Saturday, January 7, 2012

What they show us

Lazing on the sofa, idly watching a third rate college football bowl game that I don't care a whit about and never heard of before - the BBVA Compass Bowl. After a Pitt kick-off return, as ESPN went to commercial, I noticed the long shot of the Birmingham skyline had an area of soft focus, obscuring lettering on the parapets of two office buildings.

Here's what ESPN was hiding on behalf of their sponsor:


Competitors. As expected.

Moral of the story: Don't outsource your bullshit detection. Know when the content you see and hear is advertising.

College bowl games are and have always been about brand-building. This one? Same reason Toronto Dominion Bank bought naming rights to the Boston Garden - to fit in with the locals. Both have also disguised their nation of origin by using their initials. Toronto might not have been so bad, but Dominion, well, na ga happen. Can you imagine Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria in Birmingham!? Every deputy sheriff would be asking for their papers.

In fact, nearly all TV is captured by its sponsorship. Media is a product, and it carefully shows us just what its sponsors want us to see.

11 comments:

flymorgue2 said...

Insight detector never off.

flymorgue2 said...

Came here looking for insightful comments on NDAA, recess appointments and other constituitonal outrages. Left with shocking knowledge that ESPN is a money-makingnenterprise.

lovable liberal said...

Too thick to understand that money-making "nenterprises" can't be trusted to show inconvenient realities? Don't get that net neutrality is therefore very important?

Right, you're a winger, you prefer bullshit.

The Constitutional outrage of recess appointments? That is really the stupidest of recent wingnut memes. First, Republican Presidents have made many more recess appointments than Democrats, despite much greater GOP obstructionism via holds and filibusters.

Second, the recess appointment is a Presidential power granted explicitly by Art. II, sect. 2 of the Constitution: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. You think the Senate wasn't in recess because the House didn't agree to the recess, but this is a made-up bullshit "power" of the House that doesn't exist - and you never would have thought of it without your wingnut pundit chorus.

Third, the Republicans in the Senate are anti-democratically trying to destroy legally passed laws that they cannot repeal and are thereby ignoring their Constitutional duty to advise and consent. The Senate rules that they rely on are permitted but not required by the Constitution.

Republicans pledge to be even more uncooperative, but it's hard to see what they can do that's less cooperative than trying at every turn to make America ungovernable. Petulant assholes!

The NDAA does contain Constitutional outrages foisted upon President Obama by the maniacally fascist Republicans. But it's a black mark against Obama that he didn't resist more effectively.

flymorgue2 said...

Obama sends the names up three days before he appoints them. Really, Kate, who's the naive one here? This autocratic crap will return to bite you right in the ass. Obama's executive orders, signing Statements, bureaucratic pronouncements and cronyism will be practiced by the next Republican administration, an d with all due respect, I implore you to shut your big flapper about it when it goes down.

lovable liberal said...

You mean I should be quiet when I find myself in the exact situation you're in, that nonetheless provokes you to break your silence. You mean you didn't know how many signing statements Duhbya made in direct contravention of negotiated provisions in law?

You, like most wingnuts, have one rule for us and a completely permissive, different rule for your fellow wingnuts. This is the bankruptcy of your morality, the complete inability to act as a moral actor.

There is simply no Machiavellian trick that conservatives won't pursue in a much worse way than Democrats. Even if President Obama hadn't done his tenth of what Duhbya did, your Republicans would still point to his acts, not their own, as precedent. Finally, perhaps, Obama realizes that there's no negotiating with moral midgets. They'll just do whatever they goddamn can.

You object to executive orders? Goddamn, you're an idiot. You didn't know that Presidents have been issuing those forever? Seriously, what's next? You'll object to his living in the White House - that's the real root of it - you refugees from reality think any election that chooses a Democrat is illegitimate.

Cronyism??? Stunning. The Bushists enriched their friends, protected their contributors, made sure that Wall St. was whole. You couldn't find a more despicable bunch of crony capitalists (as opposed to the real kind) in a banana republic.

Due respect? Fuck you. And I say that with all due respect.

Kate? Who's Kate?

flymorgue2 said...

You skipped signing statements. Wise move. should a Supreme court justice be a recess appt.? Oh you' ll be blamingnthe Repubs for that 'bold action by Obama" soon enough.

here's Tribe, backnin the old days
http://balkin.blogspot.com/Stephens.Reply.FINAL.corrected.pdf

lovable liberal said...

Typical. You commented on what I wrote without reading it. See paragraph 1. Also, figure 1.

