Category Archives: Entertainment

ESPN and the Bursting of the Sports Bubble, by William L. Anderson

Posted on May 26, 2017 | 2 comments

This article manages to tie in sports, higher education, and economics in an interesting and provocative fashion. From William L. Anderson at mises.org:

When the cable TV sports giant ESPN announced 100 layoffs recently, including letting go a number of high-profile broadcasters, a lot of people took notice, and well they should: things no longer are business as usual in sports broadcasting, and we are not even at the beginning of the end, and maybe not even the end of the beginning.

Like the slow crashing of the retail sector as online purchase firms like Amazon begin their domination, we are seeing a sea change in sports broadcasting and that is going to mean big changes are down the road not only for ESPN, but for all of the sports entities that depend upon the huge payouts that ESPN provides. To put it mildly, a lot of people are about to see their lives change drastically as consumer choices drive sports broadcasting in a new direction.

Enough with the superlatives. What is happening with ESPN, and why is it important? As Clay Travis of the sports website Outkick the Coverage has been writing for more than a year, the main ESPN business plan, the one that brings in the most revenues to the firm, is doomed to near-extinction, and there is nothing ESPN can do about it. Writes Travis:

In the past five years ESPN has lost 11,346,000 subscribers according to Nielsen data.

If you combine that with ESPN2 and ESPNU subscriber losses this means that ESPN has lost over a billion dollars in cable and satellite revenue just in the past five years, an average of $200 million each year. That total of a billion dollars hits ESPN in the pocketbook not just on a yearly basis, but for every year going forward.

It’s gone forever.

Since it began to grow in popularity in the late 1970s, cable (and later, satellite) television has offered its customers coverage with “bundles,” that is different payments allow cable subscribers to expand their viewership as payments increase. For example, a “basic” cable subscription would allow the customers to view, say, 15 channels including the ABC-CBS-NBC-PBS lineup plus other channels such as CNN or Fox. A higher-tier subscription would add other channels, including ESPN and its associated channels and others such as The Food Channel or assorted movie channels.

To continue reading: ESPN and the Bursting of the Sports Bubble

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He Said That? 5/5/17

Posted on May 5, 2017 | Leave a comment

From Marlon Brando (1924–2004), American actor, film director and political activist:

Most of the successful people in Hollywood are failures as human beings.

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Boycott the Academy Awards on February 26, 2017, by Innocent Bystander

Posted on February 22, 2017 | Leave a comment

An excellent suggestion from Innocent Bystander at lewrockwell.com:

Cher Bono is a great singer/entertainer, but……..

The 89th showing of the Academy Awards is coming up on February 26th. It is important that we, their “deplorables”, show the likes of Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Alec Baldwin, Cher Bono, Barbra Streisand, Ashley Judd, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Bill Maher and the other arrogant hypocrites, that we, the backbone but stageless people of America, are more united than the bitter, angry, divisive people of the entertainment industry.

The entertainment industry has the highest incidence of drug use, both illegal and pharmaceutical. They have marketed and promoted so many of the ills that plague our society today and have destroyed so many young lives. On the screen and in music, they have glorified violence, drugs, body mutilation, tobacco use, envy, and big government. They have slandered the traditional values of the working man and misrepresented the character of the vast majority of entrepreneurs and businesspersons.

Yet these arrogant, pompous, pampered individuals declare that half of Americans are racist, sexist, and bigoted for voicing political choice through Donald Trump. What the electorate said was not necessarily that they subscribed to all of Mr. Trump’s stated policies nor style, but that they were given only one publicized and “electable” alternative to the despised Mrs.Clinton. And there can be no doubt that the entertainment industry does more to exploit, degrade, minimize, and stereotype women than Donald Trump allegedly ever did.

