jbNet: Quotes and Commentaries

The moments that alter political fate often lack substance. Elections play themselves out in vivid, catchy metaphors: Dukakis and a tank, Quayle and a potatoe. Part of what turns random episodes ... into icons, what inflates them into pivotal campaign events, is late-night comedy. A comic's take on politics is nimble, bite-size and utterly clear. And Americans prefer to take their news sweet. ... The Late-Night Candidate Visit has never been more crucial to politics. A shot on Leno or Letterman is a unique chance for the country to feel closer to the candidate's "genuine" persona. ... It's a terrific way to humanize the Product.

— From a New York Times magazine piece by Marshall Sella, who believes that late-night comedy is increasingly shaping the public's perception of presidential candidates, and that George W. Bush is losing on the laughtrack of Dumb Guy vs. Stiff Guy.

I've always gotten news through watching comedy shows. The coverage on CNN is something I honestly find boring. ... With Leno and Stewart, I can get the news in an interesting format, and if there's anything I don't understand, I go look it up in the library. ... It's just comedy. So it can be more honest.

— Alexis Boehmler, a junior at Davidson College, in the Times piece about how to follow politics.

To their credit, comedy writers often downplay their influence, insisting they're simply creating jokes, not determining elections. Yet the press remains fascinated by what the late-night guys say ... using joke references in news reports as proof that a political trend is afoot.

— Eric Boehlert, a senior business writer at Salon.com, reacting to the Times piece, wondering why the media cares about the funny guys.

Tuesday, September 26, 2000

If you're in the Internet (radio) business you have to differentiate. The Internet is the ideal place to get something you can't get locally.

— Thom Mocarsky, vice president of communications at Arbitron, a broadcast ratings firm, in a Wired News story about some of things the ratings are showing in preparation for a trade show.

Monday, September 25, 2000

My concern is whether billionaires and powerful people are going to run the government the way they ran that deal. Otherwise I'd be voting for the guy. If it weren't for this nightmare we went through, I'd be voting for him.

— Glenn Sodd, a lawyer who represented some landowners against the Texas Rangers when they built a new stadium under the ownership group that included George W. Bush, in a New York Times story about how Mr. Bush's baseball success planted the seed for his political success.

Tuesday, September 19, 2000

Many athletes at these Sydney Games are arriving famous. ... And the Olympics are more about what they could lose than what they could win. ... What used to be an event where everyone came in empty and some went home full, now has some coming in full and going home empty. And it's a shame.

— Columnist Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press on how the Olympics have changed because of the "hype machine"

Sunday, September 17, 2000

Why vote? I don't want to waste my time. I don't even pay attention to those two, and all my friends say the same thing. My life won't change. I dream of having a bigger house, a better car, a piece of land, but I don't think politicians are going to help me get that.

— Aundray Dogain, 31, who manages a shift at the McDonald's in Cross City, Fla., in a New York Times story about how the two major-party presidential candidates are seen as out-of-touch in her working poor county, which has Florida's lowest voter turnout rate in the last two elections.

From 1986 through 1997, the latest year for which detailed figures are available from the Internal Revenue Service, the average income of the richest 1 percent of Americans soared 89 percent, to $517,713 from $273,562. ... In 1997, the average income for the bottom 90 percent was $23,815, up a scant $364, or 1.6 percent, from 1986. ... From 1996 to 1997, the increase in average income for the top 1 percent of Americans -- a gain of $69,009 -- was nearly triple the total average income of the bottom 90 percent.

— From a New York Times story about an income gap study of an IRS statistics-of-income report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Saturday, September 09, 2000

A typical state of the ultimate laptop's memory looks like a thermonuclear explosion or a little piece of the Big Bang! Clearly, packaging issues alone make it unlikely that this limit can be obtained, even setting aside the difficulties of stability and control.

— Dr. Seth Lloyd, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talking about the upper limits of computing power in a New York Times story. As the article points out there are obvious practical considerations to controlling (and computing with) what amounts to thermonuclear fusion.

Friday, September 08, 2000

Some companies operating in the area of the Internet may have a misconception that because their technology is somewhat novel, they are somehow immune from the ordinary applications of laws of the United States, including copyright law. They need to understand that the law's domain knows no such limits.

— Federal judge Jed S. Rakoff, in ruling that MP3.com infringed the copyrights of the Universal Music Group, the largest of the five major labels and the only one the startup had not settled claims with. (Story also on Wired News and Mercury Center)

Wednesday, September 06, 2000

I knew the Web was a jungle, and one of the laws of the jungle is the bean counters don't think content is a good business plan

— Ned Martel, who was laid off as the main campaign reporter at Voter.com (from the third item in a Washington Post story)

News Web sites are already under pressure to prove they are developing a product that is more like television. ... But interactive television is increasingly seen as the oxymoron it always was. The overwhelming power of television is precisely that it requires no action on the part of the viewer. Simply put: It is a perfect delivery system for advertising. Likewise, the portable newspaper that arrives on your doorstep - fat with coupons and sales flyers - still looks to retailers like a more reasonable bet for getting your attention than the vast depths of cyberspace. ... Original, quality journalism on the Web simply falls between the cracks: It's too general in content and its audience too dispersed to attract the local or niche advertiser, yet it's too elitist and too complicated for users to access to attract the national advertiser.

— Kathleen Quinn writes that journalism is a shaky business proposition on the web because of its troubles attracting advertising.

The audience has fractured into a thousand pieces, and each piece is a valid market demanding the best work journalists can deliver. ... Now, it is true that neither Slate nor Salon has a valid business model, but that's a different problem. They've based their search for an audience on print publications that are deliberately removed from market success. ... Journalism, as a business, is a fairly simple thing. You define your audience based on an industry, an interest, or a lifestyle. You bring those people the products and services they need. You earn your money by organizing and advocating that marketplace.

— Dana Blankenhorn points out that there is room for optimism for the future of journalism on the web, it just needs new ways to use the old formulas for making money.

Consumers will not pay for the unnecessary news provided when an offline news service's other content is just plastered onto a website. It's too hard to wade through the guff that the editors think is important to get to the really interesting bits. ... The upshot of these revelations will be an increase in discrete niche publications. The days of the general-interest news publication on the Web are limited.

— Hugh Brown argues in Australia's On Line Opinion that the Internet calls for a different kind of journalism from print and broadcast.

Friday, September 01, 2000

The basic gist is that you're not receiving any direct money in exchange for readership. This can be looked at one of two ways: you can either trust in the idea of a free-market society and realize that unpaid electronic access to your work will do nothing but help sales of the paper versions; or you can be wary of a free-market society and legitimately worry that people will not buy your work when they can receive it for free on the web.

— Jason Pettus, in his essay, "Old Skool and New Media." He contends that any writer can be a publisher, so it's distribution that is now the challenge for writers. That and getting paid for that writing. (The essay was commissioned by About.com)

jbNet: Quotes and Commentaries

Interesting quotes or quick commentaries on the world in general, life as we know it, media, politics or bits of profound insight. Maybe.

Thursday, September 28, 2000

The Politics of Comedy

• Do jokes form public political perception?