The Wall Street Journal. Business Week. Forbes. At The Motley Fool, we draw on all kinds of "business-y" news sources to generate ideas for our columns. But fun-loving Fools that we are, can there be a more natural source of story fodder than Comedy Central?
I know for a fact that my Foolish colleague Tim Beyers regularly mines the riches of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report for story ideas -- from his "Better Know a Stock Picker" series to "A Dividend Threatdown." So it's with (mock) sorrow that I feel compelled to bite the hand that feeds us (story ideas), and criticize Comedy Central parent Viacom (NYSE:VIA-B) for being a corporate tightwad.
Dare ye antagonize the Colbert Nation?
Yes, I dare. Over on that selfsame Colbert Report, bespectacled faux demagogue Stephen Colbert has been freeloading on the back of generous corporate citizens such as Nestle, Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), West Marine (NASDAQ:WMAR), and Plantronics (NYSE:PLT). For two nights running, he's extracted upward of two minutes of yuks from a Conservation International-sponsored turtle race from Costa Rica to the Galapagos Islands.
Gratis.
That's right, folks. Only one of the 11 leatherback sea turtles making the race from their nesting grounds in Costa Rica to their homes in the Galapagos lacks a paying sponsor in her corner. That turtle's name: Stephanie Colburtle.
The "public" turtles include West Marine-sponsored and first-placed "Windy." No. 4 "Purple Lightning" is cheered on by -- you guessed it -- Yahoo! Plantronics loves "Freedom," even though she's only in sixth place.
Even nonprofits like New York's Life Sciences Secondary School, Drexel University, and The Offield Center for Billfish Studies have anted up in support of this epic event. But how much of its $11.5 billion in annual profits has media concern Viacom donated to the cause, in support of Stephanie Colburtle the Turtle? Not a red cent.
Peaceful nonviolence
Ladies and gentle-Fools, this tightwaddedness cannot stand. I hereby call on all turtle-loving members of Fooldom to rise up in revolution against the Colbert Nation. Let us cheer with one voice against Stephanie (sorry, Steph) until such time as Viacom promises to pay up to support these magnificent animals. Er, reptiles. Insects? Honestly, I don't know.
But I don't have to. It's the principle of the thing. All together now, let's cheer: "Yahoo!"
Yahoo! is a Stock Advisor newsletter recommendation. Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. And to those cynics who ask why he hasn't reached for his own wallet yet, he replies: "Um, because they were fresh out of turtles?" The Fool has a disclosure policy.
