08-08-2009, 04:38 PM
"Murdoch told the staff that he wanted the Sun to focus on ‘sex, sports and contests.'" [emphasis added]
America's commercial television networks -- broadcast and cable -- are now all but inundated by "American Idol"-like competitions.
Or, as Murdoch would have it, "contests."
I include in this category the "Real Housewives" series that dominates cable's Bravo channel -- originally offered as a PBS-like home for independent and classic films and other fine and performing arts programming, now reduced to catfights and caterwauling.
[Memo to my agent: "The Real Housewives of the Warsaw Ghetto" -- Watch as five jaunty Jewess jigglers fight tooth and nail over who makes the best rat-tatouie, who's been sleeping with Fritz the sentry, and who gets to keep their children alive." Appointment TV -- in the bunker that is the American heartland.]
"Contests" are all about picking sides and obliterating the competition, amassing toys and other trophies, and abandoning all scruples in the mad race to acquire.
"Contests" are all about differentiating between "them" and "us," and demonizing "them."
Consumerism does what its name tells us it does.
It consumes.
Everything and everyone.
America's commercial television networks -- broadcast and cable -- are now all but inundated by "American Idol"-like competitions.
Or, as Murdoch would have it, "contests."
I include in this category the "Real Housewives" series that dominates cable's Bravo channel -- originally offered as a PBS-like home for independent and classic films and other fine and performing arts programming, now reduced to catfights and caterwauling.
[Memo to my agent: "The Real Housewives of the Warsaw Ghetto" -- Watch as five jaunty Jewess jigglers fight tooth and nail over who makes the best rat-tatouie, who's been sleeping with Fritz the sentry, and who gets to keep their children alive." Appointment TV -- in the bunker that is the American heartland.]
"Contests" are all about picking sides and obliterating the competition, amassing toys and other trophies, and abandoning all scruples in the mad race to acquire.
"Contests" are all about differentiating between "them" and "us," and demonizing "them."
Consumerism does what its name tells us it does.
It consumes.
Everything and everyone.