Television as scavenger

Entertainment has taken over the information function of Philippine television, with the masses gobbling up daily soap operas that not only dominate the evening prime time but have also started to fill up even morning and afternoon programming. Many of these soap operas are inane and have the IQ of cretins and the EQ of the emotionally stunted.

Because of the stiff competition for ratings, networks cannot anymore sacrifice certain times of the day and shield them from blatant competition by devoting them for news and public affairs. Even news and public affairs have become nothing but “infotainment.” The big networks have made television a three-ring circus operating in the morning, afternoon and evening.

But what is even more alarming is that networks masquerade gutter reality TV programs as public service shows. This is especially true of News TV’s Personalan, which features disputes among families, couples, friends, and neighbors. Many of the episodes would erupt into outright hostilities among the participants. Those who take to this sort of entertainment said they are transfixed by the sight of neighbours and former friends bawling out and cursing at each other, if not coming to blows, so that one confuses Personalan for UFC or a Pacquiao bout.

But what is even more twisted is that the antagonists would willingly have their dirty laundry exposed to the public through television cameras. In the case of those who are watching this sort of shows, what’s worrisome would be their tendency toward voyeurism and indulgence in a public spectacle of an issue that is inherently private and closed. How different are the viewers of these gutter shows from the kibitzers during a melee or a commotion?

In the case of those who participate in such shows, what is worrisome is their lack of noblesse oblige in having their private enmities and personal scandals exposed before the public, an exercise in sadomasochism in which they sadistically parade before the public their privacies and their privations while masochistically deriving intense pleasure from the notoriety that they have gained from television viewers who are repelled and attracted both by their gall in appearing before the television camera with all of their sins of debasement.Obviously these people are suffering from a form of celebrity hunger: they would do anything, even wash their dirty laundry in public, if only to get their 15 minutes of fame.

Television producers of these shows as well as those who are taking part in them, including lawyers, counsellors and even pastors, should be condemned for throwing such garbage on the people. Obviously these professionals also exhibit the same cretinous IQ and the emotional empathy of a rock as the antagonists and the viewers. They should all be herded to Mandaluyong for electrocution.

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas should also be condemned for not doing anything to stop these shows, much less accept and hear complaints against them from TV consumers. Also especially condemnable is the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board for not clamping down on these television. The MTRCB has loudly come out with what it calls as a child-friendly classification scheme in order to protect children and the family from gross images and issues from television. Apparently the MTRCB finds nothing wrong with Personalan. Perhaps MTRCB chief Grace Poe-Llamanzares shows them to her kids as readily as she reads to them Mother Goose rhymes.