Steven Greer, MD discusses with Bill O’Reilly the Japan radiation concern for the US?

April 2, 2011

Currently, the radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima meltdowns (plural) reaching the United States are of no concern. The levels are miniscule and of no medical harm. However, radiation exposure and subsequent risk to cancer is cumulative and the situation cannot be allowed to continue for months, ala the BP oil spill. What will the international community do next?

We discussed this with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly.

Why News Corp and Disney should merge: A perfect storm is on the way for cable TV

January 3, 2012  By Steven Greer, MD

The cable TV business model is still printing money, despite high user dissatisfaction with the cable delivery companies and the poor quality of content found on most channels. How long will that disconnect last? When will the cash cow dry up?

Last quarter, News Corporation (NWSA) reported record revenue from their largest division, which is cable TV. Fox News (and other European assets) earned $775 Million, up 18% in a global recession. In comparison, the Fox broadcast TV (e.g. American Idol, the Simpsons, etc) pulled in only $133 Million. Multiply all of those numbers by four to get the annual revenue for the calendar year 2011, which computes to approximately $4 Billion from cable TV.

Disney’s (DIS) largest revenue producer, by far, is their cable operation led by ESPN. Last quarter, Disney cable brought in a record $3.5 Billion, up 11%. The next closest money printing machine within Disney was the theme park division, which pulled in $3.1 Billion on the top line. For the full calendar year 2011, Disney will make more than $13 Billion in revenue from cable TV.

The reason TV content creators earn so much more from cable than from broadcast TV, despite many millions more watching broadcast TV, is that the networks charge the middlemen cable providers hefty fees to carry their channels, in addition to charging advertisers to place ads. For CNBC as an example, they get about half their revenue from fees collected from the Cable Guy. ESPN fees equate to nearly a $5 per month charge in each cable TV subscriber’s bill.

The networks keep jacking up the fees and holding the NFL and other content as hostage unless the Cable Guy pays up. Content is King and they know it.

This is why the networks recently agreed to absurdly high fees to the NFL, some $24 Billion over many years, despite the actual revenue to be collected from broadcasting those games to be nowhere nearly enough to offset the fees. In the bigger picture, the premium NFL content allows the networks to have the advantage at the bargaining table.

As a result, cable providers, such as Time Warner, Comcast, or Verizon have been losing those negotiations with the networks and simply passing on the costs to the consumer, amidst the recession. Monthly cable TV now well exceeds $100 per month in most regions.

There are signs of successful pushback from the cable providers. New cable TV channels are failing. The Oprah Winfrew Network (OWN) is struggling to get cable providers to pay the fees and distribute it to viewers. In New York. Time Warner recently cancelled the deal with MSG, so millions on viewers will no longer be able to see Knicks and Rangers games. The Fox Business Network, despite being part of the powerful News Corp family, had trouble getting picked up by cable providers and only recently reported a profit after launching in 2007. Fox Business could actually be considered a success by current standards. It is unlikely that small independent cable channels will succeed as they did decades ago.

What would happen if Americans and Europeans, in droves, suddenly stopped paying $150 or more per month to receive cable TV? What if everyone started using their fancy new iPad or Apple TV screens to watch video content delivered via the Internet, bypassing the Cable Guy?

Ask any cable TV executive the question, “Will people stop paying for cable TV soon?” and all of them will answer, “No way. Content is King. We have the monopoly on content”. But that is no surprise. For any mature industry, the insiders are the last to acknowledge major paradigm changes on the horizon.

A perfect storm is on the way for the cable TV industry, and might hit as soon as Q4 2012 with a salvo from Apple (AAPL). First, the average cable TV subscriber is broke and can barely make ends meet with groceries, mortgages, and gas. High-speed Internet alone costs around $60 per month. However, Internet plus cable TV is a whopping $150 per month when all fees and taxes are added. Is ESPN’s Monday Night Football essential when free broadcast carries the other games? Are MSNBC, TLC, or MTV essential for those families, especially when delayed versions are on the Internet via Hulu and other portals?

Then, add to this perfect storm the appeal of the newer TV interfaces via Xbox or iPad that surpass the 1970′s cable TV remote control by light years. Very soon, the old remote control will simply become unacceptable to anyone under the age of 30 and the important advertising demographics.

