Posted on 01/08/2007 6:23:36 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
I don't disagree, sport, however, there are plenty of more pressing problems facing us this morning other than Meredith Viera.
As we speak:
-140,000 Americans are risking their lives in a foreign country, in a conflict in which the US Government (at all levels)is either unable or unwilling to take the actions necessary to ensure a successful conclusion.
- A middle eastern power, inimical to the West in general and the United States in particular, is about to acquire nuclear weapons (if they don't have them already), causing consternation here, and outright fear in Israel, which might pre-emptively strike and perhaps make our position in Iraq that much worse.
- We face the spectre of a resurgent Soviet Union, and a nuclear Korean peninsula at the same time as the old European alliances are beginning to crumble.
- The republican party having been pasted in mid-term elections two months ago, has, instead of concentrating on just how and why it lost, and how to correct it, is instead consumed over the question of whether we should select as our next Presidential candidate a mental patient (McCain), a guy who wore a dress as a gag (Giuliani), or one of the numerous backbench-second-stringers who can bring out the church vote, but drive the rest of the electorate straight into the arms of democrats.
- The Bush tax cuts will expire in two years, and the democratic (small 'd' intentional) party will ensure that they stay dead, with subsequent dire effects upon the US economy.
I could go on, but that should do to start.
In the grand scheme of things, the world being what it is, Meredith Viera (and anything she might have to say about menopause) doesn't count for anything.
I agree.
Wombat, don't know if you read my threads regularly, but if you do you'll note that I spend the great amount of my time discussing just those sort of issues you consider most important.
So perhaps you'll cut me some slack if occasionally I write about something other than pressing issues of national security. As someone watched by millions of Americans every day, I think what Vieira says does count. She helps shape the culture, and in this case, I think she struck an unfortunate blow for its coarsening.
Well said. I think Newsbusters has too many employees and not enough to do!
There are always dramatic, life and death situations, etc., that are "more important" than issues such as manners, public composure, what constitutes the niceties of polite society, etc. That does not mean the latter shouldn't be discussed. In fact your strawman is taking this thread off topic.
These liberal View-types are an embarrassment to sensible women everywhere. Totally self-obsessed. The concept of "suck it up and deal" is beyond them. Everything must be revealed and confessed to the world.
"She helps shape the culture, and in this case, I think she struck an unfortunate blow for its coarsening."
Wrong on two points:
a) The Culture is not shaped by the media quite as much as the media is shaped by the culture. That is the nature of free markets; the networks give the people what they want, in much the same way as the Roman emperors gave them bread and circuses. If the mass of people wanted wholesome, family-friendly entertainment which didn't discuss women's plumbing so openly and jokingly, then the networks would provide it.
b)Taken in context, a passing joke to a hotflash (and I don't subscribe to the theory posted by sport above that Meredith made it as a subliminial, personal editorial on stem cell research -- I don't believe Meredith can be that cunning) does not signal the coarsening of a culture.
Quite frankly, I'm slightly offended (when I'm not laughing uprorariously) by the spate of commercials that run several times a day about erectile dysfunction, herpes outbreaks, weak bladders and a laundry-list of minor pseudo-medical problems (like chronic dry eye, for example), not because they are subjects that shouldn't be discussed in "polite society", but because they are indicative of the arrogance and selfishness of the Baby Boomer generation (the target audience of these commercials), who expect to be kept in perfect health forever with their sexual potency intact, via medication (which the rest of us will be paying for, incidentally).
How 'Brave New World' it all is!
So, if you want to set a "root cause" of the coarsening of the culture, governs, then at least be honest and accurate when you point the finger; the problem is not Meredith Viera, the problem is the generation that opened the floodgates which lead to it in the first place with their libertine behavior. Meredith, in speaking about menopause and hot-flashes wasn't speaking to 12 year olds; she was speaking to the Flower Children who need to know about hot flashes and such because they are experiencing them now.
It's not a "strawman" at all, ops.
I'm sure the next Marine who gets a sniper bullet through his brainpan would be very grateful to you for having denigrated his plight as being somewhat less important than the great debate on whether or not menopause should be discussed on televion.
I'm not diagreeing with governs that the whole subject was unseemly and perhaps inappropriate, but where was it written that you had the right to go througfh life unoffended?
Wombat, I certainly agree that issues of life and death and national security are more important than this. Don't know, for example, if you read my 'Iraq Diary' at NewsBusters, chronicling my recent trip to Iraq, most of it spent on Marine bases in Anbar province.
But whether the MSM influence the culture, or vice versa as you believe, I believe this morning's episode was a noteworthy cultural marker.
I must admit to not reading NewsBusters much, as I find it biased and often concerned with issues I don't consider worthy of investigation (that's a matter of taste, granted).
And I would hardly find a passing remark made by Meredith Viera to be a noteworthy cultural marker in the same way as, say, Roe v. Wade or Brown v. Board of Education, unless your view of our culture is incredibly narrowly defined. Those sorts of "cultural markers" have had a lasting and irreversible effect on America, with far more impact than a pathetic attempt at humor by a newscaster.
AIIIIEEE!
HOT! TOO HOT!! HEH!
With respect, you have used a number of straw men. You make the unassailable argument that Vieira's comment is not as important as the death of a Marine or Brown v. Board of Ed. But I never said it was. I'm simply saying that I found it noteworthy.
I've never heard of her.
By this logic, should newspapers only have a front page? Should only the most vital issues of the day be reported, or is there room for other stories of interest, if not of transcendent importance?
"Today" remains the #1 morning news show. Millions continue to tune daily news and views. That's why,as my tagline suggests, I think it's worthwhile keeping track of what they're up to.
No doubt, but I still never heard of her. I'm just out of touch.
With respect, I don't see the strawman. All ofthe arguments I have put forward are perfectly valid with regards to the original question (i.e. just how important is anything said in passing by Meredith Viera on any subject?)
You make the assertion that you found the remark "noteworthy" without putting it in the context of just why. One is left with the impression that what made it "noteworthy" is simply your own biases about what is right and proper and what is fit to discuss on the airwaves.
With regards to the "coarsening" of American culture; when you live in a society in which disposing of inconvenient children is considered a "right", where ethics (in every possible setting you can imagine) are fungible, where honesty and integrity will soon lose their place in the dictionary because they have fallen out of use, and where all sorts of abhorrent behavior are routinely excused as matters of "personal preference" or reduced to a psychological condition worthy of extensive and expensive medical treatment, just how bad is a passing joke about a hot flash?
I think governs, that you are paying WAY too much attention to the trees and not enough to the forest in this case.
"By this logic, should newspapers only have a front page? Should only the most vital issues of the day be reported, or is there room for other stories of interest, if not of transcendent importance?"
Now who's putting forth strawmen? Somehow, now I'm in favor of censorship, governs? Wasn't it you who first intimated that such things as jokes about menopause had no place in the public arena?
There is certainly room for all manner of discussionon all subjects that might be of importance to anyone. In particular, television segments about menopause and hot flashes on network television, to use your own thought about "transcendental" issues. It was important to somebody, somewhere, and so the network decided to air it, probably based on the belief that a segment of their viewrs actually wanted to hear about this stuff. I'm sure they didn't expect Meredith to make a tasteless remark embarrassing or injurious to someone, but there you go; life often works that way. You found it offensive and implied that it had no place on the Today show, and somehow expanded that in such a way as to imply that Meredith Viera was a trailblazer and final arbiter of American culture.
I think you've made a mountain out of a molehill, that's all.
Not out out of touch; spending your time on more important things. That's why we're here - to watch so you don't have to ;-)
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