Man, I have trouble with this! I’m not a huge TV watcher, but there are a couple of shows that I dig. I don’t have the luxury of setting my schedule to see them when they’re initially on, but I do have the luxury of having a DVR that lets me time-shift things. The things that I usually have on the hard drive are:
- Gophers hockey
- Malcolm in the Middle
- 24
- Arrested Development (Alas! No more.)
- The Simpsons
Now, notice any correlation? They’re all on the <insert unmentionable> Fox channel! Even the Gophers are on Fox Sports! Talk about internal conflict! The most right-wing, unpatriotic, fractious, slimy network in the world, and that’s whose shows I’m watching! Which is very interesting.
Now, if we were to rank these in order from liberal to conservative, we’d have The Simpsons and Arrested Development at the left, Malcolm and Gophers in the middle, and 24 towards the right (this Dem still likes his action flicks). Now, I’m definitely not going to call Fox “Fair and Balanced”, but I’m amazed that they broadcast some of this stuff on their network. Some folks claim that The Simpsons has a contract negotiated that prohibits executive interference in their scriptwriting. Perhaps that’s true. The episode I just watched tonight (from a week or two ago) was centered on gay marriage. Fox was pathetic enough to run a disclaimer prior to the show (“The following episode deals with gay marriage. Parental guidance may be appropriate.”) Now, they don’t need disclaimers to show any of their trash reality shows centered on sex, or for any of their trash biased reporting, or for any of the violent content portrayed daily, but they feel threatened enough to put up a disclaimer on a show about gay unions? As Bugs Bunny would say, “What a (bunch of) maroon(s)!” But they did run it. And I’ve got to believe that this episode would have most of the abortion-clinic-bombing/Creationist-teaching/wife-beating/gun-toting/racist/Bush-voting dumbasses foaming at the mouth.
So maybe I can resolve my inner turmoil by believing that there are some good gals (and guys) working on the inside at Fox. Sort of like the French Resistance.