How To Fail at New Media - A Case Study in Dinosaur Journalism

UPDATE: The idiots FINALLY just put it up.

Rolling Stone is at this very minute failing in a grand and sad way. While the whole world is talking about the article that could blow the Afghanistan War for Obama, Rolling Stone is too busy applying pressure to Politico to take the article down instead of bothering to put it up on their own website. I suppose Jan Wenner, with his ancient ideas of selling copies of a magazine, thinks he can drag us all back with him to the Stone Age. (Pun not intended, but left there because I'm cheesy that way.) The meat of the article isn't so much that General McChrystal is a renegade, that part is actually entertaining, but that he and his aides expose the fallacy of the counterinsurgency strategy.

Meanwhile, until they make him take it down as well, Mark Halperin of Time magazine has the article right here.

Way to screw it up, RS. You missed out on huge traffic numbers today and Time got them off of YOUR article.

By the time your stupid magazine hits the "newsstands" (how quaint) we all will have read the article somewhere else. Pure and utter fail.

Rolling Stone's political blog has been dormant for a month. UPDATE Their Twitter account failed to mention it until just 11 minutes ago. They say, get this: "Read the full Gen. McChrystal article that everyone is discussing now:" In today's journalism, when you waste an entire morning, you've lost.

And here is an up-to-the-minute screenshot of the RS homepage. Lady f-ing Gaga. 

Oh, Man - We're an Angry Country

Here's my second installment of "The Spin," the comic created by commenters on America's insanely partisan blogs. The woman with the ponytail gets her words from The Huffington Post, a far left spot, while the woman with the shorter hair gets her words from Town Hall, equally far right. (Yes, that's the classic Microsoft "Bliss" image in the background, a not-so-subtle wish that this stuff could ratchet down a couple notches.)

Click for the bigness

This new series was inspired by the purchase of some Frisbees yesterday.

When Your Brand is Synonymous with Suicide Cults

I enjoy visiting deeply partisan political blogs just to read the idiotic comments left on them by uninformed yet passionate voters. It's amazing that people with no knowledge of proper English usage, punctuation or grammar are so heavily involved this year in the political discourse. Everyone's got an opinion, but most of them are parroted from the commenter's favorite partisan radio or TV host.

Then the name calling begins. Hillary Haters refer to her as Hillabeans, Hildabeast, Shrillary, Hellery, Sillary and Hillarious, among other clever names. The Obama crowd are called Obamaniacs and Cultists while their candidate is mockingly referred to as "The Messiah." McCain is derided as Bush Jr, McSame and McBush.

And all camps call everyone who follows and supports anyone but their favorite candidate "Kool-Aid Drinkers." It has become the slur of the season. Drinking the Clinton Kool-Aid or the Obama Kool-Aid or the McCain Kool-Aid is to be a deluded fool with no sense of reason who would die for their misguided leader. The term comes from the Jonestown Massacre, where 900 devotees of Jim Jones drank poison-laced Kool-Aid in a mass suicide.

So I wondered how Kraft Foods and their maligned product were faring as their brand name is tossed about regularly as a synonym for "idiot," "fool," or "mindless drone."

So I went to the Kool-Aid site. Silly me. Kool-Aid is for kids. Kids aren't reading political blogs or watching talk TV. Kraft Foods probably enjoys the fact that their product's name is on the lips of so many Americans. They don't need to address this non-issue. They market straight to kids. The kids then tell their parents to buy it. And Kool-Aid's tagline, "Oh, Yeah!" is one of the coolest tags out there.

But Kraft Foods is doing some targeted kid marketing these days. The Kool-Aid website is all "street" with graffiti font. The once fat Kool-Aid guy is now slimmed down (because obesity is a problem and Kraft Foods cares about kids) and he's showing off his urban cred. All of his old schoolmates from "back in the day" are minorities. Check out his friend's "ride." He enjoys concerts and b-ball, naturally.

Kids are drinking the Kool-Aid.

Web 2.0 - Straight Talk Express Version!

John McCain Wants You!

Sign up now to be a McCain Blog Troll. You can copy and paste with the best of them!

McCain's Camp will even give you the daily talking points to shout down the Leftist America Haters.

Do you love your country? Do you want to be involved in a 3rd war with Iran? Now's your chance to influence other voters with your wisdom and rhetoric, spoon-fed to you by Johnny Mack and his loyal tribe of Warrior Spinners! Tell The Maverick about your efforts and receive points for your success!

Don't be left out! Hurry! Act Now!

The Difference Between You and Keith Olbermann

...is that you are probably a decent, tolerable, tolerant person who doesn't pretend to walk on water, nor do you think you are the country's King Maker. Also, your hair is not pin-striped.

From Wikipedia: A pundit is someone who offers mass-media opinion, analysis or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically political analysis, the social sciences or sport), on which they are presumed to be knowledgeable. As the term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities lacking special expertise, however, it can be used in a derogative manner. Pundit is also a slang term for politically biased people pretending to be neutral.

And for the last time, America, they're called punDITS, not punDINTS.

Pundits are nothing more than glorified bloggers who get paid. They also have whiter teeth. I recently heard Chris Matthews (hawking a book on CSPAN's "Book Notes") speak disparagingly of bloggers. He maintained that bloggers aren't bold like those in his profession, who are out there in the trenches doing battle face-to-face with people they oppose. He suggested that bloggers can hide in anonymity and toss bombs while pundits might run into their victims in the corridors of power and therefore have an obligation to maintain civility in their criticisms. Which I guess is why they say things like, "My good friend Senator Jones is a big, fat lying sack of crap."

The comments section has always been open here, Chris - you glorified blogger.

And the pundits have proven they don't know any more than bloggers this year.