PressEthic

I love Television Without Pity (or TWoP). The writers there recap TV shows and bring humor to their sharp criticisms of annoying characters, plot holes, and (in the case of Lost) conspiracy theories. For example:

Sawyer tells Michael to save his energy, and Michael's all, "What part of 'they took my son' don't you understand?" And Sawyer says they took Walt on a boat, which means they're not without shouting distance, and Michael says Sawyer doesn't know that, and Walt might be able to hear him, so he needs to know his dad is alive and is coming for him. Michael is assuming that Walt will have more faith in his dad's "getting me back from the biker gang pirates" abilities than he currently has in his dad's "preventing biker gang pirates from kidnapping me" abilities.

One of the snarky things TWoP does is make shirts and other merchandise that make comments, usually in-jokes, about television shows, from a “Shut up, Rory,” t-shirt for Gilmore Girls to an “Is this because I’m a lesbian?” pin for Law and Order.

There’s a shirt being sold right now: The Fake News is All I Need.

Fitting in with the site, it’s funny and a little snide. It also reflects an attitude that many people seem to think is typical of our generation.

Though I do like the shirt, and can think of some people who would appreciate getting it as a Christmas present, after out last class I would hesitate to buy it for anyone.

After all, the very idea that the fake news is good enough is troubling on several levels.

First, it suggests there’s a problem with the real news. Well, after all the blogs we’ve been writing, I don’t think there’s a question that there are a few problems with the news. So that’s troubling.

Then, it suggests that people don’t care about the news, or care so little that they’re satisfied with a comedy show that doesn’t even pretend to be real news. And given the dropping circulation for almost every media source, there might be something to that (though that might have a lot to do with the fragmentation of the media, too).

Finally, it suggests that our generation doesn’t care. Either we do, and this is unfair, or we don’t, and this is a problem, because I would suggest that we should care. Of course, I’m a journalism student, so I guess I have some personal interesting in people caring about the news. But still.

There’s always talk about what t-shirts say about society. This one, meant just to be funny, says quite a bit about our society – and little of it is good.