Dear Producers:
I am aware that the Today Show is no Frontline. I get that, really I do. And on that basis, each morning as I slog through a run on the treadmill while watching some tv chef show Matt Lauer how to make chicken nuggets even more exciting for kids, or a ridiculous segment titled "Five Ways To Talk About Infidelity," I set aside my typical tv snobbishness and just relax my brain a little. That's really what the show is all about. Over the summer, I enjoyed your coverage of the Olympics tremendously.
And yet: in an election year, when in just a few weeks votes will be cast that stand to affect everyone's lives for decades to come, and we are collectively freaking out over a financial crisis that few people understand, I simply can't stomach your endless coverage of a non-story like the disappearance of Caylee Anthony in Florida. This morning I practically flipped off the treadmill in outrage over a pointless interview with a tv judge who is in no way even involved in the related legal proceedings. Obviously it's sad when a little girl goes missing, and even sadder if her mother is implicated in a sinister fashion, but is this news worthy of broadcasting to over five million people? Now? With so much else going on? I mean, although I found your segment on fire safety to amount to little more than an advertisement for sprinkler systems, at least it's true that people's lives can be saved by such devices. For that matter, people's lives can at least be improved by tastier chicken, and possibly even by engaging in dialogue about infidelity.
I simply fail to see how encouraging our most simplistic, voyeuristic tendecies to analyze and comment on an isolated tragedy happening to one innocent family helps anyone. Thrusting these people into the national spotlight only diverts attention from the issues of the day that really matter. Or at least make the world a little easier to live in.
Sincerely,
The Venter
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