Comments on: Sarah Palin to visit Roswell Dec. 1

By: Eddie

Eddie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:22:29 +0000

..turns out Sarah won't be traveling on the bus to Roswell but in a Gulfstream II 12-passenger jet rented from Universal Jet Aviation of Boca Raton, Florida, at a cost of more than $4,000 per hour. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/...

By: Eddie

Eddie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:22:29 +0000

By: Hulamouse

Hulamouse — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:21:13 +0000

…speaking of preparation H and other cultural phenomena, hold your nose and try rubbing some of this in: http://www.popeater.com/2009/11/20/the-oprah-ef...

By: Eddie

Eddie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:38:04 +0000

Oprah will announce tomorrow that she's pulling the plug on her talk show in Sept of 2011 – maybe sooner if her rating keep dropping.

By: Dr Benway

Dr Benway — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:06:54 +0000

At the moment embracing Palin and her ilk is the only way a lot of people can push back against the ruling class oligarchy that's wrecked the nation's economy and left them totally marginalized, so she's become a vehicle for expressing frustration and rage. It shouldn't come as any surprise what will happen if the powers that be don't take her seriously and fail to respond to the underlying reasons for her popularity. In any case the upcoming tent revival in Las Cruces should be newsworthy.

By: AntoniaV

AntoniaV — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:27:01 +0000

The only energy left in the moribund GOP resides with people who've grasped, no matter how incoherently, that big government, big business and the good old boy leadership of the party are all in cahoots – but so far they really haven't figured out what to do about it, which makes them fair game for the likes of Palin and company. Interestingly enough on the other side of the fence a lot of rank and file dems (and independents) are also beginning to realize the extent to which they've been played for fools, which could make for an interesting circumstance if somebody who's a real middle of the road populist stepped up.

By: BernieG

BernieG — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:52:53 +0000

Regards the death race to the lowest common denominator bottom of the barrel in terms of content: the number of Americans watching TV has been steadily dropping due to audience fragmentation, for instance as of last quarter 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox then in the previous year. As a result the networks have been desperately scrambling to come up with any way to hold onto an audience, more importantly onto the advertising revenue that sustains their companies.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALe...

By: Phoebe

Phoebe — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:21:33 +0000

“The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.” Hunter S. Thompson, bylined column in the San Francisco Examiner, November 4, 1985.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:19:31 +0000

True enough and if bleeding hemorrhoids (a reality show?) could pull in enough audience the advertisers would be clambering to get a piece of the action. In any case, as of September 1st there were about 114.9 million television households in the US and a single national ratings point represents 1% of the total number or 1,149,000 households. Oprah's shows typically draw about 7 million domestic viewers but about four years ago they started airing in the Middle East and now reach about 6 million viewers there, which is regarded in some quarters as having had a generally positive effect (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/world/middlee...) – but who knows, maybe that's also fueling the fire.

By: derekbill

derekbill — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:22:27 +0000

I didn't watch it, but I never watch Oprah. I might have tuned in if someone in the household had mentioned it while it was on. She's easy on the eyes, even if her brain screams 'freak show'. To me, it's like watching someone not in rehab who needs to be. Someone totally out of touch with reality, but functioning within her group of fellow cuckoos.

More to your point, I suspect a lot of people who think she's an anatomically correct hollow-skulled Caribou Barbie may have tuned in to laugh, or marvel, or just make sure they didn't miss something newsworthy. If you told me that plane was going to crash at midnight at the fairgrounds, I'd probably drive over and watch.

So I do get your point. She's a phenomenon and one to be taken seriously. Like bleeding hemorrhoids.