Because I was assigned to write an editorial about the attempt now underway to promote soccer in the US by hitching it to the Beckhams' star, I had to watch NBC's hour-long special trailing Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham as she settles herself in Los Angeles. I think I would have killed fewer brain cells if I'd spent that hour huffing glue. Honestly, I used to be a connoisseur of trashy TV, but I couldn't believe that a major network gave an hour of prime time over to this dingbat's adventures.
I mean, really: Paris, Lindsey, Britney, and now Posh. Isn't there a limit on the number of idiotic rich blonde celebrities the public can take? Don't the Geneva Conventions count for anything anymore? The best/worst scene was the visit Posh made to a get-to-know-you Beverly Hills kaffeeklatsch, featuring several wealthy plastic surgery disasters. It was enough to put any conservative in touch with his inner Bolshevik.
In all seriousness, as someone who doesn't watch much TV, I was shocked to see that Posh Spice's visit to a sex shop to purchase a blow-up doll was considered acceptable prime time network fare. At 7 pm Central, no less.
Here's the point at which I tell you to kill your TV -- except that we recovered after putting the kids to bed by watching a wonderful hourlong BBC profile of Queen Elizabeth.
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Isn't there a limit on the number of idiotic rich blonde celebrities the public can take?
Nope.
TV today should send people running to their public libraries and bookstores for something substantial to stimulate the brain cells, but noooo. I actually have seen people "veg out" in front of the TV. We have a friend that said he only had 3 channels. I told him he wasn't missing anything; that we have 400+ and there's nothing on them but trash, so he's better off saving his money.
I'll be glad when college football season's back.
This is also a sorry commentary on the state of journalism.
The "arrival" of Beckham and Posh Spice in LA was an entirely manufactured event, planned and scripted months in advance, and involving no "news" whatsoever. Even the crowd bussed in for the events, amounting to a paltry few thousand, was artificial.
Yet USA Today splashed it across the front page, as did most of the major sports publications and websites, hectoring us that this was something we are Supposed To Pay Attention To. No wonder so many people (especially those with respectable IQs) are choosing to just tune out the media; the real world is more interesting than the artificial any day.
College football is not much better than "pop culture" unless you're talking about Williams v. Amherst. The major Div 1 football factories have a bunch of kids who would NEVER get in the school otherwise playing the game for the enjoyment of alums. By the way, I spent a year tutoring football and basketball players at a major Southern university and it was eye-opening to say the least.
"Kill your TV" is a left-wing bumper sticker from 1982.
The History channel, to name but one of the many great channels avail right now has taught me tons about things that are hard to understand if you are only reading books.
Like dogfights. The graphic re-creations are amazing and no book is going to convey that.
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