Glen writes:
< It's pretty exciting/terrifying to imagine "data scientists" being involved in
whether or not Trump will remain president ... >
As much as I like to see O'Reilly suffer, it is annoying how advertisers turn to social
media consultants (and data science) to quantify the anger towards him (or other hot
topics) rather than saying "Given the evidence we think you’re a scumbag, and we're
dropping you" rather than asking if enough of their customers or potential customers
think he is a scumbag. It says to me they don't care if he is a scumbag, or even
guilty; they care if he is radioactive and a liability.
Who *doesn't* know he's a scumbag?
Surely the people who choose to advertise with Fox already know the
general level of scumbaggery involved and some sense of the specific
personalities there. It is O'Reilly's scumbaggery (just like other
loudmouth pundits of his style like the not-quite-late/never-great Rush
Bimbaugh) that gets them their ratings. They are popular *because* they
are loudmouth jerks with no obvious true moral compass (is that what you
mean by scumbag?).
Sadly my mother is someone who doesn't know he's a scumbag, somehow she
has been duped by his bombastic style and the echo chamber of Fox and
their many dittos into believing that he is really "looking out for our
best interests!" . I forgive her, she's 87, and at ONE TIME in her
life was one of the most thoughtful and progressive people I knew. Age
and loss have lead to fear which makes her vulnerable to their rhetoric.
I believe it is a similar type of fear that makes the "unwashed masses"
huddled in the red states watch Fox News 24/7 and vote for dickheads.
They simply don't see that they are being manipulated by fear (and some
greed) by fairly unsophisticated, but apparently effective rhetoric.
Unfortunately there is a lesser version of all this running on the
opposite side of the aisle too. We got to see it fairly clearly when
the DNC/Hillary machine went after Bernie (and Jill).
I really enjoyed watching Colbert go on O'Reilly's show and the way he
stood up to him firmly and kept everything on topic and refused to be
reduced in any way to O'Reilly's level. A perfect juxtapose to this
was Colbert hosting Bruce Willis where he insisted Willis doesn't do his
own stunts and the two end up squaring off and doing fight-stunts
together for a while. Colbert is amazingly versatile.
Marcus
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