrew Sullivan's next book, Inside Sarah Palin's Uterus: The Most Shocking Scandal Ever.

It's worth a full read.  Check it out.

"Todd and Don Show" to return

590 KLBJ announced today that the "Todd and Don Show" will return to its lineup.  (Strangely, KLBJ previously had an article on their site announcing this change themselves, but now it's gone, so here's KXAN's article, and here's the Statesman article.)  The show, pulled in July over controversial racial remarks made by Don Pryor, will return to KLBJ's lineup on December 7.

Emmis, owner of KLBJ, issued the following press release:

Earlier today, Hispanic leaders and Emmis Austin Radio management met to discuss cultural sensitivity issues and a commitment to open communications and improved relationships. Emmis Austin Radio presented a plan of action which includes mandatory diversity training for all on-air personalities, producers, and station management, at all six Austin radio stations owned and operated by Emmis. Emmis announced that The Todd and Don Show will return to the KLBJ-AM airwaves on December 7, 2009, with a transformed perspective on community history, expectations and cultural sensitivity. Hispanic leaders were updated on Emmis Austin Radio’s progress in these areas so far, and were assured by Emmis that efforts to better serve the entire Austin community would be ongoing.

Hot 93.3 to flip?

All Access is reporting today that the entire Hot 93.3 air staff has been let go.  The station is currently still running CHR/Rhythmic without jocks, apparently.  No other information has been confirmed as of this date, but unsubstantiated reports are that the station is going to jettison its current format on Friday (I'm already getting hits to this blog entry from people checking into that possibility), possibly in favor of an FM Talk format...

...which makes little to no sense to me, given that we already have FM Talk available via 98.9 KXBT, and also (kinda) via translator K259AJ 99.7 (simulcasting 590 KLBJ).  It also makes little sense given KDHT's top-ten ratings in a tight Austin market.  But I guess we'll see.


(Thanks to tweep @Kent_Ahrens for the tip.)

Update 11/19:  It's not going to be FM Talk.  It's going to be KGSR.