From evidence in
a Reuters Business News article, (conveniently on your right) Adam Werbach,
past president wunderkind of the Sierra Club, has apparently appointed himself
the arbiter of what we should be watching and learning, and how we should spend
our time.
God Bless His Interventionism!
Let's look at the possible motivations behind
this "Smash Regis" campaign, which, though I am sure he did not
start, he is all too happy to join in on. (I don't really know though, because
all I know is what I read in the paper and see on TV, and this was not a
question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.)
 1. Werbach has his own production
company, and a little-watched environmental program called "The Thin Green
Line"
2. According to the article, with some
interpretation, Werbach is an activist looking for a place to
happen.
3. His company name, Act Now, is reflective of
his progressive position.
4. He asserts that TV should be used for a
specific purpose.
5. 500 other channels are not enough, he
wants to be on ABC.
6. He is assuming that if he were on ABC, 195
million people would watch his show.
7. He wants the money being wasted on WWTBAM to
be wasted in other ways. Excuse me. "Used" in other
ways.
8. He thinks Regis represents "money,
greed and lack of content". Does Werbach represent "poverty,
selflessness, and the Fount of Wisdom?"
9. Because they LIKE WWTBAM more than The Thin
Green Line, Werbach believes that Regis' success diminishes Werbach's access to
the population. And since Werbach does not like WWTBAM, there must be something
wrong with it, and us, assuming I watch WWTBAM.
10. Werbach's attitude, if one can assert from
the title of his book, "Act Now, Apologise Later", seems to be attack
now, and if later you are wrong, then give them a good, hearty, "Sorry
about that Chief", with all the sincerity you can muster. Actually that
won't be necessary, because even the appearance of environmentally unsound
practices is cause for deserved action.
11. By smashing Regis, or at least abetting a
popular (among elitists and others too good, refined, or otherwise too
politically distanced to watch WWTBAM, as opposed to those that just don't like
it) anti-Regis movement, Werbach will be capitalizing on the fame of Regis -
using the success of that show and his supposed stand against it to garner
publicity for his own {assumed:commercial} enterprise. One reflection of that
is his spring speaking tour of college campuses. He won't be cheap. (Wait - it
could be "non-profit" - but for an activist, the quest is not about
cash it is about power.)
Any way you slice it, increased publicity and
eventually greater success for his company will result in his having increased
power and position - the very thing he is complaining about others having in
WWTBAM.
Oh wait. Werbach produces content
"approved" by people that agree with him; that what they are doing is
vitally important. Well, so long as they are justified, I guess it is OK. I
mean, I can trust them, right? I mean, they are good people and all, right? And
they are just doing all this for our own good, right? And they get to decide
what is important, right? Heck! Someone has to do it!
`It's like they've built the
biggest megaphone in the world and nothing comes out of it,''
Werbach said. ``Here's the most powerful medium in
our lifetime ... shouldn't we be using it for something important?'
We are, Mr. Werbach. We are using it to commune
together in a game the entire family can enjoy, with a sharp and comedically
self-effacing moderator that genuinely likes talking to above average people
from all across this great country. With Regis, we don't have to worry about
feeling stupid, or like we are lesser for not being activists ourselves
(assuming that throughout the other 23 hours of our day we are not- actually 23
hours and 45 minutes because I usually time-compress WWTBAM by taping and fast
forwarding- that way I get the cheap thrill of the game without all that
neighborly communing stuff- unless of course the contestant is
cute).
We just get to spend some time with each other, hoping
for the best for some new friend staring at us out of the box and often getting
it.
I am sorry you are not getting the attention
you feel you deserve. But maybe you should make your programs more interesting
to the 195 million people out there watching something else.
But there is a more important question in my
mind for the day you seize control of that megaphone.
What message will you be
sending then? (click to see) |
Excerpts from a Reuters News article- please visit their
website for the full article.
| Feature-''Millionaire'' Backlash Hits Internet Andrew Quinn Reuters
Business - March 27, 2000 SAN FRANCISCO, March 28 (Reuters) - As the
youngest-ever president of the Sierra Club, America's most venerable
environmental group, Adam Werbach took aim at politicians, corporations and
consumers he felt were trashing the world we live in. Now that he has left the
club, he has found a bigger enemy: Regis Philbin, the ubiquitous host of
television's ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' and ``Live! With Regis &
Kathie Lee'' and, polls show, one of the most popular men in America. ``I read
that Regis has now reached 195 million Americans. That's more than could
articulate the names of the candidates for president,'' Werbach told Reuters in
an interview. ``Regis represents everything that is wrong with media right now:
money, greed and lack of content.'' So who wants to be a millionaire? Not
Werbach, at least not on Regis' terms. Instead, he and his allies want to
``reclaim'' television and the Internet with programming that delivers more
than the bucketfuls of dollars that shower ``Millionaire.'' ...Werbach has a
spring speaking tour of college campuses lined up, ... 'ACT NOW, APOLOGISE
LATER' In the funky warehouse office of his new company, Act Now Productions,
Werbach resembles many other young would-be moguls who crowd San Francisco's
hot ``multi-media gulch.'' But unlike those getting their first taste of the
big time, he has been there before. In 1996, a scant four years ago, he became
at the tender age of 23 the youngest person ever elected president of the
Sierra Club, one of the most influential U.S. environmental advocacy groups
with more than 600,000 members. Werbach is also the author of a book on
activism, ``Act Now, Apologise Later,'' and was named by Rolling Stone magazine
as one of America's most influential people under age 30. It was a heady few
years. And when Werbach decided to leave the club to form Act Now Productions
it looked like the perfect opportunity to combine his commitment to
environmental activism with his generation's growing fascination with the
media. Then along came Regis and -- in Werbach's mind, at least -- the success
of the quiz show host prevented Americans from seeing a more serious form of
television: The old argument that the bad drives out the good on TV. Act Now's
main product thus far is a TV show called ``The Thin Green Line'' designed to
bring environmental stories to the small screen. Werbach and his colleagues
call it the ultimate in ``reality'' programming, portraying real people in real
situations fighting to preserve everything from endangered coral reefs to the
Louisiana Bayou. ENVIRONMENTAL TV A TOUGH SELL But that proved a tough sell to
at least one established network. When a group from Act Now went to pitch their
series to ABC, they were told the network had a very different idea of the
``reality'' demanded by U.S. television viewers -- ``Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire'' and its genial host, Regis Philbin. ``It's interesting that that
show passed the definition of reality,'' Werbach said. ``I thought it was a
stupid idea and that nobody would watch it. You can see I was right.''
...Werbach, on the other hand, is a bit depressed. While his own show has found
a cable niche on the Outdoor Life Network, it has so far proved no match for
Regis when it comes to penetrating the U.S. cultural consciousness. ``It's like
they've built the biggest megaphone in the worldand nothing comes out of it,''
Werbach said. ``Here's the most powerful medium in our lifetime ... shouldn't
we be using it for something important?'' Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service
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