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TV Land

TV Land

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I haven’t really been a dedicated watcher of any regular television show for some years now.

Since we finally replaced our ancient tv at Christmastime with a huge flat-screen, I’ve really been enjoying my nightly political news. My hero Rachel Maddow is almost real-size! What a treat it was to finally watch Elmer Gantry, and I got a good chickflick dose with The Holiday and The Notebook.

Sometimes I just feel like relaxing and being entertained. I flip through the channels – most of it doesn’t interest me. I’m not big into “reality” shows, but I sometimes like the ones that show how different people’s lives can be from one another – like Trading Spouses and whatever that one was with the British nanny. I wish that Holmes on Homes guy would come renovate *my* house. I enjoy profiling, and shows like Snapped if it’s an unusual case. The first couple of seasons of 24 were interesting, but I lost interest when they brought in torture (it *was* on Fox!). I’ve attempted to get into a regular schedule with my collections of Twin Peaks and Ultraviolet – but those haunt me so much that I can only watch them once in a while. I like the odd something on the History channel or PBS, but nothing was grabbing me tonight.

Then – I caught a show that’s been on for a long time but I had only caught a minute here or there before. I’m not really in tune with what’s popular, and I had written it off just because of the title.

So now I’m busy every Sunday night at 9 pm, because that’s when Desperate Housewives is on. I just watched two back-to-back episodes – Lovely and The Chase. It looks like tomorrow’s episode follows from there – YAY! It’s been on since 2004! I’ve already missed six whole years?!?!?!

I’m fairly sure that some of my friends will find it amusing that I’m enthralled with this show.

What can I say?

Couric…ick

Couric…ick

Comments 5 comments

Oh please. When will these dolts wake up? Who were the people at CBS who came up with the incredibly stupid choice of Couric as an anchor in the first place? It tarnishes their reputation. Of all the women they could have selected to be the first solo evening news anchor, they chose her. Ick.

To reintroduce Katie Couric to the country as a serious yet still accessible evening news anchor on Sept. 5, CBS has embarked on an image campaign worthy of a presidential candidate. The network’s efforts will put her face on the front of every city bus in New York next month as part of a promotion that would cost in excess of $10 million if the national television commercials featuring her were bought by an outsider.

Now – good money after bad (check how how much they are paying her)? I’m disappointed in CBS.

I rarely have strong opinions about newspeople. For me what is most important is the content, not the carrier.

My primal and quite uncharitable feelings for Couric are an exception. There are plenty of other horrible superficial people on television, so I’m not sure why she inspires such revulsion in me. For whatever reasons Couric has always, always, always made my skin crawl and my neck hairs bristle. I have had to acknowlege, and dismiss from my mind, images such as slapping her little face. I don’t have such personal animus toward many people. It is somewhat puzzling. Perhaps I can locate the source of my repulsion and heal it somehow. Perhaps I could watch her as a kind of penance. But no, I don’t think I can, not yet.

Lightweight Couric has little to recommend her. She clearly has very little empathy for others, and she is one of the worst interviewers I have ever seen. She trivializes everything she touches. She seems to deliberately misunderstand almost anything someone says to her. Her questions are trite or whiney or patronizingly hostile, and she doesn’t have the personal charisma to carry off any part of that. It is bad enough when an intelligent and well-informed person is patronizing, but from her it is so much worse.

I cannot tolerate watching important events in our world being narrated by that irritating pneumatic fluffball under almost any conditions I can imagine.

Watching the news is serious business at our house. I guess I’ll be watching Brian Williams on NBC, with a little Charles Gibson on ABC as a change. The Lehrer News Hour is ok (I like Mark Shields), although not as good as it used to be.

I sorely miss Peter Jennings and Dan Rather.

Take Action: Genocide is news

Take Action: Genocide is news

Comments 1 comment

Genocide is news

Genocide is the ultimate crime against humanity. And a government-backed genocide is unfolding in the Darfur region of the Sudan. As the horror in Darfur continues, our major television news networks are largely missing in action.

…

The vast majority of Americans continue to rely on broadcast and cable television as their primary source of information. No other source of information, including newspapers, radio and the internet, comes close to the power of television. For many of us, if an event is not reported on television, it does not happen.

Whether it is coverage of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, the Ethiopian famine in the 1980s, or recent coverage of the tsunami, television news can help stop grave injustices and end human suffering. Increased television coverage of the genocide in Darfur has the power to spur the action required to stop a devastating crime against humanity. Increased coverage will raise public awareness and put pressure on our government to help accelerate the deployment of the African Union forces to the region, to apply coordinated international pressure on the Sudanese government, to insure that the guilty are held accountable, and to build a lasting settlement for peace. In short, increased television coverage of the genocide in Darfur has the power to help save thousands of lives.

Television reporters often complain about not having enough time to cover important events around the world. What recent coverage shows, however, is that this precious time is being devoted to matters of far less consequence than the massive loss of life in Darfur.

Call on television networks to be a witness to genocide in Darfur and to cover the real news of our world.

(thanks for sending, Elainna)