[A discussion of the content of T.V. programming available]
05-18-90
In a message to Rick Pearrow, Sandy Barbre wrote:
SB> crime, dirt or disasters..... I guess I can brave throughRP>
RP> Believe it or not, that's what the viewers want.
I take umbrage to that remark. The viewers “appear” to desire that because it is the only subject that the “reporters” cover with any flair at all. The viewers “appear” to want that because the alternative is shoddy reporting, banal ability, lackluster research, and inept investigations. But a video-taped report of a smashed car, with close-ups of blood on the seat, the horribly smashed steering wheel, and a shoe laying forgotten in the gutter, has impact, and showmanship, and glitz!
If the same effort was put into exploring, gathering, and reporting news as was put into reporting murder, rape, death, accident, horror, tragedy, and misfortune, then the public would demand the same professionalism, but they have been well-trained by the media.
I come from the West which is not that much better, but the exception is in the Northwest where you can get more local issues and politics that are covered in depth. The efforts of the news teams are directed to issues that impact the citizen's sense of civic pride and duty and not just “easy” reports that pique their baser emotions.
When I first came to Florida (about four years ago), I was flabbergasted at the incidence of murder, death, and mayhem. I could not believe it. Then I came to the realization that the actual rate was 20 times or so less than the L.A. Basin, it was just that no tragedy, no matter how small, passed unreported by the local news media.
I had just come from Los Angeles, an area of at least 14 times the size of Central Florida, population-wise. An area with huge barrios of racial unrest and drugs, with Watts, a simmering pot that often bubbles over with stabbings, and shootings and rapes. Yet, we did not get 1/10th the number of routine reports of stabbings, rape, traffic accidents, death, and misfortune that we are regaled with here in Central Florida.
Is it any wonder the “public wants it?” If that is the diet you are raised on, that is what you seek. It is insidious!
I personally find it very distasteful and am really pissed at the shady way that “teases” are used to get you to tune into the news. An example. The other day an eighty-year-old man with Alzheimer's wandered off from his rest home. Three nights later, the 9:00 p.m. tease said something to the effect that he was located, no indication of the fact that he was all right or his condition at all, but just that he was found. Tune in at 11:00 p.m. for details. Now, normally I would have not tuned in, because his death, or life has little impact on me personally, but I wanted to see the final “computer porn” report [an “expose” being broadcast by the local station about the fact that the BBSs in the area were all pornographic dens of iniquity].
I was a bit surprised to see that he had been found, “a few hundred yards” from the rest home and in good shape, albeit a bit dehydrated. That was news! [I mean, sure it was great that he was found, but the “tease” wanted viewers to tune in and see the rotted cadaver].
The point being, that the fact that he was found in good shape was news, not the fact that he was found. Subtle shadings of reality.
Teases have been developed from the practice of reporting items of insignificance as news, items that on their own merit would not rate as news, and dumping your mind full of negativity or anticipation for mayhem. If there is no news, create some, or allude to some horrible fact that will be revealed later, or titillate your viewers with the possibility of some.
Sorry I went on, but as a SYSOP [A person that runs a BBS] myself, I was tarred with the tease that I provide my callers with sleaze, and make it available to innocent children. That I am involved in a hobby that is a hotbed of pornography. That was unfair, unprofessional, unethical, and immoral!
Because you see, I do not, have never, and will never, provide blatantly sexual material to my callers. Nor, in fact do most of the 90+ boards in the Orlando area. But, I have seen that if I want to show them a GIF of the lovely bare breasts of Christy Brinkley, that I will be accused of pornography. That, to me, is the danger of these “Christers.” They use a shotgun to get what they want, and in so doing, many legal, proper, and law-abiding citizens are maligned and their rights are abrogated and eroded by the methods being used.
One final note, the “news” reported last night that “as many as 1,500” supporters of John Tanner [a local blow-hard “good citizen” with visions of grandeur] were in DeLand yesterday [this was at a facility capable of holding multiple thousands, whose attendance and “contributions” were hoped for]. That is pitiful, and laughable! 1,500 supporters are carried as major news, and this paltry few will determine your future, because it is considered news here to report every utterance of Mr. Tanner, since he loves to sprinkle references to sex, pornography, and child molestation in his every utterance.
I myself am a bit suspicious of this man. He is the harbinger of doom! He, not the communists will strip you of your birthrights. This do-gooder is the bane of the American Dream.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!!!
Written by Dale E. Malone, How
do you like the TEASE?
The Great & Wonderful Kahuna wants to know!
Last
modified: April 26, 2009