C=T from time to time goes to the movies and occasionally watches television.Today, C=T writer, Samuel Jay, talks about a fictitious television station and the parallels to modern day life in the 1976 Peter Finch/Faye Dunnaway/Robert Duvall film, “Network”.
Commercials rarely give me inspiration to write, but the other day I
caught a commercial for financial services company J.G. Wentworth
featuring people coming to realizations about the settlement money
they were owed and then yelling out their windows, “It’s my money and
I need it now.” The commercial itself was pretty terrible, much like
similar commercials for Roni Deutch and Frank Azar, lawyers using
cheap local air time to reach potential clients. Considering the money
these people make it is interesting they do not invest a little time
and money targeting a different audience. With that said, I am
guessing people suing ambulance drivers and fighting their third DUI
charge are cut from an easily identifiable cloth -one that does not
take James Cameron to create something that will garner their
attention.
JG Wentworth Commercial
The commercial is a pastiche of Howard Beale’s (Peter Finch) rant from
Network (1976). Beale is the longtime anchor of the UBS Evening News
who is fired because of declining ratings. On what was supposed to be
his final segment at UBS -the movie’s fictional TV network- Beale goes
on a verbal tirade against the media industry which ends with him
opening the studio’s window and yelling to the streets: “I’m mad as
hell and I am not going to take this anymore!” He repeats the phrase
as those outside open their windows and repeat his words, venting
their own frustrations. Over time Beale’s rant has become one of the
iconic scenes from post-classical Hollywood cinema, imitated
throughout popular culture -the New York Mets season ticket office,
Weird Al, Hey Arnold! Unfortunately, this scene is the whole of what
many people know of Network.
Watch the “I’m Mad as Hell” Scene
Watching Network there is significant irony in how similar the
narrative is to what is happening with network television and cable
news in contemporary culture. Beale gets fired -a scapegoat for poor
ratings-, he goes off during his last show and threatens to kill
himself on live television, UBS brings him back for one more week so
he can apologize, he goes on afore mentioned rant, ratings soar, and
UBS gives him his own show. Just like contemporary network television
and cable news, the spectacle is what brings in the ratings. Gone are
the days of Edward R. Murrows or Walter Cronkites. We do not even have
Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw. Network news is the same from ABC to NBC to
CBS. In-depth reporting only exists on news magazines like 60 Minutes
and Nightline that air too infrequently. Cable news has embraced its
inner Howard Beale. In fact, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC have come to
embody The Howard Beale Show, the show given to the anchor after his
outburst that featured yelling and arguing between host and guests
with little productive dialogue. “Arguing between host and guests with
little productive dialogue” could be the synopsis given when I push my
remote’s info button to see what the Countdown with Keith Obermann
rundown will be for the night.
Network is more relevant now than it was in 1976. It is bigger than
Howard Beale’s rant, but at the same time his rant embodies the inner
monologue of America’s news-watchers. We are mad as hell… but are we
really doing anything about it? Everyone bitches about the media and
its liberal bias, but the news is the same no matter what channel you
watch. It is the packaging that is different. This is the pessimism of
Network. It does not end with Howard Beale changing the world. Nothing
gets better and ratings remain the great equalizer. Cable and
satellite have changed the aesthetics of news. It is about scrolling
tickers, multiple cameras, and people doing stuff on computers behind
the anchor. The relevancy of actually news is still trumped by ratings
of not-so-relevant news. We want drama because it allows us to ignore
what is really going on. Howard Beale wanted relevant news; he became
the fictional Bill O’Reilly instead.
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