Copyranter sets up the clip:

Just the latest instance of illicit BamBranding. It’s for international TV news channel France 24—broadcast in French, English, and now Arabic. That’s some pretty shoddy, unconvincing editing, and just a terrible commercial. Look for the Tea Party to get a hold of this and have campaign ads produced by the end of the day. Ad Agency: Marcel Paris.

(H/T Copyranter, via)

But some of the most talented and influential bloggers still work under the radar. Whether they write for niche audiences or are simply less visible than their more mainstream counterparts, these men and women are the unsung heroes of the blogosphere, known to circles of insiders, but uncredited for the vaster influence they hold.

In this in-depth, magazine-length feature (6500 words!), Mediaite has assembled a list of 25 of the best underrated bloggers you need to know, drawing from a variety of backgrounds, and explained why they matter. You’d do well to learn — and bookmark, and RSS — the names you don’t know already. If they aren’t themselves household names in a few years, the odds are good that they will continue to smartly analyze the news, break stories, serve as role models for others, and put their stamps on the flow of information far beyond the Internet.

Below we’ve designated five themes and selected five up and coming or under-appreciated bloggers in each category, including:

Hidden Hands: The workhorses behind blue-chip sites with tremendous clout who often go unrecognized for their accomplishments as individuals.

Blogs Bloggers Read: Bloggers behind sites worshipped by insiders that mold the shape of the online conversation.

Niche Experts: These are the writers whose areas of focus may not garner them the biggest following, but in music, fashion, cars, business, and food, they’re as good as it gets.

Power Hitters: They may be big names already, but they are somehow still undersold considering the amount of work they put in and the amount of influence they wield.

Reinventors: Bloggers who, rather than resting on their well-deserved laurels for past accomplishments, have continued to innovate and reinvent their editorial presences on the web.

>>>NEXT: The first five top bloggers are the Hidden Hands…

(image via)

After giving a zero to the skit on Hey Hey, It’s Saturday, Connick, Jr. had to cancel an appearance at a shopping center in Sydney because of the number of abusive and threatening comments his protest was getting online.

Update: A reversal? Copyranter shares with us this tobacco ad from Indonesia, in which viewers are urged to embrace “the pioneering, daring spirit of progressive Indonesia” — portrayed as “slimmer and happier and crazier and, well, very very black.”

The reflexive answer here is that this probably has something to do with Barack Obama‘s election as president. Unlike the linkage of hipster potbellies to Obama’s election, this theory actually has some substance to it. Say “post-racial” all you want, but the ascension of a black man the highest office of power in America is likely to inspire backlash. Over at The Awl, Abe Sauer has assembled and annotated (and graded) a gallery of racist Photoshopped images of Obama. Speaking to The Washington Post, civil rights activist Dorothy Height said that during the 9/12 protests, she stood on the National Mall and saw “people pass by carrying posters of Uncle Sam in blackface.”

There’s a difference, though, between Obama’s election causing some sort of blackface renaissance and its making us increasingly sensitive to it. French Vogue, which had previously featured images of cannibalism and baby-throwing, was no doubt trying to ride a wave of controversy when it ran its photos, and it’s fair game to say that Obama is indirectly fuel for that controversy.

As to the Australian blackface, Gawker reports, “as the show tells us, in 1989, the same group doing a very similar act won the competition! So, in 20 years, we’ve gone from this offensive form of comedy being wildly popular to being still popular with the masses, even though some people know better.” Lest we forget, in 1993, Ted Danson showed up at a Friar’s Club roast for his then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg in blackface. It was meant to be ironic and all, and Whoopi said she liked it, but otherwise it did not go over well. Blackface has popped up periodically, but now especially it strikes a chord.

Mad Men, a show which loves to throw in jarring reminders that cultural sensitivities 40 years ago were not what they are today (and has been increasingly clumsy in that regard this season), had one of its most shocking and effective moments when Roger Sterling, an advertising executive, performed in blackface for his young wife: