Why Associated Content Matters Now More Than Ever

Today the ladies of The View chatted on and on about the graceful exploits of the ABC hit TV show Dancing With The Stars. While I'm sure Sherri Shephard's unbridled enthusiasm over her hoofing heroes is rooted in genuine feeling, I'd also hope the fact ABC also owns The View isn't lost on attentive viewers. Certainly the promotional "rapport" the shows share remains a logically convenient one. After all, if your parent company needs to publicize a show, where better to do it than on your most watched Emmy winning daytime talk show. It's a pretty standard practice done with the consolidation of media giants like Paramount Pictures and Viacom, or ABC and Disney. However, things are getting cozier - or creepier - than ever before.

When Joy Behar of The View mentions who's going to be joining her as guest later that evening on her talk show broadcast by HLN, it's a promotional plug many would love - and would pay dearly - to be granted. Sherri Shephard's sitcom, Sherri, airing on Lifetime is a frequent topic of The View gal gabfest. Again, it's quite obvious why it's plugged, but the sheer promotional weight of this kind of media access truly staggers the observant watcher.

Dramas, reality shows and sitcoms take years and millions of dollars to get the instant promotional exposure and favor Behar's or Shepherd's shows get in a week or month. Barbara Walters writes her memoir Audition: A Memoir, and everyone in her live audience gets a free copy. My sister was an audience member of The View the day the book was given out, though she wasn't thrilled over her gift. She also said out of all panelists, Joy Behar was least friendly - refraining from talking to the public - but the other ladies couldn't have been friendlier, though now I'm straying off topic.

Media outlets are fueled - some would say corrupted - by this seemingly innocent product plugging. And it can also act most dynamically in reverse. Kitty Kelley writes a biography on media grand dame, Oprah Winfrey, and corporate owned media ban together to do their best that it's not discussed on high profile shows. NBC's Today did interview Ms. Kelley a few times, however it's disturbing to see how quickly media types play ball together. I even heard a few dismiss Kelley's Oprah book as "nasty" or full of "lies." It remains to be seen just how much impact the book generates, but the only one who should take umbrage - legal or otherwise - is Oprah herself. If Winfrey's legal eagles decide there's indeed fabricated passages in the book, we'll all be glued to a legal battle royal. However, dismissing a book barely off the presses as nasty lies, favoring a highly corporate connected celeb like Winfrey is nepotistic at best, journalistically irresponsible at worst.

Associated Content's writers aren't talk show hosts - least none on the level of Winfrey, Walters or Behar. We're not million dollar earning actors plugging our next project, nor corporate shills striving to up ratings of books, CD's or movies. We're not trying to get our sitcom noticed by thrusting it down the throats of readers. Associated Content's passionate contributors write thoughtful op-eds, movie, TV and book reviews, and so much more. We simply don't have reason to love or hate something, other than it being the absolute truth the way we see it. In this corporate backed media maelstrom of a world, which plays celebrity favorites more and more, that kind of candor and professional honesty in a "people's media company" is needed now more than ever.