Showing posts with label truthiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truthiness. Show all posts

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Kids don't forget to set your TIVO for this Thursday's E! "Kinda" True Hollywood Story: Sarah Palin edition.

"Hollywood? I am much too glamorous for Hollywood!"
Here is the press release in its entirety:

"E! True Hollywood Story: Sarah Palin" Premieres April 21 at 10:00 PM ET/PT on E!

"Sarah Palin is the living embodiment of the American dream. You know, school teacher's daughter and she worked her way up. Nobody really ever saw this coming." - Lorenzo Bennet, Author Of "Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin"

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin erupted onto the national scene when John McCain picked her as his running mate for the 2008 presidential election. She has since been transformed into a pop culture phenomenon - parodied on Saturday Night Live, a best-selling author and the star of her own reality TV show. She's not an A-list actress or a chart topping pop star, but Sarah Palin is one of the most famous women in the world - and now she's getting the E! True Hollywood Story treatment. From her days as an Alaskan teenager to her highly scrutinized life today, this brand new THS is a fresh look at Sarah Palin and premieres on April 21, 2011 only on E!

Family, friends, former classmates, colleagues and journalists help paint a picture of the young Palin and describe her life - as a college student, sportscaster, fisherman and beauty pageant contestant - before the glare of the national spotlight.

Lorenzo Benet, author of the book Trailblazer: An Intimate Biography of Sarah Palin, tells E! about Palin's reputation as a high school basketball player, "she got the nickname Sarah Barracuda. some people didn't even like playing with her, she would scratch them and get up real close to them and she was very physical."

Palin's former boss, John Hernandez, sports director at KTUU TV in Anchorage, recalls "It was hard convincing the management that it was okay for a young lady to get paid to do sports in Anchorage, Alaska, but she was the best we had and they decided to give her a chance."

Dr. Lorii Ann Perin, one of Palin's friends from the University of Idaho says, "She was a natural beauty.I was surprised that Sarah had been in beauty pageants, because she was so incredibly shy. I really couldn't see her standing in front of a group of people or in front of a group of judges. And I couldn't see her wanting to be center stage."

"She was so new on the scene and so different," says Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla resident, about Palin's nomination for VP. "I mean she can skin a moose. The whole back-story thing makes her so different.just feeds curiosity."

"People can't tell the difference [between] what she said and what Tina Fey said and they just sort of accredit everything to Sarah Palin," says Jay Newton-Small, Political Correspondent, Time Magazine.

"She came home to absolutely no friends. The Democrats who she had worked with no longer had much to say to her. So, it wasn't a big glory coming home," says Shannyn Moore, a political radio host.

When Palin decided to resign as Governor, Lyda Green, former president of the Alaskan State Senate, recalls, "it was my understanding that her own family didn't know what she was doing. Her husband was out fishing and [she] said, 'you gotta come and be here' and you don't call someone in the middle of fishing season unless it's very important."

Very few people are neutral about Sarah Palin, which makes her journey all the more fascinating.

For an inside look at her life as a politician, mother and pop-culture celebrity, be sure to tune-in to the E! THS: Sarah Palin on April 21st- only on E!

I am not too sure how "true" this progam will turn out to be, but hey compared to her "reality" show this thing might play like an episode of "Mythbusters."

I expect that all of you very intelligent people have much more important things to do on Thursday then to waste your precious time watching this program.  However as you probably know I most likely WILL watch it because it is very difficult to ridicule something unless you have seen how stupid it is first.

Of course I will view it with a completely open mind. (No really!  Well probably! You know maybe I should just start writing jokes about it now.)

Monday, September 13, 2010

Biggest threat to the Fox News empire of disinformation comes, not from MSNBC, but from Comedy Central.

From Politicsususa:

The newest Pew Research Center’s survey of where and how people get their news has been released, and while Fox News is still polling the oldest viewership, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are pulling the youngest. As Stewart educates his young viewers in the ways of FNC on a nightly basis, it is clear that he is the biggest long term media threat to Fox News.

It is no surprise than that Fox News, just like the GOP caters to an older audience. Sixty three percent of Bill O’Reilly’s viewers are over 50 years old, and 65% of Hannity’s viewers are over 50. Only 44% of the nation as a whole are over 50 years old, so the over 50 demographic is overrepresented on Fox News. If the younger viewers aren’t watching Fox News, then what are they watching?

The answer to this question can be found on Comedy Central Monday through Friday from 11 pm-12 am. Colbert and Stewart’s audiences are young. In fact, they were the youngest in the survey. Eighty percent of Colbert’s audience is between 18-49, and 74% of Stewart’s audience falls into the 18-49 demo. Although their audiences are double the amount of liberals in the overall population, Colbert and Stewart also appeal to Libertarians, as they make up 29% and 27% respectively of their audiences. Interestingly 53% of Colbert’s audience and 43% of Stewart’s said that they watch these programs for entertainment. They may come for the entertainment, but they also get a healthy dose of the news.

Fox News has made no secret of their distaste for Colbert, and especially Jon Stewart, and it is pretty obvious why. Colbert and Stewart are educating an entire generation of younger viewers to critically think about what they see in the media. The long term health of Fox News is going to depend on their ability to attract and retain younger viewers. These are the same viewers that are watching Jon Stewart expose and mock Fox News on a nightly basis. This is why FNC goes out of it’s way to impugn the credibility of Stewart anytime they can. It is funny to think that the competition that may do the most long term damage to Fox News is not Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow, but a comedian who hosts a nightly mock newscast on a comedy network.

Now you know why I often post video from the Daily Show or the Colbert Report here on IM.

I learned long ago that their influence was vitally important in providing real factual information, and it is only the cherry on top of the "information sundae" that they do so in a comedic, and highly watchable, fashion.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Should Stephen Colbert hold a "Restoring Truthiness Rally" in answer to Glenn Beck's "impotent, limp, and gutless" rally? Hell yeah!


This is such an inspired idea!  I love it!

What better way to make the point that Glenn Beck's rally was a ridiculous, self indulgent, right wing propaganda event meant to manipulate low functioning mouth breathers into donating to his pseudo religious causes than to have Stephen Colbert create a parody of it?  Especially a parody that might attract significantly MORE attendees?

You can visit the Restoring Truthiness website here or join the Facebook page here.

Now I have no idea if Stephen Colbert will agree to do this, even with so much pressure from his fans, but I have a feeling he will find it very tempting indeed.