Crazy like Fox

Everybody knows that Fox News is unfair and unbalanced. But nobody ever said Roger Ailes and company aren't smart. Look how they sucked HuffingtonPost.com right in with staffers making outraged comments about Obama-bashing at their own network. Now, of course, they say it was all a joke. I say, the Chris Wallace thing was, too. Of course, here I am, posting about it. It's all show business, folks.

The Candor Campaign

How many four-year cycles have we prayed for presidential candidates who speak from their cuffs? From their minds, at least, maybe even their hearts? We have one of each this year: Barack Obama and John McCain. Sorry, Hillary, you haven't done it this time -- not enough, anyway, as Frank Rich asserts. 

Now we can see how it feels to hear the truth, unspun. How it makes anything less stick out like a page of typos. How it preempts media analysis, obviates it. How it sends the acid-talk-radio comedians into dithers. I'm talking about Obama's race relations speech, of course. But I also mean McCain's clarity on immigration and other sticky issues, although he's still trying to stick with the war he's stuck with, trying to keep what's left of the Republican core on his side. 

We have fine people running for President this year, and we've sorted them out from the others. Nice job, voters. Tune out the punditocracy. There's plenty of evidence that nobody's been paying attention to them anyway, except themselves.

Jarvik karma.

May the phenomenon of metaphysical blow-back that has whisked Dr. (non-practicing-non-rowing) Jarvik out of our lives likewise propel Eli Lilly and Co. and their heart-rending and brilliantly scored Cymbalta TV commercials into deserved oblivion. If traffic on this Website is any measure, people are still captured and intrigued -- haunted, even -- by the quasi-classical music of these antidepressant pitches. All the direct-to-user TV advertising for prescription remedies has so muddied the practice of medicine that formerly important, potent, risk-managed drugs are now sold like Preparation H. All those mumbled voice-over warnings about side effects, including really serious, life threatening ones -- even four hour erections (you don't want to know how they fix that) -- go right past us and we run to our docs asking for them. We take responsibility for our own care, now don't we. So we have only ourselves to blame. And now that studies are saying antidpressants, maybe, work no better than sugar pills against depression, hell, we might as well be swigging Lydia E. Pinkham's. It's at least got an alcoholic side effect to make up for the taste. And has all this made us trust the FDA more? I saw a commercial that used "...and it's FDA approved..." like it was a recommendation. I'd think twice about that. Yes, bring on the karma. This is the way America takes care of problems of misrepresentation and just plain BS. Very Republican. Expose the hype and let the marketplace decide.

Afterthought on Jarvik

I've been rethinking. They say Robert Jarvik's contract to do Lipitor commercials was two years, and the pay: $1.35 million. Consider, please: that's about $650K a year, for quite a few quite complex film camera shoots, on location in many parts of the country -- he was in attendance at that lake, though he didn't row. Plus all the rest of the accompanying folderol involved in being a celebrity spokesman.

It must have been a fairly intense part-time job. For a guy who's running his own company, that's quite a commitment. He must have imagined the exposure would be worth millions more to him in the development of his company, on the worldwide money markets. So, for all this, he put his medical-health reputation -- which even he must have known was not close to that of, say Michael DeBakey -- on the line. However he must have looked at it, he stood to win big, and couldn't lose. Sadly, I suspect he still thinks so.

Dr. Phil to the rescue. Of Dr. Phil.

Dr. Phil visited Britney Spears’s hospital room, then made a statement. The Spears family called him out on it. He said, if he had it to do over, he wouldn’t have made that statement. Non-apology of the month. On a Christian TV network.

Let me be clear. I’ve been a Dr. Phil fan from the start. Still am. Oprah was right. He’s a phe-nom.

This morning Phil made the rounds of the network morning shows, a phenomenon in itself -- not every superhero gets to do that. I saw his interviews with Diane Sawyer on ABC and Matt Lauer on NBC. I have to assume he made it to CBS’s cellar-dweller, too, since CBS owns his show. He repeated and embellished his non-apology. Nobody out-explains Phil.

