by Ken Vincent, Featured Contributor
There was a day in my lifetime where news papers, magazines, radio, and television made an honest effort at unbiased reporting. Facts and events were related, and any editorial spin or opinion was clearly identified as such. I fear that day has retreated into the history books.
But, for the sake of brevity here we will just address TV. Does anyone really have faith that the talking heads on the news gives us unbiased reporting? Their “news” and how it is presented is controlled by the owners of the station or network (usually a large corporation that is in turn owned by others) and heavily influenced by the largest advertisers. They also have a great deal of pressure to be “politically correct”.
Lets step beyond the news and look at other programing, such as reality shows.
Two barefoot and naked strangers are dumped on a deserted island (didn’t know there were any left) without tools, weapons, food, water, or shelter. They are given 30 days to make their way to the top of a hill. Right. This show is presented as a survival show of course. It doesn’t make a lot of mention about the film crew, sound crew, medical tent, commissary tent, director, and a small army of grunts that are also on this deserted island.
Then there is the one where a restaurant guru takes a failing restaurant and turns it around in 48 hours. The kitchen gets emptied and sanitized, the equipment washed down, repaired, and reinstalled. The dining room and bar get reorganized and redecorated. New menus are written, printed, and memorized by the service staff who have also been re-uniformed and their attitudes miraculously improved. Of course the kitchen staff have all mastered production of all the items on the new menu and the owners have suddenly become wonderful restauranteurs. Then they open the restaurant to a full house of happy customers. Does anyone really believe that isn’t scripted and rehearsed? I doubt that you could even get a building permit in 48 hours in most cities, much less train the kitchen staff to produce a totally new menu.
Then there is an even more unbelievable one where someone turns around a failing hotel in a few days. I’ve done a few of those and I’m here to tell you that can’t be done. It takes weeks, and months to turn a failing hotel into a money machine.
Have we become so blaze that we are happy to accept this tainted news reporting and scripted entertainment shows pawned off as reality?
These are some of the reasons that we have not subscribed to newspapers or tv for many years. Not to mention all the drama and negativity. We chose what we play on our T.V. and use music from our ipod rather than listening to the radio. Society is so conditioned to come home, read the paper and watch t.v. all night. Go for a walk and look at how many t.v.s are playing through the windows. Many people don’t realize they have choice.