RAISING THE BROADCAST FLAG AND PUTTING DVRs AT HALF-MAST -- Just when the Riff was getting cocky and self-righteous over the new-found control we've gotten over the TV medium, the folks at Wired News have come along to burst our sense of media omnipotence. According to the wired-in news sleuths, consumer supremacy over TV content will last only about another year, after which new "copy controls" that have been embedded into digital TV codes will shift control back to telecasters, and presumably, to the folks who place the ads that underwrite much of their programming.

ONLY TIME WILL TELL -- Well JupiterResearch has "released" its new online advertising forecast, but the picture isn't much clearer than what they leaked to the Wall Street Journal two days ago. Jupiter pegs online ad sales at $6.

PUBLISHERS, IF YOU'RE NOT ONLINE, YOU MAY PERISH - As astronomical as that may seem to some media planners, it appears to be what the interplanetary prognosticators at Jupiter Research think is poised to happen. At least that's the way the Wall Street Journal spun new Jupiter estimates, when they were leaked to the paper today.

STUDY PUTS A NEW SPIN ON AN OLD MARKETING PRACTICE -- Everyone knows that Madison Avenue is really good at making ads and placing media buys, but over the years, the Riff has come to appreciate ad agencies for another marketing discipline altogether: public relations. It's not something the outside world gets to see all that often, but take it from some veteran ad trade journalists, agencies are really good at the art of spin.

IS RADIO USING ITS LISTENING SKILLS? -- Listening to Arbitron chief Steve Morris speak to the Wall Street crowd on Thursday reminded us of something really important to the Madison Avenue crowd. "When radio is added to TV in a media plan, it brings in a significant number of unique consumers not reached by television alone," Morris said during a second quarter earnings briefing with financial analysts.

DESCENDANT NOT DECEASED, BUT GREATFULLY, NOT DEAD - As it turns out, the "dead man" Fox TV stations president Tom Herwitz said represented the viewing of African Americans in Nielsen's people meter sample in Los Angeles, wasn't a man after all. And according to Nielsen, he or she may not have been dead.

SOME RED, SOME BLUE, AND TWO EXCEPTIONALLY GREEN STATES -- Ordinarily, the Riff doesn't think much about life in the River State, but after seeing a report this week on presidential campaign media strategies, we can't help empathizing with the citizens of Ohio. Ohioans, it seems, are getting far more than their fair share of campaign plugs as both George Bush's and John Kerry's campaigns heavy-up their media buys in the so-called "battleground states.

LAWMAKER SHIFTS PEOPLE METER DEBATE FROM 'LOCAL' TO 'PORTABLE' - It was glossed over during last week's Congressional hearings on Nielsen's local people meter (LPM) system, but now a top lawmaker is making portable people meters (PPMs) a central part of the debate. In a letter sent to Nielsen CEO Susan Whiting today, Senator Charles Schumer of New York said he was "concerned" that Nielsen is rolling out the LPMs, which are based on Nielsen's age-old people meter technology, when a potentially superior technology exists.

THE RETURNS ARE IN AND THEY'VE JUST CONFIRMED THAT RETURNS ARE IN - You don't need to be a marketing guru to know that returns are hot. Everyone knows that ROI, or return on investment, has become the obsession of most corporate marketing departments, brand management teams or the agencies that service them.

CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITNG THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES - Our founding fathers may not have gotten it wholly right in their initial draft, but it didn't take them long to amend the situation, ensuring that some of the basic rights many of us take for granted today - things like religious freedom, an open and free press and, of course, freedom of …