Chris Hansen Comes to Town

It’s been a long and interesting month. Took a lot of time off from work, and today was my last day at my job. If you have any job offers, send ‘em. Haven’t really checked out a lot of news, because I’ve been taking it easy, but this story caught my eye.

According to a recent story in the Austin American-Statesman, Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” was in Murphy, Texas to conduct one of their sting operations, but things have not gone well:

One of the 25 men caught in the sting, a prosecutor from a neighboring county, killed himself when police came to arrest him. The Murphy city manager who approved the operation lost his job in the ensuing furor. And the district attorney is refusing to prosecute any of the men, saying many of the cases were tainted by the involvement of amateurs.

Apparently this is the first time in the 9 seasons of the show that there have been no resulting prosecutions. Part of the problem may be the embarassment to the DA’s office that a prosecutor was one of the people caught in the sting.

But I have a problem with the show, even if it is incredibly entertaining, and that is that it is incredibly entertaining. We’re televising, sensationalising, and to some degree, glamourising, real crime. Not to mention, we’re basically conducting trial by television, but no longer small claims, a la the People’s Court, or Judge Judy. Just another show in the long list of “reality” television shows which blur the lines between the real and the media.

Paris Hilton Can Suck it

It’s ridiculous that FOX and MSNBC are spending an entire day covering this shit. So, some skanky “celebrity” (most famous for being a whore) bitch got arrested for a DUI, though she was entitled to better treatement and cried like a bitch in solitary confinement, because the bed had no sheets and the room was cold. Well la-dee-frickin’-da.

Let’s see. North Korea is testing nukes, there was a G-8 summit ending today, there’s debate over an immigration bill, a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, genocide in the Sudan, etc., etc., yet this this fruitcake’s pity party is the top story of the day on FOX and MSNBC.

This is the problem today’s society – 24 hour cable tabloid news. The meaning being served up to people through the mass media through these types of representations are uncritical images of people like Paris Hilton and their behaviour.  

The move from a few hours of television a day to twenty-four hour TV, but more especially the ’see-it-now’ culture of real time television, has reinforced in it’s viewers – particularly the youngest among them – what are known as states of delusional conviction. – Paul Virilio 

It is scary that FOX has the highest ratings among cable news networks and that MSNBC is doing everything in their power to copy FOX in an attempt to steal ratings from FOX.

FCC’s Filthy Mouth

On June 4th, Chairman Kevin Martin of the FCC sent out a press release regarding the 2nd Circuit’s ruling on “fleeting expletives.”

The Second Circuit’s ruling in Fox v. FCC basically undercut the FCC’s position on obscene and indecent speech on television, citing the FCC’s own statements on fleeting expletives. Essentially, when some one cusses on live television, such as Bono’s use of the word ‘Fuck’, the broadcaster is not liable for the utterance, because it is fleeting rather than repeated use of the term to shock and awe an audience.

However, the FCC chairman did not address that in his statement, instead choosing to comment on the effectiveness of the V-chip:

But even a vigilant parent using current blocking technologies such as the V-Chip couldn’t have avoided this language, because they rely on the program’s rating, and in this case the programs were rated appropriate for family viewing.

The Court addressed this issue, but I would like to note something here. Given the recent antics at awards shows, why would a parent think that such would be appropriate family viewing? Frankly, awards shows – like most television nowadays – are shit, and if you’re watching them, then you deserve whatever you get.

They also want to give parents more “tools”:

Today’s decision by the Court increases the importance of Congress considering contentneutral solutions to give parents more tools and consumers generally more control and choice over programming coming into their homes.

However, parents already have a sure fire method of avoiding these programs: the power button. Essentially, the FCC wants to dig it’s claws into the cable and satellite markets, which it has had trouble getting it’s claws into. They’re being left behind as broadcast television is losing place to cable, satellite and the internet, and as broadcast goes down, the FCC loses its purpose and power.  

Oh, Chairman Martin couldn’t even censor himself, using ‘fuck’ and ’shit’ seven times.