Reality TV

Two posts in one day? Almost as disgusting as two girls, one cup. *Shudder*

Reality TV is actually making America dumber/worse. There is now proof. Two of the biggest news stories in the past month or so are also the stupidest, and both involve reality TV aspirations: Balloon Boy and the White House Crashers. The people involved in both wanted publicity and their own reality shows. That's their motivation for doing stupid things and wasting resources investigating them (all the equipment they pulled out to 'rescue' Balloon (Attic, as it turns out) Boy, and an investigation into the Crashers complete with an invitation to testify in front of Congress). So reality TV is actually making America worse. It is clearly making America dumber. I think this is self-evident. But this is also demonstrated by the expansive news coverage of both events. Balloon boy was a huge hit on CNN for a week or two. And the Crashers are still being talked about. Not what I want to hear about even a little. Between the two they are rivaling the coverage of Michael Jackson's death. For reference, the only reality show I watch is Top Chef, which is amazing.

My LRW section has a new hobby: complaining. I'm nowhere near the worst, in a shocking twist. We did course evaluations today. All five (out of eleven total in the class) people I talked to gave the class an overall ranking of "Poor." I have no doubt that the remaining six did the same. Think the evaluations will do anything? I doubt it. But I do think that when there is unanimity on the fact that the class is awful, that's an indication that something should be done.