As far as media storms go, Irene may be the most powerful one ever recorded. Yes, it's true that by the time she made landfall in the most populated areas of the Eastern Seaboard, Irene had been downgraded from a genuine hurricane to just a really bad tropical storm, but her media effects were a magnitude greater than any weather-related phenomenon before her.

The new ads for NBC's upcoming talk show "Whitney" advise women to talk to men about their relationships -- not as a communication tool but as a smackdown.

For Hurricane Irene, New Yorkers relied on the TV experts -- New York 1, the local cable channel, and The Weather Channel. In between useful and strangely addictive information, there was some inadvertently wacky exchanges.

Top-rated college football prospects are training grounds for the NFL -- pure and simple. It's an unpaid minor league of sorts for the NFL. Which may explain why colleges are cutting deals with networks to get in on the action.

Build a cool TV platform and viewers will come, especially if it's free. Also coming will be some tough-minded comments from associated business partners. But consumers rule in this new digital world -- don't they?

One guy in my gym keeps pulling the plug of the TV set out of the wall in the men's locker room, according to the club manager. No one knows why. Maybe he's read that report saying television can cut years off one's estimated lifespan. So after doing his workout -- which should add years to his life -- he's only even. But I'm wondering about the health of the TV industry.

Product placement in the political process? Who knew this was a ripe area for entertainment marketing? This is where Stephen Colbert, comedian/host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," comes in.

Programming executives live for "lightning in a bottle": out-of-nowhere shows that hit it big. But can reality shows with hard real-life components hit too hard? And start fires?

It sounded cheeky, outrageous, downright strange -- which means it smelled like some PR stunt. Guess what? It was. And it worked. Everyone wrote about it, including MediaPost (but not without some questions). If you are Abercrombie & Fitch, looking to glom onto the highest-rated TV show for young people in the summer, what better way to snag some fish (reporters) in the summer, which can be a dull time for stories?

"Glee: The 3D Concert Movie" hasn't conquered movie theaters --- unlike what the franchise accomplished with television, iTune downloads, and live concert tours. Seems "Glee" took one entertainment step too many. Fox Filmed Entertainment looked to do what any modern media company with a big valuable asset would do -- eke out a few more shekels, not the least of which would come from a premium 3D ticket price.The movie -- with a pretty nice wide release on over 2,000 screens -- earned a humble $6 million this past weekend, coming in 11th place among all movies.