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Monday, May 22. 2006
The Healing Power of Television
HBO’s Baghdad E.R.
Well, c’est la vie, What can you say? Many, if not most, Americans are content to be numb to reality, ignorant of what our elected leaders are doing, ignorant of the laws they pass. Content and secure that if they “have nothing to hide,” they have nothing to worry about when it comes to the excesses of the Patriot Acts or these new NSA domestic spying policies.
The other night on the Henry Rollins Show, on the Independent Film Channel (IFC), Henry’s featured guest was comedian and actor, Eddie Izzard. One of their topics was reality shows and their pernicious affect on the downward spiral of the “Lowest Common Denominator” people love to mention when describing standard television programming. Reality programming is cheap to produce and there’s no shortage of people willing to view the travails and betrayals — and real suffering that occasionally takes place — of “everyday” people competing for a cash reward.
We have to mention Richard Hatch, the winner of the first Survivor, back in our “innocent” days before 9/11. The final reward for his participation in the program? Prison time for tax evasion.
The other point: are these really “everyday people?” This argument has been made many times by television critics since Survivor first hit the airwaves. In the latest season, they had a cross section of men and women, older and younger, from bums living off their parents (one of those, Aras, won the million dollars) to a retired astronaut and a former Navy fighter pilot. He should have won, everybody thinks so. It stands to reason …
But I would hardly call these “everyday people.” Sure, one of them was a young mother (Cirie) who had rarely ventured from the comforts of home, but the majority of contestants had already lived some extraordinary experiences, from hiking the deserts of Peru, to, well, going into outer space. Hardly the experiences of average Americans.
— Here’s a brief tangent: Michelle Dallacroce, the founder (and quite possibly the only member of) Mothers Against Illegal Immigration said the only job of immigrant women and children is for the children to “overpopulate” and “dumb down” our public schools. Her statement really proves the opposite in that such a statement indicates the speaker is fairly dumb already and is just passing that condition on to her children herself. America’s schools have been dumbing down for quite some time and the influx of illegal aliens, while they may crowd our schools, probably don’t have any effect on the educational decline of our children.
By religiously adhering to the “lowest common denominator” rule, broadcast television has done more to “dumb down” America than any other factor.
Back to Henry Rollins and Eddie Izzard. Izzard was quite upbeat in his assessment of both the American public and American television. While we appear to be plumbing the depths of “depravity” on TV, we are also providing some high standards of television as well. When Izzard said that, The Henry Rollins Show popped into my mind and I realized Izzard was right.
I watch or listen to several hours of TV everyday, mostly CNN or MSNBC, like today. I sit in one room tapping away on this keyboard while CNN goes on in the other room. If something comes on I can step to the other room, and through the magic of DVR, rewind and watch the bit that’s caught my interest.
We have several Discovery Channel selections, one for military enthusiasts, one for science, another that is in partnership with the New York Times and one for kids. There are several arts-related channels, like Ovation; there’s National Geographic, Biography Channel, History and History International channels and BBC America. These are just a few of the channels that have great and/or educational programming.
And there’s Showtime and HBO, both providing original programming like Huff on Showtime and The Sopranos on HBO. Both do documentaries and this past weekend HBO aired Baghdad E.R., an hour long special on the reality of what’s happening to our soldiers and Marines in Iraq.
Quite graphic, Baghdad E.R. shows Americans and some Iraqis with horrible injuries and doctors trying to repair the damage, or in some cases, removing limbs. There’s nothing glorious about it, with the exception of the heroic efforts of the combat wounded to the medical staff trying to save their lives and bodies.
The debate over the war won’t leave my thoughts. As we here in the United States bicker over the war — “Going to Iraq was wrong;” “Going to Iraq was the right step in the global war on terror” — whatever side of this debate we’re on, it doesn’t mean squat to the young men and women who are living the nightmare in Iraq. And some of those young souls are dying in that nightmare.
Watching Baghdad E.R. cemented a new conviction in me that’s been growing for some time now. Living in San Diego, it’s hard to ignore the Sailors and Marines all over town and when I speak with an active duty Marine, always the conversation turns to their next deployment to the war zone. I can’t remember the last time I spoke with someone who was going for the first time. It wears on them and sometimes the fear flashes across their faces as they ponder yet another tour of duty in Iraq.
So, it no longer matters to me whether or not going to Iraq was right or wrong, what only matters is when will we stop this carnage and bring our troops home? That’s the question. We can investigate and resolve that first issue when all our young men and women are safe from I.E.D.’s and R.P.G.’s.
Mom and Dan
Dan
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