Media Watch

Atheists state that it may not be said that there is no god, but that it may be said that there is no reason to think there is one. It is an extraordinary claim which would, under reasonable circumstances, require extraordinary evidence, according to author and noted atheist Christopher Hitchens. He says deists Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Payne and Albert Einstein may wish not to abandon the idea that there must be some cause for the universe. Even if you can get yourself to that position, which unbelievers maintain is always subject to better and more elegant explanations, all your work is still ahead of you. If you advance from deist to theist, you must believe god cares about you, knows who you are, minds what you do, answers your prayers, cares which bits of your penis or clitoris you saw away or have sawn away for you, minds who you go to bed with and in what way, minds what holy days you observe, minds what you eat, minds what positions you use for pleasure, all your work is sti

Received this via forwarded email.  The author is unknown. We're ticked off at your Neanderthal attitudes and politics and we've decided we're leaving. We in New York and California intend to form our own country and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that will include New York, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the rest of the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation and especially to the people of the new country of The Enlightened States of America (E.S.A). To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Andrew Cuomo and Elizabeth Warren. You get Bobby Jindal and Todd Akin. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and ent

I sincerely hope that the video I shot of Gov. Mitt Romney  (R-Mass.) and Iowa radio talkshow host Jan Mickelson five years ago can finally die a dignified death.  An edited version of it was recently resurrected and posted on YouTube in an apparent attempt to expose a prickly side of the former Massachusetts governor and Mormonism. I'm tired of seeing this clip show up partly because it's always mischaracterized by the press who toil over it, getting even the basic facts wrong.  No media has contacted me for several years about the facts surrounding the shooting of this video, so I'll answer a few claims here. Claim: The exchange was off the record. False.  There were no less than eight people within earshot of the governor, with various affiliations, so even if an assurance had been extended, such a promise would have been impossible to keep.  The host stated at one point: "While we're off the air..."  The camcorders were not part of the broadcast.

One of my marketing mentors, Drew McLellan of McLellan Marketing Group in Des Moines, has always been very open about making your marketing successful, and in his recent column he shares one that caught my eye:  Stop Making These Three Excuses for Not Making Videos . As a thirty-year radio vet, I've been shooting online videos for a fraction of that time, but I do because I recognize the value in putting it to work.  I don't shoot the high-end pieces or create animations, but I do like clean, well lit videos that are easy to understand -- someplace in between the glossy agency presentations and Flipcam-style quickies. Drew's warning go directly to the objections business owners often use that stop them from using videos before they even get started.  I encourage you to read the article and see if you've used any of these objections and what you should consider to overcome them. Why is this important?  Here are a few facts he relays and a few of my own.  Drew says

An email arrived a few minutes ago.  It was from a co-worker and contained a forwarded joke: I was visiting my son last night when I asked if I could borrow a newspaper. "This is the 21st century," he said. "I don't waste money on newspapers. Here, you can borrow my iPad." I can tell you this, that damn fly never knew what hit him. I was mildly amused.  But how about this? “Grandma,” my nephew said to my mother, who handed him a Ladies Home Journal to amuse him, “this is broke… the pictures don’t get bigger when I try to stretch them.” But score one for granny because newspapers have many functions beyond crossword puzzles and swatting flies.  They’re great for cleaning windows and laying out cookies, too!  Most importantly, they’re impervious to electromagnet pulses, which could be a big deal some day.  An enemy E.M.P. blast could easily melt the microprocessors inside iPads and computers and phones – and nearly every household appliance made in

Medicine, like education, is a convoluted industry that seems more interested in bilking people out of their earnings than one in which public service is the goal. The monstrosity we now call health care is so enormous that it's eating the US government's budget -- feeding off the gigantic teat of the wage earners in this country. Medicine, as a model, is now ripe for an infusion of technology, the likes of which created a subeconomy out of a music player. we can do for diagnostic medicine what Apple and Steve Jobs did for portable computing. Four years ago the President told us that we were embarking on a jorney to digitize health care records in a way that would streamline the industry and the patient experience. That didn't happen. i recently visited a walk-in clinic that was in my health care insurance "network" and stepped up to the counter, where I was asked, "Who sent you?" "Nobody. Me." How else was I supposed to answer tha

