Media Curmudgeon

Marilyn Keenan writes:

Yesterday I had "Morning Joe" with Joe Scarborough on in the background. (I do wish MSNBC would get a better morning anchor! Joe is soooo opinionated and thinks he knows everything about everything.)

So Joe was interviewing Bill Maher and they were bantering on about how Joe goes on his show and how they have such a great time together even though they have differing views.

After Maher went off, Joe said to his ditzy, giggly co-anchor, Mika Brzezskinski, that he loves Bill Maher because Bill is actually very objective and listens and doesn't think he knows everything. Joe should listen to himself. He might be the worst opinionator on television.

We deserve better than those guys.

Bruce Braun writes:

As usual. you are right on target! Your analysis conjures up the memories of life imitating art. In particular, the prophetic story line from "Network". Perhaps this cinematic masterpiece is the most prescient movie ever done about the blurring of the lines between news and entertainment programming on network television. I'd suggest your readers rent and watch "Network", especially in light of your analysis and the state of television today.

I remember going to see "Network" in 1976 and laughing at the irony and humor of Paddy Chayefsky. I was working at that the time at KNXT, the CBS owned local station in Los Angeles. Our once dominating news ratings had fallen precipitously, putting management in a panic to fix the ratings and in the process save their jobs. I couldn't help think Paddy had been hanging around our station when writing his screenplay. There is a scene where Robert Duvall (as the head of the network) calls a meeting to decide the fate of news anchor, Howard Beale resulting in a decision to assassinate him. That scene could have been a replay of a sales meeting six months earlier at KNXT.

Our news director was trying to decide the fate of our long-time news anchor, Jerry Dunphy, due to dismal ratings. We were getting our brains beat out by ABC's "Eyewitness News," or as I like to call it: "Eye-witless News." Although not quite the same as the movie, we were asked by the news director if not renewing Dunphy's contract and replacing him with someone new would be detrimental to the sale of our newscasts. In a meeting room that was dramatically semi-dark, and momentarily silent while we considered our respective responses, one voice out of the shadows of the room exclaimed: "Kill him!" Dunphy was let go, and was immediately hired by KABC. Unlike Beale, Dunphy never threatened to commit suicide on his last KNXT broadcast! KABC's ratings went up with Dunphy and ours went down with the new anchor!

In "Network", UBS, the Union Broadcasting Network, puts Howard Beale, after suffering an on-air mental breakdown, back on the air because his ratings soared. The mad prophet as Beale is then called, delivers what Duvall calls "a big fat, ... big-titted hit!" The set of Beale's new program is lit by roving spotlights and a huge stained-glass window. His show goes beyond reporting the news and is populated with segments on astrology, gossip, opinion polls, and sensationalistic journalism. Sound familiar?

Later Duvall intones: "The affiliates will kiss your ass if you can hand them a hit show...We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network, and we have to take whatever we can get."

As the head of the entertainment division, Faye Dunaway's character negotiates a deal from a group of terrorists robbing banks and other
crimes that she turns into a new television series. Later, Beale finds out the conglomerate that owns UBS, CCA (today we have the talent conglomerate CAA) is going to be bought out by another conglomerate, this one owned by Saudi Arabian business interests.

Beale does an on-screen tirade against the two corporations, in an attempt to derail the merger. Summoned into the presence of the conglomerate CEO (Ned Beatty), Beale is told he is screwing with the forces of corporate cosmology.

"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal - that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians! There are no Arabs! There are no Third Worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immense, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! Petro-dollars, electro- dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic, and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone! We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale."

As I recall, Rupert Murdoch became a US citizen and moved the corporate headquarters of News Corp to the US to facilitate the ownership of US television stations. Is Murdoch so much a US citizen as he is a citizen of the world? Like ALL of our politicians, he does whatever he needs to in order to achieve his goals, expand and preserve his power.

Howard Beale summed up your commentary today to his audience,, 32 years ago:

"You people and sixty-two million other Americans are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books.
Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers. This tube is the most awesome, god-damned force in the whole godless world. And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome, god-damned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network."

Our present day media conglomerates have adopted the philosophy of Faye Dunaway's character when she screams at William Holden: "Don't Fuck with me." And, like her narcissistic character, for the media conglomerates, it really is, all about them.

Bravo, Mr. Chayefsky!

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