Duck The Vote
Media Circus columnist Cathy Seipp asks the lazy, uninformed idiots not to vote:

Look, voting is a privilege as well as a right and if you donít vote, you should be ashamed of yourself. But the reason you should be ashamed of yourself is that not voting is lazy and idiotic. Should the lazy idiot constituency be encouraged to influence society even more than it already does? This is the paradox (and the problem) that hangs over these do-gooder media campaigns to get out the youth vote, which heat up every election year. But I donít see how the crotch-grabbing antics that now seem integral to the Viacom brand encourage an informed electorate. You can lead a horse to water, but you canít make him turn off the MTV.

Finally, she spanks the indignant commies over at the LA Weekly -- starting with Gregg Goldin, who managed to find the dark side of free hors d'oeuvres at the party Cathy, Emmanuelle, and I threw, with Reason magazine and LA Press Club, for John Stossel. Later, she bends over LA Weekly's Hollywood columnist, Nikki Fink, and gives her a good slap:

(Finke)...had whipped herself into a fury over CBS chief Les Moonvesís recent misadventures and thinks he should resign. The Super Bowl incident, according to Nikki, was the last straw. So she called up CBS spokesman Gil Schwartz to ask if he also thought Moonves should resign. Schwartz responded: ìItís an outrageous and moronic question not worthy of an answer.î

Fond as I am of the rude and inappropriate question, I have to say I was initially with CBS on this one. Moonves is not an elected official, and presumably neither Nikki nor many of her readers are Viacom shareholders. I canít see why she thinks most of us should care about personnel matters in Big Media.

But then I read Nikkiís list of Moonves sins: Heís a ìformer child actor who Ö repeatedly plays himself on TV.î Heís a ìshow-biz insider who pals around only with others of the industry.î And ñ you might want to be sitting down for this one ñ heís a ìbicoastal philistine who used to live in a Brentwood mansion and is right now looking at opulent Malibu beach houses.î

Looking at them right now? After all this? Couldnít Les at least show some shame and limit himself to unopulent houses? Since when did Nikki become such a bleeding-heart pushover? Resign, bah. Obviously, the man deserves the chair.