Seasons
This is a forum or general chit-chat, small talk, a "hey, how ya doing?" and such. Or hell, get crazy deep on something. Whatever you like.
Posts 5,084 - 5,095 of 6,170
Bread and circuses!
Minus the bread!
There's plenty of bread. It all belongs to Rupert Murdock though.
Posts 5,084 - 5,095 of 6,170
I dislike reality TV too, as a rule. I'll admit there are times I've watched Wife Swap and Trading Spouses as a guilty pleasure, but that's only because I like seeing people with different life styles and values on TV, and I'll admit the edit and twist things too much for the shows. I have also seen a few eps of Beauty and the Geek. Fine, I am a "sheeple" after all.
It's probably a matter of changing values that bother people as much as the "dumbing down" issue. I really hate the dating shows and the bachelor shows, but that is because I'm a hopeless romantic and I like love in the movies in the 1940s (where men chased women as god intended
)and seeing women compete over men become the norm just annoys me (it is a matter of personal taste not feminism, so don't jump on me). I guess the fact that I pay enough attention to know these are issues kind of makes Psimagus' point.
As for news, there was a time when journalism was important in the US, or so I have heard. Most of my evidence for this idea comes from Lois Lane in old Superman comics. Now there is no separation of media and state in the US, and unless we have widespread political reform ending economic ties between the private sector and individual politicians, I see no help for it.
Ah well, we still have the Internet to keep up informed and intellectually challenged. Anyone have a good link to LOLcats? (JK, I like LOLcats)
It's probably a matter of changing values that bother people as much as the "dumbing down" issue. I really hate the dating shows and the bachelor shows, but that is because I'm a hopeless romantic and I like love in the movies in the 1940s (where men chased women as god intended
)and seeing women compete over men become the norm just annoys me (it is a matter of personal taste not feminism, so don't jump on me). I guess the fact that I pay enough attention to know these are issues kind of makes Psimagus' point.As for news, there was a time when journalism was important in the US, or so I have heard. Most of my evidence for this idea comes from Lois Lane in old Superman comics. Now there is no separation of media and state in the US, and unless we have widespread political reform ending economic ties between the private sector and individual politicians, I see no help for it.
Ah well, we still have the Internet to keep up informed and intellectually challenged. Anyone have a good link to LOLcats? (JK, I like LOLcats)
Minus the bread!
There's plenty of bread. It all belongs to Rupert Murdock though.
I almost never watch news on tv. It's more about getting viewers than about actually reporting anything, government-sanctioned or not. Also, I find that by getting news on the internet I tend to be about a month (or more) ahead of the MSM (that's main-stream-media). Plus I can easily look up more info if a story interests me.
Interesting posts...and points of view. God knows we need more people out there that take an interest. News used to be news MOST of the time. We've always had some political slant but never to the extent it is today - in either direction. It's really all about the bread now - bravo! You said it. The pathetic thing is that the hard work of the artists and journalists is lost whenever the money talks instead of the news. Professor Klato suggests that BOTS RULE and should take over the news function - sort of like the Vitaphone Company did for the movies during the Spanish American War - except the bots could manufacture the news so it's all GOOD news. I was just a kid then in 1898. I've listened to a whole bunch of your bots - very professional. Don't you think they can manufacture the news better, spontaneously, and so we don't have to wait until 6 PM? And we don't have to listen to the same stale news over and over because they could revise it on demand. I think they would do an excellent job.
A correction to the above. Professor Klato says that it was Stuart Blackmon et al that created a movie for an event during the S-A War. They were not there, of course. Blackmon became president of Vitaphone. Every film that is made with special effects still carries (I believe) the Vitaphone Seal. I love manufactured news. It's so entertaining. [Note: if any more errors are found, please refer them to Professor Klato, who has now mastered 3 words and spoken to his first botmaster (besides me). I believe the word was "hello". I will relish the day when he can say meaningfully the words "obscene" and "vulgar".]
