Coverage of the Royal Wedding

I really don't understand why Americans are so obsessed with the British Royals - they went ape over the marriage of Charles and Diana - a marriage that was apparently a sham from beginning to end, with Charles maintaining his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles from the onset, and Diana a victim of anorexia somewhere in there, then of course the divorce, her taking up with Dod Fayyad, and her death as a result of her chauffeur fleeing a bunch of papperazis.

Now we've got Prince William and his fiance, Diane Middleham getting married, and the US is excited again. All except the Obamas, who aren't invited to the wedding. Well, considering all the historically significan gifts that England gave the President upon his inaugeration, and in return he gave them 25 DVDs that wouldn't even play in British DVD players, one can hardly blame them.

But the frenzy is getting more frenzied every day, as are the souvenirs being sold to commemorate the upcoming nuptials. It's one thing to churn out this kitsch in order to make a buck, it's quite another to actually buy it!

Wonkette Loses Advertisers After Making Tasteless Trig Palin Joke

I don't even know what Wonkette is, but how in the world could any publication in this day and age think they could get away with making jokes about the mentally retarded?

Business Insider: Wonkette Loses Advertisers After Making Tasteless Trig Palin Joke

“Oh little boy, what are you dreaming about? What’s he dreaming about? Nothing. He’s retarded."

Yeah, maybe not the tact you want to take when writing about Sarah Palin's son, Trig, who has Downs' Syndrome.

Except that is what Wonkette's Jack Stuef wrote in a widely lambasted post on Monday in which he pretended to celebrate Trig's birthday.

Wonkette's advertisers including Papa Johns, Huggies, Toyota and at least six others dropped their campaigns after five days of controversy.

The item has been removed, an action which came after the author added a note apologizing for the offensive language.

"A post on this page satirizing Sarah Palin using her baby as a political prop was very badly done and sounded like the author was mocking the child and not just Sarah Palin/Sarah Palin’s followers," reads an editor's note.

The writer, Jack Stuef, has apologized for it. And we have decided to remove the post as requested by some people who have nothing to do with Sarah Palin, but who do have an interest in the cause of special needs children. We apologize for the poor comedic judgment."

In the annals of "writers losing advertising for their companies," Stuef's post will not cost Wonkette as much as the $1 million Foster Kramer reportedly cost the Village Voice. It was, however, more avoidable. And the loss of venue is potentially much more dangerous for a smaller publication such as Wonkette.

Where is the logic in this?

There's a lot of devolution media out there, so much so that what I'm going to talk about today is really the minorist of minor things, but it's been a pet peeve of mine for over five years.

I've listened to BBC Radio 7 for about 5 years. They air mysteries, science fiction and comedies from over 40 years of British radio. And they have an e-newsletter that they send out, giving a preview of what's coming up.

And one thing they do is put a photo of an actor or other radio personality at the top of the selected subject (i.e., Crime and Thrillers), and then, the next paragraph down or somewhere, way down on the page, they give the name of the radio show that the actor is to appear in.

This has never made sense to me. If they have the photo of the actor at the top of the section, doesn't it make sense that the paragraph about their radio show should be with that photo? Doesnt' that just make sense?

But they've never done it that way. The photo always comes first, and the description of their radio program is way down in the text.

I commented on this once, way back when BBC Radio 7 had a message board, and I was told, "Well, you have the option to receive the newsletter without photos." Totally missing the point. Well, I guess the Brits don't like Americans coming in and trying to get them to do their jobs in a common sense manner.

Well, as you can see from the photo above, BBC Radio 4 extra - which is what Radio 7 has become, follow the same practice. In the Crime and Thrillers section, you see that the actress pictured is Imelda Staunton. But the paragraph that accompanies her photo is about a different radio show entirely. It's the paragraph below that one that talks about her radio show, Julie Enfield Investigates.

And as you can see, they do not identify who the actress in that photo is, so the unwary - or at least, the American who doesn't know what most British actors look like - can very easily think that the actor is someone spoken about in that first paragraph, instead of someone totally different. That is another thing they never do - identify who the actor in the photo is! Which again leads to confusion!

There are four or five other sections in the newsletter - for sci fi, for comedy, etc., and each one has a photo, done the same way. It's a deliberate thing they do, and I just don't understand it!

They're Remade Arthur

Back in the 1970s...perhaps even into the 1980s, being drunk was considered funny. A popular comedian was Foster Brooks, who went on stage sloshed to the eyeballs. (At least, he pretended to be sloshed.)

That kind of humor doesn't fly today - because unfortunately drunk people never seem to be smart enough to take a cab home from their bars, but rather always seem to try to drive home, with the result that more often than not they have car crashes and kill either themselves or others - not a subject for humor.

Arthur, starring Dudley Moore, was made in 1981 and was at the tail end of the "being drunk is funny" craze.

And it was rather amusing, as Dudley Moore had charm and comic timing, and also was only about 5 foot 2. "Cuddly Duddly" was his nickname.

This remake, starring the very tall Russell Brand as Arthur, and with Helen Mirren as Hobson (rather than John Gielgud.)

And the humor just doesn't fly today - or at least one hopes it doesn't.

There's nothing funny about a grown man being so drunk that he can't even stand up straight. Nothing funny about a man - or woman - who needs the crutch of alcohol, or drugs, at all.

YahooNews - gossip, gossip and more gossip

The above screenshot is the type of thing I get greeted with everyday, as soon as I boot up my computer. I suppose there's some setting for this Yahoo News widget that would give me news instead of the gossip that it seems to be set on...

But this article is ridiculous, and more than that, dangerous.

