Thang Nguyen 555

Keep the camera rolling! (and the stop watch too) while the abrasive reporter tries to illicit comments from the subject.

Founder and producer of 60 minutes died yesterday.

The show was at its peak  (and Network programming in general) when I graduated with a broadcasting degree.

An ensemble of veteran journalists aggressively pursued stories of the week: Iranian hostage crisis, Medicaid fraud etc…. This was a pre-CNN era, when Ted Turner had yet banked his fortune on a 24/7 news show.

So America waited and watched 60 minutes magazine show on Sunday.

I wished we had the likes of Chris Matthews, Bill Maher, and Michael Moore back then who would shove the camera in people’s face (back then it still was the TK76, and the tape deck. Much harder to follow an evading subject like Madoff around).

Hence, they settled for a sit-down taping session. Tick, tick, tick! As if these journalists were going to train for the finals.

I must admit I was watching ABC News on weeknight, and SNL on Saturdays. Only occasionally 60 minutes.

I prefer watching “Siskel and Ebert” taped in Chicago.

Movie reviews were more graphical and more fitting for television as a visual medium.

We got serious book reviews already in the Sunday Times.

Then, things started to explode: CNN, 20/20, Cable news, internet news, citizen-news, now Twitter.

The only shows on TV that seem to have staying power were on PBS:  Charlie Rose and Lehrer’s the News Hour.

These two shows respect their selected audience: just plain in-depth coverage on topics of great concerns.

Shows that make you THINK. After all, we spent so much of our lives in front of the set to not think.

ITube ( short for Idiot Tube) was meant as a storefront window to sell Soup, Soap and Cereal.

The end effect is mind-numbing, since we have been saturated with dumb-down versions of soundbites and infotainment (the lowest common denominator).

I remember VP Al Gore and Tiffany Gore were trying to tackle this subject (maybe this led him to Current TV).

Whatever the outcome, we somehow ended up with TV-tray dinners (before the age of TiVo), since broadcasting at the time of 60 minutes was a one-to-many shared event. We mourned the tragedy of Princess Diana loss together, and

was astounded at the LA riot (fire makes for good video). And then, there was the Gong Show, where America (indeed) Got no Shame.  I’d rather see the clock ticking on that show more than on any other shows, least of which 60 minutes.