Geoff Fox: My Permanent Record
Back when I was in school teachers would always scare me with stories of how my exploits would end up in my permanent record. I believe this is it! – Geoff Fox
I was very surprised she looked so wooden and uncomfortable in both hits. This was not her comfort zone.
I, like much of America I suspect, made sure I was in front of the TV for Saturday Night Live. Sarah Palin did the “cold open” and Weekend Update.
I was very surprised she looked so wooden and uncomfortable in both hits. This was not her comfort zone.
I was trying to think of an analogy–maybe someone from Hogan’s Heroes who sneaks out of the Stalag and ends up at a party with Gestapo officers. Actually, considering the circumstances that’s a pretty good analogy, isn’t it?
May I call you Howie like the big guys–please?
I have become increasingly hooked on Twitter. It’s not because I’m posting good stuff. I’m reading good stuff from lots of people. but I’ve really become a major fan of Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post.
May I call you Howie like the big guys–please?
Here’s a little sample of Kurtz’ work, limited (and enhanced) by Twitter’s 140 character limit. He is writing from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. As is typical of a blog the most recent comments are on top.
Man, this place is crawling with media egos, some pretending to be happy to see each other
All of a sudden I have followers! who knew brevity was so popular?
It explores the promise and the pitfalls of 140-character journalism as it is practiced here at the convention and beyond.
My piece on twittering journalists here: http://tinyurl.com/6zlwu3
Great debate between Jon Stewart and The Press about how we’re harming America. Both sides really engaged. He was funnier.
Riot police everywhere. My first perk: a smoothie from Google.
Just chatted up Brokaw, awaiting other anchors- and a free lunch.
Denver press tent is decrepit and depressing. Must soldier on.
Biden hit an 11 on the passion meter. I think he wants the job.
At the Denver baggage claim. The excitement is building.
TV on the plane! 4 hours of Biden blather to Denver!
He’s very clever. He should write for a living.
Not to be confused with the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, this vehicle cruises America taking photos for Google Maps street level view.
My friend Peter Sachs (who originally installed the software for this blog–five years ago) was driving westbound on I-95 near the Q-Bridge yesterday when he saw an odd looking vehicle. Since Peter spies for a living he had no choice but to speed up to get a better look. It was the Googlemobile!
Not to be confused with the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, this vehicle cruises America taking photos for Google Maps street level view. Unfortunately, I can’t embed a map with the street view turned on, but it looks like Google has been shooting and posting street view photos from much of the Hartford area and north.
Memo to Sergey and Larry: Is this how you want people to think of Google–as a company that sends out guys driving underpowered, bland Chevys?
The fun part will be going through the images frame-by-frame trying to see if Google was shooting Peter while Peter was shooting Google. That will be fun, right?
Blogger’s addendum: Peter has sent me the photo of his car taken from the Googlemobile. It’s not Earth shattering, but in the interest of completeness it’s posted here.
Whoever listens to AM radio on a Monday night at 10:40 PM will be interested.
In the early 1970s, my radio career took me to WBT, Charlotte. It was one of America’s truly great radio stations–never to be replicated. Tonight, I’ll be on again.
John Harper, who’s filling-in for the normal nighttime talk host, has asked me to spend a few minutes talking about Hurricane Bertha, the Category 3 storm in the Atlantic. More than likely, that’s where Bertha will stay.
Though well inland, Charlotte has been zetzed by storms. In 1989 Hurricane Hugo creamed the Queen City with strong winds and torrential rain.
Hopefully, whoever listens to AM radio on a Monday night at 10:40 PM will be interested.
It’s fair to say, my pronunciation drives them nuts.
There’s a small language battle going on in the Fox family. It started when one of the contestants on Bravo’s “Top Chef” got excited and said he had a “Culinary boner.” I wasn’t watching at the time, though Stef was tickled enough to save it on the DVR and showed me when I got home.
Good grief! Bravo had so much response, they’re selling t-shirts with the phrase.
