In a way it was a ridiculous exercise. On Friday night I attempted to watch the inaugural episode of Need to Know on PBS with an open mind. That’s impossible for me for two reasons. First, any show that happens along on the same night that used to be occupied by Bill Moyers is doomed before the opening credits. And second, I find Jon Meacham, one of the hosts, appalling.
That said, I tuned in on Friday night, and I think the show is pure crap. Fancy sets, lots of graphics, sort of slicked up delivery. In introducing the show, the hosts boasted about their intention to “turn up the lights rather than turning up the heat.” Well, they hit the mark on that one. The first piece was on the oil spill, and they revealed – are you ready for this? – that Senator Mary from Louisiana once accepted $75,000 from BP. I almost fell off the couch. And during an interview, one of the hosts, a network flunky from ABC I believe, held her hand up like a traffic cop and said, “Wait a minute … you rolled your eyes when I asked you that.”
Riveting.
What bothered me the most about the show, though, is this: it forced me to rethink the value of ‘social media,’ and for that I suppose I owe thanks to Jon Meacham. In addition to bringing Newsweek down to the level of a romance novel, Jon Meacham wrote a book about Andrew Jackson, arguably one of the more interesting presidents we’ve had, and for that he was awarded a Pulitzer. That’s great. Seriously, it’s impressive. But at the same time, given his penchant for insider-ness, my guess is that his buddies had something to do with that. And besides, it’s best not to succumb to prize blindness: Janet Cooke won a big one once upon a time.
Why is the editor of Newsweek hosting a public affairs show on PBS? Why is the guy whose magazine put W. on its cover numerous times before he was even nominated by his party now the face of what some of us still believe – naively – to be an alternative to the network nonsense? Am I seriously supposed to trust a guy who thinks Obama, who is the president of the United States, “really needs to be more emotional” to say anything that goes beyond platitudes? A guy who turns to Robert Rubin, of all people, to pen the column in his magazine about how we can get out of the financial crisis? Who goes on talk shows to break it down for all us little folk, discussing the pros and cons of politicians, including the president, as if they’re contestants on American Idol?
My guess that the answer to these questions is simple: the marketing team, the strategists, the new media people have finally gotten their greedy, pompous little hands on PBS’ Friday night lineup. And that’s what makes me think that maybe my dismissal of social media is foolish. Maybe the social media stuff exists because people can no longer gag on the garbage spewed forth by Jon Meacham. If people don’t know any better, it’s understandable that we’d read Robert Rubin’s wisdom about how to repair a financial system he helped ruin and leave it at that. Maybe the social media frenzy is a manifestation of the fact that people are tired of being winked at by people like Jon Meacham and his ilk. Maybe people actually want to know things. God, that’s hopeful, I thought. I turned the show off after about 20 minutes and went to bed, but next Friday night, after Gwen Ifill signs off, I’m going to turn the television off again and then I’m going to do something to honor Bill Moyers, the staff of NOW and, in a twisted way, Jon Meacham: I’m going to set up a Twitter account.
