Media Hacks is always interesting and, depending on who is on that particular episode, colorful. Episode number 14, while striving to live up to its title of “Foul Mouthed Hacks,” touches on some thought provoking issues in the social realm. They began but unapologetically defending their choice of words on the show citing personal authenticity and a “we do this show for us” attitude. They then spring into the dreaded double-v (viral video) topic. While the typical response of companies who find one of their copyrighted  works online is to issue a cease and desist order and pull the video offline (often creating the Streisand effect), one group got smart and took out an ad on one such video that linked to the songs place in the iTunes store and managed to monetize on the free publicity of this freakishly popular video. They also went through some very dangerous territory in discussing the long awkward silence that followed after the briefly popular “United Breaks Guitars” song and what it means for companies who have been told that they have to listen to the customer.

The kids over at Media Hacks rarely disappoint, and this episode was no exception. Their willingness to discuss difficult problems in a raw and unfiltered manner always leads to a scintillating series of Eureka moments (at least for me). These guys are great at providing a fresh approach to topics that are often approached with stale reiteration of the accepted opinions.