View From the Phlipside Radio - Fairness Doctrine

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

On Monday of this week an era ended in the world of broadcasting when the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, removed the Fairness Doctrine from the official regulations for broadcasters.  This was probably an inevitable move given that President Reagan abolished it back in  1987 and the FCC has declined to enforce it for at least a decade.  The Doctrine itself has been a subject of some disagreement even within the broadcasting industry.

First let’s be clear what we’re talking about.  The Fairness Doctrine called upon broadcasters to insure that controversial issues were discussed in an equitable, balanced and honest manner.  It shouldn’t be confused with the Equal Time rule which covers political candidates. The Doctrine first appeared in 1949 and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the FCC did in fact have the right to enforce it in 1969.  It’s original intent was to insure that in a time of limited media outlets (1949 is still pre-TV as a mass media) all matters would be heard on the public airwaves.

So what was the discussion all about?  Opponents have always maintained that the Doctrine limits free speech and was burdensome to the broadcasters.  They also point out that the days of limited access to the media is past.  That’s certainly true.

And yet I have a problem with the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine.  The idea that requiring discussion of controversial issues chills free speech has always struck me as absurd.  Most importantly for me is the idea that we are changing the rules not to insure the best for the American public, the traditional owners of the airwaves but to benefit the license holders.  Once upon a time the idea was that broadcasters were privileged to use the public airwaves and in return the American people required certain guarantees about how those airwaves were to be used.  Today the standard seems to be that the broadcaster is to be given the maximum freedom to what they feel is best for their listening audience.  I will grant that quality programming that covers all the issues is possible under the new paradigm.  I just think that in a world where one company can own over a thousand radio stations in our nation a few requirements on how the airwaves are used would only be, well, fair.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - Too Much Glee

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

There’s a concept that I have returned to over all the years of my various and sundry careers.  I would love to tell you who taught it to me but that’s been lost in the mists of my rapidly aging memory.  It’s a fine old tradition that dates back well beyond the days of mass communication to the days of vaudeville and the stage.  It’s quite simple actually.   

Leave them wanting more.

Just that simple.  Leave your audience wanting just a little more.  One more story.  One more song.  One more joke.  Just a few minutes more of your program.  The idea is quite simple.  You want the audience to want to come back the next time.  Even in the entertainment business it’s all about repeat business.  It also has the advantage of holding performers back from trying to do too much.

Sadly it’s a lesson that just never seems to sink in.  As soon as you become a hit you want more and more and more.  I can understand the impulse.  The fame, the adulation.  It feels like it’s never going to end.  

For example take a look at Fox TV’s huge hit of the last couple seasons, Glee.  Before its premiere Fox execs touted it as “the next big thing”.  Miraculously it wasn’t just hype.  The TV show became a huge hit.  It’s fans, dubbed Gleeks, made the music from the show the hottest titles on iTunes.  That’s two different media arenas where Glee was a winner.  So they went one more and created the Glee concert tour.  Another hit.  Everything Glee touched turned to gold.

Well almost.  Instead of leaving the faithful desperate for more, Glee decided to hit the big screen.  It’s a natural, TV show on summer hiatus, perfect audience demographic for a summer film, 3D the latest movie gimmick.  The sad reality is that the movie opened to only 6 million dollars ticket sales good enough for ELEVENTH place on its opening weekend.  That is disastrous in a word.  

So the unstoppable freight train that was Glee has hit a very serious bump.  With the original cast having to graduate soon it will be interesting to see if they can regain their momentum or if the audience has had enough.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside Radio - Dissing the Sitch

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

I’ve said here before that I am NOT a fan of MTVs hit show “Jersey Shore”.  I find the people on the show to be utterly uninteresting and incredibly bad role models.  I’m not alone in disliking the show although it seems to break along age lines as much as anything else.  I know many, many young folks who love the show and lots of adults outside the under 30 age group who loathe it.  A lot of folks in New Jersey dislike the image of their state (which has enough image problems on the average day without MTV piling on) and a fair number of Italian Americans find the whole thing distasteful.  At the same time I can not deny the show is a hit.  Don’t ask me to explain it but I can’t deny it.

So then you have Abercrombie and Fitch who discover that one of the cast members, Mike Sorrentino better known as “The Situation”, favored thier clothes.  The clothing retailers are shooting for a certain kind of stylish cool and they weren’t sure that The Situation really had the look they were trying for no matter how well he pulled off the GTL routine (that’s Gym, Tan, Laundry for those of us outside the Jersey Shore demographic).  So they put out a PR release that said they would pay him NOT to wear their clothes.

Needless to say it got huge play in the media.  Commentaries right and left.  Jersey Shore fans defending their favorites, Abercrombie and Fitch fans defending their beloved brand.  MTV released a counter press release titled “Open Rebuttal To A Certain Clothing Retailer Who Dissed Our 'Sitch.'   “.  Does all of this sound like maybe A&F stepped into bigger hole than they expected?  Don’t believe it.  Execs with the store chain acknowledged they were having fun with the whole thing.

What’s really impressive in all of this is the pure marketing aspect  of it all.  Abercrombie and Fitch tied themselves to a hot media entity that hits their customer demographic perfectly while still maintaining that certain aloof, super cool persona for which they are known.  And how much it cost them?  Absolutely nothing.  They never paid The Situation a dime because they never really intended to do so.  Actually going through with it would have back fired.  

