The Ethical Optimist

As a PR person, I’m a huge consumer of media. I try to watch all the morning news shows while I’m at the gym, switch evening broadcasts, read magazines in waiting rooms, etc. While I love the idea of a free and independent media, I despair at how far we’ve moved away from it these days.

This morning, I was tuned into the Today Show and felt my bile rising as I watched an inane four-minute segment with the features editor of OK Magazine discussing their cover story on Jamie Lynn Spears. Clearly, he was on to promote the magazine’s exclusive and one of the show’s producer’s had made a deal to get the story. What was the deal? Gee, maybe the ridiculous softball questions Natalie Morales threw his way to showcase Ms. Spears as teenage mother of the year?

There was NO news value in the interview. The OK editor was blathering on about how much Ms. Spears was going to be such a terrific mother, was looking forward to being a soccer mom, how her mom and sister were giving her parenting advice…while Morales sat there with a benign expression of interest on her face and ask one idiotic question after another.

Rewind…parenting advice?…from Brittany Spears? Oh yeah, and her Mom has set such a stellar parenting example…and Morales doesn’t have ANYTHING to say here? No questioning of this bullshit? No snappy comeback? Just, “Gee, ain’t that swell…one big happy dysfunctional family?” Gimme a break!

Well, they did give me a break…to commercial. When they came back, the morning team was chatting about NBC’s new reality show Baby Borrowers, which basically shows how inept teenage parents can be. Al Roker, bless his heart, blurt out something to the effect of “What kind of idiotic parent loans their baby to a reality show?!” Morales was clearly looking nervous and trying to downplay his criticism of the show. I thought he showed some journalistic integrity, not to mention serious balls, in ‘dissing a show that was running on his own network.

A show, by the way, that has been called on the carpet by numerous organizations. Ronald Lally, a founder and current member of the Board of Directors of “ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants Toddlers and their Families was quoted as saying, “I would like to share our organizations thoughts on a recent addition to the NBC lineup of shows ‘Baby Borrowers.’ This ill conceived idea will not only do harm to the babies used as guinea pigs in the show but model just the opposite of how babies should be treated. ‘Hello NBC!! There is a human being exposed to emotional damage here!!’”

I can only imagine the producers snickering behind the set. I guess lining up enough segments to fill four hours means having conflicting segments run back-to-back every now and again.

As a professional who tries to pitch worthwhile stories that are often ignored by producers, I find watching the daily fodder of celebrity crap annoying as hell. As someone who believes that the news media has a responsibility to the public, I get a bit fired up when no one questions this nonsense. That’s why I’ve taken it upon myself to do so today. Guess mine will be a lone voice in the wilderness…

It might be a bit more palatable if there were more anchors and producers who had even a modicum of journalistic integrity and didn’t treat their viewers like complete imbeciles. (Yes, I’m ranting…but this stuff really grinds my gears).