It may be old, but I really enjoyed watching these short episodes. They’re informing and comedic! Just FYI: After traveling extensively throughout Japan, they really do have a TON of these ‘Hanko’ stamps. They’re used for signatures on documents and other paperwork. People can find their name and buy a stamp at almost any convenience store and some people have they custom made.

This video is kind of hilarious, but kind of sad at the same time if you know what I mean. I’m also giggling about the video comments, people just can’t take jokes these days! Check out more of ZapRoot’s old youtube videos online. I think the most recent on is 4 months old but they’re quite funny and you might learn something!

This week Hollywood’s rich and famous will gather for the biggest celebration all year, the Academy Awards. Since the Oscars seem to be lacking an overall eco-friendly theme, SustainLane held their own Green Oscar Awards titled Green Film Awards 2009. The films nominated were not all made in 2008, but they have 5 main catagories including Film Most Likely To Make You a  Complete Treehugger. Nominees ranged from documenteries like An Inconvenient Truth and the End of Suburbia to hollywood productions like Syriana and even old classics like Chinatown. The awards were voted on by a makeshift academy, the public! It would be a very different scene if the actual oscars were chosen by the public. The following is the list of categories, click on the links to see the nominations and winners!:

Film to Most Likely Make You Ditch Your Gas Guzzler, nominations and the winner…

Film Most Likely to Change Your Eating Habits,  nominations and the winner…

Best Film Exposé of Today’s Environmental Issues, nominations and the winner…

Best Film to Inspire the Next Generation of Environmentalists, nominations and the winner…

Film Most Likely to Make You A Complete Treehugger, nominations and the winner…

As far as the actual Mainstream Oscars, it is true they are lacking on the Green front . Zaproot has put together their newest video which includes an intro about the Oscars (see below). They focus on how this year’s Oscar noms are lacking in green themes, with the exception of Wall-E and some of this year’s greatest documentaries such as The Garden. However, none of these films, including Wall-E have not been nominated for Best Picture, much to the dismay of many environmentalists. To check out Zaproot’s newest video below, which includes the Green Oscar intro as well as review of the newest hybrids hitting the market. Enjoy! 

Hey Greenies – in case you needed another reason to loath Sarah Palin here’s another one…well done ZapRoot…love the Brits..or is it the Aussies…?

Austaliesiska Zaproot gör vettig TV i ett rasande tempo som ibland kan orsaka illamående både pga av innehållet men lika ofta pga av klippningen som får MTV att kännas söligt. Bästa segmentet kallar de “full of shit” och går ut på att dissa stora energi-bolag som hävdar att kol är rent.

Since starting Autonomie Project last winter, we’ve been avid fans of Zaproot, a somewhat sarcastic, always fun, always chock-full of interesting eco tidbits, 3-4 minute online video series.  No matter how hectic our busy days can get tending to our baby start-up, we always stop everything to watch Jessica Williamson tell us the latest, greatest, and most horrific developments in the eco revolution.

The show is produced by Viropop, a “green video network” that also features a cool blog and a super active community site where you can join the action, create your own page, and hey, even your own video show!

Below, check out one of our favorite episodes.  An amusing, and somewhat scary, report on peta2’s work with KFC Canada and the astounding lengths China went to in order to “green” themselves for the Olympics!

We most certainly couldn’t have said it better ourselves! Want to see more? Make sure to check out www.viropop.com and become a subscriber.

Това са забавните еко новини ZapRoot (продукция на Viropop.com) с водещ изключително симпатичната Джесика Уилямс. Mожете да се абонирате за ZapRoot, защото предаването се разпространява в едни от най-големите сайтове и видеопортали, в които е почти невъзможно да нямате регистрация, така че нямате оправдание… както казва Джесика : “Hey users, you should subscribe, the buttons are all over the place !!! “. Tака че юзъри на iTunes, youtube.com, myspace.com, YAHOO!, AOL, Google и др. цъкайте смело по бутона “subscribe”.       

