links for 2009-10-03

"Since The CW’s homogenization, black sitcoms have mostly been exiled to the cable ghettos. BET airs the shows for its largely African-American audience, and TBS has discovered rich ratings with Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. But what happens to the sitcoms when TBS runs out of gas with House of Payne and BET’s declining viewership results in network disintegration, especially considering the increase in cost-efficient reality programming? The prognosis is simple: The African-American sitcom is the latest host for network parasites and will not have long before it is pronounced dead."

"Social media reproduce classism, racism, sexism and homophobia. If anything, they facilitate the transmission of such prejudice as fast as they can wire money from New York City to the Cayman Islands."