The phrase, "perception is reality" has taken flight among US press organizations, ignoring factual information and relying on public opinion and the viewpoints of the most extreme partisan pundits as the basis for its news coverage. The founding fathers viewed the press as so fundamental in the political process that they gave it special privilege and protections under the Constitution.  The press is afforded the opportunity to shine a light on the government and investigate claims made by politicians -- and to reveal truths not otherwise available to the average individual.  But today members of the press happily enrich themselves by advancing corporate propaganda on a wholesale level.  Their only measures of success are opinion polls and their bottom line. Like the media, Congress is merely another operative --  a tool of a corporatist government profiting through propaganda.  But that's another article. The way the media operates today is an obvious disservice t

The question Republican voters are left with is this: which of Paul Ryan's beliefs will be compromised now that he's hitched his political wagon to Gov. Romney's Presidential campaign? One of Romney's most notable traits is that he changes positions with the winds of public opinion, leaving voters confused and confounded by the candidate's ambiguity. Choosing a running mate that is a polar opposite -- in terms of his explicitly stated positions -- is unquestionably good for Romney, but how badly will this marriage hurt Ryan? What of his values? His moral consistency? Imagine if you will, in light of the number of times Romney has had to apologize for his own mistakes in positions (abortion), the level at which he will be forced to qualify Ryan's incompatible policy statements. Rep. Ryan's a spreadsheet guy; he'll always turn to the numbers to inform his own initiatives. The now-infamous Ryan Budget is the elephant in the room. Which parts of

Like stealing the weak kids' lunch money, the corporate class is constantly figuring new ways to enrich themselves on the backs of the working class in this country. And today one of the color guards of that movement has been selected to be the number two man in a new government. Paul Ryan, whose budget proposal would have given every advantage to commercial interests while the middle class would be left to pick up the load, is Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential pick. Like a recent Supreme Court decision, Romney and Ryan believe corporations are people, too, which is code for freedom to amass unlimited funds to derail the peoples' choice for public office. But the Romney camp goes one further; the way they see it, corporations should not be saddled with taxes imposed on the poorest of families. Ryan will fit right in. He's for gutting government programs that help the people, but ensuring the elite keep their power positions and riches. Isn't it ironic how o

We've been told most grain producers have crop insurance to cover their losses during catastrophes like drought. And that might lead some to believe all's well in the heartland. But it's not good news. Even if farmers are made whole by their insurance policies, the grain shortages are going to ripple through food and fuels markets in ways we can't imagine. And nobody's talking about it. Many of us rightly believe the drought will increase food and fuel prices at a time when unemployment is at its highest level since the Great Depression -- and those that do have jobs have seen their wages stagnate at generational lows. That is indeed difficult to swallow. But that's not the scary part. Did you know that taxpayers, not insurance companies, hold the lion's share of the exposure to crop insurance liabilities? Iowa State University economics professor Bruce Babcock has said that 50 percent to 80 percent of underwriting losses will be shouldered by

I want a a super-handy, single-handed device that's more usable than iPhone & iPod. I've been very seriously considering buying Google's Nexus 7 tablet because it has a larger-than-iPod screen and its Android implementation is not crippled like the ones other retailers are pushing. Then, today, seemingly reliable reports that Apple is definitely announcing a mini version of the iPad with a 7.85-inch screen that'll sell for significantly less than iPad's $499 tag. That's according to "several people with knowledge of the project who declined to be named discussing confidential plans." Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said, "No comment."

