Turn on, Tune in, Dropped the Remote....

Ron Burgundy, Walter Cronkite's Hero

To be quite frank I hate watching the news, so much so that I had a difficult time completing this assignment to it's fullest extent. I would formally like to lobby on behalf of all future students that only 20 minutes of a broadcast is an adequate amount of time to make a full analysis and construct a well written blog. I began my foray into a serious attempt to watch network news with Wolf Blitzer and The Situation Room. This is where everything began to go downhill, firstly The Situation Room sounds conceited, or like some sort of cruel psychological experiment designed to expose flaws in your personality.  Approximately the first 45 minutes of the show was devoted to Libya: anti-aircraft fire, using reporters as human shields, and what effect will this have on US foreign policy? His guests included field journalists and various political or military consultants. They were all treated with respect, but Blitzer had the annoying habit of wrapping up their piece by restating everything the expert had said into a
simple yes or no question that seemed to make him look as if he was of a sound intellectual background. The remaining 15 minutes was dedicated to the tsunami in Japan and some viewer emails, presented in a similar manner. Having nearly been bored to death while bravely trying to finish my assignment, I decided to retreat from news and have a listen to some Jazz before watching Fox Report with Shepard Smith. I found this to be a much more accurate title than The Situation Room, it's not conceited and presents it's bias in a much more straightforward manner. The programming was a little more diverse in that about a half hour was dedicated to the each the crisis in Libya and tsunami in Japan, there was even a brief mention of some wildfires in the mid-west and a chemical spill in Kentucky. During the segments guest included field journalists and political or military analysts, all were treated with respect, and all were presenting conservative views of the topics discussed, I was a little alarmed at how quickly Fox had labeled US involvement in Libya as the Third War in the Middle East. Smith was guilty of the same things as Blitzer was, rephrasing things to sound intelligent, and gawking at guests on other screens. Bottom line it was some pretty boring stuff and a dreadful experience of one sided views. This weekend being a pretty big one for world news coverage, didn't leave much open in the way of debate on these shows so the biases were not as evident as they normally are. Though the debates are mildly more interesting, I'd still rather have my news delivered by the likes of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, at least I can respect their shenanigans as a form of intellectual entertainment. 

Harsh Reality

Gather idiots, add alcohol.

History Channel's answer to Jersey Shore

Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos? I enjoyed MTV a lot more back then, now instead of music videos they broadcast "reality" TV. There is nothing more mindless and fake then reality TV. You can't escape it either, even the History Channel has fallen prey to the profitability of reality TV. If reality TV was real at all where are the boring moments? The Jersey Shore never has a dull moment, the people may be dull, but they live in some constant conundrum or drama that has been artificially placed there. If there wasn't always some drama, who would watch the show? It is ridiculous to think that all these guidos and guidettes are not being told to instigate things or get totally wasted for the sake of entertainment. Society's demand for reality TV is startling for two reasons. The first is how mindlessly people attempt to emulate reality TV stars, last Halloween you'd be hard pressed not to find someone dressed as a guido or guidette fist pumping in a bar. The second reason reality TV is startling is the sheer demand for it, only a nation of bored uninteresting idiots would demand such a high volume of "reality", perhaps this is because they lead such a boring life they feel the need to watch, in any case there are better things to do then watch a soap opera. I've noticed parallels between how my grandmother would shush me while watching her soap operas and how my friends shush me while they are watching Jersey Shore. Call me crazy (I don't mind) but I have better things to do then sit around and watch a lot of scripted TV like an 83 year old woman. A little reality TV goes a long way, and anything in moderation is alright, but get out and try and live an interesting life.