From Madonna and Miley Cyrus parading on stage with little to no clothing while grabbing their crotches and allowing fans to do the same, to movies that depict women as whores, sluts, and gold-diggers dependent on their bodies for survival, to the deplorable speeches of Madonna and Ashley Judd talking about their periods in a vile manner and talking about blowing up the White House, we must send these people a strong and distinct message that they do not speak for the women of this country and they are not the role models of our young daughters.

To continue reading: Boycott the Academy Awards on February 26, 2017

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This Is How the U.S. Empire Destroys Itself, by Bill Bonner

Posted on February 18, 2017 | Leave a comment

One of the best parts about Trump’s reign is the whining and wailing of his enemies. From Bill Bonner at bonnerandpartners.com:

BALTIMORE – Victoribus spolia…

So far, the most satisfying thing about the Trump win has been the howls and whines coming from the establishment.

Each appointment – some good, some bad from our perspective – has brought forth such heavy lamentations.

You’d think Washington had been invaded by Goths, now raping the vestal virgins (if there are any within the Beltway) on the White House lawns while the Capitol burns to the ground.

Regret and Suffering

Trump is happening, of course.

And the very people who made it happen are now in various stages of regret… suffering… or hysteria.

What a delight it is to see them in such pain!

All along I-95 – from the Holland Tunnel to Route 295 into the heart of D.C., at a distance of a football field between one and another – you see their fabled leaders, lieutenants, and water carriers crucified, with a small crowd gathered around each, weeping.

There is Hillary, of course. And Senator Elizabeth Warren (secretly happy to see HRC brought to grief).

Then there’s Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. If there is another 9/11 crisis with Trump in charge, he warns: “America as we know it will soon be gone.”

There are the Republican traitors, too – Colin Powell, Henry Paulson, Michael Chertoff – now hanging from their crosses.

And there are the neo-con turncoats, too – Max Boot, Robert Kagan… Crucifixion is probably too good for them.

They are not only traitors to the Republican cause, whatever that may be, but warmongers, too, ready to switch allegiances just to keep the money flowing to their crony friends in the security industry.

Now they all keen away… But what did they expect?

To continue reading: This Is How the U.S. Empire Destroys Itself

 

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Why Hollywood as We Know it is Already Over, by Nick Bilton

Posted on January 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

This is an excellent obituary for the Hollywood we’ve long known, and its star system and stars, many of whom we don’t like, from an unlikely source, Vanity Fair. From Nick Bilton at vanityfair.com:

With theater attendance at a two-decade low and profits dwindling, the kind of disruption that hit music, publishing, and other industries is already reshaping the entertainment business. From A.I. Aaron Sorkin to C.G.I. actors to algorithmic editing, Nick Bilton investigates what lies ahead.

A few months ago, the vision of Hollywood’s economic future came into terrifyingly full and rare clarity. I was standing on the set of a relatively small production, in Burbank, just north of Los Angeles, talking to a screenwriter about how inefficient the film-and-TV business appeared to have become. Before us, after all, stood some 200 members of the crew, who were milling about in various capacities, checking on lighting or setting up tents, but mainly futzing with their smartphones, passing time, or nibbling on snacks from the craft-service tents. When I commented to the screenwriter that such a scene might give a Silicon Valley venture capitalist a stroke on account of the apparent unused labor and excessive cost involved in staging such a production—which itself was statistically uncertain of success—he merely laughed and rolled his eyes. “You have no idea,” he told me.

After a brief pause, he relayed a recent anecdote, from the set of a network show, that was even more terrifying: The production was shooting a scene in the foyer of a law firm, which the lead rushed into from the rain to utter some line that this screenwriter had composed. After an early take, the director yelled “Cut,” and this screenwriter, as is customary, ambled off to the side with the actor to offer a comment on his delivery. As they stood there chatting, the screenwriter noticed that a tiny droplet of rain remained on the actor’s shoulder. Politely, as they spoke, he brushed it off. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an employee from the production’s wardrobe department rushed over to berate him. “That is not your job,” she scolded. “That is my job.”

