• by April 29, 2004

HAS FOX BEEN COUNTING THEM IN? -- In an ironic turn of events, News Corp.'s Fox TV unit is now being accused of statistical bias against people of color. Of course, the accuser - pop star Elton John - has no more research acumen than the variety of the Fox-backed pressure groups that have been accusing Nielsen of statistical bias against people of color in its local people meter ratings system. But that didn't stop Sir Elton from describing the voting process on Fox's "American Idol" as "incredibly racist" Tuesday during a press briefing promoting his upcoming concert series at Radio City Music Hall.

John, you may recall, served as a judge during a recent episode of "American Idol" where he got to judge some of the talent of the contestants up-close-and-personal. His conclusion: the so-called "Three Divas" - La Toya London, Fantasia Barrino and Jennifer Hudson - were the best of the lot. Nonetheless, the three, who happen to be African Americans, have consistently ranked in the bottom three of the viewer voting process conducted by Fox, and last week Hudson was voted off the show. "I find it incredibly racist," asserted John, who is rumored to be organizing an effort for an "American Idol" voter recount. The working title is "Do Count Them In."

Ironically, on Wednesday's episode, one of the last persons of non-color, John Stevens, was voted off the show, leaving three blacks (also including George Huff), one Asian American (Jasmine Trias) in contention to be named this season's American idol. Even more ironically, the show's appeal skews higher in African American households (19 percent watch it) than in white households (15 percent). But that's just according to Nielsen ratings, which of course, are biased against African Americans, according to Fox.

FORGET THE MEDIUM, 'CONTENT RIGHTS' APPARENTLY WILL BE THE MESSAGE -- Just when it seems like magazines are a dying medium, along comes a magazine with the hubris to declare that cable and broadcast TV will soon be "obsolete." In this case, the mag may actually have a right to know. With one foot placed firmly in the future (the other's stuck on a cloud somewhere in the blue sky), Wired magazine has released results of its so-called NextFest survey, which predicts that on-demand music, movies and television programming will "make cable and broadcast networks obsolete by 2011." In fact, the survey goes so far as to predict that many other modern day media will disappear by 2024, when "consumers no longer own discs or even bits. All they buy are rights to authorized music and movies that can be streamed anywhere, anytime.

Wired isn't exactly clear about what kind of device or devices these "rights" will be conveyed through, but in a prediction that suggests the obsolescence of the magazine's own identity, its own survey predicts that in less than four years, more than 700 million people will be wireless, a seven-fold increase over the current Wi-Fi base. Meanwhile, in an even nearer term prediction, the magazine anticipates that by 2006, one quarter of U.S. households will have a digital video recorder and that they will choose to watch 15 percent fewer commercials. Thank goodness it's only a transitional technology, according to Wired, which gave no indication how many fewer commercials would be watched when its on-demand, digital rights scenarios kick in.

CALLING ALL MEDIA STARS! -- You have until Friday, April 30, to nominate talented, hard-working, and creative up-and-comers for Media Magazine's Rising Media Star Awards. Are you a rising media star? Do you know someone who is? We invite you to nominate yourselves, and those you manage. Click on the link to enter the process.