Here’s a podcast I recently found on ViroPOP, a Next New Networks property. It’s one of the catchier entertainment news shows I’ve seen, and I like the show’s style and content. With a length of 1:33, it’s optimized for the casual video browser and perfect for viral embeds and spreading via blogs and social networks.

One of the weaknesses of the site however, is that there are no features to entice the users to return for the next show. Outside of a difficult to navigate community page, and a short “about us” paragraph, Zaproot is missing out on valuable user engagement elements. I’ve outlined two main pieces Zaproot could incorporate into the content and site that may help to increase the show’s stickiness.

1.) Develop A Personality: Build an “about us” page that provides more info about the show’s host, producer and writers. Include photos and links to their profiles on social networks, blogs and Twitter accounts. Giving viewers insight into the personalities behind the video builds attachment with your community and increases the liklihood that they’ll want more.

2.)User Engagment: Elements like polls, answering user submitted question, providing a comments section, linking to behind the scenes footage and bloopers help to draw your community in. Shorter shows help to grab the valuable attention of a user; but once you have that attention be sure that you provide them with as many ways as possible to develop their attachment and increase their desire to come back.

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

In a seven-figure deal, DreamWorks has acquired “Hereafter,” a spec thriller by “Frost/Nixon” and “The Queen” scribe Peter Morgan. Kathleen Kennedy will produce through Kennedy/Marshall. The deal was a low-seven-figure advance against multiple million dollars if the film gets made. Thriller, which Morgan wrote before he got an Oscar nomination for “The Queen,” is in the vein of “The Sixth Sense.” Morgan’s spec deal was brokered by UTA and U.K.-based Independent.

Bunim-Murray Prods.’ documentary film unit is teaming with producer James Scurlock (“Maxed Out”) and director Alexis Spraic for a film expose of the late Larry Hillblom, the globalization pioneer who founded shipping giant DHL. Hillblom disappeared after a 1995 plane crash. With no body ever recovered, a massive battle erupted over his estate. Project follows “Autism: The Musical,” the acquisition that launched BMP Films last year. “Autism” premiered at Tribeca and was bought by HBO Documentary Films. With the untitled Scurlock-Spraic project, BMP is getting involved in the filmmaking process at the start.

Disney Channel’s preschool “Playhouse Disney” block has put the animated skein “Jungle Junction” in production. Cabler has also given third-season greenlights to Playhouse Disney staples “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and “My Friends Tigger & Pooh.” “Jungle Junction,” which will be produced in the U.K., revolves around animals who explore a road-filled jungle — on wheels. According to the channel, the show teaches individuality and care for the environment. Skein will bow on Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney outlets across the world in 2009.

Miramax Films and producer Scott Rudin have acquired the Rudolph Delson novel “Maynard and Jennica.” Playwright-turned-scribe Liz Meriwether will write the screenplay. Published last year by Houghton Mifflin, the novel tracks the courtship of a young couple in New York. Their relationship evolves through the life-changing events of Sept. 11, 2001. The novel has been described as an Annie Hall-like tale of unlikely lovers in Gotham.

Romy Schneider, the Austrian star famous for the hugely popular “Sissi” trilogy of the 1950s playing the 19th-century Bavarian princess who became empress of Austria, has become the subject of two rival biopics. They are a big-screen feature and a high-profile TV production. Jessica Schwarz will play Schneider in Torsten Fischer’s “Romy” for SWR, an affiliate of pubcaster ARD. Produced by Berlin-based Phoenix-Film and penned by Benedikt Roeskau, who wrote last year’s ARD hit “Side Effects” about the thalidomide scandal of the early 1960s, the $7 million “Romy” is set to start shooting in the fall for a 2009 TV premiere. In parallel singer-actress Yvonne Catterfeld is playing Schneider in Warner Bros.’ “Eine Frau wie Romy” (“A Woman Like Romy”) helmed by Josef Rusnak. Raymond Danon, who produced Schnedier’s last film, 1982’s “Le Passante du Sans-Souci” (‘The Passerby’), is producing the $36 million French-German co-pro with Douglas Welbat (“Seven Dwarves”). Pic starts shooting in July and is scheduled to hit screens next year.

