I have wavered about posting something I wrote the other day. I put it up, took it down, edited it, put it up again and finally took it down again. It had to do with a local TV news personality having the same name as someone who starred in a movie called "Assault of the Killer Bimbos" and the more than slight possibility that the two people were one and the same.
There was nothing defamatory or really damaging to the person involved. Or persons. Gotta acknowledge the umbrage a B-movie star might take if falsely accused of working in television news.
Don Henley's line from his song "Dirty Laundry" had it mostly right. "I coulda been an actor but I wound up here," he sang sarcastically. If the bubble-headed bleach blonde who comes on at five could have been an actor, she would not have wound up telling you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye.
I didn't write it trying to embarrass the person or the station. I thought it was interesting. And funny — a TV station trying to install someone as a beacon of credibility and expertise who may have resorted to TV news only after "Assault of the Killer Bimbos" didn't lead to anything better.
I'm not saying that's the case. I just lay stuff out. Remember the story "The Emperor's New Clothes"? I'm the kid who points out that the emperor is naked. I always have been. Guess what? Emperors HATE that. They always have.
The problem is that emperors are the ones who can hire me. Since I still sometimes work in TV news, I don't think I can do commentaries about things going on in local TV without incurring the emperor's wrath, as happened with WTSP, or making other emperors afraid that I'll point out their public nudity someday.
And we all know that emperors aren't going to stop acting like morons.
That leaves me wondering: What do I want to say here and, increasingly, what will cause me trouble if I say it? Do I become a Pollyanna who opines only about how wonderful everything is? Do I become one of those people who annoys you with the inane updates that fill Facebook pages? Just went to the store! (Or, worse, updates you WHILE driving to the store.)
If I were smart, I'd delete this whole thing and save myself the trouble before another unclad emperor comes along and I can't help myself.
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2 comments:
I read the piece.
Writing stuff like that, you have *no* place in television news.
It was entertaining.
It was engaging.
It was factual.
It was well-sourced.
It didn't insult the viewer's intelligence.
Displaying qualities like that would make you a sore thumb in the newsroom. Only a throwback Neanderthal of a news director would want such a person within shouting distance of a microphone.
Shhh! Don't tell! Another station has asked me to do some fill-in work but if they find out all those things I'm doomed!
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