General Evans Above Archive for Jul 21, 2009
Erin Andrews peephole pictures test media boundaries
Jul 21, 2009 – permalink
So some lowlife illegally takes hotel peephole pictures of ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews and how does the mainstream media deal with it?
They could have just reported on the incident and said how nude video and photos of Erin Andrews were all over the web. They could have discussed how, as a lawyer for ESPN said, showing the images could make those websites accessories after the fact. Instead, several networks and publications decided to air the photos of Erin Andrews nude and blur or obscure out some parts.
Now perhaps that’s to be expected from birdcage liner The New York Post and the video sewage known as FOX News, but CBS’ The Early Show did the same thing.
CBS. CBS News. The home of Walter Cronkite. I’m sure he wouldn’t have been pleased, but the news these days has devolved into a bunch of repetition and rumour.
CNBC does Dallas: A financial net’s look at porn
Jul 21, 2009 – permalink
Like a dose of ratings Viagra, financial news network CNBC had a ratings boost last week when it aired a penetrating look at the adult industry called Porn: Business of Pleasure. Ratings measurement service Nielsen said the special earned the net, more famous for Jim Cramer’s bombastic booyahs then Jenna Jameson’s hoohahs, a roughly 500% increase in rating for that time slot.
The special, hosted by Fast Money’s Melissa Lee, had me chuckling at the beginning. Lee stood in Times Square and her red trench coat was longer than what she was wearing underneath, so it gave the impression that she was a Wall Street flasher. Apart from that laugh, the special was what you’d expect from a financial network trying to boost ratings during an economic downturn.
They did a quick history of the industry. They mentioned how VHS, DVD and the internet made anonymous consumption easier and how many hotel chains earn a significant chunk of their profits from adult pay-per-view. They touched on the topic of free porn on the internet and how it was giving the $13 billion adult economy a good spanking. Or as they said on the special, free internet porn “could bring the adult industry to it’s knees.” Really? They went there? Would the voice-over guy be telling us soon that the special would go “deep inside”? Did the Squawk Box hosts sit around at a meeting generating double entendres?
The show also featured interviews with adult stars like The Girlfriend Experience’s Sasha Grey and Adult Entertainment Expo veteran Jesse Jane as well execs like Vivid Video co-founder Steven Hirsch. They blurred out scenes from movies like Digital Playground’s Pirates 2 and video of Jesse Jane’s strip club performances. They briefly looked at Paul F. Little a.k.a. Max Hardcore’s prison sentence for obscenity and spoke to lawyers on both sides of the issue. Of course CNBC is a financial network, so the theme that the industry was facing hard times was constantly driven home. Can a bailout be far behind?
CNBC is walking a tightrope here. Creating salacious material like this special and Dirty Money: The Business of High-End Prostitution may gain new viewers from the one-handed web surfing crowd but it’s not necessarily going down well with advertisers. Charles Schwab already pulled some advertising which proves that though financial firms may have deep pockets they may not be into Deep Throat.