Lionsgate has stepped up to make screen scribe Stuart Gibbs’ debut novel, “The Last Equation.” An action thriller, contempo story pivots on government agents, a criminal and a math whiz on a quest to find a buried Albert Einstein formula that could harness energy with deadly consequences. Production will be overseen for Lionsgate by veep Jim Miller. Miller moved over last month from Mandate Pictures, a Lionsgate subsi

PROJECT UPDATES

Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Tenney, Charles S. Dutton, Lucas Black, Kate Walsh, Adrianne Palicki, Kevin Durand and Willa Holland will join Paul Bettany in “Legion,” the Screen Gems thriller that marks the feature directing debut of Scott Stewart. Shooting is about to get under way in New Mexico. David Lancaster and Michel Litvak produce through their Bold Films banner, and Gary Michel Walters is exec producer. Scripted by Stewart and Peter Schink, the thriller casts Bettany as the archangel Michael, the only one standing between mankind and an apocalypse, after God loses faith in humanity. Man’s lone hope rests with a group of strangers who must deliver a baby they realize is Christ in his second coming. Deals for Quaid, Gibson and Tenney are being finalized and the rest of the cast is set.

Summit Entertainment has given life to “The Tomb,” buying Miles Chapman’s script and signing Jeff Wadlow to direct. Story centers on the world’s foremost authority on structural security, who’s forced to escape from the master prison of his own design and use every trick up his sleeve to find the person who put him there. Jason Keller is rewriting. Project marks Wadlow’s second collaboration with Summit following “Never Back Down.” That film, which he helmed, opened earlier this month as Summit’s first inhouse production to go into theaters. Summit prexy of production Erik Feig said he’s hopeful that “The Tomb” can serve as a franchise starter, with the protag as an action hero who uses brains, not brawn, to get out of trouble. Wadlow also co-wrote and directed “Cry Wolf,” and Keller rewrote the screenplay for “The Tourist.”

Francis Ford Coppola has teamed with Spanish shingle Tornasol Films and Italy’s BIM Distribuzione to co-produce his previously announced Argentinean immigration tale “Tetro.” Speaking at a press conference in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, Coppola described the $15 million project as “small, indie and personal.” Coppola will direct from his own screenplay, which was stolen with his computer from his Buenos Aires home in September but for which he had backup copies. He produces via his Buenos Aires-based Zoetrope Argentine. Lensing starts March 31 in La Boca, a poor district of Buenos Aires, and will continue in the capital before moving to the Andean foothills of Patagonia. Shooting will move to Spain’s Ciudad de la Luz studios in Alicante in mid-May.

Yvan Attal and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi will star in “Regrets,” by Gallic helmer Cedric Kahn (“Red Lights, “Roberto Succo”). Attal (“The Serpent”, “Rush Hour 3″) will topline as Mathieu, an introvert in his 40s who, following the death of his mother, starts a new relationship with Maya, his high school girlfriend played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“Actresses”, “A Good Year”). The $6.5 million production brings the two French thesps together for the first time since Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” in 2005.

ACQUISITIONS/ FESTIVAL NEWS

Philadelphia-based distrib TLA Releasing has nabbed all North American rights to critically acclaimed Korean horror hit “Epitaph,” the directorial debut of the Jung brothers. TLA veep of acquisitions Jennifer Arndt-Jones picked up the rights from South Korea’s Studio 2.0, which was repped by international business topper Eun-Young Choi in the deal, at the recently wrapped Hong Kong Filmart. A reinvention of the horror genre, “Epitaph” unfolds in a hospital in World War II Korea and stars Kim Bo Kyung (“Blue Sky”), Kim Tae Woo (“Woman on the Beach”) and Jin Goo (“Dirty Carnival”). The Jung brothers were honored with the new director nod at the 2007 Pusan Film Critics Awards. Pic will unspool in Gotham’s New Directors/New Films fest and April’s Philadelphia Film Festival. It’s scheduled to hit theaters later in the year under the Danger After Dark label.

