Okay, I have to admit that this is kind of bothering me. Last night (or afternoon, depending on where you were), President Obama made a speech to the American people regarding Libya. Now, I will admit right here that I chose to be a bad American because I didn’t watch the speech. Personally, I would prefer to read the transcript, which I will do after I finish this blog entry, because I get distracted by his glancing at the teleprompter and his habit of scanning back and forth kind of like a robot. Now, I don’t think that he’s a bad speaker nor do I think he shouldn’t use a teleprompter, I just find it distracting and that’s my thing.
Obviously, when the President deems something important enough to address the nation, we should pay attention and see what he has to say, no matter what we think of politics. That’s part of being a good American. What struck me very odd about this speech was that it was televised at 1930 (7:30 p.m.) EDT. That means it was at 4:30 p.m. on the west coast and even earlier in Alaska and Hawaii.
That’s weird to me. Speeches of this nature usually take place at 9:00 p.m. eastern. So I decided to take a look around to see why the odd time slot and lo and behold, ABC was going to pass on the speech if it was broadcast at the usual later time. This was because it would have pre-emptied “Dancing With The Stars”.
Oh. My. (insert favorite deity here).
Has the American people really become so ridiculous in their mindset that it is more important to see Charo do the cha-cha for a score of 19 or so instead of hearing about the game plan of we are doing to address a very volatile situation in the Middle East? My god, I am ashamed of my fellow citizens if the ad revenue and ratings of “Dancing With The Stars” trumps the importance of sending our troops to this dangerous situation.
Yes, I made the choice to read the speech instead of watching it, but I can tell you that if it had been broadcast at 4:30 p.m. Eastern I wouldn’t have been to watch it even if I wanted to because I would have still been at work.
The FCC requires that those who hold a broadcast license must do so in the best interest of the public. That’s why you hear a smattering of public service announcements at 3:00 a.m. when you’re trying to build a hangover, no one wants to hear about starving people during their lunch hour. This is how broadcasters skirt around the public service requirement. We used to call it “lunar rotation”.
Shame on ABC for their lack of priorities, corporate greed and general asshattery. Shame on the White House for bowing to that sort of thing and playing ‘second fiddle’. And shame on the American people for their superficiality by even allowing ABC to make this a priority.
Here is the transcript of last night’s speech. If you missed the televised version last night, this is your chance to read it.
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