[whiteperil] Sean: Our betters

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Posted by Sean:
Our betters
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1205474273.shtml


   Overheard at the bar the other night, spoken between two always-loud
   friends from the same part of the British Isles:

     "Well, I get both CNN and the BBC, you know, and I always
     think--well, let me put it this way: CNN is entertainment, and the
     BBC is news."
     "Oh, very much so. By the way, isn't that weather guy...Rob
     Mar...Mar...."
     "Marciano! A real hottie!"
     "Can't get enough of him!"

   To impress upon his mate (and, I'm fairly certain, everyone within
   earshot--he's that type) the seriousness of the distinction, Speaker 1
   drew out the word news with suitable fake-RP/genuine-gasbag
   portentousness: nee-yeeewwwwwz.
   I'm usually very good about not chortling audibly in such situations,
   but I happened to be sitting with my English buddy, with whom I e-mail
   news stories and things back and forth frequently through the day. I
   made the mistake of catching his eye. At that point, it was over.
   Of course, it's not the first time I've heard that kind of nonsense.
   But it's still nonsense.
   It's not that I object to the characterization of CNN as a source of
   little more than entertainment, given that its "in-depth coverage" is
   like World Book Encyclopedia come to life: all cutesy-poo visuals and
   repellantly chipper presentation, presumably calibrated to reassure
   the mass audience that it will not be confronted with anything too
   complicated, taxing to the intellect, or challenging to existing
   assumptions.
   I just don't see how the BBC--especially BBC World, which has notably
   CNN-ified itself over the years--can be thought to bring anything more
   elevated to the mix. It's not that the BBC is worse. For one thing,
   the reporters don't do as much of that gruesome, would-be-matey
   joshing with one another as they do on American channels. (Is there no
   way to make them cut that out?) But you get the same pat,
   preconception-confirming reporting on stories that you get everywhere
   else. You get the same "heartwarming" human interest pieces, which I
   sometimes think are purposefully contrived to make any civilized
   person's flesh crawl. You get the same asinine patter made necessary
   by being on the air all day. And you get the same unilluminating Q&A
   shows. Even the Hard Talk guy, whatever his name is (if he were cuter
   I'd make more of an effort to remember), is more known for his
   confrontational-jerk style of delivering questions than for actually,
   you know, drawing better information out of his subjects than other
   interviewers do.
   At times I prefer the BBC because I find the cool composure of the
   newsreaders welcome. Just spit out the story already. At other times
   it's kind of nice the way CNN (as well as MSNBC) is populated by
   people who appear frankly aware that they're feeding you Spam on
   Wonder smeared with Miracle Whip Lite. That probably says something
   about my native Yank preference for forthrightness.
   Just to end on a suitable note of (North) American frivolity: Rondi
   [1]thinks Silda (Mrs. Eliot) Spitzer looks like Jennifer Aniston.
   There's totally a Hollywood angle on everything if you just look hard
   enough!

References

   1. http://wonkitties.blogspot.com/2008/03/rumour-has-it.html