What happened to infomercials? I mean the ones that had such enthusiastic hosts showing you how the latest 47-in -1 slicer dicer juicer mixer chopper cutter baker seerer peeler can make your life so much simpler…and if you order RIGHT NOW you get the steak knives too.
Our station shows infomercials early in the morning, like many do, and I just happen to go to work very early in the morning. Now infomercials are all about two things: How you can make a bazillion dollars playing the stock market by just buying low and selling high (just look for the three green arrows), or all-natural ways for you to eschew modern medicine.
This morning we had both. Then came Entertainment Tonight.
If you happen to live under a rock inside of a spaceship on its way to Pluto, you might have missed the story about wildfires ravaging southern California. ET was all about telling us which celebrities had houses in trouble, and which were safely chillin in their Malibu mansions.
I get that it’s an entertainment show and they feel like they have to play an angle. But sometimes its appropriate to use your resources in a more productive way. You want to play the television angle? Fine. Talk about the San Diego reporter who did a live report from in front of his own burning house. That’s a great story.
The fires in Malibu, while certainly not a good thing, are some of the smallest in this outbreak. Unfortunately, we live in a Britney-centric world. So of course ET had to not only tell us that Britney’s house was safe so far, but that the Starbucks she goes too–it’s even known as the “Britney Starbucks,” is closed for now.
Maybe we need to go door-to-door and give people a swift kick to the priority zone in their brain so we can rethink some priorities. It’s not like it’s unprecedented for an entertainment-based show to change its programming to reflect a more serious situation that’s affecting a lot of people.
Not to equate the fires to 9/11, but the example of ESPN in the days following the terrorist attacks is the first example that came to mind. ESPN, which drills sports as hard as ET pimps Britney, basically turned into the Eastern Seaboard Provider of News. Sure, they had a few sound bites from players and management saying how games really weren’t important at a time like that. But those were poignant comments accompanied by pictures of players standing in empty baseball stadium watching CNN on the jumbotron. The rest of their broadcasts were essentially ABC News on a different channel. They realized what was important, and shifted their focus to reflect the situation.
There is an argument from a programming standpoint that morning shows should feature lighter content so people can have non-contentious items to talk about when they get to work. Don’t give them a bunch of nuggets on the presidential election, that will just stir things up in the office. Britney is what they want to discuss. But what kind of a country do we have if you get to the water cooler and say “Hey, did you hear that Britney’s Starbucks is closed!” instead of “Hey, half a million people out of their houses now, I can’t imagine what they’re going through. Do you know anyone out there? How are they doing?”
Let’s leave Britney alone for a few days. Please.