Thirdly, there will finally be some easy-to-use solutions for watching Internet video on one’s large living room TV, arriving later this year. Apple TV and a new iPad are the likely forms.

The final fuel to this perfect storm, later on in 2013, will be the original content created directly by new forms “studios” and thousands of smaller independent channels, all delivered via the Internet bypassing cable providers. The hit cable show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, now on Comedy Central and FX, started as an online production made by some guys with a digital camera for $85. Google, Netflix, and other larger companies have original content productions in the works.

The cable providers are already seeing reductions in subscribers and are trying to diversify into other businesses. Time Warner wants to offer home security, for example. However, the traditional studios haven’t yet felt the pinch. In fact, they are earning record revenues. This scenario is untenable. The day of reckoning is near at hand.

When industries start to contract, like the pending implosion of the cable TV industry as people cancel their subscriptions, mergers ensue as the best way to cut costs and gain “synergies” (i.e. layoffs). One good fit for a cable TV content creation merger would be News Corp (NWSA) and the larger Disney (DIS).

Disney’s ABC already partners with Fox News given the lack of cable news operations for Disney. The broadcast TV and film studios for both companies would be easy integrations with huge synergies. The News Corp print and Disney theme parks have no overlap and would not create a cannibalizing situation.

Perhaps most pressing for News Corp is the uncertainty created by the ongoing European tabloid scandals and British Parliament investigations. With his son James taking fire, the successor to News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch, now 80 years old, is uncertain. All of these issues would be diminished or resolved if News Corp were folded into Disney.

One could argue that the record revenues of the cable TV content creators is a sign of a viable growing industry. However, financial analysts also know that the bubble is always biggest before it bursts.

Pop culture people who need to go away in 2012

December 31, 2011

If you have found yourself yelling at the TV due to the bad content, or avoiding the movie theaters, you are not alone. It’s not you. The content providers are flailing, desperately and pumping out the worst shows ever.

As fewer people watch free broadcast TV, and even fewer people under the age of 35 pay $150 per month for cable TV, the TV executives have been scrambling to stop the ratings declines. Situation comedies rule the waves, as do multiple versions of the same show, such as the CSI related series. TV news has been the worst hit, and what passes for news now would make Edward R. Murrow gasp if he were alive.

In Hollywood, it is no better. The bad economy, combined with more convenient home theaters and iPads, have caused the box office revenue to decline 11% since 2009. As a result, just as we saw in the music industry, the films are playing it safe, going after the sequel, remake, and family markets.

As a result of these factors, some really annoying people keep showing up on our screens, despite the public not liking them. The following is meant to be constructive for the TV or Hollywood executive. We made a list of the most egregious pop culture faces who need to retire in 2012.

Film Actors

Shia LaBeouf is the product of Steven Spielberg’s hubris. The master of formulaic blockbusters, Spielberg thinks that Shia is someone who females or wimpy males can view and identify with, as he struggles through action packed situations. That might work for films where the special effect robots and Megan Fox are the main attractions, but it does not work in real films. The remakes of “Wall Street” and “Indiana Jones” that starred Mr. LaBeouf were, quite literally, examples of some of the worst casting in the history of modern Hollywood filmmaking. Shia single handedly ruined those films.

January Jones, for those of you who do not know, is the pretty blond who gained fame in the AMC show “Mad Men”. In that limited role, she is sufferable. But placed in larger roles, her lack of acting skills is astonishing. Moreover, she is almost anorexic and simply not appealing as the eye candy that the casting directors seem to think. Her role in “X-men: First Class” was painful to watch. She needs to stick to just the Mad Men series and eat some Big Macs.

Ryan Reynolds began his career in comedic roles. He has a funny looking face with his eyes a bit too close together. He then developed an HGH-like physique, took off his shirt, and casting directors tried to transform into a leading man, to much failure. “Green Lantern” was a bomb. He needs to take 2012 off and try to come back as the principle in the remake of “Saved by the Bell”.

Katherine Heigl was clearly told that she was special by her mother, and seems to have made some good friends in Hollywood. Despite box office bombs one after the other, she keeps getting the leading roles in big budget movies. Maybe Hollywood is finally getting smart and targeting smaller niche markets and that is why they give her the roles? Who knows, but this is certainly an enigma.

