Through the Wire
by Linda Haugsted and Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 12/16/2007 7:00:00 PM
This Podcast Must Die
Good thing backers of the “Comcast Must Die” Web site (www.comcastmustdie.com) booked guests for their first podcast, as few customers called in to rail about their favorite target. But the guests provided some interesting anecdotes.
First, though, a customer-service note about the podcast. Initially, the audio was so bad it seemed it was broadcast from the bottom of a well. There was a heavy snowstorm taking place at the transmission site in Santa Fe, N.M., the hosts noted. Then, the podcast dropped out completely during the guest interview by Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.com. The Wire had to call in to see what was wrong and no, podcasters, it wasn’t the fault of our Windows Media Player and cable equipment. That suggestion sounded, dare we say, cableish.
Ralph Nader urged the formation of a national consumer cable consumer-rights group during the show, an entity that would have the muscle of millions of subscribers and would have a seat at the table during regulatory negotiations.
He suggested such an ombudsman function could be funded through solicitations in cable bills. (Good luck with that one!)
Personally, Nader’s not a multichannel-TV customer. He said the day’s too short to be taken up with cable and e-mail. He prefers the clack of his old Underwood typewriter.
The podcasters also caught up with Mona Shaw, the Bristow, Va., grandmother arrested in August for hammering equipment at a local Comcast office in a misguided effort to gain attention to her digital phone problems.
Podcaster and media columnist Bob Garfield praised Shaw as an “unapologetic vigilante,” adding she’s become a heroine on Comcast Must Die. Shaw said she’s gotten dozens of cards and letters of support in the mail since her contretemps. She’s even received checks in the mail for her defense fund, she said. (The court ordered her to pay $345 in restitution and she’s on probation until Dec. 17.)
She even got a sledgehammer sent to her, she said. Shaw said she gave the checks to the local SPCA, as she is an animal rescuer when she’s not battling Comcast. Though she’s severed her consumer relationship with Comcast (she signed up for digital-subscriber line service and phone from Verizon Communications), she’s still speaking out about Comcast, complaining to the local city council two weeks ago because the cabler “has done squat” about the service issues in her neighborhood, she claimed.
As for the national notoriety? “It’s made for a hell of a Christmas letter,” she said.
A Top 10 List To Stay Off
A San Francisco public-relations firm has issued its annual Top 10 list, and unfortunately, Cartoon Network is on it.
Fineman PR annually does a tally of what it believes the worst public-relations blunders of the year. In the estimation of the firm, the network took the No. 2 slot on the list.
The firm refers to the guerrilla marketing effort on behalf of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, in which light boards bearing a key character were placed in public places in 10 cities. All went well except for Boston, where the stunt triggered a terrorism alert, which shut down transportation and sent law enforcement scrambling.
The PR firm said the only bigger blunder was the discovery that a Federal Emergency Management Agency press conference on the response to the October California Wildfires was peppered with FEMA employees posing as reporters and asking softball questions.
Ouch!
Familiar Name On Infamous List
The long-awaited George Mitchell report of Major League Baseball players the former senator’s investigation determined used performance-enhancing drugs came out last Thursday.
At least one name revealed was rather shocking.
Brian Roberts.
Fortunately, Roberts had some immediate defenders, including The Baltimore Sun columnist Rick Maese, who wrote: “The case Mitchell presented against him feels about as solid as a wet noodle. It’s solely an account from a confessed cheat who didn’t see anything and has zero proof of anything.”
Roberts himself didn’t return calls to the Sun, though the paper reported he has repeatedly denied using steroids.
The Wire was prepared to confront the public-relations powers that be at Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia to get a comment — but then realized Mitchell was referring to the Baltimore Orioles’ 5-foot-9-inch, 175-pound second baseman. Not Comcast’s taller, squash-playing CEO.
Um, play ball.
MTV Nets Kicks 'Jackass’ Online
Deal of the month: Watch two dudes beating the crap out of each other — and other unprintable sophomoric capers — in the safety and comfort of your own home… for free!
Viacom’s MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures will offer Jackass 2.5, the next installment in the reliable idiotic-pranks-and-stunts franchise, free online for two weeks via a promotion with Blockbuster. The companies claimed the film is the first full-length movie produced by a major studio to be made available free on the Internet. Flanked by commercials, the movie will be available for viewing at JackassWorld.com from Dec. 19 through 31 to U.S. residents 17 and older.
Jackass 2.5 features the same cast of outré pranksters and stuntmen including Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera and Steve-O. But the feature’s only 90 minutes long, “leaving almost an hour of movie-worthy s--- on the proverbial cutting-room floor,” according to JackassWorld.com.
We’re all poorer for it.
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