Simple ways to maximize profits on your investment property :: The ...

Friday, November 9^th, 2012
Issue 45, Volume 16.

RIVERSIDE COUNTY ? Real estate investors have many reasons for making such investments, but one of the more common motives behind a decision to invest in a property is the belief that real estate rarely depreciates in value.

Though the recent housing crisis might have debunked that myth once and for all, real estate is still widely considered a sound investment, one that many people wish they could afford to make.

Those who have already invested in real estate know how difficult it can be to maintain a property much less improve it, which should be high on an investor?s priority list. But improving a property does not have to involve a complete overhaul or any other dramatic changes. In fact, there are several simple ways investors can improve their real estate investments and improve their chances of turning a large profit when they decide to sell a property.

Hire a property management firm.

Some real estate investors, especially those new to the?business?who just purchased an investment and have little money to spare, shy away from hiring a property management firm. But such a company is worth the expense for investors with little time or know-how with regard to fixing a home. A property management firm will ensure the building is kept in shape, and depending on your agreement with the company, may even take care of cleaning vacant apartments, readying them for showing and renting them to new tenants. Perhaps the biggest advantage to working with an effective property management firm is the likelihood that they will turn over the vacant apartment quickly, ensuring you aren?t losing money when tenants move out.

Carefully vet prospective tenants.

One of the easiest ways a property can fall into disrepair is to allow bad tenants to move into the building. It?s understandable that investors want to get a building occupied as quickly as possible so they can use tenants? rents to pay for the property. But bad tenants can cause damage to the property, and their behavior might encourage reliable fellow tenants to find a new living situation. When Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] looking to fill a vacancy, establish a minimum income requirement for prospective tenants and ask applicants to produce proof of income and references from past landlords. This increases the chances you will find a respectful tenant who?s fully capable of paying their rent on time.

Work quickly.

Few people want to rent forever, so expect significant turnover, especially if your investment property is a larger complex with multiple dwellings. If you aren?t working with a property management company, an easy way to maximize your profits on an investment property is to work quickly when turning apartments over after a tenant moves out. This includes painting and cleaning the apartment, and the process should go smoothly if you properly vetted tenants and the vacant unit did not suffer significant damage while the previous tenants were living there. A unit with just minor wear and tear should take one week or less to get ready to show to prospective tenants, and the unit should be vacant for only one month before new tenants move in. Anything longer than a month and you?re losing money you don?t have to lose.

Upgrade appliances.

Renters are just as likely to fall in love with curb appeal as buyers are. While there may not be a yard to entice renters if you purchased an apartment complex, curb appeal can apply to an apartment?s interior. One of the more notable eye-catchers to prospective renters is updated appliances, especially since appliances may be the only items actually in the apartment when it is shown. Stainless steel appliances provide an instant upgrade over older appliances that may appear dated and are certain to make a strong first impression on prospective renters, many of whom would be willing to pay more in rent for a unit with update appliances. In addition, renters may feel that landlords who took the time and spent the money to upgrade appliances are likely to make a greater effort maintaining the property.

Investors can maximize their returns on investment properties in a variety of ways, many of which don?t require significant effort.

Source: http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/67564/

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Why 99% of the people trying to make money online are failing ...

I?m about to reveal why, I believe 99% of the people trying to make money
online are failing miserably ?and probably don?t even know it!

Recently, I made a Shocking discovery after surveying 2,226 people online?

2,226 People Surveyed?

Roughly? 99% of them had no clue why they haven?t made any money
online yet. {?many after trying for months or even after many YEARS!}

I think these are the 3 Biggest Reasons Why People Fail Online?

Biggest Reason #1

They?re listening to the WRONG people!

They can?t find a true ?Internet Marketing Insider?; {someone they can
TRUST} who already has a track record and a proven ?success model? to help
shortcut their own success.

{Side Note?} If you?re in that boat? It?s NOT Your Fault because right now
the market is full of fake ?wannabe? gurus that you simply can?t trust.