Fact is, he flew all the way across the continent to say that this is no big deal. Mainly he wanted to slap down those tabloid lies about Oprah firing him, his wife leaving him, etc. Fine. Done.

But the part that others have been saying for him, that since he retired his psychologist’s license (in good standing, we hasten to add) means he had no legal or ethical responsibility to maintain patient confidentiality -- that fine lawyerly point, that’s a crock, folks.

Having heard Phil thunder countless times at wrong-doers on his show about his professional responsibility to turn them over to the legal authorities unless they clean up their acts, I’m not buying it. Hype wraps itself in all kinds of righteous raiments.

Dr. Phil, you moved to Hollywood. You wear the silk suit well. But your makeup’s looking a little shiny these days. It shows up in hi-def.

What to write about...let me see...

Why should I have trouble coming up with something to write about in an election year? Should be enough hype flying around to keep me in topics the rest of the year.

Actually, it's good that people are now casting actual votes. It's not so predictable as past years, either. I think the stupidity -- Bush's, Congress's, and ours (come on, we elected 'em) -- has knocked something loose. We're all mad enough to pay attention to the process this year. We also, apparently, don't feel so useless as in the past, and have decided not to let nuts and ad people make our decisions for us.

More people will vote this year than in past years. Bravo. And, I think we also have much better BS radar than ever before. No thanks to the pundits and press camp-followers. At least those folks are beating themselves up this time, instead of rationalizing. Leave that to the candidates and their agents. I'm really looking forward to the big Tuesday. I'm actually feeling confident.

This is a great country. The macho presidency is, like all past entourages, winding down. And we're still here.

Gut check.

First of the year. Seems like a good time to consider what this site's about. Hype is not going away. The question: how to live a relatively sane, sensible life when you're surrounded by it. I think most of us succeed, actually. The early start to our Presidential season actually makes me feel pretty good. Politics don't seem to be nauseating me so much. I think we're a little more awake. Surely, the Republican machine doesn't seem so strident this year. That's smart of them. Even the most jaded of them seem to realize they can't do things the same way as before and expect to command the loyal. Likewise the Democrats. The presence of Obama seems to have changed the tone of their primary campaign. The media people are trying to whip up some fear and loathing, but I think the Clinton-Obama War story is a non-starter. I think they're lobbing macaroons at each other and the voters aren't paying attention to that stuff. I think both parties have learned something from the past six and a half years (Year One being 2001), and I hope the press and TV media do too, eventually. Me, I've slacked off in recent times on this site, though a lot of you come around looking for info on Cymbalta and Dr. Jarvik. Mostly, you're curious, and not much interested in my chronic outrage at drug advertising. It has helped ruin our health care system, but it isn't the only thing. We've put up with it. We share a major part of the blame. Even with all the hooha about all the issues and politics, only about half of us vote. No amount of hype has gotten the rest of us participating in cleaning up our various messes. How about checking your gut. If you spend one minute a year wondering how some of this stuff'll get fixed, shut up. Unless you at least know what's going on, and cast a vote. Thanks for dropping by.

My new Vista Experience.

About six months ago I bought a new Sony VAIO notebook -- latest Intel double-whatever chip inside. Came with Vista. Fresh and snazzy look, I said. Of course I was skeptical--or as they say in the UK, sceptical. I have come to believe I was right to be. My long-held belief has been confirmed by my user experience with Vista--that Microsoft has a whole division whose sole task is to slow down the latest Intel chip. I can't prove it, but this division must be Microsoft's most productive and efficient.

These double-something chips are supposed to be screamers. And yes, this machine and Vista are faster than XP was on my old merely-single-doodad HP. But is my Sony running as rapidly as it can with the weight of Vista to carry? I had a nagging doubt. Now I see that many true-blue MS customers are resisting buying new Vista PCs, and Microsoft, ever customer-responsive, has obliged by giving manufacturers six more months of selling XP equipped computers. I wonder how my VAIO would run XP? But what kind of havoc would I cause if I tried retrofitting it? I don't think I can do that. I'm alone here, a reasonably skilled user with no IT geek down the hall.

