The Inauguration IS On TV, Right?

Maybe it's just a reaction coming from a guy who's had to keep a fairly close eye on his spending in recent months, but when I read this article in this morning's Washington Post, I pretty much wanted to hurl.

It turns out there are a lot of perfectly middle-class people who are willing to go considerably into debt in order to have the opportunity to attend the inauguration... Not just to travel to Washington, DC, but to go all out and do the whole Inaugural ball and rent a limo thing, as though this was some sort of senior prom. The Post article features a woman who is flying here from Oakland with her boyfriend and their three daughters, ages 13, 3 and 1, and is planning to put a minimum of 11,000 dollars on her credit card to do it.

Maya Dillard-Smith tells the Post, "When you say the amount, it sounds crazy, but this is history. I remember my mother taking me to see Nelson Mandela at the Oakland Coliseum, meeting Jesse Jackson and being there when Desmond Tutu came when I was a child. Because of the historic nature of this election, I want my daughters to be there to see this in the environment where it is happening."


That all sounds well and good, but when those things happened, Mom took her daughter down the street, not across the country. I do not want to diminish the significance of Obama's historic inauguration, but to me, this woman's rational for dragging her kids across the country for an event that the two youngest children will not even remember is not only foolish but irresponsible at a time when the nation is in recession.


Dillard-Smith works for the Oakland city government, and her boyfriend owns a small construction company. Those don't sound like the type of careers that will allow them to pay off an 11-thousand dollar credit card debt (and that assumes this is their ONLY credit card debt) in just a month of two. And what happens to their memorable and historic trip if one of the babies comes down with the flu or snow puts a damper on their plans?


Our country is in the shape it's in right now because we, the people, have been foolish enough to trade our good credit for stupid and irresponsible things like 11,000 dollar inauguration vacations. I don't see how anything this family is doing jives in any way with Barack Obama's call for change in America.


Sadly, it smacks of "same old, same old" America. Enjoy your trip.

Barry Diller Is My New Hero!

For those of you who are not in the know, Barry Diller is a media mogul. He's been around Hollywood for decades, and at various times has run the ABC, FOX and USA networks, as well as Paramount Pictures. Today, Diller is chairman of Expedia, and he also runs a conglomerate that operates several web-based businesses.

So why is Diller my hero? Here's what he said at a media summit in Hollywood this week:

“The idea of a company that’s earning money, not losing money, that’s not, let’s say ‘industrially endangered,’ to have just cutbacks so they can earn another $12 million or $20 million or $40 million in a year where no one’s counting is really a horrible act when you think about it on every level. First of all, it’s certainly not necessary. It’s doing it at the worst time. It’s throwing people out to a larger, what is inevitably a larger unemployment heap for frankly no good reason.”

Now, I'm not sure this would apply to me, because I'm not sure my former employer is going to survive. But just yesterday, both NBC and Viacom, both viable and profitable companies, laid off several hundred employees each. helping to extend the cycle of unemployment that will contribute to the depth and length of our current recession. The longer the recession lasts, the less money these giant companies will make, thereby making the recession a self-fulfilling prophesy. Diller went on to say:

“It’s not that you don’t want to earn as much money as you can — it is your obligation, of course — but companies have obligations beyond that and they certainly have obligations beyond that at certain times, in the times in which they operate. And they also certainly ought to know that meeting and beating expectations is probably yesterday’s game and it will be increasingly so, which would be by the way very healthy for companies. Running a company that meets and beats expectations, and that runs their company accordingly, are companies that I would question why anyone would invest in.”

You can read more of Diller's comments here.

What I think Diller is trying to say is that people are still the most important assets of any business. Yes, you can make more money in the short run by cutting your labor costs to the bone, but eventually, what you really need are customers to buy your product... And the only way there will be enough customers is if American business does everything it can to keep people employed so they can BE customers.

Thank you, Mr Diller!

Have You Watched "Rudolph" Lately?

Last night, after spending the day draping the front of my home with holiday lights, the Missus and I sat down and watched "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" as we ate our dinner, and as the parents of two special needs children, we had a few good chuckles over how out-of-date the TV special was in terms of its political correctness. Mind you, we took no offense - we love vintage TV Christmas specials! But just consider...

• When young Rudolph is born and his "impediment" is discovered, his parents don't seek help - they effectively put their "handicapped" son in the closet, by forcing him to wear a fake nose and pretend he's just like all the other kids.


• Rudolph's ruse works OK for a while, but in a fit of adolescent excitement, just as he's impressing Santa with his flying skills, Rudolph's fake nose falls off, revealing his radiant proboscis. Once Rudolph's "handicap" is revealed, the VERY FIRST character to comment on it is none other than SANTA, who says (paraphrasing) "What a shame - and he had so much potential, too!"


