And with that in mind, I feel the overwhelming need to cast off all gloomy thoughts of recessions, bailouts and what's happened to my net worth in the last few months and instead focus on the lighter and distinctly more trivial side of life. No earnest discussion of TV measurement, emerging ad formats, digital transition and the collapsing ad economy here thank you. I want to focus on what -- from the world of TV and online video -- has made us all laugh over the last twelve months (sometimes despite ourselves) or just made us feel good.

At the last MPG Collaborative Alliance (Dec. 3) EVAD Consulting's Frank Foster and Current TV's Theresa Pepe Falcone's succinct presentations focused on issues shaping audience measurement as the media community transitions to digital broadcasting. For this week's MediaPost TV Board blog I solicited written thoughts on panel vs. set top box viewing data from researchers in attendance at the last Collaborative Alliance as well as those whose opinions I respect but who could not attend in person. My goal is to proffer for public consumption an agnostic way to keep the topic of set top box data collection and panels …

So, I am experiencing one of my more esoteric moments, thinking about macro issues and how they impact my everyday life at work. I am a TED (the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference) freak. I love to listen to the podcasts, love to share the knowledge with my friends and am also fortunate enough to be asked to attend this year. There was one podcast in particular that I came across last week that I have been going over and over in my mind. It had to do with listening.

Will Google buy Nielsen Media Research? Is the broadcast networks' worst nightmare just one private equity deal away from happening? I think the deal won't close -- and here's why.

I was perusing a recent New York Time article entitled, "Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage," about the machinations behind the successful implementation of Proposition 8, which voters supported at the November election polls to outlaw same-sex marriage in California. The reporters laid out the strategy employed by the main sponsors of the ban, Project Marriage. Then it hit me. Project Marriage's successful campaign to overturn same-sex marriages, which the California Supreme Court legalized only months earlier (May), was a testament to the efficacy of the addressable advertising model soon to be distributed -- one can only hope …

Question: If a TV were to be plugged into an outlet, next to the proverbial tree falling in the forest -- you know the one; the one that nobody hears -- would the broadcast qualify as "TV"? This query has really helped me come to grips with the question, "What is TV -- REALLY?" And doesn't TV require an audience, in fact, a mass audience, to REALLY be TV?

In less than two weeks, we have seen the boom and bust of Rosie O'Donnell's variety proof-of-concept special and the announcement that Jay Leno will stay at NBC with a new prime-time week night talk and comedy show. So why all the attention on these shows? Easy, advertising.

As we've moved ever-closer to the inevitable reality of marketing messages that are targeted at either the household or individual level across just about any communications platform, the issue of privacy has kept pace like a sheepdog attempting to herd a large and unruly flock of sheep. The relationship is inevitable, unpredictable and not entirely one of choice -- but it's here to stay.

Something like 10 years ago, I remember sitting in a pub in London with a couple of friends discussing the promise of the then newly burgeoning Internet and postulating on what it might really mean for all those bricks and mortar businesses that were casually being written off by the dotcom Wunderkinds as dinosaurs well on the path to extinction....

At this juncture, I thought I would take a written moment to revisit some landmark taboos that have surreptitiously made their way into the TV homes of America that has caused federal agencies and watchdog group's consternation and sleepless nights building up to their present day preoccupation with the fleeting expletive and the decline of American morals.