Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I'm sorry
Somebody commented (anonymously of course - coward!) about my post from earlier today and I've had a change of heart - I take back the SEX AND THE CITY comment - the women on that show ARE strong women - definitely role models for the future Hillarys of America :-)
just in case people don't think I have a sense of humor ...
You know, about all the stuff WTEN is reporting ...
Lessons I Have Learned on the Job
1) If you ever criticize the media's sensationalistic and oh-my-god-look-at-that-freak attitude about covering sexual predators, you are just as bad as the sex offenders.
Thanks, boss, for letting me know I was "defending child rapists." If you hadn't put it so emphatically and hyperbolically, I might still be ignorant to the fact that I'm supporting such activity.
In all seriousness, shows that parade the mentally ill across a stage for the purposes of entertainment and what amounts to stoning -- well, do you really think that's A) an intelligent and reasonable thing to do and B) actually going to help matters?
There are guys who end up on To Catch a Predator more than once. The viewers say, "Wow, you'd think they'd learn!" Exactly. They're crazy. They have a problem. They can't control it; it's a compulsion. They should be put away, not held up as sadistic entertainment. These "news" stories are not a deterrent. You can't pretend that you're helping anyone by producing them. Just admit that you're in it for the ratings, and stop trying to falsely ennoble your Jerry Springer imitation. You're not doing this because you're idealistic, and you want to use the media to help people. You're doing it, because you know slackjawed yokels will be transfixed, just like when they drive past a car wreck.
Why else do We the People eat this shit up? Because it gives us a chance to separate an imaginary segment of the population, put them in a box, and do that thing we humans love to do: Assign blame for our fears and troubles to The Other -- some strange, fundamentally evil and irredeemable outside element. "These people are crazy and evil! We need to defend ourselves from these monsters!" They give us someone to hate, to laugh at, and to punish, while we go about our holy, blameless lives, knowing that WE are good and right. Now let's get back to killing brown people in the name of freedom.
Ugh.
2) When a man is selfish, aggressive, loudmouthed, and intolerant in the workplace, he is justly labeled an "asshole." When a woman engages in the same behavior, she is "strong" and "empowered."
Seriously, haven't we moved far enough along that we can stop congratulating women when they engage in the same sexist and obnoxious behaviors they'd never tolerate in a man? Can we stop pretending that the characters on Sex and the City are wonderful, strong people? Those women aren't strong, they're self-absorbed, petty, mean-spirited children. They represent everything that's wrong with us these days. Instead of kissing their asses for such outrageously expensive fashions, maybe we should be more impressed if they just shopped at Target instead and sent the extra money to Myanmar.
When a man has sex with many women and treats them all like crap, he's a bad guy, but when a woman does it, she's just in touch with her sexuality. The traits we chide in men are lauded as virtues in women. I thought the idea of feminism was that we'd all treat each other with equal respect, not that we'd just turn into two competing super powers like the US and the Soviet Union, in a perpetual standoff.
It makes it really hard to find a date when you're so adversarial.
Anyway, that's a tangent, and what the hell am I talking about?
3) I am old.
I made a Barney Miller reference at work this morning, and my coworker Brian -- a 27-year-old ADULT -- didn't get it. Then I realized that he was probably two when it went off the air.
It'd be less galling if he wasn't also so obsessed with ironic "nostalgia" about the 1980's. For chrissakes, I don't need to buy a faux-distressed Ghostbusters ringer tee -- I can just go to Buffalo and get my ACTUALLY faded Ghostbusters t-shirt out of my parents' attic. (I don't think it'd fit, though.)
Thanks, boss, for letting me know I was "defending child rapists." If you hadn't put it so emphatically and hyperbolically, I might still be ignorant to the fact that I'm supporting such activity.
In all seriousness, shows that parade the mentally ill across a stage for the purposes of entertainment and what amounts to stoning -- well, do you really think that's A) an intelligent and reasonable thing to do and B) actually going to help matters?
There are guys who end up on To Catch a Predator more than once. The viewers say, "Wow, you'd think they'd learn!" Exactly. They're crazy. They have a problem. They can't control it; it's a compulsion. They should be put away, not held up as sadistic entertainment. These "news" stories are not a deterrent. You can't pretend that you're helping anyone by producing them. Just admit that you're in it for the ratings, and stop trying to falsely ennoble your Jerry Springer imitation. You're not doing this because you're idealistic, and you want to use the media to help people. You're doing it, because you know slackjawed yokels will be transfixed, just like when they drive past a car wreck.
Why else do We the People eat this shit up? Because it gives us a chance to separate an imaginary segment of the population, put them in a box, and do that thing we humans love to do: Assign blame for our fears and troubles to The Other -- some strange, fundamentally evil and irredeemable outside element. "These people are crazy and evil! We need to defend ourselves from these monsters!" They give us someone to hate, to laugh at, and to punish, while we go about our holy, blameless lives, knowing that WE are good and right. Now let's get back to killing brown people in the name of freedom.
Ugh.
2) When a man is selfish, aggressive, loudmouthed, and intolerant in the workplace, he is justly labeled an "asshole." When a woman engages in the same behavior, she is "strong" and "empowered."
Seriously, haven't we moved far enough along that we can stop congratulating women when they engage in the same sexist and obnoxious behaviors they'd never tolerate in a man? Can we stop pretending that the characters on Sex and the City are wonderful, strong people? Those women aren't strong, they're self-absorbed, petty, mean-spirited children. They represent everything that's wrong with us these days. Instead of kissing their asses for such outrageously expensive fashions, maybe we should be more impressed if they just shopped at Target instead and sent the extra money to Myanmar.
