Tim Robbins takes American broadcasters to task

I'm sorry this post is a bit outside of the Albertan-political realm, but I couldn't resist. You see this story is exactly the type of story that blogs are designed for: something the mainstream media refuses to report on. On Monday night, Tim Robbins gave the keynote address to the annual meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas. His speech, entitled "The Power and Responsibility of our Nation's Broadcasters," provides a scathing critique of the current state of television broadcasting in the US. Some highlights include,

"...Let's face it, we are at an abyss, as an industry and as a country."

"I'm here to tell you that we don't need to look at the car crash. We don't need to live off the pain and humiliation of the unfortunate. We don't need to celebrate our pornographic obsession with celebrity culture. We are better than that."

"Now is time to leave behind from our lesser selves, now is the time to stop making money on the misfortunes of other, and the prurient and salacious desires of the public..."

The speech did not go off without any controversy, and in fact Robbins had been asked by organizers not to give it (for a full rundown of the speech and audience reaction, check out NPR TV Critic David Bianculli's blog post on the subject). Below, I'm providing you with what some random person (and Advertising Age) has labeled the best six minutes of Robbin's speech (not because I agree, but rather because it is the only YouTube clip I could find). However, if you're a fan of biting sarcasm delivered at  Fox-news types (he is seriously no-holds-barred), I highly recommend you read or listen to the entire speech, too.

Comments

[eh]

Wow. Excellent speech from an excellent speaker.

[Trevor]

While his points are very relevant, I find hypocrisy in the statement: "We don't need to celebrate our pornographic obsession with celebrity culture." Robbins is using his celebrity status to get his point across. If society wasn't obsessed with celebrity, he'd have no voice.