video

Chuck Todd, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and host of MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown," is immensely quotable, as it turns out (as evidenced by the Drudge-driven preview clip that has been burning up the internet for days now).  Today, we go Inside the White House Press Corps for the rest of our interview, in which Chuck holds forth on the job of the White House reporter, the role of the Press Secretary, and the idea of media bias. He also tells us what he thinks of Fox's Family Guy and 24. (more...)

video Americans can't separate Sarah Palin's person from her politics-- that is the conclusion The O'Reilly Factor came to on Friday after having Fox News' resident pollster Dr. Frank Luntz survey Philadelphia voters on their reactions to the Trig Palin-inspired Family Guy episode that sent his mother into yet another fit of Facebook rage. The polling showed that "Republicans" were much more repulsed by the program and more likely to support Palin's plea to keep her son out of the political debate. "Democrats have a reputation of being more compassionate," Luntz noted, "yet the Democrats didn't find that offensive." Luntz specifies at the beginning of the segment that the people used in the experiment are neither Democrats nor Republicans, but people chosen because they voted for Barack Obama or John McCain. Using the parameters Luntz himself sets, it is possible that some of those Obama voters specifically voted against Palin despite being Republicans, so the conclusion that Democrats are not as compassionate as they seem because eleven Obama voters from Philadelphia laughed at Family Guy seems like a bit of a stretch. Bill O'Reilly's point-- that people find it difficult to separate Palin's person and family life from her politics-- is a more likely theory, especially considering how much of the Palin platform centers around family values and personal issues that are appealing to social conservatives. What O'Reilly fails to point out is that this knife cuts both ways, and outrage from Palin voters at the segment is probably more of a reaction to seeing Palin offended than it is to watching a program that ridicules special needs babies. In fact, Luntz points out that the Palin voter line "tanks" right after the character with Down Syndrome says her mother is the former governor of Alaska, moreso than when the characters are ridiculing the Down Syndrome girl's appearance without her having a political identity. Watch the video below (and follow the nifty dynamic survey graph) below:

video Seth McFarlane was a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher and of course spoke about the recent controversy surrounding his alleged portrayal (satire?) of Sarah Palin's child Trig (who has Down's Syndrome.) McFarlane told host Bill Maher "I saved my Sarah Palin virginity for you" after Maher had shown a clip of Palin criticizing his show during an appearance with Bill O'Reilly. McFarlane and Maher laughed off the criticism and cited the actress who played the "retarded" character who had claimed that Palin "doesn't have a sense of humor." (more...)

One can only imagine the sort of response this is going to elicit from Sarah Palin's all-powerful Facebook page! Andrea Fay Friedman, the actress (Life Goes On, Law And Order, Saving Grace) who played the character with Down syndrome on this week's much-talked about Family Guy, and who actually has Down syndrome in real life, has responded to Sarah Palin's wrathful criticism of the show in an email to the New York Times. Sarah Palin has no sense of humor! (more...)

Fox News analyst Sarah Palin continued her tap-dance-like rationalization about who can and cannot use the word 'retard' last night on The O'Reilly Factor. "I want to give you a chance to clarify something I've been getting a lot of mail on," said Bill O'Reilly. Alas, I'm not sure clarification is what he ended up getting but here's part of what Palin had to say (video below). (more...)

Early this morning, Fox News contributor Sarah Palin blasted Fox Hollywood for the recent Family Guy episode that took a pretty hard-to-miss jab at her special needs son, Trig Palin (Family Guy son Chris Griffin was dating a girl with Down’s Syndrome...whose mother was the former governor of Alaska). Calling it "another kick in the gut" — a reference to Rahm Emanuel's use of the word "retarded" — Palin turned to her daughter, Bristol, for her response. Wrote Bristol: "People with special needs face challenges that many of us will never confront, and yet they are some of the kindest and most loving people you’ll ever meet. Their lives are difficult enough as it is, so why would anyone want to make their lives more difficult by mocking them?" (more...)

video Um...did that really happen? And on Fox? Last night's episode featured a "unique" story line where character Chris Griffin was dating a girl with Down's Syndrome. A dangerous territory for comedy to be sure, that turned ugly, when Ellen (the character with Down's Syndrome) revealed that her mother was the former governor of Alaska. Cue deserved outrage...now! (more...)

video

Viewers watching Sunday night's new episode of Family Guy on FOX might have been surprised to see what looked like one of Adult Swim's telltale white-font-on-black-background ads. Only it wasn't during the commercial break: it was in the middle of the episode. And it plugged Adult Swim as "funnier" than Fox for not cutting out jokes. What gives? (more...)

video Family Guy took on Chris Matthews last night, in cartoon form. The voice acting for Chris Matthews was provided by ... Chris Matthews. Watch as he has a big forehead, talks over Harry Reid, is opinionated, and, uh, has a big forehead. (more...)

As a white male, aged 18 to 35, I watch Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. For the past week or so, my obligatory Judge/McFarlane quotient has been interrupted with ads like this, about Zap News App. (Sorry, embedding is turned off.)

For those too busy or important to click the link, the ad purports to be from two guys (pictured here) from Muncie, Indiana, whose iPhone app idea, Zap News, was stolen by CNN. These ads don't show any features of their or CNN's app but then, why should they? Everyone knows what news apps do; i.e., nothing special. Elsewhere on the web, the wronged duo demand that CNN "remove the app from the iTunes App Store and issue a public apology to us, then give us $100,000 and massages. And call our parents and tell them the truth."

Right about now, you should be thinking to yourself, "Well, this is obviously a viral marketing campaign. The gentleman writing this column, in addition to reinforcing various stereotypes, must be some sort of dimwit." You are correct to think that, at least the first sentence - that was my reaction, too. The question, though, becomes: viral marketing for what?

The obvious answer is: CNN's iPhone app.  (more...)

GRAPHZ

According to Reuters, the news that YouTube is in talks with movie studios about setting up a paid movie rental service has hammered Blockbuster Inc.'s stock even further down. Netflix also took a hit -- its stock fell 4% -- but Blockbuster's stock declined 10%. Since the already-healthy YouTube was bought by Google in October 2006, its traffic has exploded; over the same time frame, Blockbuster's health has gone from bad to worse.

Observe, in fancy graph form:

(more...)

video The FOX hit cartoon Family Guy has a long history of non-PC humor and taking sharp political jabs, almost exclusively aimed at conservatives and the GOP. That's about to change. The show is working on an episode that will include conservative heroes Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove - and from the look of Rove's tweets about it, they are very invovled in the process of putting the episode together. (more...)