Yes, MAGAs are crazy. They are 100% nuts. However, they're not the only ones of late exhibiting behavior that raises questions about their sanity.
Take TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES -- TCM. Are they trying to commit suicide?
Almost a year ago, Luke Bouma (CORD CUTTER NEWS) noted:
Yesterday we learned that some of the leadership behind Turner Classic Movies (TCM) had been let go. Now Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Anderson have scheduled an emergency call to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav as they try to save the network.
Yesterday Warner Bros. Discovery laid off TCM’s VP and general manager Pola Changnon; senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh; VP of brand creative and marketing Dexter Fedor; VP of enterprises and strategic partnerships Genevieve McGillicuddy. This raised red flags for many that TCM may soon be shutdown, and stars are rushing to try and save the network, according to a report from Indiwire.
Now it is being reported that Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Anderson will talk with David Zaslav. The group hopes to talk David Zaslav away from any possible move to end the network as it moves content over to Max.
So is everyone fighting for TCM . . . except TCM?
It's trapped in the days of cable, yes. People subscribe to it these days through SLING, HULU's live version and YOUTUBE TV. And they can watch just like people with cable, right? Wrong.
A week usually finds at least ten films on their schedule that you can't stream. You go to the TCM channel on whatever live streaming service you're using and find out that the film in question can't be streamed. This happens over and over and it happens during prime time. It's not 1993, someone tell TCM, and this is really starting to piss people off.
In fact, the current TCM model appears to be: How can we lose more viewers?
Saturday night demonstrated just how determined they are to do just that.
CENTRAL STATION.
That's the film they elected to open prime time with.
Saturday nights often deliver TCM's best ratings for the week. With broadcast networks offering repeats and cable networks doing more or less the same, an interesting film on TCM often does well on Saturday nights.
CENTRAL STATION is not an interesting film that will garner many American viewers.
You don't know it?
Most people don't.
Worldwide, the film sold $22 million in tickets. Now popularity in theaters -- or lack of it -- doesn't mean a film can't pull in viewers. But popularity is one thing TCM should be factoring in when they're selecting a film to open prime time -- especially on Saturday nights.
CENTRAL STATION comes with so many more problems. There is no star power.
Sadly, those aren't its only problem. It's chief problem for American audiences who might want to tune in? It's in Portuguese. A foreign language film with Sophia Loren, for example, has star power with film audiences. But there's no star power in CENTRAL STATION, it didn't do well at the box office and it's in a foreign language.
And this is how TCM intends to program?
Does no one remember FILMSTRUCK? It wasn't all of that and got worse each year -- so much so that we were noting in "FILMSTRUCK prepares to close shop (Ava and C.I.)" that FILMSTRUCK closing shop was no great loss.
However, some other people were apoplectic. WIKIPEDIA notes:
On October 26, 2018, it was announced FilmStruck would shut down on November 29, 2018, due to WarnerMedia's restructuring.[6] In response, a group of film directors and actors signed a letter dated November 12, 2018, appealing directly to Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich in an attempt to save the service. The letter was signed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Damien Chazelle, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Gray, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Barry Jenkins, Rian Johnson, Christopher Nolan, Barbra Streisand, and others. Previously, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese had urged Warner Bros. to continue the service.[11] Four days after the letter was released, WarnerMedia and Criterion announced that The Criterion Channel would launch as a standalone service in Spring 2019, with a smaller version of the service also being available via HBO Max, then WarnerMedia's upcoming streaming platform when it launched on May 27, 2020 until it slightly rebranded as Max in May 23, 2023.[12]
Some of the same names from CORD CUTTING NEWS' article from last year.
You can't save TCM if TCM is too stupid to save itself.
What world are they living in where a foreign language film that no one wanted to see four decades ago is how they lead off Saturday prime time? The programming reads like a suicide note.
And where's there's a discussion on stupid, you know there's always a point where the topic turns to Glynneth Greenwald. When not wearing his widow weeds and pretending to be mourning David Miranda -- his husband who wasn't important enough to Glynneth to warrant staying by Miranda's side as he was dying (setting up his awful podcast was more important to him) -- Glynneth needs to whore for Mother Tucker Carlson -- it's part of his well known kink where he wants to be under the foot of straight, conservative man (yes, he is part of the #endf*grights movement -- made up of disgusting straight and gay men).
Last week, prissy Glynneth was offended by Oliver Darcy asking why TICKETMASTER and others were putting crazy Tucker onstage. This is what Oliver wrote in a CNN opinion piece:
On the Ticketmaster website, Carlson is referred to as “the leading voice in American politics” and “an alternative to corporate media dedicated to telling the truth about the things that matter — clearly and without fear.” While it is hard to imagine that Ticketmaster conjured this glowing description of Carlson itself, it is remarkable the company would approve it and promote it on its site.
That is because there is not a morsel of truth to how Ticketmaster is presenting Carlson to its customers. Carlson, a former mainstream conservative who over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency traveled to the fringes of American politics, has for years promoted dangerous disinformation and damaging conspiracy theories. Carlson lied about the Covid-19 vaccines, discouraging his fans from receiving the life-saving shots. He sowed doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, suggesting that it was rigged by sinister forces against Trump. And he reprehensibly peddled the false notion that the January 6 insurrection was a so-called “false flag” operation staged by the “deep state.”
In addition to those corrosive lies, Carlson has been one of the top promoters of the Great Replacement Theory, the idea favored by White supremacists that falsely accuses the Democratic Party and wealthy Jewish figures, such as George Soros, of importing third-world migrants into the U.S. to shift the country’s demographics to win elections. For his repugnant promotion of such lies, The New York Times noted that while Carlson was at Fox News, he “constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news.”
