Advertising diatribe

[MJTurano@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/13/99 3:52:16 PM, hixon@e2.empirenet.com writes:

<<Oh, come now, Holly - television is not such a terrible thing. It is a
tool like a knife is a tool. You can use a knife to cut your food, or
you can use it to stab someone, dead or otherwise. >>

Television is evil.  Evil, I tell you!

It is a tool used by the corporate masters to keep us, the gullible masses, 
enslaved in an endless cycle of self-destruction and mindless consumption!  
Its passive nature contributes to the atrophy of independent thought and 
imagination, while at the same time creating the illusion of usefulness, or 
(dare I say) benevolence!

Which isn't to say that I don't watch the damn thing.  (D'OH!)

Seriously, the next time I'm reading a book and an advertisement jumps off 
the page and demands my attention for two minutes, I'll buy into the theory 
that TV is a book you don't have to hold.   While it may be true that if you 
search hard enough you can find something to watch that isn't complete 
garbage, the worst book I ever read was still better than the best TV show 
I've ever seen.  

Books and *most* movies generate the bulk of their profit directly through 
the quality of the product, while television programs rely on folks running 
out and buying the stuff they push at you during the commercials.  This makes 
it all but inevitable that the quality of what you see on television will 
suffer when compared to other media.

There was a time in my life, not too long ago, during which I had no access 
to a television.  I missed a lot of hockey, sure, but I also missed the 
exhortations to "buy this now or your teeth will rot and fall out of your 
head and no one will love you and you'll die alone in a dank, one-room 
apartment where no one will notice for two weeks until the smell drifts out 
into the hallway."  

Things were simpler then.  :)

-Matt  (with apologies to Nora Ephron for stealing a line from _When Harry 
Met Sally_)