Television news is getting more trivial by the day. I was watching "The West Wing" the other night, and suddenly the video frame shrank, NBC's baritone chimes singled a news flash, and a crawl started to run at the bottom of the screen. At first, I though Osama bin Laden had been captured. It turned out to be a bulletin announcing that Michael Jackson had been indicted on child molestation charges. Was that all? I mean, couldn't this have waited for the local eleven o'clock news?
Meanwhile, the government is funding a new cable news channel to air in the Middle East - al-Hurra, a potential competitor to al-Jazzera and al-Arabiya that will try to convey a less politically radical, and more pro-American and pro-Western take on the news of the day. The propaganda aspects of this venture aside, I couldn't help but notice that al-Hurra is structured and funded like the BBC in the United Kingdom, and that it will air some entertainment programming. And over here, PBS stations have to have pledge drives to stay afloat? Exactly why should the taxpayers fund a BBC-style arrangement for television viewers in the Middle East - but not one for Americans? I, for one, have been arguing for BBC-style public television for years.
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