Gotta give Abercrombie and Fitch the nod.  They know cool.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Love this short film

Love it.  Love everything about it.  Just Brilliant!

Rules for the People I Do Life With

Adam McClane is a smart young guy who gets technology and youth ministry.  He also runs his own company to help people get more out of their blogs.  What is not to like, I ask you?

In a recent post (link below) he talks about the rules created by a self governing group of street kids in Kenya have developed to help them all live together.  Doug Fields (the author of the original post Adam was talking about) then asked  what kind of rules define your closest relationships?  He gives his answers in his post but it tickled my fancy so I tried it as well.  Here's what I've come up with:

1: Laugh - I've never, ever had a good relationship that didn't involve lots of laughter.  At ourselves, at the world, at the absurdity of life itself.

2: Think - Some of us are better at this than others but all of us can do it.  Sometimes the best thought is "I think I'll ask someone else for help".  But think about the questions in your life and think about the answers as well.

3: Hope - There are days, too damn many days, when life sucks.  I believe that giving up and abandoning hope is the fastest way to help those days expand.  Hope gets me up the morning, leads me through the day and brings me back to my bed to sleep peacefully.

4: Respect - I have more than a few friends who disagree with me theologically, politically, spiritually, whatever way it can happen.  But they are my friends because we respect one another.  I respect that they have come to their beliefs honestly and sincerely.  I respect the challenge they bring to my life because through I will learn and grow.

5: Believe - in something.  I truly don't care what.  If you can meet the first four steps you probably don't believe in anything that I would find too repellent.  People who claim to believe in "nothing" are usually wrong, they do believe in something.  More importantly I usually find them to be humorless, thoughtless, disrespectful and without hope.  So why would I hang with them anyway?

Those are my five.  They are largely interchangeable and of equal import.  What about you?


Adams 5 Rules for People I Do Life With

On Father's Day

I must admit to ambivalent feelings about Fathe's Day.

My wife and daughter treat me like a king so it's not that.  (Actually they treat me pretty well most days).

No, the problem with Fathers Day has to do with my father.

You see he's gone.  And while I miss him every day this day brings that empty space into sharper relief.  Add in the fact that it was on Fathers Day that he collapsed into what would become his final illness and my feelings for this day are mixed at best.

It's been almost 11 years since he died (I disdain all the polite circumlocutions, he passed on, he left us.  He died, my father is dead.  Adults deal) but I still catch myself thinking "Pop would love this".  For example he would have loved the TV show "Top Gear".  He would have torn into the hosts on a regular basis when he disagreed with their opinions or behavior but he would have been a dedicated viewer.  I'd love to hear his thoughts on the newly re-invigorated American auto industry and their latest offerings.  He would have PLENTY to say on the woeful state of Pirate baseball (he didn't think much of professional athletes in the '70's I can only imagine his thoughts on Chad Ocho Cinco or Terrell Pryor).  He and I would probably still be arguing over the value of colorizing movies (he thought it was a good idea.  Bleah!)

It would have been great to see him getting to know his grown up granddaughter.  They would have sparred and laughed and argued.

This is why I'm ambivalent about Fathers Day.  It brings up all the might have beens and never weres.

I never fully got to work out the issues of being "Little Jay" or "Young Jay" or just JD to his JK.  We were getting there.  What would it have been like to continue the process we had begun of not only being father and son but grown up friends as well?  I'll never know.

I'll cling to memories but I won't live in the past.  He wouldn't have wanted me to.
I'll treasure his memory but I won't make him into (too much of) a legend he would have found the concept ludicrous and uncomfortable.

I will try to be as good a man as he was.  A good man is one who does the best he can, shortcomings and all.  My father wasn't perfect and neither is his son.

But he's still a pretty good standard by which to judge myself.

Happy Father's Day Pop.


I miss you.

And we begin again

Three years ago I decided enough was enough and began my first truly serious attempt to lose weight and get in shape.  It worked.  I dropped 40 pounds and completely changed the way I looked.  It was wonderful.  At that point I was still about 10 pounds shy of my goal weight of 165.

A year later I had back slide just a bit and had put about 10 pounds back on.  I managed to stop the increase and was looking into what I needed to do to get back on track.

Then last year arrived and with it my stroke in October.  I've always eaten when I'm stressed and once I had my strength and appetite back I started to eat.  And 10 more pounds came back.  I did manage to stay in what this year's cast of "The Biggest Loser" referred to as One-derland.  I never pushed back over the 200 pound mark (although it was a VERY near thing).  It was lack of exercise, the post stroke depression or whatever and simply abandoning good eating habits.

Well that changes today.  I got up at what had been my usual time and I went for a walk/jog.  Haven't had the chance to measure the distance but I was out there for a half an hour.  So goal number one was met, at least 30 minutes of exercise five days a week.  Getting back my eating discipline is actually not all that hard.

The most important thing is remembering that I've done this before.  I CAN do this because I HAVE done this.  I need to remember how great it felt to be that skinny me and how unhappy I am being this larger me.

My goals this summer are to get some serious bike riding in and to finally run that 5K.  Along the way I will lose weight and feel better.  Then a good winter's worth of workouts will keep me in shape till we're back to the warm weather again.

My starting weight this morning was 195 pounds.  There are usually some "easy" pounds to lose right up front (water weight often) so let's see if we can't get down to the 180s by July.  Hey, it's a goal.

Peace