PBS’s Primetime Television Poorly Researched

The people who produced the “Primetime Television” segment on women in television obviously didn’t bother to research the wide variety of characters played by women in the fifties. PBS likes to bragg about having quality programming, but the episode on women is drivel.

They suffer from the delusion that the only roles available for women in the fifties were housewife roles. Actually housewife roles were in a minority. Even many sitcoms had women playing characters other than housewives, including Ann Sothern’s highly rated “Private Secretary”. Sothern subsequently appeared as an assistant hotel manager in the equally popular “The Ann Sothern Show”.

Some people may have the delusion that women primarily played housewives because the family sitcoms from the fifties were more frequently rerun in subsequent decades then the dramas and action / adventure shows that provided women a wider variety of roles. Society in the fifties attempted to prepare young girls to become housewives and mothers. Fifties television demonstrated that women could do other things including running their own businesses.

Primetime Television devoted an excessive amount of space to misrepresenting Mary Tyler Moore’s character Mary Richards on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” as being the first “independent woman”. They apparently forgot that Rose Marie had appeared as television writer Sally Rogers on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” on which Moore had played Laura Petrie. Actually independent female characters had been appearing on television since “My Friend Irma” in 1952.

The character Mary Richards was much less independent than many of the earlier female characters. Ann Sothern’s characters on “Private Secretary” and “The Ann Sothern Show” were much stronger than Richards.

The character Lois Lane on “Superman” makes Richards look like a wimp and a klutz. Lane was a serious journalist and didn’t mind taking risks to get a story. Lane not only wanted to beat other reporters to the story, she wanted to solve crimes before the police did. Noel Neill who played Lois Lane for most of the show’s run later toured college campuses. She told a reporter for the University of Kansas student newspaper “The Daily Kansan” in early 1972 that she often had young women come up to her and tell that her character had sparked their interest in a journalism career.

Mary Richards was an employee of a male run television station. Dale Evans played a truly independent woman on the popular “Roy Rogers Show” in the fifties. Her character Dale Evans owned a cafe with a male employee. She often ignored the advice of Roy Rogers and played a major role in catching the bad guys.

In an episode recently broadcast on RFD-TV Evans walked into a house where bank robbers were holding a family hostage by pretending she was just visiting the mother and baby even though she was wearing a six gun just like the men. She forced one of the robbers into a closet and then shot through the bedroom door at the outlaws in the living room to protect the mother and baby. Her action allowed Roy Rogers to come in behind the other two robbers.

In the sixties Anne Francis appeared as the owner of a private detective agency on “Honey West”. Honey West, like Diane Rigg’s character Emma Peel on “The Avengers”, could subdue the bad guys using martial arts skills.

The fifties had many anthology dramatic programs, including “The Loretta Young Show”. Young appeared in many roles. One week she might play a nun seeking to improve morale at a hospital, a judge another week and in another week a self centered businesswoman best described with the b-word.

Primetime Television illogically compares women in modern dramatic programs to sitcom characters from the fifties.

Anyone wishing to compare modern dramatic programs to the fifties need to examine the fifties dramatic programs rather than fifties sitcoms. Comparisons of sitcom characters from the fifties should only be made to characters on more recent sitcoms, including programs like “Home Improvement”, “Married with Children” and “Seinfeld”. Comparing dramatic characters to sitcom characters is going to make the sitcom characters appear less complicated because complex characters don’t work very well in sitcoms.

Comparing the fifties sitcom housewives to the female characters on shows like “Friends” and “Married with Children” could support a claim that television is doing a poorer job of portraying women. If Primetime Television wanted to make a serious comparison of how television portrayed women in the fifties and today, it would have compared the characters Betty White played in “Life with Elizabeth” and “Date with the Angels” in the fifties to her current character in “Hot in Cleveland”. White has appeared in various sitcoms over the last 60 years. A study of her various characters, including those from shows that didn’t catch on, might be very interesting.

In the fifties women could appear in many different roles involving many occupations. June Lockhart, who is best known as the mother of Timmy on “Lassie” and the mother on “Lost in Space”, appeared as a frontier doctor in a couple of episodes of “Have Gun will Travel”. Mary Tyler Moore played a bank clerk in an episode of “Surfside 6″

Not all fifties housewives were obedient. Alice Kramden routinely told off her oversize husband Ralph on “The Honeymooners”. On the “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode “Lamb to the Slaughter” Barbara Bel Geddes played a young pregnant housewife who killed her police officer husband with a frozen leg of lamb after he told her he was leaving her for another woman. She then put the lamb in the over and went to the store to establish an alibi before returning home to discover the body. Later in the evening she served the lamb to the officers investigating the murder.