Whether you're a non-profit or a presumptive GOP Presidential nominee, the conventional belief is that you put money in Cayman Islands accounts to keep the prying eyes of the U.S. government away from those investments, which is only important if you want to avoid U.S. taxes. The reason United States Senator Charles Grassley (R-Ia.) distinguishes between a non-profit and a Presidential candidate escapes me. Wouldn't such a practice be slimy in either case? Sorry, Senator. I hate to throw your own words back in your face, but if those words were meaningful for a non-profit, then they are also fair game for anyone running for public office. I get it. My ex wife hated it when I'd repeat her words, mainly because she preferred I'd forget about her inconsistencies. I don't see the dishonesty in taking Grassley's remarks made in 2010, disparaging offshore investments made by a non-profit, and applying them to an offshore investor who wants to lead this coun

The problem with the healthcare conversation in this country is the way we make presumptions about what it is and should be. First and foremost, medicine has become a profit center for large corporations and the super rich. I heard a political pundit last Sunday suggest it's a problem that sick people are showing up at the doctor's office without healthcare insurance. There's never even a remote possibility that the patient might pay for services rendered. And that's a new dynamic that took hold in my lifetime. In 1958, when my mother gave birth to my oldest brother, the doctor and hospital bills combined equalled two weeks' of my dad's salary. That reveals two major changes in medicine in the last half-century: costs have tremendously outpaced inflation and the patient-as-the-payer model is dead. Secondly, health care professionals have resisted modern technology that would improve both the quality and accessibility of health care. In the tech and s

The title is a cliche that has become the bitter moniker of the displaced and disgruntled local radio personality and the signs are pointing to more dramatic reductions in local facilities, considering the recent bolstering of centralized management teams and infrastructure. No one should be surprised when radio leaves Main Street USA; it's been coming for 16 years. If you work in local radio and you're 25 or younger, your grandchildren may not believe you when you tell your stories about local radio. "They did what with 100,000 watts? And a thousand-foot tower? That's stupid!" I took a four year hiatus from radio in the nineties and when I returned, the carts and card catalog were gone and automation had been rolled out and the the President had just signed the 1996 telecommunications bill, essentially opening the door for the massive corporatization of my beloved career. What happened in '96 was not the death of local radio, but the seeds of a gradu

 When the state tacks fees on the price of a gallon of gas, it's punishing a class of people that are not only the least deserving, but the weakest element of the government. The wage earner. The reason we, the weak, are taxed in the first place is because we don't have the power to fight back. The US Supreme Court recently ruled that corporations are sovereign entities above and beyond the individuals that comprise them by upholding their ability to speak with a louder, more pervasive voice in government via campaign contributions. That gives the very rich incredible influence in government that the rest of us cannot access. The reason the wage earner, the people that drive their cars for reasons of personal travel or to get to their jobs and many other non-commercial reasons, should not have to pay a gas tax is because they cause a minuscule amount of wear and tear on the roads in comparison to that of commercial users. The unmistakable beneficiary of our roads are the c

I always threatened to cancel my cable TV subscription, but when my bill jumped from $78 to $140 a month, it was suddenly a lot easier to return the gear to Mediacom and end the relationship. What I had not fully realized was that 95% of what I watch is free.  In fact, all the top shows are in fact broadcast OTA (over-the-air).  What am I missing?  I can't watch Mad Men and The Daily Show at their initial air times anymore, but for $9 (Netflix) I can catch up on almost any cable show, like Mad Men, and there's a free app for The Daily Show. For the sake of full disclosure, I had to replace the Internet connection my cable company provided as a part of their $140 package.  I found a company that provides DSL for $45/mo.  And I still have my Tivo DVR, so that's another $129/yr ($10.75/mo).  I can drop that (see below) and still enjoy all my shows.  Finally, my phone bill is $45 a month.  I'm keeping that. What you need to cut the cable: $35 TV antenna (and the

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad announced today that he's backing Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) for the Presidency. It's pretty late in the race to be choosing horses, and this particular stallion has some issues from a previous run. Romney showed us there's nothing he wouldn't lie about.  So the question is whether it hurt Branstad to back the better of the evils, when in fact the lesser man is evil. Let me take you back to august of 2007 when the former governor of Massachusetts appeared on a radio show while stumping in Des Moines during his ask-me-anything tour. Several minutes into a filler segment, the talk show host abruptly shifted gears, noting that Romney was walking into the studio. "Good morning, sir, welcome aboard," Jan Mickelson said.  But the niceties didn't last. After a significant kerfuffle on and off the air, Mickelson said, "I hope we can do this when we can spend some quality time on the air."  "No, I get a little tir