A Supreme Court justice could be a recess appointment. But the appointment then would have a fixed, short term, rather than being an appointment for life (assuming good behavior). You obviously haven't read the Constitution with comprehension either.

I'm trying to figure out how to make money of the fatuous credulity of wingnuts. Trouble is, it looks as though Rupert Murdoch holds the patent - and I'm not willing to whore myself out to proud stupidity.

Anonymous said...

You speak of Republicans lacking morality. Don't forget about your gang. This is just for starters...

William Jefferson Clinton- Impeached by the House of Representatives over allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice, but acquitted by the Senate. Scandals include Whitewater - Travelgate Gennifer Flowersgate - Filegate - Vince Fostergate - Whitewater Billing Recordsgate - Paula Jonesgate- Lincoln Bedroomgate - Donations from Convicted Drug and Weapons Dealersgate - Lippogate - Chinagate - The Lewinsky Affair - Perjury and Jobs for Lewinskygate - Kathleen Willeygate - Web Hubbell Prison Phone Callgate - Selling Military Technology to the Chinesegate - Jaunita Broaddrick Gate - Lootergate - Pardongate

Edward Moore Kennedy - Democrat - U. S. Senator from Massachusetts. Pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, after his car plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.

Barney Frank - Democrat - U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1981 to present. Admitted to having paid Stephen L. Gobie, a male prostitute, for sex and subsequently hiring Gobie as his personal assistant. Gobie used the congressman's Washington apartment for prostitution. A move to expel Frank from the House of Representatives failed and a motion to censure him failed.

http://www.boycottliberalism.com/Scandals.htm

lovable liberal said...

You won't grasp this, but maybe someone who's not hopeless will.

Democrats fail morally. Republicans don't grasp the first principle of morality - the golden rule.

Democrats have feet of clay. Republicans can't put themselves in the place of another.

As for your cribbed list, rejoinders - or admissions, which as a moral liberal, I have the sense and ability to make:
- Whitewater: trumped up bullshit
- Travelgate: the White House press corps takes revenge for the ordinary sacking of their friends
- Gennifer Flowers: yep, Bill shtupped her
- Filegate: an error, but a mistake, not a conspiracy or a crime
- Vince Foster: character assassination by malevolent conservatives, no guilt whatsoever on the part of the Clintons
- billing: no idea what bullshit you're talking about - futures trading?
- Paula Jones: a paid scandal-mongering from the billionaires on the right, but horndog Bill did something
- Lincoln bedroom: a whole load of nothing, compared to Bush I - the mere fact you bring it up proves my point that you can't hold your assholes to the same standard as you want to hold my assholes - another trumped up bullshit scandal
- donations: every big pol gets contributions from bad people - the problem is the system we have, and who wants to let more and more money purchase politicians? Oh the GOPers!
- Lippo: wha?
- China: nothing
- Lewinsky: real - what's wrong with Bill that he would go there? Then again, if the leader of the free world can't get a little, what's the point?
- perjury: Clinton lied to the public, which is bad enough. Would anyone else have been prosecuted for it? Of course not.
- jobs: I know Republicans want servants, not workers...
- Kathleen Willey: who knows, but it seems unlikely he did more than hug her
- Web Hubbell: nothing, more wingnut bullshit
- selling military technology to the Chinese: more bullshit and much less than Bush I or Duhbya sold
- Juanita Broaddrick: oh, really, do you believe Bill needed rape? Even Newt hasn't needed rape, and that man is gross.
- looting, by which I assume you mean vandalizing the White House: a lie planted by the Bushists, probably by Karl Rove, whose life is one lie after another (more evidence that the GOP is rotten to the core)
- pardons: some were unseemly

All you have on Kennedy is something that happened in 1969!? Try harder. Until Vickie sobered him up, he was a great Senator but a very poor human being (though a great uncle).

Barney Frank? Yep, he did the Gobie stuff. Unseemly. Not as bad as David Vitter, but clearly something he has needed to atone for.

In short, yes, Democrats have fallen short. They're not demigods. They're not messiahs. Only you expect them to be. But most of what you raise as "evidence" is, typically, bullshit.

Republicans, on the other hand, can't even see beyond their tribe. "Ooog, Republican good, Democrat baaaad. Oh, and sex very very bad, especially if woman enjoy it. (Only male orgasm good.)"

What a bunch of moral infants.

Anonymous said...

"Democrats fail morally." You almost got it Karl. Actually, it goes like this; Democrats fail at morality. Congratulations on your first step toward the road to recovery and eventual freedom.

lovable liberal said...

I'm free. You're in chains, and you don't even know it.