Bel Geddes wasn’t the only woman to play a criminal in the fifties. Barbara Billingsley, June Cleaver on “Leave it to Beaver”, played a smuggler whose partners mysteriously died on an episode of “The Lone Wolf”. Frances Bavier, Aunt B on “Andy Griffith”, played the leader of an outlaw gang on an episode of “The Lone Ranger”.

French sociologist Jacques Ellul uses the term “prepropaganda” to describe information received before a “propaganda campaign” that makes people more inclined to accept the claims of the propaganda. Incidentally, Ellul uses the term propaganda to include true statements that are presented to support come claim.

References to the women’s movement failed to mention the possibility that the non-housewife characters on fifties television made women more willing to recognize that women could do other things besides being a housewife. Women might not have remembered specific instances of seeing women work as doctors or as business owners, but that information was in their subconscious memory

Society might have told girls that their goals should be to becomes wives and mothers, but television was showing them that they might have other options.

Early 50′s TV “Feminist” Returns to TV

Television in the fifties at times was very liberated in its portrayal of women as being able to perform many different jobs.

This statement may come as a surprise to those who think of female television characters in the fifties in terms of sitcom housewives like June Cleaver on “Leave it to Beaver”. It may be an even bigger surprise that “liberated” women were often found on television westerns.

Dale Evans was one of the first to appear on TV in what would normally be considered a male role. On the “Roy Rogers Show” she ran a cafe with a male employee in a western town. When necessary she would strap on her six gun and help Roy and the sheriff catch the bad guys just like the male heroes. Dale could shoot the guns out of the bad guys’ hands just as well as Roy could. In the first episode Dale put on a shooting demonstration at a local celebration.

Dale was married to Roy in real life, but on the show both were single. Both used their real names on the show.

The program referred to Roy as “King of the Cowboys” and Dale as the “Queen of the West”. Ironically, the “King of the cowboys” was part Choctaw.

An interesting aspect of the show is that it was set in the contemporary era. Motor vehicles appeared at times, especially a jeep named Nelly belle, but most of the time the characters were riding horses.across country in an area which seemed to have a shortage of improved roads.

RFD-TV has brought back “The Roy Rogers Show” after purchasing Roy’s stuffed horse Trigger. The network specializes in rural oriented programming including shows dealing with farming and ranching. It’s schedule also includes cooking shows, travel shows and various music shows including old music programs such as “Hee Haw”. Dolly Parton fans can see her on the old “Porter Waggoner” program. Loretta Lynn is a regular on “The Wilburn Brothers Show”.

Dale Evans wasn’t the only woman who helped enforce the law in old westerns. Gail Davis portrayed “Little Sure Shot” “Annie Oakley”. Annie was the sheriff’s niece and helped the deputy catch the bad guys when her uncle was in “another part of the county”. She was usually the one who figured out who committed the crimes. A couple of episodes of the “Gene Autry Show” even had women sheriffs.

Incidentally, many western bad “guys” were women, including a woman banker on “Roy Rogers” who killed farmers with mortgages so she could sell the farms to someone else.

Saloon owners often were prominent characters in westerns and some of those saloon owners were women, particularly Miss Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake) on “Gunsmoke“. Like Dale Evans she had a male employee who took orders from her.

Lily Merrill (Peggy Castle) was a similar character on “Lawman” which is currently running on Encore’s Western Channel. An earlier female saloon owner on the program was a killer who was able to get away with her crimes until the Lawman convinced the judge to seat an all female jury. She decided to plead guilty.

Women appeared in various roles on other westerns including operating stage lines, owning ranches and even participating in trail drives. “Timmy’s mom” June Lockhart appeared in a couple of episodes of “Have Gun Will Travel” (also on the Western channel) as a frontier doctor.

Characters like those played by Dale Evans and Amanda Blake provided girls growing up in the 50′s with female role models who weren’t wives and mothers.

In a previous post I criticized the new “Charlie’s Angels” which has now been cancelled. I wasn’t the only one who recognized it was a bad show.