Jack Black is clearly the experiment of some Hollywood executives who think that if they push him into the theaters often enough we will like him. It’s not working. “The Big Year” and “Gulliver’s Travels” were money-losers for Hollywood.

Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, and other “Bro Film” genre actors who are oblivious to their nerdiness have worn out their welcome. The sequel to “Hangover” was hated by most fans who loved the original. That’s a really bad sign when fans turn on a cast so swiftly. Zach’s HBO show “Bored to Death” apparently bored everyone to death, and was cancelled. Zach needs to retire and possibly try some directing or producing, or anything behind the camera.

Broadcast Television

Ryan Seacrest is everyone’s favorite person to hate on TV. He sticks around thanks to the ratings of American Idol. Not well known, however, is that he is the evil mind behind those Kardashian talentless sisters, producing their reality TV schlock. The geniuses at NBC floated a trial balloon rumor of him becoming the new Today Show host, which was popped instantly. Ryan Seacrest needs to stay on American Idol and punish the viewers for being so stupid as to watch.

Ashton Kutcher took over for Charlie Sheen on CBS’s “Two and a Half Men”, and his lack of charisma is glaring. He could never do 7-gram rocks of crack like Charlie. Also, his stupid hair hats are annoying people. Ashton needs to go away for 2012 and reinvent himself, which will be to do for a former male model with no acting skills.

Seth Meyers somehow kissed Lorne Michaels’ butt enough to become “Lead Writer” for the rarely funny Saturday Night Live. His smarmy act is very uncreative, as are most of his jokes. Seth needs to go away in 2012 mainly because of his annoying “Really?” shtick that he started. Enough!

Conan O’Brien was a ratings disaster when he was handed the Tonight Show job, as the idiots at NBC demoted the #1 viewed Jay Leno. When NBC then, in turn, demoted Conan to 12:00, the arrogant Harvard grad refused, quit, Fox did not bite, and he ended up on basic cable floundering with less than a million viewers at times. Conan is too old and wrinkled now to be doing his Harvard-dorm-room-style pranks. It is so sad to watch that Conan needs to take himself out to the woodshed in 2012.

Television News

Nancy Synderman, MD has done more to mislead and endanger the American public than anyone else, given her large platform as medical news reporter on NBC Nightly News. She seems to have been demoted recently, with most stories being handled by Robert Bazell or more qualified breast cancer surgeons. Dr. Synderman needs to go away in 2012 and try being a real doctor again.

Christiane Amanpour is one of numerous broadcast TV news anchors who benefited from some executive somewhere thinking that her snooty British accent would fool dumb Americans. ABC’s “This Week” was one of the best Sunday morning shows when George Stephanopoulos hosted it. But ratings tanked after they made Ms. Amanpour the host, and Stephanopoulos is back. Ms. Amanpour needs to move to London and bother the Brits in 2012.

Katie Couric was another disaster as a TV news anchor. After being replaced as anchor of the CBS Evening News, and sparing the public for a while, she is planning to resurface in 2012. Ms. Couric needs to cancel those plans and stay in retirement.

Josh Elliott is ABC’s most recent brilliant idea as a TV news anchor. Within months, he has moved from ESPN, to reading the short news segments on ABC’s Good Morning America, to now being the full anchor on many occasions, leaping over the normal anchor Dan Harris. Likely, the ABC executives mistakenly think that the large ratings and revenue of ESPN had something to do with Mr. Elliott and that he can bring some charm to the shrinking ratings of GMA. Mr. Elliott needs to go back to the cheesy low brow too-costly ESPN in 2012.

Jeff Glor is an unknown Wall-Street-investment-banker-look-alike who recently was given some fill-in work as anchor on the CBS Evening News. He rapidly made this “Go away in 2012″ list of ours due to his bizarre speech. He seems to have his lower jaw wired shut. Make no mistake. This is not an impediment that he had to overcome. This is something that was deemed an asset by CBS and allowed him rise to the crème of the top at CBS. As TV news tanks, no gimmick seems out of line. CBS likely conducted small focus groups and saw that the audience zoomed in on Mr. Glor, like passerby’s rubbernecking a motor vehicle accident.

