Good vs. Bad TV

The other day I saw an ad for "The View," the daytime show hosted by a lineup of female hosts, their bios of which get less distinguished in direct relation to their age. (You're surely familiar with veteran Barbara Walters but who's Elisabeth Hasselbeck, exactly?)

The show, which aired on July 2, did not include Barbara Walters. Maybe she's no longer a host; I wouldn't know because I've never watched more than a snippet of it in passing. I DVR'd it because it featured the top-of-their-profession luminaries in enlightened circles: John Edward (clairvoyant), Dr. Brian Weiss (past life regression expert), Sandy Anastasi (tarot reader, psychic), and Joanne Reeves (astrology).

Now, you may or may not agree with my descriptions above--either of the gals on "The View" or my undeniable bias toward the guests. But this is my blog and I can do whatever I want on it, right? No one's paying me and I've never entered any journalistic pact with my readers to be fair and unbiased.

On the other hand, these woman are responsible for hosting a major ABC television show. Presumably, when you agree to invite guests on your show you will 1.) exercise due diligence by informing yourself on the work for which your your guests are known and, 2.) make a modicum of effort to stay balanced and neutral regardless of your personal feelings.

Now, I guess the conceit of the show is the hosts are supposed to be lady hell raisers. They've got opinions, informed by their age, color and religious orientation and goddamit they are going to tell you about them. I get that.

I also get that the folks invited to participate on the show are guests. I doubt that they were told in advance this was going to be a rather malicious feeding frenzy. If the ladies didn't like or approve or believe in what the guests do, DON'T HAVE THEM ON! Instead what the audience what subjected to was an exercise in intolerance and ignorance. These so-called pros were stunningly rude and downright cruel. They behaved like whining children in need of a timeout. One saving grace: You're familiar the hated Class Bully character? Each host, in her own inimitable way, came away looking like that while the guests stayed unspeakably gracious under fire.

You should see for yourself and if you agree.

Here are viewer responses to the show. I encourage you to first watch the episode. You may first have to sign up or "launch" something, though. Then let me know what you think.

This is not so much about beliefs; this is about BAD TELEVISION. Without getting all lecture-y about it, we've got a lot of garbage floating around under the guise of "media," and most thinking people agree. It'd be great if we took back medialand to a kinder, gentler and decidedly smarter time.

Rose