Monday, October 15, 2007

Is This Weird?

Here's something I saw on TV just this very minute: a promo for Fox News. First the logo was made to look as if it had been produced graffiti-style with spray paint. Over a looping beat, the words "fox news dot com" were repeated by the digitally stuttering "sampled" voices of Brit Hume, Bill O'Reilly and Shepherd Smith. In between, there was an approximation of "scratching," so that it sounded like this: "fox-wicky wicky news-wicky dot com wicky wicky wicky wicky." In the meantime, the graphics changed into a turntable. I believe this to be a strange appropriation of hip hop culture, or maybe it's normal.