Cuppacafe

I was chatting with Walt earlier today and told him that a dispute between ABC and my local cable provider (Cablevison) has caused ABC to cut the feed as of midnight this morning. According to ABC it is Cablevisions fault, and (you guessed it) Cablevision, it is all ABC's fault.

The Disney Co., which owns the ABC network, cut off service to the city's 3.1 million Cablevision customers after the two sides failed to reach a deal.

ABC officials acted on their threat to pull the channel unless Cablevision agreed to pay a rights fee to offer the top-rated station to its subscribers.

"Cablevision has once again betrayed its subscribers by losing ABC7, the most popular station in the tri-state area," Channel 7 president Rebecca Campbell said in a statement.

Cablevision blamed the stall in negotiations on Disney CEO Bob Iger.

What this mostly means to ABC customers, is that they won't get to watch the Oscars tonight. Fortunately, I live in CT, and we have a local ABC Affiliate (WTNH in New Haven), and can still access the feed through them.

Needless to say, this is (obviously) a short-term fix, and, well, something is going to have to be done.

Personally, I'm a little suspect, as since ABC is still essentially a "broadcast" channel, the Federal Government has decreed that the broadcast belongs to the public and should be free, so how can ABC pull the feed. An interesting question since the FCC doesn't control cable programming.

The $40 million that ABC is asking for from cablevision is actually rather interesting given as how its parent company (Disney), is renown for being the living embodiment of it's tightwad character, Scrooge McDuck.

The Perfessor

OK, now this one is just fun. We just learned that ex-Governatrix, Sarah Palin's recent appearance on The Tonight Show (with old/new host Jay Leno) was digitally altered to make her appear more appealing. Yep, that's right, according to an individual who was in the audience, she totally bombed in her stand-up routine, and was not nearly the media darling that she appeared to be during the ham-handed, softball interview.

"Who needs teleprompters when a studio can simply insert canned laughter?

I've dealt with sound engineering for 30 years, as a film maker, interviewer, musician, working with master reel to reel tapes/decks at EMS Music in Seattle in the 80's as a sound duplication engineer, or setting sound levels for my and other bands in live situations at shows. I won a Hollywood award for animation in 2000. I know sound. And it's my opinion that audio portions of Sarah Palin's March 2nd appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight show were added or amplified, edited before broadcast to make it appear that Sarah Palin was more welcome than she was.

I know. I was there."

Makes you wonder how much of what we "witness" on TV has been faked (yes, I'm talking to you Fox News)

"They added laughter where there was none during uncomfortable portions. Well, there was some laughter. Mine, of derision. During those pregnant pauses in her performance I was laughing long and loud, couldn't help myself as much of what she was saying was utterly surreal, ridiculous, hypocritical - nonsense, spewed platitudes, pushed buttons. I was seriously thinking of leaving as it was getting hysterically unfunny.

After sitting through the taping of the show in the studio I can recount many portions where there was little or no laughter or response, but at the later broadcast they are smoothed over with applause and laughter that WERE NOT THERE at the taping. Groans, hoots, grumbling, or just dead silence - all missing."

Oh yeah, truth in reporting makes us want to add that the person who made this blogpost, was not only a former resident of Alaska (says he live there for 12 years), but is no fan of Palin.

In fact the guy also the published Going Rouge: The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring & Activity Book, and had actually brought several to the taping, and passed them out to the audience prior to the start of the show.

Oh yeah, apparently there is a story making the rounds that Palin (who recently lifted everything from an Oscar freebie table) is currently pitching a reality show featuring her.

Talk about the vanishing ratings on TV, eh?

The Perfessor

So, after all is said and done, and all the noise is blasted across the airwaves, it turns out that NBC might have simply been rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Leno's vaunted return to the Tonight Show are actual lower (yes lower) than Conan's opening night some six months earlier...

NBC's "Tonight Show" returned Monday evening to a solid if unspectacular rating that exceeded Leno's comparable "Tonight" average from last year, yet underperformed Conan O'Brien's "Tonight Show" debut from last June.

"Tonight" drew 6.6 million viewers and a 1.6 adults 18-49. That's down 58% from Conan O'Brien's first night as the new "Tonight" host -- which was out of season, and without an Olympic run-up.

