Opinion Sur Joven

Who needs cable TV? I live alone, so hiring cable TV is a luxury I can’t afford. It’s almost forty dollars thrown to waste. So that’s it, no cable. I’m sure over-the-air TV is the same. That’s the magic in it. Cable TV is meant for specific types of audience, so it has exclusive channels for kids, housewives, women who aren’t exactly housewives, idiot men, people who like good sports, people who like boring sports, those who enjoy learning languages... Over-the-air TV is different: its programming is meant for the family to sit in front of the TV. We all like over-the-air TV, because it has a varied programming.

In Argentina, we have five over-the-air channels. Actually four, because no one watches the state channel. My cable guy came on Monday to disconnect it. I felt like something was missing, but I quickly turned on the TV and remembered there were still five channels left. The morning is the ideal time of the day for variety and general interest programs. Channel 1: The Simpsons; Channel 2: a summary of last night’s Big Brother; Channel 3: a summary of last night’s Bailando por un Sueño (the Argentine hot version of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars); Channel 4: the edited rerun of all the programs that during the week talked about Dancing with the Stars and Big Brother. Channel 7: not worth the effort. Who watches the state channel?

Naked women, pole dancing, strip dancing and a house with twenty immoral ass-holes being rude all the time, swearing in front of the camera and having sex under the sheets. They’re corrupting our kids. I got a nice e-mail proposing a test for the family. It had five questions: 1) Do you want your son to become a rapist? 2) Do you want your daughter to be molested between ages 10 and 15? 3) Do you want your youngest son to be ill-treated by other children as if it were just another game? 4) Do you want your daughter to imitate TV as a game, walking around or dancing naked among her friends or yours? 5) Do you and your wife wish to share that future with your children?
The conclusion of the e-mail was: if you don’t want all that, turn off the TV.

It’s 1 p.m., the ideal time of the day for the news or current affairs programs. I turn on the TV. Channel 1: The Simpsons; Channel 2: What are the Big Brother guys having for lunch? Channel 3: How hard are the participants of Dancing with the Stars training? Channel 4: Almorzando con Mirtha Legrand [1] Finally something good. The topic of today’s lunch: Dancing with the Stars. Channel 7: not worth the effort. Who watches the state channel?

Said comments are very usual. And I’m worried about it.

I don’t like Dancing with the Stars (or any of its alternative formats), because I think it’s a boring show. But I must say that (at least before it got carried away with scandals) it’s a great cultural/educative show. It shows different kinds of dances, allowing kids -the future rapists- to know different artistic styles. Furthermore, it has a social side, because the winning celebrity makes a solidary wish come true, that even losers make come true for the sake of being on TV. Where’s the trash TV? Then the pseudo-erotic dances appeared (nothing serious if you have in mind this program is rated TV-MA, so it’s aired after 10 p.m.) I insist: I don’t watch it because I find it boring, but does the fact that I don’t like it make it immoral?...

I like Big Brother better. I like to see how twenty captive monkeys behave and how they react in front different stimuli. I’m interested in human reactions and I enjoy watching someone stick their finger in their nose for ten minutes. It’s true that the people in there are rude, filthy and discuss “unsuitable” matters… but they’re a part of our society. And although there should be a regulation to prevent kids from watching certain things, no one should tell me not to watch whatever I want to watch. Who has the right to qualify TV as trash TV?

Five p.m., a good time of the day to turn on the TV and watch cartoons while having milk and cookies. Channel 1: The Simpsons; Channel 2: the exotic tea time at Big Brother; Channel 3: Interview with the candidates for elimination of Dancing with the Stars; Channel 4: Crossed Lives: What do Big Brother’s Natalia and Dancing with the Stars’ Veronica have in common? Channel 7: not worth the effort. Who watches the state channel?

The debate on TV is held between the authoritarian and the totalitarian. Authoritarians are those who want to ban whatever they don’t agree with. If they’re so worried about children, then why are their children watching TV after 10 p.m.? Why aren’t they in bed already? Maybe they’re making a parenting mistake. I have the right to watch whatever I want, but I also have the right to turn off the TV when I’m watching something I don’t like. Why is having naked women on TV immoral, and airing Last tango in Paris isn’t? Who has the right to decide whether something is art or cheap porn?

Anyway, the other side of moralist authoritarianism is the channel programmers’ totalitarianism. The “Totalitarianism” concept refers to a regime that “subordinates the individual’s rights in an absolute manner”; they establish an ideology aimed at totalizing the society we’re living in. Classic examples of this are Nazism or Stalinism: for the sake of an absolute idea, every person with a different ideology was eliminated. Today totalitarianism doesn’t come from the State, but from TV programming authorities. The majority destroys the minority. TV ratings are above all.