To continue reading: Why Hollywood as We Know it is Already Over

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Does Michael Moore Matter Anymore? An Open Letter From One Filmmaker to Another, by Douglas Herman

Posted on January 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

Has Michael Moore become just another fat, obnoxious, blowhard? From Douglas Herman at strike-the-root.com:

“This is the true joy in life – being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Mike: I’m a fellow Michigander, a fellow filmmaker like yourself, raised with small town Midwestern values like the ones you claim to have. I’ve mostly applauded and admired your efforts in the past. Indeed, long before I became a filmmaker, I championed your documentary film, Fahrenheit 9/11. While working as an Alaska commercial fisherman, I lobbied the local theater owner, Rusty, to show the film there in Kodiak, Alaska in 2004. He said he despised you but I told him the Orpheum would be packed for several showings and he’d make a nice fat profit. And he did.

Speaking of nice fat profits, how’s your weight, buddy? You really should contact my friend Gillian Michael and get on a weight loss program. Maybe you could make a documentary while you do it. Call it High Fructose Snowflakes or Fast Food Fat Folks or something really fun and creative. Like that guy who made Supersize Me.

Sadly, in recent years, you’ve seemed to become almost a parody of yourself. Like a cartoon character or one of those loopy Saturday Night Live sketches that are more embarrassing than funny. Where, I wonder, is the old Mike Moore? The guy who tilted at windmills, who stood up to the powerful with homespun humor and a shaky camera? Indeed, the very same things you said to the auto industry in Roger and Me, years ago, are the very same things Donald Trump is saying to the auto industry today. Or so it seems to me.

To continue reading: Does Michael Moore Matter Anymore?

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Nothing Is Real: When Reality TV Programming Masquerades as Politics, by John W. Whitehead

Posted on January 19, 2017 | Leave a comment

Garbage goes into people’s heads; garbage outcomes are the result. From John W. Whitehead at rutherford.org:

“There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first—the Orwellian—culture becomes a prison. In the second—the Huxleyan—culture becomes a burlesque. No one needs to be reminded that our world is now marred by many prison-cultures…. it makes little difference if our wardens are inspired by right- or left-wing ideologies. The gates of the prison are equally impenetrable, surveillance equally rigorous, icon-worship pervasive…. Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours…. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.”— Professor Neil Postman

Donald Trump no longer needs to launch Trump TV.

He’s already the star of his own political reality show.

Americans have a voracious appetite for TV entertainment, and the Trump reality show—guest starring outraged Democrats with a newly awakened conscience for immigrants and the poor, power-hungry Republicans eager to take advantage of their return to power, and a hodgepodge of other special interest groups with dubious motives—feeds that appetite for titillating, soap opera drama.

After all, who needs the insults, narcissism and power plays that are hallmarks of reality shows such as Celebrity Apprentice or Keeping Up with the Kardashians when you can have all that and more delivered up by the likes of Donald Trump and his cohorts?

Yet as John Lennon reminds us, “nothing is real,” especially not in the world of politics.

Much like the fabricated universe in Peter Weir’s 1998 film The Truman Show, in which a man’s life is the basis for an elaborately staged television show aimed at selling products and procuring ratings, the political scene in the United States has devolved over the years into a carefully calibrated exercise in how to manipulate, polarize, propagandize and control a population.

To continue reading: Nothing Is Real: When Reality TV Programming Masquerades as Politics

 

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He Said That? 11/26/16

Posted on November 26, 2016 | 1 comment

From Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975), English comic writer:

He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.

If you need a good laugh or two, or a multitude, pick up a P.G. Wodehouse sampler.