Seriously, where is Dick Cavet when you need him?

The Perfessor

...Jim Bunning says so.

No really, United States Senator Jim Bunning, (R) Kentucky is delaying a deal in Congress to extend unemployment benefits. Some states will be hit harder than others if Congress doesn't act to reinstate benefits that Brunning doesn't want you to have.

As long as Jim Bunning delays a deal in Congress to extend unemployment benefits, states around the country will see unemployed Americans start to lose those benefits.

But seven states will be hit harder than any others: Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Georgia.

All of them will see an average 10,000 or more workers each week lose their benefits this month if Senator Bunning continues to hold up legislation, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a New York-based advocacy group for employment rights of lower-wage workers.

Some folks have to work extra hard at being ass-hats, Jim Bunning isnt one of them. To him it seems to come natural.

The Perfessor

Yeah, you read that right. Even though I’m a fan of Mr. Colbert and a member of his “nation" I want to give him something of a bitch slap for incorrectly displaying the American Flag on Thursday night’s episode of his coverage of the Winter Olympics. Yep, he (well his set dresser), hung the US flag wrong for one of the segments of his show:

As you can clearly see from this image that was lifted from his sketch Freud Rage - The Iceman Counseleth - Shani Davis both U.S. flags are hung vertically with the blue field in the upper right. As any Boy Scout knows, when hung, the U.S. Flag is always hung with the blue field in the upper left.

Seriously, shame on Colbert for screwing up so simple a thing as this.

The Perfessor

So, I don't watch ESPN, but my brother, Ron does, and he told me about this bit of on-air nonsense by Tony Kornheiser when he began commenting on fellow ESPN sports personality, Hannah Storm's "provocative" outfit.

For an audio clip, and some commentary from the guys at The Young Turks, we have this clip:

Not entirely sure what's going on here, except to say that perhaps that Kornheiser (who has since been suspended and issued both a public and private apology to Storm), is perhaps upset that Storm (who is probably the same age as Kornheiser) looks way better on camera than does he. However, on the flip side, at least he doesn't have to tart himself up every day just to go to work and get folks to listen to him.

Now before I get slammed for making inappropriate statements about Storm I want to say that our culture (unfairly I might add), allows men to age gracefully and look distinguished, while women are often just considered old. Kornheiser appears to want it both ways.

The Perfessor

Perhaps not, Glen, but you'd have to be seriously screwed up to watch your show...

The Perfessor

By now you've all heard how the ex-Governatrix (over) reacted to the Valentine's Day episode of The Family Guy, well, as it turns out, the actress (Andrea Fay Friedman) who voiced "Ellen" — the character who was depicted as having Down syndrome — actually does have Down syndrome herself.

Friedman recently responded to Palin's comments on Fox by saying:

My name is Andrea Fay Friedman. I was born with Down syndrome. I played the role of Ellen on the "Extra Large Medium" episode of Family Guy that was broadcast on Valentine's day. Although they gave me red hair on the show, I am really a blonde. I also wore a red wig for my role in " Smudge" but I was a blonde in "Life Goes On". I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line "I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska" was very funny. I think the word is "sarcasm".

Friedman then continued her comments by taking the opportunity to deliver her own little Gibb's-slap to Alaska's ex-Governatrix by saying:

In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.

Yeah, we were pretty hysterical over it as well.

The Perfessor

So, I'm going about my day yesterday, and I see this little bit of nonsense from the Bill O'Reilly show.

It seems that this past Tuesday night, the ex-Governoratrix appeared on O’Reilly's show in her capacity as a Fox News analyst, and was questioned about an episode of The Family Guy in which a female character with Down syndrome is on a date with Chris and says that her mother is the former governor of Alaska. As you all know, Palin, resigned from that post last year, has a son, Trig, who has Down syndrome.

After showing the clip from the episode, O’Reilly asked Palin, “It’s pretty nasty, is it not?”

Palin replied, “This world is full of cruel, cold-hearted people who would do such a thing.”

