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An Unincorporated Division of the Anonymous Anything Society     5/29/2013


A FEW KIND WORDS FOR TELEVISION

    Okay, I must admit my recent critique of current television fare was rather snobbish. I was reminded by more than one follower that there was a 10-year span in my checkered career when I helped air the talents of the likes of Frankie Avalon and Tiny Tim.

     I also have to admit there is some vicarious entertainment value in watching fans dodge flying race car parts in NASCAR crashes. 

    It was the images from Moore, Oklahoma that demonstrated how TV does what it does better than any other medium, and that is cover disasters. 

    Since the Sooner State is No. 1 in tornado disasters, the National Weather Service storm prediction center is located there and almost before the flying debris from the giant funnel had reached the ground, many millions of viewers of the numerous broadcast services, cable as well as broadcast TV, were aware that something especially awful had happened. 

    The breathtaking images that impacted me greatest were those taken from helicopters of acres and acres of homes and vehicles piled up like matchsticks. 

    The magnitude of the devastation was almost beyond the ability of the shocked victims and the professionals behind the mikes to describe. But the television cameras and the photojournalists guiding them accomplished what they could not. 

    I don't know how many of you saw the report made by a young woman, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, who did a spontaneous recapitulation far into the night. Her words of resolve and hope were powerful. I remember not just what she said, "We're going to continue searching for victims and when we find them, we're going to reunite them with their families," but how she said it. We viewers were transported to be with her in the emotional moment. 

    Television does this often. So frequently that perhaps we are becoming inured to scenes of both mayhem and miracle.

    The tornado was on the ground for only 40 minutes, but the scenes that only television could convey so quickly will cause us to recollect what happened there for as long as we shall live. 

    Perhaps there were other times when you were impacted by other great moments - perhaps a musical or dramatic performance, as well as a news event covered by TV,  that you feel was important and worth mentioning. Please share it with us. 

73,

Phil Richardson, Observer and Storyteller

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Thanks to Jim Bromley of Glendale, Arizona for beginning an archive of some of my commentaries. Available on the link below.

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