The Weak In Rock

So, NBC cancelled The West Wing this past weekend.

I can’t say that I’m surprised. Viewership was declining and since Aaron Sorkin left the show the writing has suffered. Still, I’ll miss it quite a bit. I was a late-comer to the show. When it was first announced I scoffed and predicted it would bow out before it had been on for half a season. I figured that no one could make a believable and compelling TV drama based in the White House. It seemed to me at the time that if you made it realistic the show would be unwatchable, what with all the corruption, the backroom deal-making, the cronyism and whatnot that goes on in every Administration. It also seemed that if you made it a fantasy that people would just laugh it off the air. I was wrong on both counts.

The producers of The West Wing went out of their way to portray the Executive Branch of our government realistically. The sets are so close to the real thing I’m almost surprised the Secret Service didn’t object. And the types of drama that go on in the show ring very true to what we know about the White House from history. At the same time the creators of The West Wing knew that no one wanted to watch an hour-long wonk-fest, so they injected a streak of idealism into the show that’s what roped me in. If we ever had a President as wise and strong who led our nation the way Jed Bartlet does we’d be carving his face into Mt. Rushmore within a couple of months of his taking office.

Not only that, but the supporting cast is filled with idealists too, from the Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman, with his rumpled and wrinkled shirts and jaunty backpack slung over one shoulder to the hyper-moral Toby Ziegler, who just this season was fired from his job as White House Spokesperson and Press Secretary for leaking information to the press about a secret military space shuttle because to do otherwise would have meant seeing lives lost. And in the midst of these folks who make you cheer for what really hope the White House could be there’s the late John Spencer, who died only a couple of weeks ago due to heart failure (ironic since his character suffered a massive heart attack on the show a couple seasons back), portraying White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, whose purpose on the show for most of its run was to remind everyone that ideals are a fine thing, but the real world isn’t going to wait and must be dealt with and taken seriously.

The West Wing was also packed with stronger women characters than practically any other show on network TV and this too is part of the realism of the show. The women who work in the White House today ARE the equals of the men they work with. They’re tough, smart, quick-witted and as capable and talented as any of their male contemporaries. On any other TV drama the female characters are still constantly getting rescued by the men. Not so on The West Wing. In fact, it usually works the other way around. This is the reason, I’m convinced, that Allison Janney has won three Emmy’s for her portrayal of C.J. Cregg, who began the show as White House Spokesperson and Press Secretary and then was promoted to Chief of Staff when the McGarry character departed briefly after his heart attack. Real women in positions of authority do not wait for the men around them to save their bacon. If they did they wouldn’t be in positions of authority. Janney consistently portrays someone real, who is able to go toe to toe with anyone on any subject, but has a heart and a conscience that she battles with when she’s alone.

Again, I’m not surprised that they’ll be wrapping The West Wing at the end of this season. There are two obvious reasons: In the story line that began the middle of last season Jed Bartlett is about to be termed out of the White House. And as I mentioned above, John Spencer, whose character had been tapped as the Democratic nominee for Vice President, died a couple of weeks ago. Spencer would be, realistically, impossible to replace.

The election story line that’s pitted a moderate conservative Republican, played by Alan Alda, against a traditional liberal Democrat, played by Jimmy Smits, has been a lot of fun. I’ve said to many people that if these two characters were real candidates for the Presidency the country couldn’t go wrong by electing either of them. Alda’s Arnold Vinick is a pragmatist and a thoughtful statesman who isn’t afraid to alienate wingnuts and religious fanatics in his party to do the right thing. Smits’ Matt Santos is a man of the people and someone with a strong moral center and a genuine vision. Throughout this narrative I’ve been shaking my head and saying repeatedly, “so, this is what it would look like if our choice for President was a choice of the best of two champions instead of a contest between the lesser of two evils.”