BUSINESS NEWS

Get ready for Paramount the videogame publisher. The studio has expanded its interactive department team and is putting together a slate of games that it will partially or completely finance and for which it will more directly oversee development. Games will be based either on new Par films or catalog titles. Details on Par’s inaugural self-published or co-published games weren’t available, but the first few are expected to come out later this year. Studio is looking to invest in all types of videogames but is particularly interested in casual, handheld and mobile games, as they can be made for only a few million dollars, compared with the $20 million or more it costs to produce a title for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

“CSI: Miami” scribe Sunil Nayar has sealed a two-year, seven-figure deal with CBS Paramount Network TV to continue on the crime drama while also developing skeins. As part of the pact, Nayar is developing a project for the studio’s sister CBS net. The Eye has given Nayar a blind, mid-six-figure penalty against that next piece of development. Nayar will also be bumped up to exec producer of “CSI: Miami” next season. The writer was previously co-exec producer on the show.

Culver City-based vfx shop Rhythm & Hues, which won the 2008 Oscar as the lead effects shop on “The Golden Compass,” has opened a facility in Hyderabad, India. Some 100 of the 210 employees at R&H’s Mumbai facility moved to the new location. The two facilities now sport a total of about 250 employees, and more expansion is planned. R&H’s India facilities are teaming with its California HQ on “The Incredible Hulk” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.”

As stock trading breaks out across the Arab world, so too has Arab business television. During the past five years, once-nascent regional markets have been ignited by high oil prices, and more than half a dozen satellite channels have been launched to feed audiences’ thirst for business news. While a crop of newer channels, such as the Arabian Business Channel, Stock TV and Decision Makers, have all failed to produce a significant amount of programming despite ambitious plans announced in the press, the following channels are booming: CNBC Arabiya – Launched in 2003, CNBC’s affiliate was the region’s first all-business channel and remains the largest. The Dubai-based broadcaster maintains bureaus in Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Riyadh, Jeddah, Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait, London and Singapore. It employs 200, “most of which are editorial,” says sales director Omer Ghani. Al-Arabiya – Following the rapid increase in stock market activity in 2005, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya made a drastic shift toward business news, offering continuous ticker-framed market coverage throughout the trading day. With a set of daytime business anchors, the channel’s 50-strong business editorial staff produces six hours of consecutive finance-related programming each business day. El Eqtisadia – With studios in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, El Eqtisadia offers live coverage of the regional markets with a focus on Saudi Arabia. The channel was launched in 2006 and now employs 22 journalists, according to Dubai operations manager Khaled El Rahahleh. Unlike the anchors on CNBC and Al-Arabiya, many of the station’s male and female anchors wear traditional Arabian headscarves Al Aqariya – Launched in 2004 with broad plans to cover the Arab and international real estate industry, Al Aqariya has significantly scaled down its operations, shutting down a recently launched second channel as well as ending carriage on the popular Arabsat satellite network. CEO Rabeea Atatreh describes the moves as cost-cutting measures and says the broadcaster, which had espoused plans to expand into Asian and European markets with an English channel, was now restructuring.

U.S.-based distributor Northstar Media has picked up non-theatrical rights to 21 pics produced by giant-screen company Imax Corp. Northstar will snare worldwide TV, video-on-demand, mobile and broadband rights to the films in the Imax XXI film package. The films include “Tom Hanks Presents Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D,” “Space Station,” “Into the Deep,” “T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous” and “Blue Planet.”

Verse, variety and reality — that’s the magic mix in the elixir Abu Dhabi TV has concocted to relaunch itself as a major pan-Arab broadcaster. First taste of success was “Prince of Poets,” a kind of “American Idol” for Gulf region poets that in its first season last year drew millions of eyeballs, scored ratings that overtook those of soccer and was hailed as one of the most successful Arab television shows ever. Nashwa Al-Ruwaini, chief exec of Pyramedia, the production company behind “Poets,” promises an even brighter second season with participation stretching beyond the Gulf into the entire Arab world.

