The Weekly Fare . . . January 30, 2003

The War Within

Is it just me? Am I the only one?

Or are there others who shudder as I do every time they turn on a television set or a radio?

Witness last Sunday's Super Bore . . . er, Super Bowl broadcast. Three out of every four commercials were based on violence or sex or both - the worst of which were promo spots for upcoming movies or television shows with scenes so graphically violent and grotesque that they turned my forty-one-year-old stomach.

My nine-year-old son sat directly in front of the TV at our friends house as well. I couldn't help but feel somehow responsible / negligent in allowing him to witness the scenes that were continually pumped before him every ten to fifteen minutes.

But this was the Super Bowl . . . Wasn't I just allowing him to watch the Super Bowl?

I was.

And I wasn't.

In the madness that is today's media market the top five "giants" - Viacom, Universal Avendi, AOL Time Warner, Disney and Newscorp - have learned the invaluable lesson of cross marketing in all their venues: Publishing (newspapers, magazines, internet, books), Film (movie production, distribution and rentals), Music (CDs, DVDs, concerts) Television (satellite, cable channels, news outlets, sports, etc.).

Accordingly, the Super Bowl has become one big info-mercial, custom packaged by the media giants (who joint venture with one another) to produce a marketing vehicle that promotes their vision of pop culture to the vast numbers of children, teenagers and young adults who are their largest (and future) market. With the relatively recent aggregation of their resources, these companies now have the power to not only develop and control the product, but their market as well. They have finally closed the loop and between them this year will do over 100 Billion Dollars in sales, reaching more than 250 million homes worldwide through television alone.

And the vast percentage of their offering is unadulterated garbage - having nothing to do with that which "builds up." Rather, it is a steady stream of violent and shallow fare that breaks down, defiles and corrupts the human spirit.

This year's lead-dog for the Super Bowl orgy was Disney-ABC who promoted the latest versions of their scantily clad pop / teenie-bop icons (featured on their record labels) during the pre-game, halftime and post-game shows. I wonder if the people dancing around the stages were having half as much fun as Disney paid them to have?

After the whole thing was over one couldn't help but wonder . . . Was there a football game in there somewhere?

I'm sorry folks, but Vince Lombardi would puke. And not just for the fact that his sport has become so intertwined with the horror that is the purveyance of the American media giants, as he would for the horror itself.

"We've gone mad," he'd say. "We've gone absolutely mad . . . "

And he'd be right. We have allowed the greed and lust of the human heart to flourish so openly and brazenly in the freedom that is our capitalistic democracy that we've adopted a sort of common acceptance of whatever Rupert Murdoch and his sleazy band of conspirators want to do.

George Orwell in his classic, "1984," was worried about the government becoming "big-brother" - controlling and manipulating its subjects and the lives they lived.

The reality is, perhaps somewhat predictably, that large commercial conglomerates have now reached a position (buoyed by an apathetic cultural acceptance) that allows them to control the hearts and minds and lifestyles of the masses - especially the young and impressionable. Ironically, and perhaps even frighteningly, it is these same young and impressionable youth, with their deep passion for freedom and truth, who may be our greatest hope in fighting such a menace.

I hope they figure it out soon.

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( Note: If you haven't seen it, do everything you can to watch "The
Merchants of Cool" on PBS. This one hour Frontline documentary explores and
exposes the inner workings of today's media corporations and how they
market to teens. As a parent you may want to preview the program, available
through www.pbs.org, before deciding when your teenager is ready to watch it.)