The ethics of teaching ethics
BLOG
Doug Dierkes COLUMNIST
Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: Opinion
Television stations are not immune to the problems that plague most media businesses struggling to stay afloat in this internet-dominated society. A majority of the 20-35 year- olds who marketers salivate over aren't sticking around to watch commercials, either with DVR devices or online video channels. Who wants to pay to put up advertisements that the target audience won't bother seeing? No one, and that's why the executives are turning to a new revenue stream: Bill Gates
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is trying to remedy the financial ailments of the TV business by offering them grant money in exchange for placing moral education into their primetime programming. Those of you who have been reading me for a while know I've already complained about Saturday morning cartoons placing more emphasis on ethical learning instead of pushing children's toys covered in lead paint. The last thing I want to hear is "Tonight, on a very special episode of CSI, Gil Grissom becomes addicted to caffeine pills."
Even more concerning, why bother making extended dramatic series that incorporate these moral treatises into the scripts when you could make the same amount of cash off a quickly produced, product placement filled reality program to see which woman of loose moral fiber wants to be the girlfriend of David Lee Roth? Speaking of which, I'm working on securing the rights to develop that very show with VH1 over the summer, under the tenative title "Everybody Wants Some!!" Televison audiences today don't want extended dramas about the lives of police officers or medical practitioners so much as seeing drunken skanks punching each other in the face and skateboarders breaking their testicles trying to grind a staircase railing. If they know that serial dramas are now putting these topical asides into their scripts, that might irritate them even more.
That's about all I have to say on the issue. If there are any ladies in the audience who always wanted to be on TV and always wanted to see the old Van Halen in concert, please leave your contact information in the comments section.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is trying to remedy the financial ailments of the TV business by offering them grant money in exchange for placing moral education into their primetime programming. Those of you who have been reading me for a while know I've already complained about Saturday morning cartoons placing more emphasis on ethical learning instead of pushing children's toys covered in lead paint. The last thing I want to hear is "Tonight, on a very special episode of CSI, Gil Grissom becomes addicted to caffeine pills."
Even more concerning, why bother making extended dramatic series that incorporate these moral treatises into the scripts when you could make the same amount of cash off a quickly produced, product placement filled reality program to see which woman of loose moral fiber wants to be the girlfriend of David Lee Roth? Speaking of which, I'm working on securing the rights to develop that very show with VH1 over the summer, under the tenative title "Everybody Wants Some!!" Televison audiences today don't want extended dramas about the lives of police officers or medical practitioners so much as seeing drunken skanks punching each other in the face and skateboarders breaking their testicles trying to grind a staircase railing. If they know that serial dramas are now putting these topical asides into their scripts, that might irritate them even more.
That's about all I have to say on the issue. If there are any ladies in the audience who always wanted to be on TV and always wanted to see the old Van Halen in concert, please leave your contact information in the comments section.
Be the first to comment on this story