Day Nine

Happy Birthday, Spongebob! It's the sponge's 10th anniversary of being broadcast. There's going to be a big show, and JOHNNY DEPP is going to star!!

When I got in the car this morning, that was the story on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." As I drove along reflecting on the fact that we can no longer watch Spongebob, I got to thinking how often news stories on NPR are about TV. Radio talking about TV. How interesting! Just two nights ago, I was listening to my beloved "Fresh Air" on NPR and the interviewee was an actor from an HBO show I also can't watch due to my family's current project.

A few more stories this morning on NPR were about TV shows. This from the station that spells intelligence, so much so that a friend of mine who used to buy and resell cars had the habit of checking the radio stations before popping the hood on cars at auction to see what the driver of said car listened to. If NPR was programmed, he claimed, the car would be in better shape. A considerate, educated driver had probably taken the time to maintain the vehicle. I don't know how true this litmus test was, but it made sense to me.

Now I wonder: Why is TV so beloved by my beloved, brilliant NPR? Does TV need radio coverage? Or are journalists just another set of couch potatoes who would rather sit and review Spongebob cartoons than go out and find a story about a real person someplace?

Disclaimer: I am a reporter whose main beat at a local business magazine used to be media. Oh, how I loved that beat. So many opinions to toss around, so many hours spent pondering the screen and its colorful, lickable lollipop of scenarios, scenes, characters and products. So much to talk about at parties where people care more about their glass world than the real one.

Now, 9 days, and hardly completely off of TV (wasn't it great that Matt Giroud got saved on "American Idol" the other night?!), I am sounding like a big, judgmental, humorless ninny. I don't mean to. And I certainly am not trying to go so granola that I can't carry on a conversation with your average American. But come on, people! Let's push for something more genuine.