Don Irvine Blog - Accuracy In Media

Did the Media Muff Story On Racist Tea Party Protestors?

2010-03-21T18:19:46+00:00

The mainstream media is all agog over claims by congressional Democrats that they were called names and spat upon as they walked byTea Party protestors yesterday on Capitol Hill. Yet as this video shows there appears to be no evidence that this did indeed occur calling into question the accuracy of the inital reports.

Maybe there is some video footage corroborating the Democrats charges, but until it surfaces the mainstream press should make it clear to the public that this is only hearsay at best and reflects their own bias against the Tea Party movement.

Biden to Dems: “You Know We’re Going to Control Insurance Companies”

2010-03-20T17:56:39+00:00

Ah yes where would we be without Joe Biden's honesty?

Eeven though Biden was speaking to ABC's Jake Tapper this remark will likely go unreported by the mainstream media as they seek to help the Democrats pass the bill.

Papers in Decline Gannet CEO Sees Pay Rise

2010-03-20T16:46:39+00:00

Gannett CEO Craig Dubow followed the lead of New York Times Execs who saw increased pay even while their companies struggled.

From Fishbowl NY

An analysis by the AP shows that newspaper publisher Gannett Co. increased CEO Craig Dubow's pay by 41 percent in 2009, including his salary, bonus, and perks. Dubow's pay has declined since the $7.4 million he received in 2007, but 2009 saw him garner a total of $4.4 million, up from the $3.1 million he received in 2008.

Gannett has recently been plagued by rumors that high-paid employees were forced to take unpaid leave -- rumors that were subsequently shut down by Gannett spokeswoman Robin Pence.

The company is currently reaching the end of a year-long wage freeze, expected to be lifted in April.

I'm not against paying CEO's what they're worth but theire seems to be a disconnect between the salaries at newspaper companies and profits. These people earn more in one year than I will in my entire working life.

Cramer: Obamacare ‘Could Break the Back of Treasury’

2010-03-19T18:08:11+00:00

Mad Money host Jim Cramer expresses his concern about Obamacare to Larry Kudlow

From Eyeblast.tv

Financial experts like Cramer are concerned that the costs of providing health care for everyone as now proposed will have devastating financial consequences for the country but the liberal Democrats have downplayed the fears by offsetting the increased costs with higher taxes as if that's a viable solution.

TV and the Web Working together

2010-03-19T12:44:09+00:00

Just when you thought that the internet and in this case web video was going to make television advertising obsolete comes a story on how the two platforms are actually working together.

From the New York Times

IT was not that long ago when Madison Avenue believed that Web video — also known as webisodes, online video and Web series — would replace television, or at least put a big dent into the ability of TV to reach consumers.

Now, however, as more marketers turn to Web video, many are increasingly doing so along with — rather than in place of — television.

Take, for instance, “The Next Round Served Up by Jim Beam,” a Web series for Jim Beam bourbon that ESPN plans to introduce on April 4. Although the webisodes will be on ESPN.com, excerpts will appear during the first commercial breaks on 11 p.m. episodes of “SportsCenter” on the ESPN cable channel.

“We feel very strongly that video is video,” said Ed Erhardt, president for the ESPN customer marketing and sales unit of ESPN in New York, part of the Walt Disney Company.

Another example is provided by the Bertolli unit of Unilever, which promoted “Into the Heart of Italy” — a Web series that began this week — with commercials on ABC. One spot ran during the Academy Awards broadcast on March 7 and a second appeared in an episode of “Desperate Housewives.”

Some Web series use familiar television faces as hosts. Among them are “Fan vs. Wild” for another Unilever brand, Degree antiperspirant, which features Bear Grylls of the Discovery cable series “Man vs. Wild,” and “In the Kitchen,” for the Jenn-Air appliances sold by Whirlpool, which features Tori Ritchie, a chef and author.

And as American Express and Constellation Brands team up for “Pairings,” a Web series about food, wine and music that went live on Thursday, its creator, GreenLight Media and Marketing, is considering proposing a series based on the webisodes to a cable television channel.

The pairings of Web video and television reflect a school of thought that the old and new media can coexist and perhaps even benefit from each other. That idea has been reinforced recently by growing audiences for the Super Bowl and other big events on TV. They seem to be stimulated by blogs and social media like Facebook and Twitter, enabling viewers to discuss together what they are watching separately.

“When digital came in, people said, ‘No one is going to watch TV,’ ” said Gloria Rosenberg, president at Market Fusion Analytics in New York, a consult firm that helps advertisers develop growth strategies.

But as it turns out, “there’s a synergy and not a cannibalization,” she added, which is leading marketers to “create integrated communications programs” involving multiple media.

For example, the Jim Beam Web series will be supported not only with TV but also with ESPN Radio, ESPN the Magazine and displays in stores.

“This is primarily driven as a Web series, using ESPN.com as a lever,” said Kevin George, chief marketing officer at the Beam Global Spirits and Wine division of Fortune Brands in Deerfield, Ill., “and each piece of the program plays a different role, all the way down to retail.”

“Digital is important because our guys are watching online video a ton,” Mr. George said, referring to the men at whom the campaign is aimed, “and ad recall on digital is great.”

Still, “the TV part is nice,” he added, because “it gets you the awareness.”

While there is a synergy there is also a new marketing opportunity as ads that appear on television can be done in a webisode format sending viewers to the web to see the rest of the story or some exclusive footage not available elsewhere while at the same time reducing the costs of advertising as web video production is far less costly than tv production.

We are still very much wedded to our tv's so this is a way to bridge the gap until we can wean ourselves off the tube or in this case flat screen or plasma.

W.H. Not Pardoning the Interruption

2010-03-18T19:35:04+00:00

White House press secretary was irked with Fox News' Bret Baier for interrupting the president during his interview Last night.

Baier wasn't trying to be rude he just wanted the president to answer his questions rather than dance around them.

Matthews: ‘No Debate on Fox’

2010-03-18T15:21:45+00:00

Chris Matthews was at it again the other night id discussing the health care bill with Chuck Todd on Hardball when he said that there has been absolutely no debate on this issue on Fox.

From TVNewser

There has been plenty of debate on health care on Fox News just not the kind of debate that Matthews wants. And exactly where is the debate on MSNBC with Keith Olbermann only filling his shows with lefty guests and Matthews himself who speaks over everyone to make sure his opinion is the loudest one?

NBC Makes Gibbs Squirm on ‘Deem and Pass’

2010-03-18T14:23:39+00:00

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs does his best to evade NBC's Savannah Guthrie's questions on whether or not President Obama supports 'deem and pass' or a straight up or down vote on his health care bill.

I bet Gibbs longs for the good ole' days of a year ago when he had the press corps eating out of his hands rather than actually doing their job and asking tough questions. But after a year of economic and legislative failures even the mainstream media has tired of the act.

Mad Taxes: Cramer Says Rates Would Skyrocket Under ObamaCare

2010-03-18T02:14:32+00:00

CNBC's Mad Money host Jim Cramer predicted that tax rates would rise to over 50% if ObamaCare is enacted.

From Eyeblast.tv

Obama has to pay for it somehow right?

Cafferty: Pelosi Move on Health Care ‘Beyond Sleazy’

2010-03-18T00:19:13+00:00

CNN's Jack Cafferty rips into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to "deem" the helath care bill passed without actually voting on it in an effort to protect Democrats who are afraid of the political fallout for supporting the bill.

The Democrats should stand up and be counted but as Cafferty says that would take courage which seems to be in short supply these days.