Joost And "The Velvet Rope"

Viacom wants to do 'new media'. They want Joost - their TV for the internet - to be a YouTube killer.

They want to compete with the democratic, easy-to-use YouTube. But they don't want to be democratic at all.

First, they don't want just anyone trying out Joost in beta. Nope, they have a 'velvet rope' like the snooty nightclubs that won't let you in.

If you want to try Joost, you have to know an 'insider', someone who is already using Joost. And, they have to invite you.

How old fashioned. How arrogant. How 20th century.

It just shows how they don't get it.

In the 21st Century, the customer rules. But Joost wants special customers - the ones who are already inside.

Suggestion to Viacom: Move into the 21st century. Drop the 'velvet' rope. You might learn something from those outside.

Rush Limbaugh on Virginia Tech Shooter: "He had to be a Liberal"

Check out this brief transcript from yesterday's radio show (April 19th) of Rush Limbaugh deflecting criticism of his appalling comment that the Virginia Tech shooter was "a liberal".

The way Limbaugh moves attention from his own sick interpretation of mass murder to a "poor me" defence against the "drive-by media" that attack him -- before anyone has said a word about his horrible slur!

This is a masterpiece of radio manipulation -- it's why he's so big with his core and why he's stayed on top.

It's why he will get away with this outrageous and ugly connection between mass murder and liberalism.

Click here to listen to the actual broadcast mp3.

Media Matters of America tracked Limbaugh discussing the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings. According to Rush Limbaugh:

"If this Virginia Tech shooter had an ideology, what do you think it was? This guy had to be a liberal. You start railing against the rich and all this other -- this guy's a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it's a liberal that committed this act. Now, the drive-bys will read on a website that I'm attacking liberalism by comparing this guy to them. That's exactly what they do every day, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just pointing out a fact. I am making no extrapolation; I'm just pointing it out.

They try -- whenever -- I can tell you from the history of this program, starting way back in the early '90s, when there was any kind of an incident, crime or what-have-you that attracted national attention, in the early days of this program, the drive-by media went out and they tried to connect the perpetrator to this program. They did everything they could. In fact, it went so far as Bill Clinton blaming me for influencing Timothy McVeigh to blow up the (Oklahoma City federal) building.

These are the people sponsoring lies and distortion for the purposes of dividing this country and creating hatred. These are the people that invented this kind of tactic, if you will."

Does anyone have the guts to go after Limbaugh just like they went after Imus?

Imus and The Tipping Point

Al Sharpton is mad at Don Imus because he called some women "hos" - short for whores.

The Reverend Al is mad at Imus. NBC is mad at Imus. Women's groups are mad. Don Imus seems to have stepped over a line he didn't see.

Why didn't Imus see the line?

Maybe because rappers have been calling women "whores" - whoops, "hos" - for more than a decade (when they weren't calling them "bitches" or something worse). On MTV. On the radio. In public. During their interviews. And, they made millions by doing it.

Maybe Imus thought he was a rapper. Maybe he just didn't think.

Here's the good news: this is a chance to talk about the degradation of women that's become part of our entertainment culture. And to change it.

This isn't about Imus. It's about a Tipping Point - when women fight back against the degradation that's in rap music, on MySpace and so much "popular" entertainment.

Come on Rosie, Katie, Ellen ... Imus is already going to hell. Let's use the opportunity to change an ugly mind set - calling women "whores" - whoops, "hos". Regardless of the color of their skin.