Frank Rich has a column in tomorrow's NYTimes about The Anchorman and US corporate media being obsessed with "good" news:
[Fox's political agenda is] more insidious when some of its more fair-and-balanced competitors blow-dry the news not to serve an ideology but to tell the public what they think the public wants to hear. That's why we rarely see on American TV the candid video Michael Moore unveils in "Fahrenheit 911" whether of the president or of the greviously wounded, sometimes embittered soldiers who've returned from his mission in Iraq."
"The Anchorman" is a subversive movie and it's more accessible than "F911". I hope the people who see it get the point.
UPDATE: I had forgotten about a TV show called "The Newsroom" about a fictional Canadian news program.
Here are some opening lines from the first episode:
Jeremy (producer):We just got the feed out of Kinsasha on the train that plunged into the Congo River.
George (exec producer): Dead?
Jeremy: 200.
George: On the nose?
Jeremy: An estimate. It's CNN Africa. Give or take twenty bodies either way.
George: Are there pirhana in the Congo?
Jeremy: I wouldn't swim there.
George: Make it pirhana-ridden Congo.
Jeremy: How 'bout pirhana-infested Congo?
George: Better.
[snip]
At Mark's and Jeremy's desks:
Mark (another producer): So do we go with the fight in City Council about rezoning the waterfront, which is a big local story or do we go with the train wreck halfway across the world?
George: We go with the train in the Congo.
Mark: We're supposed to be doing the local news here.
George: Yes. We're looking for a local hook. (Pointing to Jeremy) He's on the phone with this guy.
Jeremy (on hold): Okay, my guy says there may have been a Canadian on board.
George: There. Okay? Is that local enough? Did he go into the water? Is he dead?
Jeremy: I don't know. I'm on hold. We'll find out.
Mark: (reading the copy) Okay. Hold on. Pirhana-infested Congo. Who said there's pirhana in the Congo River?
George: Jeremy did.
Jeremy: No. I never said that. I never said there were pirhana there. I said similar to...
George: I'm saying let's use the word pirhana. It's higher concept. People identify with it and we'll use something like pirhana-like. How's that? Pirhana-like fish.
Mark: We still haven't even confirmed there's a Canadian.
Jeremy: Well we're hoping there's a Canadian dead. I mean that's ... that's
George: We're hoping he's dead. Okay, how 'bout this: Perhaps one Canadian was eaten by pirhana-like fish?
Mark: I have a problem with that. I mean how do we know he was eaten?
George: Perhaps one Canadian may have been eaten by pirhana-like fish.
Jeremy: Or, perhaps one Canadian may have been eaten by flesh-eating fish.
George: I can live with flesh-eating.
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