Real Media Riffs - Wednesday, June 12, 2002

by John Gaffney, Jun 11, 2002, 12:00 AM

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OprahRahRah Riffs: If you claim that the Oxygen cable network is not on your radar screen now, you’re lying. I can understand if it was a faint blip on Monday. But after the network announced Tuesday that Oprah Winfrey will debut a new show called “Oprah After The Show,” in September, Oxygen is a brighter blip. Oprah is one of Oxygen’s founders, lead investors and trump card. This is a brilliant play of that card. By appearing in prime time it will force planners and buyers to take a look at the new Oprah opportunity, and the rest of the Oxygen schedule as well. It forces cable operators to give Oxygen another look, after previously giving Oxygen a lukewarm reception and therefore lukewarm audience numbers. And who knows, maybe it spawns a new category of executive talk show hosts. Get ready for the “The Sumner and Mel Show,” coming on after Letterman. “Ted Turner Talks Back” on CNN. “Eisner’s Magic Castle” on ABC. Oh, the possibilities........

Ethical Riffs: Talk about totally switching gears. I want to throw my two cents into the “Boston Phoenix Shows Daniel Pearl Pictures” debate. The concept of ethical behavior was once explained to me as accounting for the consequences your behavior will have on other people. Then I got into the business world. In a business environment I’ve heard one decent explanation of ethics. It came from a journalism professor who explained ethics as “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” In my opinion The Boston Phoenix has not taken seriously the consequences of showing the Pearl photo and promoting the link to a video of his murder. The issue has consumed a weekly that should be known for great arts and entertainment reporting and a good conduit to the counter-culture. On the “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” count, it seems to me that The Phoenix afflicted the afflicted. I’m sure The New York Times has some grotesque photos in its office from Sept. 11. What would you think if they printed them? I would think it was an unnecessary grab for attention by capitalizing on tragedy. That’s what I think The Boston Phoenix has done........

Apple Riffs: Turnabout is fair play and great advertising. After Microsoft goes head to head with AOL in a blatant attempt to steal users, Apple goes after Microsoft in a new campaign featuring real people who have switched from PCs to Macs. I like Apple’s “Think Different” campaign was a brilliant example of branding. But it was time to get more aggressive. This latest effort looks like the right move at the right time.

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