Indeed, you raise a good point Moggy – you obviously can’t blame Mr N for getting his face on the TV, especially if he’s getting paid to do it. The route of the problem is the people who produce the videos, the TV companies that make the choices, and the TV executives who decide what (or what not) to screen. In the case of his appearances on media such as TV news it’s entirely understandable – that’s how they work, and simply call upon the most appropriate “rent a talking head” for whatever story they’re padding-out. It’s just lazy journalism. My gripe is with the TV companies and Commissioning Editors who think that they can force-feed us (when they manage to even cover aviation subjects, of course) information aimed at a child, together with confusing (and often technically incorrect) images, and presenters who have no knowledge or credentials, other than a name or face that some people might recognise. But this is sympomatic of most forms of modern television. Most of it is lazy, cheap and generally dumbed-down as much as possible, as we all know. One assumes that if the late Raymond Baxter was still young and healthy, he still wouldn’t be on our screens these days, probably because he sounds a little too “informed”, doesn’t have a regional accent, and wouldn’t want to compete with rock music. His face wouldn’t fit.
Don’t get me wrong – I like trashy television as much as anyone else (ahh, only eight weeks until Big Brother starts!) but it’s a real tragedy that serious subjects are increasingly ignored. Likewise, it’s also rather sad that the only alternative source of such media (in aviation terms) is the DVD market, and most of the stuff produced for this sector is generally dull, amateurish or uninformative, indeed it’s fair to say that virtually all of the “good stuff” relies on the use of material that was produced years ago.
Guess that’s progress for you!
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