Check this out - even after they've ousted the Tomlinson, the slide of
PBS (even faster and more depressing than NPR) into the muck continues
- quickens in fact. The last paragraph is key if you don't have time
to read this whole article from www.counterpunch.org - one of the
places where I turn to (along with www.democracynow.org and
http://www.fair.org) when I want to get some real news, instead of the
slightly-right-of-center propagand of public media.
I have for various reasons been listening to a little more NPR than
usual lately, and it's been so very depressing, except when it moves
me to futile anger.
December 3/4, 2005
Why Let Anxiety Over Your Son's Fate in Iraq Give You a Migraine?
Consumerama: the Real Simple Guide to Selling Anything
By RALPH NADER
On my desk one morning I found a 378-page tome whose name is "Real
Simple" with an intriguingly worded "Life Made Easier" subtitle. It
was the week when the members of the American Anthropological
Association were meeting in Washington, DC. Too bad there wasn't a
copy of "Real Simple" by each of the anthropologists' hotel room
doors. It would keep them busy analyzing the natives who produced it
for months.
I can only guess at what Managing Editor, Kristin van Ogtrop's future
ambitions are these days. But for the present she has created the
ultimate consumerama--a bulging volume of product advertisements laced
with editorial content that springs from the frenzy, created by the
heavy, slick, glossy pages of this marketing mania.
"Real Simple" does anything but make life easier. Opening its pages
releases a veritable gust of perfume-scented pages. There go the
'chemically sensitive' customers. For readers who are more resistant,
it can give you a mild headache after a while. "Real Simple" is not so
simple.
Let us persevere, however, and flip through the pages. Page after page
of perfumes, moisturizers, skin tighteners, infallible make-up,
haircolor, takes you to the first pearls of wisdom.
The great French writer, Albert Camus, is pressed into action for
Clinique, the repairwear, intensive eye cream. "Real generosity toward
the future lies in giving all the present," Camus is quoted as writing
in his book "The Rebel." Somehow I doubt whether he had anything
remotely connected to a consumer product in mind. But, hey, why not
let "Real Simple" provide some intellectual heft to a Niagara of
luxuries, whims, frivolities and downright mind-numbing minute
complexities of manufactured consumer desires.
Complex narcissism courses its way through page after page. This is
sheer narcissism with its intended contagion to the shoppers who,
off-guard, can be drawn into a morass of consumable complexity under
false pretenses. There are the bewildering choices of 3 to 3.5 inch
high heels that keep podiatrists complexly busy. Not to be outdone, is
an offering of a tailored alarm clock "for kids" with a barnyard's
choice of talking animals to choose from--dog, cat, pig, rooster, cow,
frog, duck, butterfly and the stray monkey. So simple. But, how do
your kids get to hear them all to make an informed choice?
Another glossy tries the linguistic approach to simplicity. "There's
one language everyone understands," (trademarked phrase) and that is
"gold earrings". For those who are complexly serious about their dog
and cat pets, there are dog place mats, catnip toys for cats and a
cotton-terry Soggy Dog towel for Fido's postbath rubdown.
You can't really flip through this advermagazine. There are numerous
cardboard-like inserts that serve a function similar to street bumps.
In case you don't feel you have the "simple time" to peruse and weigh
all these offerings, don't worry, a Lipton Tea commercial says, "you
feel ten years younger."
The Defense Department also decided to communicate inside this massive
bazaar. You--the taxpayer--pay for a full page, in the middle of all
these promotional distractions, with this message, "Talking with your
son about the military has you anxious and emotional. In times like
this, facts are reassuring," leading you to the website:
TodaysMilitary.com. Not to worry, a few pages later, there is an ad
titled, "Why Let a Migraine Disrupt your Life?".
To continue is to be compelled to move into satire. In two full pages,
Citi (bank) has you following a confusing, labyrinth through the Land
of Credit, with a starting gate and an ending destination called
"Credit Card Nirvana". This is the giant bank's way of "introducing
the Citi Simplicity Credit Card."
Businesses have done worse to the English language. But they don't
usually devote nearly 400 pages to such a semantic fraud. When I want
to read about the simple life, I take off my shelf classic paperback
by the public interest scientist, Albert Fritsch. It is accurately
titled, 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle.
You won't see Fritsch's practical insights into true simple living on
PBS anytime soon. What you will see is a new program by the name of
Real Simple debuting on the Public Broadcasting System in January
2006. It's the magazine turning itself into a television show! At
least you won't be overcome by its smell, or shall we say, its scent.
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