by Dave Zornow

On a day when the world mourns the loss of Steve Jobs and the tech industry is iWriting about the iMac-iPod-iPhone-iPad, it’s valuable to remember that the original Man-In-Black didn’t always have the Midas touch. Which makes his successes that much more remarkable.

by Dave Zornow

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of Mediapost that Joe Mandese is no fan of Nielsen. Mandese, the Editor-in-Chief at MediaPost, has frequently skewered the ratings company for things they have done and much of the time, Nielsen critics applaud his efforts. But researchers say Mandese crossed a line with last week’s story, “Nielsen Discloses Major TV Ratings Glitch, Could Impact Millions In TV Ad Buys” because there was no major glitch — with the possible exception of how MediaPost reported the story.

Schadenfreude, deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others,is a German word and a morning drive and reality show formula for ratings success.

The power of the unconscious mind, the effect of emotions on thinking and our need to be part of a larger social structure were some of the points made by the NYT’s David Brooks’ keynote speech at the 2011 ARF AMS Conference.

It’s college graduation time. Which means hugging, crying, packing, moving and worrying about what the future holds.

This year’s graduation at Ithaca College in upstate New York connected baby boomer parents with their recent graduates via the shocking realization that if Dustin Hoffman’s character in the graduate was real, he would be retiring this year. And what a working career he would have had.

Once serious but lately comedic actor Leslie Nielsen died last weekend at age 83. Famous for his Airplane and Naked Gun appearances, he once tried to compete with the other Nielsen — according to this 1998 April Fool’s article.

Detective Frank Drebin, we’re going to miss you.

At Thanksgiving dinners across the country this weekend, travelers asked, “Is airport scanning designed to creep out the tourists or the terrorists?

Would stratified sampling be a better way to root out the bad guys without lessening our collective confidence in the TSA?

A religious hurricane forecast to hit a suburban NYC community in November, 2010 changed course at the last minute, allowing a high school production of The Laramie Project to take the stage with no worries about religious fundamentalists disrupting the play.

But to end the story there would be to miss “a teachable moment” about the averted storm – and why local reporters needed to write about it.

Fox News’ slant on Comedy Central’s Sanity/Fear rally raises questions about what is fair and balanced. But is the joke on us for even asking the question?

One of this summer’s “hottest” new shows is a reality based sports drama featuring daily updates each morning. It raises the usual reality fare a few notches, including spontaneous fistfights, a psychopath who has been kicked off the island, illicit drug use and egos which dwarf anything that Hollywood could imagine. This production uses real world class athletes competing for big prizes. And instead of unseen producers manipulating the circumstances to imitate reality…it uses reality.