Online game developer Gonzo Rosso, a member of the GDH media group, has inked a license deal for its first original title, “Pandora Saga,” GDH announced on Thursday.
IP E-Game Ventures has taken Filipino rights for massive multiplayer, online role-playing game, developed by Tokyo-based Headlock and published by Gonzo Rosso. The game, online in Japan since February, pits three nations against each other in a battle for military supremacy. IP E-Games is the online game operations subsid of IPVG, a Filipino IT company. Among its titles is “Ran Online,” which was developed in South Korea and is the most popular online game in the Philippines. Gonzo Rosso and IP E-Games plan to use the deal to open more Asian territories to the title. “Pandora Saga” will launch in the Philippines this summer.

Animation house Tatsunoko Prod., creator of iconic 1970s toon series “Speed Racer,” unveiled its Mach 5 Line Project for designing merchandise to coincide with the release of the Wachowskis’ “Speed Racer” pic in Japan. It will be promoted at the Tokyo Anime Fair, which opened Thursday. Five teams of designers will come up with their own takes on the “Speed Racer” world for the goods — including clothes, stationery, toys, collectibles and books — instead of simply copying characters from the old toon show or the new live-action pic. Among the participants are freelance illustrators Gogh Imaizumi, Masahiro Takase and Toru Fukuda; Tatsunoko character designer Suzuka Yoshida; and Devil Robots, a five-person creative team whose work includes figures, toons and picture books. “Speed Racer” is skedded for a July 5 release in Japan, while Mach 5 Line Project goods will hit the stores in June.

Almost one in ten Russian households – 4.7 million out of 49 million — will have access to digital TV by the end of the year as the medium is rolled out by state and private operators, according to a report published Thursdayby the European Audiovisual Observatory. The government plans to spend up to $15 billion over seven years upgrading terrestrial analog signals to digital although only some 100,000 people are able to tune into digital channels at the moment. They are part of an official DVB-T standard pilot project launched last year, the report “Towards Digital Television in the Russian Federation” said.

Argentina’s the Latin Flower Co. has signed an agreement to handle international sales of fiction series for Colombian producer Invento — the latest move by the new distributor to expand its catalog. Skeins covered under the deal, signed in Buenos Aires by Latin Flower prexy Silvana D’Angelo and Invento international sales director Tina Hernandez, include “Baby Sister” and “El autentico Rodrigo leal” (The Real Rodrigo Leal). Series such as “El inutil,” “Juegos prohibidos” and “Marido a sueldo” may come under the deal along with future projects, according to Latin Flower.

The Czech Republic’s top terrestrial web, Nova TV, has added three film shows to its new cable channel, Nova Cinema. Station, owned by Central European Media Enterprises, is rolling out magazine show “The Red Carpet Reporter,” featuring star gossip and lifestyles; “The Hollywood Reporter” covering film industry news; and “Night of Film Chances” giving exposure to the work of film students. Nova Cinema launched in December, part of what station topper Petr Dvorak describes as a strong commitment to film fan offerings. Terrestrial TV Nova also airs a regular diet of American pics and programs, from “American Beauty” to “Home Improvement.” A new 10-episode crime hour on CME’s Slovak terrestrial, Markiza, will also launch, with dramatizations of case files, the first such offering since the 1970s.

INDUSTRY MOVES

The Gersh Agency has hired Allison Band as a VP in its talent department. Band moves from UTA, where she worked for 11 years. Band said she will bring with her clients including Jena Malone, Mary Tyler Moore, Teri Polo, Katherine Waterston, Christopher McDonald and Jason Behr.

Continuing to energize its executive suite, MGM has named Becky Sloviter VP of production. Hire is the second announced in two days by Mary Parent, who became chair of the Lion’s worldwide motion picture group two weeks ago. Parent, who hired New Line exec Cale Boyter as exec VP on Thursday, has been given the go-ahead by MGM topper Harry Sloan to build a staff to generate films inhouse.

