Hey, thanks for joining us again here at Thinking Hard. Charlie Sheen could NOT join us today because he's too busy off battling the wizards that sparked the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In all seriousness, my heart goes out to the survivors and families of the victims of Friday's 8.9 earthquake. I watched a lot of the live video feeds from Japan's TV stations and it was horrific to watch a tidal wave of water rush over the countryside, destroying everything in its path, while tiny cars did their damnedest to try to outrun the water. I hope nothing like that ever happens near me or my family.
All right, enough seriousness...today's a day we salute Media Behaving Badly. For starters, Chrysler made the mistake of giving its social media agency the password for its Twitter feed. Yeah, I know that sounds ridiculous, but stay with me...an employee of the agency hopped on Chrysler's Twitter feed this week and posted the following:
I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive.
No matter HOW MUCH you might agree with that, you just can't do that online. Same with posted home sex videos...that shit stays online FOREVER. Chrysler went ahead and fired that particular agency, which is now working on a "Don't Tweet & Drive" ad campaign.
How about the anchors that forget they're wearing a microphone? You know the cardinal rule: Don't say ANYTHING with a mic on you that you don't want heard because you NEVER know when your mic's on. Case in point: a Philadelphia sports radio personality was on WTXF this week, talking briefly on-air with an anchor about a story. Then the camera went to the other anchor to look ahead at other stories. Listen CLOSELY (read: turn up the volume on your computer because this audio's very low) to the two points that sports radio guy could be heard on-air:
Okay, now turn your volume back down. The radio guy apologized later. But we viewers are still left wondering about the big story: WHAT bullshit happens all the time??
Better yet, let's combine social media with people on TV. This guy from WXIA in Atlanta offered a somewhat scathing look at his own station's coverage of severe weather this week:
Granted, we in journalism are pretty jaded and think rain is rain, big whoopty shit. But to go ON RECORD and call it "performance art" takes some SERIOUS balls.
Of course, that's NOTHING compared to what happened on Fox last weekend. During the animated sitcom "Bob's Burgers," the show went to commercial on a joke that suggested the meat in the aforementioned "Burgers" was actually people. The first ad that ran IMMEDIATELY after? Taco Bell defending its "mystery meat." While not a DIRECT link, it does explain all those reports of people finding thumbs in their fast food meals. Next, Taco Bell will unveil its new entree, "Soylent Green Stuffed Burrito." (it's an old sci-fi joke...look it up)
But let's be honest. Fox isn't about "entertainment." It's about "news." Like getting to the HEART of the issue with the Wisconsin teachers vs. the government:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Crisis in Dairyland - Tape Residue | ||||
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Oh, quickly, want to give a shout-out to the writers at Saturday Night Live, who apparently have been following Thinking Hard's Hottest Mess Tournament the past THREE YEARS. This was the open to the show last night. (I tried posting the video, but there was an error on NBC's side of things, so I just tossed in the link) Thanks for watching, SNL writers...I'll be suing you shortly.
-B-
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