Telling it like it is

The videotaped shooting of a Fallujah combatant by a U-S Marine has evoked strong emotions in the Arab world and on Capitol Hill. Texas Democrat Sylvestre Reyes says it's time to rethink the presence of embedded reporters in combat zones. During a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Reyes compared it to a football game, saying "we don't want to know everything that's going on on the field." Reyes says this is not censorship. In his words, "We should not be providing the Al-Jazeera the kind of propaganda they've had the last couple of three days." First things first. Obviously this story had to be about a Texan. The illiteracy of this goon is staggering. "The Al Jazeera" ? It's not "The", it's "Al Jazeera" - that is a TV network you idiot. Then "couple of three days" ? So that's six days is it? Or do you mean "two OR three days" ? This guy clearly favours censorship and ...

And so the predicted wholesale looting and raping of the American TV viewing public begins. Rupert Murdoch, owner of DirectTV and biggest contributor to the pockets of TiVO has forced them to remove their commercial-skip facility and replace it with popup-advertising during fast-forward. So rather than being able to skip 30 seconds, TiVO owners will now be limited to an 8x fast forward, during which time they'll be pumped with popup adverts. Jebus I'm glad our DVR isn't a TiVO. After all - commercial-skip is the number one reason to own a DVR. In the Yahoo article, they mention that 92% of DVR owners have their boxes exactly because of commercial-skip. That should tell the TV broadcasters and advertisers something : we don't like shows chopped into 8 minute segments and we don't want to sit through irritating adverts for stuff we never buy. Apparently that message isn't getting through though. So long TiVO - we knew you well.

This political correctness and hypersensitivity to nakedness on TV is going too far. Today, ABC Sports apologized for an "inappropriate" opening of the Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys Monday Night Football, involving a sexually suggestive locker room meeting between Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens and ABC's Desperate Housewives' star Nicollette Sheridan. In the taped segment, Sheridan drops a towel and is shown from a rear angle unclothed down to the lower part of her back. After Owens says, "Aw, hell, the team's going to have to win without me," Sheridan jumps into his arms. So now it's not even acceptable to see a naked woman's back? Oh come on you people! Don't be so freakin sensitive! It was a woman's back. Not her bum, not her tits, not her genitalia. Her freakin back! ABC - don't apologise - in fact, re-run the segment every opportunity you get. And FCC - go screw yourselves. You're turning into the gestapo fining ...

During the senate's "lame-duck" session that begins this week, they might be about to vote on HR2391, the Intellectual Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that will make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players and other products criminally liable for copyright infringement. The bill also plans to undo centuries of "fair use" - the principle that gives people the right to use small samples of the works of others without having to ask permission or pay. The bill lumps together several pending copyright bills including HR4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, which would criminally punish a person who "infringes a copyright by ... offering for distribution to the public by electronic means, with reckless disregard of the risk of further infringement." That vague language basically makes it illegal, for example, to use Apple iTunes or to even own an iPod. But the best part is this : using technology to skip any com...

Whilst I was wandering the aisles of my local Hollywood Video store this weekend, it struck me why their "MVP" subscription service is such a hit. Bascially, you pay $14.99 a month and certain DVDs are free if you're in the MVP club. "Certain" DVDs. Never the new ones, and almost never the popular ones. It's a clever trick because people will be gullible enough to think they're getting stuff for free after paying their membership. And once that membership is automatically going out once a month from their bank accounts, it will get forgotten about. In the consumer's eyes, "FREE" reigns supreme. So I did a little calculation. Over the last couple of weeks, I've rented a few movies - more than normal - and only one of them was in the MVP free movie category. Had I been in the MVP club, I'd have effectively paid $14.99 for one rental, and $2.99 for the rest. Clever. "FREE" is the lure, and then the bait-and-switch is that no...

The last vestiges of personal responsibility are being swept neatly away back in England, with the introduction of a ban on fast food advertising before 21:00 on TV. This is a pilot scheme. What will follow is "traffic light" colour-coding on all foods, followed by a ban on selling fast food after 21:00. This is all, apparently, in a bid to cut down on obesity. It's obvious right from the start that it's a scheme thought up by politicians. The first, and most obvious question is : how are they going to police a ban on fast food after 21:00? Are they going to appoint a Cholesterol Tsar? Is he going to hire hundreds of thousands of people to travel around every night making sure those evil kebab vans are not operating? Of course not - don't be ridiculous. This scheme can never work, ergo there must be a financial benefit in it somewhere. Digging through the fine print, there it is : fines. Ah yes, the light dawns. They'll introduce a ban, knowing full well t...