Real matters requiring our full attention (affordable healthcare/insurance and drug company lobbyists pouring millions in to Capitol Hill daily, etc.) go underreported while nonsense abounds (birthers, unfounded conspiracy plots, reality shows, celebrity ‘news’, etc.).
Having worked for a major drug company, a major insurance company, and two major medical institutions I have walked through hospitals and sat in billing related meeting for more than 12 years and I have heard alarming profiting strategies as well as nightmare scenarios endured by real people every day. The healthcare system as is cannot continue.
Please don’t ask me about birth certificates.
So ultimately no, I am not concerned with who was voted off, who was made over, who broke up with who, who was cut from that team, etc. At least not until real matters impacting real people are addressed.
Long, long ago I went on a company sponsored group tour of NBC when I was a GE Engineer.
After going on a tour of the Today Show set (freezing) and strolling by the SNL set and before getting a pound from Mario Cuomo as he passed in the hall and taking in an early Conan O’Brien show (asking if they could get me in to see David Letterman at CBS got no laughs from the page for the record) we were filed in to a conference room shown an NBC promo video and asked a question. The question was simply “You produce steam and gas turbines, what is NBC’s product?” Naively we responded:
-Educational programming for children.
-Comedy shows to entertain us.
-Concise news and informational programming.
-So on and so forth.
-Comedy shows to entertain us.
-Concise news and informational programming.
-So on and so forth.
After listening to our responses we were corrected that NBC’s product was eyes. We sat silently, then asked him to explain. He offered that NBC put on whatever it needed to in order to get as many eyes as possible. They then sell those eyes (us viewers) to advertisers. The more eyes, the more money they could demand. The quality of the programming was third below budgeting essentially.
My perception of TV changed that day and I have watched TV much less ever since.
The cheaper the show was to produce the more profit you reap from the eyes. Thus explaining the reality show phenomenon. A show containing no stars, or the creation of a new tier of ‘reality stars’, is way cheaper to produce thus creating even greater profits.
People are suffering in this country while America watches the dancing bear.
Life is too intricate to give an old western show good guy/bad guy narrative to these and other issues.
But if enough people pay attention long enough to start letting elected officials know we will vote them out if they continue serving lobbyists rather than their own constituents perhaps that would help. If enough of us were more selective about what we watched or turned the TV off altogether perhaps that would help improve programming quality. Provocative motifs, even those containing not a scrap of truth or credibility, abound because many eyes watch this nonsense. If nonsense sells more than quality, more nonsense will be produced and quality will suffer.
These are complex issues and require our greatest minds and collective attention if there is any hope of making a difference.
Admittedly I have more questions than answers, but making a concerted effort to move towards a positive change has to be better than continuing on as is.
God bless,
Eric
