And now time for some painful media truths, there will never be gray-haired old women pitching products on televison, correction, old, yes, gray haired, no. We like for the news to be read to us on television by very young attractive looking females, even the wigged, of course there are many, along with acceptable teenage looking black dye-head topped males, and no regional accents like on the BBC. And stop thanking guests on the air for appearing, so that we don’t have to hear that self-serving, ‘thanks for having me’, thank them off set, if you must beforehand. I have a suggestion, ‘with me now is’, then say their name. From time to time I’ve tried to assess the network with the most fake blond dye head females, very difficult, the number keeps fluctuating, I guess with the market price of hair dye and the unwillingness of some female talent to participate, not everybody is willing to openly deceive, there may be some wanting a sincere life after television, would not like to be known for hair fakery for the rest of their lives with pics continuously showing up in a Google image search, however, have recently noticed on local news programs, the absent of any gray-haired on-air talent, it’s as if they are a dying breed and for the most part, they are. But do know this, if even one blond dye head female can be seen on a network, like ants, there are twenty or thirty more, that will soon be upcoming and in view, occasionally all together, quite unintentionally. I have always contended that television journalists and politicians, that dye their hair, perceive some advantage in so doing, calls into question their reporting as well as integrity, if only for the same dam reasoning, viewer numbers and trust, otherwise why bother? The news is either good or bad, regardless of the presenter’s hair dye.

Television pitching, is where the old washed up, end up, from an otherwise successful career elsewhere, trying to breathe some fresh new life into their careers , after a full in your face, head all over youthful hair dye treatment, to continue the rest of their days as a low life pitcher of products on televison, and the occasional guest shot on some reality show or a ‘what’s my line’ type game show, oh, I forget, even they are no more, so, where else to go, I know, a Walmart greeter or grocery bagger, nothing to be ashamed of employment is employment, even after televison…being recognized as we have seen may be a blessing…

Just watched two movies on Turner Classic Movies, released and set in 1950’s New York, a male boss ordered dictation be taken by a female secretary, nothing unusual there, it was culturally expected and accepted, a male would dictate, a female would transcribe.

Christiane Amanpour, program host of Amanpour & Company, had as guests, Betsy West and Julie Cohen, producers and directors of “RBG”, a 2018 documentary exploring the early life and career of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the many break throughs she initiated, the doors she forced to swing wide open, for equality, for women’s rights, doing battle with the pop sexism of her early years of development, to become the culture icon she has become today. One who expressed the sentiment, never miss the opportunity to teach. And yet, in spite of all the forward progress these women have made, as producers and directors in a male dominated industry, and Miss Amanpour in male dominated broadcasting, none of these three, including the subject of this documentary, may never appear in public, in their life time, with a head of gray hair, that seem to be culturally prohibited as currently practiced.

In the film there was a shot of Senator Strom Thurmond, with hair so overdyed, that his hair displayed a rust-orange tinge, the result of a cheap hair dye preparation, to this very day can be found on the heads of some members of Congress…

For my last point to explore in this over due subject, requires you to use your exaggerated imagination, to picture anyone of the Kardashian women in age related gray hair, noting it would take an exaggerated imagination to picture it, or them as the next wonders of the world…

Today, one day after the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City, which dates back to 1762, I did a little light research that can be easily gleaned by anyone without any skills, that so many of the arguments once voiced about Irish emigration, can now be heard against South American immigrants, ‘the caravan’, at least for those so doing for economic reasons. Between the years 1845 and 1849 are the years of the Great Famine, (an Gorta Mor) when there was mass starvation and disease, in the west and south of Ireland, known as An Drochshaol, translated, “the hard times”, in parts of the United States, discrimination was so vile and bold, against the Irish, newspaper want ads would clearly state, “no Irish need apply”…

Wikipedia paints a more accurate picture of the times…”Anti-Irish sentiment (or Hibernophobia) may refer to or include oppression, bigotry, persecution, discrimination, hatred or fear of Irish people as an ethnic group or nation, whether directed against Ireland in general or against Irish emigrants and their descendants in the Irish diaspora”.
About the caravan…“Thousands of migrants have arrived at the US-Mexico border after travelling more than 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Central America.” BBC News…

From Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, fleeing persecution and poverty, they came, hoping that the words penned by poet Emma Lazarus, whom was from a large Sephardic Jewish family, will ring true for them too. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the American dream in its full continuum…

Public Broadcasting Service viewers around the country know all too well its ‘pledge time’, for viewer sponsored television to make their financial pitch. In New York its Neal Shapiro, President and Chief Executive Officer and WNET announcer Tom Stewart, who are fronting their local fund raising, taking a cue from commercial (advertised) television marketing by divorcing themselves from their ‘real’ to a ‘phony’ personage in newly minted dyed hair, taking most of this station’s plantation on-air staff along for the ride too, the jury is still out on if such ventures engaging in this type of persuasiveness are a key for viewers to dig deeper into their giving pocketbooks or viewers to tune in to any newscast because of such depictions in deceptions, no matter, marketing managers are, and in the marketing cut-throat world of televison eye ball reckoning, that’s all that counts.