I pronounce the word culinary, kyū’lə-nĕr’ē. They say kŭl’ə-nĕr’ē. It’s fair to say, my pronunciation drives them nuts. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t also pronounce Whitney (Eli invented the cotton gin a few miles from here and the main drag is named in his honor), hwĭt-nē,
Stef points out, everyone on Top Chef and everyone on Food Network say “culinary” without the “Y” sound. Even ads for the Culinary Institute of America go sans “Y.” Agreed. but this is TV where “ask” is often pronounced “ax” and the word “orientated” is used incorrectly on a regular basis. TV is not my language authority.
This is one of those times when having three in the house is tough. I am easily outvoted. Maybe we need to bring in a speech therapist as a boarder?
I have nothing to hide, but that’s beside the point. I want my privacy preserved.
Viacom has sued Youtube (owned by Google). The issue is copyright infringement. That’s between Viacom and Youtube. Unfortunately, you and I have been dragged into this case in a way that makes me uncomfortable..
Whoa! I don’t want Viacom, or anyone, knowing where I go and what I look at on the Internet. I have nothing to hide, but that’s beside the point. I want my privacy preserved.
I am not a lawyer, but it’s my understanding Viacom couldn’t get at this info if I was watching rented DVDs or videocassettes and not streamed video from Youtube.
This decision will be appealed, no doubt. Right now, it’s just another example of America’s diminishing respect for privacy.
They want to hear 10 minutes of commercials and six or seven jingles sandwiched between two marginal hits that haven’t gotten any radio play in 35 years.
Imagine you were tuning around on your car radio when all of a sudden one station came to you from out of the sixties. I’m not talking music as much as sound and style–right out of the sixties!
There is such a station and Helaine and I listened to it while we drove home along the Connecticut shoreline tonight. It is WLNG 92.1 in Sag Harbor, NY.
While I was still in high school, my friend John Wells and his parents invited me to their summer home, a little cottage on Shelter Island at Long Island’s east end. I first heard WLNG, then on 1600 AM, on that trip. Even in the late sixties WLNG was an anachronism.
No station in the history of broadcasting has done more remote broadcasts from appliance stores and drugstores and tiny parades with few spectators. No station runs more long and tedious public service announcements recorded over the phone. No station has, or plays, more jingles. No station plays more obscure music.
Last night on WLNG we heard “Goodbye” by Mary Hopkin and Donny Osmond’s version of “Hey Girl.” There were a few other songs too obscure for me to identify and I was a disk jockey on oldies stations for all of the seventies. This afternoon, while we were heading to Sleeping Giant, they played “Deck of Cards,” the 1950s ‘talkie’ song with a Christian theme by Wink Martindale (listed on the label as Win). I can virtually guarantee no other station in America is playing this song.
WLNG is in mono. Honest. Are there any commercial FM stations other than WLNG that don’t broadcast in stereo? As I understand it, then general manager Paul Sidney wanted the station to sound louder. The laws of physics make mono 3db louder than stereo.
Paul Sidney is another anachronism of WLNG. He is totally unflappable when on-the-air, usually broadcasting on-location, because he’s already experienced every on-air screw-up and failure possible. There is nothing smooth or polished about Paul. As you listen, you might think he’s on-the-air for the first time. Surprise, he’s been on WLNG 45 years!
I can’t think of any station with less employee turnover than WLNG. Many of their staffers have been there since the sixties and seventies. That’s unheard of. The morning man’s been there since 1964, another disk jockey since 1975. Paul Sidney’s been there even longer.
Any time I’ve ever had a friend in radio visit they always want to listen to WLNG. They want to hear 10 minutes of commercials and six or seven jingles sandwiched between two marginal hits that haven’t gotten any radio play in 35 years.
God, I love WLNG.
What an amazing story! This was the America of Thomas Jefferson. Two thirds of all Americans lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic.
Last night, after Helaine had gone to bed and with Stef upstairs watching some form of modern day reality, I sat on the couch looking for something to do. Netflix was fresh on my mind because earlier Helaine and I had blown through a Garry Shandling DVD. I loaded a browser and began to check its online listings.