Apparenlty, the Czech president signed a paper with a pen, and then pocketed the pen - in full view of TV cameras.

Oh, horrors! The Czech president is a kleptomaniac! Disgrace for the Czech people!

Of course if you read down to the verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry bottom of the article, you get the truth of this non-story. Politicians who show up for these types of signings are given pens and pads, which they are allowed to keep.

But of course how many people are actually going to read the entire article? I'd be willing to bet a million dollars that most people read the headline and form their opinion from that alone. Others may read the first two paragraphs, but I'd bet that more than half don't read the entire article,and as such always get a skewed idea of what is really happening.

This is more than garbage, it's dangerous garbage, because you've got a whole country now thinking that the Czech president is not only a kleptomaniac but also stupid with it... stealing the pen while covered by a gazillion cameras.

oh, please.

No Proof Required...

SBS.Com.AU: Shark painting 'scares off tourists'

A large mural of a basking shark on a water tank above Kaikoura on New Zealand's South Island, will be removed because tourism businesses fear it will put visitors off entering the water.

Several businesses complained to Kaikoura District Council when the shark was first painted by marine conservationist and eco-artist Jono More at the lookout spot in 2009, the Kaikoura Star reported.

They felt the basking shark, a harmless filter feeder, was the wrong image for the town because it would put visitors off activities such as swimming with dolphins and seals.

Despite the complaints, the council of the day decided to leave the shark mural unless tourist operators could show their business was being affected.

However, the operators asked for a review and despite providing no evidence of their businesses suffering, the council voted 7-1 to remove the shark.

Councillor John Diver was the only one keen for the mural to remain.

He said he was not the "art police" and the mural depicted an artist's view of the diversity of the marine life in Kaikoura.

Jono More said he was disappointed by the decision.

"That's bad news...the shark needs a lot of support.

"The basking shark is worthy of a place in Kaikoura and the fact that it is nearing extinction in New Zealand waters means it needs as much public awareness as it can get if we're to make the changes necessary to save it."

Direct TV - commercial

Watching the Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees game on the MLB Channel.

Just saw a commercial for Direct TV. It's one I've seen before.

It's a sequel to a commercial with a Russian entrepreneur, I guess (he's got some Balkan accent), with two scantily clad women in the background and a minitiature giraffe as a pet.

In this one, he's sitting in a chair with electroids attached to his arm, while behind him a musclebound weight lifter is lifting a dumbbell, and as he does so the muscles of the guy in the chair grow bigger. Meanwhile, the two scantily clad women are languishing around like they're on drugs or something. One is mincing along on a treadmill (as is the miniature giraffe) and the other is standing by the guy's chair, pouting, apparently not with a brain in her head.

What in the hell is this supposed to convey to the viewer?

Teen Mom - reality TV series

There was an article today about Bristol Palin, who'd been paid $300,000 to appear as a spokesperson to raise awareness about teenage mothers - apparently on the side of saying - don't be a teenage mom.

It is incredible to me that Bristol Palin has any standing at all - she wouldn't if her mother wasn't Sarah Palin, yet people think what she has to say is worth listening to?

Of course, awareness does have to be raised about teenaged moms. Black girls always led the percentages in giving birth to illegitimate kids (at least, since the 1969 "Great Society" experiment, where the government started paying them more welfare for every brat they had so that it was no longer important for a husband to stick around to support his family - the government did it. Never mind that the government did it at the poverty level.)

But today, Latinos and Caucasians are also getting into the act more than ever. White girls, while still a smaller percentage than blacks, increased percentage-wise last year faster than any other group.

And we wonder why the US is bankrupt. Wars we can't afford, half our population living on welfare... scary.

Phil the Thrill Shows Good Sportsmanship

If I may take a break from my constant criticizing of today's media...

A minor story, but I liked it... (and in future I'll endeavor to share more of these stories, as a counterpoint).

Phil Mickelson was partnered with Scott Verplank at the Houston Open today. Phil wears metal spikes, which leave holes in the greens.

So, on the 16th or 17th hole, both his ball and Verplank's ball are very close to each other. Verplank has picked up his ball and put down a marker. Phil because he hits left handed, would have had to stand close to Verplank's marker and might accidently touch it.

So he called Scott over, and according to the announcers, at least, suggested that Scott go first. But Scott, being right handed, would have had to stand near Phil's marker, so he told Phil to go first.

So Phil stands there, and he actually shifts his feet to an akward stance to make sure he didn't knock Scott's marker.

The announcers were quite impressed with his good sportsmanship.

Of course, Phil might have thought he'd get a penalty if he disturbed Scott's marker, and was careful on that account, but I prefer to believe he did it because he's an inherently nice guy!

And even as I type this, I'm watching the news coverage of the animals in Afghanistan, burning Bibles I assume and beating on effigies...all thanks to that idiot priest in Florida who just had to not only burn a Koran but also broadcast it with Arabic subtitels to the Middle East!

A lot of people have died because of that. Yeah - the Afghanis are animals, and they prove that every day, but it nevertheless is Jones' fault because if you're trying to civilize people, that's not the way to go about it! He's only turned them more against civilization.

Terry Jones is an idiot

Terry Jones burned the Koran a couple of days ago, and broadcast it to Arab countries.

Result? People are rioting in Afghanistan and 10 people are dead. Some of them were actually behead"ed! Death to America" is the cry.

Mr. Jones, here's a tip. If you want to convert people to your religion, you've got to talk to them. No one is going to convert from Islam to Christianity because of what you've just done (not the least because it's illegal to convert from Islam to Christianity - I believe its punishable by death, actually.) Instead you've just put the lives of every Christian in Afghanistan in even more danger than they were already.