Democrats Need a Bobby Kennedy Now

If Democrats want to win next year’s presidential election, they need a new candidate. President Barack Obama has very little chance of being reelected in the current economic situation because he is clueless about how to deal with the economy.

His so-called “jobs bill” is just more of the same approach that hasn’t worked. Then there is the ticking time bomb in the deficit proposal he foolishly agreed to.

The election laws in 1968 allowed potential presidential challengers to wait until the primary season had begun to enter the race. Sen. Robert Kennedy had the opportunity to reconsider his decision to not run for president in 1968 after it became obvious that fellow Democrat President Lyndon Johnson was unlikely to win reelection. Kennedy decided to run after Johnson’s poor showing in the New Hampshire primary running against largely unknown Sen. Eugene McCarthy. Many of those who voted for McCarthy falsely believed that McCarthy, who opposed the War in Vietnam, wanted a stronger war effort

Two weeks after Kennedy announced he would run, Johnson dropped out of the race because of the situation in Vietnam.

Kennedy was well on the way to winning the nomination when he was stopped by an assassin’s bullet. Had he won the nomination, it is very likely he would have defeated Republican candidate Richard Nixon. The assassination of Kennedy caused the Democrats to nominate Vice President Hubert Humphrey instead.

Obama’s consistently low approval ratings indicate he has little chance of reelection. Democrats shouldn’t let themselves be misled by worthless public opinion polls showing how he would supposedly do against potential Republican candidates. Most voters aren’t paying close attention to those running for the Republican nomination and their final decisions may be influenced by whatever ads the Republican candidate and private groups run next fall.

Democrats need a dynamic candidate who knows how to appeal to independent voters. Considering the low opinion voters have of Congress, the strongest candidate would be someone from outside of Washington.

Palestinian U.N. Membership a Very Bad Precedent

Granting United Nations membership to the Palestinians would create a vary dangerous precedent. The Palestinians aren’t the only ethnic group that desire to have their own country independent of the one in which they live. Nor are they the only group that has used violence to try to gain independence.

The Kurds have long desired to set up a country they would call Kurdistan including land currently a part of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. If the U.N. grants membership to the Palestinians, shouldn’t it also grant membership to Kurdistan? The Kurds have their own culture and language.

The Palestinians are a collection of Arab peoples who happen to live within the boundaries of the nation of Israel. They are called Palestinians not because they have a unique culture like the Kurds, but because they aren’t Jewish. The term “Palestine” was used by the Romans to refer to a geographic region rather than any specific ethnic group.

Might the area of Chechnya also qualify for U.N. membership? What about the Basque region of Spain? Could Tibetans argue that they should have U.N. membership even though the Chinese currently occupy the country?

If the Palestinians should get their own country because they are Muslims, what about the Uighur Muslims in China?

Many other countries have groups that might want their own country if they thought it were possible, particularly in those areas of the world where European nations arbitrarily forced different ethnic groups to live in the same country. Granting U.N. membership to the Palestinians would encourage members of these groups to develop nationalist aspirations.

There is nothing special about the Palestinians. Many groups of people would like to have their own nations. The U.N. cannot arbitrarily grant membership to the Palestinians and ignore the aspirations of the Kurds, Basques, etc.

Nations that are considering voting for Palestinian membership should make sure they don’t have groups that might make a similar request.

Over the last several thousand years regions of the Middle East have been controlled by whatever ethnic groups have been strongest at the time. Some groups such as the Persians and Assyrians have established empires. Others such as the Israelites have been content to control only small areas. The current situation in Israel has been occurred many times in the past and will likely to be repeated in one country or another in the future.

The U.N. should not attempt to arbitrarily adjust national boundaries or decide which groups should have their own countries. Many of the ethnic problems in Asia and Africa are due in part to the arbitrary national boundaries imposed by imperialistic European nations If the Palestinians, Kurds or other groups want their own nations they should handle their own situations rather having the U.N. impose a solution from outside.

She Spies Back As Charlie’s Angels

“She Spies” was an NBC show that aired from September, 2004, through May, 2004. The show used a similar format to Aaron Spelling’s 70′s ABC series “Charlie’s Angels”.

Like “Charlie’s Angels”, “She Spies” featured three women with a male supervisor who battled evil doers.