TECHNOLOGY

Bloggers and Internet professionals in Israel plan to launch both organized and ad-hoc protests in upcoming weeks over a new bill calling for the mandatory filtering of content deemed by Israeli parliament as “inappropriate.” The ban purports to concern mostly pornography and gambling sites. The bill, written by Orthodox members of Israel’s parliament the Knesset, has already passed a first reading and, if not thwarted by its third reading, will be made into law. The bill, nicknamed “The Internet Porn Law,” proposes that a committee headed by the minister of communication will form a blacklist of sites that pose a threat to Israeli children. Those sites will then be blocked by ISPs. Filtering will be disabled only if an adult specifically asks for the removal of the service. Opponents of the bill, most of them bloggers who deluged Hebrew-language sites with uproarious comments, say that in the guise of “protection of children” the law will impose censorship on the Internet in Israel, just as in countries such as Iran, China, Burma, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Distrib Gaga Communications has launched its Gaga Movie Channel on YouTube, the company announced Thursday. Gaga Movie Channel broadcasts TV ads and trailers on YouTube, beginning with promos for “The Golden Compass,” Gaga’s biggest B.O. hit this year. Gaga intends to beam content on the site from, not only its own lineup, but also other distribs, including promos for new pics and DVD releases, while respecting the copyrights of its partner companies.

Right-wing Dutch politico Geert Wilders has finally found a home for his controversial anti-Islam short “Fitna” after video-sharing site LiveLeak allowed the 15-minute film to be posted online. “Fitna,” whose title is an Arabic word that can be translated as “strife” or “discord” and is usually used in a religious context, has been the subject of heated debate and protests ever since Wilders announced his plans to release it earlier this year. Dutch TV broadcasters refused to air the film following vocal criticism from the Dutch government, forcing Wilders to take the online route. The Net, initially at least, proved as restrictive — U.S.-based website host Network Solutions shut down Wilders’ site pending a probe into whether it contravened its acceptable use policy. LiveLeak’s decision to post the film, which features graphic images of terror attacks in New York, London and Madrid and also reproduces the notorious Danish cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head, means viewers around the world will now be able to see what the fuss was all about.

WEBSITES TO WATCH

www.mlb.com

MLB Advanced Media is ready to hit one out of the park this year with a major redesign of MLB.com. The site is improving its video player once again to support a streaming rate of 1.2 Mbps, presented in 16×9 aspect ratio for the first time. Built on Microsoft’s new Silverlight platform, the player will also enable metadata-based video search and other goodies. Look here for more details on Monday when the site officially relaunches.

http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen/#/bigIdeasContest:overview

Sundance Channel will pay $10,000 for the next “Big Idea” to save the planet. The network is seeking shorts for its Big Ideas for a Small Planet series, returning April 1st. Contestants are asked to submit a one-minute short or photo essay to sundancechannel.com/bigideascontest between April 1 and May 20. Sundance will select the top 25 entries then users will vote from May 27-June 24, based on creativity, theme, feasibility and presentation.

http://www.lotame.com/

Social media ad solutions provider Lotame closed on a $10 million round of series A financing last month, led by Battery Ventures with participation from existing angel investors Hillcrest Management and Betaworks. Lotame is focused on monetizing midsize social networks by creating delivering customizable communities to advertisers built around actions users perform online, according to founder/CEO Andrew Monfried, a veteran of Advertising.com. The company currently monitors anonymous actions taken on 16 (1 million+ user) video, gaming and social media sites. Advertisers are able to target audiences based on not only interests but also how they interact with the platforms.

http://www.loladex.com/

Here’s another L-word start up. Former AOL executives Laurence Hooper and Dan Goodman launched Loladex this week, a local search engine built to help friends share recommendations on Facebook. Users can ask friends to recommend local businesses then add their own ratings to the results.

http://www.viropop.com/zaproot

ZapRoot is the flagship online show of ViroPop, an environmentally-themed Next New Networks property that has everything you should look for in a web show. It educates viewers about green trends in a vibrant, easy-to-digest manner, sprinkling in sardonic humor, pop cultural references and fun visuals. Host “Eco-Chick” moves faster than a T1 connection on steroids, but the site provides handy links to sites she references so that you don’t have to try to write them down on the fly. The show is produced by environmentalist Damien Somerset and indie filmmaker Sarah Szalavitz, whose day job is Director of Content Development at Veoh Networks.

