As the culture sinks further down into the muck that is “reality television”, here is an article which rather succinctly sums up what has been happening across the board regarding the so-called “educational channels”.
slate.com/blogs/wild_things/ … ional.html
Or, with regard to film, look what those corporate assholes have done to the IFC and Sundance Channels.
How long can it really be now before channels like HBO and Showtime succumb?
Here’s an excerpt:
[b]This concern has been voiced before about Discovery programming. Shark Week, arguably one of Discovery’s biggest pieces of viewer bait, has been accused of capitalizing on people’s fear of sharks while simultaneously misinforming the public about an animal that is actually in danger. It’s also not the channel’s first foray into shock programming—last Sunday it aired Nik Wallenda traversing the Chicago skies on a tightrope with no safety net or tether. Animal Planet, which is also owned by Discovery Communications, has made two documentaries on mermaids that are so ineffectively marked as fictional that the U.S. government has had to issue a statement informing the public that mermaids aren’t real. It’s also home to Finding Bigfoot. (I’m not going to elaborate on this.) The History Channel, which is owned by Disney, airs shows about aliens. And let’s not even talk about TLC, another Discovery Communications channel, which has long stopped calling itself “The Learning Channel.”
When did educational television become so unenlightening?[/b]
And, aside from the “sensationalism” gimmick, almost all of the “educational channels” have now embraced every imaginable [and idiotic] context in which “real people” in “real situations” can go into their oft times stupid and outrageous “acts” with the cameras rolling.
This sort of shit always brings me back to that classic scene from the movie Network:
Max: We could make a series of it. “Suicide of the Week.” Aw, hell, why limit ourselves? “Execution of the Week.”
Howard: “Terrorist of the Week.”
Max: I love it. Suicides, assassinations, mad bombers, Mafia hitmen, automobile smash-ups: “The Death Hour.” A great Sunday night show for the whole family. It’d wipe that fuckin’ Disney right off the air.