Bloodsucking at LAT

But, there is a brand to depreciate. Otherwise, HBO wouldn't have bought it, wouldn't have had to do so, and wouldn't have, apparently, wanted to do so.

 

All reporters henceforth will cover their assignments wearing sandwich boards, displaying ads that will bring in some money to pay their salaries.

Copy editors will be meeting to soon to learn the in's and out's of product placement, that is, ways to insert commercial brands in otherwise mundane copy and derive financial benefit for the newspaper.

 

I'm pretty sure we all understand that. The reason I chose the topic header, though, is that there does seem to be a lot of feeding off the weakened bodies now. From Boston (apparently, according to unconfirmed reports) to San Diego, the folks who are buying newspapers or considering doing so are mostly lusting after the real estate, ghouls predicting what the cadaver would be worth sans newspaper. What the LAT did isn't so much a consistent new revenue source as it is True Blood-like -- whoring out the body temporarily so others can suck out blood. In the show, living people willingly allow vampires to feed on their blood and some vampires, in turn, sell their own vampire blood (called "V") to humans for money or other considerations (sex). Of course, either process could go too far and the person or vampire would be "drained." You could take too much blood and kill the renewable resource. But that only happens if you become overcome by greed during the act or if you never cared about the body to begin with -- it's just something you use, toss aside and move on to the next blood carrier.

The LAT selling itself this way -- for True Blood, of all things -- well, the symbolism is just too fucking perfect.

 

Frank, you been reading the "Twilight" series?

 

Nah, saw the Twilight movie. Wife read all the books, though. I like the True Blood series.

 

Ahhh, reading this story in the paper and I have a craving for a double-double hamburger.
Kings announcer Bob Miller has a story about how late owner Jack Kent Cooke wanted him to insert sponsors into his play-by-play. "Marcel Dionne skates up the ice as quick as a Toyota."
And last night, I was looking at some Sparks photos on the AP wire. It doesn't say Sparks on their jerseys. It says Farmer's Insurance.

 

The people who think this is terrible, and the people who think whatever is necessary to save the franchise -- I agree with both. Simple as that.