A Message for the Network News
As I slog my way through the random cycle on the elliptical daily during the nightly news, I've noticed that every drug known to man even remotely related to bladder, bowel or erectile dysfunction is featured during that half hour on all three major networks.
Does anyone else find this disturbing? I have so many issues with this, I'm not sure where to start. If you can't piss, want to go more or go less, want to get it up, for God's sake, go talk to your doctor, don't take advice from the TV! And then I wonder what people from other countries must think when they see all this -- we're a country obsessed with our genitalia and its functions! And then from a purely demographic standpoint, listen up big 3 -- Generations X and Y and whatever comes next do NOT want to hear about Benefiber or Metamucil or Viagra at dinner time or probably anytime, not yet. If you want to attract the younger viewership, old people's advertising ain't the way to do it.
Which leads me to my biggest concern. These drug companies are paying the networks pretty big bucks to do all this advertising. And when someone's paying you a shitload of money, it's kinda hard to, you know, do stories about their flagrant abuses. Like how we could save billions if these companies allowed their patents to be used to create more generic drugs. Or how these companies shell out tons of money for their reps to put on big lunches and give out free perks -- pens, notebooks, vacations -- to doctors' offices so the MD's will push their products. Take a look around your doctor's office next time you're there: I bet you can spot at least ten different varieties of "drugola" before you ever see your physician.
So what's the fourth estate to do? Not much, from the looks of things. And now that the big three news anchors are gone, there's not much holding the nightly news together. To tell the truth, I get more info from The Daily Show and of course the internet than I do from the big three. Maybe they're just going to go the way of the dinosaur... and maybe they should if they can't do their jobs honestly because they owe too much fealty to their advertisers.
In the meantime, I'm going to work on the gym staff to switch at least one TV over to Fox. No matter how many times I see the same Seinfeld episode, it's better than worrying about some old guy's prostate.
Does anyone else find this disturbing? I have so many issues with this, I'm not sure where to start. If you can't piss, want to go more or go less, want to get it up, for God's sake, go talk to your doctor, don't take advice from the TV! And then I wonder what people from other countries must think when they see all this -- we're a country obsessed with our genitalia and its functions! And then from a purely demographic standpoint, listen up big 3 -- Generations X and Y and whatever comes next do NOT want to hear about Benefiber or Metamucil or Viagra at dinner time or probably anytime, not yet. If you want to attract the younger viewership, old people's advertising ain't the way to do it.
Which leads me to my biggest concern. These drug companies are paying the networks pretty big bucks to do all this advertising. And when someone's paying you a shitload of money, it's kinda hard to, you know, do stories about their flagrant abuses. Like how we could save billions if these companies allowed their patents to be used to create more generic drugs. Or how these companies shell out tons of money for their reps to put on big lunches and give out free perks -- pens, notebooks, vacations -- to doctors' offices so the MD's will push their products. Take a look around your doctor's office next time you're there: I bet you can spot at least ten different varieties of "drugola" before you ever see your physician.
So what's the fourth estate to do? Not much, from the looks of things. And now that the big three news anchors are gone, there's not much holding the nightly news together. To tell the truth, I get more info from The Daily Show and of course the internet than I do from the big three. Maybe they're just going to go the way of the dinosaur... and maybe they should if they can't do their jobs honestly because they owe too much fealty to their advertisers.
In the meantime, I'm going to work on the gym staff to switch at least one TV over to Fox. No matter how many times I see the same Seinfeld episode, it's better than worrying about some old guy's prostate.
posted by Delhui at 9:28 PM
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