Coping: EBM - What's News?
About here,
you may be scratching your head wondering "What does EBM stand for and why do
I care?"
It's the
Peoples Economist's shorthand for "Everything is a Business Model". And why
that matters will come into focus when I share this dandy little dropping
from the bottom of the email inbox:
"You are a
real piece of [shoot] not one word on the beck rally there were only about half a
million in attendance I have lost all respect for your web site what a shame
just like the main stream media"
"Like"
the MSM? Get serious, pard...Glenn Beck in an amusing cult of
personality distraction but he's ain't news around here. But, then
again, neither are the current doings of Lindsay
Lohan, either.
To
review: Glenn Beck
works for Fox News
Channel, which in turn is owned by News Corporation,
which, in turn is chaired by Rupert Murdoch who's
politics I tend not to agree with.
Each of these
is a business model. Beck's a business model, since he's growing the Beck
brand. Fox is a business model since they're after ratings which can be
turned into ads which can be turned into money. News Corp is a business
model that holds rolled up media companies and you know they're not doing
that for grins and giggles. And Murdoch's been a whole series of
successful business models rolling up media outlets.
As a matter of
policy around here (a right I claim as a real piece of [shoot], as you so
eloquently penned it) we don't spend much time counting the number of people who
line up behind one business model, or another. No point to it.
BUT, now that
you brought it up, everything is a business model. The job you used
to have, the business of being a politician, even churches / religions are
business models, something I don't grind your face in because the evidence is
that I'm right. Jesus didn't make the big bucks on his own religion, it
was the marketers who followed who cashed it. Ditto Buddha and the rest of
history's Enlightened: Business models that followed were where the dough
was - so you see everything really is a business model.
Not bad
just is.
---
Around here,
I'm running a business model, too. I have a free web site which almost
breaks even on advertising. The rest comes from subscribers to
Peoplenomics.com, a unique group of people seeking clarity of thought on some of
the great unspoken truths of the runaway capitalist illusion such as
Everything's a Business Model.
Every time the
right wing, or the left, or the NRA, or the church, or the local PTA pass around
fundraisers, or I pimp my subscriber side, I'm reminded "Everything's a
Business Model".
Again for
clarity: I didn't say any of this is bad...money makes the world
go round.
On the other
hand, whenever I see a highly touted named personality I run - not walk,
mind you - I run the other way as fast as I can. We live in a
society where EBM and the cults of personality are all what? Repeat
after me: Business models!
Think it's
worth debating how many showed up? I could give a crap. Beck
supporters are largely in the 200,000 range, with a few blinded followers
claiming 500,000 showed up. CBS
News put the figure under 100,000 and they hired an outfit to give them an
accurate count. Is that right? I will grant you that CBS is a
competing business model to the Fox News Channel.
I'm not the
only one calling it what it was; go take a look at "Beck
Rally: A Great PR Stunt, but That's All It Was," for example.
Thanks to your
email though, you've given me an opportunity to once again explain how EBM.
In a country
where jobs have largely been exported about the only growth industry left
is the Cult of Personality business model which a lot of people seem to
get sucked into.
