SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

TV SLUMP – FROM BLOOMBERG:    Television-advertising sales in the U.S. fell 7.8 percent to $61.8 billion last year, the steepest drop outside of a recession in at least 20 years, while sales at cable networks slumped for the first time in almost a decade. And there’s no sign of a pickup in 2018, excluding cyclical events like the Olympics and the midterm elections, according to data from Magna Global.  The decline in TV viewership is accelerating as online rivals Google and Facebook have increased their investments in video, capturing almost every new advertising dollar entering the marketplace. Television ad sales have fallen even as global advertising grows, leading research firms and analysts to predict that the business may never recover.  This goes along with declines in NFL ratings.  My own sense is that new technology and social media play a role, but that the increasing politicization of television plays a significant role as well.  People get fed up and tune out.

SICKENING – After today's outrageous killings at a Florida high school, some Democratic senators couldn't wait to make political hay out of the horror.  They naturally called for new gun control legislation, as if that would have saved lives in Florida.  I also was repelled by self-indulgent Florida officials who seemed to think the main story was how they felt about the murders.  I'm sure the anti-Trump media will go to town tomorrow morning, and will tie the president to these events.  I hope the White House is disciplined enough not to say anything foolish.  I also hope the investigators will look into the possibility that the killer, who had a troubled history, was radicalized by online groups. 

THE WRONG WAY – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Georgetown University leaders have done much in recent times to make amends for the institution’s involvement in slavery, but after a cadre of slave descendants recently said those efforts are not enough — they still want cash — campus leaders have pledged to continue to work “toward reconciliation.”  “Following many conversations and dialogue with members of the Descendant community, the University and the Jesuits earlier this month reached out to members of the Descendant community to propose a framework for long-term dialogue, partnership and collaboration,” a campus representative told The College Fix in an email.  Slavery ended 153 years ago.  Reparations to descendants of slaves from colleges and universities hardly seem justified.  Scholarship programs would be a better choice.  Eric Hoffer, the "longshoreman philosopher" of the 1950s, once wrote that all causes become businesses, then they become rackets.  The "reparations" movement is growing on college campuses, and appears to be an example of just what Hoffer was saying.

February14, 2018