Old topic, but Netflix ability to stream video to my PC is great. I’m even willing to look beyond the incompatibility with Firefox and terrible search interface. It’s marketed (when it’s marketed) as an adjunct to the DVD service, but it’s really no different that buying a premium channel like HBO or Showtime, except the selection sucks. For that reason alone, no one in their right mind would buy this as a standalone package.
After searching for a few minutes, I came upon a PBS documentary on Lewis & Clark. It looked interesting, so I fired it up. What began to stream was a two part doc, narrated by Hal Holbrook and produced by Ken Burns.
What an amazing story! This was the America of Thomas Jefferson. Two thirds of all Americans lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic.
Once Lewis & Clark headed west on the Missouri River, they were fading into an unknown void. Simple things, like the stark magnitude of the Great Plains must have been as overwhelming as they were unanticipated. The year round snow caps of the Rockies were unlike anything any of the expedition’s members had ever seen before. How could they not be frightened or discouraged or both.
For a large part of the trip food was plentiful. By and large, the Native American tribes were friendly and helpful, trading for and sometimes freely providing, provisions. But, the expedition was heading upstream, fighting the current with nothing more than their muscle and sporadic wind.
Are there still trips of exploration to be taken? With every passing day I am more enticed by the prospect of exploring. But this is different than anything I could do today. Lewis & Clark were heading beyond the knowledge of white men. The astronauts on the Moon knew more of what to expect than Lewis, Clark and their expeditionary force.
I was puzzled by the use of photographs to illustrate people and places. The first photographs weren’t taken for a few decades after Lewis & Clark. Even then, cameras weren’t easily transportable. Did these shots represent what was in the narration, or were they just reasonably close analogs? What are the specifics of the shots Burns used and why those particular photos?
I wanted to ask but his production company, Florentine Films, claims they don’t have an email address. OK, they don’t have an email address for me – I get it.
That Lewis & Clark traveled all the way to the Pacific while keeping detailed drawings, charts and journals and then returned to tell their story, was an incredible achievement. Actually, it was the least likely outcome of their journey, which presented them with more peril and challenge than they could have anticipated.
Just one man died along the way. It is likely his death was from appendicitis and unrelated to the challenge. He wouldn’t have fared any better had he been near an early 19th Century hospital.
The full documentary ran 3:30. That’s quite a commitment. In retrospect it was well worth while.
This is compelling stuff… well, it’s compelling to me. I’m in TV news. I watched the whole hour without wanting to turn away.
About a week ago, I received an email from Nick Davis. It was unexpected – totally.
Hi Geoff Fox,
Last year it was a pleasure to come upon your blog wile promoting the first season of a reality show my company produces about the goings-on behind the scenes of local news. As I recall, you started out skeptical about Making News: Texas Style – in particular you were annoyed by the station’s almost complete lack of attention to the more serious side of journalism – but you were, I think, (somewhat) won over by the characters by the end of the season.
Well, season two starts Wednesday night on TV Guide Network. I have my own feelings and opinions about Making News: Savannah Style — but would much rather you came to the show fresh. I really would be thrilled to have you check us out again —
All best,
Nick Davis
Executive Producer, “Making News”
He’s right. I wrote a lot about the station Nick’s crew followed in Texas. I really had mixed emotions, because though some of the ‘players’ were interesting, much of what his camera’s saw showed the worst that local TV news is.
I wanted to give it a peek before I wrote about the new show¹. Again, this is compelling stuff… well, it’s compelling to me. I’m in TV news. I watched the whole hour without wanting to turn away.
As was the case the last time, it’s on TV Guide Channel, sharing the screen with scrolling program listings. Hey, I used to host a science fact show on the SciFi Channel. I understand not everything is a perfect fit.
The newsroom being chronicled is at the low rated ABC/Fox affiliate, WJCL/WTGS, in Savannah, GA. Whether it’s true or not, it’s claimed to be the lowest rated ABC station in America! There’s a distinction.
