News On A Stick

Image via Wikipedia

At the Minnesota State Fair, currently running through Labor Day, you can indulge in many things:  Eat heart-unhealthy food.  Visit the barns to see where your next meal comes from (or not, if you're a vegetarian).  Pass through the same exhibits that have been there for decades.  Listen to performers at the Grandstand who last made the record charts in 1978.  Search in vain for a place to sit, etc.

Or you could watch live radio and TV broadcasts.  Nearly every station in the Twin Cities is represented at the Fair in one form or another.  You can have your picture taken with your favorite news anchor, help power a newscast by pedaling a bicycle hooked up to a generator, or pick up free promotional stuff destined to become landfill fodder.

Yes, media companies can get rid of popular high-priced anchors and deejays, and cut corners on news coverage to save money.  But there's always room in the budget for the Minnesota State Fair.

As someone who likes his news straight with no chaser, this is not my favorite time of year.  What kind of journalism is involved with anchors milking cows, interviewing beauty queens and street musicians, and serving whatever-on-a-stick to passersby who happen to show up for a live broadcast?  It's as if they're paid to promote the State Fair instead of covering it.

Granted, some stations do throw it back to the main studio for reports on the headlines of the day.  But isn't it a tad absurd to watch anchors risking bad hair days in front of an audience as they're telling us about the latest murder or natural disaster?  It's usually followed by the meteorologist and the sports guy mingling with the audience, who applaud when the weather turns out great, or when the Twins or Vikings win.

(Oh, for the days when Dave Moore used to do his WCCO newscasts inside a glass-walled studio at the Fair, with the fairgoers crowding outside to watch.)

You know what's missing?  Howard Beale, Peter Finch's character in the movie "Network", shouting "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!".  Of course, if someone actually did that, he'd be whacked by a thousand Pronto Pups within minutes.

We go to the Minnesota State Fair because it's tradition, and because it offers nothing but a good time to be had by all.  We also watch local news becuase we want to know what's going on in the state where we live.  Combine the two, and you get a toxic mix of crime, Brett Favre rumors and infomercial.  We deserve better than this.