The award-winning song, “Shallow”, as performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from the movie, “A Star is Born”, could so easily be performed by members of Congress and the journalists that cover them, who seem to think by dying and hiding their age-related hair adds credibility to their expressed views and news reports, for congressional members it’s not enough to be on the right side of an issue, for journalists, its not enough to report a raised issue correctly, their appearance must also be faked, and by so doing, greatly diminishes their credibility, perhaps forever in some eyes of their constituents and televison viewers. Shallowness, is all right, we don’t mind, we’re used to it, so, just carry on…confirming fakery as the new, no make that, the old, normality…in action…

Your standard mobile device contains over sixty elements and minerals, the mining of and discarding of them after use, that currently pose a more dangerous threat to the earth’s fragile environment than centuries of plastic use, and is almost impossible, and too expensive to fully re-cycle.

In 2019, we, you and me, currently live in the most civilized time the world has ever known or seen, its laden with the highest technology no one would want to willingly give up. And yet, it has been estimated by some, we are all doomed by some naysayers, because of civilization and the technology we have developed, that the earth in its current state and in its continuum, cannot, does not have a long and healthy future. Let me try to explain the dilemma as I see the world currently in, by a quick look see of the earths past inhabitants. After thousands of years, if the then indigenous peoples, suddenly vanished from earth, there would be nothing left behind as evidence that they ever existed, they made nothing new, only made use of everything that already existed and lived long successful, enduring lives. On the other hand, we, the civilized lot, if suddenly vanished, there would be so much man made toxic contaminated material, that over time the earth would soon become uninhabitable, why just one man made material alone that will never die, only become smaller, are plastics, there a so many others, if you did the research you could certainly include many more. Environmental degradation is on the menu with every new technology that can make someone rich, environmental safeguards, would cost money, are seldom employed, as if to just kick the can down the road for the next generation to clean up, if ever they do, and with that begets a contaminated earth. What if just a little extra consideration was considered after a new product in development and a review of its long-term use, I don’t think plastics would have ever have grown to play such a dominating role in our current life style, and we would be carrying groceries home in baskets of straw, and our bodies would be free of the minute particles of plastics, now earning us the true title of, ‘plastic people’…birthing plastic men…

If one ever wants proof of just how shallow, we have become have only to look no further than any of the typical thousands of television commercials the average person views weekly, as advertisers employ the services of personalities that have made their mark in society in other medium, to influence us to use or buy a product, take for example, Joe Namath, resurrected to pitch a product on televison. One would think that if Mr. Namath recommends something, that would be enough for most people, after all he is Joe Namath, but no, they have to add the indignity of presenting this seventy-five-year-old former football player in dyed hair, making his appearance not only unbelievable but an insult to viewers intelligence. Now transfer that marketing ploy to the average news broadcast, where everyone on camera is all tidy, dark haired or blonde dyed, looking so forever youngish, again, further insulting our intelligence… again and again seemingly getting away with it every time. And oh yes, if on book tour, appearing as a sixty-three-year-old, gray less, Michael Beschloss, can go a long way to sell a lot of books too…

In 2019, we, you and me, currently live in the most civilized time the world has ever known or seen, its laden with the highest technology no one would want to willingly give up. And yet, it has been estimated by some, we are all doomed by some naysayers, because of civilization and the technology we have developed, that the earth in its current state and in its continuum, cannot, does not have a long and healthy future. Let me try to explain the dilemma as I see the world currently in, by a quick look see of the earths past inhabitants. After thousands of years, if the then indigenous peoples, suddenly vanished from earth, there would be nothing left behind as evidence that they ever existed, they made nothing new, only made use of everything that already existed and lived long successful, enduring lives. On the other hand, we, the civilized lot, if suddenly vanished, there would be so much man made toxic contaminated material, that over time the earth would soon become uninhabitable, why just one man made material alone that will never die, only become smaller, are plastics, there a so many others, if you did the research you could certainly include many more. Environmental degradation is on the menu with every new technology that can make someone rich, environmental safeguards, would cost money, are seldom employed, as if to just kick the can down the road for the next generation to clean up, if ever they do, and with that begets a contaminated earth. What if just a little extra consideration was considered after a new product in development and a review of its long-term use, I don’t think plastics would have ever have grown to play such a dominating role in our current life style, and we would be carrying groceries home in baskets of straw, and our bodies would be free of the minute particles of plastics, now earning us the true title of, ‘plastic people’…birthing plastic men…