Biggest Reason #2

?and this might be ONE of the BIGGEST reasons why people fail?

They Chase Unicorns and Rainbows.

In other words, they?re being blinded by ?shiny objects?; grasping for magic
pills that simply don?t exist? while ignoring the ?truth? {that lies underneath!}

And many times, they often get a whole pile of ?well-researched? information
{that?s about as useful as a Pet Rock!}

Sad but True.

Last but not least? Biggest Reason #3

They don?t FOCUS! And if they do, they focus on the WRONG things
{that ultimately lead them down the wrong path, costing them precious
time and money}

So you might be asking? ?What should I be focusing on??

The 1st Thing you should focus on:

Building an opt-in list of subscribers so you can have,
and control, your own source of instant traffic!

The survey showed that people believed that they
need {and struggle with getting} ?More Traffic?.

IMPORTANT? If they had started off building a ?list? from
day 1, they could have targeted, ?on demand? traffic that they
can control (and tap into) anytime they want!

Failing to build a list, from the beginning, is one of
the Biggest Regrets of most Internet marketers.

The 2nd Thing you should focus on:

E-mailing Your List?

{Email marketing is the REAL push-button traffic method?}

Imagine, having the power of clicking a button (called ?Send?) and seeing
people immediately going to whatever site you want and buying!

Emailing narrows your focus to?

?Finding the best Subject lines
?Finding the best Converting emails
?Finding the best Converting offers

Here?s why focusing on those three things will make you even MORE money?

The better the subject line, the more people open and read your email.

The better converting email you have the more clicks you get, which
means more traffic going to the site and seeing the offer.

The better converting the offer is, the more cold hard cash you put in your pocket!

Willie Crawford, (a fellow warrior) who has taught thousands how
to build successful online businesses since late-1996, said this?

?In the niches that I operate in, I earn an average of between
$1 and $3 per month for every subscriber on my lists.?

The 3rd Thing You should focus on:

Figuring out what to do with your money after you make it from your list

I feel those 3 things are the BIGGEST reasons why people are failing online.

The source URL link: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/701808-please-help-me-im-failing-heres-why.html

Source: http://www.geeyo.com/blog/2012/11/09/why-99-of-the-people-trying-to-make-money-online-are-failing-miserably/

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Research Roundup: Medicare Spending Grows During Recessions ...

Each week, KHN reporter?Alvin Tran compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.??

Health Affairs: State Unemployment In Recessions During 1991-2009 Was Linked To Faster Growth In Medicare Spending ?? Although overall health care spending fell during the 2007-2009 recession, Medicare spending growth increased. Using 1991-2009 data, researchers found that "Higher unemployment rates across states and over time [1991-2009] were associated not only with faster Medicare spending growth, but also with more Medicare spending per capita ? more hospital spending and more hospital use by free-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.?? They conclude that "One of many possible explanations may be that health care providers have greater capacity, inclination, and financial incentive to treat Medicare patients during recessions as a result of slackening demand from the non-Medicare population?(McInerney and Mellor, 11/2012).

PLOS ONE: Implicit And Explicit Anti-Fat Bias Among A Large Sample Of Medical Doctors By BMI, Race/Ethnicity And Gender ? Findings from previous research suggests that weight discrimination exists among Americans. Many patients have also reported that they have been mistreated by health care providers. In this study, researchers aimed to determine if some medical doctors (MDs) possess any bias based on their patients? weight. ?We found that MDs? implicit and explicit attitudes about weight follow the same general pattern seen in the very large public samples that hold strong implicit and explicit anti-fat bias,? the authors write, and?conclude that "implicit and explicit anti-fat bias is as pervasive among MDs as it is among most people in society" (Sabin, Marini and Nosek, 11/2012).

