I love CNN, but ENOUGH already with the frigging touch-screen machine. Did they really need to use it to tell the story of the balloon-boy incident? Maybe it’s useful for elections. I suppose if I had spent a gazillion dollars on such a device, I’d be compelled to use it, too. But are you really going to watch CNN because they have a touch screen and can interview holograms?
I guess I’m getting old. When it rains, the weather coverage on some of the major-market stations gives me a headache. All that zooming in and out to tell me that it’s raining right down on my neighborhood. When I was in Florida a few years ago during an approaching hurricane, the TV stations didn’t just have satellite views; they could slice and dice the clouds sideways. But they still couldn’t forecast intensity correctly – the hurricane fizzled out before it reached Miami. The headache was the same, though.
I saw one of my favorite high-tech TV devices more than 40 years ago. The female weathercaster in Hartford, Conn. used to write the information in chalk on a clear plastic screen in front of her. But because (or so I was told) the station could reverse the polarity of the TV picture so the viewer could read what she was writing, I was really impressed by that girl’s ability to write backwards. The fact that her wedding ring was on the wrong hand kind of gave it away, but still…
In the really old days, the weather people used Magic Markers or something similar. There was a weathercaster at the station I worked for in Washington, D.C. who would begin his show by saying “Getting oriented,” and drawing a big circle on the map around the Washington area. That was on the 6 o’clock news. After the show was over, the weathercaster would go out and have his usual well-lubricated dinner. So when the 11 p.m. news rolled around and he said “Getting oriented,” he was successful at drawing the circle around Washington only about 60 percent of the time, hitting Richmond or Charlotte instead.
But at least he was the one with the headache.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
OK Dave, We Heard You
I don’t know about you, but I’ve kind of reached my limit on people apologizing on the air for things. And of course, it’s usually men, and it’s usually about the same thing. Maybe it’s a real ratings booster when you hear that some public figure is about to issue a mea culpa, but it’s turned into a channel switcher for me – especially when it comes to men apologizing for the usual thing.
It’s unclear to me whether David Letterman helped or hurt himself by all this very public activity. I know two things: First, it’s going to limit his material for a while. He won’t have the standing to make jokes about the sexual misadventures of other public figures, especially politicians, and when you’re a comedian, that’s a problem. Second, most of us will forget about it in relatively short order.
You would think this lesson would have been learned by now: certain kinds of celebrity come with a price, There are just some things you can’t do anymore in the modern media environment, and your responsibility as a celeb is to a) not do them, or b) at the very least, get away with them. I’ve said many times that what President Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky was a security risk of the first magnitude – just my opinion. We all laughed at President Carter when he revealed that he had lusted in his heart – but he shouldn’t he get a little credit for not proceeding on to the next step?
Look – faced with the same temptations as some of these people, I don’t know whether I’d be able to resist -- but I’d sure as hell try.
In the meantime, I just wish some of those household names would go into their closets, as the Bible suggests, say a few Hail Marys or whatever is appropriate, and spare us the public spectacle.
It’s unclear to me whether David Letterman helped or hurt himself by all this very public activity. I know two things: First, it’s going to limit his material for a while. He won’t have the standing to make jokes about the sexual misadventures of other public figures, especially politicians, and when you’re a comedian, that’s a problem. Second, most of us will forget about it in relatively short order.
You would think this lesson would have been learned by now: certain kinds of celebrity come with a price, There are just some things you can’t do anymore in the modern media environment, and your responsibility as a celeb is to a) not do them, or b) at the very least, get away with them. I’ve said many times that what President Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky was a security risk of the first magnitude – just my opinion. We all laughed at President Carter when he revealed that he had lusted in his heart – but he shouldn’t he get a little credit for not proceeding on to the next step?
Look – faced with the same temptations as some of these people, I don’t know whether I’d be able to resist -- but I’d sure as hell try.
In the meantime, I just wish some of those household names would go into their closets, as the Bible suggests, say a few Hail Marys or whatever is appropriate, and spare us the public spectacle.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Flying Down to Rio
Why the long faces about Chicago losing the 2016 Olympics? OK, I’m not from Chicago. And I suppose there are more than a few red faces now that Oprah, Michelle, and the President couldn’t make it happen. But isn’t it time South America had the Games?
South America is a continent. Yet the rest of the world generally seems to ignore it. How many news stories do Norte Americanos hear on a daily basis about South America? OK, there’s Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the Colombian drug cartels. And, oh yeah, the Falklands war, going back a ways. But South America gets so little respect, the rest of us don’t even bother to stereotype it anymore.
It’s been pointed out that a South American Olympic venue might be less subject to terrorism than a U.S. location. And who can argue with Rio as a physical backdrop? Brazil in general is considered one of the hemisphere’s leaders when it comes to energy independence. No doubt the country has problems, though they will now get more than passing attention from the rest of the world. Good heavens, we might even learn something.
And finally, who wants the Olympics anyway? They’re expensive, and often considered a giant pain in the rear end by many in the chosen community. I say, let the South Americans have their turn.
South America is a continent. Yet the rest of the world generally seems to ignore it. How many news stories do Norte Americanos hear on a daily basis about South America? OK, there’s Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the Colombian drug cartels. And, oh yeah, the Falklands war, going back a ways. But South America gets so little respect, the rest of us don’t even bother to stereotype it anymore.
It’s been pointed out that a South American Olympic venue might be less subject to terrorism than a U.S. location. And who can argue with Rio as a physical backdrop? Brazil in general is considered one of the hemisphere’s leaders when it comes to energy independence. No doubt the country has problems, though they will now get more than passing attention from the rest of the world. Good heavens, we might even learn something.
And finally, who wants the Olympics anyway? They’re expensive, and often considered a giant pain in the rear end by many in the chosen community. I say, let the South Americans have their turn.
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