Commentary and analysis from Simon Dumenco

The FCC Thinks You Would Look Totally Hot in a Diaper

The FCC Thinks You Would Look Totally Hot in a Diaper

The problem with trying to parse the behavior of the FCC is that, like much of what's happened at the federal level the past few years, logic is beside the point. Instead, politics is the point. As are a faith-based agenda, a pro-Big Media slant and shameless cronyism.

Full Article
Hope You're Ready for the New Media Guy Pop Quiz

Hope You're Ready for the New Media Guy Pop Quiz

So much for educational experiments: A lot of you balked at the most recent Media Guy Media Studies test, with its in-depth essay questions -- and, frankly, I was shocked at how many of you simply copied and pasted answers from Wikipedia. So, screw it. I'm going back to the multiple-choice pop-quiz format. Like, effective immediately. All books and papers off your desk -- now!

Full Article
Former 'Page Six' Gossip Admits to Making Stuff Up! (For His Novel)

Former 'Page Six' Gossip Admits to Making Stuff Up! (For His Novel)

Full Article
Thank You, No Seriously, I Mean It, Really, Thank You

Thank You, No Seriously, I Mean It, Really, Thank You

I'm not a hateful or bitter person. Honestly. This column is, at its core, about optimism, dear readers -- because why complain about the shortcomings of the media world each week unless you really believe (as I do) that things can and should get better?

Full Article
National Magazine Awards to Really Get Jazzed About

National Magazine Awards to Really Get Jazzed About

This week is the National Magazine Awards ceremony. In the past, it's been an insufferable luncheon at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria. This year it's an evening black-tie event at the spectacular Frederick P. Rose Hall --because the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) really, really wants the awards to live up to their billing as "the Oscars of the magazine industry." Forget the event, though. What really should get reformed are the awards themselves.

Full Article

Hey, Venture Capitalists: Invest in My Web 3.0 Now!

Ok, so here's my idea, which I'm pretty sure is the Best New Media Idea Ever in the History of the Universe: Basically, it's a sort of viral mobisodic Wiki MySpace. Sounds awesome already, right? Wait, it gets awesomer. This product's mobisodes -- mobile episodic videos for your cellphone -- are created by harnessing the collective creativity of...

Full Article

Not So Frequently Asked Questions, or NSFAQ

Readers have questions all the time, and Media Guy is always surprised at how many different topics they cover. So, in the spirit of trying to satisfy the ever curious, Media Guy presents his user friendly "Not So Frequently Asked Questions."

Full Article

A Hint of Jared Paul Stern? Media Guy's Got Brands Too

Jared Paul Stern -- the New York Post gossip writer who's been accused of extorting a billionaire -- is guilty. Guilty, that is, of doing a lame brand extension.

Full Article

Rebranding Katie: CBS's Secret Strategies Revealed!

Deep within the bowels of CBS News, a special "Katie Couric G-Force Committee" convenes. Their mission? Rebuild a morning talk show host into a evening newscaster with gravitas, and minimal jewelry.

Full Article

With 'Cargo' Closed, the Truman Era Comes to an End

Oh, gosh, this is a bit awkward: Just as James Truman is ramping up at his new job -- as editorial czar of the boutique art-mag publisher behind Art&Auction and Modern Painters -- he has to endure one more nail in the coffin of his Conde Nast-era reputation: the death of Cargo, the insipid men's shopping magazine.

Full Article

Is the 'Times' Trying to Commit Slo-Mo Suicide?

I swear to God, if I see one more sorrowful death-of-newspapers story I'm seriously going to hurt someone. Like a self-pitying newspaper person or, better yet, a hand-wringing newspaper executive.

Full Article

Media Guy: Celebrity Is Dead

If you had told me even just a few years ago that some day one of the breakout stars on VH1 would be a fluffy white kitty -- a nameless fluffy white kitty that, for the record, is known for ostentatiously pleasuring itself -- I probably wouldn't have believed you.

Full Article

It's Media Guy Raw!

Welcome to Media Guy RAW!, aka Reader Appreciation Week. I should start by noting that I get an insane amount of e-mail (increasingly from around the globe) in response to this column. While I'm not always able to personally answer every e-mail, I do actually read every single last one.

Full Article

Can You Get Lucky Reading Media Guy?

If there's a Media Guy Manifesto, it goes something like this: We're not all just mindless consumers of the media that's shoved down our throats; we still get to make individual choices, even if technology makes it increasingly easy to aggregate and label (and be dismissive of) those choices.

Full Article

Abject Apologies Media Guy is Waiting on ...

Perhaps you've heard about how a certain someone who shot a certain hunting buddy of his in the face failed to discuss the accident or apologize for it promptly enough for the media's liking. Which is why I'm shocked and appalled that certain members of the media who have recently participated in their own horrific mishaps have yet to beg forgiveness.

Full Article

Can We Trust Google to Avoid Chronic AOL-ism?

Everybody in media is already conditioned to Fear Google, and now, increasingly, the general public is too. But what Media Guy fears is that it will continue to screw up in really obvious, boring, hackneyed ways -- the same ways that AOL and Microsoft screwed up ages ago.

Full Article

Ahhh ...The Simple Life Post-Microsoft and Paris Hilton

Lately I've gotten e-mail from readers suggesting that I'm the Angriest Media Guy in the World, given my recent columns. But really, I'm not! Some things -- even some things in the media world -- make me happy. Honest!

Full Article

Shocker: Oprah Pregnant with James Frey's Baby!

Can I give a guest lecture to Columbia University students?Because in late January, Bonnie Fuller -- the editorial director of such journalistic pantheons as Star, Celebrity Living and Globe -- got to. She was invited to Columbia's Graduate School of JOURNALISM by the Columbia chapter of the Society of Professional JOURNALISTS. To speak about ... JOURNALISM.

Full Article

We're Sorry Ms. Wintour, but You'll Have to Walk

As the Mary Berner era comes to a close, everybody at Condé Nast is wondering how trickle-down economics might or might not apply to employee perks.

Full Article

Get Ready for Another Media Guy Pop Quiz

I know this is going to be a shock to some of you, but it's already time again for Media Guy's Media Studies pop quiz. All books off your desk -- now!

Full Article