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Saturday, October 22, 2005
It's the story, smarty 
| | The kid is a bit under the weather today, so we're doing a rare thing: watching TV. We started with NASA Television. For a kid who goes to sleep watching the stars almost every clear night, who knows the names and missions of dozens of satellites, you'd think the NASA channel would suck him right in. But lordy, is this channel dull. |
| | In the half hour we could stand it, there was one remarkable moment: a view from the International Space Station of Hurricane Wilma, currently destroying Cozumel, Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Not long after, this was followed by a panel discussion that seemed nothing more than a press release. The moderator read from a prompter. Complete lack of action as each speaker spoke (read? not clear) their parts comprised a form of video torture. Can't these guys do a cut-away to some interesting visuals? Even some stills? The panel was about a Hubble view of the Moon fergoshsake. Show the damn pictures, already! NASA uses a whole cable channel to broadcast what is sometimes, at best, bad radio. Worst sign: the kid kept saying, "Can we change it now? Pleeeeaasse?!" There's what you're losing, NASA. |
| | So we went over to the Weather Channel and the several News Channels, to see what's up with Hurricane Wilma. There we found that the only news that really mattered about Wilma was what it would do to Florida. With no footage of Cancun or Cozumel, there was no story to tell. Never mind that Wilma is Yucutan's Katrina. Maybe worse. |
| | Sickest of all was the faux concern for "all those tourists, holed up in hotels." Like they're the only people that matter. |
| | Now we're watching the movie Seabisquit. Helluva story. |
| | Nice bonus follow-up here. |
Ways to go
| | I fear, however, that those wishing that I consume more of the stuff they are peddling don't really have the time to sit down and get to know the 'real me'. Hell, some of the people in my life don't take that time. To that point, somedays I don't even know... |
| | And, really, to Dave's point, it is a bit patronizing to have a conversation with me just because you want to sell me something. Can I ask you to help me move? Call you when I'm dumped by my boyfriend? Tell you about my bad hair day? Ask your opinion on my new shoes? I don't think so. |
| | In a strange way, I'm back to wanting to be treated like a ....gasp... consumer. This way I can ignore you again. |
| | When we wrote 'markets are conversations' — now going on seven years ago — we were talking more about the former than the latter. And just because we have more conversation today doesn't mean we have markets where supply gets the clues about demand. Far from it. Still. |
| | Sure, there are encouraging cases here and there. |
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