• All of the other reindeer promptly fall in line behind their leader, humiliating Rudolph and proceeding to immediately isolate him, banning him from joining in the reindeer games.


• Rudolph, of course, runs away with another deviant outcast, Hermie, the elf who wants to be a dentist... And where do they go? The Island of Misfit Toys, where all "handicapped" toys are sent to be banished rather than be allowed to assimilate.


• Rudolph and Hermie eventually meet up with the Abominable Snowmonster of the North, who is holding Rudy's parents and girlfriend hostage. They manage to free the hostages, but the fail to finish off the snowmonster because they realize it would be better to "get the women folk" (that's a quote) back to safety.

As we all know, everything works out in the end and Rudolph saves Christmas - but only because he could prove that his "handicap" had an upside! Otherwise, he and the misfit toys would still be chillin' back on the island!

Just imagine what would happen if this scenario played out in real life in 2008. Somehow, I think the outcome would be quite different - and a lot of lawyers would be getting rich!

I wanted to include a clip from the Rudolph TV special, but Rankin/Bass has been successful in pretty much banishing its material from Youtube. I did, however, find this fabulous parody clip, in which the Rudolph special is produced by Martin Scorcese. It's a hoot! Enjoy!

Well - There Goes 2009!

Can we just skip a year and go straight to 2010? The latest projection for the radio business just came out last night, and analysts are already writing off 2009:

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Newly released data suggests that the U.S. radio industry could be on track to record its worst annual drop in ad revenue in decades.
According to the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), total ad revenue for all U.S. radio markets dropped 10 percent in October from a year earlier. Local revenue fell 15 percent, while national revenue slipped 1 percent.
October marked the industry's 18th consecutive month of year-on-year revenue declines, according to James Boyle, a senior broadcast analyst at research firm C.L. King & Associates in New York.
"One actually has to go all the way back to 1954, when radio ad revenue was down 9 percent against the prior year's dip of 2 percent" to find a worse decline, Boyle said. "1954 was the fourth straight year of substantial radio advertising underperformance versus total domestic ad revenue."
That was also the year, Boyle quipped, "when 'The Lone Ranger' had its last new radio episode and Sen. Joseph McCarthy was railing against hidden Communists."

BLEAK PROGNOSIS

The future doesn't appear bright, Boyle said. "If the recession lasts for all of 2009 and the weakness persists in many of the major radio ad categories, such as auto, to the point where spending severely plunges, then it may be 2010 or beyond before radio revives," he said.

You can read the entire depressing assessment HERE. And just to add fuel to the inferno, we just learned this morning that Montgomery County Teachers ( including my wife) will go without pay raises next year:

Montgomery County teachers and other school employees have agreed to give up a 5 percent pay raise next year, a concession that saves the school system $89 million and allows Superintendent Jerry D. Weast to balance the budget.
Leaders of four employee associations, representing more than 22,000 workers, agreed Tuesday to forgo the raise all workers would have received in the fiscal year that begins in July. Weast said he and other top administrators in Maryland's largest school system would also lose annual raises.
School officials said it was the first time since the early 1990s that Montgomery school employees had given up a contractual pay raise, a sign of the magnitude of the economic challenge. School board President Nancy Navarro (Northeastern County) credited unions with "tremendous sacrifice during these tough times."

You can read all about the teachers' pay raise cut HERE.

As much as it hurts our family budget, I support the county's action to cut the pay raises. As I've mentioned before, I believe it's important for government workers to have a realization of the troubles that their employers - the taxpayers - are experiencing. We'll all in this together, folks!

My wife has been troubled that my current state of underemployment is relatively unique among our friends - like there's something wrong with us. Unfortunately, I'm afraid our situation is going to grow less unique by the day.

Keep your heads down, folks!

Repression As a Political Gimmick

Am I the only person out there who thinks the DC government's crusade to stamp its "Taxation Without Representation" slogan on everything is obnoxious and pointless? Last week, the city council announced plans to rename South Capitol Street in front of Nationals Park "Taxation Without Representation" Street, because the Nats refused to post a big sign with the slogan inside the stadium. Now, the city is asking President Obama to ride with "TWR" tags on his limo in the inauguration. Previously, the city wanted to stamp the slogan on the D.C. version of the quarter, but the U.S. Mint killed that proposal.

I have never understood why the residents of the District of Columbia think a slogan that effectively says "We are repressed" is suitable as the city's primary marketing message. They are shouting a complaint that no one is hearing. People who live in the DC area have spent our entire lives being pounded with "DC Statehood" campaigns, and people who don't live in the DC area either don't know or don't care about the city's complaint.