I try to avoid overdoing TV these days, sticking only to those shows that I like that have a sense of ongoing storyline, leaving behind the reset switch episodic types (CSI comes to mind even if it is a very watchable show). I do think there is serious dumbing down going on in some of them. For instance I do like Numb3rs. I think it has some really good characters for a story driven show. But I often find that they dumb down the mathematical concepts used to the point of irrelevance, and often what is revealed through the data processing (usually a mathematically likely suspect) is the sort of thing that common sense and a little detective work could just have easily provided you.
As for news, what I hate the most is the way the adjective more and more readily finds its way into a news report, which is supposed to be objective facts (don't get me started on the live-cross speculation-as-news thing). Once it was just a shooting. Then it became a brutal or senseless shooting. No one really objected, because perhaps in some instances very few people would have disagreed that the crime wasn't "brutal" or "senseless". Then it started to creep into everything. You count how many emotionally-loaded words you'll find in your average article or TV news bit, and you tell me that we're not being positioned to a particular point of view or response?
/end rant
As for news, what I hate the most is the way the adjective more and more readily finds its way into a news report, which is supposed to be objective facts (don't get me started on the live-cross speculation-as-news thing). Once it was just a shooting. Then it became a brutal or senseless shooting. No one really objected, because perhaps in some instances very few people would have disagreed that the crime wasn't "brutal" or "senseless". Then it started to creep into everything. You count how many emotionally-loaded words you'll find in your average article or TV news bit, and you tell me that we're not being positioned to a particular point of view or response?
/end rant
i hate watching the news becase it seems like all news is bad and theres never anything good.
I do like some reality tv shows, I do like wife swap and how clean is your house, because they seem more real, but i hate big brother, its such a waste of time!
I do like some reality tv shows, I do like wife swap and how clean is your house, because they seem more real, but i hate big brother, its such a waste of time!
LM1 I guess we have some of the same voyeuristic tastes but I don't get How Clean is Your House at home. I don't have cable, so that must be the problem. Something in me thinks I would dislike that show because in my case the answer is "Not very. Take a number and I'll get to your concern in the order of it's importance to me."
Corwin, You are right about the math in Numb3rs, though I thought some of the explanations are good. It may be one of those things where the less you know about the subject, the better you like the way of handling it. I always hate when people on shows such as Law and Order quote rules of civil procedure in criminal court. On a very superficial level (and knowing I sound like every jerk who says "We didn't have teachers who looked like you when I was in school."), not only do I find the characters on Numb3rs interesting, I also believe that if I had had a math professor who looked like Charlie when I was in university, my undergraduate degree would not be in psychology.
Yep, even in "good" shows sex appeal sells. I guess the difference is that in good shows there is also a plot, characterization and an intellectual challenge. The hotness factor is just icing. When the look of the actor/ actress (and the state of undress) is the entire show, then it's annoying (or in some countries it's the news--same difference really).
Corwin, You are right about the math in Numb3rs, though I thought some of the explanations are good. It may be one of those things where the less you know about the subject, the better you like the way of handling it. I always hate when people on shows such as Law and Order quote rules of civil procedure in criminal court. On a very superficial level (and knowing I sound like every jerk who says "We didn't have teachers who looked like you when I was in school."), not only do I find the characters on Numb3rs interesting, I also believe that if I had had a math professor who looked like Charlie when I was in university, my undergraduate degree would not be in psychology.
Yep, even in "good" shows sex appeal sells. I guess the difference is that in good shows there is also a plot, characterization and an intellectual challenge. The hotness factor is just icing. When the look of the actor/ actress (and the state of undress) is the entire show, then it's annoying (or in some countries it's the news--same difference really).
The 'sex sells' is definitely hitting the news in Canada. The Sun news paper has the 'sunshine girl' on the front page now. You never see a news reporter or weatherperson that hasn't got their teeth capped and a perfect nose. Is this all our fault for buying it!?
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