Newsworthy and Notable
Gore's cable news channel to target young adults
One of his first programs will be "How I Invented the Internet" followed by a panel discussion of Earth in Balance moderated by Gore. Global warming will be discussed in great detail, esp. as temperatures are expected to be above normal in the U.S. for most of the rest of the week.
Honestly, there were two things about this that really interested me.
"Gore said he was making a long-term commitment to the network. He said he is enjoying life outside politics and does not foresee running for office again, although he would not rule it out completely."
We've all heard that one before. I recall Richard M. Nixon saying something similiar and we all know how that one turned out.
Secondly, Gore says his network is to target 18-34 year olds. I hate to tell Gore this, but he his message didn't really resonate to our age range in the election, I'm not sure he's going to resonate with us now and make us all come running to him for news and information.
Deer crash into Clarksville Subway
I guess those billboard ads really worked...these deer were obviously interested in the six subs with five grams of fat or less (they're on the Adkins diet because it seems like EVERYONE is these days). Somewhere Jarod is proud that he's not only reached human beings, but also is now reaching out to our woodland friends on how to lose weight by only eating subs.
Why the ads for 'gentlemen's clubs' but not the language in 'Doonesbury'?
The Tennessean has come under some criticism of late for electing to pull last week's Doonesbury comic strip that included some swearing in it but yet it still runs ads for "gentleman's clubs" (aka strip clubs) here in Nashville. And for all the defense that the paper will censor itself for language and that it's really trying to have an open, competitive marketplace by including these ads, I really think the whole thing comes down to money. Had Doonesbury paid for the space in the paper, they might have found a way to put the comic strip in there. But the "gentleman's clubs" are paying advertising space and it all comes downs to dollars and cents.
Honestly, if you're worried about one word, then couldn't you censor it out? After all, if an athlete uses profance language in a quote, there are ways to still indicate they used such language but not have to print the quote exactly as said. I think we learned about this on day three of journalism classes. So why not do that with Doonesbury? The only explanation I can think of is that Gary Trudeau has some cluase about not being censored or having changes made to the strip without his permission. But, honestly, it's not like he drew this last week, so there was time to consult him on this.
Just for your reference, here's a link to
the strip in question..
The other part of this debate I find interesting is that there were two comic strips last week that came out questioning the war in Iraq on the funny pages. You know, I seem to remember a time when I turned to the funny pages to get away from the issues and controversies of the day--where the only thing I really had to worry about was how much lasagna Garfield had consumed or if Charlie Brown might finally get up the nerve to speak to the little red-haired girl. It's not really a shock that these types of issues and protests would come up in Doonesbury, but the other comic in question was Get Fuzzy, which is pretty much innoucous fun most of the time. I guess the thing is we're all growing up and growing more cynical as time goes along and that's slowly bleeding over into the funnies. It makes me wonder--what if Charles Schultz were still alive--would Lucy be protesting the war? would Charlie Brown be suffering from addiction to CNN? would Snoopy be over in Iraq fighting in his Sopwith Camel?
posted by Michael Hickerson at 5/05/2004 10:11:00 AM |
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