The city wants a "fair" vote in Congress - ideally by becoming a state, with a House member and two Senators. That, pragmatically speaking, is never ever going to happen, even with Democrats controlling both Congress and the White House. There are more than enough constitutional questions to keep it from happening anytime soon, and you'll never find enough momentum for lawmakers to make it a priority to get the deal done.

And can someone please tell me how repressed the people of Washington, D.C. really ARE? I get the concept that they are being taxed by the government without having a say as to how their taxes are spent. And yes, I know that Congress has the right to overturn DC laws. But that's been the deal from the get-go in Washington. The city, for better or worse, was created that way by design. DC residents do have the freedom of choice to move a matter of a couple of miles if they really feel the need to have that right to vote. No one is making you stay put if it's that big of a deal to you. My father has lived in DC for most of the past 40 years, and somehow managed to avoid caring about having a vote in Congress. And he pays more taxes than most people, believe me!

This whole "Taxation Without Representation" shtick is a political gimmick. Every politician has one - something to hang his hat on to create buzz. Barack Obama's gimmick was "Change you can believe in", and that got him pretty far. I sometimes think DC pushes this whole "vote in Congress" thing just to keep itself in the news. They need something to bitch about.

To me, D.C.'s use of "Taxation Without Representation" speaks a message of snarky bitterness. It thumbs its nose at Congress, and by extension, to the rest of the United States... Ironic, considering the city wants to be INcluded and not EXcluded. I don't know... If I wanted to be invited to a party, I don't think I'd start off by telling the party's host that she's ugly.

But that's just me!

It's Honeydew Time...

... Or perhaps that would be more accurately spelled "honey-do" time, as in "Honey, do this..." or "Honey, do that..." With my recent run of work at WMAL and at ABC News coming to an end, the Missus is after me to get my domestic responsibilities in gear - in this case, getting up the holiday lights.

We're not talking about a string of lights flung around the nearest evergreen. No, Christmas at the Matthews is something more akin to Walt Disney World meets the Las Vegas strip. It is a multi-day multi-media experience... Something that drives my electric bill up by 30% each December, and quite frankly, something that is getting to be a bigger pain in the ass every year... Not that the Missus cares!

So if anyone needs me today, I'll be the one outside getting my fingers stuck by pine needles, climbing the ladder to hang homemade Mickey heads, and stringing enough electric cable to send men to the moon and back! I'll post pictures when I'm done... or you can just drive up Georgia Avenue through Olney, and I guarantee you'll find us!

Feliz Freakin' Navidad!

R.I.P. Real News

At the risk of being a little too "inside baseball", I'm going to write today about the pending demise of real news. Whether you knew it or not, "real news" has been on life support for quite some time, but with the continuing collapse of newspapers, there is little reason to believe there will be anyone left within a few years to actually COVER the news.

You see, there is a very real food chain in the news business, and for the most part, that chain begins with newspapers. What starts as an item in a community paper gets picked up by the Washington Post, then makes it onto the Associated Press wire, and eventually onto radio, TV and the internet. Despite what all of those TV promos tell you, there's actually very little actual reporting going on - at least in local TV and radio news. It's the newspapers that are setting the news budgets in most cities, and for the msot part, what you see on TV at 6 pm was in the newspaper earlier that morning.

Now, with newspapers cutting staff left and right, there's less content being fed to the wires, and lower quality showing up on your TV and radio. This is all have a self-destructive effect. As time goes on, there are fewer jobs for journalists, and fewer resources for investigative reporting. Fewer people with lesser skills are ending up editing wire copy, making the AP less of a value for newspapers, which are now starting to drop the AP as a whole. The AP, meanwhile, is turning more and more of its news efforts away from print coverage to television and internet news instead. This is not good news.

Love it or hate it, the Associated Press has been the standard for American journalism for more than a hundred years. The AP has largely been "vanilla", but at least it has been reliable. Now, that reliability is turning instead into a liability. The AP's quality, especially at the local level, has really tanked in recent years, and the piranhas at CNN are smelling blood, launching their own wire service to rival the AP. No offense to CNN, but there is no way it can build a cost-efficient wire service to rival the AP. It will be able to sell print versions of some of its excellent international and national political coverage, but trying to build a wire that includes local news - especially at a time when local newspapers (remember the food chain) are closing in droves - will just not work.

So - what does this mean for you - the consumer? Sadly, I think it means you'll soon be on your own in terms of knowing what is really going on in your local communities. The local paper here, the Gazette, has been an excellent source for community news, but it has already gone through significant cutbacks and consolidation. If and when the Gazette goes, I don't know what we'll be left with... But I think you may be counting on bloggers to deliver what passes for local news in the not-too-distant future.

In the meantime - with apologies to Heroes on NBC - SAVE YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER, SAVE THE WORLD!