(“Along with Willie and me”)

Forgive me, this blogger is just an old fashioned “stuck in the mud”, admirer of old school journalism, would never think of increasing the number of devastated houses after a hurricane because that increase would make a more compelling story to report, and by extension, would chastise a journalist for appearing in their Sunday best, during a ‘stand up’, before one of the damaged houses, presenting themselves in a more appealing light. Yesterday, (03/13/2019) during the A-block of Morning Joe, the number of prettied up, hair dyed black top males, no gray hair to be viewed here, regardless of age, journalists, presented themselves in some perceived appealing light, was injurious to the profession of television journalism, as if the term, ‘come as you are’, or more to the point, ‘report as you are’, had little practical meaning in their corrupting view of televison journalism. It was ironic, one the stories that brought all of them together for comment, was the college admissions cheating scandal, where students are presented as they are not. Not to single out Morning Joe, I just happen to be watching when this farce occurred to me, but is the norm of almost every televised news program. The look is more important then the facts in any given report, or so it at times seems…There are more black topped dye head males and streaking blond females fronting news programs than ever before, and no one is reporting it, if they did, they would have to find reporting staff that were not so appearance enhanced, which at this stage of the fad, might be a very high mountain, too high to climb.

After sampling and viewing hours of those trashy celebrity driven reality shows, and their wall to wall coverage of the college admissions cheating scandal, didn’t know there were so many, I have come to understand what has been influencing serious female television journalists streaking hair dye choices, as that cheap Hollywood, courtesan, look, entered main stream television newsrooms and so moved appearance journalism and journalists down to its lowest levels of excessive hype…and those old dye head, black topped, never showing any gray hair male journalists, and politicians, along with industry leaders putting in an appearance on television on every available occasion too…all have been so influenced…of which television may never fully recover…I guess its all to be expected with a faked blond dye head President, living in the peoples White House…

When I was a kid, every Easter my father would purchase for my brothers and I, a suit of dress clothes, for semi-formal occasions, one year, we all got three-piece suits that included a waist coat, or a vest as it is called in America. Little did I know back then that the last button on the vest was left open or undone, the custom having dated back to Edward VII, whose abdomen had grown so large that it could not be comfortably buttoned, soon it was noticed, then became all the rage and fashionable. In the 1934 screwball romantic comedy, It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, a scene called for Mr. Gable to remove his shirt, it was noticed he was not wearing an undershirt, plunging undershirt sales to fall. I mentioned all the above to illustrate just how someone’s approach consistently in view can influence style of sorts among us common folk. The purchase of a book would sometime include a head shot of the author on the back-dust cover, that was before ‘the book tour’ as we know it today, which sparked authors to start dying their hair to sell an image of themselves for a book that they do not appear in, what gives? And more to the point, who cares, a book is after all a collection of words, not real images, images of the mind painted by the authors words, that may or not include the authors words, but quotes of someone else, but with many televised appearances, that now begets all this hair dyeing. Leading to the news being read to us by ‘boy and girl’ faked youngish looking teams’ on television too. And, about those television commercials for clear skin care products, you must know that those models, to begin with have been chosen because they have blemish free skin, add some facial make-up and, voila, the perfect illustration for the selling of a product on televison in a smartly produced commercial. Now for what I call the kill line, in this age of Trump, there seem to be more people, unashamedly, appearing in public in fake dyed hair, some even in burnt orange dyed skin, as a result of it being displayed before them every day, is unconsciously being copied as some kind of new normality in everyday appearances, that just can’t be helped or avoided. So, if you currently don’t dye your hair, give it time, as you soon will, seeing it on television every minute of every hour of the day, you will soon sucomed to this fad too, with the only question to still ponder, blond or the new standard of the all around dyed black top? no matter, your look of oddity is assured, as practiced by those all around you, your oddity will become sharply diminished by the simple overuse by others…an everyday occurrence…to dye now or dye later, or even to dye at all..