This morning, as I’ve been writing, I’ve been watching a re-airing of a conference on children’s media called Beyond Prime Time, airing on C-SPAN. Leaders of the FCC, broadcasting and mega-consolidated companies as well as kids’ advocates meeting yet again to talk about all the dangers, risks and difficulties of rearing children in the media-saturated world. It is horrifying to think about some of the things kids see in the afternoon and early evening, from Jerry Springer to ads for horror movies to news promos "fire kills four children in the Bronx." And that doesn’t even count the just plain trashy programming designed with kids in mind. Or the sexism, violence, overt sexuality and generally demented stuff that passes for entertainment.
I worked most of my life in TV news and loved what we were able to offer. Today most news cares more about Anna Nicole Smith than riots in the streets of Jerusalem; more about missing coeds than cuts in the loans that get kids to college in the first place. And that doesn’t count what airs in the entertainment venue.
The thing is, I don’t think Americans require the ridiculous material polluting early TV hours. Polls too consistently demonstrate a parental desperation about media; in my experience the lowering of standards emerges from taking the line of least Resistance – the safest, ickiest material. The Jordan McDeere character on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip turned down garbage and almost lost her job; now she’s in a fight to the death with a new, reality programming exec. Unlike The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin isn’t going to let us pretend things are better in the TV version in this show.
None of this is new, I guess, but it just kills me that we are still having these conferences and there is still garbage all over the air. And the cavalier attitude regulators have shown toward the media consolidation that makes these things so tough to resist hasn’t been any help either. They spend hours trashing the media but won’t take the hard positions to make things better.
There is probably not ONE original thought in this whole post but I feel better.