One of the things I like about Twitter is the ability to edit who I follow and who follows me… also on the fly. Mostly, I follow really smart people and foodies, not that they are mutually exclusive.

TV went by the wayside once we installed the converter boxes for digital and our reception became even worse. That was about a year and half ago, and it had mostly lost its appeal long before.

I can hardly believe that “Two and half men” is what now passes for a sitcom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xda2dAol0E

My phrasing about Murrow and McLuhan probably conflates two different strands of media criticism.

Having been in broadcast news, and actually intrigued for a time by the idea of “evolving” into a commentator gravitisimo myself, I paid a lot of attention to Murrow’s arguments about the public service function (or imperative) of The News.

He failed to make the case in its purest sense (or was sandbagged by the company), as perhaps the “disgraced” Dan Rather is failing today.

But maybe it’s just that, as McLuhan suggested, whatever seriousness as may exist on television at any time is undermined eventually by the inherent contradictions within the medium (it’s internal absurdities) based on its business model. As a casting agent might say: THINK “Mad Men” or “30 Rock”.

Hell, think Dan Rather! I really feel for him on a news level, but he’s become an absurdist clown character – a kind of journalistic Emmett “Weary Willie” Kelley.

Are reality shows the ultimate junk yard destination for American television programming? Some critics say yes, but they caution that it may take a generation for the trend to run its course (or wear out its welcome) and then head back, maybe, toward better dramatic fare.

Trouble is, by that time all of today’s actors looking for work in New York will be dead. Tough toenails for them.

So maybe we should all partake (if you do) as though we’re a bunch of Becketts who can’t wait to jump ship. If you haven’t already, consider disembarking at the nearest port of call.

Looking back on my own experience of television, I believe that McLuhan was more right than Murrow. The absurdity which you complain about is an important piece of information in itself. If you watch 52 straight weeks of Washington Week in Review, for example, which gathers all the most august names together, and is absolutely dripping with gravitas, the strongest and most lasting impression it leaves on you is that if these are our best and brightest, the ship of state really is a ship of fools, and no one on it has ever bothered to look out a porthole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl73yZdvBGY&feature=related

In any case, television has failed to fulfill the true “public service” potential that was described by people like Murrow and McLuhan.

It’s become something else.

As you suggest on hag’s latest: it’s a stream of funhouse talking-head mirrors, a mass of bobbleheads. Talking on and on.