That’s the magic of the show. When Vinick and Santos decided to have a REAL debate, where they actually challenge each other instead of doing the dueling soundbite dance we get in real world Presidential elections, it was inspiring and depressing at the same time. I found myself revved up and wanting to go work for the government to do my part, until I realized how horribly far from this idealized vision our real government has come. As Russell Shaw points out to continue past the election storyline and into a new administration with either a Santos or a Vinick Presidency would tax the writing of the show well past the breaking point. If you want to hang on to the realism that does exist in the show you’d either end up with recurring storylines about Vinick’s moderation being constantly tested by the unsavory characters who run the GOP these days and be forced to watch him either try to reign in the majority Republican congress the show has been saddled with for much of it’s narrative run, thus alienating his own party, or compromising his own values and ideals by sucking it up and toeing the party line. Either prospect would make for, as Shaw says, unwatchable TV. And a Santos Administration would be no better from a dramatic viewpoint. Again you’d have a GOP-controlled Congress, packed with ideologues who disliked the moderate liberalism of Jed Bartlett and who would despise President Santos and his overtly liberal agenda. So what’s the narrative there? Congressional gridlock and a Santos Administration that cannot push forward any of its agenda. Once again, unwatchable TV. Or if with either character running the fictional US if you dump reality out the window you’d have such an abject fantasy world that people would find it harder to identify with than Stargate SG-1. The end result in either case is no one watching, and since networks are in business to make money you knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Yeah, I’m really going to miss The West Wing. Its vision of what could be made me happy and, oddly enough, gave me hope. Maybe there’s some kid out there who’s watched every week for the past seven years who wants to grow up to be a real-life Jed Bartlett. And every now and then I wonder if the folks in Washington watch the show. I know that real cops like to watch NYPD Blue, Law & Order and other cop shows. In my hope of hopes I’ve dreamed that enough people in Washington watched the debate episode of the West Wing and realized that a real debate by the candidates is the least the American people deserve from anyone who wants to be President.

If you haven’t read or seen Al Gore’s speech from yesterday, you really owe it to yourself to get in on the action. You can read a full transcript here and view a video of the entire speech here. Personally, I recommend reading the transcript. It’s a great speech, maybe the best political speech of the last 10 years, and while viewing Gore giving the speech is rousing, reading the text really drums it into your mind.

Here’s my favorite quote:

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

Gore says something in a couple sentences that I’ve been trying to articulate over and over again to my friends, family and anyone else who will listen for years now - if you believe that the world we live in today is more dangerous than the one our parents or grandparents lived in then you’re a fool. But Gore adds another bit - if you believe this then you’re insulting your forebears and shortchanging their achievements.

Where was this Al Gore in 2000? If he’d campaigned like this his majority would have been overwhelming and no amount of cheating could have put Dubya in the White House.

So, here we go again. I’m sure my tens of listeners will appreciate a new edition…

1. Pretenders - Precious
2. Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia
3. Man…Or Astroman? - The Sound Waves Reversing
4. Jawbreaker - Lurker II: Dark Son Of Night
5. The Launderettes - I Wanna Jump Your Bones
6. Fracas - Rats
7. Neko Case - Soulfull Shade Of Blue
8. Fleetwood Mac - I Know I’m Not Wrong
9. Simple Minds - Calling Your Name
10. Descendents - Pervert
11. Hell Caminos - Debuggin
12. David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging
13. Black Sabbath - NIB

As always, enjoy.

Hugh Thompson, Jr., who was instrumental in stopping the Mai Lai Massacre in 1968 has died. He was 62 years old.

You don’t hear a lot of inspirational stories from the Vietnam War, and even this one is tarnished by being a story of a few soldiers doing the right thing in the face of many others doing something truly vile and evil, but what Thompson and his comrades did shows that honor and real courage does exist in the American military, even in the absolute worst of circumstances.

It must be nice to have such a neat and tidy worldview as Pat Robertson does - bad shit happened, must be God punishing someone.

When the 9/11/01 attacks happened Pat was right there to tell us all that this was God’s way of smiting us for letting women work out of the home and for granting civil rights to homosexuals. Hurricane Katrina squished New Orleans like a bug and Pat was right there to opine that this was God smiting the wicked people of New Orleans for tolerating gays and libertines.

Now Pat has chimed in on his opinion of what Ariel Sharon’s massive stroke means - it’s God punishing him for giving away territory to the Palestinians.

