Crime Scene Extreme

The key to art and the key to being an influential talk show host is the ability to have your finger on the pulse of America. No one accomplishes such a task better than veteran weatherman David Letterman. Letterman brings with him to national TV a dry but poignant sarcasm about life in the Midwest. It is in stark contrast to the congenial hospitality of the American South. Most pundits of television realize “edge” is more interesting than “syrup,” but has modern American TV gone too far? Without a firm foundation in mainstreet America, sarcasm easily can become slanderous incitation to holy war. That is what Islam Extremism has taught America. Instead of fighting America on the battlefield with battalions of infantrymen, Extremism is attacking America in her breadbasket. Extremism, whether America knows it or not, has become firmly ensconced in our media lives. How does mainstreet America feel about it? Are we as a country even able to recognize the demise of traditional American values? It seems current television media is banking on the latter. If America’s youth is shielded from television history, modern media producers never will be responsible for developing programming that meets the same qualifications. It’s kind of like shoveling shit. If shit is all you have, then it don’t look so bad. Fortunately a majority of America are not youth, and with a little scrutiny can remember the difference between disposable and long-lasting media programming. Who was it that decided that there should be hundreds of cable channels? Did they stop to realize that to produce television there must be studios. A studio does not by definition spontaneously create its own programming. It only is a soundstage upon which programming can be broadcast and recorded. Without writers, actors, and technicians television can be nothing more than self-indulgent jealousy. The MIDI boom of the l980’s taught television and film producers one composer and musician sitting in such a music studio could provide music for a show. The depth of that music though lies in the soul of the experiences of that musician. Hiring someone without those experiences or at least an understanding of those experiences yields nothing but a less satisfying replication of real life. That is what we have on television today. In the reality tradition we watch the gamut of young, dumb, and full-of-cum adolescents struggle through life. Is this really what we want to take the place of traditional television from the Golden Age? Is America smart enough to be able to discern the difference between the longstanding tradition of television and what we have now? Television is extreme. Like 9/11 mainstreet has become tired of the constant reminder. Can we move on?