I recently stumbled upon this clip from William F. Buckley Jr.'s old show
Firing Line in which Buckley debates Noam Chomsky on number of subjects,
mostly on the US's role in various wars and military actions.
While the debate itself is engrossing, the one thing I find myself
marveling over is the fact that there used to be a place on TV where two
people with such differing perspectives could just sit and talk. Whatever
your feelings towards Buckley or Chomsky, the idea of two sharp-witted,
astute people sitting and debating for an hour
(no ticker, no flashy graphics, etc.) is so incredibly foreign to me.
Now, we've to settle for frantic hackery of Crossfire (remember Jon
Stewart'shilarious and outright
amazing criticism of that show (and the media in general) during an
appearance?) and Hannity & Colmes that caters to short attention
spans and the need for constant stimulation. Meanwhile, one of the best
things I find about French television is the wealth of long, in-depth
round-tables and documentaries that, while I don't always agree with them,
go far more in depth than any regular programming I can think of in the US
(I didn't have cable in France, either).
In Taiwan, even, there are political talk shows that go on for
several hours and consist only of people sitting and talking. I'm not
going to say that the debate is always intelligent or unbiased because I
can understand only the general concepts of what's being said. They're
there, though, and they're certainly not going for the in-your-face,
all-out battle angle that seems to be the norm in American programming.
Of course, the Buckley-Chomsky debate does have its moments of
drama. At one point, Buckley thanks Chomsky for coming and keeping his
calm, as it must be hard to talk about such emotionally charged subjects.
Chomsky gives a nerdy smile, agrees that it's difficult, and admits that
he sometimes losses his temper, to which Buckley replies, "Because if
you do, I'll smash you in the goddamn face." (see clip below)
Here's a larger clip of the interview.
(This isn't the whole interview, but it's the best quality video I could
find. All five of the videos can be found starting here.)
Don't get me wrong. I know why American news programs are the way they
are: it sells. I understand. But it's hurting us. When the journalists
look more for what they think the people want than what's actually
happening, reality is skewed. Suddenly, Anna Nicole Smith's death gets
more attention in the US media than any other entire
country other than the US and Iraq, as mentioned in the short TED
talk below:
As Mrs. Miller points out, even college educated Americans know less than
those twenty years ago, even though, in the past two decades, "the
number of Americans who say they closely follow overseas news has
increased from 37% to 52%."
Miller's conclusion: reporting on Britney, Anna Nicole Smith, etc. is
cheaper.
This goes along way to explaining something I found myself asking a lot
during a recent trip home. When I'd see news about a murder somewhere in
middle America or Britney's little sister's pregnancy, I just could not
figure out why this was national news. I don't mean to denigrate the
significance of a murder, any murder, but the networks would focus on it
for hours, never once discussing the larger implications. All we would be
given is the video feed from a local affiliates news-copter, hovering over
the crime scene, as the anchors drone on about why it was done (that
specific case, not the larger trend itself) and what we know "right
now," as we feverishly call out for more of the gory details.
The answer as to why a murder (one of hundreds) or a celebrity drama is
national news: it's cheap.
That said, go back to the link above and watch Jon Stewart's appearance on
Crossfire. Something really caught my attention when I watched again. At
several times when Stewart calls the hosts hacks and points out the lack
of intelligent debate in the US media, the crowd cheers. These are people who've
come to see a live taping of Crossfire, and they're applauding
Stewart for his attacks on the show and the greater media. The show was
canceled months later largely as a result of Stewart's criticisms.