Maybe I should start applying this logic to my life. Car out of gas? It’s God punishing me for not denouncing the Designated Hitter Rule. Tripped over one of the boy’s toys on the living room floor? That’s God punishing me for Tivo-ing the West Wing. Indigestion? Must be God’s way of punishing me for lingering too long on page 50 of the latest Victoria Secret catalog.

On some level I’ve got no problem with people who hold religious beliefs. If it makes them feel better about their lives and helps them to make sense of all the random and senseless things that happen all around us then fine. Knock yourselves out. But when people start in on this whole fire and brimstone act it really pisses me off. One has to wonder what it is, exactly, that troubles old Pat Robertson so much about two men or two women having sex with each other or Ariel Sharon showing a thimbleful of compassion for a nation of people that his people displaced from their homes.

One wonders.

So, a new film made by a German filmmaker, called Rendezvous With Death, claims that the JFK assassination was orchestrated by the Cuban secret service. Not the first time that’s been suggested.

What’s interesting about this version of the story is that the claims are allegedly supported by former members of the Cuban secret service who were in on the plot and are interviewed in the film. There’s also an interview with Alexander Haig (I’m still bummed that he wasn’t Deep Throat) in which he quotes Lyndon Johnson as saying that “we simply must not allow the American people to believe that Fidel Castro could have killed our President.”

Ok, let’s accept this version of events for a second. It works on a couple of levels. Most importantly it explains what currenly seems like an irrational level of annimosity that the US Government feels towards Cuba and Castro. We’ve made nice with China’s communist government. We’re trading with Vietnam and have normalized relations with them. And one would never know that we ever fought a brutal and bloody war all over the Pacific against the Japanese. Why not make nice with Cuba?

But if Cuba and Castro arranged the assassination of JFK, and high levels of the US Government have known it all along but were prevented from acting on it due to the need to play nice with the USSR then the hatred of Castro and Cuba starts to make a lot of sense. You can’t come clean to the public about this because if a dinky little third world nation can pull off an assassination of the President of the US then suddenly everyone would be aware that the emperor has been parading around naked all this time, not to mention the ways this would embolden other pesky third world nations who have axes to grind with the USA.

Still, I’m still personally fond of the Jim Garrison version of events where Cuba, the Mafia and Naval Intelligence are all involved, even if such a conspiracy would be impossible to keep under wraps in any significant way for this long. My own theory is that the mob did Kennedy in, as well as his little brother a few years later as revenge for the Kennedy brothers betraying them - Sam Giancana was, it would seem, largely responsible for JFK winning the 1960 election, and more than a little pissed off that once in office the Kennedy brothers focused a lot of energy and resources on tossing Giancana’s friends into prison.

So, the big controversy of the week revolves around the death of 12 miners after a mine collapse in West Virginia. At least that’s what the mainstream media says. But wait, the controversy revolves around the mainstream media itself because they swarmed the site of the collapse and then reported that all 13 of the trapped miners had survived, only to have to retract that report hours later because 12 of the 13 were dead as doornails.

Naturally the family and friends of the dead miners were pissed. They had spent almost two days wondering if their loved ones were going to survive and then were told, in no uncertain terms by CNN, Fox and the rest of the major networks that all of them had been rescued alive, only to find out shortly thereafter that only one man was still alive, albeit in grave condition. The mining company is also cheesed off because the rocket scientist reporters around them tried to shift the blame for the false report onto the company itself (they’re actually still trying to do this).

What’s getting missed in all this hubbub is one simple question - what the frak were the national media doing swarming all over this story in the first place? If you were a relative, a friend, a coworker or a neighbor of one of the trapped miners the collapse of this mine was a big deal. Biggest deal there could be. Someone close to you was in mortal danger. But beyond the boundaries of the local community this really was not news.

