Up yours, Viacom

From: tylermasse@yahoo.com (Tyler D.)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-servo,rec.arts.tv,alt.slack
Date: Thu, Sep 12, 2002 3:22 PM

I finally succumbed to the temptation to watch some of the 9/11 stuff.
It was that documentary that those French brothers made about that
one firehouse in Manhattan. It was pretty well-made and I was really
starting to get into it when the dreaded phrase came out of my
speakers.

"9/11...brought to you by Nextel..."

I nearly bashed the set in with my sledgehammer. She Who Must Not Be
Named stopped me from committing cathodicide.

Couldn't they have taken ONE DAY OFF? They delayed the commercials as
long as they could, and I was starting to think that they may just not
play ANY. Hell, they let all the foul language through...

This summer has damned near put me off TV. Increasingly, the fact
that TV is ad-driven has started to become obnoxiously apparent. Many
of the shows are made as cheaply and quickly as possible to FILL THE
SPACE BETWEEN THE COMMERCIALS. Witness the explosion of reality
TV...it's a boon for the networks.

When that Nextel ad came on, it reminded me that EVEN A SHOW ABOUT A
NATIONAL TRAGEDY is just filler for the nice folks at Viacom.

Tyler

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Bob Bagolini <paax@yahoo.com>

Wakeup, we live in a capatalist system, the best system on earth...you
whiner.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Chas. 'Mark' Bee" <c-bee1@uiuc.edu>

> >
> Wakeup, we live in a capatalist system, the best system on earth...you
> whiner.

Yeah, hey, maybe they can take all those unclaimed leftover body
parts from NY and make a big logo out of 'em.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: WWS <wschmidt@tyler.net>

"Chas. 'Mark' Bee" wrote:

>
> Yeah, hey, maybe they can take all those unclaimed leftover body
> parts from NY and make a big logo out of 'em.

thass cold..... you reminded me of a spoof ad somebody did after the
Heaven's Gate incident, where ti and do convinced all their followers
that if they offed themselves they'd catch a ride on the UFO behind the
comet. It began with the much played film made by one of the first people
in who walked through with a camcorder, showing all the bodies laying on their
beds peacefully, covered with those goofy purple shrouds - and then it
focused on their shoes. They were *all* wearing Nike tennis shoes, the
swoosh was real visible in just about every shot.

Finally, they focused in on one set of shoes, and this caption was
superimposed on the screen:

JUST DO IT

--

__________________________________________________WWS_____________

"Never presume for whom the net trolls; it trolls for thee." - Heck

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: 3cjmd@comcast.net (Jaime M. de Castellvi)

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 15:56:31 -0400, Bob Bagolini <paax@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Smell the coffee and quit yer bleating. We live in the best system on
earth, whereupon she is allowed to whine about anything she wants.

Cheers,

Jaime

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Ian J. Ball" <iball***SPAM-No***@san.rr.com>

In article <3d813b20.17726738@news.cis.dfn.de>,
3cjmd@comcast.net (Jaime M. de Castellvi) wrote:

> Smell the coffee and quit yer bleating. We live in the best system on
> earth, whereupon [he] is allowed to whine about anything she wants.

I knew there was a reason I had a problem with this system...

DON'T YOU ALL REALIZE THAT ONLY MY OPINION COUNTS?!!!1!1

--
Ian J. Ball | "Do you know why I left you to die? - Because you're
TV lover, and | just so uncompromisingly *inferior*!" - Tyr Anasazi,
Usenet slacker | from the "Andromeda" episode "Exit Strategies"
iball@san.rr.com | http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/TV.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Modemac <modemac@modemac.com>

On 12 Sep 2002 12:22:57 -0700, tylermasse@yahoo.com (Tyler D.) wrote:
>"9/11...brought to you by Nextel..."
>I nearly bashed the set in with my sledgehammer. She Who Must Not Be
>Named stopped me from committing cathodicide.

That is the same harsh lesson I learned back in 1999, when Fox News
broadcast what can only be called Columbine: The Music Video.

Written back in 1999:

"I guess the TV broadcast assumed that I'd already heard the story
earlier that evening, and so all they had to do was show "highlights"
of the affair. So Fox News had gotten their editing crew together and
put a snazzy, snappy three-minute montage of the story, complete with
a MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK! That's right, folks -- real life just isn't
DRAMATIC enough to show on prime-time evening news anymore! No, they
have to present it to us as if we were watching just another TV show,
and they pulled out all the stops and used all the tricks at their
command. Snap editing. Freeze-frames. A voice-over of President
Clinton expressing his sorrow while we watch students running in fear
from the school. And that goddamn ambient musical score, complete
with a few guitar chords at the end, reminiscent of Eric Clapton. And
then, of course, the commercial break.

"All I could think about was a quote from the first (and best)
"Robocop" movie: "This is Media Break - you give us three minutes and
we'll give you the world!" I love the first Robocop movie because
it's a terrific satire...but yet again, satire pales in the face of
REAL LIFE."
--
First Online Church of "Bob"
http://www.modemac.com/


Back to document index

Original file name: Up yours, Viacom.txt - converted on Friday, 13 June 2003, 22:43

This page was created using TextToHTML. TextToHTML is a free software for Macintosh and is (c) 1995,1996 by Kris Coppieters