BuzzMachine

The vast Canadian conspiracy

: I pick up the Globe & Mail on the way back and find that John Roberts, the likely successor to Dan Rather, is Canadian. Peter Jennings and now John Roberts. Hmmmmm. Sounds like a conspiracy to me. Odder still, Roberts’ real name is Robertson. But he changed his name to Roberts and then to J.D. Roberts and now he’s John Roberts. Hmmmmm. Code names?

Some right-wing pundits in the U.S. have suggested that Canadians have a liberal bias. In the summer of 2003, White House operatives raised questions about the objectivity of Canadian ABC reporter Jeffrey Kofman, after he had filed a number of negative reports about American troop morale in Iraq. Distributing copies of a profile of Kofman that appeared in the American gay and lesbian magazine The Advocate, White House spin had it that Kofman’s bias came about because he was both gay and Canadian.

Roberts is decidedly heterosexual, with a wife and two children, a son, 19, and a daughter, 13.

Ah, but he’s still Canadian, isn’t he? Once a Canadian, always a Canadian.

Hey, ABC News: Real sucks!

: I just went through consumer hell with Real trying to watch the segment on my FCC scoop on ABC World News Tonight. I tried to subscribe to ABC NewsNow for $40 a year but that didn’t work and so I then had to subscribe to ABC SuperDuperPassGas or whatever the hell they call it for another too-many bucks per month. And then I had to download software three times. And then I had to walk through glass to watch two minutes. And then when I tried to cancel it all, I had to stay on hold on not one but two calls to Real for 40 friggin’ minutes. Real sucks. Real Audio sucks. Real Video sucks.

ABC News: Please follow my advice below. You’re pissing off your viewers/customers/audience/public and not making much money from Real — right? — when, instead, you could use your public to market and distribute your brand and product. Make us your ally, not your enemy, eh?