Remote Control

Any time people in the media get the urge to feel superior, they conduct a quick survey about how uniformed the average American is and then get on TV to scold us about not paying enough attention to world events. Obviously, this disappoints me because I would like everyone to be more informed and make their own opinions on issues rather than just agree with what someone told them. The world would be a better place if we all had a better grasp on current events, because I think the only way things problems ever get solved is when enough people join a cause and affect change. However, the other thing surveys like this do is annoy the hell out of me, because when they are asking these questions the media somehow believes they are blameless in all this, forgetting that a lot of people only learn through what the media decides to tell us. They are the ones who waste airtime acting as though "American Idol" results should count as real news and then scold us for not being up-to-date on what is happening with Syria. It's like a teacher failing her students for not knowing the answers regarding a bunch of subjects she never covered in her lesson plan. It's also frustrating because I think if given the option most people would actually appreciate more real news. At least one station is trying to find out.

Because Google thinks she is still relevant, this morning my "Entertainment" headlines included several stories about Lindsay Lohan getting arrested again. (I don't know for what because I've lost track and I don't care enough to click on the stories. Honestly, does it even matter at this point?) Like most people, I am quite tired of stories about this woman and feel the amount of coverage she gets far outweighs her actual talent. At this point she is just like any other Hilton, Kardashian or reality-star - famous not for having any real skill, but for lacking even the faintest hint of shame. The only saving grace about these kind of people is that if you tolerate them for a couple of years whoever is in charge of this kind of stuff eventually gets sick of them and we move on as a people. Now, I would love it if I could stop hearing about this woman under any circumstances, but no matter how much I mess with my Google News settings, I still don't have control over the local TV news who use her arrests as fluff pieces to fill in the gaps. I know filling in 22 minutes of air time (minus 5 for weather and another 5 for sports) without mentioning Lindsay Lohan seems like it should be easy, but I guess it is not. The thing is, she gets arrested so much I'm not totally sure it even counts as news anymore. I mean, do anchors start every day by telling you the sun came up? No, you just assume it did. After a while even the worst producer knows things which happen ever day don't count as news.

This morning a DC-area news director for a CBS affiliate openly wondered if Lindsay getting arrested had reached this point. He sent out a Tweet, asking his followers if Lohan's latest arrest was newsworthy. The question was quickly picked up by the station's official Twitter feed, who left it up to their viewers to decided whether they would report on the story. They never revealed the polling numbers, but they called it pretty quickly - within 45 minutes he reported that the people had spoken and the story would be ignored. I can only assume this means the votes were heavily leaning in the 'not news' direction. Now, the station did not offer a second poll as to what kind of news the people would hear instead, so I can only hope it was something a little more productive. After all, it kind of defeats the purpose to ignore Lindsay Lohan if you're just going to replace that time with a story about a Kardashian. Don't mistake my amusement at this story as me saying that I want all news to be left up to voting by the general population. They made the right choice in this matter, but I'm well aware that if you left programming the news up to most people the weather would be 5 minutes, sports would be 10 and the rest of the time would be filled in with other entertainment news. People have simply reached their breaking point with Lohan updates - if they were given the choice most people would simply pick other celebrity news to fill the void (and God help us if there is another Royal Wedding).

These news stations can't leave it up to us - the only way we're going to watch news about a war in a foreign country which 99% of the population never plans to visit or have family in is if the stations force us to. Besides, internet voting is too easily manipulated and between the political fracture that exists at the moment and the fact that 90% of internet voting is done 'ironically' nothing would ever make it to air. The 24 hour cable networks try this method out occasionally and those segments never go well. Not to mention there is a big difference between a 24-hour channel with all that time to fill versus a show which is only on in half-hour stretches. No, these news programs should air real news whether we like it or not and hope at least a couple of us are paying attention and the rest learn something by accident. Ratings may go down at first, but after a while they will probably get bumped up higher than they are now as people start tuning in for no other reason than they don't want to be the least-informed person in their office. (I don't care why people are paying attention, just that they are.) At least acknowledging that Lindsey Lohan is no longer newsworthy is a step in the right direction. Now, if we can get affiliates to stop treating what happens on game shows as actual news we could start making real progress.