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June 15, 2007

“I’m Mad As Hell…”

Remember Peter Finch’s great rant in the prophetic 1976 movie “Network” when he urges people to shout out their windows, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore?” Back then we all loved Peter Finch’s character, Howard Beale, were fed up with network television’s inanity, and wanted to start yelling the chant ourselves. That was 21 years ago and network TV today is 21 times worse, so we should be yelling 21 times louder.

Before I lumber on, let me make it clear that I’m not condemning all television, just the five broadcast networks, especially their prime time programming, and the three cable news channels, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. Some TV is OK—some programs, especially “Bill Moyers’ Journal” on PBS, “Planet Earth” on the Discovery Channel, my local all-news cable channel in New York City, and several other programs on PBS and HBO.

One reason “we’re mad as hell…” is because the cable news networks want it that way. My favorite radio program and podcast (I usually catch it as a podcast) is “On the Media,” which is on my local NPR station, WNYC, and the podcast of which I subscribe to on iTunes. On the March 18, podcast of “On the Media” co-host Bob Garfield interviewed Mel White, who as at one time a ghost writer for Jerry Falwell, who had passed away the previous week. White said that he asked Larry King why he had Falwell on his CNN program “all the time.” King said, “Because he gets people made, and that’s what we’re here for.”

In other words, making you mad is a programming strategy, not giving you facts, not giving you any analysis of the news, not giving you information you can use, but making you angry. This strategy is perfectly clear if you watch Larry King or Lou Dobbs on CNN or the masters of madness, Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity on Fox News, or Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, or Keith Olbermann on MSNBC (disclaimer, I’m a big fan of Olbermann and a progressive, so Olbermann doesn’t make me mad, but he makes conservatives go ballistic, which he does on purpose, of course).

Rush Limbaugh has emphatically proven that getting people mad is good programming strategy. Although he does is anger inducement on radio because his television show failed, he is still the master of riling people up with disinformation. Rush is not an expert on politics, he’s an entertainer, an ex-DJ who knows how to make people furious. O’Reilly, Hannity, and Scarborough are also primarily entertainers. Entertainers’ expertise is knowing how to get an emotional response from the most number of people. They understand that the vast majority of people don’t have post-graduate educations or make over $150,000 a year, so they aim their invective at the middle and lower middle income/education majority. In other words, it’s entertainment, not news, and it’s entertainment that tries to get a rise out of you.

In the movie “Network,” Howard Beale goes into his rant because he is a news anchor on a TV network that has fired him because the news programming has been turned over to the entertainment division and the entertainment division head, played wonderfully by Faye Dunaway, fires Beale because he’s too old. Wow! Life imitating art--so long Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer and hello Katie Couric (Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, and the person who hired Katie was previously head of CBS’s Entertainment division).

That’s why I like NPR radio, PBS’s “The News Hour With Jim Lehrer,” and my local cable news network—they are about news, not entertainment—and I get a nourishing news meal. I don’t trust entertainers—not very informed, manipulative, and trying to get an emotional or visceral response, not an intellectual or rational response—and I get a lot of calories and sugar but no news nourishment, and that makes me mad.

Posted by Charles Warner at June 15, 2007 05:14 PM

Comments

Media Curmudgeon [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 17, 2007 06:25 PM writes:

Thanks for the comment, MK...excellent point, but those who believe that Fox News is fair and balanced will be out of power in the 2008 election.


Media Curmudgeon [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 17, 2007 06:24 PM writes:

MK writes:

"You are so right about these "entertainers" whose role is solely to make people angry. But I would point out that we know some highly educated and affluent people who believe that Rush Limbaugh speaks only truth and that Fox News really is fair and balanced. Go figure."


Media Curmudgeon [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 17, 2007 06:21 PM writes:

Thanks for the the comment, Kevin. It's good you're mad as hell, too. Let's hope it's catching.


KMashek [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 15, 2007 06:18 PM writes:

Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton, Don Imus, Rosie O'Donnell-these are the BIG STORIES in our news. Our corrupt goverment stories such as exposing our goverment agents to the world or firing our U.S. attorney's because their not "Bushies" and all the crap that has gone on under this administration (which I could go on for two hours of reading) comes second. And then last, that ugly war in Iraq where our boys are dying everyday comes last because it's upsetting to hear about that. The News is being ruined by the News departments. We as a society will pay dearly for what is going on today and in the future where nothing can be trusted or reliable. But hey, isn't it sad that Paris Hilton had to endure the pain of going back to jail?? Maybe Rosie will get her released WOW What a news story!!!!!!!


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