Continue reading Jon Stewart slams Cramer over Lenny Dykstra bankruptcy

Jon Stewart slams Cramer over Lenny Dykstra bankruptcy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Jon Stewart's CNBC attacks bashed by NBC chief

Jon Stewart's CNBC attacks bashed by NBC chief originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

DailyFinance today: Smith & Wesson, Ruger shares up, new PPI numbers, Jack Welch appeals for AIG calm, and activists hound CNBC originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

DailyFinance today: Bill Gates Sr. says more taxes, Jon Stewart, and economy tanks for celebrities originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

	CEOs are losing their mojo as economic woes deepen
	Jon Stewart rips into Santelli, CNBC
	In surprise, productivity falls and labor costs jump
	Wal-Mart steamrolls its way through the recession

DailyFinance today: CEOs losing their mojo, Jon Stewart rips into CNBC, productivity falls, and Wal-Mart steamrolls through the recession originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst in Money 2008 feature.

Well, 2008 has come and gone. If you were looking to be entertained over the past 12 months, you had a lot of choices. From Batman's battle with the maniacal Joker to Hannah Montana singing her little heart out in 3-D, there was something for everyone. Let's look at five of the hottest properties that made their way into the heart of the cultural mindshare in '08.

Up first is The Dark Knight, the second iteration of director Christopher Nolan's new vision of the Caped Crusader. That movie killed at the box office, and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) could not have been happier. Knight scored almost $1 billion at the global box office. More than half that number was captured in the domestic marketplace. There's no question that the movie mesmerized the collective intellect of the audience. There's also no question that Heath Ledger, who tragically passed away earlier in the year, impressed everyone with his portrayal of the chaotic and cruel Joker villain. I, however, do have a question. Is it just me, or was Knight not as awesome a film as the hype makes it out to be? I saw it, thought it was okay. I don't know, I'm just not sure that this new entry in the cinematic Batman mythos would have brought in as many bucks if the notoriety of Ledger's death wasn't attached to these particular reels of celluloid. To be honest, I didn't think Ledger did that unique of a job. And I thought The Joker's voice was annoying, almost sounding like Sam Raimi -- did anyone else happen to think that? Maybe it's just me. Nevertheless, I salute the success of Knight and respect the project for the impact it had on theaters 'round the world.

Continue reading Best & Worst in Money 2008: Hottest in entertainment

Best & Worst in Money 2008: Hottest in entertainment originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Ask not for whom the writers strike tolls

Ask not for whom the writers strike tolls originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jon Stewart extends 'Daily Show' contract through 2010 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Greenspan: "You're raising a very fundamental question."
Stewart: "I am? Should I leave?"
Greenspan: "No. Stay for a while. Since you got your Emmy, you're qualified."

Greenspan's serious answer: "What a sound money system does is to stabilize all the elements in it, and reduces the uncertainty that people confront." Greenspan's answer continued to discuss some of the history.

Continue reading Jon Stewart to Alan Greenspan: Why do we have a Fed?

Jon Stewart to Alan Greenspan: Why do we have a Fed? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jon Stewart to host Oscar awards originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox News Channel (FNC) has admitted defeat in the field of political satire. That's because, according to MediaBistro, it will shut down its short-lived attempt to satirize Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA) Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The TV news satire show which airs Sunday nights, first aired February 18 with more than 1.4 million viewers. But it has fallen back to an average of 258,000 viewers in its last 10 airings -- while still leading its time slot in every airing except one. FNC will air the final show September 16.

What happened? I don't really know why FNC is canceling the show if it was so successful. And since I've only seen a few clips, I can say that I found those clips to be unfunny. I think Stewart and Colbert satirize what passes for "fair and balanced" reporting on FNC.

And I think it would be pretty hard for any media outlet to do a good job of both creating the object of satire and to make viewers laugh at a satire of the satire of that object.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in News Corp. or Viacom.

Fox can't do political satire originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and watch out for more Battle of the Brands posts.

The battle between CNN and Fox News isn't a question of liberals and conservatives. That debate was settled long ago and the conservatives won.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) makes a ton of money from Fox News, which continues to dominate. Its ratings have rebounded after slipping last year. CNN parent Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) launched Headline Prime in 2005 as a Fox without Bill O'Reilly, complete with rabid right-wing talk show hosts like Glenn Beck.

One night for fun, I decided to compare O'Reilly and Beck. Boy was I lucky. I picked a night to DVR their shows when both hosts were at the the top of their games.

On his program, Beck railed against all sorts of people bent on destroying the America, including filmmaker Michael Moore, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, comedian Rosie O'Donnell, and pop star Elton John.

Elton John? Rocket Man? I was shocked too.

Apparently, Sir Elton is the "high priest of hypocrisy," according to Beck. The singer had a 60th birthday party at St. John the Divine, a big church in New York. Seems John, who has little use for religion, made some changes to the church building for the concert, including removing the pews. To make matters worse, John showed a background of a burning church at his show the next day at Madison Square Garden. Oh yeah, that was on a Sunday.

All of this was too much for the talk show host to take.

"If he wants to drop a few million to desecrate your church than who am I to judge, right? Wrong!" he said of the pop star.

Continue reading CNN vs. Fox News: Battle of the Brands

CNN vs. Fox News: Battle of the Brands originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Question for people who post large chunks of their favorite TV shows on YouTube: do you think you're going to get sued?

Now that Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) is suing Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) for $1 billion that's not a far-fetched scenario. Google has tried and failed to cut deals with other big content providers. Unless Google pulls off a miracle, it's probably a matter of time before another big media company joins Viacom and another one after that

Although people hated the music industry's campaign against Napster and other file-sharing services, the message got out that you should pay for music that you download. Why is video sharing any different? Billionaire blogger Mark Cuban, a critic of YouTube, called the site "a haven for pirates." It's hard to disagree.

It took me 20, maybe 30 seconds surfing YouTube clips from "Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "The Colbert Report." "American Idol", "Lost" and" Family Guy" that would probably give lawyers from big media a fit. Reuters came to the same conclusion. YouTube can be that oblivious.

Many of the YouTube clips I found were multi-minute chunks of hit shows. They were the funny moments, the highlights that fans enjoy. Some were as long as 15 minutes. Media companies would be insane to give that away for free. How is that legal?

Legal experts are divided over whether Viacom has a case against Google, according to The New York Times. The safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may offer Google protection against people posting videos they don't own. As Melly Alazarki pointed out yesterday, the DMCA was enacted during the Internet's Stone Age. Copyright holders have to flag objectionable content and ask sites like YouTube to take it down.

By the time that happens, the illegal content has spread to every corner of the Web. Remember it was still wrong to post other people's conent in the first place.

Some sort of balance has to be struck that doesn't stifle creativity and respects the rights of copyright holders. But if YouTube is to survive, it will have to figure a way to stop pirated content and punish those who post it.

So party on, YouTubers. The fun may not last.

Media World: Should YouTubers hire lawyers? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.