Well, I finally bit the bullet this morning. I'm a morning person--at my peak when I first get up. (I know, the rest of the day is downhill, but that's life.) I got an idea and went hunting in the Control Panel for those little option lists that let you turn features on or off. I found it. In System, under Advanced something or other, there was a Performance button, and another button under that, called Visual something. (Sorry, didn't write it down. Go explore.) There it all was, a dozen or more little boxes labeled Animate this or that, Slide this or that, Translucent and Transparent the other. And big buttons at the top, including Best Appearance and Best Performance. I chose Best Performance, hit Apply. The screen said Wait a moment, shuddered and zap! What was I looking at, but Windows 3.0. It was amazing. And was it fast! Wow!

So that was it all the time. I had turned the clock back. Microsoft's been improving the plumbing of Windows, of course, over the years. But mainly, as our President might say, Windows is what it is. And, as I've always known, the Division of Chip Speed Mitigation has grown into the biggest and most powerful arm of the corporation, wielding vast power at Microsoft, albeit not very quickly. They worked on Vista for what, seven years?

I have since gone back and found the System-Advanced-Performance menu again and restored some of the settings. I will play around with this newfound toy until I'm sure I have the Vista look and feel that I want and most of the speed I can get from my double-widget Intel computer. And I'll call Sony again about that funny whine in the hard drive on battery mode.

And, next time, I'm buying a Macbook.

SIDE EFFECTS? POOF! THEY'RE "TREATMENT EFFECTS."

On July 19 I published a post about the new GlaxoSmithKline over-the-counter drug alli (they're pronouncing it like "ally," and modestly presenting it without an initial capital letter), which is promoted as the first non-prescription weight loss medication approved by the FDA. I think the theme of my post bears repeating for emphasis. Hype? This is what I'm talkin' about.

Alli's main effect is to prevent your body from absorbing and retaining some of the fat you eat. It, in effect, flushes some fat through your body. As you can figure out for yourself, this produces some unpleasant and potentially uncontrollable experiences. Pretend you're a marketing-advertising professional. How do you sell something that does that?

Well, I'll tell you. The brilliant marketers of Glaxo and other pharmas are the best in the business. They have to be; they daily zig and zag through the minefield of semantic hazards and actually make you want to buy their clients' products.

With Alli (I'm not going along with the no-cap style), the immediate user experience is going to be nasty. So, the marketers had to turn this "side effects" problem into a plus. Well, if not a plus, how about just presenting it as a feature? Thus, "treatment effects" was born. Believe me, this is a breakthrough in the long and storied history of weasel words. But it's not the first, so it can't be thought of as a virgin birth.

When the marketers of Lilly-Icos' erectile drug Cialis decided to include the potentially disastrous side effect, priapism, in the side effects disclosure portions of their ads, I doubt it was because they were deeply concerned about the long-term health of their customers. I think they wanted to use the phrase "erections lasting more than four hours" in ads for a drug many men see as a sexual enhancement aid. No one at the FDA could effectively question their motives. That's what weasel words are all about, folks. (George Carlin noticed the paradox.)

Now, with the Alli campaign, Glaxo's selling diarrhea as a cure for obesity, and because the commercials are dead straight about the effects and offer...no, virtually demand that the user enter the drug's "program," they're expecting us to love the ordeal.

Of course, you don't have to follow the Alli program -- this is an over-the-counter drug, so you don't have to get the authorization and advice of a doctor to buy it. How many Alli users will consult their doctors about it? How many will join and rigorously follow the drug company's laudable instructions for its use?

What we have here is a drug marketing campaign--for a product that significantly distorts normal physical processes--that bypasses medical supervision. How tough was it to get this drug and its marketing past the FDA? Stay tuned.

THANKS, CHRIS PIRILLO. I GUESS.

Now, I'm not trying to be snarky. That said, my post on the KOMO Seattle blogger meetup drew a comment from Chris Pirillo, the apparent promoter of the event, and the popular Seattle blogger conference, Gnomedex. Chris said of my carping over KOMO's PR schmoozing of bloggers:

You shouldn't stop complaining... in fact, I'd say you should be complaining even louder now. :) Unfortunately, that's the only way companies listen (in reaction to PAIN points).

