Media Watch

A Time article suggests that CNN, AOL/Time/Warner, etc., aren't making a go of it online and their bean counters are marking down the value of their companies -- in some cases to zero + hard assets. This is a horrible time to judge the value of content in an advertising environment that has lost 30% of revenues...and more. The ugly truth is that media companies and businesses in general don't understand the new media enough to leverage its major strength, which is to highly target consumers in a meaningful way -- both with bona fide content and advertising. Companies, with guidance from Madison Avenue, should be partnering with social media developers to find the best way to localize their message, learn all it can about the online creature, and finally stop being so annoying. Media still thinks in terms of channel brands and they should be focusing on the quality of their individual products.

There are six school staff for every student listed on the books, a cost ratio of $87k. It costs $14,500 per student, whether active or inactive. That's $80 per day. For that kind of money, students should be eating gourmet meals and enjoying the safety of steel-reinforced bunkers while receiving the best, most intense education in the world. But they're not getting that because the money goes to administrative BS and world-class salaries instead. On top of that, the sense among many of us is that the school board approves questionable big money deals and its members have questionable ties to notorious crooks. So as taxpayers and parents, we need a watch dog to follow the money and hold the school board's feet to the fire. Sure, I'd rather have someone who could effectively communicate with parents instead of making unsubstantiated claims or feeding us shovels full of incomprehensible drivel, but Jon Narcisse is all we've got.

Bob Vander Plaats (R-Sioux City) announced his forming of a candidate committee to organize and raise money for the 2010 Gubernatorial race in Iowa on Jan Mickelson's program on WHO Radio (Des Moines) this morning and we caught up with him in the afternoon on Steve Deace's show.  Watch the video below. Click to Play

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) wants to meet with members of the social networking web site "Twitter" in what's called a "tweet-up", a physical gathering intended for discussion and networking. This town hall-style "#dmtweetup" is scheduled for Friday April 17, 2009 from 3:45pm to 4:45pm at Impromptu Studio, 300 SW 5th St, Suite 220, Des Moines, Iowa.

The Associated Press reported that an Iowa state trooper pulled over Michael Spahlinger of Cleveland Heights, Ohio on Thursday. According to the story, the trooper pulled the vehicle over on Interstate 80 near Council Bluffs to perform a routine search and eventually discovered 48 pounds of pot. Without getting into the whole drug debate, let's stick with the Constitutional issue, specifically the Fourth Amendment, which supposedly protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. The part of the story that bugs me is the phrase "routine search". As near as I can tell, any systematic searching of vehicles would be prohibited by the Constitution. Fourth Amendment -- "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and

Here's an example of trust breaking down at an important moment, during the production of a radio commercial. I've been hearing a spot for a service company on the radio recently that I find alarming from an imaging standpoint. The problem is that the client isn't enunciating well throughout the spot, particularly in stating the name of one of his primary products. I don't mean a slight enunciation error, but a whopper! In fact, "airgsher" is how it comes out. If you heard the spot, you'd probably know what he meant by its context, so you might think I'm nit-picking a bit, but the problem is that the spot makes the business owner seem like a dolt. I don't want to beat up on the concept of business owners voicing or appearing in their own commercials because history proves they can gain fame and fortune doing their own. Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher and KFC's Colonel Harland Sanders come to mind immedia

A couple things: 1) There's a death at a state-regulated care facility and the state regulators appear to be asleep at the wheel; and 2) The Des Moines Register reports that, during this period of time, the governor and his family are on holiday in Florida, at the residence of their longtime family friend of nearly 40 years, Bill Knapp, who coincidentally happens to have donated $112,500 to Culver's '06 campaign and at least $25,000 toward his re-election. Well, three things, counting the comments readers posted. 3) Wow, commenter JackDM, you sound like a government insider. But like many people who post comments on the Des Moines Register's web site, you perpetuate ignorance. And by the way, if you want to refer us to a law, just give us the code chapter and section so a few of us can at least try to follow along, instead of ensuring none of us can because you don't have the digital fortitude to paste a functioning web address. As a member of the free press, I fe