Hi Cal,

You proclaimed the worthiness of your pronouncements thusly: "Why is it that I continue to get media coverage, from msnbc.com to the National Geographic Channel (only made the longer version; Berkland made both?"

It just cannot be coincidence that I had just been reading J. M. Amann's and T. Breur's (Founders of sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com) "Sweet Jesus I Hate Bill O'Reilly." In the section I was just reading, the authors quote O'Lielly as saying: "Air America Radio continues to fail, with catastrophic ratings . . . The circulations of longtime liberal newspapers like the Boston Globe and Newsday are falling. And there is not one successful . . . liberal commentator on cable television . . . Phil Donahue was fired for low ratings at MSNBC, but was actually much more succesful than what they put in his place. Meantime, the FOX News Channel continues to prosper. The Factor has been the top-rated cable news program for 195 weeks . . ."

Now, you can strip any political component of this out of it, because, my point is non-political. What is highly relevant here are the author's subsequent, and very trenchant comments: "Bill sounds like the kind of guy who drones on about his capital gains at a cocktail party, brags about his annual sales figures at an office Christmas party, or suggests everyone line up and measure their dicks at a fraternity party. . . . Well, it goes without saying that everyone Bill derides as a ratings leper is making a comfortable living, and many are doing so without selling out every ounce of journalistic integrity they have. . . . Exactly how insecure do you have to be about your own popularity to never shut up about it? Seriously, can you imagine any of the network news anchors doing this?"

Now, the real humor kicks in as the authors provide the following timeline:

1966 "Jacqueline Susann publishes Valley of the Dolls, which eventually becomes the top-selling novel of all time, eclipsing such sales disasters as Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and George Orwell's 1984.

"Late seventies through the early eighties: On the strength of such quality programs as Three's Company, The Six Million Dollar Man, Charlie's Angels, The Ropers, Mork and Mindy . . . and The Love Boat, ABC becomes the number one television network, destroying PBS in the ratings. . . .

2004: People Magazine is listed by the Magazine Publishers of America as the twelfth-highest-circulation periodical in the country, crushing Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and The New Yorker"

Michael F. Williams
Arroyo Grande, CA USA