Fill not your mind with empty thoughts nor your mouth with empty words.
Unknown
****************
TIME vs. IMPORTANCE
------------------------------
Most of us are unaware of just how much our thinking is effected and shaped by empty words. I don't watch much television any more, because when I do I literally shake my head at the nonsense I'm seeing and hearing.
A TV station advertises the 10:00 News, let's say. It's an hour program. The producers are responsible for delivering exactly 60 minutes of program. Of course a lot of that time will be taken up by commercial advertising which often consists of well made and attractive nonsense. They put an actor in a lab coat holding up a deliciously designed container of the latest snake oil and convincing you that you need it. And if it's patented you can even "ask your doctor" to prescribe it. There's a commercial for the latest electronic gizmo that's certain to help you find romance. And you can't travel quickly and comfortably without owning the latest classy looking jalopy. They show you the icing. They don't show you the cake underneath.
In between the commercials and other promotions there may be 35 minutes left for news. A lot of that time will be taken up with sports, weather and, possibly, stock market news. That may leave 20 minutes for other news. If there is more than 20 minutes of important events to talk about you won't get it all. If there is less than 20 minutes you will get ballast. In either case someone else is deciding what is important. Not you.
Maybe having been a broadcaster and commercial actor myself has given me a clearer perspective about these things. No maybe about it. But there's no reason not to pass my perspective along.
I was working at a large TV station during the Viet Nam war. There were a lot of protests against that war. This station sent a news team to Viet Nam to interview local Americans who were over there. After asking them who they were, where they were from and what they did there, they asked what the person thought of the protests back home. If that person thought the protests were detrimental to the efforts it was included in the news program. If the person agreed with the protests that portion of the interview was cut from the news. The station was purposely giving the impression that no one in Viet Nam was in favor of our leaving there. I was quite young at the time but it was when I first began shaking my head.
I was the morning news announcer for a large radio station. It was the custom at that station to repeat the top story at the end of the newscast, and so I did, because it was the custom, I had exactly 5 minutes, and one day I realized that the practice was cutting into time that could be used for another important item. Then, sometimes the top story was merely what one politician said about some other politician and it didn't bear repeating. It was just empty words. So I stopped the practice altogether unless the top story was of world wide importance. It wasn't long before the more conservative listeners raised their objections. They wanted the repeat reinstated for no other reason than that's the way it was always done. So I complied.
A few years later I happened to be listening to that station and heard that the practice of repeating the top story had been dropped completely. "Oh, my prophetic soul."
One day last winter I watched the TV journalists at Fox News throwing snow balls at each other during the newscast. I enjoyed that very much, not because of the snow ball fight but because it illustrated how unimportant to them it was what they were there to do.
By all means watch your TV News. But as you do remember three things.
First, it's show business. Most of those people are members of AFTRA, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. They are entertainers.
Second, everything you see has to be carefully designed to fit into a specific and limited time slot. There is no spilling over even if there is more news than can fit into that time period and you will be given unimportant news to fill out that time slot if there isn't.
Third, there is no news outlet that doesn't have an editorial policy. Someone is deciding what is important for you to see and hear and what you should think about it.
Challenge the empty words and the empty thoughts they give you.
Marcel Proust once suggested that all the great poetry and philosophy of the world should be printed in the daily paper, whereas the news of the day, crime reports, ball scores, recipes, crosswords and police blotters should be published in expensive leather bound volumes, thus expressing his scorn for the relative importance we give to what we read.
DB - The Vagabond
-------------------------
It's Spring. Plant a smile today.
****************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
Only 5 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Showing posts with label TV News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV News. Show all posts
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
What Are You Watching
If you haven;t found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day.
John Wheeler
******************
It isn't difficult to find strange things, things that are unusual, different or just plain odd. I find them everyday. Sometimes in a book, sometimes in my head and quite often just by looking around and observing the world in action. Strangely, strange things are sometimes things that people are simply used to and don't ask questions about.
One of the strangest of all things to me, and something that allows me a good shaking of my head in disbelief, is the news coverage in this country.
When I was a lad you got your news from newspapers. TV news was not what it is today. It was usually one man sitting at a table with no fancy graphics behind him, reading from a sheet of news copy and looking into a stationary camera. (How many remember John Cameron Swaze and the News, brought to you by Camel cigarettes?)
There were 7 daily newspapers in New York City: The Times, The Herald Tribune, The Journal American, The World Telegram and Sun, The Post, The Daily News and The Daily Mirror. When I was in high school I used to buy all 7 of them, they weren't very expensive. In all of them the important news story of the day was right on the front page or, in the case of the tabloids, it was right inside the front cover.
All those papers were earnest, responsible newspapers and their journalism was exciting in those days. One paper, The Journal American, was almost completely responsible for catching a terrorist of the 40's and 50"s known as The Mad Bomber. That's a fascinating story which I will write about one day.