Trish Regan, the former CNBC “business” anchor, demoted by CNBC, then let go, is reportedly going to be resurfacing on Bloomberg TV in 2012. Ms. Regan made this list because she epitomizes the maddening barrage of clueless business anchors chosen for their looks. Her shtick is wearing skin tight dresses that accentuate her legs and breast augmentations. Enough! Business people need competent business stories, produced by people with Wall Street experience (such, as Stephanie Ruhle on Bloomberg).

Jim Cramer on CNBC has been wrong on major stock calls so often (ala the infamous Bear Stearns calls that got him dragged before the viewers of the Daily Show for a berating), that people are numb to him. He likely has too many crony friends in TV now to be fired by the new owners of CNBC. Mr. Cramer needs to do the country a favor and retire himself in 2012.

Jon Stewart…Wait, this is a mistake. Jon Stewart is great. He is one of the few things to look forward to on TV for 2012.

“Music”

We placed music in quotes. There really is no true music industry any longer. We could have selected almost any pop music performer for this list, but settled on these celebrities who “need to go away in 2012″.

Taylor Swift is not as egregious as some, since she supposedly writes her own songs (with lots of production help), but this act has been bled dry. Enough is enough. Taylor Swift needs to retire and come back as an old lady when she is 24 years old.

Rihanna is attractive, but that synthesized monotonous electronic voice of hers has to go away for a while. Maybe she could try acting and be a robot in a new Transformers movie.

Kanye never had telent and never will. Take a nap in 2012 Kanye. Come on man. You know its the right thing to do.

All American Idol and X Factor contestants need to disappear from the media forever, not just for 2012.

If you find that the offering of content in 2012 is unacceptable, then express your views with your checkbook. Cancel your cable service.

TV “News” hits a new low with the 60 Minutes Madoff family interview

October 30, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

CBS’s “60 Minutes” has long been one of the most respected and trusted “TV News” sources. Now, even that bastion is crumbling as the old media world slowly becomes more obsolete and viewers switch off.

The interview with the Madoff family tonight has generated plenty of outrage. But the bigger story is how poorly CBS and 60 Minutes handled the opportunity.

CBS gave two con artists, Ruth and son Andrew, the biggest forum of its kind in the world to spew poorly told lies and distortions in an attempt for Andrew to regain some form of a normal life. Andrew is clearly peddling a book that his bizarre “fiancé” will profit from, as she serves as a money laundering mule and shield from the bankruptcy lawyers.

Morley Safer and the 60 Minutes producers made very little attempt to question the accuracy of any of the Madoff claims. Ruth claims that she was never the bookkeeper of the Ponzi scheme after 1960, for example. There are plenty of experts who could offer evidence refuting that. The son claims he knew nothing about the Ponzi scheme, a virtually impossible reality, and Morley Safer barely questioned him.

There were no experts, like Harry Markopolos or the bankruptcy lawyers, to offer a counterpoint and blow the Madoff lies out of the water. This would have been like shooting fish in a barrel for Markopolos.

60 Minutes clearly lowered their standards and cut some form of a deal to get the exclusive for interview with the Madoff’s. As rating in TV slip, the networks are lowering their standards.

Apple iCloud: a prelude to Apple 50-inch TV’s?

October 26, 2011

As we have speculated for months, Apple is acknowledging that the Apple TV is in the works

June 3, 2011

On June 6, Steve Jobs will announce the new cloud streaming service for Apple called iCloud. We believe that this will allow videos to be streamed to iPads and iPhones, competing with Netflix. Moreover, as we previously reported, we believe the next big thing for Apple will be their entry into the 50-inch home TV market.

Currently, companies such as Sony, that make both TV’s and computers, intentionally do not make TV’s with true PC’s built in. They are avoiding cannibalizing products. The best solution one currently has for watching true Internet in the “lean back” living room setting is to hook up a Google or Apple box, which is cumbersome and only for computer savvy people.

Once a large company, likely Apple, offers the content streaming and the hardware to view the videos/TV in the living room, the traditional cable companies will be placed in the pile of obsolete business model junk. Already, most young people have opted to not buy into the bundled cable model of TV/Internet/Phone that costs well more than $100 per month. When the generation that still values traditional TV has an alternative to cable or dish providers, millions will make the “final cut”, to use a Pink Floyd album name.

HBO films at nearby Duane Park

September 6, 2011

HBO filmed a promotion for the new season of Boardwalk Empire at nearby Tribeca’s Duane Park cabaret.