I'm trying to understand what he meant. I think he's encouraging me. Always dangerous. Anyway, thanks, Chris. You seem to get that I'm not attacking you for promoting. I'm exposing the normal, legal, process of schmoozing communications people to obtain positive coverage. KOMO-TV has a perfect right to do this, and since most bloggers are not journalists, or not professional, or both, there's nothing in their upbringing to preclude their swooning over any attention from anybody important. I come from a conventional old-time broadcaster background, so I'm not available for schmoozing. That's all.

And for this, Mr. Pirillo has earned a genuine dehype link (see sidebar).

SORRY, KOMO, THIS BLOGGER DOESN'T WANT TO BE YOUR BUDDY.

I just got an "Evite". Quote:

"KOMO-TV and its owner, Fisher Communications, has graciously agreed to serve as host for a blogger meet-up at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday August 2nd. [...] KOMO-TV is interested in getting to know bloggers in the [Seattle] area, and what better way to do that than helping facilitate this meet-up? Fisher Communications recognizes the significance of the personal media revolution, and they want to listen and pay attention to what you're saying. I think this is a good way to start."

The "I" above is Chris Pirillo, blogger, geek, Internet entrepreneur, etc. -- you can read his complete list of self-appellations on his blog. He's also founder-operator-promoter of Gnomedex, an annual schmoozefest, ahem...conference for the bloggerati, also held in Seattle. In fact this year's event, the seventh, begins just a week after the above party, which will be held at KOMO-TV's shiny headquarters near Seattle Center.

I think I read on Pirillo's site that Gnomedex 2007 is already oversubscribed, though his post seems to imply that he could be talked into opening up an overflow room and graciously accepting more registration fees.

But getting back to the invitation. I'm flattered that I made a list of Seattle area bloggers, but not starry-eyed enough to accept the invitation to come and be cooed over by the TV people, no matter how sincere they may seem about recognizing my significance. See, I have been, and plan to continue, commenting upon and sometimes criticizing KOMO-TV, and many other media organizations. So, I prefer not to drink their booze and eat their hors d'oeuvres, thanks all the same. I guess I can't help thinking I'd have a harder time blogging about them afterward, and that they--KOMO-TV and Mr. Pirillo, the self-styled self-promoter--would like that very much.

Bloggers have not build reputations for journalistic anything in the first years of the phenomenon, and, as a matter of fact, I think I want to stand over here, away from blogger trade conventions and PR stroking parties and remain free to comment on my blogger brethren, too.

So, enjoy the pop and pupus at Fisher Plaza, boys and girls. Just remember, you don't get to be universally believed if you drink the KoolAid.

P.S.: I'll use the Pirillo-prescribed tag for this post, hoping some of my fellow bloggers drop in, read it, come to their senses, and buy their own drinks.

THE SENATE'S ALL-NIGHTER.

Yesterday on the Today Show, Lindsay Graham admitted he didn't lose any sleep--he went to bed. What can we say about the Democrats' marathon filibuster buster? I guess the question here is, how shall we structure our time between now and January 2009, when a new President and Vice President and, thus, administrative branch, are sworn in?

George W. Bush thinks he's winning. He's going to go down with his ship and he's trying to take us with him. For better or, more likely, worse, it's the way our system works. I wonder who could convince him and Cheney that they could be remembered as wise Americans who came to their senses before it was too late? Is there time for an impeachment trial?

Congress can't get anything done. They. Can't. Get. Anything. Done. Can anyone hear me?

In other, less mature comfortable countries, this would be the moment the Army steps in. In Gaza, one political party ran the other out of town. Thank God we don't do that in the U.S.A.

Ahem, well, here's my voice: Wake up, Senator, Congressperson. Get together on passing a law against George Bush's brain. And make sure you've got the votes to override a veto.

PARDON ME?

Look. Jerry Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, before he was even charged with anything. George H.W. Bush pardoned the Iran Contra guys. Bill Clinton pardoned Mark Rich, one of his bigtime money people. If we want to change this odious practice, we have to get serious about helping our Senators and Representatives enforce the laws they make. So, look to yourself, not at the hype. We're all to blame for putting up with it. So, get off your duff and do something about it.