Savannah’s a market with two other, much more well established stations, both doing news as well. I’m not sure how this one can hope to compete, especially when they’re underfunded and understaffed.
Climbing in the ratings today is more difficult than ever before. Today’s viewing audience is heavily fragmented because of all the choices (TV, cable, computer, etc.) we all have. Simply put, there’s less audience during entertainment programs to promote your news.
I like the news director, Michael Sullivan. I liked him from the get-go. He’s a grown-up who knows stability is key to success. At the same time, he can only pay enough for employees to consider this station a stepping stone.
Reporters, please understand: Viewers don’t want to think they’re being used to advance your career!
A succession of owners has left this station with bad equipment and worse morale. That’s just not good. Unfortunately, by virtue of age and experience, the staff in Savannah does not yet know no station has equipment that always works nor every tool they need. When I filled-in at ABC, live shots died all the time. We just had enough people to hide the problems until they were fixed.
Tonight, I saw some reporters/anchors who ‘get it.’ This is really good news. They understand their obligation as journalists. They seem bright and willing to work.
I’ve also seen at least one reporter who doesn’t get it. He’s the crime reporter, but he’s really all about himself. He doesn’t understand, people are watching his reporting to gain insight, not to help his career.
The series is just beginning. I’m sure I’ll revisit it over the next few weeks. If you’re watching it too, please leave a comment.
Blogger’s addendum: The email from Nick Davis shows how ‘retail’ TV has become. He literally is fighting for every viewer. I give him credit for doing everything he can to promote his show.
¹ – It’s on cable. Each episode will be repeated – trust me.
He called me to offer me a job. It was August 1980. It was the same day I met Helaine. We’re still friends. Helaine and me too.
My first contact with Farrell Meisel was on the phone. He called me to offer me a job, in Buffalo, hosting PM Magazine. It was August 1980. It was the same day I met Helaine.
We’re still friends. Helaine and me too.
Farrell’s no longer in US TV. Nowadays he brings his TV expertise to foreign station owners.
He launched the first commercial channel in Russia, for Ted Turner, following the fall of the USSR in 1992, has done consulting in Turkey, ran a huge cluster of radio and TV networks in Singapore, inaugurated Alhurra, the US government funded Arab language TV station for the Mideast, and ran a TV station in Warsaw, Poland. I’m sure I’ve left something out.
At the moment, his consulting hat is on again. He’s in Bucharest, Romania.
Farrell is an ex-pat, the slang term for a foreign national abroad. He seems most comfortable in that role.
To me, the ex-pat life is a throwback to the 50s, with more structure and formality than modern day America. It is a life where there is still customer service and where men are addressed as “sir.”
Obviously, this is all a guess. I don’t even have a valid passport.
Yesterday, Farrell sent me some observations from Romania. I asked him if I could share?
Every city I’ve visited or worked in is unique, special and odd in its own way. It’s not a criticism, but a simple observation. You’d think, with all the traveling, I would have seen it all.
Bucharest has surprised me, too.
There aren’t enough parking spaces and lots in the city, so drivers create their own parking places!
For example: they just park in the middle of the street. That’s right, why park on the side when they can just park their car in the middle of the street or in front of another car, blocking a car?
They also park on side walks. Not just one or two cars, but several. Last night, there were three rows of cars parking on a side street, horizontally around the corner from my apart-hotel. Not in an assigned spot, but on the street.
I found it amazing that my driver, Nelu, could squeeze the company’s VW Passat through the narrow space between cars.
It is simply brilliant. Now I know why Romania is in the EU!
I laughed in amazement and had to explain to to Nelu why I was laughing. He said, “but, sir, this is Bucharest. Since the revolution we have no rules”.
Bucharest has a tram system like many classic European cities. Many of the routes are over unruly green grounds (the grass not cut due to underfunding by the government), but several parts of the routes are on pavement. Since traffic is so bad, and there are only 2 lanes on each side of the main streets, what do drivers do? Simple: They drive on the rails in front of or behind the trams!