What’s this? DEADLINE, (Hollywood), is reporting, Jeff Glor, currently CBS Evening News anchor, “a war broke out among news outlets reporting yet another plan to replace Glor…this time with Norah O’Donnell”. This news has this blogger wondering, isn’t Mr. Glor’s chronic on-screen ‘hair dyed’ appearance enough for CBS marketing management to be satisfied, that now, there’s an undercover movement to replace him with another chronic on-screen marketing demeanor anchor, although female, will still be dressed in hair dye, does not seem like an appropriate step toward progress to me, just more of the same. Is just another devastating clog in the liberation of televised journalism from the yoke of appearance fakery that is a contradiction in truth and integrity in journalism…of course it has to be practiced for there to be one? Since the CBS News network has been putting a lot of stock in on-screen appearances, in the most dyed head news teams, spilling over and off into local newscasts, some even wigged, to its meteorologists, which are mostly blond dyed, I strongly suggest a return to a more visible experienced looking, Scott Pelley, and away from this no future, youngish look, that will have them continuing dying heads while their wrinkled news teams faces fall to the floor in old agedness…but forever in a youthful head of dyed hair…

The current up and coming televison news hounds, may find it hard to believe, that once upon a time, it was possible to watch a news program with the expectation that the anchors and reporters presenting the news did so without any physical enhancements to their personal appearance, like a big red clown nose that flickered to attract children. The presentation was pure journalism, a no frills, straight to gut news reporting, letting the chips fall where they may, sort of speak, if the anchor was a veteran journalist, male or female, some gray hair was expected, a good sign of years of journalistic and reporting experience. Today’s anchors and reporters, and especially the often-seen female news contributors, seemed to have been hired straight out of a Hollywood central casting office, blond dye headed with mounds of motion picture make-up as if starring in a 1950’s movie. As for the reporting, who knows, if appearance is of such a high commodity, with both genders’ hair dyed and made to appear youngish looking, the reporting content may be of a questionable quality too, and should be thoroughly fact checked, as viewers may become blinded by all the puffery displayed. Many may find it hard for a television scribe to serve two masters, at the same point in time, elevated advertising dollars and news integrity, can be a little like the mixing of oil and water. Viewers may soon ask, “Tell me again the number of injured, I forgot, I was distracted by all the appearance hype”…

Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP The Magazine, was presented on Public Televisions, Great Performances, that included one of the most moving acceptance speeches ever heard, by the actor Shirley MacLaine, for Career Achievement Honor, in celebration for appearing in over fifty films, an Academy Award win, along with six nominations, seven Golden Globes, the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement, and six Emmy Award nominations, after which you may have guessed, called for a rather long acceptance speech and thank yous, of I don’t know how long, my stop watch was not at hand, but do know this, if this honor had taken place at the soon to be broadcast Oscars, the band would have played her off after, I’m thinking in about three and a half minutes, along with shouts of, “oh no they didn’t”…

Wake up, wake up Ponce, oh, hi, I’m trying to wake up Ponce de Leon with the good news, the Fountain of Youth has been found, it seems to have been with us for years in the guise of cable news, where old newsmen go to reinvigorate their black top dyed hair to look like a high schooler, and female news contributors, can still appear as if they just stepped off the Atlantic City Boardwalk, after strutting their stuff in beauty competition, and as being a woman of continued acquaintance, their hair never grays, which has been guaranteed as a princess in membership in the old wives club. A cautionary warning, do not equate their appearance with their spoken truthfulness, both can be made to present themselves as they are not in reality, even if running for the American Presidency…meaning don’t buy the soap because of the pleasing packaging, first ask, how well will it clean? And if it has ever cleaned anything before, did it leave any visual residue as in soap scum, if asked to, “try it, you’ll like it”, don’t…”it’s a come on”…

