Now that televisions look like panels, will we continue calling them “boxes”? Probably.<\/p>\n
I’ve decided to quit watching Keith Olbermann’s Countdown<\/em>. The commercial-to-content ratio is ridiculous; there can’t be more than 30 minutes of content in this 60-minute show . . . the pain far outweighs the gain.\u00a0 Plus he’s a pompous ass with an ego problem.<\/p>\n Can it really be that there are more commercials on Countdown<\/em> than on other cable news shows?\u00a0 Probably not . . . it must be the way Olbermann groups his commercials, with those annoying teasers in between, that makes it appear so.\u00a0 I don’t have the stomach to sit there with a stopwatch and do the necessary research, but it’s probably a safe bet that the commercial-to-content ratio is highest on the cable channels.<\/p>\n Viewers are reportedly disappointed with Jon Stewart<\/a> for not tearing John Woo a new one earlier this week on The Daily Show<\/em>.\u00a0 The thing is, Stewart is one of two TV hosts (the other is Rachel Maddow) who’s willing to pull back the curtain of agenda-driven spin and propaganda other TV news shows hide behind.\u00a0 So just as more and more viewers have turned to a comedy show for actual news, more and more viewers are coming to expect fearless investigative reporting from Jon Stewart, forgetting that he’s first and foremost a talk show host.<\/p>\n The more I see of Rachel Maddow, on the other hand, the more impressed I am.\u00a0 She’d<\/em> have torn John Woo a new asshole, probably two or three.\u00a0 The Rachel Maddow Show<\/em> is the only serious news show doing investigative, confrontational reporting.\u00a0 When politicians say outrageously false things on TV, most reporters give them a pass.\u00a0 Case in point is Rudy Giuliani<\/a> on Good Morning America<\/em> about a week ago.\u00a0 When he looked the camera in the eye and said “We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama,” host George Stephanopoulos just kept on shittin’ & grinnin’.\u00a0 Rachel would have gone straight for Rudy’s lying throat, and that’s probably why John Woo and Rudy Giuliani don’t go on her show.<\/p>\n Ah, but TV is so much more than news.\u00a0 Waiting for takeout pizza at a restaurant the other night, I saw Cash Cab<\/em> on a TV over the bar.\u00a0 I’ve complained before<\/a> about TV shows pixelating out license plates, peoples’ faces, and brand names, but on Cash Cab<\/em> they’re going for the moon.\u00a0 Generally the Cash Cab<\/em> camera is trained on the contestants inside the cab, but occasionally they turn it to look through the windshield so that you can see it’s an actual cab driving on the streets of New York City, not some stage set.\u00a0 During one of these brief windshield cutaways, I saw an orange blob in front of the cab.\u00a0 It was an entire car, pixelated out.\u00a0 WTF?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 It was so distracting I lost track of questions the contestants were supposed to be answering.<\/p>\n