Through the Wire

Cable industry Democrats made a good showing at last Tuesday's Washington, D.C., fundraiser held for presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama, the Illinois senator who has already raked in more than $272 million for his historic drive to become the first African-American to win the White House.

The event — attended by 550 people paying $2,300 a pop — represented a cross-section of Democratic Party all-stars, power brokers and insiders from the D.C. telecommunications policy sphere.

The night raised about $1.3 million for the Obama Victory Fund toward the goal of depositing another $200 million in the pot for the fall race against likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.

The event, held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, kicked off with a cocktail reception ($500 per head) prior to Obama's arrival a few hours later in the adjacent Thurgood Marshall Ballroom

Comcast personnel were the most recognizable, including Joe Waz, senior vice president of external affairs and public policy counsel; Kathryn Zachem, vice president of regulatory affairs; and Sena Fitzmaurice, senior director of corporate communications and government affairs.

Obama's cause seemed to give everyone a break from their diurnal policy wars, as the Comcast team appeared to mingle easily with such antagonists as Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press, a group adept at issuing anti-Comcast screeds on network neutrality.

Public-interest lawyers Andrew Schwartzman and Harold Feld, who often advocate for D.C.'s planted class of cable haters, made it into the cocktail party at a rate that Feld described as “the public-interest discount.”

Some checked out before Obama's arrival to attend to pressing business, like David Ellen, Cablevision System's executive vice president and general counsel for cable and communications. Obama would have understood Ellen's absence as the two have known each other since their days at Harvard Law School. Ellen succeeded Obama as president of the Harvard Law Review.

The “Technology, Media, and Telecom Unity Reception,” as it was officially called, was chockablock with former Clinton Administration officials eager to end their exile from power.

Headliners included Reed Hundt and William Kennard, Clinton-era chairmen of the Federal Communications Commission; former Clinton Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman, wife of Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.); and current FCC Democrat Jonathan Adelstein, who could get the chairman's gavel in an Obama Administration.

Obama finally arrived at 8:30 p.m. and spoke for about 15 minutes, sources said.

“He did not talk about high tech,” promised one of the reporters who made it past Obama's gatekeepers.

Buy n Large, the scary mega-corporation that controls the world in Pixar Animation Studios' Wall-E, doesn't just lay waste to the Earth's environment.

A few decades from now, it completely neuters cable news.

Pixar's very convincing Web site for Buy n Large (buynlarge.com) includes an array of fake press releases from the year 2057 — “Wisconsin Mall Granted City Status,” “BnL Announces Police Select” — including one announcing the BnL Infotainment Network, “where the news of the world will always be shown in an entertaining, softer light.”

“Mixing humor and news is a booming industry, and the space is rapidly becoming crowded with newcomers,” says the release, credited to the BnL Associated Press.

The network aspires to be “the clear leader in presenting hard news in a soft shell” with shows like A Lil' News that deliver a punch line every 30 seconds “regardless of the news topic.”

BnL's faux report even quotes “analyst Richard Greenberg,” which sounds suspiciously similar to a real analyst, Pali Research's Richard Greenfield — who covers Pixar's parent, The Walt Disney Co.

The BnL story has “Greenberg” praising the company's successful launch of the Dogs With Sprinklers Network: “No one could have predicted that a 24-hour network featuring various breeds of dogs playing with sprinklers would ever have been a smash hit. BnL has proven it is willing to take risks, and this bodes well for their latest offering.”

Asked for comment, Greenfield told The Wire: “I would be sincerely flattered if there is a connection between anything Pixar creates and our research work.”

Perhaps you've seen the print or outdoor ads for a bright red bottled beverage, with taglines such as “Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Friends” and “Real Blood is for Suckers.”

The product in question, Tru Blood branded “synthetic blood nourishment beverage,” might even ring true in this day of athletes accused of blood doping. But the extra slogan — “HBO Reminds Vampires to Drink Responsibly” — should give it away.

The campaign is for HBO's upcoming series created by Alan “Six Feet Under” Ball and starring Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. It's called True Blood. Vampires are involved, and they drink synthetic blood so they don't have to “drink friends.”

The TV ads mimic beer commercials — even down to the pun “This Blood's for you.” A Web site, Bloodcopy.com, promotes the vampire rights' movement, advocating vampire-human marriages, among other reforms.

The show debuts Sept. 7.