Woo.
Open Thread: Zombies & Violent Sociopaths, Always Good for the Ratings
Bulletin: Fox's GOP debate was watched by 24 million viewers on Thursday — highest-rated primary debate in history
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 7, 2015
– Game of Thrones season finale: 8.11 million
- Walking Dead season finale: 15.8 million
- Fox News GOP debate: 24 million
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) August 7, 2015
Since I wondered about the numbers, earlier this morning. The evening news mentioned the audience was “bigger than that for the World Series,” but gave no stats. (Coincidentally, since New Hampshire is in our media market, I also saw my first Ben Carson ad — Babies are adorable, so vote for me! Seriously. Poor man is toast.)
We may finally have found last night’s target market, though. Former restaurant reviewer and professional sadsack Frank Bruni:
… On Thursday night in Cleveland, the Fox News moderators did what only Fox News moderators could have done, because the representatives of any other network would have been accused of pro-Democratic partisanship.
They took each of the 10 Republicans onstage to task. They held each of them to account. They made each address the most prominent blemishes on his record, the most profound apprehensions that voters feel about him, the greatest vulnerability that he has.
It was riveting. It was admirable. It compels me to write a cluster of words I never imagined writing: hooray for Fox News…
But Fox accomplished something important. It prevented the Republican contenders from relying on sound bites and hewing to scripts that say less about their talents and more about the labors of their well-paid handlers…
I cede the rebuttal to Professor Krugman, “From Trump on Down, the Republicans Can’t Be Serious“:
This was, according to many commentators, going to be the election cycle Republicans got to show off their “deep bench.” The race for the nomination would include experienced governors like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, fresh thinkers like Rand Paul, and attractive new players like Marco Rubio. Instead, however, Donald Trump leads the field by a wide margin. What happened?
The answer, according to many of those who didn’t see it coming, is gullibility: People can’t tell the difference between someone who sounds as if he knows what he’s talking about and someone who is actually serious about the issues. And for sure there’s a lot of gullibility out there. But if you ask me, the pundits have been at least as gullible as the public, and still are.
For while it’s true that Mr. Trump is, fundamentally, an absurd figure, so are his rivals. If you pay attention to what any one of them is actually saying, as opposed to how he says it, you discover incoherence and extremism every bit as bad as anything Mr. Trump has to offer. And that’s not an accident: Talking nonsense is what you have to do to get anywhere in today’s Republican Party…
…[W]hile media puff pieces have portrayed Mr. Trump’s rivals as serious men — Jeb the moderate, Rand the original thinker, Marco the face of a new generation — their supposed seriousness is all surface. Judge them by positions as opposed to image, and what you have is a lineup of cranks. And as I said, this is no accident.
It has long been obvious that the conventions of political reporting and political commentary make it almost impossible to say the obvious — namely, that one of our two major parties has gone off the deep end… Until now, however, leading Republicans have generally tried to preserve a facade of respectability, helping the news media to maintain the pretense that it was dealing with a normal political party. What distinguishes Mr. Trump is not so much his positions as it is his lack of interest in maintaining appearances. And it turns out that the party’s base, which demands extremist positions, also prefers those positions delivered straight. Why is anyone surprised?…
Can Mr. Trump actually win the nomination? I have no idea. But even if he is eventually pushed aside, pay no attention to all the analyses you will read declaring a return to normal politics. That’s not going to happen; normal politics left the G.O.P. a long time ago. At most, we’ll see a return to normal hypocrisy, the kind that cloaks radical policies and contempt for evidence in conventional-sounding rhetoric. And that won’t be an improvement.
For a historical comparison, @brianstelter: 73 million watched the #Beatles 02/09/64 on Ed Sullivan vs. 24 million at the #GOPDebate.
— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) August 7, 2015
Fox execs obviously thrilled. And/but so are Fox's competitors. CNN is already promoting "the sequel" — the Sept. 16 debate in Cali.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 7, 2015
Open Thread: Zombies & Violent Sociopaths, Always Good for the RatingsPost + Comments (122)
Afternoon at the Movies Open Thread: This Critic Really Does Not Care for Adam Sandler
(Language seriously NSFW – also, spoilers)
Via the comments at i09, for your enjoyment. (Unless, of course, you are one of those very special souls who enjoys the recent cinematic stylings of Adam Sandler.)
Haven’t run across MovieBob before, but he’s not one of those cheap cynics who hates every movie — he really liked Mad Max: Fury Road….
Movie Night
Any Netflix recs? Thinking about Taichi Zero but it looks kind of cheesy.
Open Thread: OMAZE-ing Star Trek
One assumes that loyal commentor (and Elba fangirl) LAMH36 already knows about this charity promotion. But there’s enough 16-year-old Original Generation Trekkie left in my ancient, shriveled heart to find this admirable.
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Apart from dreaming of fewer degrees of separation, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Tasty Things (Open Thread)
Another Pretty Bug of Some Sort (Open Thread)
This is a big-ass grasshopper (not the binomial name):
One time when I was a kid, one of those big-ass grasshoppers launched itself at my head and got stuck in my hair. That freaked me right the fuck out — the grasshopper too, probably.
Last night’s bad movie thread was a revelation: Some of you simply do not appreciate great art and/or high camp! Who could actually dislike “Plan 9 from Outer Space”?
And others of you have clearly not seen enough truly awful schlock to know a dreadful movie when you see one. “Joe vs. the Volcano”? Really? I’m not saying it was a great movie, but you’ve led a pretty sheltered cinematic life if you deem it the worst.
Anyhoo, opinions differ. Free to discuss whatever.
Another Pretty Bug of Some Sort (Open Thread)Post + Comments (239)