Free Republic

It's a very dangerous situation when any huge multinational corporation wages war against media companies. Especially when that huge multinational corporation is General Electric, which itself owns a media company, NBC Universal, and it's using all its power and influence and money to try to harm another media company, Nielsen, and Nielsen Business Media, and its trade publication The Hollywood Reporter. This certainly sounds like a situation which the FCC, and the FTC, and the U.S. Justice Department should be investigating. Just one problem: the controversy stems from GE/NBCU's coverage of President Obama. Here's what happened: According to my sources...

Hooope. Chaaaaange. Yes, we caaaaaaan. Chairman Barack will lead us!

Brilliant superposition of the "Dear Leader" Childrens Songfest to Obama on to the Hitler Youth scene from Cabaret.

Just for comparison. Watch the "Long live Dear Leader!" video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hILuMEsd6KY

Drudge Link. VERY young kids having to sing how great Obama is. Haven't seen this kind of crap since Mao Tse Tung days.

Drudge still has the headline and picture of children singing to the "Dear Leader" Obama. Link But when you click the link, you get this: This is a private video. If you have been sent this video, please make sure you accept the sender's friend request.

Did anybody capture it? They're trying to hide it ... hope it's cached or caught by somebody. http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/HopeTacos/gG59KJ

I’m a little sick of the idea of using children to promote political positions and especially candidates, so I’m inclined to look at this kind of effort with a jaundiced eye under any circumstances. However, this video seems even creepier than most. Sing for Change brags about getting 22 children from 5-12 to regurgitate some execrable lyrics as though they had the first clue about the topic of the songs:

Sing for Change About Us Sing for Change was a confluence of hard work, good will, and shared vision. Inspired by ideas raised at a grassroots Obama fundraiser, a music teacher, Kathy Sawada, and the children composed and rehearsed the songs in less than two weeks. Several musicians heard of the effort and volunteered to accompany the children. Parents and older siblings designed and provided the T-Shirts and the banner. There’s a first for everything, but rarely do so many firsts come together at once: for the children and their parents, this is their first performance, first video, first banner,...

At the Giants halftime last night in the Meadowlands, a "Stand Up for Cancer" presentation was made by three people from the 50 yard line: Steve Tisch, partner in the ownership of the Giants, a radiant and gorgeous Christie Brinkley, and Jeff Zucker.Tisch was roundly booed (because of the personal seat licenses which the Giants have instituted for the new stadium which will open in 2010). Chritie came on next and was warmly greeted by the 77k fans.But when Zucker was announced and began to speak, the fans booed him almost as vigorously as they did to Tisch. Why? The...

he future of NBC News is not on the broadcast network, but at MSNBC and online, said Jeff Zucker, president of CEO of NBC Universal. Jeff Zucker “We are just living in an incredibly different world,” Zucker said during a question-and-answer session at Harvard Business School’s 2008 Entertainment and Media Conference Wednesday. Pointing out that few people in the audience of students, faculty and media gathered there likely watch the 6:30 p.m. newscast, Zucker said NBC News is lucky to have a cable-news outlet in MSNBC, adding that more and more content will continue to migrate there and to MSNBC.com....

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A former "Dateline NBC" correspondent claims that in the aftermath of September 11, the network diverted him from reporting on al Qaeda and instead wanted him to ride along with the country's "forgotten heroes," firefighters. John Hockenberry, who was laid off from "Dateline" in early 2005, wrote in this month's Technology Review that on the Sunday after the September 2001 attacks he was pitching stories on the origins of al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism. He claimed that then-NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker, who came into a meeting Hockenberry was having with "Dateline" executive producer David...

... ICN has received multiple tips that point to a new round of cuts coming to NBC News. There has been talk of closed door meetings going on amongst NBC News execs this week over this issue. Apparently they haven’t been able to keep a lid on it because from what I can tell the subject is definitely being whispered amongst some of the NBC staffers there. I’m hearing talk about Operational cutbacks, field crew bookings and assignments, the news desk, etc…a lot of infrastructure could be affected and based upon what I’ve been able to put together from the...

NBC 'TODAY' SHOW EXEC PRODUCER TOM TOUCHET FIRED....DEVELOPING... Tom's firing had nothing to do with the ratings or tightening numbers with ABC's 'GOOD MORNING AMERICA', a top source claims... Tom has been making changes to move the show into the future, while Host Katie Couric and NBC President Jeff Zucker are trying to keep it mired in the past. 'If it was about the ratings, NBC as a network is in 4th place and Jeff Zucker would be gone,' insider claims. 'It is common knowledge that even before Host Katie Couric signed her new deal - she had lost interest,...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC's top executive sharply criticized CBS News and anchorman Dan Rather on Friday for broadcasting a botched report questioning President Bush (news - web sites)'s military record -- and said such a mistake could never happen at his network. In a public rebuke of a rival network's news judgment that was rare for its bluntness, NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker said NBC News had learned its lesson from a discredited report on automobile safety aired by "Dateline NBC" in the early 1990s. Asked about the recent CBS News gaffe at NBC's annual winter presentation...

On the set of the "Squawk Box," one of CNBC's more successful business shows. NBC Universal TV boss Jeff Zucker is rattling the troops at ratings-challenged CNBC. Zucker used tough words to describe the network's business programing yesterday in a pow-wow with its top brass at CNBC's Englewood Cliffs, N.J., headquarters, sources told the Daily News. The visit was part of an ongoing set of meetings the former NBC Entertainment chief is holding to try to boost ratings at the financial news channel, considered one of NBC's crown jewels because of its robust profits. Fixing CNBC, as well as the...

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 17 NBC News will do an entire hour on Michael Jackson's face during the February sweeps, NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker announced today. The "Dateline" special "Michael Jackson Unmasked" was approved by NBC President Andrew Lack, who left the network last week to head Sony Music -- Jackson's record label. Oops. "I just hope the folks at Sony Music don't complain," Zucker quipped at Winter TV Press Tour 2003 here. Via an NBC News rep, "Dateline" Executive Producer David Corvo explained that the special will use the "transformation" of Wacko Jacko's face as a metaphor for the transformation...

Just a month ago, Aaron Sorkin, the man responsible for creating and writing the hit NBC series "The West Wing," walked out of a theater in Los Angeles gripping his third consecutive Emmy award for best drama. He had every reason to believe he could head right over to NBC, brandish the latest award and, using the leverage that every producer of a hit show up for renegotiation has, tell the network to pay up. But in one of the more intriguing subplots of the television season, circumstances have changed suddenly and unexpectedly for "The West Wing" and Mr. Sorkin....