Occasionally newspapers — even a small town daily like the Tribune — will be solicited to provide free advertising for network TV programs, which may seem strange, since they believe they are such integral parts of your everyday life.
And when those come through, usually on e-mail these days, they get a glance.
Unless they are something we would need for our TV listings, they get dumped.
Let TV plug itself.
But this week one came through that caught a little extra attention, because one aspect of it epitomized what is wrong with network TV and why so many Americans are turning off the traditional tube, moving on to their own programming or, more appropriately, giving up on TV altogether.
The actor who was being publicized for his role as a hip dad, was shown in a number of photos and in one he’s got a sly look on his face and his hand is resting on his stomach.
It takes a couple of glances to see why he has the sly look on his face.
All of his fingers, except one, and you can guess which one, are inside his shirt, leaving him flashing “the finger” at you.
And this is a promotional photo that one of the “big three” networks wants family newspapers to run.
Thirty or 40 years ago, student photographers would routinely have to retake yearbook photos of football teams because a player would invariably try to put his hands on his knee with that one finger extended.
You snap an extra shot to make sure you had one that could run — because the “finger shot” would not go into print — and the perpetrator would end up running laps of the football field when the coach caught on.
It’s juvenile enough for a high schooler to pull this, but for someone who has been singled out for the gravy train like a TV performer, it is pathetic.
And for the network officials to think this is appropriate is especially telling.
Well, whether they recognize it or not, it’s not appropriate, though it speaks volumes to just how out of touch TV broadcasting “professionals” have become.
It’s not “edgy,” it’s not “hip,” it’s just disrespectful of the American people, and it is why so many of us are turning off the tube.
— Chuck Smith