People die every single day. Many of them die due to horrible accidents or tragic mishaps. This is simply not news. So, what’s going on here? The answer is simple: The mainstream news media are bloodthirsty ghouls. Every news editor at every network knew that there were only two possible outcomes to this story. Either the men would be miraculously rescued, in spite of impossible odds against them, or they would be dead. If they were rescued the TV cameras could show the families weeping for joy and probably some weak, injured miner showing the kind of “strength of the human spirit” nonsense that TV movies are made of by waving to the cameras and giving either a big thumbs-up or the victory sign. If they were dead then the cameras could show the inconsolable weeping family members rending their garments and tearing their hair as the bodies were hauled up out of the mine.

And guess what - every news editor at every network was hoping for the latter. Their reporters could look grim and serious and talk about the senseless loss of life, the human tragedy. Dozens of follow-up stories could be done about the children of the miners who would have to go on without a father (nevermind the simple fact that odds are that dad drank too much and probably beat them to sleep with his belt) and on the naughty corporation who cut corners on safety and caused this senseless tragedy. As they say in the biz - if it bleeds, it leads.

And why did the networks all get it wrong and report that all was well? Simple - they don’t check their facts because they’re all in too much of a hurry to be the first out with the story.

As citizens we should be appalled at the utter lack of journalistic quality displayed by the cable and network news shows. In the SF Bay Area where I live we spent three days seeing nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, but reports on the big storm that passed through here last week. I watched three separate network affiliate newscasts during the storm and none of them reported on anything but the weather. The braindead part about this is that reporting on the weather is a waste of everyone’s time. You can look out the window and see that it’s fucking raining. If it’s raining hard and water is pooling in your street you might need to head for the hills. If the sherriff comes to your door and says you need to leave, well then you leave. You certainly don’t sit in front of your damned TV watching Trisha Takanawa stand in front of a flooded creek saying, “well Jim, it’s raining out here and has been for several hours, now back to you,” and learn anything of any depth about what’s going on.

Even the weather reports themselves are largely useless. They tell you what you already know and then make a guess as to what might be on the way. Generally speaking if you’ve got a weather vane, a thermometer and two working pairs of eyes you can figure that shit out for yourself. And if there’s a really significant piece of weather about to happen in your area, like say, a huricane, the TV reporters are hittin’ the road, Mabel.

Not that local news is a heck of a lot better when it’s not raining. I will never forget the night a few years ago that I tuned in to a local 10 o’clock newscast and saw 20 minutes of reporting on a police officer who had died when his car crashed on his way to a crime scene. 20 minutes about one cop who died because he was driving too fast. The flippin’ mind reels.

For the most part local news in this country is, as Michael Moore described it in Bowling for Columbine - a series of vague stories of seemingly random violence that seem to always be perpetrated by “a black male in his early 20s.” And if you look at the police sketches from these news reports all over the country one thing becomes increasingly clear - whenever people witness a crime involving a dark-skinned man they invariably describe the same generic black guy who they’ve seen in police sketches on local news shows for years.

The world that the local news has been selling to us for at least a decade, and now is being sold to us by our national news outlets as well, is far more dangerous and scary than the actual real world out there. Yes, random unpleasant things do happen to people from time to time, but for the vast majority of us life is pretty uneventful. But if you believe the TV news you’re liable to be scared out of your wits half the time. It will lead you to look at your neighbors with a suspicious eye and to regard strangers not as other people who we should be friendly and compassionate towards but as potential enemies ready, willing and able to do us great harm.

Another great crime that results from this ghoulish focus on the violent ends of random people on the part of the news is that the public remain largely uninformed about real news - major events that not only might but WILL have an impact on their lives. Think of it this way - 20% of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were in cahoots and that Saddam orchestrated the 9/11/01 attacks. That’s like saying that 20% of adult Americans still believe in the Easter Bunny. While the networks were swarming all over a collapsed mine shaft in West Virginia waiting to get pictures of grieving families and corpses to show over and over again on their broadcasts Jack Abramoff plead guilty and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors who are investigating the members of Congress and the Bush Administration that he bought with his dirty money. This is very likely going to be the biggest case of political corruption since the Teapot Dome scandal. The entire leadership of the GOP could come clattering down like a wobbling Jenga tower because of this and the mainstream media have barely squawked about it because they’re too busy behaving like vultures circling roadkill in West Virginia.