There were three major differences. The “Spies” worked for a government spy agency rather than a private detective agency like the “Angels”. The “Angels” had been “good girls” who had become bored with the job duties they had had as police officers. The “Spies” were bad girls who were let out of jail to work for the government. The “Angels” used their wits and feminine charms to outsmart the evil doers. The “Spies” used martial arts much like Emma Peel on the 60′s series “The Avengers”.

Oh, there is one other difference, at least to my eyes. The “Angels” were much better looking than the “Spies”.

The new “Charlie’s Angels” involves the Townsend Detective Agency like the original show and Charlie only communicates with his Angels by phone with a man named Bosley serving as their immediate supervisor. However, the new “Angels” resemble the “She Spies” more than the original “Angels”.

The new “Angels” are bad girls like the “Spies”. One had been a cop, but she was a “dirty cop”. They are martial arts experts like the “Spies”.

The first episodes of the two series have an interesting similarity. One of the “She Spies” was temporarily incapacited and they needed to bring in another “bad girl” from jail as a temporary replacement. On the new “Charlie’s Angels” one of the “Angels” is murdered and they have to hire another bad girl, who was a friend of the woman who was killed, as a replacement.

The first episode begins with the Angels kicking in a door and assaulting the kidnappers to rescue a teen who has been kidnapped by sex traffickers. Then as they are leaving the area one of the Angels is blown up in her car.

The woman who becomes the new Angel is suspected by the Angels of killing their partner. When they go to her boat to ask her about it, the bad guys start firing at the boat with a machine gun from a helicopter. The show ends with them beating up the bad guy in charge of the kidnapping operation.

If the first episode indicates what the rest of the series will be like, ABC needs to switch the show to the last hour of prime time from the first hour. The show is too violent for that time period. The show time is strange considering that the nonviolent “Body of Proof” airs in the third hour of prime time.

The new “Charlie’s Angels” isn’t ABC’s first venture with women who are experts in martial arts. ABC produced “the Avengers” and the short lived “Honey West” series in the 60′s. Both series are available on DVD and would be a better choice for viewers even though “Honey West” was in black and white. The Diana Rigg (Emma Peel) episodes of “the Avengers” are particularly worth watching and not just because TV Guide picked Diana Rigg as the sexiest woman of the first 50 years of television. Even in black and white, Anne Francis is sexier than any of the new “Charlie’s Angels”

Martial arts fans have an opportunity to see the original martial arts master, Bruce Lee, in action as Kato in reruns of “Green Hornet” on YOUTV.

Do Rich Deserve Their Money?

I’m getting tired of Republicans crying that the “poor” rich shouldn’t have to pay any more of “their” money in federal taxes. Republicans falsely claim that allowing those with high incomes to pay lower taxes will result in creation of new jobs.

Perhaps that is the case with entrepreneurs like Donald Trump or the owners of small businesses.

However, many, if not most, of those with high incomes, including corporate CEO’s, work for someone else. They aren’t going to use any tax cut money to create new jobs at their employers’ businesses. Many corporate executives look for ways to reduce the number of people working at their companies so more money will be available to pay them.

How many high income people really deserve the income they receive? The Wall Street executives who wrecked the companies they worked for certainly didn’t deserve the large bonuses they received from President Barack Obama.

In 2005, federal prosecutors got a conviction of Westar CEO David Wittig and assistant Douglas Lake for looting the corporation to increase their own income. However, a Supreme Court ruling favorable to corporate executives receiving questionable compensation caused the conviction to be overturned and prevented another successful prosecution. Wittig had been previously convicted of a crooked loan scheme with a Topeka banker who increased Wittig’s line of credit so Wittig could loan him money for a real estate venture.

NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman told Jay Leno recently that the NBA really needed to restructure its labor contract because many teams were paying players $20 million a year just to sit on the bench. Fans sometimes complain that some highly paid athletes don’t play like they deserve what they are being paid.

The Christian Science Monitor reported in 2010 that 30 private college presidents had incomes of over one million. How can anyone justify paying a college president a million a year, particularly considering the high cost of college? Millionaire college presidents aren’t likely to use their “tax cut” money to create jobs. If they were interested in creating new jobs they would take lower salaries.

Some major colleges pay athletic coaches million dollar salaries as if they were profit making businesses rather than charitable organizations. College coaches are unlikely to use any tax cut money to create new jobs. They are in coaching to make as much money as they can.

