An observation on the David Letterman/Sarah Palin debaucle

Hey all.... I have been listening and watching with amazment at the recent controversy between David Letterman and Governor Sarah Palin concerning the joke Dave cracked about Alex Rodriguez impregnating her daughter at a Yankee game. Whether you believe that it was an innocent joke made to get laughs (actual) or if you truly believe that David Letterman is a public figure that believes in child rape and other seedy activities (ridiculous) , the one thing you have to admit is that the mass media still has a ton of power.

TV, radio, newspapers, online and other outlets were able to generate so much interest in this story that now there are protestors outside CBS calling for David Letterman's head and job. Personally, I think this is one of the most ridiculous examples of things being blown WAY out of proportion out there. It was a joke Governor.... maybe not tasteful, but sarcastic and funny. Listening to the comments again, it is very apparent that the remarks were more disparaging towards A-Rod than there were to Willow or Bristol Palin. It is unbelievable to me that people are so hungry to take up a cause that they would even waste their breath commenting on this. I am amazed that I am even blogging about it right now. But that is the way of the world these days.

Maybe the biggest problem we face right now as a country is not the war, the economy, the banking industry or the bail outs. Maybe it is that we are too damn uptight and that at the end of the day, comments get made like this every day by comedians and other entertainers. Sometimes even politicians. John McCain himself made a comment in 1998 about Chelsea Clinton that was very similar and was at a Republican Party dinner no less. It was "Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? It is because her father is Janet Reno. " That is funny... and so was this comment by David Letterman.

Get over it. Laugh about it or shake your head about it, but move on one way or another.

Hi all...welcome to my blog

Hello - Well I have finally broken down and started a blog. As a media, advertising and marketing professional, the main focus of this blog will be to feature, talk about, praise and sometimes criticize the crazy world of communications. This world has gotten a lot smaller in the past 10 years. Friends I haven't seen in more than 20 years chat with me daily on Facebook. I know what all my friends and a lot of my clients are doing not only daily but up to the minute on Twitter. My first cell phone was the beloved "brick phone"... kind of like those old phones you saw guys calling in air strikes in Vietnam with. Now my pocket sized phone lets me e-mail, text, post to Facebook, Twitter, check baseball scores on the internet, take photos and video, listen to my music on the airplane, play Tiger Woods golf and record memos. Oh yeah, and make a call every once and a while. People 30 years ago were exposed to roughly 2,000 advertising messages a day. Today, that number is closer to 5,000 and the ad marketplace will just continue to get more saturated and more crowded.

It is an exciting and scary time for the advertising and marketing business. Newspapers are shutting down, but social media is exploding. Out of home advertising is growing and adding new digital products, but budgets are being slashed and proof of ROI expectations have grown. People are recording their favorite shows but fast forwarding through the commercials.

What does the future hold for our industry? Who knows. But I do know it is up to us... we as the producers of media and advertising and the consumers who are exposed to it.

Until next time.... CR