A Flip-Flopping News Media
An amazing phenomenon is taking place right before our eyes. News organizations are turning to celebrity news, while celebrity news comedy shows are turning to hard news.
When did this shift in the news media take place? It’s been amazing to watch over the past few months, especially in the world of politics. Just when you think one candidate will know better, he too stoops to the world of comedy to make his important announcement about entering the Presidential race. Now one might expect it from this particular candidate since he’s an actor turned politician, then politician turned actor, and now actor turned politician again. But still, I must admit, I expected more from him.
Just in case you’ve been living in a bubble somewhere, Fred Thompson announced this week he’s tossing his hat in the Republican ring, and he will run for President of the United States.
For many the announcement comes as no surprise. He’s been testing the waters for a number of months, and sounding very Presidential for quite some time. The political pundits have been scampering around the Thompson camp for a while too. Some flip-flopping like a John Kerry bobble-head on whether they like Thompson or not, but they have indeed been doing a lot of talking about him.
Now it’s official. Fred Thompson, the former Law and Order star, is in the race. He made the announcement in a 15 minute broadcast on his website, as well as on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I don’t get it, and I ask the question again – When did comedy shows become hard news shows and when did hard news shows become celebrity scandal shows?
I’ve been in the broadcasting industry for a long time now and this has been very interesting to watch. I’m sure it’s all for a share of the audience, and the ever coveted buying segment of society, but I have to wonder if this is a good thing. It’s a morphing of the news media right before our very eyes. There was a time when the only political commentary on a comedy show came in the way of political jokes. But not so now. I believe just about every 2008 Presidential candidate has announced they’re running for office on either The Tonight Show or the David Letterman show.
Robin Williams pokes fun at this morphing of the news media in his 2006 movie Man of the Year. Williams plays the character of Tom Dobbs who’s made a career on his late night comedy show of joking about the political system. One night someone from the studio audience suggests he should run for President. At first it’s nothing more than a joke, but then it turns into reality as he finds himself on the campaign trial.
Going into the movie we weren’t sure what to expect. After all, here’s Robin Williams playing the role of a comedian running for President. But, after about a half hour of the movie I leaned over to my wife and commented on how quiet it suddenly got in the theater. All the left wing political radical movie critics who figured the flick would be a bash-Bush frenzy got quiet as they didn’t know what to do because the movie made a shift. If anything, Man of the Year illustrates the flaws of the left thinking as computer glitches led to the election of someone who didn’t win the race. Instead of hanging chads, which the left still fight over, it was the very system the left wants to put in place to make the political voting system safe. Let’s bring in computers they say, but the very computer program the left think will save the political system, failed terribly in the movie.
In the end when Dobbs concedes the election, he makes his announcement on the set of Saturday Night Live. In his final speech he makes the comment that he’s come to the realization that he’s not supposed to be the king. No, he’s the court jester, and that’s where he should remain.
Now there’s a lesson the entertainment world, and the political world, both need to learn well. This morphing of the news media is an amazing aspect of current broadcasting to watch. But at some point the jesters need to remember they’re jesters, and the news media need to remember they’re supposed to cover the news. When that begins taking place once again, then maybe the political leaders will discover they need to stop pandering to the comedy shows, and come back to the real world of news.
Just my two cents,
Dr. Rus