The sports programs they work for are preoccupied with making money. Schools jump from conference to conference depending upon how much money they can make. Congress needs to consider taxing major college sports programs like professional sports teams. At the very least Congress should eliminate the practice of allowing tax deductible “contributions” to major college sports programs. Tax deductions for payments to organizations should be eliminated to those organizations that exist to help others. College sports programs exist to make a profit in the form of high pay for sports employees.

Colleges aren’t the only “charities” that help their executives and coaches get rich. Some charities pay very high salaries to their top executives. Many environmental organizations pay multiple executives over $200,000 per year.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America at one time was paying its CEO nearly a million in salary and benefits. The March of Dimes CEO has received over $600,000 a year.

Actor Charlie Sheen might have used some of his tax cut money for some “fun dates” but not to create permanent jobs. A few actors may finance their own movies and touring singers may be responsible for paying band members and “roadies”. How many overpaid actors use tax cut money to hire anyone other than domestic staff for their mansions.

If income were based on one’s contribution to the welfare of society, farm workers would be much better paid than entertainers.

If Republicans want to use the tax system to encourage business owners to add jobs, Congress should allow deduction for any expenses, including equipment purchases, associated with hiring new employees. This approach would reward those who hire new employees. The Republican approach rewards those owners who don’t hire new employees by allowing them to keep more of their incomes. The Republican approach also rewards those who have no interest in using the income they receive from their employers to hire new workers.
ratings

Thoughts on 9/11

I learned about the 9/11 attack a little later than most people. I worked second shift and usually got up around 10:30.

When the clock radio came on the announcer wasn’t making much sense to a brain that wasn’t completely awake. He was saying something about the Pentagon and Vice President Cheney with the word “unprecedented” being mentioned. I thought at first that something had happened to Cheney.

I went into the living room and turned on the television to one of the news channels. With the frequent replays of the morning’s events it took some time for me to determine what had already happened and what was happening at that time.

I was glad that ABC New Commentator Paul Harvey had returned to work by 9/11. He had been off for an extended period due to a throat problem, but had returned in August. Harvey had a positive attitude and frequently reminded his listeners that whatever the situation was it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. He recognized that emphasizing the negative made the situation seem worse than it was.

I wasn’t surprised that something like the 9/11 attack had happened. I wasn’t expecting anything of that scale, but I was expecting more terrorist attacks such as those that had been happening against American interests elsewhere in the world

The media had been reporting lapses in airline security for some time, so I wasn’t surprised that terrorists might hijack airplanes. There had been movies about terrorists using aircraft in this manner. I wouldn’t have expected President George W. Bush to anticipate such a possibility but the people at the FBI and the CIA should have.

U.S. support for the tyrant known as the Shah of Iran had led to an attack on the American embassy in Tehran after the Iranian people overthrew him.

After I learned the identities of the suspected hijackers I realized I was right that the decision to base American forces in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War was a very bad idea. Western nations, including the U.S., have been pushing around Middle Eastern countries for too long.

The basing of American forces in what Muslims regard as their Holy Land may have been enough to push some Saudis over the edge and provoke them to commit suicide by flying planes into various American buildings. The U.S. had ignored the significance of a previous attack on American forces in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi government might have welcomed American bases to protect them from Iraq, but may of their citizens viewed the bases as the home of an foreign occupation force.

American leaders often seem ignorant of the fact that members of other cultures sometimes view the world and military conflicts differently from Americans. The failure to recognize this difference in viewpoint hampered the U.S. war effort in Vietnam.

I learned from one of the recent broadcast 9/11 related documentaries that Osama bin Laden had wanted the U.S. to invade Afghanistan because he believed the U.S. would lose. Bin Laden may not have contemplated a traditional military victory. Instead of a traditional victory he may have been thinking in terms of dragging out the fighting until Americans got tired of the battles and left like they did in Vietnam.

North Vietnam never won a major battle in Vietnam until two years after American forces left. The Tet offensive was not a communist victory because they couldn’t keep any places they took and much of the Viet Cong was destroyed. When the U.S. left Vietnam its allies were in charge of the government that controlled South Vietnam which was the American goal in Vietnam. However, the American media had previously decided the war was lost because it lasted so long.

