Simply - if viewers watch a particular program, broadcasters reward them with additional episodes of said programming. Should they ignore it, or sample it and dismiss it, broadcasters then eliminate that particular title and replace it with something else to try to win back disaffected viewers.
Ratings = Revenue (or "Revenue Follow Ratings"), so there is no affirmative action in TV land; no boosts up the ladder due to race/color/creed, no loans to help tide over "struggling" shows...no quarter given, none asked. Viewers vote with their eyeballs, and the networks react to the numbers. Perhaps it is The Ultimate Democracy, as well (cue Star Trek theme music here).
So what to make of the ratings debacle known as the 2008 Academy Awards? This year's viewership sank to as-yet unrecorded depths:
According to figures from Nielsen Media Research, Sunday's three-hour-long ceremony at the Kodak Theatre averaged an audience of only 32 million viewers, the worst since records began in 1974...
Final figures are due to be released on Tuesday but are not expected to change significantly. If the 2008 figures are confirmed, it would represent a drop of more than 20 percent from last year's average audience of 41 million.
Could it be that the idea of honoring a parade of plotless anti-American screeds (or "dark films", as the media likes to call them, alluding them to be over the head of the commoner) was sickening to most Americans?
Well, good idea we tuned out. Because there was more of this self-indulgent ignorant I-hate-my-country egotism on display at the award ceremony. Via Gateway Pundit, we get an explanation for the glut of orange ribbons worn on the lapel of so many of these pretentious poseurs:
These represent the orange jumpsuits worn by Guantanamo prisoners, and call for the closing of the prison, and the cessation of a range of controversial U.S. behaviors. But how did do-gooders get this cause to accessorize the glitterati? Enter Allison Walker, the entertainment industry liaison for the ACLU, which sponsors the Close Guantanamo campaign and distributes the ribbons. Walker is a former talent agent who once worked at William Morris. She left the biz after a spiritually cleansing sabbatical studying orangutans in Borneo, at which point she realized she wanted to use her industry connections to do good....
"I like to ask things that are simple and specific," says Walker. "The ribbon campaign is a very trusted sign in the artistic community." So. Walker and her colleague Jenny Egan took out a full-page plea in Variety, which read, in part: "Whether you are walking the picket line, the red carpet or standing on the supermarket line, wear an orange ribbon."
Well, gee, an ad in Variety! Hollywood was certainly convinced! Bet they also buy those magic Buddahs ("Rub his belly to earn riches!") sold in the back pages of the tabloids as well...what a bunch of gullible, vacuous psuedo-intellectual waifs they all are.
Interstingly enough, I found another tie-in to the orange ribbon campaign, which may or may not have been known to the Dupes of Hollywood - according to one Dr. Dennis Loo, alleged Associate Professor at California State Polytechnic , the ACLU stole the orange idea from his Declare It Now! Wear Orange against the Bush Regime manifesto.
Or perhaps they were simply a homage to Canada, where orange ribbons are worn as an awareness ribbon symbolizing Addiction Recovery.
The orange ribbon is also a a symbol for the freedom to own guns, and to indicate opposition to the Israeli "disengagement" plan of 2004. Hmm, maybe Hollywood really is owned by a bunch of pistol-totin' Jewish neocons !
Or not....
Anyway - will the low ratings given by Americans to the self-loathing Oscars wake the Left Coast up to the fact that this type of , eh, "dubius patriotism" does not pay off? Or will we see more of the same sh*t in 2008?
Guess what happens in a democracy when the elite fall out of touch with their constituents? Or when a company stops producing products that people desire?
Yup....
5 comments:
Wow, orange ribbons...had I have watched the Oscars, I might have noticed. Watching Nascar cars buzzing around laps 200 times was far more interesting, considering I hate freakin' Nascar.
Reminds me, I have a bright orange t-shirt somewhere with the words "לא נשכח ולא נסלח" on it (I got it at the '05 Salute to Israel parade), and I was scolded by some colleagues - who have "Defend America, Impeach Bush" bumper stickers all over their walls and cork boards - for wearing something so inflammatory.
Please. Now, while their bumper stickers still hang, annoying the crap out of me, I have decided to stick with a simple American flag, which reads "Proud to be An American."
If that offends someone, well...that might turn out to be a problem for them, if it isn't already.
I just learned, after following these ribbon links, that a yellow ribbon, in addition to supporting the troops, also represents "Bladder cancer awareness and prevention."
An interesting choice of color, no?
Ha! You are a rebel, Erica!
Your story reminds me of '04, when I put an 'autographed" thank-you picture up in my cube of George and Laura Bush (with W. in a white 10-gallon hat, jeans with a wide buckle, and cowboy boots!).
Boy, did my co-workers howl! After they realized that attempting to berate me was doing more harm than good, they would simply walk over to the picture and start screaming at it.
To their credit, it was never defaced, and the girl who shared my cube-space (a Bush loather) eventually found the whole thing as amusing as I did.
Interesting how many people, though, whispered to me that they agreed with me and would vote for Bush, but could never say so, for fear of becoming the next target of the perpetually rightous office liberals.
Funny how their type of free speech works....
Now I gotta get a McCain 8 x 10, and have some more fun...
Self-absorbed jerkoffs.
For me, from now on, it is Bollywood only!
What say we do a little trial run? How about we let a terrorist out of Gitmo and set him up in Allison Walker' guest room.
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