SOURCES:

www.variety.com
www.cynopsis.com

Today I happened to be flipping through TV channels and came across Hannity & Coles, on Fox News, in which the host was interviewing a scientist who was fired after disclosing in conversation that he didn’t believe in evolution, specifically the common ancestor theory. The host, pointed out that the job description explicitly states that they need an evolutionary mindset. The former employee responded by pointing out that the job description the host was reading was reposted after they fired him.

What I found so hilarious was the host concluded by saying that’s all we have time for, and said next, they were going to talk about a country star and his new CDs. Though I’m not surprised at all by the news media’s tendency to switch to different topics in order to cover everything who are the ones that select which stories to talk about? Why do they even bother bringing people to be interviewed when they don’t spend enough time for the person to speak out anyways? Instead of talking more about the case, and getting the facts straight, the host decides a country star and his CDs are more important?

I personally think that if TV news were ever to become extinct it would be from lack of interest in their shows. Gone is the time of national and global news report. Instead it is replaced with what appears to be such, but inserted with interviews of country star singers, a recently passed away Broadway writer, coverage of Britney Spears child custody, discussion about Paris Hilton’s stay in jail, or Lindsey Lohan’s latest car accident. Instead of increased coverage time on other parts of the world it seems that American media finds interviewing reporters in the midst of a hurricane, coughing on forest fire smoke, interviewing people rescued from the forest, or interviewing Anna Nicole’s friends and doctor will keep the American public from changing channels.

Why interview an USDA representative on updates on bad Spinach when you know there’s nothing new they can talk about? Why pose questions to the local police or sheriff’s investigation you know they can’t answer? Why throw reporters into a hurricane who can only tell you that it’s really windy and call that reporting? Why ask mine representatives if they think anyone survived, when the situation hasn’t changed- that is they can’t say yet! Instead of spending coverage time with idle conversation about what you think, and what some special consultant thinks why not just do your job and report on what you do know, or if you already did that report on something else? Why loopback video feeds of fires and a mall during a mall shooting and have a reporter do side commentary that only he cares about? Or ask pointless questions that the sheriff can’t answer?

Am I ranting? I think so. Frankly, I think the people who pick the stories for American media have a poor taste in stories, and to put it bluntly are idiots.

Thus, enters in the new age of internet news. Instead of listening to stories by people hoping to keep you on their television channel, website, or radio station internet, we now have bloggers and enterprising video productions producing something that rather than trying to catch everyone, focus on the stories and specific interests instead. If you are interested being green, stay a few seconds watching ZapRoot. Interested on stories on Iraq mainstream news took weeks before covering visit Amy Proctor’s blog. Interested on the other side of a story that news covers, drop by Michelle Malkin. Gone is the day in age of having to listen to what the news media hopes the majority of people will be interested in.

The story I mentioned above is worth discussing, but at this point in time, I just feel like poking the eye of today’s TV news media. I hope they go extinct. Personally, I think that as the internet becomes more and more pervasive in society, being accessible everywhere on everything, the static news programs from radio and television will be replaced by more dynamic news sources picked out by the individual. I think mass media’s attempt to reach the masses will always fail because the mass don’t all have the same interests. Maybe some enterprising president of one of the giant news conglomerates will see that and survive the extinction of today’s news dinosaurs.

A fast and funny video from the hipsters at ViroPOP featuring our new eco-certified Fair Trade basketball. I’m going to find an empty water bottle and make my Flock of Seagulls sunglasses right now…