The Daily Loper – November 12, 2007

Neil, Wallace, Sammy, Anne, Al & Me Edition

Todays links of interest:

• Fresno residents pan Prius ads poking fun at Central Valley city
  Now that Toyota has wussed out and apologized, we’re sure that Prius sales will skyrocket in Fresno. Which could certainly use as many Priuses on its streets as possible.
• Screenwriters Seek Bigger Slice of Half-Eaten Pie
  The NYT notes that one of the major hurdles in paying writers more in residuals? Hefty participations squeeze available cash.
• Fox sees dollar signs in picket lines
  FOX executives, of course, never ever ever pass up a chance to be totally and utterly evil in their utterances. That they hate all of the, um, messiness surrounding scripted programming is of no surprise to those of us who have watched in horror over the years as they’ve axed one great show after another in order to air reruns of "America’s Most Fucked-Up Shit." One can only hope that this is the year that the Death Star — American Idol — gets blown to smithereens.
• Prince Releases Diss Track As Battle With Fans Gets Funky
  Part of Prince’s genius has always been that he’s batshit crazy, of course, but this is in his top 5: releasing a song that insults what are by definition some of his biggest fans. By handle.
• Is U.S. Government Reading Your Email?
  Apparently, AT&T is having your email diverted into a secret room in San Francisco. Here’s a classic non-denial denial: "AT&T is fully committed to protecting our customers’ privacy. We do not comment on matters of national security." Its obvious, of course, that all hard-core pornography spam is really secret terrorist communication, so that’s what they should be concentrating on.
• PC World – Zune 80GB Media Player – Black Review
  While the Zune will never have the cachet of the iPod, it now has two features that the iPod doesn’t: 1) wireless syncing and 2) FM Radio. Good on Microsoft.
• Buyers Remorse: Want Make Goods, Not Scatter
  While the point of the article is excellent (lower audience numbers are making advertisers unhappy), the lead is something only true industry insiders can love…
• Boutique theater might be ticket to new memories
  Will consumers embrace the up-market experience? Give me wine and no crying babies, and you had me at "wine".
• How Long Before Your Shows Go Dark?
  Say goodbye to "The Office," — and I wonder if somebody is second-guessing the decision to start the season with all of those hour-long episodes — but you "Men in Trees" fans have nothing to worry about, mostly because they stockpiled eps from last season.