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HEY, JOE
Reality television in America:
'Elevated risk'
By Ted Lerner
PHILADELPHIA - It used to be that when you woke
up from a night's sleep in the United States, you
typically turned on the morning network news shows and,
as you got ready for work, you casually caught up on
current events, the stock market, the latest sports and
gossip and, of course, checked the weather. But these
are strange times in the US and thus you now have more
than light morning banter, the Dow Jones numbers and
today's temperature to consider. You also have to digest
today's "Terror Alert Level".
It's a color-coded
system put in place by the federal government after
September 11, 2001, to warn people just how dangerous it
is to go to the supermarket or to attend a concert. The
color red is the highest, meaning the risk of a
terrorist attack on the US is "severe". Green is the
lowest. The level's been holding steady for several
weeks now at yellow, which means the risk of a terrorist
strike is "elevated". It had gone up to orange, or "high
risk", a few months back on the anniversary of September
11. Then back down to yellow. When it will ever slide
back into green or simply disappear is anyone's guess.
Just what you're supposed to do when you
discover upon waking up that the terror alert is
"elevated" or "severe" is a question you or just about
anyone else cannot answer. The weather you can do
something about, like dress accordingly. But the "Terror
Level"? Sure, you can look out the window and check if
anything is happening. But, naturally, the place looks
the same as it did yesterday, even the same as five
years ago.
And so you, like probably every other
American, have this uneasy feeling that things are
quickly spinning out of control. Winter came early this
year to many parts of the United States and with the
snow covering the ground, a deep chill descending upon
the landscape and the days getting shorter and shorter,
you retreated inside and hunkered down. The big
activity, of course, is that ever-present constant in
the US: the television.
If you're living the
American dream you have already gone big, with a
giant-screen television, perhaps even a mini-movie
theater in the house with a DVD player and surround
sound. Just watching regular cable offers choices that
are nothing short of astounding; these days you can have
up to 300 channels to choose from, with all the drama,
talk, movies, sports, news, porn, reruns and just plain
old trashy entertainment that any human with an easy
chair, a remote and a bowl of potato chips could ever
want.
Naturally with so many options available,
the offerings have to get weirder and weirder just to
get your attention. Americans have become positively
enamored with reality shows. On the heels of last
season's hit Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?
comes another sure-fire smash that'll keep you and the
rest of the raunch-loving public riveted for weeks. The
show is called Gold Diggers. The premise goes as
follows: The producers have rounded up 50 women and told
each of them that there's this filthy-rich American
living in France who's looking for a wife. The women
will meet the supposedly rich guy one at a time in
France, where they will be wined and dined in grand
fashion and toured around his mansions and vineyards. At
the end of the show's two-month run, the man will choose
one woman and ask her for her hand in marriage. But at
the time of the proposal, he will reveal that he's
really just a regular Joe, with no job or money to speak
of. Will she still want to marry him? These are the
vital questions of our day.
Well, what the hell?
They have to have something to fill up those 300
channels. And for sure there's nothing like plenty of
good, vicarious entertainment to take your mind off that
"Elevated" terror level or the war in the Middle East or
the war on terror, both of which seem to be getting more
out of control by the day. Then, of course, there's the
coming war with Iraq.
Yes, the war with Iraq.
You are certain that there will be a war with Iraq.
You'd have to be slightly less than totally naive not to
be able to figure out that a war is coming. But what
about the United Nations inspectors? Yeah, it's an
interesting side show that adds nicely to the drama. But
still, though you're not a political scientist, you know
the war will definitely happen. That's because it's
actually being sold to the American public.
The
networks and the cable news channels all constantly
trumpet the coming war with glossy graphics, dramatic
music and direct and dire language. The most popular
news network in the United States, Fox, calls its
coverage "Target Iraq". That certainly suggests that
something imminent is going to happen but that doesn't
go as far as the General Electric-owned NBC, which has
been advertising "Countdown Iraq". What else comes after
the countdown is finished but the big blastoff, the
large explosion? That these constant commercials
advertising the coming war are invariably followed by
ads for the new Honda sport-utility vehicle that gets
something like eight blocks to the gallon should
certainly seem bizarre. But you realize nobody gets the
irony because everybody you know seems resigned to this
war and you think that perhaps you should be too.
Anyway, you realize, people are probably too busy
watching the reality shows.
Another thing that
tells you that something big is about to go down is the
constant flow of feel-good commercials all over the
television from corporate America featuring the men and
women in uniform overseas. One national electronics
chain is inviting customers to come into their local
branch and record voice and video e-mails encouraging
the troops abroad. Even if you don't know anyone
overseas, you can still go in and leave a message of
encouragement. You know that whenever you see the troops
everywhere on the tube, that can only mean one thing.
