Amplify us and an era ends 

Jeff Jarvis asked for advice on whether he should show up for WOMMA's Edelman showdown, and later he posted a link to WOMMA's 20 ethics questions. They're good questions, and after reading them, I almost feel like a jerk for continuing to diss WOMMA.

I guess I'm moderating my opinion. If PR practitioners are going to play in the blogosphere -- and it seems like there's no avoiding it -- I'm glad there are some standards.

At the same time, I'm heartsick that they're here because it's going to change things. Take the spontaneous blogger comments about Studio 60 for example. It's so clear that the people who comment on it have no agenda beyond wanting it to stay on the air because they like it and they think good shows deserve to be seen.

Groundswells of opinion like this won't mean as much or be perceived as being as geniune once the professional persuaders get into the game. The more managed the environment becomes, the more we'll question our perceptions when we see opinion trends -- not necessarily the Studio 60 example, but just any collective sentiment -- and wonder "Who's behind it?"

Those megaphones? And the tagline about "amplifying enthusiasm?" Just looking at them makes me so damned sad. I feel like there's been a death in the family.

Later: WOMMA's CEO showed up to post a comment in Jarvis's thread asking for advice on whether he should participate in the showdown. He wanted to correct misapprehensions voiced by some of the commenters so far. I guess that's fair, but I have to say it did remind me of the time I conducted an informal focus group for a small company introducing a new line of children's clothing. The client was present for one of the sessions, and couldn't help herself from arguing and selling against the negative opinions voiced.

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I wondered why Chris Matthews wasn't inviting her to the parties  

Seems like Norah O'Donnell used to be on all his panels and I've noticed her absence lately. Could be she's about to tip over, she's leaning so far to the right. That's what I get from the way her interview questions are being examined by MediaMatters, a conservative media watchdog group.

Matthews himself seems giddy with the sea change, or maybe he just likes a lively fight. I like him. Somebody he was interviewing a week ago or so referred to the Dems as "his party" (he used to work for Carter). He said, "It's not my party, anymore," but you can see bits of leftover blue debris from 1978 hanging around his aura.

Joining the dark side to study and experiment 

If my blog ever gets approved by PayPerPost, I'm going to test something kind of crazy and see what the limits are. I'll write short fiction and insert the advertiser mentions as product placements, and I'll tell what I'm doing. I don't quite have it clear in my head how I'd pull it off, but I'm thinking I'll try to make it kind of funny, not by making fun of the advertisers, but by making the product placements fit in awkwardly in an obvious way, making the whole effort the opposite of stealth.

I won't take money from advertisers who only want positive mentions, or from those who stipulate that bloggers shouldn't mention they're being paid.

Not sure what caused their registration machine to think my blog hadn't been in operation for at least 90 days. It got rejected twice. I did hear back from a human, and responded to the e-mail yesterday. See what happpens.

On life support 

Studio 60 was given an order for three more scripts, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Apparently this is a half-measure between no encouragement at all from the network that a show will continue for a full first season, and an order for scripts to finish out the season.

Too bad there isn't a viewership metric beyond the binary watch it/don't watch it. Isn't my attention to it worth more because it's one of the two broadcast network shows I watch and I like it a lot?

Networks will give an ailing show a break if the critics like it. I wonder how seriously they take blogosphere buzz about it. Many smart grownup bloggers I read love the show and talk about it even if they don't usually cover TV.

Later: Now comes this rumor that sounds bad, but I can spin it for myself for the moment by not trusting a Fox columnist who clearly wants to hear bad news about the show from his unnamed sources.