Rupert Murdoch’s biggest threat is from nepotism and incompetence

July 16, 2011

Much is being discussed in the news about the metastasizing scandals relating to News Corp (NWS). It seems that criminal behavior was the modus operandi within the London tabloid news operations. There is now real concern that U.S. laws were broken, and that this might bring down Rupert Murdoch’s entire empire.

However, not being commented upon is the root cause of these problems for Rupert Murdoch: nepotism and incompetence. Like most large and powerful organizations ranging from Wall Street banks to Big Oil companies, executives rise to the top and are rewarded more for loyalty than competence.

Rupert Murdoch is not the only elderly powerful media mogul who has promoted a female lieutenant to top CEO levels simply because he liked her sexually, or who made one of his sons the heir of an empire regardless of competence.

News Corp is very successful at managing old-media operations such as print and TV. However, News Corp is utterly incompetent with new media. This is the same company that bought the most widely used social networking site, MySpace, for $580 Million and promptly ran it into nothing but a brand names sold for $35 Million. News Corp’s head of “digital”, Jon Miller, still has his job.

Again, loyalty is rewarded over competence.

At a recent media conference in Sun Valley hosted by Allen & Co, the old media Titans finally recognized that they could not hold off the impending paradigm shift toward new media original content delivered via the Internet, bypassing the cash cow cable box deals. Yet News Corp seems to have no significant plans to adopt this technology. None of the News Corp cable or broadcast channels have significant online offerings.

News Corp co-owns Hulu and has plans to sell it. With its $12 Billion in cash, News Corp is not acquiring new media distributors like Netflix.

Jon Miller, the MySpace genius, is still running the digital “new media” operations. His main contribution recently has been the launch of the Apple iPad-ready “Daily”.

While News Corp’s main concern in the near-term is a brewing FBI/SEC/DOJ investigation related to the London tabloids and possibly hacking of 9/11 victim’s phones, Rupert Murdoch’s biggest threat comes from his new partner Steve Jobs over at Apple.

Once Apple launches a 50-inch livingroom TV device that allows one to download content from the Internet over iCloud, Netflix, etc, the older viewers who still hang on to their cable plans will make the final cut. In New York City, Verizon offers a package for phone, TV, and Internet that costs $173 a month with HBO added. For $55 a month, one can get just the Internet, and use Skype for the phone calls and download their TV from Hulu. Moreover, Steve Jobs will have the upper hand in distribution deals of TV and film, just as he has dominated the book publishing and music industry.

Does any TV executive at Fox recognize how imminent this threat is to their cash cow cable and broadcast model? Who’s running the ship at news Corp to take it into this new era of “New media”? This remains to be seen, but all indications are that incompetence will accelerate the demise of News Corp.

Will Goldman Sachs close the Regal Cinemas?

July 14, 2011

BatteryPark.TV recently spoke with some officials from Goldman Sachs and the topic of the hotel/retail remodeling came up. Goldman Sachs is not pleased with the young crowds that gather outside the Regal Cinemas movie theater, which is 20 feet from their entrance and housed within Goldman-owned property. Moreover, a movie theater does not fit with their upscale plans for a Conrad hotel and high-end Danny Meyer restaurant.

Given that the entire movie theater industry is contracting as home theaters and Netflix take over, it is quite likely that the Battery Park theater will go the way of the New York Sports Club, Chevy’s, DSW shoes, Appleby, etc, and be evicted within 12 to 18 months. Stay tuned.

Review: the new CBS Evening News

June 20, 2011

The new CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley is better than the Katie Couric disaster of a show, which was much like Spider-Man the musical in terms of being painful to watch, but they still have a lot of work to do. Scott Pelley is either nervous, or the producers/directors are messing up his performance. His banter after each field report is so stiff, it makes one wonder whether he is replying to taped segments and not really speaking to a live reporter (which is very likely given budget cutbacks making live video connections rare nowadays).

The producers also have Pelley awkwardly trying to caress a coffee mug while talking. Say what? It looks stupid. Do the network geniuses think that it makes the TV image more “welcome in the living room” if he holds a cup of coffee or water like Kathie Lee Gifford? It reminds one of the embarrassing attempts to have Katie Couric sit on the news desk with her legs crossed.

