FALLLING FLAT: The most inadvertantly fascinating part of last month's PBS Fight Over Citizen Kane documentary was Wm. Randolph Hearst's creaky newsreel sermon against FDR's increases to upper-bracket income taxes. It reminded me a lot of Steve Forbes's flat tax nonsense. Both publishers' tactics use populist rhetoric to promote the self-interests of the wealthy, particularly those with significant inherited wealth such as themselves. The comparisons go beyond there. Forbes and Hearst are/ were party-lovin' men-about-town known to hobnob with movie stars. Hearst's papers provided a self-contained information system, in which no voice too far from his own worldview got heard or respected. Forbes's magazines haven't gone that far, but the right-media universe of talk radio, televangelists and opinion magazines (whose support the GOP candidates are courting) fulfill Hearst's formula better than the old man could have imagined. (If anyone saved a copy of Forbes's short-lived entertainment-fashion mag Egg, I'd love to borrow it. It could potentially be a hoot.) THE MATS: Once the media consolidation bill (the one Net censorship was tacked onto) was signed, the Disney/ ABC and Time Warner/ Turner Broadcasting merger plans went "on" again. The latter deal was protested in an NY Times ad: "Attention TBS Stockholders: Does Ted Turner have a personal vendetta against the World Wrestling Federation? Time Warner Beware!" Turner's properties happen to include a rival faux-sport circuit, World Championship Wrestling. WCW scored a coup a couple years back when it signed Hulk Hogan, formerly WWF's #1 star. I'm foggy on the details, but I believe there was tangled legal wrangling before Hogan was freed to use his stage name (which WWF had trademarked) on WCW shows. Methinks the WWF guys take their stage bombast too seriously. ROOM AT THE TOP?: The gentrification of upper Queen Anne has gone into overdrive. On one block alone a hobby shop, a café, a bakery, a state liquor store, and a pharmacy have perished to make room for as many as seven espresso emporia and two bagel stands. And you know a neighborhood's gone out of our hands when San Franciscans open ridiculously sublime restaurant/ nightclubs there (Paragon). Queen Anne News writer Robin Hamilton's taking it in stride. Writing about a co-marketing arrangement between Starbucks and its new QA neighbor Noah's Bagels, Hamilton shows her knowledge of Jewish lore in explaining how "Noah's will play Ruth to Starbucks' Naomi." PLAYING MONOPOLY: A fight for the hearts and minds of America's youth ended with Mattel withdrawing its $5.2 billion hostile-takeover bid for Hasbro (which went on its own acquisition spree a few years back and owns Playskool, Romper Room, Selchow & Righter, and Milton Bradley). Re-create the excitement at home with your handy Barbie vs. GI Joe land war playset... Meanwhile, Hasbro's lawyers keep upping demands for reparations against a Seattle-based adult website for using the name "candyland.com," claiming it could be confused with the Candy Land game. If I wanted a porno-pun on a board game, it wouldn't be that. Maybe Chutes & Ladders, or Go to the Head of the Class...
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2001 COLUMNS 2000 COLUMNS 1999 COLUMNS 1999 COLUMNS 1998 COLUMNS 1997 COLUMNS 1996 COLUMNS 1995 COLUMNS 1986-94 COLUMNS ESSAYS FICTION X-WORDS 'THE BIG BOOK OF MISC.' THE BOOK 'LOSER' MISCmedia, THE MAGAZINE FUTURE PROJECTS CYBER STUFF THINGS I LIKE 'MISC. TALK' DISCUSSION FORUM CLARK'S CULTURE CORRAL: BOOKS, MUSIC, MOVIES REVIEWED AND SOLD (Support MISC. Media; make your Amazon.com purchases thru this link.) |
Copyright 2001 Clark Humphrey,
clark@speakeasy.org.
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