Here's an interesting Page 6 item on the latest business venture of Dan Abrams, who seems to make a career out of straddling the line between journalism and entrepreneurialism--although interestingly, none of the usual media watchdogs seem much interested. (Could it be that Dan's father is Floyd Abrams, the liberal legal icon?)
Abrams set up Abrams Research last year, and yet he is still listed as "Chief Legal Correspondent" for NBC and an anchor at MSNBC. That can't be bad for business, huh? Here's the piece, which suggests that Abrams will making "Matrix"-like cyber judgements--or pretending to:
THE elbow-tossing among the media elite is about to get even sharper, thanks to Dan Abrams. We hear certain top-tier advertisers have gotten a sneak preview of the former MSNBC anchor's new Web site, Mediaite, which promises, among other things, "a proprietary mathematical algorithm (using a host of factors) to rank the relevance of hundreds of top media figures in various categories." Marketers could use the site to measure Tina Brown versus Arianna Huffington, or Diane Sawyer versus Katie Couric, or Jim Cramer versus Jon Stewart. So, is it time to start sucking up to Abrams? He'd only say, "I will not be the one making any of those decisions."
For her part, The Cable Gamer wonders whether the Abrams Matrix--Abramstrix?--will be cool, like the first "Matrix" film, or a flop, like the second and third "Matrix" movies?
