The tech industry has come up with a lot of wacky ideas for recruiting engineers, but WibiData, a San Francisco start-up that develops big data applications, has come up with a unique gimmick for telegraphing its engineering street cred to job applicants: a custom version of Portal 2, a video game from Valve. … Read More
CNN hires failed gimmick king Jeff Zucker
Who better for the job of turning around CNN than the man who took NBC from first to last? Jeff Zucker, the brain behind TV’s “Joey,” is going to be the new president of CNN Worldwide. The decision basically confirms that CNN, and Time Warner, have no clue what’s “wrong” with their struggling channel, nor the first idea as to how to fix it.It’s been pointed out before that CNN doesn’t actually need rescuing. The ratings at the flagship channel are atrocious, but the organization is profitable and its international arm is respected and successful. Departing CNN Worldwide executive Jim Walton was quite successful at making Time Warner money. Their primary problem is one of “embarrassment”: the embarrassment that the clowns of Fox News and MSNBC are beating them in prime time ratings, primarily, but also the embarrassment the very serious and good journalists of CNN feel regarding the shoddy product the bosses have been producing over the last few years. Zucker is theoretically capable of reversing the ratings trend, though I wouldn’t hold my breath. But he’s definitely never shown any ability or interest in producing less embarrassing programming. The man to rescue CNN from a loathsome charlatan like Piers Morgan is not the man who made Donald Trump a nationally recognized prime time television clown.Continue Reading… … Read More
CNN hires failed gimmick king
Who better for the job of turning around CNN than the man who took NBC from first to last? Jeff Zucker, the brain behind TV’s “Joey,” is going to be the new president of CNN Worldwide. The decision basically confirms that CNN, and Time Warner, have no clue what’s “wrong” with their struggling channel, nor the first idea as to how to fix it.It’s been pointed out before that CNN doesn’t actually need rescuing. The ratings at the flagship channel are atrocious, but the organization is profitable and its international arm is respected and successful. Departing CNN Worldwide executive Jim Walton was quite successful at making Time Warner money. Its primary problem is one of “embarrassment”: the embarrassment that the clowns of Fox News and MSNBC are beating them in prime-time ratings, primarily, but also the embarrassment the very serious and good journalists of CNN feel regarding the shoddy product the bosses have been producing over the last few years. Zucker is theoretically capable of reversing the ratings trend, though I wouldn’t hold my breath. But he’s definitely never shown any ability or interest in producing less embarrassing programming. The man to rescue CNN from a loathsome charlatan like Piers Morgan is not the man who made Donald Trump a nationally recognized prime-time television clown.Continue Reading… … Read More
Best 3-D Movies Ever: From ‘Avatar’ To ‘Up’
As Ang Lee’s ”Life of Pi” opens, we salute films that use the third dimension as more than a gimmick.Read More…
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The Power Of The Reddit Vote
Barack Obama did a Reddit Ask Me Anything back in August not just as a gimmick to prove he was “with it,” but because that’s where his voter base was, an anonymous “official” from Obama’s analytics team told Time’s Michael Scherer. With 34 million unique visitors visiting the site each month, it makes sense that appealing to the people of that Internet world would be a good way to campaign. But, how powerful is that voter base? And is a Reddit AMA the way to win them over? Read More…