One of the advantages of reading from all those papers was that, not only could one see the accuracy of the reporting by comparison (and it was very accurate, across the lot) but one could also clearly see the seven different editorial points of view, from the most liberal to the most conservative. It was the news and the excellent reporting of it that sold newspapers. And it sure helped an impressionable youth to start thinking clearly about the events of the world around him.
Now everything is strange. We get out news from TV "journalists," a group of folks who look good an camera, who are over paid and who, for the most part, are lacking in life's real experiences. (As I write this I'm reminded of the network newscaster who referred to an Arab running for his life during the bombing of Baghdad as being in his "bathrobe." One wonders if that man had every seen an Arab before in his life.)
We don't buy the TV news the way we used to buy newspapers. Business buys TV news, Big Business. We get very little news because of the advertising that takes up time. A newspaper can always increase the number of it's pages, but a TV station can't add more time.
One should not overlook the fact that sponsorship by big business is going to affect editorial policy. It's inevitable. Every broadcast news organization has a political/social point of view. Fox News spends so much energy telling us that they are not biased, that they obviously are. If they weren't they wouldn't be talking about it. AccuWeather is anything but accurate and Eye On The News is frequently not on the news.
Worst of all is the inability to make comparisons, as I did with the 7 daily papers, and the gullibility of the American TV viewer. We take what we are given and consider it real and important. We don't ask questions, try to hold a TV station accountable for what it chooses to show and don't realize that so much of it is "spam."
What was the big news story last Monday, two days ago? Was it about how many bodies were recovered in Haiti, how many people are living there under blankets and burlap bags, how many buildings were destroyed, how many careers, how many families, how many desperately injured there are and what is being done for them, who is there helping to save the people and rebuild the country and what are they doing? Was that the major news on Monday?
No. It was about a football game. Now isn't that strange?
DB
***********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have all Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
20 responses so far.
DB - The Vagabond
John Wheeler
******************
It isn't difficult to find strange things, things that are unusual, different or just plain odd. I find them everyday. Sometimes in a book, sometimes in my head and quite often just by looking around and observing the world in action. Strangely, strange things are sometimes things that people are simply used to and don't ask questions about.
One of the strangest of all things to me, and something that allows me a good shaking of my head in disbelief, is the news coverage in this country.
When I was a lad you got your news from newspapers. TV news was not what it is today. It was usually one man sitting at a table with no fancy graphics behind him, reading from a sheet of news copy and looking into a stationary camera. (How many remember John Cameron Swaze and the News, brought to you by Camel cigarettes?)
There were 7 daily newspapers in New York City: The Times, The Herald Tribune, The Journal American, The World Telegram and Sun, The Post, The Daily News and The Daily Mirror. When I was in high school I used to buy all 7 of them, they weren't very expensive. In all of them the important news story of the day was right on the front page or, in the case of the tabloids, it was right inside the front cover.
All those papers were earnest, responsible newspapers and their journalism was exciting in those days. One paper, The Journal American, was almost completely responsible for catching a terrorist of the 40's and 50"s known as The Mad Bomber. That's a fascinating story which I will write about one day.
One of the advantages of reading from all those papers was that, not only could one see the accuracy of the reporting by comparison (and it was very accurate, across the lot) but one could also clearly see the seven different editorial points of view, from the most liberal to the most conservative. It was the news and the excellent reporting of it that sold newspapers. And it sure helped an impressionable youth to start thinking clearly about the events of the world around him.
Now everything is strange. We get out news from TV "journalists," a group of folks who look good an camera, who are over paid and who, for the most part, are lacking in life's real experiences. (As I write this I'm reminded of the network newscaster who referred to an Arab running for his life during the bombing of Baghdad as being in his "bathrobe." One wonders if that man had every seen an Arab before in his life.)
We don't buy the TV news the way we used to buy newspapers. Business buys TV news, Big Business. We get very little news because of the advertising that takes up time. A newspaper can always increase the number of it's pages, but a TV station can't add more time.
One should not overlook the fact that sponsorship by big business is going to affect editorial policy. It's inevitable. Every broadcast news organization has a political/social point of view. Fox News spends so much energy telling us that they are not biased, that they obviously are. If they weren't they wouldn't be talking about it. AccuWeather is anything but accurate and Eye On The News is frequently not on the news.
Worst of all is the inability to make comparisons, as I did with the 7 daily papers, and the gullibility of the American TV viewer. We take what we are given and consider it real and important. We don't ask questions, try to hold a TV station accountable for what it chooses to show and don't realize that so much of it is "spam."
What was the big news story last Monday, two days ago? Was it about how many bodies were recovered in Haiti, how many people are living there under blankets and burlap bags, how many buildings were destroyed, how many careers, how many families, how many desperately injured there are and what is being done for them, who is there helping to save the people and rebuild the country and what are they doing? Was that the major news on Monday?
No. It was about a football game. Now isn't that strange?
DB
***********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have all Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
20 responses so far.
DB - The Vagabond
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