seanshannon.org

posted 2004/09/25 at 23:08

Yeah, I'm slacking off on the diet again. No, I'm not happy with myself about it, but if you knew how much effort I was putting into this project of mine, maybe you'd understand. Or maybe you wouldn't, who cares.

Anyway, I was actually watching Fox News Channel this afternoon so I could catch the other Don from New York -- Don "Phrekwenci" D'Amato -- on there talking about DDR (MPEG of Don's appearance available here). You know, it's bad enough that FNC has such an obvious conservative bias, but when it comes down to it they're just not running a good operation down there at all. To wit:

They actually asked Don if he could bring his own equipment to the studio to show people, which posed a big problem because Don is an arcade-only player. By point of comparison, when Tanya did her appearance on The Today Show, the show actually bought two dance pads just for her appearance. (I think the other person being interviewed brought a memory card just so all the songs would be unlocked, but that was it. Can you imagine Don having to tote a Cobalt Flux all the way from Lindenhurst to the middle of NYC?
All the footage they kept airing during the segment was old, a tactic FNC uses frequently. (For all that neocons want to fuck with the environment, when it comes to old news footage FNC's the biggest believer in recycling out there.) They not only had footage of pre-MAX arcade games, they also showed footage of another reporter trying the game out for the first time.
Worse yet, Don says he sat in a room for over an hour at the FNC studios and was never briefed on what they'd be asking him about. Hell, even when I did my little local TV news appearance for that one site I was working on back in the day, the interviewer let me know what kind of questions I'd be asked ahead of time, so, you know, I'd be prepared. I read Don's site phrekwently (bad joke, I know), and he's a very intelligent man, but because of the way the interview was conducted, FNC never really gave him a chance to show his intelligence, or to make a coherent case about DDR.

So yeah, even if you don't want to hate FNC for being the broadcast wing of the far right, hate them for being a bunch of cheapskates who can't even conduct a simple "lifestyles" interview properly.