I watch too much television. Not as much as some people, granted, but too much. I've never seen an episode of "Dancing with the Stars", "Survivor", "Lost", or "American Idol"; instead I was news and politically-oriented programming. In all my televegetablism there's one thing I've learned, and here it is.
It seems that the only people who understand current events are comedians. Before you can make fun of something you have to understand it, and it appears that comedians understand more than those who sit in the Big Chairs on cable and network television and pretend to "deliver the news". What they "deliver", for the most part, are their opinions disguised as news. Makes sense, and here's why.
Commercial television (whether cable or network) exists as a function of advertising and ratings. It's a very straighforward popularity contest; if you don't draw ratings, you don't get advertisers, and you are unpopular. Successful commercial television is more pressureful than getting a date to the prom!
There was a great segment on Mourning Joe this week with Peggy Noonan, who (and I paraphrase here) smoothly pointed out that a lot of news "broadcasting" consists of simply whipping up a tempest in a teapot over the latest trivial bit of minutiae that blips on the radar screen in order to get viewership. She was elegant and poised, truthful yet tactful, and Mourning Joe and the Gang didn't dare lip off at her. In fact, they looked like a bunch of third graders being scolded for calling names on the playground at recess.
It was a beautiful thing.
2 comments:
So far, nice blog - I just started reading it.
OK, I work over seas so I must ask - who the heck is Mourning Joe? (Or is that a "pet name" for someone I may know?)
"Mourning Joe" is my pet name for Joe Scarborough. He had a show on MSNBC entitled "Morning Joe", and I theorize that he has been grieving ever since Obama won the presidency.
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