This morning was the best. There must have been at least a dozen cars naturally driving on the center medium on one of the main lines in the center in the city . And the trams could not go anywhere.
I must have my camera ready later today or in tomorrow’s rush hour. Simply perfect.
The problem with the Internet is, it’s tough for conventional businesses to compete with something being given away for free! The entire cost/revenue structure of the Internet is crazy compared to traditional businesses.
There’s a big headline, in red, on Drudge tonight: “CBSNEWS IN TALKS TO CONTRACT OUT REPORTING TO CNN.” It’s actually just a link to a New York Times story which says CBS is thinking of outsourcing much of its news gathering.
I’m not sure what’s going on in my business all of a sudden. I suspect it’s not good.
Last week CBS started taking a hatchet to it’s owned and operated TV stations. For five decades, these O&O properties have been cash cows. No more.
Anchors and reporters, people whose services were fought over a few years ago, were dismissed without a blink. Some of these folks were making seven figure salaries. All were household names in their own communities.
For example, in Minneapolis, meteorologist Paul Douglas was let go. Paul had been in the market over twenty years. If he wasn’t making a half million a year, he had to be close.
He was gone before he could say goodbye.
Writing in an online bulletin board for meteorologists, a former on-air met said:
I’m not sure I’m ready to go that far, but the business has changed. My competition isn’t just the local stations, or The Weather Channel (always a minor player in the general scheme of things), but weather.com, wunderground.com and every website with a forecast… which seems to be all of them.
The value of high profile talent, people who could draw an audience to a station, seems to have dropped rapidly. If these CBS firings have little or no negative impact on ratings, other managers will be emboldened to chop away too.
The Internet has changed many expectations. That’s fine, and as it should be.
The Internet has freed information from a schedule. Virtually everything is available on demand. And, at the moment, the Internet reports the news without reporters, shows video without production staffs, and sells products without stores. Companies that pay people say, “why?”
If at some point the Internet drives newspapers and TV stations out of business, where exactly will local news come from?
The Internet resembles the oxpecker, an African bird that lives on rhinoceroses.
The problem with the Internet is, it’s tough for conventional businesses to compete with something being given away for free! The entire cost/revenue structure of the Internet is crazy compared to traditional businesses.
Last year, Google had $16 billion revenue with 18,000 employees. That’s around $900,000 revenue per employee. Their ‘real’ operating expenses were only $2.7 billion, with another $2.1 billion thrown in for research and development. Their pre-tax net was close to $6 billion.
Is Google or Craigslist responsible for what’s going on to newspapers and broadcasting? Maybe. Maybe it’s the appearance of hundreds of channels, each with a tiny audience… but it’s tiny times hundreds!
Maybe it’s the Wal*Mart’ing of America; the disappearance of hundreds of stores in favor of one… and the disappearance of hundreds of local advertisers as well.
It’s not one thing. It’s a variety of things, but they’re reaching critical mass.
At the moment, you can buy two shares of Journal Register (publisher of the New Haven Register and other papers) stock for about the same price as a copy of its newspapers!
Journal Register just announced they’re exploring their ‘options’. I don’t know a lot about finance, but is there anything left to sell?
Sam Zell, who heavily leveraged his recent purchase of the gigantic Tribune Corporation, is now rumored to be selling some of their papers. That’s something he originally said he wasn’t going to do. He needs the cash to pay the debt.
The funny thing is, newspapers, radio and TV stations still make a lot of money, as long as you don’t factor in the financing used to buy them. Many were purchased at what now looks like inflated prices. The assumption was their value (and revenues) would rise. It’s similar to what’s gone on in the housing market.
Tonight on IM, a friend in the business said
In a way, I’m glad you are at this stage of this career and this isn’t happening in 1980.
You have many things you can do
Again, I think that’s a little heavy on the melodrama, but times are definitely tough.
I am very lucky to be under contract right now.
At the moment, I can’t think of one business sector in America that’s doing well or has a promising future. I’m sure I’ve oversimplified and one of you will point that out in a comment. But, by and large, business sucks.