Bin Laden may have been hoping for a similar outcome. Dragging out the fighting until Americans decided they couldn’t “win” would allow him, or his successors, to claim they had defeated the “Great Satan” and use the “victory” as a recruiting tool.

The 9/11 attack was the start of a war that is continuing. We cannot afford to abandon the war effort just because the war appears to be endless. Americans often mistakenly claim that the Vietnam War was the nation’s longest war. Actually Vietnam was merely a conflict within the long running Cold War, as was the Korean War. America stood firm in the Cold War and eventually the enemy quit.

We must continue to stand up to the terrorists because if we don’t take the war to them, they may bring the war back to us. One of the reasons the terrorists haven’t launched another major attack on the U.S. is because they are busy fighting our army.

Reminding Americans of 9/11

I suspect that many Americans will ignore the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks unless they are reminded in a way they cannot ignore.

When people know they are in a war they often use sirens to warn when the enemy is attacking. No sirens were sounded to warn of 9/11 because Americans didn’t realize they were under attack until the attacks were over. The only plane for which a warning was given was brought down by its heroic passengers before it could reach its target.

The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks provides an opportunity to remind Americans that the fact 9/11 happened means not only that such an attack can happen, but it could happen again if we become as complacent as we were ten years ago.

No sirens sounded on 9/11/2001, but we could sound sirens this year to remind Americans that we are still in danger of a potential attack.

For those in the Eastern time zone, storm sirens would sound at the exact time of each plane crash. In the Central time zone, cities might do like they do with television and sound the sirens while they are sounding in the Eastern time zone. Due to the early hour of the first attacks, sirens in the Mountain time zone and farther west, particularly in Alaska and Hawaii, might sound at the same time of day as the attacks. The Central time zone might want to consider a similar approach.

In communities without storm sirens, emergency vehicle sirens might be used. Truck air horns could be used in place in rural areas where there aren’t any emergency vehicles. Church bells were often used to warn of danger in the past and could be used along with sirens or instead of sirens. This action would be particularly appropriate considering the anniversary will be on Sunday.

In addition to, or instead of, the sirens, the emergency alert system for radio and television might transmit a reminder at the time of each attack. There were four crashes and we have four living former presidents. Perhaps each of them could remind people of one of the attacks.

I’ve been watching 9/11 documentaries the last week. Some of them have mentioned the failure to recognize the significance of information indicating the attack threat even among those whose profession was to watch for such threats. A national feeling that the continental U.S. was some how immune from any significant foreign attack may have prevented people at the FBI and CIA from recognizing the threat.

These professionals had forgotten that a similar failure to recognize a potential threat had allowed the Japanese to pull off a highly successful surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. There is a theory that President Franklin Roosevelt withheld intelligence information from Pearl Harbor commanders. Commanders at Pearl Harbor should have recognized there was a threat of attack without inside information because there was a war on.

Terrorist attacks had occurred in other parts of the world before 9/11. People at the FBI and CIA should have been watching for any signs that someone might attack America itself.

The fact that no major attack has happened since 2001 may be causing some to feel the problem of terrorist attacks has been solved. Those who feel this way are ignoring the fact that the terrorists most likely to get away with such an attack have been busy fighting our military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Those attempting terrorist acts in the U.S. have been individuals who don’t have the ability of the 9/11 hijackers or those who have conducted terrorist acts outside the U.S. Some would be local terrorists have been so careless they have made the mistake of letting undercover officers become a part of their conspiracies.

There are a couple of interesting 9/11 series currently running. “Inside 9/11″ on the National Geographic Channel is an investigative series. “Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero” on the Discovery and Science channels deals with replacing the World Trade Center. The episodes “Reclaiming the Skyline” follows construction of the tallest new building. One of the iron workers the show focuses on had a father who was injured building the original World Trade Center.

Labor Day Won’t Be the Same

For 45 years watching The Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon was what millions of families did on Labor Day. The Telethon was to Labor Day what fireworks were to the 4th of July and a turkey dinner to Thanksgiving.

This year the Muscular Dystrophy Association has decided to replace this holiday tradition with a television show on Labor Day Eve. The 6-hour program will still be called a telethon, but Jerry Lewis won’t be there and it won’t be live for most viewers unless MDA has different programs for each time zone. The program will start at 6 P.M. local time in each time zone and end at midnight. Perhaps even the Eastern Time Zone will get a taped broadcast.

