$2,400,00.00 for a 30 second spot

That's the going rate for an advertisement on the super bowl football telecast. (You can find that sort of information in all sorts of places on the web. (This is probably one of the more entertaining ones.) Those of you who regularly visit here, as opposed to the slackers who just show up on Christmas and Easter, will already be aware that I don't give a . . . ahem, I mean, I am completely indifferent to professional football and all its works and pomps.

I only bring this topic up at all because of my annual fascination at Big Media's logical contradictions. The same medium which insists that its programmes could not possibly have any harmful consequences - they are, after all, merely flickering electronic images which could have no conceiveable impact on anyone and the putative censor who suggests otherwise is probably unbalanced - this same medium announces that the use of a mere 30 seconds of its air time will have such an impact on the viewer that it'll run you $2.4 million. And a whole stock exchange full of major corporations agrees whole-heartedly hoping to be one of the few chosen to hawk their wares on the super bowl broadcast.

An hour-long programme on adultery will have no effect on anyone. A 30 second shot of people drinking Budweiser will recoup the Anhueser-Busch's $2.4 million investment and more besides, pressed down and over-flowing.

Wonderful.