The odd thing about this bit, for this observer is that, well, to anyone who has watched more than the odd clip or two of the show knows that it is safe to say that, as Chris is something of a brain-dead moron, and his father, Peter is — quite literally — too stupid to live (and was once declared retarded on the show) are both probably more mentally handicapped than the Down syndrome gal on the date with Chris.

Seth McFarlane (the show's creator) has literally mocked every target in his sights, so to say that he is a hater, seems, well, a bit odd. Further, every episode holds virtually every cast member (especially Peter) up for ridicule. So, when watching you have to look past what you are seeing, to try and see what McFarlane is really saying.

What this (and various other tactics from the Right) seem to indicate the lopsided notion that free speech is for everyone, so long as you agree with what we have to say. This was never clearer than in the Presidential campaign when Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell came out in support of Obama, and the Republican spin machine stepped up to say that "Real West Virginians" were squarely behind McCain.

Such a dick move is the way these people try to discredit anyone who disagrees with them, as if there is only one opinion and it ids theirs. Sure you want to spin the story to you, but I'm so tired of the way they try to do it by running the other guy down. This is such a juvenile way to do it, and well, it is really starting to backfire.

Needless to say, Family Guy Rules, ad Palin (and O'Reilly) are tools.

The Perfessor

Yeah, yeah, I know that Walt posted a link to this in his response to an earlier post, but I felt that it was so funny (I nearly wet myself when watching it live last night), that I felt that it deserved its own post.

You seriously have to love this guy.

The Perfessor

As can be expected, Our pal Jon took the Govenatrix to task for her "hand job" antics:

Go get 'em good buddy!

The Perfessor

Yesterday, we gave you the first two parts of this interview, here is part three.

Here is what I find interesting about this interview:

1) That O'Reilly (a newsman?) feels that the opinion of a comedian (and fake newsman) is somehow relevant.
2) That Stewart managed to elicit a laugh from a member of the crew.
3) Do you notice that O'Reilly seems more interested in asking questions than in actually getting answers.

Still, in a throw down between these two men, I'm still on Jon's side. He informs me and makes me laugh; O'Reilly just frightens me. (If you want to see the entire interview you can do that too.)

The Perfessor

Yep, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart went on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor as the pundit and comedian squared off as they talked about how each person’s show handles the news and the Obama Presidency. They are (apparently) slated to have another go-round today, (which I’m sure we’ll cover), but in the mean time, Here’s what went down yesterday.

First up was the way each of them treat the President.

Part two has O’Reilly comparing the slant of both of their shows.

What I always feel is not just funny, but friggin’ hilarious is that — for some reason — newscasters (especially from the right) seem to want to compare themselves with Stewart (note O’Reilly‘s insistence that Fox is considered trustworthy but astounded that Stewart has any sort of influence over his own audience), all the while seeming to forget that Stewart is a not a newscaster, but a comedian. (Something that Stewart always likes to remind people that he is a fake newscaster.)

Sure he is going to have influence, just as George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, and hundreds of other politically-skewed comedians have over their audience. Hey, ever see an actor or a rock star endorse their pet cause du jour or want you to get all worked up over whatever it is that has captured their ADD-fueled attention span.

Yeah, I watch Stewart (and Colbert) over “real” news, but I not only know the difference, but I prefer the slightly askew view of current events of these twin shows over the doom-and-gloom of “actual” news.

So there.

The Perfessor

So President Obama spoke the other night and we all sat and watched his first State of the Union Address (except Walt), and for some of us, we remembered why we liked him (Obama, not Walt) in the first place. Still the most fun you get out of political events like this is not so much watching the event itself,but the political pundits yack it up after that is a sort of a post-modern, politically-charged version of Can you top that?

My personal favorite is Jon Stewart’s take on Chris Matthews particular brand of buffoonery, when Stewart refers to Matthews as being “...one Scotch Away From Being Ron Burgundy”, when Matthews makes one of the more patently retarded comments in the history of TV punditry when Matthews stated that Barack Obama’s speech made Matthews forget the President was Black.

Seriously, what an ass!

The Perfessor

So, last week on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart slapped around Keith Olbermann for comments Olbermann made regarding Scott Brown’s run at the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. Olbermann took exception to getting slapped around by Stewart, and had this to say.

Yep, it’s all in the rebuttal.

The Perfessor