Churnalism

William Hurt, Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks portray”Broadcast News” at its pinnacle (late 80’s).

“With him (tom, iconic for style over substance) our standard started to slip – he is the Devil” says Brooks, the solid “Swiss-knife” reporter and co-defender(with Holly) of traditional journalism. Holly Hunter, the control-freak producer, struggles not to  let her emotions get the better of her (she fell for Tom, as a woman more than a producer and his boss).

And William Hurt, our telegenic equivalence of Brian William of NBC, acts teary for one-camera out take without trying very hard “I almost did it the first time anyway – showing empathy as a person, more than a newsman”.

Manufacturing consent.

We want to see what  our pre-conception of the world led us to see (apriori).

Every psychology class shows the picture, depends on what you wanted to see, of an old lady (close up), or a hidden young girl (around her nose).

In Broadcast News, viewed from 2009 vantage point, I notice that lay-off and reorg is just as prevalent back then as it is now. And organizations still operate with a casino mentality (the near misses supported by the near hits).

Remember lip singing (Milli Vanilli)?

At least the William Hurt character confessed that he couldn’t write, and that one needed to “sell” not “read” the news.

He stopped short of saying, you needed to build a brand called YOU (this presaged YouTube).

We saw what happened next when, despite heeding his “show biz” tips, Brooks’ sweat was raining down (with Production Assistants trying to  blow dry him, and bringing new shirt during commercials etc… It was quite a scene. Anchoring is a hard job, made to look easy only by the best of the best (the 10,000 rule by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers, which lists the Beatles as an example of a group who played together so much in their early days in Hamburg that they could practically do it in their sleep, hence achieving Mastery).

I related to Joan Kusack who has to make a mad dash  for the B roll to make it on air.

Yes, we will always have the gatekeepers. But they are increasingly made obsolete with citizen news (or twittering news). Depth has given way to Speed, Washington Post to Huffington Post.

In watching “Broadcast News” yesterday, the only thing I felt annoyed was the ring tone of   those old desk phones (2500 set) . And how often Holly Hunter has to unplug the wire to get some sleep.

But, it was a realistic and heart warming depiction of what the news room back in the days when Network = God.

“What do you do when your real life exceeds your dream?” poses the William Hurt character when he got the Washington Anchor role (and later, London, which brought to mind Peter Jenings ‘ career track).

The same question is probably in Diane Sawyers’ mind these days as she prepares to take over the reign at ABC News.

Great strides have been made since the time when Barbara Walters was on the CBS plane ride to Cairo (to interview Sadat).

Oh, besides the 2500 set, I also can do without the 80’s hairdo. (Kusack’s).  I recommend “Network” 1976 film

for the hair (Faye Dunaway) and the audience response. Somehow, news organizations , like any organization, are not insulated from the very economic news they seek to report. Even when the pen is mightier than the sword.

In Asia, we have a saying, ” when push comes to shove, the farmer comes in first”  (during good times,

it was the mandarin). Have you eaten yet? That’s how people greet one another in Asia. Food before thought.

The Holly character couldn’t help giving her detail “map quest” directions to the taxi driver every time she hops in the back seat.  Short cut, control, focus. Worthy of a Washington Bureau chief, albeit a petite single woman in a man’s world (since Edward Murrow). She personifies the ultimate corporate multi-tasker. Imagine she had a Blackberry in the back seat. I am sure she would put it on vibrate during the broadcast, or even in her sleep. That’s the way it is.