Don’t worry if you didn’t watch it: it was on PBS, so neither did anybody else. I only have even a vague idea what happened in it because apparently ten percent of my Twitter timeline apparently secretly hates themselves, and thus forced themselves to watch the blipping thing. This will probably give you a good idea of what they went through:
Kissinger. The Bernie Sanders campaign had its fast-response squad respond to stuff about Henry Kissinger. And to think we thought that the Democrats would have trouble connecting with young voters!
She needs to be snapped up by Buzzfeed or something. Anywhere where I don’t feel mildly dirty for linking to it
In terms of establishing its independent brand, PBS should absolutely adore the state of television right now. The reality glut may be irritating to donors who would like to see American tastes turn towards something more high-minded. But the fact that not everyone is going into the business of prestige family soaps and British imports actually makes it vastly easier for PBS to distinguish itself, find large audiences for programming like Downton Abbey, and prove to private donors, foundations, and the U.S. government that it’s meeting needs that no other channel has bothered to try to fulfill, along with providing access to things like high-quality children’s programming in areas where it might not otherwise be financially viable. If I were PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger, in fact, I would be slipping unmarked bills in plain envelopes under the table to Animal Planet to keep producing things like Mermaids: The New Evidence, trust that people who are disgusted by such things will arrive at a state of high dudgeon all by their own selves, and then use my advertising budget to put a lot of .GIFs of the Dowager Countess being awesome or clips of Ken Burns being eloquent on video advertising slots all over the place.
Heck, PBS should hire her to be their advertising manager. And blogger.
Moe Lane
PS:
Martha Speaks is a freaking life-saver. PBS Kids has a lot of that.
Via @mlcalderone comes a touch of schadenfreude at Gwen Ifill’s reaction at the news that Jim Lehrer got the nod to be a debate moderator. Well, schadenfreude for me:
More surprising was the reaction at PBS’s NewsHour, Mr. Lehrer’s home for more than 35 years until his retirement last year. The morning editorial meeting was under way on Monday when The Drudge Report revealed the names of the four moderators. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, the leaders of the program’s political coverage, were stunned to see the names.
In the suddenly gloomy meeting, some wondered if the list was legitimate. Others murmured that the selection of Mr. Lehrer was a setback for the “NewsHour,” which has been trying to show off younger stars like Ms. Ifill. Ms. Ifill, in particular, was livid, according to several people present. “I was indeed disappointed,” she confirmed Friday.
Background: As all of you know, it’s not a true critical Obama speech without at least one howler of a historical error in it somewhere, and last Thursday’s was a beauty of one: did you know Lincoln founded the Republican party? Of course you didn’t know that: after all, you’re almost certainly better-versed in actual American history than the Harvard-educated n-dimensional genius who is currently President. And, no, this wasn’t the speechwriter’s fault this time: that Lincoln bit wasn’t in the original. Hence the kerfluffle: as The American Thinker noted, PBS used the original embargoed speech transcript, while the New York Times used the actual speech itself to generate its transcript. All of which is not really all that newsworthy… except that apparently people are trying to point this little detail out to PBS, and PBS is refusing to either change its transcript to reflect objective reality, or even publish the calls for correction.
Assuming this is true… oh, my. Screening comments. Tsk, tsk, tsk… what’s that? “You do that all the time, Moe?” Well, yes. Cheerfully, in fact. But that’s because I know how to do it properly. Direct-to-spam protocols for querulous whines, bitter profanity, and inchoate-rage-presented-as-dispassionate-truth-telling is one thing; but, really. I watched the speech. Here, you can watch the relevant part of the speech, too:
PBS mucked up. There’s actually nothing really wrong with providing a copy of an embargoed speech the moment it’s no longer embargoed; and a simple Update: the transcript has been corrected to reflect changes made to it in the delivery would have been a reasonable thing to do. All that they’re doing with this strategy is to take partial ownership of President Obama’s ignorant gaffe.
Via Glenn Reynolds, ladies and gentlemen: your tax dollars at… actually, “waste” doesn’t have the right connotation of “bizarrely surreal.” Essentially, Democratic legislators have mainstreamed the antiwar Left’s Giant Puppet People by bringing the cartoon aardvark Arthur to a budget discussion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCb2YngpCDM
Now, here’s the thing: I try to regulate what my kids watch. I’m assisted in this by the fact that my wife is, frankly, too cheap to pay for cable; so we buy and rent videos. Arthur was on our list of stuff to maybe buy when the kids were older; it is abruptly no longer on that list. It’s nothing personal, but if the Other Side is going to be using cultural icons as partisan weapons then it’s perfectly acceptable for me to respond appropriately.
is a freaking life-saver. PBS Kids has a lot of that.