RANT
I don't know about everybody else in the world, but I'm already sick of the beat-to-death news of the upcoming nuptials of Prince William and what's-her-name. I don't care where he proposed to her. I don't want to see the pictures of the bed they slept in, the cabin they stayed at in Kenya, the ring on her finger or the cafeteria table where they met. I don't want to see the photos of the bikini she was wearing at the fashion show when Prince William "noticed" her as more than an acquaintance. I don't want to know if the Queen Mother thinks she's a good match for her grandson or if what's-her-name was extremely nervous meeting the royal family the first time.
I don't care.
Mind, I understand that as people, this young couple is newsworthy by virtue of the history they represent. I understand that there's always a fascination with "royalty" among people who are curious about those who live in the rarified atmosphere of inherited privilege, luxury and power. But what I really understand is the media is going to spend an inordinate amount of money and airtime to absolutely hammer the hell out of everyone at every level of communication with every bit of minutiae and speculation about the trivialities of this couple's romance and marital escapades.
It's going to be the mind-numbing, never-ending subject on every network, every entertainment show, every talk show. You'd think nothing else is happening in the whole world, when we've got countries teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, natural disasters claiming thousands of lives, pending global depletion of fossil fuel with the resulting catastrophic consequences for civilization as we know it, global warming, civil unrest in our own nation, and daily scientific advances which were sheer fantasy not five years ago to talk about. There's a lot of news -- good news -- that we could be watching instead.
But we're going to peruse the inconsequential silliness of a very public couple's private life for hours and hours and hours every day; a kind of ultimate reality show for a generation that can't get real.
I think I'll disconnect my cable and just watch movies from NetFlix for the next two years and tune back in when it's all over but the flashbacks.
Florida Cracker
2 comments:
Precisely. It's called "feel good news," which the news outlets don't get to offer much of, so they'll certainly go overboard with this. Also, people (those in the biz and news consumers alike) like that something nice is going on with Prince William in particular, since his childhood wasn't all that easy and effectively ended with tragedy. However, if something truly horrible occurs on the day of or a few days prior, you'll find much less coverage of the royal wedding than you would otherwise expect. You don't have to disconnect the cable though -- just change the channel.
Oh, yeah, I should add that they're probably going to have babies, so you can expect a lot of coverage for much longer than two years. I like this a whole lot better than royal funerals, though...
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