Subject: Re: Pre-emption
From: boyajian@ruby.dec.com (Cisco's Buddy)
Date: 1991-01-19, 01:29
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1991Jan18.135629.25689@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>,   writes...

} I must say, quite frankly, that I can't understand this line of argument.
} You *had* to endure mindless repetition of the same info? You could have
} read a book or something, no?

This is a valid point. I have lots of things to occupy my time. If you
can't do one thing, do another. As it is, the Big Three networks have
pre-empted everything else, but for those with cable, USA, Disney, HBO,
A&E, etc., etc., are business-as-usual.

} I think it's kind of sad that people people get upset when their fictional
} dramas get pre-empted by real life events.

I don't. If their fictional dramas interest them more than the real-life
events, that's their perogative. No one should have to feel obligated to
follow real-life events on the news.

I myself almost never watch televised news or read newspapers. I don't
miss them at all. I still manage to be reasonably well informed about
current events.

} In case you missed it, there were a nerve-wracking couple of hours last
} night when it appeared that Israel may have been attacked by missiles
} with nerve gas warheads. This would clearly have had *enormous*
} consequences, and the reporting gradually developed from confused doubt
} to relieved relative certainty over a period of about three hours.
} Mesmerizing and hardly the endless repetition of the same info.

At occasional times, I've watched a couple of hours straight of network
news. In each of those instances, about 10% of what I heard was "news".
The other 90% (at least) was filler, going over the same ground again and
again. I swear, I was ready to kill Dan Rather the other day for telling
me every five minutes that three plans were apparently shot down, one of
them American *without saying one goddamn word about the other two*, as
if their not being American meant they didn't count.

I also see that the networks seem to feel that commerical breaks are still
worth making time for.

} There are also many citizens of the US with relatives involved in the 
} Persian Gulf events and I think that it's the *duty* of the networks
} to provide those interested parties with continuous coverage.

*All three*???  (We'll ignore the existence of CNN for now, as a lot of
people don't or can't get cable.)  It's bad enough that each network is
repetitious in and of itself, but we're also getting the same material
(essentially) on all three networks.

Why can't NBC, ABC, and CBS come to some sort of rotation plan? Pass the
ball every hour, like NBC does news from 8-9, ABC from 9-10, CBS from
10-11, then back to NBC again. At least that way, people have the option
of watching news coverage or something else. That still would be no
guarantee that one's particular favorite program wouldn't be pre-empted
anyway, if it happened to fall on that network's "news hour", but it would
be relief to some. But no, the networks still must compete for every
damned second.

} No matter what your feelings may be concerning the rightness of the war,
} I think, as a citizen of the world, you should be interested in it.

There's a difference between being interested in it and wallowing in it.

} I think that sitting around saying, "Damn this war - Twin Peaks is
} pre-empted again!" while people on both sides are fighting and dying
} is *incredibly* shallow and self-centered.

There are lots of people around the world fighting and dying every waking
minute, but the networks have never felt obliged to have 24-hour news
before. Coverage is one thing, but 24-hour coverage is simply overdoing
it.

*I* don't care if TWIN PEAKS -- or anything else -- is pre-empted. If we
don't see this episode this Saturday, we'll see it next Saturday. Big
fucking deal. And I agree that it *is* somewhat "shallow and self-centered"
to be more concerned with an ephemeral television program than with an event
of worldwide importance. But I acknowledge that other people might feel
differently, and that's their choice.

The real test, though, is whether the networks will decide not to pre-empt
sports programming this weekend.

-- "My public will kill me for dying at a time like this." --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA) UUCP: ...!decwrl!ruby.enet.dec.com!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%ruby.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM