media

Prurient Pundits

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2024 election economics journalism media pundits on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

The post-midterm, off-year elections happened this week, and every professional opinion-haver is trying to turn the results of extremely local races into their 2024 election predictions. What else are they gonna do? Report on a well-researched subject with new information? Let an expert talk instead? Of course not.

I’m going to try to avoid any 2024 election content for as long as possible. Barring any actuarial realities catching up to the frontrunners, the primaries are a sideshow with a foregone conclusion.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.

Zaslav TV

This entry was posted in comics and tagged CNN David Zaslav HBO media television WGA on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

David Zaslav has been rapidly turning what was once HBO into a low-rent content farm that makes Tubi’s offerings look like Masterpiece Theatre. Other studios and streaming platforms are pulling the same stunts to avoid paying residuals and axing entire shows for the tax write-offs. But Zaslav’s work at Warner Bros. Discovery really stands out for his unctuousness while doing it.

The Writers Guild is still on strike, and their modest demands to be paid slightly more would barely make a dent in the executive salaries of assholes like Zaslav.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on The Nib.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.

Box Office Bombs

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Mark Zuckerberg media Metaverse movies transit on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

I still haven’t returned to going to the movies. Mostly due to never being a fan of crowded theaters even before COVID. But maybe if the numbers are low and the edibles are just right, I’ll get tickets to see Dune Part II.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on The Nib.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.

Scab Scripts

This entry was posted in comics and tagged artificial intelligence Joe Biden media movies Scabby the Rat strikes television unions WGA on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

The Writers’ Guild of America declared a strike early Tuesday after the executive side of the entertainment business refused to negotiate their modest demands. A lot has changed since the last writers’ strike in 2007, especially how media is consumed and compensated.

Netflix’s red envelopes were the big new thing back then, and now they’re a relic young people think coexisted with BETAMAX. Yet pay, residuals, and benefits are still stuck in that ancient time before we had to manage a dozen or so streaming logins.

All of these studios are making profits, just not enough to satisfy Wall Street’s maw. So they’re screwing writers and nickel-and-diming their subscribers by canceling shows and memory-holing their back catalogs to save a few cents on residuals, all to squeeze out more dividends and stock buybacks.

Joe “Union Guy” Biden broke a rail strike so the economy wouldn’t take a hit. If this writers’ strike goes on long enough to harm the studios’ bottom lines, I’m sure he’ll find a way to intervene.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on The Nib.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.

Media Perverts

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Bill Maher Fox News gerontocracy media Mitch McConnell Rupert Murdoch on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

I’ve been closely following the news and news commentary for a quarter century now and drawing cartoons about it almost as long. Sick freaks from the top down to the lowly cartoonist at bottom.

Quitting Twitter has spared me from catching a lot of the worst takes people rage share, and it’s been a marked improvement on my quality of life. Yet somehow I still see the worst offenders when they cross over to the more earnest folks over on Mastodon.

I drew myself in better shape than my last self-insert and you’ll just have to trust me that it’s accurate.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on The Nib.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.

Fox News’s Deposition Bloopers

This entry was posted in comics and tagged cable news Fox News Jared Kushner Kevin McCarthy Laura Ingraham media Rupert Murdoch Sean Hannity Tucker Carlson on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

Evidence collected during discovery in Dominion’s defamation suit against Fox News  clearly shows they’re the propaganda arm of the Republican party. So has the last several decades of its existence, but mainstream media continued to pretend they’re a real news outlet.

Murdoch usually settles so this stuff gets buried in NDAs, but this piece by Amanda Marcotte gives an explanation for why he’s letting all this dirty laundry go out to the public.

Cable carriages fees continue to prop up Murdoch’s media empire, and I’m part of the problem. While I was drawing this, I was using my cable subscription to watch a Bruins game. At least the win soothed my conscience for a couple minutes.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on The Nib.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.

Transphobic Times

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Bret Stephens LGBTQ media New York Times TERFs transphobia on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

The New York Times’s obsessive and biased coverage of trans people has helped foment the recent rapid rise in anti-trans legislation and violence. It is so bad, a group of current and former NYT contributors composed a reasoned letter addressing their concerns and naturally it’s more well written than anything I could write here. I added my name as one of the 1,000+ signatories, along with over 20,000+ readers.

As the letter points out, this is nothing new for the New York Times. They’ve always preferred the view from nowhere, when not bending over backwards to appease a right-wing that wants them dead.

Another example of their awful judgement is that they published my cartoons for five years. If I was still cashing their checks, I’d probably be let go after sending a rough draft of this for copyediting.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on The Nib.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.

Intro to Political “Science”

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2022 elections inflation media polls pundits on by
Read the comic on Patreon.

So all the narratives about the Republican midterm wave the media were hankering for sort of fizzled. Now we have another squeaker where the balance of fascism/not fascism is still up in the air days after the election.

Horse race and both sides coverage have been part of political pundits’ schtick since forever, but it’s especially galling when pointing out the actual stances of candidates is now considered “too political” and beneath the geniuses who pretend to be objective observers of our crumbling republic.

Read the comic on Patreon.
Read the comic on The Nib.
Read the comic on Daily Kos.
Read the comic on GoComics.