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Depressing Survey Results Show How Extremely Stupid America Has Become, by Michael Snyder

Posted on March 31, 2016 | 2 comments

From Michael Snyder at theeconomiccollapseblog.com:

Ten years ago, a major Hollywood film entitled “Idiocracy” was released, and it was an excellent metaphor for what would happen to America over the course of the next decade. In the movie, an “average American” wakes up 500 years in the future only to discover that he is the most intelligent person by far in the “dumbed down” society that he suddenly finds himself in. Sadly, I truly believe that if people of average intellect from the 1950s and 1960s were transported to 2016, they would likely be considered mental giants compared to the rest of us. We have a country where criminals are being paid $1000 a month not to shoot people, and the highest paid public employee in more than half the states is a football coach. Hardly anyone takes time to read a book anymore, and yet the average American spends 302 minutes a day watching television. 75 percent of our young adults cannot find Israel on a map of the Middle East, but they sure know how to find smut on the Internet. It may be hard to believe, but there are more than 4 million adult websites on the Internet today, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

What in the world has happened to us? How is it possible that we have become so stupid? According to a brand new report that was recently released, almost 10 percent of our college graduates believe that Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court…

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni publishes occasional reports on what college students know.

Nearly 10 percent of the college graduates surveyed thought Judith Sheindlin, TV’s “Judge Judy,” is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Less than 20 percent of the college graduates knew the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation. More than a quarter of the college graduates did not know Franklin D. Roosevelt was president during World War II; one-third did not know he was the president who spearheaded the New Deal.

It can be tempting to laugh at numbers like these until you realize that survey after survey has come up with similar results.

Just consider what Newsweek found a few years ago…

When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

Even worse were the extremely depressing results of a study conducted a few years ago by Common Core…

*Only 43 percent of all U.S. high school students knew that the Civil War was fought some time between 1850 and 1900.

*More than a quarter of all U.S. high school students thought that Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean after the year 1750.

*Approximately a third of all U.S. high school students did not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

*Only 60 percent of all U.S. students knew that World War I was fought some time between 1900 and 1950.

Of course survey results can be skewed, and much hinges on how the questions are asked.

To continue reading: Depressing Survey Results Show How Extremely Stupid America Has Become

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Television, Football and Politics: Gaming Spectacles Designed to Keep the Police State in Power, by John Whitehead

Posted on February 2, 2016 | Leave a comment

From John Whitehead, on a guest post at theburningplatform.com:

Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility. — Professor Neil Postman

If there are two spectacles that are almost guaranteed to render Americans passive viewers, incapable of doing little more than cheering on their respective teams, it’s football and politics—specifically, the Super Bowl and the quadrennial presidential election.

Both football and politics encourage zealous devotion among their followers, both create manufactured divisions that alienate one group of devotees from another, and both result in a strange sort of tunnel vision that leaves the viewer oblivious to anything else going on around them apart from the “big game.”

Both football and politics are televised, big-money, advertising-driven exercises in how to cultivate a nation of armchair enthusiasts who are content to sit, watch and be entertained, all the while convincing themselves that they are active contributors to the outcome. Even the season schedules are similar in football and politics: the weekly playoffs, the blow-by-blow recaps, the betting pools and speculation, the conferences, and then the final big championship game.

In the same way, both championship events are costly entertainment extravaganzas that feed the nation’s appetite for competition, consumerism and carnivalesque stunts. In both scenarios, cities bid for the privilege of hosting key athletic and political events. For example, San Francisco had to raise close to $50 million just to host the 50th Super Bowl, with its deluxe stadium, Super Bowl City, free fan village, interactive theme park, and free Alicia Keys concert, not including the additional $5 million cost to taxpayers for additional security. Likewise, it costs cities more than $60 million to host the national presidential nominating conventions for the Republicans and Democrats.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that there is anything wrong with enjoying the entertainment that is football or politics.

However, where we go wrong as a society is when we become armchair quarterbacks, so completely immersed in the Big Game or the Big Campaign that we are easily controlled by the powers-that-be—the megacorporations who run both shows—and oblivious to what is really going on around us.

To continue reading: Television, Football and Politics

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