• by John Gaffney , May 14, 2003

Silence Is Not Golden: It's all over but the shouting for media consolidation and the ad business is letting it go down without a peep. I'm talking about the FCC rule changes that will allow big media companies to get bigger. We have seen missives from the great and powerful Newschannels, Viacoms and Clear Channels. But from the advertising side, with some notable exceptions like Mediacom's Jon Mandel, almost nobody has raised a voice against what will be the inevitable vote on June 2 at the FCC offices. Even the trade group that represents the business - the American Association of Advertising Agencies - has remained silent. It should have at least put out a position paper out of its Washington office on this deal. I can partially understand the mentality that says you don't want to pick a fight with a business partner. That seems to be what the silence says here. But these rule changes will make the TV networks stronger, just for starters. They will be tougher negotiation partners and that's all I need to know here, if I'm an ad agency. I don't know if strong written or verbal protests here would have helped. But I do know that you put your stake in the ground on issues like this. At the very least you state your case. "We're half-angels because we have words," said the psychologist James Hillman. We didn't even use them.

Katie For Jay And Jay For Katie: The double switch worked wonders in the ratings. That only shows what TV programmers know but seem to forget a lot, and that is: unpredictability makes for good TV. Now, knowing how TV guys tend to follow success I say this trend will play itself all the way to its logical, surreal, sick conclusion. And that end is Anna Nicole Smith hosting the evening news while Dan Rather lets the E! crew follow him around for a week.

At The Buzzer: Am I the only one who noticed that reality TV has taken a back seat so far in the upfront announcements?