It seems to be true about what news insiders have said about this new CBS news crew, now headed up by Jeff Fager: that all of the whipper snappers responsible for driving the Katie Couric news show into last place have been expelled and the old timers are in charge. The field reporters are mostly over 60 years of age. There seems to be an almost reverse age discrimination.

Pelley is much better on 60 Minutes, so this stiff performance is surprising, and likely not his fault. The CBS producers seem to be overworking the show like a sit-com or drama. After all, TV news is just an act of reading stuff from a teleprompter. Ratings will continue to dwindle as fewer and fewer people watch stale news. Broadcast news people should stop trying to tinker with the formula. The Internet is the problem, not the broadcast formula.

Scott Pelley is a veteran broadcast personality who will likely steer the new show into a more comfortable style. For now, the producers are overthinking it.

The next big thing in tech gadgets will be…

June 22, 2011

As we have speculated for months, Bloomberg is now reporting that Apple might announce this Fall the introduction of a 50-inch living room TV/computer

February 19, 2011

The next big frontier in tech gadgets will be Smart TVs.

We asked senior product development people at Sony, makers of Google TV, whether they have a TV that has memory storage capacity whereby one can store music, videos, etc on the hard drive of the TV. They do not.

A Sony spokesperson wrote, ” We currently do not have a TV with storage.  We have the Sony Internet TV’s powered by Google (offered 22”-46”) that allow you to surf the internet through the Google Browser directly through your TV.  It would not be a solution to what you are using your computer for with storage, video editing, etc.”

Of course, they could make this easily. The Sony Vaio L-series is essentially a Sony TV screen with a full computer inside. The reason they do not make an all-in-one TV is that it would cannibalize all of their other gadgets and PCs.

Then, we recalled a rumor that Apple might be going after the 50-inch TV market with Apple TVs that have computers inside. If that works, Apple will then dominate all forms of media, assuming people capitulate and allow themselves to become slaves to Steve Jobs’ idea for the universe and have all media go through iTunes.

30 seconds on the set of Friends with Benefits

Update: May 22, 2011

Justin Timberlake was the host for the season finale of SNL promoting this movie.

July 28, 2010

30 seconds on the set of Friends with Benefits

Starring Justin Timberlake and Woody Harrrelson

Filmed at North Cove Marina

How crass do you look while texting?

May 7, 2011

We were in the production process of filming real people in TriBeCa as they walked while listening to headphones or pushed baby carriages while texting, when we saw that ABC beat us to it (see video).

Texting and constantly checking one’s smartphone during inappropriate times (i.e.  nonstop for many) has become a genuine addiction that likely triggers the same neuropathways of reward as does gambling. Just as people in the 1950′s through 1990′s were forced to watch and smell the crass behavior is cigarette addicts, we are now forced to be insulted at meals, bumped into by text walkers, run over by mothers pushing baby carriages while texting, and so on.

Using a more serious analogy, just as hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered on our highways by drunk drivers prior to MADD movement and stricter state laws, texting while driving is a significant cause of highway mortality.

When Blackerries were invented, they were expensive and meant only for Wall Street executives. They were not meant for teenagers. As the technology evolved, a weapon of mass destruction, on par with prescription pain pills, was unleashed upon America.

As the media covers this addiction more, and social terms are invented to describe the crass and rude behavior, modern society will adopt new rules of etiquette. For the more serious consequences of driving, new laws will curtail those activities.

Egregious reporting

April 28, 2011

Perhaps this clip best exemplifies the mainstream media’s much criticized hyping of the Royal Wedding, that polls show few in America care about. The morning after the worst tornado deaths in history, ABC listed their pre-wedding coverage on equal status as that catastrophe.

The NFL needs to take a year off

Op-Ed February 7, 2011

By most accounts, Super Bowl 45 (XLV) was a big disappointment to fans and viewers, despite the actual game and Fox show being good. Due to incompetent planning, more than a thousand fans were kicked out of their seats because the fire marshal deemed the temporary seats to be unsafe. To start off the game, a Snooki-looking Christina Aguilera botched the National Anthem. The halftime show was diminished by audio problems, and the sideshow of it all, the TV commercials, were not received well.

This Super Bowl took place amidst contentious negotiations between the players’ union and the owners. The economic depression forced severe cutbacks in corporate spending on luxury box seats, and overall attendance has been down in the NFL. The reduced revenue now has the owners proposing measures that would cannibalize the game and further erode the integrity of the sport.

