In case you're wondering how I've been managing to post two or three times a day while I'm ostensibly in the middle of moving, well, it's because all my 40-odd boxes of books, 20-odd boxes of kitchen paraphernalia, and 6 or 8 boxes of by-now-rumpled clothing have long since been loaded on a truck which, according to legend, is circling the mid-Atlantic states, unable, for reasons that are both infuriating and mysterious to me, to arrive at my soon-to-be apartment. And so, I have two things on my daily agenda: a)Pester the moving company to death until they agree to deliver my stuff on a date that doesn't coincide with my first day of work (which I've already had to push back a week)and b)muse endlessly in this delicious public forum in which brown rabbits tan (and read other people's blogs too, of course).
That said, I am prompted to write another wad of jumbled thinking after having had some Emmy clips on the news this morning pass through my pre-coffee optic nerves(last night, I was at the theatre watching Quinceanera as per previous post and so, I missed them-- and also, I didn't care that much.). In particular, I was amused that Conan O'Brien spoofed that Dateline Internet predator show-- and then reading Morgan's post this morning reminded me that I, too, have a bone to pick with the televisionosphere (hey, if there's a blogosphere...then that word was just waiting, in lingo-limbo, to be coined.).
Namely, the aforementioned Dateline Humiliation-Inducing Machinery. This show employs age-old--and information-age savvy--methods of entrapment so as to lure fucked-up adult men into a scenario in which they are led to believe they will engage in some variety of sexual contact with a teenage kid. Before anyone has an opportunity to accuse me of harboring any of the typical namby-pamby, liberal, sympathy-for-the-criminal kinda of bullshit in my (yes, it bleeds) heart, I should say that I do not think that these creepy men are doing a good thing, per se. No, it's pretty icky to think about 60-year-old guys trying to get it on with 12-year-olds. Even though our culture incessantly validates mens' desire for pubescent flesh. Even though 100 years ago, the concept of "teenager" didn't exist because, once you hit puberty, you WERE an adult. Even though it seem within reason, given halfway decent sex-ed and parental guidance in all things sexual, to equip kids with some tools to prevent them from becoming victims. But, yeah, I mean, I'd be pretty damn hard-pressed to justify an argument for thinking these people were good guys-- it's just that this particular TV show is so over-the-top amoral, in so many ways, that there simply MUST be a better way to catch them.
Okay, so Complaint #1: Not since the popularity of the shock-jock variety of TV talk show (por ejemplo, Jerry Spring, Rikki Lake, et al)in the 90s has it been so socially acceptable to admit to watching people be humiliated on national television. And this show is worse because Dateline presents this crap as "news." Not only are we given the opportunity to feel luxuriously superior from the comfort of our own sofas, but we get to deny these men the right to a fair, unbiased trial. Isn't that great? I mean, yeah, I get it-- these guys are either deeply psychologically damaged or deviant or problematically out-of-touch with legally sanctioned social mores or some combination thereof-- but they're still fucking people! I mean, do we not owe our fellow humans the right to not be vitiated before such a massive receiving line? Please! We actually have a judicial system for that!
Complaint #2: Is it possible for the American public to be any more saturated with fear? Seriously? Kansans are scared to death the French are gonna drop H-bombs on their local barbecue stands. Many residents of Cuyahoga county in Ohio are clearly worried that their mailboxes have been dusted with cutaneous Anthrax. And, well, even I entwine my keys in my fingers if I have to walk to my car, alone, in public, at night. So, really, how necessary is it to encourage the fear in parents that our children are all doomed to suffer some variety of molestation at the hands of a stranger, an internet predator? Shows like this do little besides foment anxieties that a few focused, heartfelt parent/child conferences should assuage. Fair enough, I don't have a kid and I've never internalized the concern that most parents feel for their offspring, but c'mon! Tell your kids that talking to strangers on the internet is the same thing as talking to strangers in real life! What's the big deal? But then, so long as we're paralyzed with this variety of terror, we don't have to worry about any more amorphous-because-they-live-in-Asia bogeymen, like, say, Kim Jong Il! Thank you, main-stream "liberal" media, for that!