It's certainly not just on television, either.
Every day in the United States now, you hear the
anti-Saddam mantra chanted loudly and forcibly in all
media. Actually there's a veritable avalanche of
information, PR and obvious propaganda from all sides
that wasn't even there six months ago. The anti-Saddam
call, though, is clearly winning out. Stories in
America's most respected newspapers now regularly quote
anonymous sources who claim to know personally that
Saddam Hussein definitely has stockpiles of the most
vile biochemical agents in the world, even nuclear
weapons that could obliterate the eastern seaboard of
the United States. Just what can you believe except that
a very expensive propaganda war is in full swing with
its obvious intentions of convincing you that danger in
imminent?
You do hear of a growing anti-war
movement in the United States, but you also know they
will be drowned out. September 11 was such a bitter pill
that the majority is in no mood to waver anymore.
Furthermore, the public is being severely cut off from
information. The Internet has made huge inroads as far
as news goes. You can get way better, more varied and
faster information on the Internet than on television,
but, still, most Americans look to the evening network
news and the morning talk shows on the networks to tell
them what's going on. The big networks cover the
president and, without a doubt, he's on a roll, he's got
the mandate and he's beating the war drums with an
unceasing hawkish refrain. You get the feeling there is
no stopping him.
In all you cannot help but feel that this
is an hour of deep peril. In such a time you feel also
that it's important to get as much information as possible.
And so one night, just for kicks, you click your way
through all 300 channels looking for some alternative views,
such as Al Jazeera television. You've heard
Al Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, talked about
by the US networks, as if it is the mouthpiece of the
enemy. That doesn't bother you because if it is indeed
the mouthpiece of the enemy you figure it would make
interesting viewing, if only to find out what "they" are
up to.
But to your surprise, you can't find Al
Jazeera. Sure, you find plenty of sports, soft porn,
trashy talk shows, situation comedies, news about the
coming war and reruns of shows like I love Lucy
and Let's Make a Deal. But no Al Jazeera. And so you
call up your cable operator and ask if they carry Al
Jazeera television.
"Al
Jazeera?" asks the
man from the cable company on the other end of the line.
"What kind of channel is that?"
"That's the
Arabic all-news channel out of the Middle East," you
say. "Bin Laden's people have been using it to get out
their views."
"No, no we don't carry that
channel."
"Well, why not? It would make
interesting television. They could have subtitles in
English and at least we could find out what's going on
over there."
"I don't think people would stand
for it. We might be considered un-American."
After you hang up the phone you ponder that idea
for a moment. Un-American? In a country where "freedom
of speech" is chanted like a mantra, how could it be
un-American to present as many sides of the story as
possible, even if those other views were abhorrent to
many? Not that most Americans wouldn't choose the
Houston Rockets vs the LA Lakers over an Arab news
channel straight out of the desert. But there might be
some who would want to switch over between commercials
and listen to some alternative views if only to tap in
to the thoughts and ideas of the perceived enemy.
Wouldn't it be more important, even if we hated what
they were saying, to at least make it available, so that
the public can make a sound decision as to what's right
and what's wrong? Isn't that what intelligent people do?
Then again, it suddenly dawns on you that
intelligent thinking probably has little to do with the
whole precarious situation nowadays. A perfect example
is what's happening at America's airports. The federal
government, as part of its massive Homeland Security
initiative, recently deputized nearly 100,000 bag
screeners to inspect all check-in luggage personally.
This being the United States, with equal rights for all,
many of these people, when you pass through there, don't
exactly seem like the world's most highly educated
folks. Regardless, they took the crash course, they wear
the official badge and they wield the stamp. And every
passenger gets one suitcase opened, the contents - dirty
underwear and all - are unloaded and held up for
inspection in front of 10 other passengers waiting for
their turn.
You may ask yourself: whatever
happened to that bedrock of American democracy called
privacy? Perhaps it's suddenly become irrelevant,
banished to the dustbin of history. Well, the bag
screeners certainly don't care. They're the new
frontline and they have national security to protect,
after all.
This is the reality that you and
every other American now have to face. You work hard,
study hard and work even harder still and, yet, at the
end of the day, your life is in the hands of some flunky
with a bad hairdo. And with the war drums beating louder
and louder and the threats seemingly ever increasing,
you realize there are fewer voices willing to stand up
and proclaim something's amiss in your very own country.
Just whom they're referring to when they say
"terror level is 'elevated'" is starting to make you
wonder.
Ted Lerner is the author of
the book Hey, Joe - A Slice of the City, an American
in Manila as well as an upcoming book of Asian travel
stories, The Traveler and the Gate Checkers. He
can be reached via e-mail at tedlheyjoe@yahoo.com .
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights
reserved. Please contactcontent@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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