In the Agora: 10-Word Reviews

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April 17, 2008

10-Word Reviews

As Neil Postman and Zach Wendling have noted, politics on television is the height of triviality. Rarely is anything noteworthy said and rarely is anything of substance discussed. Last night's Democratic debate was no exception. Thanks to my wretched cable company, which doesn't carry the Versus Network in its basic package, I was shut out once again from NHL playoffs, so I watched Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama go at it from the Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Those who missed it didn't miss much. The first hour was dedicated to rehashing the delightful talk radio "issues" of the last four months--Bittergate, Rev. Wright, Bosnian snipers, and flag pins. Later in the debate, we were subject to debates about Obama's friendship with William Ayers of the Weather Underground (this issue will not hurt Obama because, as Obama pointed out, President Bill Clinton pardoned those jokers), Clinton's strong defense of cops and fireman making over $100k a year, Charles Gibson's attempted use of the Laffer Curve to question Obama on capital gains taxes, and Clinton's slow morph into a Giuliani Republican (New York! 9/11!).

To make it easier on all of us, for all future made-for-television political events I'm going to institute a "10-Word Review" feature here on ITA. Any political event on television, be they rallies, debates, or State of the Union addresses, can be described in precisely 10 words. As such:

ABC uses questions submitted by talk radio; bitter Dems fume.

Posted by David Darlington at April 17, 2008 07:12 AM

Comments

"10-Word Review" is an excellent addition to the ITA list of standard posts. Such as "PASWO" or "Cute Animals to Attract Female Readers".

Posted by: Foltz at April 17, 2008 10:38 AM | permalink

I love it! It's like haiku for political junkies!

Posted by: Eric Seymour at April 17, 2008 12:35 PM | permalink

Oh, and David--dump cable and get satellite. Unless your landlord/condo association/whatever won't allow it, in which case you have my sympathy.

Posted by: Eric Seymour at April 17, 2008 12:40 PM | permalink

I would like to see a new show called "What would you do to be President?" The winner gets to be President.

It would be like Fear Factor, but with a harder edge. For example, contestants might have to eat maggots or shoot cute bunnies.

Of course, Hillary would win any such event. Also, we could skip this miserable joke of a campaign season.

Posted by: Dave S. at April 17, 2008 09:39 PM | permalink

I'm generally in the dump cable group, but they work well for one thing... TiVo, it really does make watching TV fun and suprisingly efficient.

Posted by: Foltz at April 18, 2008 12:10 PM | permalink

I thought you could get TiVo with satellite, or have they signed some kind of exclusive contract with the cable giants?

I don't have TiVo, but I program my DVR to record pretty much everything I want to watch. Even for sports, I let it record and I start watching about an hour after the game starts, so I can skip the commercials. (You can watch a football game incredibly quickly if you also skip the time between plays.)

Posted by: Eric Seymour at April 18, 2008 01:07 PM | permalink

April 17, 2008

10-Word Reviews

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