{"id":305,"date":"2007-04-17T11:23:49","date_gmt":"2007-04-17T16:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/04\/17\/blasted-commercial\/"},"modified":"2007-04-17T23:43:36","modified_gmt":"2007-04-18T04:43:36","slug":"blasted-commercial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/04\/blasted-commercial\/","title":{"rendered":"Blasted Commercial"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first-day coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings was, compared to most similar events, surprisingly restrained. CNN was unbearably repetitive. I couldn’t see more than five minutes at a time, due to impatience, but wasn’t it wonderful that the cable news station of excess kept guesswork and pseudo-psycho-pap about the shooter to a minimum. But who would’ve guessed a TV commercial would display the crux of the event with unintended irony?<\/p>\n

Soon I hope prominent people will realize that lots of people likely made the same decision as me: Turn to news.google or news.yahoo. I tried CNN’s kid sister Headline News and still couldn’t get a summary-of-what-is-known within a few minutes. That is not too much to ask. But click online, and there it is. It’s daytime on a workday, and “Mr. and Mrs. America” first want a capsule, not the 14th-not-quite-eye-witness account.<\/p>\n

News is online. It’s written out with a few photos. A brief video, sure. The latest snapshot for “all the ships at sea” to learn what’s what — until we can get all of the confirmed details in the most efficient form: the next morning’s newspaper.<\/p>\n

Because My Beloved learned of the Blacksburg massacre late in the afternoon, we skimmed channels after dinner. Larry King’s top-of-the-hour promised calm reporting. For once he was restrained. Carefully selected live interviews of student bystanders, as well as with Candice DeLong, a retired FBI specialist on mass slayings, and TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw.<\/p>\n

DeLong’s most interesting point was that such crimes probably cannot be prevented but that in countries that restrict gun ownership, the slayings and injuries are fewer: Knives don’t have the range.<\/p>\n

King directed McGraw to discuss grief and shock, especially delayed reactions, which he did with clarity and an eye toward the post-adolescent age group affected. Then McGraw figuratively tipped his Texan machismo hat at how the problem was the crazy guy and not gun ownership. But he opined that the dramatic increase in violence in entertainment — TV, movies and particularly video games — deadens revulsion in youngsters and may teach permissiveness toward, oh, physical problem-solving.<\/p>\n

The commercial that followed was a vividly colored cartoon, showing robot-like creatures blasting ray-guns at one-another. The guns did hit and opposing robots shattered, spraying, what, motor oil?<\/p>\n

The badly timed spot promoted Westwood College<\/a>, which apparently is a multi-state outfit that also offers correspondence courses via the Internet, which we are to call “distance learning.” I could not find the commercial or any reference to it online or I’d link to it here.<\/p>\n

The patronizing shoot-em-up animation is aimed at teen-agers. It might have been a CNN commercial or placed by the area cable TV company. That doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n

While Virginia Tech saddened me, Westwood “College” blew me away. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first-day coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings was, compared to most similar events, surprisingly restrained. CNN was unbearably repetitive. I couldn’t see more than five minutes at a time, due to impatience, but wasn’t it wonderful that the cable news station of excess kept guesswork and pseudo-psycho-pap about the shooter to a minimum. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5564,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/02\/canopy-cassoulet\/","url_meta":{"origin":305,"position":0},"title":"Canopy Cassoulet","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As a volunteer with the refugee resettlement group\u00a0Canopy Northwest Arkansas, I made a family's first meal in their new home. The mom and dad, ages 30 and 28, have been living\u00a0in camps since fleeing Democratic Republic of \u00a0Congo in 2003. Their son just turned 6. Who knows what they've been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Logo of Canopy Northwest Arkansas, a refugee resettlement service","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/CanopyNWA-logo-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":423,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/04\/concerto-in-improvidoodle\/","url_meta":{"origin":305,"position":1},"title":"Concerto in Improvidoodle","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: An Evening with Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea and Jack DeJohnette, Sunday 13 April 2008, Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville As admirable as jazz critics like Gary Giddins and Nat Hentoff are, even they couldn't describe last night's evening of \"free jazz\" adequately. It'd be like explaining a joke, ruins it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":295,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/03\/pbs-now-pubis-broadcasting-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":305,"position":2},"title":"PBS Now Pubis Broadcasting Service","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright Ben S Pollock 2007 I was looking for The Charlie Rose Show. Honest. It was a little after 11, and I was bored with Dave and Jay. It was pledge week for the state's PBS conduit, AETN (Arkansas Educational Television Network), though so I realized Rose might be delayed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":238,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/10\/paging-powerless-parents-vs-congress\/","url_meta":{"origin":305,"position":3},"title":"Paging powerless parents vs. Congress","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The state of children today, declaims the curmudgeon. Here's a clue from a recent outdoor wedding. Any more details, and some people will know where I was and who I mean. The bride and her mother arranged for flower petals to be spread down the middle of the center aisle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/getting-workshopped\/","url_meta":{"origin":305,"position":4},"title":"Getting Workshopped","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW ORLEANS -- For several years (see the Grapevine, Boston and Philadelphia categories at right), Brick has had write-ups of the sessions of the annual confab of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. I'm not sure if many besides the fellow conferees will be interested, but it's for the record.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Storm, New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"The Storm, New Orleans","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/new-orleans-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/05\/see-for-yourself\/","url_meta":{"origin":305,"position":5},"title":"See for yourself","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"As a neutral comment on tall buildings in fayre Fayetteville, Arkansas, here is a suggestion: Head to the downtown Square and walk around the Bank of America building. It's a half-block, all the way between Center and Mountain streets, facing East Avenue and stopping at an alley in back. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}