Robert A. Flutie

I was watching the movie NETWORK this weekend. It’s a brilliant satire on the television industry during the 70’s. Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway give spectacular performances and if you have not seen NETWORK, please get a copy and watch it.

There is a scene about one hour into the movie that struck me as being very relevant to the issues that we face today. Pardon my paraphrasing the dialogue, but it’s worth the effort of typing this out given how well it reflects on our society today.The scene is a newscaster gone mad who has been allowed (manipulated), by the network execs to go on the air because the network is in the crapper and they are trying to come out of a slump. In other words, they have put this poor psychotic out to the slaughter.

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad! Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression, everybody is out of work, or scared or losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth. The banks are going bust. Shop keepers keep a gun under the cupboard. Punks are running around wild in the street and there isn’t anybody who knows what to do and there is no end to it. We know that the air is unfit to breath, and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching out TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be! We know things are bad, worse than bad. Their crazy, it’s like everyone everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house and slowly the world that we are living in is getting smaller and all we say is Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, my TV, my steel belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone. Well, I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest, I don’t want you to riot, I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve GOT TO GET MAD! You’ve got to say that I’M A HUMAN BEING GOD DAMIT! MY LIFE HAS VALUE! So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to your window, open it, stick your head out and yell I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

In the movie, the millions of people who are watching the above broadcast begin to open their windows and begin to yell “I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” And so the scene goes on to express how this newscast put the network on top and served as the basis of the network’s ability to command liberal programming and messaging. Even the William Morris Agency gets and honorable mention.

So I get to thinking….and guess what I realized. Yes, “I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” Oil prices continue to rise, liquidity has left the market, people can’t buy homes, we are in a recession (don’t believe the BS you read about how we are not there yet), and we have become subject to the messaging and thin content of an otherwise shallow creative process because of it all.

It’s time for us to speak our truth. Go to your God, go to your Guru’s, go to yourself because that’s the only place where you’re going to find the truth!

Rent the movie.

* FLUTIE *

The “R” word is back. It’s been a while, but the suggestion of a recession reared it’s ugly head several months ago. Our most recent brush with a recession started as a “suggested” recession. Then it became a “possible” recession. We progressed to “It’s looking like we can have” a recession. Most recently, we began to hear how “inevitable” it is that we will have a recession. Low and behold, on Friday well respected economists, analysts and Wall Street Moguls we were advised that we are now “in” the recession. I’m a bit disappointed that this recession snuck up on us. I had the silly string and party poppers ready.

It’s not my intention to make light of our country’s economic woe. Like most Americans, I am frustrated and uneasy about the financial markets roller coaster ride. I’m also irked by the Federal Reserve Bank’s passive aggressive attitude about their role in the economic stability of our country. I listened to Chairman Bernake as he extolled the most recent Federal Reserves “observation” of the capital market, I could not help but think “hey, didn’t you guys (in part), help cause the recession?” I went through my notes and came across an 2005 editorial piece that warned us about how Bernake was more aligned as a Bush economist than former Chairman Greenspan. Hayley Block had greater insight on where things were our economy was possibly heading than the a real life Alison Dubois

In any event, this blog is not intended to be a Cliffs Notes version on Keynesian economy.

Unemployment is up which means that inflation should hold at bay. That’s the good news. The not so great news is that in the months ahead, more people will be losing their jobs. In the entertainment community we have the luxury of pointing a finger at the WGA strike. Sony has released writers who have “overall deals” and WB has warned of impending layoffs. Major Hollywood agencies are cutting staff, putting staff on “strike” pay and simply downsizing. The amount of TV and Film projects was already on the decline and now there are exponentially less projects being produced.

Now we have the sentiment that the consumer is spending less money as a an addition to the already tumultuous entertainment landscape. The less that Mr. and Mrs. Jones from Peoria spend on non-essential goods and services, the less money that makes its way to the corporate titans that control marketing and advertising dollars.

In the current business environment, the “wealth” of the business sector (both Fortune 500 companies and mom and pop shop’s), is receding and for a business sector that relies so heavily on advertising dollars to fuel the “middle” segment of the networks who pay studios and producers to create TV and FILM projects the outcome is easy to predict. There simply will be a shortage of new project. To further exacerbate the situation, the projects that will be produced will carry lighter budgets. All in all, less people working and less money will be maid by people who are working.

It’s important to remember that networks are owned, or a part of a multi-faceted major corporation. NBC is owned by GE, FOX is owned by News Corp, ABC is Disney and CBS is Viacom. All of these companies are motivated and driven by profits. And when it comes to the simple math, it’s easy to see why a decrease in spending by the consumer, causes a decrease in marketing dollars, which results in less money being spent on the development and production of TV shows.

While it may be true that there will be less production to keep us entertained, we can rest comfortably knowing that we can always tune into MSNBC to watch the sparks fly on Wall Street.

* FLUTIE *