Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Yet Another Frickin' Banditos Theorem Proof

Read this, then tell me who's dumber: Michelle "EVERYBODY PANIC" Malkin, or the Dunkin' Donuts people who actually took her foam-mouthed ravings seriously?

8 comments:

Ben said...

Malkin, hands down. Talk about your non-issue. Also don't you love how, in her mind, a head dress favored by Arab men equals a symbol of terrorism. Where does she come up with this stuff?

Dunkin...hey, man, they just want to sell donuts. They aren't trying to take a moral stand here. If a commercial is going to cause them controversy instead of selling donuts, it's not worth the trouble.

Unknown said...

Both sides have their points (so I half agree with Ben). The easy one is Dunkin' whose only concern is selling donuts. Ads shouldn't generally do harm to a company (kinda pointless then), so if that ad scares away 100 customers in Muncie, yank it. I'm of the opinion DD stood to lose net customers b/c of it -- how many soccer moms were going to come to DD just because Ray was hyping it?

Malkin. The defense for her is kinda simple too -- it's her job. People like her and Ed Morrisey have a niche in the political Right in that they are constantly on the lookout for encroachment from the left in general and Islam specifically. You can either dismiss it as nuttiness or buy into it (like say, America Alone by Mark Steyn). To those that dismiss it, it's just a scarf; to the other side, it just another example of Muslim encroachment into general America.

Unknown said...

I'm not surprised by any of the parties involved here -- RR pimping her image ala Oprah to anyone who will buy, DD responding to criticism, Malkin crying foul -- they're all looking after their own self-interests.

On the other hand (and I forgot to add this earlier), what I DO love about these stories is how they measure the inherent speed of the internet. On Friday the 23rd, viewers email Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs. Later that day Malkin picks up the story. By the weekend, it was everywhere on the Right (i.e. Ace of Spades, where I probably saw it first). Tuesday the 27th, main stream outlets run it (say, The Globe) and today, Daily Kos picks it up. Leading eventually to left-wing bloggers (like this one here) running with it. Roughly 5 days from right to left (and I would guess vice versa). Sometimes faster but these days, within a week, any little political or pop culture tidbit can be spread to everyone.

Anonymous said...

Still, you'd hit it. You know you'd hit it.

Ben said...

Anonymous: Huh?

Andy: And back it goes to the right...or at least the libertarian. Reason magazine also notes the unbelievable stupidity of this whole incident.

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/126716.html

Unknown said...

"Stupidity" is the wrong word. More like "predictable". That's just how it is, people will look after their self-interests. Ray wants the money, Dunkin needs the customers, blogsites want the hits. Everyone gets something out of it.

Anyone besides me think immediately when they read "you'd hit it" that Malkin wrote it?

Jeff said...

Anonymous: Malkin or Ray? I sincerely hope you're referring to the latter.

Anonymous said...

I left it intentionally ambiguous, both which one I was referring to and which type of "hit" I was referring to.