Occasionally I tweet something and I am so taken with a turn of phrase that I turn it into a blog post. This is one of those times.
This is about Morning ‘news’ programs. I use quotation marks for news because I’m not sold on the idea that they are providing me with news or valuable information or even something that is vaguely entertaining.
What I am sure about is that they have an extremely low opinion of their audience’s intelligence. So much so that every time I even see an ad for a morning show I can just feel my brain cells killing one another. And the brain cell genocide continues until it stops and my senses are no longer being assaulted by this paltry drivel.
It’s not just the content either. It’s the way the people talk to one another. Or they don’t talk so much as flirt. And they don’t flirt so much as act in a way that there particular stereotype dictates.
And if my brain cells weren’t so busy killing one another they might just keel over and die from the absolute boredom of it all.
I find the dumbing down of media offensive. Offensive enough that when I’m faced with this dumbing down my internal rage starts to create a slightly weird, slightly creepy eye twitch.
You know what one of my favourite stories is? One of my favourite authors wrote a book about how they wrote their most successful series. Needless to say writing a book about writing a book is fascinating for geeks everywhere. At a certain point he was having an argument with his editor over the inclusion of a particular word that the editor didn’t believe the vast majority of his audience would know the meaning of. His response: What’s the worst thing that could happen? They pick up a damn dictionary?! The word stayed.
I can handle entertainment that is dumb on purpose. I enjoy Kendra as much as the next person. I don’t concede that the reality television is a guilty pleasure because I don’t feel guilty about it. It’s not reality television passing itself off as freaking amazing, thought provoking TV. It knows exactly what it is.
But Morning shows. You don’t get to infomercial me up, present fluff piece after fluff piece, intentionally ignore that there is anything more than one side to every story, intentionally perpetuate every stereotype known to man, and then act as if you aren’t actively engaged in lowest common denominator journalism and the dumbification of the universe.
My brain cells are screaming.
And that is why I rarely watch morning TV, or ACA/TT. It really does make my brain cells die.
Yes! TT and ACA and 60 Minutes are all as bad as one another with their incessant fear mongering and the one-sidedness really gets to me.
I hear ya. And I like ‘dumbification’. An excellent description of what those shows do! I don’t turn the TV on until 6pm.
I’m very keen on not watching anything live. I record everything!
I despise those early morning “news” shows. Their full of fluff and they’re annoying! Yet….I still watch them from time to time. I like the hottie weather guy on one LOL.
Haha occasionally I watch it because a friend us on or something but it always makes me so mad!
This kind of TV is why I never wanted to work in Australian TV. It’s an insult to the hard work I put in my education and the work that I did as a journalist/producer who has worked in a country where people take the media seriously. I think it’s time to revamp Aussie TV, otherwise journalists and anchors might lose their jobs if everyone look for news on the net. I for one read 98% of my news. I only watch TV news if I’m looking at how the channel reacted to a particular topic.
It really does turn my stomach!
It’s just another reason why turning off the TV is so easy for me.I actually ignore the bloody news. Really, twitter usually tellsm e the jist of what’s happening and from there I can read further. Most of it is absolute rubbish and I’m not stupid that they present it with half facts or outright bullshit they made up to turn it into a good story. I quite enjoy “reality” TV (it’s not always reality though is it?) just for some brain numbing watching. I like drama shows too because it’s a bit like reading a good (or sometimes bad) book. I can lose myself in the story, in the characters lives.
The rest I pass on.
I really don’t watch the tv during the day. I save programs for later when they are not going to be interrupted with ‘mummy! I want . . .’ and I get my news from online or from The Daily Show LOL
Agreed. I arrived back in Oz last June and was ridiculously excited about morning TV. “I can’t remember it being so dull” I said to my husband. His reply “it’s insulting”. And it was. Great post.
I think I particularly noticed it getting glib about 10 years ago and it’s gone down hill from there. I don’t do glib.