Jonah Goldberg has written an excellent article entitled, Barbara Walters and ABC Give Soapbox to a Wacko. Here are some great excerpts:But ABC isn’t obliged to give O’Donnell a nationally televised platform. Barbara Walters, the matriarch of The View and its executive producer, is supposed to be a titan of American journalism. She has all the awards any broadcast journalist could ever want. But today she knowingly gives a soapbox to a wacko.
Walters and ABC no doubt will seek comfort in any number of rationalizations, from gooey platitudes about free speech to the glories of diverse opinion to the fundamental unseriousness of CafĂ© Vienna-moment television. And yes, human train wrecks make for good ratings — which is why O’Donnell may get another $40 million before her View contract expires in June.
Granted, The View isn’t 60 Minutes, so why should we care that much if the girl talk gets a little silly? After all, Walters has spent much of her career muddying the distinction between entertainment and hard news, what with her saccharine “What kind of tree would you be?” interviews.
Yet there is a difference between taking silly topics seriously and being silly about serious stuff. When you discuss hair-care products or lavish weddings, the subject telegraphs its own triviality. Walters may risk her journalistic reputation when she jibber-jabbers about such things, but that ship sailed long ago. It’s another thing entirely when ABC’s most venerated on-air journalist gives a megaphone to someone who frets that poor Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was railroaded, who insinuates that the U.S. government had a hand in any part of 9/11 and who insists Elvis Presley is alive and living on an island with Bruce Lee (O.K., I made that last one up).
Related links:
StopRosie.com
Should Rosie Be Fired From ‘The View’?
No comments:
Post a Comment