I'm almost glad Walter Cronkite died before tonight's premier of the NBC show "The Wanted". Like the network's "To Catch a Predator" before it, "The Wanted" crosses enough journalistic ethical boundaries to defy classification. Think journalists as action figures. In The L.A. Times this morning, the show producer defends the program: "We want it to look and feel like a Friday night movie, but we are held by the standards of news."
Right. Like the one that calls for journalists not to take sides? To observe and report? As the three-man team goes after terrorists who have managed to avoided capture and prosecution by such ineffective operations as the U.S. Government and The World Court, we're treated to "news" as music/action video. No shock that the producer is aiming for viewers who are, like himself, men in their 20's. The Wanted is the end result of the slide that started in the 80's, or maybe before, when consultants arrived with their briefcases and their mission statement. Audience at any cost.
Will it be a hit? WWWD.
Ever read Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock"?
ReplyDeleteThe essential premise of his work is that rapid changes in society and culture so inundate and overwhelm individuals that they don't have time to appropriately assimilate appropriate responses, and thus their normal responses to those sociocultural and environmental (not in the sense of forest, air or water) changes are wholly inadequate. Thus, society in general, becomes estranged from within, when instead they should be driven closer together.
It is precisely that type of alienation which "The Wanted" addresses.
Society, having been exposed to live reporting, on-scene satellite-transmitted images (aka, "real time") that their emotional responses are numbed through - as Toffler originated "information overload" - and thus, their overwhelmed minds are rendered essentially useless, paralyzed by the sheer volume of information - much of which is or may be of little value at best, and useless at worst.
Thus, an appeal to our more base emotions - or if you prefer, "primal" instincts - is the solitary appeal remaining, since logic, reason and analysis are rendered useless.
Note the age of the producer... a mere youth, whom has yet to understand the world around him. It's not to demean his ability, it's that this genre of presentation suits his age group perfectly, since it is the only way he has to come to terms, or make sense of the issues in the global environ. Especially note his quote that "...my belief is kids my age want to see production value."
His remark that "...we're more honest than an average news show because we pull back the barrier," is a direct reflection of what he has experienced, and thus come to believe. What he describes as "pulling back the barrier" is the in-your-face, live-24 hours-satellite broadcast-information overload that we have. All human experiences, however absurd, are reality. Frankly, however, our experiences are not the sum total of truth. Thus, there is a standard of truth, external to ourselves. It is not subjective, it is objective.
As as seasoned and mature adult and journalist, you understand those issues and speak to them from a learned and astute stance.
He, however, standing askew, while he has the capacity to understand, has neither the inclination to do so, nor the willingness to attempt such a beginning.
Continue raising the issues. Truth will always be true. And journalism is, as you well know, an ongoing search for the truth.