some 9/11 thoughts--on media and one other thing

In political news:  In front of the capital today, John Boehner gave a dignified and appropriate tribute to the heroes and victims of 9/11.  As he worked to control his emotions and his voice cracked, I do hope that all will take the day off from snark about him showing his emotion.  Nothing wrong with a man showing his humanity as a country deals with the inhumanity of eleven years ago.

CNN showed the speeches and showed the services in front of the capital.  However, the crawl at the bottom of the screen during those speeches told audiences that Jerry Lawler collapsed during a WWE taping and Rove's Crossroads organization is releasing more ads.  Fox News had the class to run a crawl of the names of those that died on 9/11.  Fox showed a lack of class by simultaneously running a discussion of one view of the country's economic condition and that it was all the Democrat's fault.  

No network, broadcast or cable, could spare any time to show the survivors of 9/11 reading the names of those that died that day.  No network could take time away from advertising to show respect to the fallen.  No network could relinquish an opportunity for a commercial to show the survivors  reading the names of the people that died, the people they knew.

MSNBC did what they have done each year on the anniversary which is showing NBC's news coverage in real time as it occurred that day.  Without a crawl and without interruption.  One network still had some idea of perspective.  

As I write this, with great dignity, the survivors read out the names of those that died in New York City on 9/11.  And no network could show them.  Not while there are commercials to run.

MTV: Fraud

Usually, a blogger offers hyperlinks to the items being referenced.  I am not hyperlinking the Video Music Awards (VMA's for folks as old as me).  Because MTV is a fraud.  The network has hyped through "Rock the Vote," the idea of an engaged youth.  A voting youth.  An informed youth.  It's apparently a fraud.
Tonight,  one week after watching Mitt Romney gave his address to the Republican Convention, President Obama had his moment in front of his party and a nation.  The NFL moved a football game to a different night to accommodate this important speech.  MTV made sure that young people that maybe, just might, listen to the President, instead would watch MTV.  The network counterprogrammed the President with the VMA's.
The CEO of Viacom, who owns MTV, Philippe Dauman, worked with the Gates Foundation to start "Get Schooled" an organization seeking to raise the awareness of the crisis in our public schools.  But that was three years ago.  Dauman has obviously abandoned his desire to make sure our young people have their priorities straight.  His network counterprogrammed.  
Daumann is not a Republican.  Or a Democrat.  He has given generously to both parties.  Perhaps his network had partisan intents.  Perhaps his network was just out to make a buck tonight.  At the expense of an informed youth.  MTV is a fraud.

Maybe Television Deserves to Die

Maybe traditional television deserves to die.  “Traditional” used to just mean broadcast.  But I am lumping basic cable nets in here too.  Television has done so much to take the joy out of television.  There is no dramatic continuity, no freedom from lower third ads that remind you it is fiction you are viewing, no extended scenes where we get to explore a character through his or her reactions. 

My wife and I were watching “The Devil Wears Prada” on ABC some time ago.  I had not seen it before, but my wife was able to tell me what got cut out so I could understand the movie better.  And we had lots of opportunities to talk.  There was a 2-4 minute commercial break after every 5-8 minutes of program.  Any moment that had a risk of me caring about the characters was broken up by yet another commercial break.

Watching a show on Bravo or another cable net means having a dramatic moment interrupted by a lower third promo for another show.  Again, if for some reason, I get caught up in the show and start caring about characters, a lower third promo reminds me I am watching fiction on television and I should not get caught up in the characters.  Bravo commercials say, “Watch what happens.”  I did.  I give up. 

David Kelley, producer of L.A. Law  to Harry’s Law, Picket Fences to Ally McBeal has not quite given up.  But he is pretty annoyed.  In a recent interview with Tavis Smiley he said, “When I started on “L.A. Law,” I think our shows were 48 minutes plus some, with four acts. We’re now down to 41 minutes, six acts, in a one-hour presentation, and it’s absurd. With big, loud commercials coming in every six and seven minutes it’s become incumbent upon us to be noisy, to pound, pound, pound, much more difficult to do the slower-paced, emotional stories that build over time.
It’s just very, very frustrating to cut to a commercial every six, seven or eight minutes.”

Watching “Fringe” means five or six fake, contrived mini-climaxes each preceding a long commercial break.  This pretty much separates the viewer from the emotional connection we have with the show.  I want to love “Fringe.”  The powers that be that run television make loving a show so much of a challenge.

Couldn’t the networks, both cable and broadcast, make television better by cutting back on commercials?  Fewer commercials might mean less tune-out during commercial breaks.  Less opportunity to sample other shows or getting caught up in Weather Channel (or is that only me that gets caught up in TWC?)

Fewer commercials might mean you can charge more per spot since perhaps the advertiser can be promised more eyeballs and less message clutter.  The answer to how to make television better will never be by giving the audience more reason to eliminate emotional involvement and making it easier to watch or maybe even do something else.

If television does die, to be replaced by mobile media, it may not be because they couldn’t sell advertising.  It could be because they sold too much.