[AFTERTHOUGHT: Actually, I should have said, If we want to change this odious corruption of this much-needed clemency power...]

CURB YOUR PARANOIA. BUT WATCH OUT FOR HYPE.

I don't think most people care much if big media companies control the news. Journalism is terribly upset right now at the probability that Rupert Murdoch will soon run the Wall Street Journal. This may surprise you, but I don't hear my friends bringing it up over coffee.

I mean, how upset can you get, when lobbyists control Congress. What harm can a little self-serving news-stacking do?

Let me give a small but significant example: MSNBC is a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft (though MS may have fully phased out their equity position by now). NBC is owned by NBC-Universal, which is owned by General Electric. NBC News has always been a good, clean news source, and still is. But it's harder for broadcasting companies, which aren't in the news business, to keep their hands off editorial content. Here's a feature story on the MSNBC Web site (last time I checked, it was the top rated news site on the Web) on "The Future of Business" (LINK), about how Boeing's spectacularly successful new aircraft, the Dreamliner, has revolutionized the industry.

Note the photo caption at the top of the page:

"Extensive capabilities in electronic and mechanical technologies are being deployed to support aircraft systems integration through deliveries by GE Aviation for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner."

For me, the eagle-eyed media pro, this translates to: "This slathering puff piece is an example of how a great manufacturing company keeps its clients happy. Do you really think, as the owner of a major cable-Web news operation, we wouldn't use it for our own business purposes? Duh!"

There are other clues in the story. Like the mention that the 787 rollout is coming up soon, and that Boeing has "rented an entire football field to simulcast the rollout, which will be emceed by broadcaster Tom Brokaw [Major General, NBC, Ret.]." No doubt GE's helping pay for the party. I didn't find the usual meaningless disclosure line on the Web page -- "MSNBC is owned by GE."

I bet I can find plenty of examples of corporate hype-news without working my mouse too hard. Except, maybe, in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or the Washington Post, none of which are owned by companies in other industries. Shall we write our Congresspersons? I don't think so -- believe me, you don't want the FCC regulating news either. I think I'll write GE and NBC. Do you care if NBC thinks GE hype is news. Hope so. Maybe if we stop being passive consumers, news-as-hype could be made to go away.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT STEVE JOBS AND APPLE?

Genius? Magic? How is it that one company out of all the tech companies builds the really cool stuff, and the rest, while O.K., don't? Why didn't somebody come up with a better phone before the IPhone, which wasn't exactly a secret. It must be Steve; that seems obvious. But Steve didn't exactly set the world on fire with NeXt. Pixar, O.K., but not exactly fast and not with something that went into everybody's pocket. Sure, he proved he could be the neXt Disney, but somebody would have done that with computer animation. And, of course, we're talking about a developing phenom over a period of twenty years or more. Jobs at 25 wasn't Jobs at 40-something.

So is it Apple? Or Apple designers and engineers with Jobs behind them, whip-cracking? Or encouraging? Samsung's cool, but not that cool. Sony? Still makes cool things, but the mojo is pale by comparison. Creative? They're interesting, but not heroic, as Apple-Jobs seems to be.

Is this the kind of line of thinking that leads inevitably to character assassination? No. Somebody has to come up with another great thing. Who will that be? Are we doomed to sit around waiting for Steve's next act?

MY IPHONE POST.

Isn't it amazing, how everybody's got an IPhone story? Well, here's mine. I don't even have to give you any links. It's everywhere. After months of "It's coming" stories, today we have the "It's here" stories. What are they going to write about it after tomorrow? IPhone checks into re-hab, promises to upgrade?

BLOOMBERG'S BOLD MOVE.

Don't get me wrong. Everybody who flirts with running for President of the United States makes a bold move. But I think Michael Bloomberg's departure from the Republican Party is uniquely bold, and, in terms of politics-hype, brilliant. Every new-lead-desperate media monster (read: all of them) is talking about him this week, not just in the media capitals, but out in the heartland, too. You can find every last ort of the story reported and masticated. Just Ask or Google Michael Bloomberg. In today's bits-per-second world it was all out there in about as long as it took to run spellcheck. 

