Tim Robbins' Beautiful, Impossible Media Dream
Tim Robbins is right: this country’s media conglomerates – networks, station groups, beleaguered newsgathering organizations – could and should be offering the American public a more dignified diet of news and information.
“Stop making money on the prurience of others and the salacious desires of the public,” Robbins exhorted broadcasting’s business leaders on Monday.
I wish I could say I believe they have heard the call and soon we will be seeing less TMZ and more 60 Minutes. But it ain’t gonna happen.
On April 3, CBS’ The Oprah Winfrey Show scored the highest ratings it had seen in weeks with an episode on Thomas Beatie, a transgendered woman living as a man who is six months pregnant. While the peerless Ms. Winfrey handled what could have been an extremely awkward and exploitative interview with grace and aplomb, I can’t avoid noticing that it came at a time when Oprah’s ratings had been on a long downward trend. Winfrey clearly has some other things on her mind these days: getting a different sort of candidate elected to the White House, changing the world view of spirituality, altruism in all its forms. She does shows on most of these topics in abundance – and none of them score ratings like the tabloid-esque episode on the so-called pregnant man did.
While Oprah is doing more than probably any other person in television to save the world, even she is not above going for a headline-making interview to grab ratings. It’s what people want to see. If Oprah is going to stay atop the talk chart, she knows she has to kowtow to what the public wants.
Oprah’s one-time prodigy, Dr. Phil, is going even further. This week, the good doctor and his ardent producers have come under fire for bailing out the ringleader of a group of Florida teens who attacked a peer, videotaped it and put it on YouTube. In return for accepting the bail, the teen, Mercedes Nichols, was to have appeared on the show. Bribing would-be show participants has never met with a ton of public approval, although I’m sure it’s done all the time.
"It’s an example of the sleaziest kind of behavior," according to Roy Peter Clark, who has taught journalism and ethics at St. Petersburg, Fla.’s Poynter Institute for Media Studies, as quoted by ABC Action News’ Matthew Schwartz.
Dr. Phil’s publicist ultimately decried the move in an email, stating that the producers in question "have been spoken to” and that the show “has decided not to go forward with the story.” Had the public not discovered the bail-out, however, I am certain Dr. Phil would have marched bravely ahead with the episode and gotten huge ratings for it to boot.
Meanwhile, CBS just laid local news staff off in droves, the New York Times is encouraging reporters and editors to take buyouts, and large daily newspapers across the country are dying. It’s admirable for Mr. Robbins to encourage the media to provide us with balanced, in-depth reporting on serious issues, but the truth is that people vote with their pocketbooks. Tabloid media is raking in the profits; news organizations are going out of business. What viewers really want to watch couldn’t be clearer.
“We don’t need to celebrate our pornographic obsession with celebrity culture,” said Robbins. “We are better than that."
As a culture, are we better that? Sadly, no economic indicator leads me to agree. And if I’m trying to run a giant media business that must show hefty profits to stockholders, that’s all I really need to know.
Ed Deli commented:
Or do a google search on
Beppe Grillo
Ed Deli commented:
I wish all of you could read a now extremely popular blog which delas with the abuses of the over-concentration of the media in a single hand
beppegriilo.it
Al Sionni commented:
I just think although,i hate to say this is that people especially America as a whole has dumbed down as a society. That is why these ridiculous tabloid shows who i wont mention are getting good ratings. It seems the worse a celebtity is and does is what they call NEWS today.
tv_programmer commented:
Deep down, I completely agree with Mr. Robbins. Why the public cares so much about celebrities is beyond be. But, they do and this is a business.
As a TV programmer, you put on the air what the public wants to see, not what you want to see. The public has said that they like celebrity gossip, so thats what the TV networks put on the air. Which in return draws ratings, and then revenue. Remember, this is a business. Mr. Robbins should have criticized the american people, not the tv networks.
jane quatam commented:
Paige,
The problem lies in your perception that new and entertainment cannot be delivered by anyone other than giant media businesses beholden to stockholders. This nation delivered pretty good news broadcasting to its viewers thru outlets like CBS NBC and other for many years. I'm pretty sure all those entities were for profit enterprises and they managed to actually cover the Viet Nam war, riots in the streets and assinations, along with strikes, murders and other news.
Todays media doesn't cover live events other than the Rose Bowl or the Macy's day parade (formerly thanksgiving) - don't you ever wonder why - its so much cheaper, easier and quicker to cover live events now, than in the past, yet the coverage doesn't exist or is never aired.
The media is used for one thing to distract the public from the criminal activities of business and government, to marginalize and destroy opposition and to sell as many crap products and services as possible. Even CNBC runs infomercials on weekends - I'm pretty sure business activity still happens on weekends, or could be discussed on weekends, but no, instead we get to see Tony Robins scream about his latest exercise gizmo.
The media has no intention of actually reporting,discussing or informing the public of what is really going on, despite having a civic and a moral obligation to do so, despite it being a mandate from the FCC, the river of crap continues and the viewership declines daily as anyone with an IQ large enough to allow them to dress themselves turns it off and walks away. Even the clowns get sick of the circus at some point.
When will you open your eyes and realize what you are participating in?
The news and entertainment are not the sole province of business conglomerates. The news can and will be reported by persons and small groups, look at the 911 movement - the media never discussed the issued raised by these groups until it became clear they could not be ignored so they must be marginalized. The information was generated with out the help of the media, the same with the war in Iraq- embedded reporter is newspeak for corporate whore.
Tim Robbins may be a dreamer, but without dreamers we all live in a nightmare. Think about it Paige, think about what you can do as a person to change things, we cannot control others, we only control ourselves, lets start there.
Lorin Oswald commented:
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Stuart commented:
Paige, I really hope that you get proven wrong. I suspect you do too.