I've lived in Iowa all my life and I owe it to the agriculture community a measure of gratitude for sustaining an economy here so that I can be gainfully employed my entire adult life.  But should that mean I can't speak openly about the elephant in the room? Would I be a bad Iowan if I was critical of its producers?  Listen to any politician or company or industry communication director and you're going to hear some one-sided dialog.  But as an ordinary resident, that's not my job. As an individual I have a right to take the available information and assess it with as much critical thinking as I can muster on a given day and form an opinion about it.  Unfortunately it's well known that the industries see their jobs as managing public perception through spin in the name of sustaining our economy here. As a lifelong Iowan, I've long known you don't ask what's in a hot dog.  I've long known that hamburger consists of about the lowest grade meat i

This has been circulating for a while and I enjoy seeing it every time it rolls back to me. The Dog's Diary 8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing! 12:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing! 1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing! 3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing! 5:00 pm - Dinner! My favorite thing! 7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing! 8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing! 11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing! The Cat's Diary Day 983 of My Captivity My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The

This is my thirtieth year in radio and I'm still inspired by the spirit of the business, with all of its varied aspects.  There are layers stacked on entertainment, journalism, community service, marketing and a camaraderie that has always spoken to me.  It touches people and binds us to those in other worlds and about town. There's also a moving timeline that is intriguing and exciting.  There's a rich history that creates this aura of heritage, yet it's full of people always working to enhance and polish the processes that make the sound come out of the speakers and the words ever-relevant. I'm not a purist.  I think that's too limiting for such an evolving medium.  I love new ideas and exploring ways to change up my craft.  Besides, pure is relative to an individual and the period of his entry into the business. The earliest broadcasts were always live, as there was no means to record them.  Later, programming was produced using test acetate (lacquer-co

I keep hearing that Iowa needs to pass legislation that prevents voter fraud.  And the proponents of the measure use language that appeals to the sensibilities of regular people, saying, "If you need an ID to (insert any common activity), then why not require ID to make sure elections are fair?" And that's when my ears perk up.  That sure has the ring of demagoguery, the same rhetoric used in every debate on nearly any polarizing issues where someone has a thinly veiled agenda. I must ask if this insistence on requiring government identification at the polling place is based on actual voter fraud problems or does this amount to statistical wizardry crafted by some organized elite faction to sway outcomes to their preferred side. Voting is a fundamental right in our republic and it should not be a difficult undertaking for citizens to exercise. True, government and businesses are pushing harder to ask us to prove our identity at every turn, but the reasons for that

I've suggested divisive infighting has been a useful distraction that enables corporatism.  Much evidence of that in social conversations I read on facebook. There's plenty of common ground among the wage earners, but folks in the cheap seats are paired into political and social subsets, provoked to attack each other instead of directing their energy at restraining Washington. We're the useful idiots perpetuating the crime by doing...nothing but bickering and name-calling. The political parties have become bastardized versions of their former selves, directed by operatives who have but one common interest: to suck from the enormous teet of the federal government. OWS and Teaparty movements are symptomatic of common unrest by the populous, yet the perception is sold to us that their forces oppose one another. Seeing a thread here? We're never allowed to forget the fights. The black/white issue keeps popping up in the media. But ask yourself who is advancing

I have a hard time understanding how such large numbers of citizens of this country don't understand what it means that states are sovereign entities.  That means the federal government is restricted to power specifically enumerated in the Constitution, and all other powers of governance belong to the states and citizens.  Put another way, it is required by law to stay out of the business of drug policy, marriage, education, abortion and host of other issues because these are not under the purview of the job of President of the United States, and candidates for the office thereof. Many think of the US as a single assemblage of people under one governing body and that the President is sort of like a King commanding an army.  I imagine some are just used to the fact that the federal government often comes along and tries to impose laws on all of us, even though our state-run schools are charged with the responsibility of teaching this stuff to every kid. It is this very misgu