Ultimately, Carlson grew to be too much of a problem even for Fox News, and the Rupert Murdoch-controlled right-wing channel dispensed of him last year. Evidently, Fox News has higher standards for whom they will do business with than Ticketmaster, a remarkably low bar for the events giant to trip over.
Asked for comment this week, representatives for the Live Nation subsidiary chose not to respond. In fairness to the company’s public relations division, it is difficult to see how they can defend such conduct. How can any decent person not only participate in enabling Carlson’s poisoning of the public discourse but also justify profiting off of his hateful rhetoric in the process?
Poor Glynneth, another spoiled orgasm.
What is wrong with what Oliver wrote? What outlandish thing did Oliver supposedly do?
In Glynneth's words:
This is the tactic that has made US corporate media the leading agitators for censorship while pretending they're not. They call up Big Tech, companies, and others to say: "we're going to report on how you're platforming 'fascists' (conservatives)" to coerce them to ban them:
Reporting, asking questions, that's Glynneth's idea of censorship.
We were nice and defended Ed Snowden. And we'll even allow that residing in Russia means he can't be fully honest. But he's a damn liar for pretending that Glynneth did anything brave. Glynneth used the trove of information -- the trove that Ed's wanted for to this day -- to get millions and to create THE INTERCEPT and the plan, please remember, was that THE INTERCEPT would publish everything. But that never happened. And whore Glynneth ensured it didn't happen -- as does Ed when he refuses to call out THE INTERCEPT.
And, don't forget, THE INTERCEPT is responsible for various whistle-blowers and leakers being arrested and that Glynneth never called that out until years later when he was fired from THE INTERCEPT.
Glynneth's never understood reporting or journalism.
That twit Tweets:
Presumably the reason Ticketmaster is willing to sell tickets to Tucker Carlson's show is because he is arguably the single most popular and influential voice in media and journalism in the US, while Oliver Darcy..... is not, and thus has no claim to dictate who can be heard?
He then offers as 'proof' of Tucker's popularity and influence as SPOTIFY podcast list.
SPOTIFY? About 30% of Americans listen to some podcast on SPOTIFY. To the uneducated mind of Glynneth, that's huge. In reality, 82% of Americans listen to terrestrial broadcast radio -- 82% of Americans twelve years and older. That's not SPOTIFY or any other streaming service, it's not satellite radio. It's basic broadcast radio. 82%. But, hey, Glynneth, just like you pretend you're packing more than 2 inches, you pretend SPOTIFY has a huge reach as well.
Oliver was right to ask questions -- and as a result of those questions, Alex Jones has been dropped from some of Tucker's dates -- such as the September 16th date in Milwaukee.
What world do crazies like Glynneth live in? (And for more on Tucker's lack of popularity, see Marcia's "Some good book news.")
And then there's . . . THE VANGUARD. Last week, the boyz discovered that Brianna Wu was a grifter and played segments of her on a right-wing show trashing transgender persons, trashing feminists, trashing the left and so much more.
Feminists, Wu wanted people to know, were responsible for the death of ROE. Not Ruth Bader refusing to step down from the Supreme Court so Barack Obama could nominate someone to replace her before she died, not Barack for failing to keep his 2008 campaign promise that the first thing he'd do in office was codify ROE. (Over two terms as president, Barack never got around to it.) Not the Supreme Court justices who lied in confirmation hearings that they considered ROE settled law and would respect legal precedents. No, it was feminists and it was their fault for not focusing on real issues like day care.
This was said by Wu -- Wu whose 'big' issue was GamerGate.
We weren't idiots. We're real feminists and we never mistook Wu or GamerGate as feminist issues.
But VANGUARD boyz did. Last week, they were shocked by Wu's move to the right. It was shocking for them because -- in their minds -- she'd been so solid and wonderful up until then.
Really? The unimportant Wu wasn't often noted by us but here are two times one of us noted her. THE COMMON ILLS June 8, 2016:
Take 'gamer' Brianna Wu.
Yeah, you've fought an important battle in the world of #WHITEGIRLPROBLEMS -- making the sofa world 'safe' for gamers.
See, the issue isn't poverty, childhood malnutrition, education or even
just basic survival, no, no, the issue is will Brianna Wu rule the world
of gaming?
Self-interest passed off as feminism is really all Hillary Clinton has
to offer so it's no surprise Brianna Wu would identify with her.
THE COMMON ILLS June 18, 2018:
Sorry, Brianna, go back to gaming if you think it's the media's job to
ask people to reflect. That's not their role and it's never been defined as it's role. Also true, the media did a lot more (after the
war started -- the war that's still going on) than the Democratic Party
did.
They promised they would end the Iraq War, ran on that in 2006, give us
one house and . . . And they didn't. They did what craven politicians
always do when they find an issue, refuse to resolve it so they can
instead use in numerous election cycles.
It's not going to work, Brianna.
You're an idiot, an out of touch idiot.
As usual, what we could see almost a decade ago only became obvious to THE VANGUARD boyz last week. It has to do with not being very well informed. But we will say, good job on the latest segments where you were in the same room. You'll work better that way.
The world works better when the lies get stomped out. Wu's taken to Twitter to try to defend herself and at the same time share that she doesn't believe people are good ("Here in Massachusetts we don’t suffer the illusion that people are basically good."). Really, Wu?
We believe most people are good. We believe cheap whores who pose as feminists -- the way Wu did -- aren't good. We believe liars like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson aren't good. We believe whores like Glynneth Greenwald who lie and suck up to liars aren't good. But we think people like that are in a very tiny minority and that the bulk of this country -- the bulk of the world -- is filled with good people. And that, not the grifters, is what will save humanity.