When a man has sex with many women and treats them all like crap, he's a bad guy, but when a woman does it, she's just in touch with her sexuality. The traits we chide in men are lauded as virtues in women. I thought the idea of feminism was that we'd all treat each other with equal respect, not that we'd just turn into two competing super powers like the US and the Soviet Union, in a perpetual standoff.
It makes it really hard to find a date when you're so adversarial.
Anyway, that's a tangent, and what the hell am I talking about?
3) I am old.
I made a Barney Miller reference at work this morning, and my coworker Brian -- a 27-year-old ADULT -- didn't get it. Then I realized that he was probably two when it went off the air.
It'd be less galling if he wasn't also so obsessed with ironic "nostalgia" about the 1980's. For chrissakes, I don't need to buy a faux-distressed Ghostbusters ringer tee -- I can just go to Buffalo and get my ACTUALLY faded Ghostbusters t-shirt out of my parents' attic. (I don't think it'd fit, though.)
Monday, May 26, 2008
what happened to the war??? um, right, no one cares.
Not a huge Katie Couric fan, she's a news robot, but think it's interesting that when she did go into Iraq to report the story, CBS got its worst ratings EVER.
This is a really interesting article and there may be a whole bunch of reasons why we're not reporting the war anymore, gas prices, the economy, whatever, or as my colleague Angela says, "why report on something no one wants to WATCH?" Well, yes, that may be true, but it must have more to do with the weakness of our media - our inability to stand up for and to anything.
Anyway, give this a read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26carr.html?8dpc
This is a really interesting article and there may be a whole bunch of reasons why we're not reporting the war anymore, gas prices, the economy, whatever, or as my colleague Angela says, "why report on something no one wants to WATCH?" Well, yes, that may be true, but it must have more to do with the weakness of our media - our inability to stand up for and to anything.
Anyway, give this a read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26carr.html?8dpc
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Hell
Where have I been for the last ten days?
A sort of hell, new job hell - Oh, did I get that new job promotion, you ask? No, I didn't. I have the same old job I've always had, it's just that now I have a woman telling me what to do everyday and that's REALLY annoying, not because she's a woman, of course, but because she's this ONE PARTICULAR woman who busts my balls all day.
I'm considering new directions - law school, or is 34 too old to teach English in Korea, or join the Peace Corps? ... I am so sick of Albany - I mean, I'm FROM Buffalo, another crap town, couldn't I have made it at least as far as New York City?
A sort of hell, new job hell - Oh, did I get that new job promotion, you ask? No, I didn't. I have the same old job I've always had, it's just that now I have a woman telling me what to do everyday and that's REALLY annoying, not because she's a woman, of course, but because she's this ONE PARTICULAR woman who busts my balls all day.
I'm considering new directions - law school, or is 34 too old to teach English in Korea, or join the Peace Corps? ... I am so sick of Albany - I mean, I'm FROM Buffalo, another crap town, couldn't I have made it at least as far as New York City?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
More Insight into the Complex Mind of Tyler Jackson
I have a myspace page now - I know most people are on to facebook, but yeah, I'm a little behind ...
http://www.myspace.com/tylerjackson620
http://www.myspace.com/tylerjackson620
Sunday, May 11, 2008
New look, new Outlook
I had to change the look of the blog - I think my inability to post on a more consistent basis has something to do with that ugly brown I had going, but I guess we'll see ...
So, I didn't write about this before, but I DID NOT get the promotion I was up for and I thought they'd go outside if they DIDN'T go with me, but no, they hired from within - one of my colleagues who's been at WTEN for about six months now, and, you know, I see the writing on the wall.
I don't know how long I can last at WTEN anymore because we're now on a crusade to overhaul the type of reporting we've done now for years, ever since I've been here - community focused news, smart journalism about what's happening in the world ... we've been the only news station in Albany to actually consistently report on the war in Iraq.
So, WTEN is now entering the world of clever graphics, bells, whistles and the bottom line, which is that we ABSOLUTELY must cut the distance between WTEN and Fox and NBC ... So, what are we going to do to make that happen?
Pretty much whatever it takes.
So, if you see news stories that don't seem newsworthy, or if we run stories into the ground that seem irrelevant to anyone and everyone, well, we're doing it because YOU'RE WATCHING and WE KNOW IT and WE'RE GIVING YOU WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE because yes, you SAY you care about the War, but you don't really want to SEE it - because yeah, it's bloody, a lot of people are dying and it seems endless.
Anyway, sorry about the tone, sorry about the self-righteousness too - I've just always been an advocate for good journalism, but now I don't see the point anymore.
So, I didn't write about this before, but I DID NOT get the promotion I was up for and I thought they'd go outside if they DIDN'T go with me, but no, they hired from within - one of my colleagues who's been at WTEN for about six months now, and, you know, I see the writing on the wall.
I don't know how long I can last at WTEN anymore because we're now on a crusade to overhaul the type of reporting we've done now for years, ever since I've been here - community focused news, smart journalism about what's happening in the world ... we've been the only news station in Albany to actually consistently report on the war in Iraq.
So, WTEN is now entering the world of clever graphics, bells, whistles and the bottom line, which is that we ABSOLUTELY must cut the distance between WTEN and Fox and NBC ... So, what are we going to do to make that happen?
Pretty much whatever it takes.
So, if you see news stories that don't seem newsworthy, or if we run stories into the ground that seem irrelevant to anyone and everyone, well, we're doing it because YOU'RE WATCHING and WE KNOW IT and WE'RE GIVING YOU WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE because yes, you SAY you care about the War, but you don't really want to SEE it - because yeah, it's bloody, a lot of people are dying and it seems endless.
Anyway, sorry about the tone, sorry about the self-righteousness too - I've just always been an advocate for good journalism, but now I don't see the point anymore.
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