TV & Film Most boring TV programming

[Blobbenstein]

if I watch the Barefoot Contessa put one more measuring spoon of black pepper in something.....and tubs of cowpuss...one more tomato....well, it's my choice to watch, but it does get boring..

 

[Spang]

Shop-at-home channels. Though there was a time when I was really into sports memorabilia and would watch the **** out of some shop-at-home shows that featured said merchandise.

I only ever bought one thing, a collection of Barry Bonds baseball cards, but never got 'em.

 

[das_nut]

Meanwhile, South Sudan is again on the verge of genocide, several thousand having been murdered in the past few months, and that hardly gets noticed in the midst of the various disappearance scenarios. Yeah, the news is definitely entertaining

But a plane has disappeared weeks ago and it's weird!

You got to know what is important and what isn't. Missing plane? Important. Impending wars? Not important.

 

[Second Summer]

I just dug up this thread to say that another thing that frustrates me with mainstream TV news shows is their focus, which is often on unimportant and/ or on sensationalist stories. But now I see I'm pretty much just repeating what others have just said. Oh well

 

[Blobbenstein]

One thing I read in the book Manufacturing Consent, is that news outlets often rely on official press conference, and press releases....they don't want to get locked out of that, and other sources of information. So they can't publish the really juicy news.
Commercial news outlets, also rely on advertising, so they can't upset their sponsoring clients.
It's an interesting book. I haven't read it all, but I can see how the real news is suppressed.

 

[Amy SF]

But a plane has disappeared weeks ago and it's weird!

You got to know what is important and what isn't. Missing plane? Important. Impending wars? Not important.

I just dug up this thread to say that another thing that frustrates me with mainstream TV news shows is their focus, which is often on unimportant and/ or on sensationalist stories. But now I see I'm pretty much just repeating what others have just said. Oh well

BUT BENGHAZI!

 

[ledboots]

I just dug up this thread to say that another thing that frustrates me with mainstream TV news shows is their focus, which is often on unimportant and/ or on sensationalist stories. But now I see I'm pretty much just repeating what others have just said. Oh well

It really drives me crazy! Really important things are happening in the world, and all we hear about for the past few days is how some octogenarian racist billionaire Los Angeles basketball team owner had a racist rant recorded by his mistress and was thus banned from his own $900 million dollar stadium and team. That is pretty much ALL they are talking about on the news.

And it's not even the LA Lakers, it's the Clippers.

 

[Blobbenstein]

the more the news focuses on sensational items, the more people will think that these items are all that is news worthy.

 

[das_nut]

One thing I read in the book Manufacturing Consent, is that news outlets often rely on official press conference, and press releases....they don't want to get locked out of that, and other sources of information. So they can't publish the really juicy news.
Commercial news outlets, also rely on advertising, so they can't upset their sponsoring clients.
It's an interesting book. I haven't read it all, but I can see how the real news is suppressed.

I prefer the non-conspiracy Drew Curtis take on it.

I'm not dragging out the book right now, but he points outs that press releases are easy to get, and reporters are lazy.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I prefer the non-conspiracy Drew Curtis take on it.

I'm not dragging out the book right now, but he points outs that press releases are easy to get, and reporters are lazy.

Manufacturing Consent says the same thing, I think....real reporting takes time and resources....conspiracy is only part of the pattern.....it is like an organic emergence of control of the media.

 

[das_nut]

I find conspiracy to be the lazy man's answer. Hanlon's razor and all that.

 

[Blobbenstein]

well, it seems silly to say that there is no control of the media by the rich and powerful.

Like I said it is more of an unplanned emergence of control of the media.

 

[das_nut]

No control and effective control are two different things...

 

[Blobbenstein]

No control and effective control are two different things...

what do you mean?

I don't think the media is controlled at every level, just that different forces(like the cost of real reporting and laziness) combine to control the media. Emergence, like evolution..things just happen to suit rich people's agenda.

Take advertising, as I mentioned. I read that one TV station in the US wanted to do a program about how companies are damaging the environment, which lead to one sponsor threatening to pull its advertising....that is a control of the media, isn't it? And nothing to do directly with stupidity.

 

[das_nut]

what do you mean?

Complex systems resist simplistic theories.

 

[Blobbenstein]

Complex systems resist simplistic theories.

I dunno. You must have seen fractals. They are quite complex, but are derived from fairly simple formula and algorithms.

I think the main driving force for the way the media behaves is money. Big corporations have lots of money to buy influence, and defend their interests. I know that is only part of it, and I do agree with what you said about laziness, and there are other factors.
Money also buys very good legal support, to attack people in the media, and media outlets...money money money, maybe it is simplistic, but we all need money, in the same way that food is an important factor in evolving organisms, and ecosystems.

 

[Blobbenstein]

but like you say, it is more complex than that, but it doesn't mean there aren't more simple components.

 

[das_nut]

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The world works in a holistic way.

 

[peterman]

Watching golf on TV is the best cure for insomnia. Puts me to sleep every time.

I do agree
I hate golf