"Regis and Elian"

Now that we have disposed with the “Freedom” issue with little Elian now off the front page and enjoying the good life in a plantation with all his friends we can go on to more important things.  Like a cable company not showing ABC television shows and more specifically “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”.  Now we are talking important stuff!

 As one of the very few people who have not watched a single program of “Millionaire” I got a big kick out of the ruckus between Time Warner and ABC.  The hurt, the demands, the protests struck me as hilarious. 

 Freedom can be dismissed, the government goes in to a home with battering rams and machine guns and we say ho-hum… but take Regis away and now we are talking serious stuff.

 Even John McCain got back from his most recent campaign trip to Vietnam to give us his opinion… Something to the effect that greedy companies should not hold hostage the viewers from getting the news and entertainment “they deserve”.  They deserve??? We deserve ABC News?  We deserve “Good Morning America”?.  Well I am sure some of you do deserve that show.  I think we could use that show as punishment in our prison system. 

This little squabble between ABC and Time Warner was just a marketplace workout… just like a union strike.  Each provides a service and each has the right to set a price for what it will do.  Sure the consumer can put pressure on the companies or in the case of a strike the unions and company to settle their squabble.  But remember it is a normal marketplace negotiation.  We have never seen this type of disagreement in public.  But in reality we see it all the time.  Your cable company has many choices for cable channels to offer.  They make a decision every day on what will and what will not be available and we usually are not aware.  My cable company has chosen to provide only on news channel (CNN) at the expense of Fox News and MSNBC.  They made a decision to not put on their system Fox and MSNBC and offer three shopping channels instead.  Their right!  But it is my right to ask them to change, accept what they do or turn off cable.

 But the show  “Show Wants to be a Millionaire” and the ruckus between the “greedy” companies and the “Elian” case tells us a lot about who we.  We love a contest; we love the idea of a winner and loser.  Every so often the “Millionaire” type of show works.  I am old enough to remember the start of this type of show.. “The $64,000 Question”.  Shows a little inflation doesn’t it? What is next? Trilliionarie?  We all like the idea of being a millionaire, but we also want a government that will “level” the playing field thus assuring that fewer will actually be millionaires. 

 In the Elian case it was the government vs. the relatives in Miami, it was Castro vs. the Miami Cuban community. 

When the contest is over we happily go on to something else, quickly losing interest in the event.  The contest is everything… the results and long term implications are quickly lost, forgotten.  Our news media works in bursts.  It’s all Elian all the time, It is all OJ all the time… then nothing.  They seem to flounder when a hot issue is not hot.  Nuances or an issue are lost on our current media. 

And that is perfectly all right with us, for we have the attention span of a honeybee going from blossom to blossom.

 The problem with that is that change does not come in bursts, but comes with doggedness, not losing focus, not losing interest.  And change is underway in our society, nicely under the media radar and out attention.   The people that want to change our society and are successful know the nature of the media and society. 

What is your cause?  What do you think? How do you want your community to change?  Stick to it, don’t get discouraged, and keep focus.  Push the ball down the field when you can and wait and do it again.  You to can take advantage of human nature.  I try.