Yesterday I wrote an opinion piece about Glenn Beck, who during an appearance on Fox and Friends told the viewers that- in his opinion- the President of the United States was a racist. I strongly disagreed, and said - in MY opinion- that Mr. Beck was either an idiot or a race baiting opportunist. And I blew off any third option.
Its 24 hours later, and I've reconsidered....there is a third possibility regarding Beck. He might possibly be going insane. After all, as Jon Stewart pointed out on the DAILY SHOW, Beck told the Fox and Friends audience that Barack Obama hated white people....and then 75 seconds later he changed that to he doesn't hate ALL white people. This was possibly the shortest backtrack in the history of broadcasting, just a little more than one minute.
Then today while watching CNN Jack Cafferty told viewers that former CBS anchor Dan Rather wants Mr. Obama to establish a commission on public media because the news media has fallen to the level of dumbed down info-tainment. Below, a quote from Rather.
"A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom. This is not something just for journalists to be concerned about, and the loss of jobs and the loss of newspapers, and the diminution of the American press’ traditional role of being the watchdog on power. This is something every citizen should be concerned about"
His point is well taken....but government in a democracy can't get involved in media, because then media would cease to have credibility, and would soon be seen as a rubberstamp of the government.
The stuff that we see on air in 2009 was prophesied in the classic film Network 33 years ago. In 1976 this movie was a satire of what was happening to TV news. But the fictional script by the great Paddy Chayefsky has become a reality in 2009; Chayefsky foretold the culture of "info-tainment" before there was such a concept. In the movie a deranged news anchor named Howard Beale (Academy Award winner Peter Finch) becomes a national sensation after having meltdowns on live TV. Soon he becomes a cult figure, with veritable circus going on around him, and ratings going through the roof. But then Beale tells his followers to turn of their TV's, and do something else. And Howard Beale becomes a liability to the network; "The Suits" decide to to take drastic action.
All broadcast news organizations are to blame for what has happened to their product. But even more so, we ourselves are guilty. We should demand more than attractive talking heads, most of whom couldn't tell you if Bangladesh was a country or a meal in an Asian restaurant, covering news that should be important to us. We should demand truth and not opinion- especially when it comes from those who promise to "let us decide". The fictional Howard Beale could have given the same speech (from the second clip) in 2009 and been correct on all points.
It is odd....everyone knew Beale was crazy in NETWORK. Fewer have caught on to the insanity wrought by some of today's crop of broadcast...."journalists".
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