Wednesday, September 22, 2004

TV reality.

Reality isn't what you're told it is. But that's not what this blog is about. So, I'll limit these comments to the increasing blending of news and entertainment in our culture.

Last night I had the TV on (a fairly rare event), and there were two advertisements that really caught my attention (in an incredulous kind of way).

The TV drama Law & Order is advertising its opening season show as being "ripped from today's headlines". The story is going to have something to do with POWs and Arabs, and photographs that are - yes, Abu Ghraib type torture scenes.

If we got nothing else from Abu Ghraib, we got TV entertainment.

And, then, the real bizarro moment was a local TV commercial for Columbia Car Classics. I wasn't really watching it, so I can't give you the precise script, but it was a typical car sales commercial, complete with bargain info to the effect that they are running certain deals (so much money off for whatever reasons), and they actually pasted up a photo of bin Laden with some big sale numbers, saying something like getting the full price taken off any vehicle if you bring him in to trade!. But, if you can't find bin Laden, then you can still take off whatever amount from the price of a vehicle for some other deal they're offering.

Good lord.

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