Anyone watching a news broadcast today and tonight must have seen it as abundantly clear and confirmed that no female television journalist would be caught appearing without the now standard blond dye streaking hair. I witnessed one program with three at one time in the same camera shot all deep in the practice of ‘me too’, appearance journalism… if that was not grotesque enough, a remote report on the same program included another blond type, only this one was a full, no streaking, which prompted this blogger to wonder what’s next? Green and orange slimy patches… which cannot be too far off the mark, since what’s trending and faddish cannot be predicted… and will somehow always become the accepted norm in time… dark roots and all…

Film noir; is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood’s classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Excerpted from Wikipedia…

Now that you know a little of what is meant by flim noir, I suspect there is sparse to no interest in the subject in this age of trending superhero’s and wild action movies, but every Sunday morning at Turner Classic Movies presents the best of the genre hosted by the president of the Film Noir Foundation, Eddie Muller who’s well written intros and closings alone are well worth the price of admission, even of those often occasions when a film is shown that I have seen before, I still tune in just to hear those remarks voiced aloud.

Ordinarily on a day like this, in view of a big breaking story I would be looking forward to enjoying a full throttle discussion around a big round table, without an annoying news crawl or screen banners and images of people at the mention of their name. The discussion would have been led by the host along with some of the principals and other interested parties, even some journalists. Sadly, I do understand that Charlie Rose will not be appearing tonight, but still I am over powered with deep lamentable contingency of some super replacement not yet named… as life must, as I’m sure it will, go on and on…

I spent this Sunday like most watching the political chat shows, that have recently been heavily bombarded with female journalist were once there were so few, among the dye heads with greasy lips and false eyelashes only one stood out with age related gray hair, Zainab Salbi, a humanitarian and media host, and she is only forty-eight-years old… at her young age could have effortlessly escaped the masquerade without notice…

Anyone whom considers themselves a news hound can be called one by others based on how they consume the news. If by print, the better informed, the consumer is in control, reading one paragraph or ten based on how much information they can stand or have the time to spend in devotion to the task. With radio, not so much, depending on how much air time the broadcaster is willing to commit to any given story. In the learned opinion of this blogger, television news consumers are the least informed, even after viewing a story minutes ago. Just tonight a television anchor introduced a story by announcing, “Tax bill passes house” then the story moved to a reporter doing a standup outside the house chamber, then on to another reporter doing a man on the street interview for reaction, all the while the banner remained on the screen, “Tax bill passes house”, for as long as that banner appeared it was unconsciously read repeatedly, was unconsciously processed by the viewers brain again, which begs the question, how many pieces of information can the brain process before the process begins to fail with some information starting to fall by the way side, is closed to any new information? Asked later what can be recalled about the recently viewed ‘tax story’, all that can be recalled without any deep thought, “tax bill passes the house”, any presented details had been lost or was never learned, the brain was busy reading and processing “Tax bill passes house”. Add a news crawl at the bottom of the screen, brings on ‘information overload’ reducing retainment to a big fat zero… Just who are these broadcast news executive producers that think they know how the brain works and how much information it can absorb, process, recall and make use of, all they seem to know is, just put as much of it as possible on the screen and let the viewer choose how much or little to add to their take-a-way… with so much unnecessary crap on the screen, the answer will always be, very little…

At almost every White House turkey pardon ceremony, if there is a juvenile in residence, if not some are bussed in, a point is always made to have children present, of the recent clips I have seen of this event few of them seem to enjoy it, after all what’s there to enjoy, as if this is a kid event, like The Annual Easter Egg Roll or the lighting of The National Christmas Tree. Saying a few words of pardon, announcing the bird’s names, like Drumstick or Left Wing, then the event is over, so, what’s so kid friendly about this event? I invite your comments…

I’m having holiday house guests this week, they wanted to know if I still had Amazon Fire TV, yes, because they wanted to re-watch some episodes of HBO’s Game of Thrones, while I still have Fire TV but not HBO, since sometimes watching a movie, my bandwidth fails, you see I have Verizon Fios…

This Sunday at 9p MSNBC will re-broadcast America in Prime Time which has sent this blogger to be wondering if it will include their customary annoying news crawl and their gigantic corporate logo on the screen, and oh yes, where have I seen this programing before? So, let’s just ask Wikipedia… reprinted below…

“America in Primetime is a 2011 four-part documentary series, focusing on television in the United States. Originally produced for and broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the series is a production by The Documentary Group, in collaboration with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and WETA-TV. The rights to the series were purchased by the United Kingdom’s British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2013. The episodes were re-edited and clips of Alan Yentob introducing different segments, shot on location in different areas of America, were added. Exploring both old and new television series, each episode centers on the evolution of certain character archetypes – such as female and male archetypes, misfits, and heroes – in primetime TV. The series features interviews with a wide variety of influential people in television, including actors, creators, writers and executive producers, talking about their own shows and others. The documentary features a lot of footage from the programs discussed”.

The above program is well worth watching again to anyone interested in television as a history, but with marketing commercials this time thrown in is indeed a head puzzler…

You are a female newly cum laude graduate journalism student from one of the most prestige’s universities in the world assigned to participate in a political Sunday morning chat show for the first time, upon arrival its noticed all the female panelist are in blond dye streaking hair; what do you do for your next appearance next week. Dye your hair too, dance the minuet without music? To get along go along? Yes, to all the above. And if asked to, synthetic hair would not be refused. It’s no longer a fad it has become a custom, practiced by all employed in broadcast news before the camera, part and parcel of a uniform, few if any questions are asked, it’s the accepted norm, so get over it, get with the program as if born to it, your new way of life before the cameras, transferred to your everyday true to life personal self, you are, have become an oddity without portfolio…

Now cue the background dancers…

Just viewed a 1994 movie as they say, ‘ripped from today’s headlines”, based on a Michael Crichton novel, screenplay Paul Attanasio, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, “Disclosure”, enough said, except for the urgency and recommendation to catch it anyway you can before the subject fades from the headlines.