Friday · November 05 2004
I think the Frontline reports on PBS are the best documentary programs on TV. The “Rumsfeld's War” episode 2 weeks ago taught me more than any other single piece of media in the last couple years.
The next two reports (Tuesdays 9pm EST)
- The Persuaders - “An in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar 'persuasion industries' of advertising and public relations and how marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives.”
- Is Wal-Mart Good for America? - “The connection between American job losses and soaring Chinese exports? Wal-Mart. For Wal-Mart, China has become the cheapest, most reliable production platform in the world, the source of up to $25 billion in annual imports that help the company deliver everyday low prices to 100 million customers a week.”
I agree. Frontline really does prove that sometimes, television can tell the news better than print. . . on the rare occassion that someone puts the time and money into producing a quality show. I'm always amazed at the footage they manage to get to tell the story.
I feel Wednesday's South Park episode intelligently addressed the Wal-Mart issue as well.
thanks for the tip: we've been looking for a show like this. tivo will set us up properly.
Yeah, I got my BeyondTV set to record it now because I always forget. People say PVR devices cause you to watch better television. That's true, but you definitely watch more television too. I'd say my watching quality has increased 10 fold and my overall TV consumption has probably doubled.
Your comments are right on. I justify watching a few more hours per week by the fact that I don't watch commercials anymore. So I'm not sure if I really watch more TV overall, but I do see more shows. In fact, I purposely start watching a show 10 minutes after it's started so I don't have to watch commercials. I spend that extra time doing other things...and actually, if I know there are 2-3 shows that I'm recording in a night, I will start watching the whole group at least 30-60 minutes later, again to avoid commercials, but also to fast-forward through any "slow" moments.
Prime example: monday night football. I've seen every game this season, but condense each game to just about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I fast forward through the commercials, halftime, all replays, instant replay challenges and sometimes just let the plays run on the first fast forward speed (there's 3 fast forward speeds on tivo) if the game isn't so exciting. So I spend the other part of my Monday evening at flag football, doing homework and making dinner. nice!
Also, on sundays as Jason knows: I have 2 TV's and the DirecTV NFL package. I will tape one game while watching 2-3 others on each TV and see lots of action. I like lots of action.