It’s Time to Re-Release Stephen Stills Singing “For What It’s Worth”!

Buffalo Springfield had it right. But, of course, Stephen Stills would have to update it just a bit:

There's something happening here
What it is, is way too clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Shooting a video killing affair

I think it's time we stop, people, what's that sound
Everybody Google what’s goin’ down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Loud mouths speaking their minds
Politicians and pundits putting drawing lines

It's time we stop, hey, play a trump
Got to get ready to parry a thump

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Crowds chanting, clapping utter nonsense
All the while saying it’s a new progress

It's time we stop, hey, pay attention
Everybody’s coping with frightening tension

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you get un-friended
And goes on to break anything open-minded

We better stop, hey, coming at-ya
All that matters is when we gotcha

Reality TV ain’t real
But, hey, it’s all about how you feel
Social media isn’t the new reality
Social media is just another locality

Stop, hey, too much media
Put down the smartphone and turn off the damn TV, radio and Internet!

Random Notes

My new book “The Revolutionary Evolution of the Media” continues! Go here to read the latest chapter or here to start from the beginning.

The retrans mess … so the Chairman of the Federal Confusion Commission threatened to do something about it, kind of; he called a meeting.  Meaningful? Well you decide. It did, however, presage a temporary truce between the fine folks at Sinclair Broadcasting and the fine folks at DISH.  Somehow, I actually think they deserve one another.  Sinclair denied Wheeler had anything to do with the new signing, though.

The National Association of Broadcasters had just warned the FCC to look out for “bad actors” -- meaning MVPDs -- causing blackouts just to embarrass broadcasters and semi-embarrass the FCC into doing something about the recurring blackouts by shifting the leverages.  NAB, naturally, didn’t look in a mirror when it made that accusation.  It should have.

The broadcasters have a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose deal now and everyone knows it. That doesn’t mean they should.

The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage/MyersBizNet management or associated bloggers.