JAMA: Association Of Race And Sex With Risk Of Incident Acute Coronary Heart Disease Events ? Guided by previous findings that showed disparities in the incidence of heart disease (CHD) among white and black individuals,?researchers?aimed to determine if the disparities continued. They found that black men and women in the US were more likely to die from CHD than whites. They conclude that?the ?excess risk factor burden among black men and women continues to be a major public health challenge, along with their high risk for death as the presentation of CHD. Increase emphasizes on optimizing well-established risk factors among blacks could potentially reduce these disparities." Reuters?quoted the lead author as saying the result is "distressingly similar" to racial differences seen in data from the 1990s, despite public health efforts to address them?(Safford et al., 11/7).

Archives Of Internal Medicine: Prevalence And Predictions Of Smoking By Inpatients During A Hospital Stay ? The authors write: "Accredited U.S. hospitals prohibit smoking inside hospital buildings," though some allow smoking outdoors. Researchers surveyed more than 5,000 patients from Massachusetts General Hospital during and 2 weeks after their hospitalization to assess the proportion of smoking. Between 2007 to 2010, ?18.4% reporting having smoked during their hospital stay ? Patients were more likely to report having smoked while hospitalized if they were young, had more severe cigarette cravings, did not report planning to quit, had longer hospital stays, and were not admitted to a cardiac unit.? The researchers write that ?a clear policy prohibiting patients from leaving the hospital to smoke may be necessary to prevent smoking by inpatients? (Regan, Viana, Reyen and Rigotti, 11/5).

Here is a selection of?news coverage of other recent research:

Inside Health Policy: Avalere Health: CMS Likely To Grant Flexibility On Medicaid Expansion
With the elections over, the consulting firm Avalere Health predicts that CMS will grant states the flexibility to expand Medicaid to people earning up to 100 percent -- rather than 138 percent -- of the federal poverty level, and that most states will end up at that threshold. ... States are under no strict deadline to decide whether to take up the reform law's voluntary Medicaid expansion (Lotven, 11/7).

USA Today: Diabetes: Effect Of Weight Loss Thrown Into Question
A recent study showed that obese people with diabetes who lost a modest amount of weight didn't lower their risk of having a heart attack or stroke, but the weight loss did help improve many other health factors. ... "[W]e did show the benefits of weight loss for improving depression, quality of life, sleep apnea, incontinence, fitness, physical function and blood sugar control," says Rena Wing, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University and chairman of the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) study. The research was financed by the National Institutes of Health (Hellmich, 11/7).

Reuters: Hospital Guidelines Not Linked To Readmissions: Study
Procedural guidelines designed to ensure patients get quality care while in the hospital are also thought to reduce the chances a patient will need to be readmitted down the line, but a new study suggests there's little connection between the two.... Overall, they found that hospitals with the best scores for following guidelines did not have "meaningfully" lower readmissions than hospitals with the worst scores. "Even when the associations were statistically significant, the differences in the readmission rates of high and low-performing hospitals were small," the team writes in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (Seaman, 11/8).

Reuters: Values Exercise Improves Doctor-Patient Communication
A short waiting room exercise encouraging African American patients to reflect on their personal values helped improve communication between the patients and their white doctors, in a new study. However, those patients didn't rate their trust in their doctor or satisfaction with the appointment any higher, compared to those who didn't do the "values affirmation" exercise (Pittman, 11/7).

Reuters: Human Enhancements At Work Pose Ethical Dilemmas
Retinal implants to help pilots see at night, stimulant drugs to keep surgeons alert and steady handed, cognitive enhancers to focus the minds of executives for a big speech or presentation. Medical and scientific advances are bringing human enhancements into work but with them, according to a report by British experts, come not only the potential to help society and boost productivity, but also a range of ethical dilemmas (Kelland, 11/7).

This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Report - a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

Source: http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/November/09/Research-roundup.aspx

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Spotify to raise $100 million at $3 billion valuation - report

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SEC staffers used government computers for personal use: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staffers responsible for monitoring the markets and exchanges broadly misused computer equipment to download music and failed to properly safeguard sensitive information, a report has found.