Complaint #3: Well, I'd intended to break complaint #1 into two things: firstly, why humiliating pedaphiles on TV is not only stupidly ineffective in terms of bringing about legal justice, but supremely disrespectful-- and secondly, why it's kinda twisted, in its own right, that the TV-viewing public allows its own ego to be self-righteously massaged while consuming this news-media-generated sewage as though it were entertaining. But I kinda covered all that in Complaint #1 so there's no point in reiterating. Even though I just did. Again. So much for blog-post organization.
I really feel that, of all the brainrot-inducing drivel we've got, this show is probably the most amoral, most unconscionably devoid of social merit, and not to mention most squirmingly uncomfortable to sit through-- and the real kicker is that it's presented as though it's doing a public service! Not that television producers have ever been remarkable for their beautiful souls, but how do they get away with this? Do they even have mirrors in their billion-dollar Hollywood mansions? I am dismayed, to say the least.
5 comments:
I think that the problem is that Dateline is catering to a particular audience; this audience apparantly enjoys that feeling of superiorty when confronted with someone that they feel is the worst of humanity- such as pedophiles. Of course this has not always been: other cultures do not put a legal age limit on kids, and throughout history there have been many, many sexual mores that are completely opposite of the ones we have here, today. Such programs are sensationalistic: they mimic the daytime shows while putting on the facade of a newscast. The audience must really buy into this kind of social leverage: people can look at themselves or their spouses/partners/whatever, and say "well at least we are not pedophiles!" Well good for you.
Jon said something interesting over the phone today-- about how shows like this put the audience in a weird position. It's like we have the choice to either condemn, judge, feel superior to deviants or sympathize with them as they're being interrogated by a patronizing psuedo newsman. Frankly, I generally opt for the latter and then feel awful about myself for it. And I doubt I'm the only one who squirms as they corner the poor dirty rabbits one by one. And it's not like I'd rather have them gaining unlimited access to so many hot young things. But somehow, I doubt the powers that be in television considered they'd inspire such sympathies and thus, yes, are catering to the audience to which you refer, Jen-- but what about this weird side-effect? I know I'm not a particularly generous audience when it comes to most maintream media, nor am I the one they had in mind at the conception of this show. I mean, Iook at all the movies I talk about on here. Most people aren't going to run out and rent Drawing Restraint 9 as soon as it hits Blockbuster. But I doubt my emotional reactions to this sort of broad-stroke condemnation and fearmongering are singular. I just feel like presenting this sort of subject matter in that variety of authoratative format is far more complicated in its implications than Dateline producers anticipated. We speak of compassion in so many fora, so often, frequently religiously, zealously, and yet when given the first opportunity, how come so many-- including the morning news shows that love to blurb Dateline--are wont to jump on the Check-Your_Heart-at-the-Tailgate Bandwagon? Screw originality and intelectual challenge and artfulness in television. Let's just have a morsel of humanity, please!
I'm laughing at myself. How's that for a bald-faced emotional appeal, Bob? I'm such a dork.
Sorry for the intrusion, but this seemed the quickest and surest way to contact you. Check your email. Regarding this blog: I really can't say much since I became totally disgusted with TV 3 or 4 years ago and except for football, my TV sits silently gathering dust.
In 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minnow, in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, referred to television as a vast wasteland. He should see it now, the province of fake news, sensationalism, crass commercialism, vapid programming, "shameless self promotion" and fascist propaganda, all of which assault my sensibilities and insult my intelligence.
True enough, Jack-- and it's such a dissappointment. I imagine, at its conception, television was a remarkable opportunity to bring art, critical thinking, and inteligent commentary and information into our homes. Alas, how quickly that went awry. Didn't Edward R. Murrow talk about that some? It's the same thing wih film. Most of the movies out there are commercial goop-- but I LOVE movies and make a pretty stringent effort to seek out the good stuff-- which, I maintain, exists and gives me much fodder for this blog. And, though I find it even tougher to find on television, there are a few gems that aren't 100% vapid. Unfortunately, I don't like to pay for premium channels, where most of the good stuff happens. I'd rather spend my money on the movies.
PS, Jack--your posting is hardly an intrusion. Feel free to jump in whenever you are so moved.
This goes for anyone else out there who is reading and not posting. The best part is the ensuing conversations, right?
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