I hope the new approach works, but I doubt that a 6-hour program can do what the event did.

The old telethon was an event with activities throughout the day. Families would turn the tv on when they got up to see how much money had been raised. They would see if there were any fund raising activities they wanted to participate in. Perhaps they would go to the Mall or take advantage of a special offer at a local restaurant.

In some homes kids would tell their parents “I want to go out and collect money for Jerry’s Kids.” After they collected the money their parents would take them to the tv station or other location to turn the money in and possibly be seen on television while they were doing it.

Many of today’s parents had celebrated Labor Day in this manner since they were kids.

The daytime format allowed for people to participate in more fund raising events. The new format will limit the number of outside fund raising events because the program is so late in the day. Most of the program will be on after dark, making it difficult for people to decide what events to attend with their children. By the time they learn of the events on the program, it may be too late to get to the event and back home. It’s unlikely children will be able to go out and collect money to take to the station.

A major advantage of the old time choice was that people who worked during the day didn’t regularly watch any daytime programs so they didn’t have to miss a favorite program to watch the telethon. This year’s prime time program will have to convince viewers of regular programs like “60 Minutes” to watch the telethon instead. Other competition includes “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and, for Texans, a football game between Southern Methodist University and Texas A & M.

Many potential viewers attend church services on Sunday evening or engage in other evening activities. I suspect one reason the old telethon got so many pledges late in the telethon was due to those who had spent the weekend at the lake or beach returning home on Monday afternoon. People who are at the lake Sunday evening probably won’t watch the telethon although they might record it.

The decision to go with a prime time variety show ignores the fate of prime time variety shows. They have trouble attracting viewers unless the show includes a contest like “American Idol” or “Dancing with the Stars”. Even Jay Leno couldn’t attract viewers in prime time. The telethon used to start in prime time on Sunday night, but, at least on WGN and KAKE (Wichita), the start had been broadcast on a delayed basis.

Although the stars listed on the website can qualify as superstars, even superstars have trouble attracting a broad audience in today’s musical entertainment world which makes it difficult for variety shows to attract a large prime time audience. . The musical world is fractured into various genres. Paul McCartney is one of the few superstars left from the 60′s when many singers had a broad popular appeal. Most who could appeal to a variety of audiences, like Johnny Cash and Ray Charles, are dead.

I don’t know about other viewers, but one aspect I liked about the old long telethon was the opportunity to see performers who weren’t likely to appear on other shows. We had the opportunity to hear or see new performers as well as the established performers.

For many of us the stars weren’t the only reason to watch the old telethon. Those with MD who appeared over several years became like neighbors or members of the family. I remember a couple of kids on the Wichita telethon with a non-fatal form of MD who grew up in front of our eyes. I watch the WGN satellite station as well as the Wichita station to keep up with Romania’s “perfect 10″ gymnast Nadia Comaneci and her husband, American gymnast Bart Conner.

A major advantage of the old live format was the ability to show how much money had been raised. People could watch the amount build. That won’t be possible with the new format because the show will be ending in the Eastern Time Zone long before it does in the Pacific Time Zone. One possible reason for late donations on the old telethon was due to concern it might not raise as much as the previous year and potential donors didn’t want to disappoint Jerry.

The MDA Telethon became a national institution in large part because Jerry Lewis was one of the greatest entertainers of the mid-20th Century. Jamie Foxx is the only younger performer who is currently in the same class as Lewis, although some others might eventually achieve that status.

MDA would have been much better off if Lewis had headed the first program in the new format. Many would have watched just to see his last MDA appearance. Some would have donated more to provide him with a good send off. The failure to explain why Lewis isn’t going to be on this year is likely to cause some to skip this year’s telethon because many assume the worst when explanations aren’t provided.

I suppose it’s too late for local stations to decide to go ahead and have a local Labor Day telethon without the benefit of a national show, but if they can do so they should try to. Alternatively, they should consider starting their telethons early in the afternoon to encourage people to participate in fundraising events.

Local stations will have to do extensive advertising that emphasizes the new time. Regular viewers may ignore reminders to watch the show if the ads don’t prominently state the show will be on Sunday night instead of being a Monday telethon. Frequent stories on newscasts would be desirable. Many viewers may not discover the new time until they turn the tv on late on Sunday night. Some who go to bed early on Sunday night may get up Monday morning and wonder why they can’t find the telethon.

