03/03/08 :: [Other] Interesting contrast on TV this Week [permalink]
I don't watch TV that much except for football. For everything else, I have a little home built digital recorder that occasionally records interesting things.
This week there was an interesting contrast. First there was this show from the University of Washington on "Shared Prosperity in an Age of Global Warming". I can't say enough how proud I am to live in the Northwest. It's almost like living in a different country and nobody captures best the Northwest spirit than this ad from a local insurance company showing all kinds of Northwest characters and claiming "We are a lot like you, ... a little different". I would argue a lot different.
In this presentation Ron Sims, a local county level politician presents his vision about tying together global warming, the global and local economy and poverty. This guy makes you really proud to live here, just like our governor, Christine Gregoire, and so many other people. It looks to me that the US always had forward thinking areas like the greater Chicago area (up to Ohio) in the late 1800s which had incredible innovations, not just in Technology but also economically, architecturally (F.L. Wright) ... or California in the second half of the 20th century. Will the Northwest walk in these footsteps? It is probably too early to tell.
The bottom line is that I feel really privileged to live here. I don't want to comment on Ron's presentation, I think it should be placed in perspective with the current presidential campaign. I'll let you watch it since it is now available on UWTV.org.
The other show that I watched this week-end was Frontline's "Bush's War", aired on PBS, earlier this week. This show made me sick at two levels (I am constantly sickened by how many people die each day). First it reminded me of 2002-2003 where I could not stand to watch TV and listen to the radio as American was chanting on the path to war. It also made me sick because one of the key turning point the show claims is right after Colin Powell's talk at the UN when the French Prime Minister reacted in Powell's back. They claim that Powell was the only one that could avoid war and our prime minister killed him with his little anti-war talk. But at the end of the day, it is Powell who delivered that talk to the UN it is he who delivered the case for war (even though we now know that Cheney was the one that wrote that talk, Powell simply delivered it).
Ironically, America is probably the country where there are the most hours of news per day: the networks deliver 3 hours of news in the evening (5 to 7pm) and another 3 hours earlier in the day, yet quality of what they deliver is abysmal. Worse, they not only make deadly mistakes, but when they venture on the commentary side, they mislead their viewers. Today, the press has completely given up on its role, journalists are no different than a reality show producer, eager to collect ad revenue.
My question is very simple, how can the American press teach anyone a lesson today? The French (and Europe at large) went above and beyond to avoid this war, this is the reality. Where were they then, even Cheney was able to corroborate the false uranium accusation with an article from the NY Times? Where are they today? they want the American people to believe that the French are responsible and sweep everything else under the rug (hundred's of thousands of dead people).
I also found interesting to look back at Tony Blair (I don't want to say the British people or the British Government because they voiced just as hard as the French how terrible a mistake that would be). I'd be really interested to know today what George Bush thinks of himself? Sure his family, and to a certain extend, Britain, have benefited from the strong hand he and Tony put on the Iraki Oil Faucet. But how does he sees himself with respect to his country? What does he think as a Christian and pro-life supporter about all these people dead? What does his wife and daughters think about him? About what he has done to his own country? What Keneth Starr thinks about all this? Why isn't he so prone to impeach Bush and so many other officials for what they have done to their country?
But the saddest thing of all is that the press has learned nothing. It continues to go with the wind, it continues to focus on the wrong things with the wrong attitude. If this country wants to rebuilt itself, it has to rebuilt its press from the ground up. This is no easy task, but the press is one of the most important pillars of democracy, and ultimately freedom.