In a 43-page investigative report that probed the misuse of government resources, SEC Interim Inspector General Jon Rymer discovered that an office within the SEC's Trading and Markets division spent over $1 million on unnecessary technology.

The report also found that the staffers failed to protect their computers and devices from hackers, even as they were urging exchanges and clearing agencies to do just that.

Although no breaches occurred, the staffers left sensitive stock exchange data exposed to potential cyber attacks because they failed to encrypt the devices or even install basic virus protection programs.

Reuters first reported on the unencrypted computers on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

On Friday, however, Reuters reviewed a copy of the full report, which details an even broader array of problems, from misleading the SEC about the office's need to buy Apple Inc products, to cases in which staffers took iPads and laptops home and used them primarily for pursuits such as personal banking, surfing the Web and downloading music and movies.

The report says the staff may have brought the unprotected laptops to a Black Hat convention where hacking experts discuss the latest trends. They also used them to tap into public wireless networks and brought the devices along with them during exchange inspections.

In at least one case, a staffer admitted to using his personal e-mail to send his work e-mail sensitive data about the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp, the U.S. equities market's clearing agency. When asked about this, he called it "a mistake" and "bad judgment" on his part.

"While they were using unencrypted laptops themselves, they were recommending to the (exchanges and clearing agencies) that they encrypt their laptops," Rymer wrote in his report, which is dated August 30.

"The inspector general found that four staff members had used unencrypted laptop computers in violation of SEC policy," SEC spokesman John Nester said.

"Although we found no evidence that data was compromised, the problem was fixed and the two staffers responsible for maintaining and configuring the equipment are no longer with the agency."

Rymer's report comes as the SEC is encouraging companies to get more serious about cyber attacks. Last year, the agency issued guidance that public companies should follow in determining when to report breaches to investors.

The office that was the subject of Rymer's investigation is responsible for ensuring exchanges are following a series of voluntary guidelines known as "Automation Review Policies," or ARPs.

These policies call for exchanges to establish programs concerning computer audits, security and capacity. They are, in essence, a road map of the capital markets' infrastructure.

Rymer found that the office did not have any planning or oversight into its purchases of computer equipment. From 2006 through 2010, the office got permission to spend $1.8 million on technology devices.

The report also found that some people who worked in the office had little or no experience with exchange technical matters.

(Reporting By Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Matthew Goldstein and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sec-staffers-used-government-computers-personal-report-232253310--sector.html

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Think your office has long meetings? Try China's Party confabs

China's leaders have refined the endless-meeting concept to an exquisite level of pointlessness ? making the country's?progress over the past 30 years even more remarkable.

By Peter Ford,?Staff writer / November 9, 2012

Members of the Xinjiang provincial delegation and representatives from the National People's Congress (NPC) attend a meeting in the Xinjiang Room inside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 9. The banner reads: '18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Representative Committee.'

David Gray/Reuters

Enlarge

Endless and pointless meetings are by no means unique to China, as almost anybody who works in a large organization can attest.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

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But the Chinese Communist Party has refined the endless meeting to an exquisite level of pointlessness, and on Friday, when journalists were invited to sit in on ?private? discussions among delegates to the 18th?Party Congress, the phenomenon was on full display.

None of us had expected lively and spontaneous debate about the speech that party leader Hu Jintao had given on Thursday at the opening of the Congress. That is not the way things work here.

But there was no discussion of any description of the speech at any of the three gatherings that I attended in ornately decorated, thickly carpeted, marble pillared meeting rooms in the gigantic Great Hall of the People.

The Shanxi provincial delegation meeting seemed pretty typical. Thirty or so delegates were sat around a U-shaped table, and one by one they made their speeches.