I just read that Ziff Davis, the big tech publisher, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They publish eWeek and PC Magazine, two big tech publications, plus a slew of others. They were the owners of TechTV, before selling out to Vulcan, which sold it to Comcast, which promptly folded it.
Somehow, ZD has a quarter billion dollars of debt. It always boggles my mind to find how deep in hock companies can get. Aren’t the lenders doing research?
Maybe I don’t want that answer.
When this is over, the company will have ‘only’ fifty some odd million dollars in debt… but those who owned 100% of Ziff Davis will then own 12%. Ouch.
At the moment, I can’t think of one business sector in America that’s doing well or has a promising future. I’m sure I’ve oversimplified and one of you will point that out in a comment. But, by and large, business sucks.
Among those doing the worst are print publications, which is where Ziff Davis comes in. The print business model seems very last century – though so do plenty of others.
Computer Shopper used to be a favorite magazine of mine. It was hundreds and hundreds of ad laden pages. Now, Kate Moss thin, I am dropping it.
In fact, I have allowed a few of my tech magazine subscriptions to expire rececntly. By the time the magazine gets to me, I already know what’s in it! The Internet has trumped pulp.
There’s some good news in all this. Business tends to be cyclical. Once the weakest players in an individual sector fold, or are absorbed, the remaining companies should thrive again.
That’s little solace to those cast aside in business closings and downsizings.
ZD won’t be the last bankruptcy we’ll be hearing about this year. It’s still sobering to hear an 80 year old business can get that deeply in trouble while staying pretty true to their historical core model.
I’m not totally sure if I wrote about this before (and without Google to check, I’m powerless to see), but I’ve been watching Celebrity Rehab on VH1.
Sure, I can say one of the executive producers was best man at my wedding, but that would be a weaselly way of justifying it. I started watching and now I’m hooked on a show about dependence.
Stef originally told me about it and asked me to watch the first episode so we could watch more while she was home (she is home now). Tonight we watched episode two.
The premise is, a bunch of Z-list celebs with substance problems do rehab together under the supervision of America’s favorite physician, Dr. Drew Pinsky – the Dr. Joyce Brothers of the 21st Century.
To quote a friend, “It is like a car wreck. You can’t look away.” That’s a perfect characterization.
Stef says many of the participants have been on MTV/VH1 reality shows before.
There’s Brigitte Nielsen, looking very tired, very old, very spent. She has the largest hands I’ve ever seen on a woman. Mary Carey, porn star/alcoholic is skankier than I would have imagined. Seth “Shifty” Binzer is a tattoo with legs… and a Mohawk.
There are more, including a Baldwin brother (I don’t remember which one), but all the characters fade into the woodwork when compared to Jeff Conaway. He was young and cute on Taxi 25 years ago. That’s his most recent work I remember, though IMDB says there were 50 episodes of Babylon 5.
Even that was off-the-air ten years ago. The last ten years has been less stellar.
I have seen people drunk and stoned. When I was younger, I helped friends down from bad trips (does that language date me? Probably). I’ve never seen anyone close to being as fcuked up as he is. This is not a part time gig. He seemed strung out 24/7.
His tremors and suffering while in detox were disturbing for me to watch. Even seeing him being pushed around, slumped over in a wheelchair was terribly sad. He was obviously suffering… obviously in his own personal hell.
Stef and I watched the show. When it was over, we talked about it.
She looks at TV like this differently than I do. She is a veteran of TV reality. For her, the shock value is gone. Not for me.
I was deeply touched. She was more cavalier.
She didn’t feel sorry for these people because these were choices they made for themselves. More importantly, she didn’t think they were in rehab as much as they were participating in career enhancement!
Wow, that’s an indictment.
I hadn’t thought of that, but she’s most likely right. It puts a despicable edge on the whole thing. Is there nothing in life that’s not commerce?
Her point was, would any of them be in rehab if there wasn’t a camera and MTV?
These are sad people. I’m guessing the show is a hit.