I insist: I have nothing against shows considered to be trash TV, but I am against the fact that there are no different choices for those who don’t like said respectable programs. And I think it’s terrible that the rest of the shows are only based on showing the conflicts arisen in those two programs. I’m against the fact that an over-the-air channel fully bases its programming on Big Brother and The Simpsons, just like it happens with an Argentine channel.

Ten p.m., the time I’ve been waiting for. After a whole day of being brainwashed into watching Big Brother and Dancing with the Stars, I’m desperately waiting for “THE great moment”. My life has been meaningless until now; I just want to watch the TV. I turn it on at ten o’clock. Channel 1: The Simpsons; Channel 2: The Simpsons; Channel 3: The A Team; Channel 4: a summary of what’s coming next on Big Brother and Dancing with the Stars. Channel 7: not worth the effort. Who watches the state channel?

Over-the-air TV signals (just like radio signals) are finite, and according to section 4 of the Argentine Broadcasting Act, “they are of public interest” and their administration depends on the State, which is in charge of granting them their licenses. Therefore, channels don’t own signals, but they merely exploit them. Then shouldn’t they guarantee a programming for everyone and a varied offer?

And here’s a word that seems to have been forgotten: pluralism. It’s not about being authoritarian and banning the shows we don’t like, but about the channels -which are companies doing business based on a public service- guaranteeing a varied and high-quality programming.

10.30. Let’s check if my favorite shows have already started. Channel 1: The Simpsons; Channel 2: The Simpsons; Channel 3: The A Team; Channel 4: an exclusive report with Rolando Graña (an Argentine journalist) having pasta.

Our society is immersed in poverty, repeated economic crisis, shameless corruption cases, institutional weakness… We have so many problems to solve that wasting our time and space in this trifle seems pointless.

But the TV reflects what we are. All that happens within an organization (whether it’s a social, political or economic one) is somehow a mirror of the society we live in. If we want to change what we are, we have to make a change in everything: politics, companies, TV, football... See Opinión Sur Joven No. 17

Schedules aren’t observed in Argentine television. A show announced for 10 p.m. could end up being aired at 10.30, at 11 (if the previous program is having good ratings), at 9.30, or even not being aired at all. Lately, to announce the shows’ starting time publicities say “At the end of...”

The broadcasting act reads: “The holders of broadcasting services shall guarantee the regularity of transmissions and the accomplishment of the programming schedules”. Is TV the only law-breaking environment? No, and that’s why this seems natural for us.

The agreement with consumers is also breached. No business could work without having trust between the buyer and the seller. One of the most serious problems of this country is that we haven’t managed to create strong and solid businessmen willing to make investments even if they imply present losses to increase profits in the future. And we still haven’t learned the lesson: TV proves it; momentary gains are what matters. Let’s make another rating point today, and tomorrow we’ll see.

What would happen if the most successful programs were aired only once a week? Maybe, like in the US, they would last for ten years. Ten years of potential profits are consumed in just a couple months, because people get bored of being offered the same every day (and every hour).

How are the results of a TV product evaluated? Can they be evaluated minute by minute? Every business or product needs some time to settle, to be tested, to be mistaken, to change… Television requires empathy between transmitters and recipients, which may only be generated with some time of work. That requires financial investment, and patience. You can’t plan a channel based on the minute-by-minute chart; you can’t rule a country just by looking at the polls.

11. There’s an advertisement. Big Brother, “At the end of The Simpsons”. Channel 4: Rolando Graña is still having pasta: now he’s putting some cheese on it.

Television should be deemed a public service. And, as such, it should be regulated by the state. It’s a public service because it’s a vehicle for culture: for good and bad culture; for the culture I like and the one I don’t like. And we should all have access to it, with predictable schedules allowing us to watch TV without the need to be stuck to it.

Why watch TV? Why can’t I just turn it off an read a book? Because I can do both things, just like citizens of any civilized country do. Television is culture, just like books are, and no one -not even programmers or the market’s invisible hand- should prevent us from having access to it.
We can’t have a serious country if the different public sectors -including TV- don’t respect everyone’s rights.

Epilog:

At 3 a.m. Channel 1 ended its transmission with an episode of The Simpsons. Big Brother started at 11.15, an hour and a half after its schedule. At 3 a.m. its host kept repeating this show would be immortalized in universal history. Dancing with the Stars started at 11.16, one minute after Big Brother and cutting in half the spectacular episode of The A Team. At 3 a.m. a local vedette, Silvia Suller, spit on an important TV producer’s face, Gerardo Sofovich. At that very moment, Rolando Graña was finally done with his pasta. He got diarrhea.

PS: I was being ironic about the state channel. It’s worth watching it, even if nobody does. You’ll be surprised.

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