Who fights the Battlefield of
Television Ideas?
The
revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised….
Gil
Scott Heron was thinking of the powerful visuals of television and their
impacts on audience when he was growing definitively skeptical. But he
had still not thought that television with its pluralistic marketplace
of ideas still had more coming. And soon, we discovered that McLuhan’s
“hot” medium no more can match up with the hardline messages
of some commentators, who are out to convince viewers that facts as portrayed
by them are more engrossing than fictions.
Enough has been said of “The O'Reilly Factor” -- the most-watched
program on cable news. In fact “Outfoxed” has grossed millions
only by its critic on Bill O'Reilly. As if Fox was not already known to
be catering to the conservatives, derived from Pew Researches on audience
constitution, we have a frenzy in the nation to prove if O’Reilly
is a liberal or a liberal-basher. To end controversies, one just needs
to watch Talking Points, any episode, to get it straight from mouth of
the horse, as I did last week:
“Secular forces have succeeded in blunting public displays of faith.
So the exposition in Rome was new to many people. Actually, the more spiritual
people were, the more law abiding they would be. For very practical reasons,
the founders wanted public spirituality and encouraged it. "Talking
Points" hopes that all Americans will begin thinking about the traditional
versus the secular in America, which philosophy is best for all of us?
Which one will keep us safe and prosperous?
Another Fox mix is “Strong opinions and sharp political insight
— the fair and balanced debate only on Hannity and Colmes.”
Honestly I did not think much of it even as conservative radio commentator
Sean Hannity has clearly an upper hand over the liberal radio personality
Alan Colmes. Commenting on Pope, whereas Colmes wanted to stir some divergent
answers with “Many people say that when the pope went to Poland
in 1979, he really inspired the Solidarity movement, which led ultimately
to the fall of communist Eastern Europe. Governor, you want to respond?”,
the New Mexico Governor Richardson responded meekly before Hannity took
over looking for the grand narrative: “Governor, you met the pope,
as I understand, on three separate occasions. Tell us about your experience
with him.”
In contrast, the exception has been Chris Matthews who hosts “Hardball”
on MSNBC. Watching the same topic, I found Matthews’ inquisitiveness
calling spades. Despite the sensitive time, he brought up social security
issues of the US at Vatican City, much to embarrassment of his own guests.
Archbishop John Foley, the president of the Vatican‘s Pontifical
Council for Social Communications at Vatican City had to grapple with
Matthew’s question: Do you think Americans really now want a pope
that can speak English?. When Foley replied that Americans always want
somebody who can speak English, Matthews asked if it was “because
we don‘t speak anything else”.
With five members of the House delegation, Matthews reassures that he
wants to make this very nonpolitical and then throws the bombshell: “Remember
Joseph Stalin, who asked, how many divisions does the pope have? Well,
you all grew up probably praying, for the conversion of Russia every Sunday,
right? What do you think of that fight between the Catholic Church and
communism all these years, and who won?”
When the questions are certainly more insightful than the answers, one
knows who’s in charge. Matthews goes here: “I want to ask
you all. This is somewhat divisive, but let‘s go for it. The values
of the man who just died, who is being honored tomorrow in this funeral,
they were Catholic values. But were they Republican or Democratic values?
How do you divide them up, the right to life, supporting pro-choice—pro-life
candidates, but yet opposition to death penalty, for poor nations of the
world, for debt relief.
The part I loved most was when Matthew gave one statement and one threw
one question on the Pope we once knew: “I mean, Charlie, Jesus didn‘t
hang around with the swells, the rich people.” And “What don‘t
we can about the pope we should know, Laura?”
With Chris, I am sure, he knows that most of us think we know the answers,
few know that they know the questions right.
Saswat
Pattanayak
blog@saswat.com