In closing, with a personal note, all my favorite porn stars dye their hair…

About the introducing opening of 60 Minutes, picturing an overly made-up Lesley Stahl, this blogger found her appearance on the clownish side of female facial display, in her choice of a loud red shaded lip covering, and the heavily hair dyed Bill Whitaker, both are currently in vogue when compared to others across all news networks, in expressing marketing trends of appearance journalism on television, have helped in their own little way, managed to push the acceptance needle down a snippet further with every appearance…seemingly doing so week after week without a hint of regret. I have never seen so many black top dyed male heads with gray beards, must know, that’s a contradiction, maybe not. Anyway, Journalists currently appearing on televison, no longer look like the ideal picture of a journalist, have changed, I get that, but as puff pieces on display, what’s next, flying down from the rafters in a pink tutu, if it produces large broadcast numbers, why not? But I do wonder, what would a cigarette puffing, father of and founding member of televison journalism, Edward R. Murrow, think of these hijacking of a once no-frills type of journalism, a just the naked story attitude, toward this show business hype and large audience numbers as a source of entertainment and a revenue earner, once a loss leader, to support the entertainment division, now ‘the’ entertainment division in of itself.

To top off this posting, you youngsters may not have researched, Christine Craft before entering the televison journalism arena, you should do so, she was required to endure the now all too common image make-over for women on television, like the blonding of their hair, or the wearing of a synthenic, which can now be seen all over the airways, while nobody can be heard to complain, simply because of the better than average pay check for a woman in any industry…And know this, female gray hair is not allowed in television journalism, a little like crying in baseball, it’s just not allowed, these days is barely tolerated on the heads of most male anchors…only the highest paid, or well-known cannot be touched by the fad…everybody else is just fodder for the industry to be burned at the stake…when their time comes… If you are in public life, dye your hair, you walk around under a cloud of fakery and phoniness, forfeit any once won credibility, or placing same at risk with each and every fraudulence public appearance, and now, I have only to write, good luck with that…

Award winning actor, Cicely Tyson, may best be remembered, as far as this blogger is concerned, for the age altering title role she played in, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, performed so eliciting, she became Miss Pittman, before our very eyes, from 23 up to 110 years of age, and she performed this feat at around age fifty, it was her superb acting that made her performance so overwhelmingly believable, but let us not forget the helping hand that make-up provided an important element too. Today, as if purchased from a local dime store, the make-up dramaturgy displayed on the heads of some politicians and television pantomiming journalists, without the dramatic skills of a Miss Tyson is enough to bring on weeping, the believability of a fifty-five-year-old, or older, dressed in dyed youth hair to appear as a twenty-year-old, takes farce and those that dare to try to pull it off to a laughable stage of reality, and what’s worse, their appearance so bathed in this deceit, renders their every word suspect, if not darn right false and at best, questionable as to motive. Seemingly made popular by this seventy-two-year-old American President along with all his stated and visual ills.

Finally, to appear in southern University year books, ‘corked and curled’, have recently surfaced as a negative, so will those currently pictured, on display, as age deniers, will be looking back, with thoughts ringing out, ‘what were we thinking’…Marketing managers, take note, their current false youth marketing appearance is not a pleasant sight, is an oddity. Whenever one of them appears on televison, in person, it’s their ageless looking hair that immediately becomes the distraction, not their counter opinions, if so expressed.

(Little or no gray hair could be seen on the heads of any of the panelist in the A-block, that appeared on the 02/14/2019, edition of Morning Joe, even though all were old enough to have had a plenty).