Never mind what he's saying (I'm not running). He's the first in--to the inevitable, much needed test-marketing of the non-elephant-non-donkey in the room. The new American third party. Other than the inescapable fact, for me, that the next president can't be Republican...now I'm getting excited about the possibilities.  

TRIBAL HYPE.

Here's a thought. Want a clue why the Congress can't seem to get an immigration reform bill out when everybody seems to want one? We've all forgotten how to compromise. See, as Bob Schieffer pointed out eloquently last Sunday morning, everybody wants his way. Therefore, this legislative body has forgotten that they're supposed to compromise. Thus, "Congress demonstrated yet again that it could not muster the political will to confront a major problem head-on and resolve it."

Blame isn't productive, but I'll blame the Shark wing of the Republican Party for honing the art of demonizing opponents to a razor's edge. And the Snark wing of the Democratic Party for playing at their game, poorly. The result: for some time we've had only posturing faux ideologues to choose from for Senate and House. The only thing that's "saved" us this season is our general cross-party agreement to sack the most extreme jerks and get some, any, new blood in there.

We have to do something about this gap in our current education, this slide in our political culture. If you want a searing, eye-burning look at the end result of extreme name-calling and cultural labeling in politics, just look east, at Iraq, Gaza, Rwanda, and back in time to Serbia-Bosnia-et al, Lebanon, Northern Ireland.

The longer we demonize Conservative Tribes, Liberal Tribes, Christian Tribes, and all the rest of the sub-tribes, the more we're apt to tilt our increasingly gory terrain. We're going to have to agree on something; and to do that, we must rediscover that more than one person deserves to be right.

THE MARKETING-MANUFACTURED DILEMMA.

Shows like NBC's Today burn through a lot of material. This morning I saw a perfect example of the marketing-manufactured problem, now solved by Websites and TV psychotherapists. Today's angst-aggravator:

Couples-who've-moved-to-another-town-struggling-to-find-other-couples-to-make-friends-with.

Did you know there's an epidemic of duo-relationship frustration? Today cleared it up today. You can try to go see the segment on their Website, but they haven't made it easy. Look under "Video from Today," and good hunting, though I can save you the trouble, unless you want to laugh firsthand.

See, it's almost like dating all over again, according to the Today-recruited sufferers. Will she like her, and if she does, will he like him? Well, at least the couple have each other to talk to about the other couple on the way home from the "date." Yes, this is probably the greatest thrash since the discovery of pitfalls surrounding kids' playdates. And this ongoing exploration of 21st Century sociology undoubtedly required a team of publicity experts, PR agency flacks, writers, producers, camerapersons and other technicians, TV show bookers, and the Today resident shrink (and contributing editor to Cookie Magazine), all to slip in a teeny plug for three you-guessed-it "coupling" Websites (who aren't getting a plug here -- go Google-Ask-SearchMash 'em yourself).

ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT HYPE FIRES.

What do you expect to be when you grow up when your parents named you Paris Hilton, so you're like a walking billboard for the family business? I guess it could be worse: they could have called her Cleveland. Anyway, let's have a little dose of reality therapy here. Is the big story whatever Paris is doing at the moment, or is it "What is it with the media, that Paris is such a big story?"

Let's be honest with ourselves. We love gossip. We love it when the rich and beautiful fall upon their shapely glutes. We watch NASCAR for the thrill of streamlined cars smoothly negotiating scary curves? Hell no! We gape at car crashes. We want to see 'em flying through the air, end over end, smashing into a zillion pieces in a cloud of smoke and liquified rubber. It's all riveting TV, radio, magazines and newspaper stories.

We want our Congressmen and Senators to erupt over violence and nasty language on radio and TV. But if they ever actually took it all away, we'd storm Capitol Hill. The Hiltons have been playpeople for generations. Paris is just carrying on a family tradition, living up to her genes. And you, you're watching Entertainment Tonight tonight, skipping Bill Moyers. So, get over yourself.