BuzzMachine

Both David Pogue in the Times and Walt Mossberg in the Journal are unhappy with the Windows version of the Treo. And I was getting all ready to have a case of gadget envy. I’ll stay happy with my Treo 650.

I’m amused that the op-ed page of the Times today says that Ana Marie Cox is editor of Wonkette even as two sections back, David Carr says she isn’t.

And by the way, good luck to AMC, who in the Times pic is looking a little worse for the wear after endless nights of gossip (cheesy tatts, girl).

Well, the prudes and prigs and closed-minded bigots of the allegedly religious right won one. No, two.

Two spineless, dickless, unAmerican NBC affiliates — KARK-TV in Little Rock, and WTWO-TV in Terre Haute, both are owned by Nexstar Broadcasting — dropped Book of Daniel after the so-called American Family Association (I’m an American and I have a family but I wouldn’t associate with these hatemongers) complained that the show might find humor in churches. Well, actually, the real reason is that the AFA hates gays and Book of Daniel doesn’t.

So these NBC scumbags went along with it. Would they have gone alone with the KKK trying to kill I Spy because it had a black star? Same thing. Bigotry is bigotry. One station tried to make up a spin that it’s a protest again the regulatory environment. Well, bullshit. Shows with homosexual characters are not — yet — a subject of regulation.

The affiliate in Salt Lake City — which previously would not air Coupling, God, the Devil and Bob, and Stressed Eric. — is airing Daniel.

“There’s been an enormous amount of discussion about the show,” said Steve Poulsen, vp marketing at KSL-TV, NBC’s affiliate in Salt Lake City. “This one happens to have religious overtones to it and is causing a little stir. We determined on this one to let the viewers determine the success or failure of this show.”

Well, now, wouldn’t that be a fine policy every day of the week?

Diane Mermigas writes a good summary of the fuses lit under big, old media and how they’re burning down this year.

In truth, it all comes down to the caliber and vision of company management and leadership — something media and entertainment industries have in perilously short supply. In a quest to conquer the digital fast track, an aging ruling class is anointing their next-in-line top executives and their next-of-kin, few of which have the “right stuff” to reinvent these industries during the next several decades. While many will move their companies into the thick of a digital transition, few are skilled enough to ingeniously mine it.

That will require a new generation of graduates from the Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg school of mavericks and free-thinkers. It also will require a new standard for innovation and imagination, concepts that these weary industries have difficulty budgeting for much less mandating.

Can the incumbents do it? I’m not sure.

She goes on to give them their assignment. It’s very simple: Empower the consumer.

Companies will need to be thoughtful about reshaping industry economics and logistics according to the new rules of play.

The bottom line: they likely will make more money than they do today beckoning to the whims of emancipated consumers….

If the likes of Google (through search and other online analytics) and Apple (through portable devices) taught us anything in 2005 it is that empowering consumers is very good business….

…it looks like the “killer application” of new media is what the consumer wants, when they want it, where they want it.

Amen.

Howard 100 News reported tonight that a priest and a state legislator fought to get two Howard Stern billboards taken down in Chicago because they dared to make a joke: “Let Freedom Ring. And let it be run by a stripper.” The state legislator is quoted on Howard 100 saying that as a woman and as an African American — etcetera, etcetera — she is offended and so she and the priest pressured the owners of the billboards — none other than First Amendment woosies Clear Channel and Viacom — to take them down.

Well, Ms. State Legislator, as an American, I am offended by your disrespect for freedom of speech and your utter lack of a damned sense of humor.

Prigs, prudes, and pols will be our downfall.