'Yesterday, I heard Hu Jintao's report'

?Yesterday, I listened to Hu Jintao?s report and I found it very profound and very correct,? said Wu Huada, president of a coalmining company, before reading his prepared remarks about improved mine safety in Shanxi.

?I heard Hu Jintao?s report yesterday, and I firmly support this report,? said Niu Guodong, who introduced himself as a worker at the largest stainless steel factory in the world, and then read from a text explaining the energy saving measures the factory has introduced.

?Yesterday, I heard President Hu Jintao?s report and it expressed the will of people across the nation. I shall study it further,? promised Li Fei, a local party secretary, who then read her speech detailing the number of kilometers of road paved recently and the number of rural schools that had been remodeled in the county she rules.

All over the Great Hall of the People, in room after room, delegates were droning on about things their audiences knew already, or if they didn?t know, they evidently did not care about. Some stared into the middle distance; others pored over the speeches they themselves were about to make; some openly read a newspaper, or dozed.

The whole exercise appeared to strike them as a monumental waste of time; everything had been scripted in advance, and everyone had heard it all before.

Nor are these sorts of meeting uncommon in China. This was the cream of the Communist Party, but officials at all levels of the Chinese system spend huge amounts of time engaged in similar meetings.

It struck me that the progress China has made in so many spheres over the past 30 years is even more remarkable when you take into account that its successes have been achieved even though the people running the country waste so much of their time in endless and pointless meetings.

A Chinese colleague, however, had a more cynical take on what we were witnessing. ?It just shows,? she said, ?that the country goes on running perfectly well even without all these guys while they waste their time at meetings.??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/mV_sUj5Jffk/Think-your-office-has-long-meetings-Try-China-s-Party-confabs

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EU: Eurozone recession to be worse, rebound slower

European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn speaks during the presentation of the Fall Economic Forecast at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2102. Europe's economy is still reeling and unemployment could remain high for years in spite of the progress made in solving the debt crisis, the European Union warned Wednesday as it downgraded its forecasts for the 27-country bloc. The graph projection shown in the background is part of the economic presentation. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn speaks during the presentation of the Fall Economic Forecast at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2102. Europe's economy is still reeling and unemployment could remain high for years in spite of the progress made in solving the debt crisis, the European Union warned Wednesday as it downgraded its forecasts for the 27-country bloc. The graph projection shown in the background is part of the economic presentation. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn speaks during the presentation of the Fall Economic Forecast at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2102. Europe's economy is still reeling and unemployment could remain high for years in spite of the progress made in solving the debt crisis, the European Union warned Wednesday as it downgraded its forecasts for the 27-country bloc. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? Europe's economy is still reeling and unemployment could remain high for years despite the progress made in solving the debt crisis, the European Union warned Wednesday, as it downgraded next year's forecasts for the 27-country bloc.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, on Wednesday revised down its forecast for the region's gross domestic product, which it now expects to grow by just 0.4 percent in 2013, compared to its expectations this spring of 1.3 percent growth.

The commission had previously expected the 17 countries that use the euro to find its footing next year, with 1 percent growth. Now it predicts only a 0.1 percent uptick.

The report also suggests that unemployment won't start falling until 2014 ? and then only slightly.

"Europe is going through a difficult process of macroeconomic rebalancing and adjustment, which will last for some time still," Olli Rehn, the EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, told reporters. "Market stress has been reduced but there is certainly no room for complacency."

The downbeat forecast helped erase an initial euphoria in markets over President Barack Obama's re-election, with France's CAC-40 stock index and the DAX in Germany both down 1.5 percent in afternoon trading Wednesday.

The eurozone has made progress this year toward resolving its debt crisis, which has been dragging down economies throughout the EU and beyond. Countries that use the euro have slashed spending and promised to keep their deficits in check; they've vowed to better protect their banks by improving how they're regulated and supervised; and the European Central Bank has put in place a plan to help countries struggling with high borrowing costs, the hallmark of the crisis and the reason some have sought bailouts.

