“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of October 7, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Google Plus Goes
Well, here’s some news that is so new that you may not have heard it yet. On Monday of this week, Google announced that it was shutting down its social media network, Google Plus. A security flaw had been discovered in March, which Google fixed but didn’t announce. The Wall Street Journal had come into possession of an internal Google memo that discussed what should be done and was preparing to publish it when Google made the announcement.
For those of you who have forgotten about Google Plus (and don’t feel bad, billions of people worldwide have been ignoring the platform for years now), here’s a little refresher.
Following on the heels of the enormous success of Facebook, Google wanted to make sure that it had a foothold there as well. It was attempt number four at this, following Orkut which lasted nine years (mostly in Brazil), Google Friend Connect, which lasted four years; and Google Buzz, which only lasted one year. Launching in 2011, Google Plus never gained much traction. Users signed up, I have an account, but spent very little time there. On average, a Google Plus visit lasts less than five seconds according to a recent study. The service never seemed to develop an identity and people didn’t know what to do with it. There was a redesign in 2015 that seemed to create as many problems as it solved.
The current issue concerns a security flaw that could have opened up the private data of a half a million users. According to Google, there is no evidence that anyone’s data was breached because of the flaw. It was found and fixed in March. At the time, the media giant’s Privacy and Data Protection Office did not believe that it was required to report the issue. And they are probably right. What bothers more people about all of this is that the internal memo discusses not reporting the issue in order to avoid additional regulatory scrutiny. The result will be that Google CEO Sundar Pichai will have to testify before Congress about what has happened and why.
It’s just one more misstep by a Silicon Valley giant when it comes to transparency. Instead of presenting themselves as proactive solvers of problems, they are hiding from public scrutiny. And it makes you wonder why they would do that.
With declining usage and no particular model for success, there is no wonder to the demise of Google Plus.
This Is Only A Test
Last Wednesday, around a quarter after two in the afternoon, a lot of cell phones all across America suddenly blared out a warning tone. I was driving at that moment, trying to figure out where I was supposed to be when it went off. Let me be perfectly honest, it scared the doo-doo out of me. Seems I had forgotten that the audio on my phone was at 100%.
It certainly got my attention.
Which was followed by thousands of Americans seeming to lose their minds about the test of the new Wireless Emergency Alert, and the Emergency Alert System. The test was conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It is the newest technology to alert the nation of major emergencies.
Let’s deal with the dumbest bit of hysteria first. Some people don’t like the current President and were certain that this was some kind of evil plot. This system was approved by President Obama. It’s been under development for years, and the first test just happened to take place last week. The text message aspect is what the Obama administration added. So, stop.
Second, for listeners to this program, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. I talked about the system at the time it was proposed. We talked about how the old system relied on radio and television and that wasn’t going to cut it in the modern age, where a growing percentage of us rely primarily on smartphones for our media connections.
Then there’s the whole “old system” question. How many of you remember hearing these words “This has been a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test”. I can’t tell you how many of those I ran in my two decades on the air. Later it became the Emergency Activation System. In other words, you’ve been through this before. It’s not a new, the EBS tests began in 1963.
So, why did some people get it and not others? Easy. We don’t know. FEMA is still investigating it. Everyone should have gotten the signal. That’s why you test systems, to work out the bugs.
Finally, no you cannot opt out of the Presidential message portion of the system. That part of the system is designed so that whoever is sitting in the White House can communicate quickly with the nation in times of disaster.
But this is not one of those times. I promise.
Laugh At Avocados
After several weeks of anger and vitriol on our own national stage, I thought maybe we could all use a laugh. A laugh at someone else’s expense.
For all the debate about the level of governmental regulation and interference with our lives in these United States, we are the minor leagues in comparison to many European countries. England, for example, has significantly higher levels of governmental regulation when it comes to the media. If you watch them for a while, you’ll wonder what the FCC is doing to earn their salaries.
Here’s my example for the week – the ASA, the Advertising Standards Authority. That’s the United Kingdoms regulator of advertising. Using something called the Ad Codes, which were developed by yet another regulatory body called the Committees of Advertising Practice, they are the final word on what commercials air in the U.K. There is no similar, not even vaguely similar, structure on this side of the pond. I have mentioned them before, in a story about an ad for baked beans that may ring a distant bell.
This time the terrible issue centers on the coffee house chain Costa Coffee. In a recent ad, they had some fun with the recent fad for avocados, especially avocado toast. These horrible people dared to suggest that one of their bacon sandwiches or egg muffins were a better choice for breakfast than avocados. And the ASA has banned the ad. Let me read for you the offending passage of the ad as it ran:
“Oh, there’s a great deal on ripen at home avocados. Sure, they’ll be hard as rock for the first 18 days, three hours and 20 minutes, then they’ll be ready to eat, for about 10 minutes, then they’ll go off.”
If you’ve ever purchased an avocado, you know the truth of that. And if you are above the age of 7 with any sense of humor, you know that it’s a joke.
The ASA is not amused. The copy “disparaged” the healthy food choice of an avocado.
All of this based on the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising which essentially says that you can’t say bad things about fruits and vegetables.
This from the land that brought us Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Monty Python, P.G Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, and Benny Hill, for the love of all that’s funny!
So many things to mock and laugh at. Good to know that some things are still sacred.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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