The sport of football has risen to become the most popular sport in America because, unlike the NBA and MLB, each game actually means something. When the NFL expanded to 16 regular season games and a longer playoff series, the game was tarnished. The owners now want to go even further and expand to 18 games.

Star players, particularly running backs, are wearing out sooner. Helmet-to-helmet collisions and increased violence have been ignored and viewed as ways to increase viewership. Rampant use of steroids and HGH is seemingly tolerated.

2011 could be the year in which the negatives of NFL have reached a critical mass and viewers could tune out. If the players and owners cannot come to an agreements, perhaps a year off is best for the game.

Elton John opening the Tribeca Film Festival

April 20, 2011

Is the NCAA corrupt?

March 31, 2011

The best journalists in all of sports, in our opinion, are Bryant Gumble, Bernie Goldberg, and the others on the cast of HBO’s Real Sports. They just aired a special on corruption in big time college football and basketball. Star players are routinely given cash, and many say the NCAA and coaches look the other way.

The NCAA, the universities, and the coaches feed off of the billions in revenue made possible from television rights and sports apparel deals. The players that drive it all get paid a few thousand under the table. They are banned from any sort of outside financial deal with local business. Also, players cannot hold part-time jobs or sell any personal memorabilia.

As the revenue grows, each punishment handed out to the small players becomes more hypocritical. For example, during the 2010-2011 football season, the NCAA declined to punish Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton. Doing so would have taken away lucrative money from Auburn, tarnished a memorable year good for the entire sport, and hurt a good individual.

Where does the NCAA go from here? Currently, money talks. The top teams in the NCAA are significant sources of tax revenue and jobs for the small towns such as Auburn, Ann Arbor, Lincoln, etc. If Wall Street can seemingly function without real reform as too-big-to-fail entities after bringing down the world economy, can we expect reform at the NCAA?

Ivy League Athletics Commissioner Jeff Orleans and Billy Packer made the most poignant comments. The NCAA 2010 revenue was at least $760 Million, yet it pays no taxes masquerading as a non-profit. Likewise, the cash to players goes untaxed. If lawsuits challenge that, it will be a whole different ballgame for the NCAA.

NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman gets it wrong

March 15, 2011

NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman gets it wrong when she tells America that they are essentially dumb for buying potassium iodide pills to prevent possibly radiation exposure and thyroid cancer.

Related, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly singled out ABC pundit Michio Kaku for “hyping” the Japan reactor situation. Time will tell, but Dr. Kaku’s suggestion will likely be exactly what is required.

“Doctor” Drew has Narcissistic Personality Disorder

April 6, 2011

“Doctor” Drew Pinskey has given up all pretenses of professionalism and is now diagnosing celebrities based on short TV sound bites. Most notably, he did this with Charlie Sheen recently. The academic psychiatry community frowns upon this.

So, in fair turn, we thought that we would diagnose Drew.  He suffers from Narcissistic personality disorder in our opinion

Leno revives The Tonight Show after Conan leaves

February 4, 2011

Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are not on speaking terms, but Conan should be blaming himself for why his Tonight Show failed. A chart of the ratings lat year showed a huge dip once Conan took over. Now, the latest ratings for the 11:30 time slot came out and Leno boosted ratings 41% from one year ago when Conan ran the show (3.868 million this period vs. 2.753 million one year ago) and is back in the #1 slot, to Howard Stern’s dismay.

Will Goldman Sachs win Oscars?

January 25, 2011

One could say that the acting performances by Goldman Sachs executives before congress last year were worthy of Academy Awards, but Goldman might literally win an Oscar this year. The film “The King’s Speech” is a Weinstein Company production and Goldman Sachs own a large chunk of Weinstein now.

In the mid-2000′s, riding the wave of success at Miramax, the Weinstein Brothers, with offices near Battery Park City, branched off to form their own studio production company. The brothers found plenty of investors and they began to branch out into areas of business beyond traditional movie making. Then, the global depression hit and the Weinstein Company had to restructure tens of millions on loans. This is how Goldman Sachs became a significant owner of Weinstein Company.

When you watch the Academy Awards in a few weeks, every time King’s Speech wins, raise a glass to the Vampire Squid Goldman Sachs who made it all possible. Hey, it’s better than selling Abacus to AIG.