But those measures have not yet been felt in the real economy. The unemployment rate across the eurozone is at a record high of 11.6 percent, and it is 10.6 percent in the wider EU. In the latest in a steady stream of job cuts, Danish wind turbine maker Vestas, Swedish wireless equipment group LM Ericsson, and Dutch bank ING announced a total of almost 7,000 layoffs Wednesday. Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, also said retail sales in the eurozone shrank 0.2 percent in September.

This commission's predictions for this year reflect that grim reality. It expects the EU's economy to contract by 0.3 percent, rather than remaining flat as it forecast in the spring. It also predicts that the eurozone GDP will fall 0.4 percent, against a previous expectation of a 0.3 percent drop.

Official third-quarter GDP figures ? which will show whether the eurozone has entered recession as economists suspect it has ? are due to be released on Nov. 15. A recession is defined as two quarters in a row with negative growth.

Many economists have argued that, in solving one crisis by cutting government spending and raising taxes, politicians have exacerbated another ? slow or negative growth. Meanwhile, tighter banking rules have hurt lending, the fuel economies need to grow.

The commission's report also confirms that the crisis is not sparing even Germany, Europe's largest economy and the traditional motor for growth.

It predicted that Germany would eke out just 0.8 percent growth in 2012, compared with its earlier forecast of 1.7 percent. ECB President Mario Draghi warned Wednesday that "the latest data suggest that these developments are now starting to affect" the German economy.

In a speech given in Frankfurt, Draghi called on governments to back up the ECB's plans to help countries with their borrowing costs by cutting debt and improving growth through cutting excessive red tape.

"Across the whole euro area, governments are making determined efforts to reverse economic imbalances," he said. "They are implementing reforms to redress the misguided policies of the past and to create sustainable long-term growth. It is a difficult road and there is still a long way to go. But the early signs are encouraging."

"Financial developments in Germany are the mirror-image of financial developments in the rest of the euro area," Draghi added. "And this means that measures to ensure the stability of the euro area as a whole will also be to the benefit of Germany."

Greece has suffered the most from the vicious slow growth cycle and is now in its fifth year of recession. Many say it's unclear how the country will ever manage to reduce its debts, spark growth and break the cycle. The new forecast expects Greece's economy to contract 6 percent this year and another 4.2 percent next year. In the spring, the commission had hoped growth would be flat in 2013.

Because low or negative growth reduces the amount of money governments receive in taxes, stagnation also threatens to throw countries off their deficit targets. According to the report, both Greece and Spain won't meet their goal of reducing their deficits to 3 percent by 2014. It predicts Greece's will be 4.5 percent at that point and Spain's 6.4 percent.

In Greece's case, that could mean jeopardizing the rescue loans it is using to fund itself. Greece has asked its international creditors for more time to reach its goal. Rehn said Wednesday that the country's debt levels look increasingly unsustainable and that something must be done, but he stopped short of saying what.

___

David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-07-Europe-Economy/id-f113f488449f49109f90b58cc967383f

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The Highlander : No Joke: Comedy is Political Information for Many

Shawn Kellmer, Web Editor
November 6, 2012
Filed under Arts and Entertainment

Lampoons have been a part of the political landscape for a very long time, and some students and professors say public distrust of the media is turning some media consumers toward comedy as a source of political information.

Since the days of political cartoons in the early newspapers of? Colonial America, lampoons have helped shape the political landscape through humor, which often attacked politicians, candidates and political parties.

The political lampoon jetted to television screens with the advent of Saturday Night Live?? in 1975, which has covered almost every major political story as fodder for skits.

Comedy Central debuted a satirical ?news? show? called The Daily Show in 1996. The Daily Show proved so popular that in 2005 Steven Colbert, a Daily Show correspondent, started a spinoff show, The Colbert Report.

