Outside the Beltway

Best of OTB – May 21, 2003

James Joyner · Monday, May 21, 2007 · 4 comments

As part of a continuing series, I’ll be highlighting material buried deep in the OTB archives that I still find interesting. From four years ago, today:

“RENO” joined in on the debate, “Was Janet Reno the worst AG we have ever had, or what?” Not much substance to it but it somehow strikes me as amusing these days.

“PROBLEM? WHAT PROBLEM?” demonstrates that one woman’s annoyance can be another man’s marketing ploy.

“BRETT-COTT” was an early look at a recurring topic at OTB:

Brett Marston is boycotting MSNBC and related companies until Michael Savage is off the air. He provides a link demonstrating what a despicable louse Savage is. While I’m more likely to agree with Savage’s political conclusions than is Brett, I must say I also find Savage rather vile.

I’m not a fan of boycotts and am pretty sure they don’t work at the personal level. Plus, the fact that MSNBC is owned by Microsoft and General Electric means that Brett should really boycott everything from Windows to lightbulbs. Personally, I just skip the specific shows I don’t like. I’m not a big fan of Phil Donahue, so I didn’t watch the show. (Which, come to think of it, may call into question my boycott thesis, since that show has been canceled.) On the other hand, I like ER, so I’ll keep watching that.

Savage’s show was canceled around July 7. We’ll never know the full extent to which Brett’s boycott factored into MSNBC’s calculations; they attributed the firing to some particularly inflammatory remarks. I’ve long since stopped watching ER, although not out of protest but because I tired of it.