So, it looks like the Patriot – Giants game will be on ‘free’ over-the-air TV (seen mainly on ‘paid’ cable or satellite). Originally it was scheduled to be on the NFL Network alone.
This is a complex story, but it seems the NFL is the real short term loser here.
Basically, the NFL created its own sports network and seeded it with a handful of games. In years gone by, these would have been shown on free TV and, in fact, they were still going to be shown on free TV in the teams’ home markets.
The idea was to force cable companies to carry the network year round. That would be the only way to have access to these individual games. The NFL wanted it to be included on cable as a basic service, like CNN or ESPN and not a pay add-on, like HBO or Showtime.
It was a lot to swallow for a few out-of-market games and lots (and lots) of filler.
Unfortunately for the NFL, the cable companies balked and few fans cared. Did you really miss the Broncos – Texans game on December 13 (or the other random match-ups¹)?
This would have all passed quietly, except for this weekend and the Patriots going for an undefeated season. Now the NFL had leverage. Fortunately, it blew up in their faces.
Under enormous pressure from Congress on down, the NFL relented. Now, this marquee game will be seen on the NFL Network, NBC and CBS! In Boston and New York City it will be on a fourth station as well! ABC might as well run the “All-Star Salute to Cheese.”
In trying to force the cable companies to carry their network, the NFL didn’t have a leg to stand on because of one other move they’d made: NFL Sunday Ticket.
NFL Sunday Ticket is the NFL’s package, offering every game live. As much as the cable companies and Dish Network want that (and I’d probably buy it), it is only offered on DirectTV.
This is a guess on my part, but I’ll bet Sunday Ticket is the most powerful selling point DirectTV has.
The cable ops (and I) wondered, how the could NFL cry about their fans inability to watch these NFL Network games when it wouldn’t provide all the other games to those same poor fans? This is the definition of chutzpah!
There’s an old story about a guy who kills his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan. That’s the NFL!
I don’t know how this will all come out. At some point the NFL will have to accept defeat and decide if this in-house network is really a viable concept.
Is it just me, or is there a cosmic thread which runs through America where we root for the evil, greedy corporation to get its comeuppance. At the moment, I couldn’t be happier.
In the Fox house, we will continue to root against the Giants. The Pats achievement is less important.
¹ – NFL Network 2007 Game Schedule
Week 12: Thursday, November 22 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
Indianapolis Colts at Atlanta Falcons (Thanksgiving)
Week 13: Thursday, November 29 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys
Week 14: Thursday, December 6 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
Chicago Bears at Washington Redskins
Week 15: Thursday, December 13 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
Denver Broncos at Houston Texans
Week 15: Saturday, December 15 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
Cincinnati Bengals at San Francisco 49ers
Week 16: Thursday, December 20 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
Pittsburgh Steelers at St. Louis Rams
Week 16: Saturday, December 22 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers
Week 17: Saturday, December 29 at 8:00 PM ET (Live)
New England Patriots at New York Giants
Another note from the burn zone out west. This time it’s from Cousin Michael, in Orange County.
The fire isn’t burning quite as close as last night, it’s moved further east and south, but gigantic bright orange flames are still visible in the foothills just a few miles away. And because of the wind, and the terrain, and because the fire makes it’s own weather, the fire is almost completely unpredictable. That’s why we took the opportunity to stay overnight a few more miles away.
It didn’t look quite as scary tonight, even though huge pockets of flames were visible in the hills just above us. Maybe one just gets used to it.
For anyone who might be interested in following what’s happening in our area on the national news, the fire is variously called the “Foothill Ranch,” the “Portola Hills,” the “Santiago,” or just the “Orange County” fire. Fortunately, we have very brave fire fighters here.
Melissa grew up in Southern California, but Michael is from New York via everywhere. He’s been in SoCal over 15 years. In Orange County, he’s nearly a native.
These fires seem more insidious than other weather perils. How is it, in 21st century America and even with advanced warning, there’s nothing to do but watch the fire take its toll… and worry you might be next.