S & P’s Decision Appears Justified

Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. debt rating appears justified because of the inadequacy of the U.S. response to the debt issue. Allowing the U.S. to keep the top rating would falsely indicate the U.S. is doing the best it can to correct its debt problem. American voters are choosing politicians who lack the ability or willingness to deal realistically with the U.S. debt problem.

I waited to write about Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. debt rating because I wanted to think about it for awhile instead of taking a knee jerk reaction.

Dealing with a major crisis requires a strong experienced president. Unfortunately, Barack Obama is the weakest president since Gerald Ford. Obama’s only apparent skill is an ability to read a teleprompter.

A smart president would have recognized he couldn’t change the minds of House members and ended the debate early so he could prepare for a return match later.

Obama won the election because neither the voters nor the media understand the qualifications for an effective president. The President is the chief executive officer of the most powerful country in the world. Electing an president without executive experience makes no more sense then asking a high school quarterback to play quarterback in the Super Bowl.

Too many voters will support someone who promises to do “this, that and the other thing” even though the candidate has never demonstrated an ability to deliver on his promises. It’s easy to make promises, but delivering on those promises can be difficult. Any quarterback can say he will win the Super Bowl, but very few are capable of doing so.

Unfortunately, many Republicans want to make the same mistake the Democrats did. These Republicans support Michele Bachmann who is just as inexperienced and unprepared for the presidency as Obama was.

The deficit debate was what we used to call the game of chicken. Two cars would approach each other in the same lane. The driver who veered off first was “chicken”. Both sides seemed more interested in scoring political points than in conducting a serious discussion of the issue. They reminded me of the old beer commercials in which one side yelled “less filling” and the other side yelled “great taste”.

One editorial cartoonist suggested the old Looney Tunes cartoon debate in which Daffy Duck says “Rabbit Season” and Bugs Bunny says “Duck Season”. Bugs eventually gets Daffy to say “Duck Season”, but Obama doesn’t have Bugs Bunny’s ability.

Too many members of Congress are either incapable of understanding the nature of the deficit crisis or don’t care about dealing with the deficit in a realistic manner. Fixing the deficit will require an increase in revenue, preferably a tax on those with surplus income.

Cutting spending won’t reduce the deficit as much as some expect because the federal government gets a kickback in the form of Social Security and income taxes from those it employs or from businesses government, and its employees, purchases from. Money given to welfare recipients goes to those they purchase goods and services from who in turn pay taxes.

If unemployment increases due to spending cuts, the next Congress may feel it needs to spend even more borrowed money to stimulate the economy.

Republicans and their supporters seem incapable of understanding the fact that it is not the amount of money someone has, but the financial status of the United States that is important. The financial health of the U.S. determines what its money is worth. For the rich, taxes are an investment in the financial health of the United States. Reducing the deficit would improve the financial health of the U.S. and make the money the rich have worth more.

There is a danger if the “rich” have too much money. Money can be addictive. As people obtain a certain amount of money they start wanting more and more. Like alcoholics they need more and more money to be satisfied.

When the “rich” obtain too much money a boom psychology can develop in which investors ignore the possibility of risk. They don’t think they can lose money. They may think the stock market can only go up as many believed in the 20′s.

The crisis of 2008 occurred because the rich had too much money and had bid stock prices up too high because too many expected everything to go up “forever”. Many invested money in garbage like mortgage derivatives or gave it to crooks like Bernie Madoff who promised to make them even richer. If they had invested it in taxes, the country’s financial health would be better today and many of them wouldn’t have lost so much.

Talk about defaulting on debts incurred in the past raises concerns that the U.S. might default on newer debts. Those who started working 40 some years ago were told the Social Security taxes they were paying were for a pension program. They were loaning money to the federal government in return for a promise to provide them with retirement income. Congress may have handled Social Security funds like the program was a Ponzi scheme, but “investors” (Social Security taxpayers) were told they were investing in a pension plan.

Social Security and Medicare are debts, not entitlements. Benefits go to those who have paid in advance for them.

If the current Congress decides to default on the promise of Social Security payments to those who will be retiring in the next few years because the program was poorly administered by previous Congresses, how can those who purchase U.S. government securities today be sure that a future Congress won’t decide to default on that debt because Congress in 2011 was not borrowing responsibly.