Shows focusing on political lampoons have proven very popular among young adults, including college students. According to The Huffington Post, more young adults ages 18? to 34 watched Comedy Central?s 11 p.m. to midnight hour, which is when The Daily Show and Colbert Report airs, over Fox News during the Republican National Convention.? Comedy central programming drew 450,000 viewers, while Fox News only attracted 329,000.

Critics have blasted shows like the Daily Show warning that they are comedy and not the news, but people still watch and feel that they become more informed.

First year English major Julia Whitesell believes comedy shows can serve as a starting point for political information. ?They do all the stories I?m interested in and after I watch them I can look stuff up on my own and read more about it.?

Whitesell notes that a reliance on comedy as an information source can be troublesome because voters may lack solid, fact-based information.

?I think there is a tendency, especially now, that people don?t trust the actual news and so they don?t want to listen to the news. As a result, I think there are a lot of people that only watch the satirical things and they don?t get the full picture so they end up not being fully informed,? said Whitesell.

Fine arts professor Darlene Smith said that even comedy can offer information that young people might otherwise miss.

?I do see credibility to it.? They frequently speak the language of common man and often times the newscasters fail to do that, but on the other hand they certainly do slant their opinion their way,? said Smith.

Smith said most viewers do not confuse facts with humor, which often relies upon wild exaggeration.

?I think that most people that watch those shows are pretty intelligent people, because those are intelligent shows. I think that if they are getting the humor that they certainly understand the issues,? said Smith.

Pat Burman, an undeclared transfer student, believes that lampoons can be an effective news source if?unlike traditional news sources?it uses humor to attract the attention of young people.

?In order to make the joke funny, they have to tell you the news story. You have to understand what happened to make the joke funny,? said Burman.

Smith sees political humor as a potent communication tool.

?Humor helps everything.? Humor is something that reaches everybody,? said Smith.

The lack of heaviness in a parody is why people tend to gravitate towards shows like The Daily Show, said Burman.

?It?s easier to share a joke, to share something funny, to share something that?s not so heavy and deep as ?this guy said this and we need to go along with this because here?s all the evidence here.? It?s easier to just go, ?well this is funny.?? This makes this guy look like an idiot, so this guy must be an idiot,? said Burman.

One of the largest criticisms is that political satire is often biased.

?It can be looked at as biased because you?re picking on a certain person who has certain views who, if you?re picking on them, it generally implies you don?t agree with them. People have a tendency to laugh at things they don?t associate themselves with as opposed to laughing at themselves,? said Burman.

Whitesell said she views much of the televised political comedy as fair because all candidates and parties are open to funny criticism.

?Despite the fact that its satire and it?s supposed to be comedy, I don?t think they [the hosts] really care what party you belong to. I think they?re obviously more liberal than conservative or anything, but they?ll call out Democrats just as easily as they?ll call out Republicans,? said Whitesell.

The problem, said Burman, is that everyone has a different definition of what is funny, and varied tastes can lead to highly charged political contention.

?If you?re making a joke about something you?re always going to offend someone because people don?t always find the same thing funny,? said Burman.

He adds that political figures might lose the public?s respect.

?When people don?t sit down and actually look at facts, when they just look at the jokes it can create an opinion that this guy is just a clown or this idea is just funny and stupid and we?re going to laugh at it and not think about it,? said Burman.

Smith added that while lampoons have their place in the political discourse, no one should make them a sole source of? information.

?You just have to balance everything, just like you can?t use Wikipedia, you have to watch your sources. Be careful about making judgments that are sort of off of people?s heads and so forth and listening to other people. I think you need to actually listen to candidates. I think you actually have to listen to debates. I think you do have to pay attention to what is truthfully written, and you have to be careful of biased newspapers.? You have to be careful of biased television shows,? said Smith.

kellmers@misericordia.edu

?

Source: http://www.highlandernews.net/arts-and-entertainment/2012/11/06/no-joke-comedy-is-political-information-for-many/

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TSX edges higher with U.S. election in focus

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