My father had an interesting saying about the press. Whenever there was an election or some other im portent story being covered, he would tell me that you have to get your information from multiple sources because after all, every outlet has some big company's hand up the reporters butt getting them to say only what they want said. They do this because the majority of people are stupid and cant understand the difference between fact and opinion, and don't really pay enough attention to spot the difference.
My father was right, and yet he had no idea how right he was. I saw something that struck back to that very interesting memory. This video, I can not say whether this would make him laugh or throw a shot glass across the room.
The story is local one, it's a building on fire in Manhattan. The locals noticed that street had been shut down and could see helicopters in flight, but they could not see the source of the commotion.
That is not the interesting part though. No, the interesting part is that the video features a literal hand puppet as the reporter. The puppet looks at the building in as much grief as a puppet can, he floats around interviewing other citizens of the area asking if they have any information on the fire.
I can not say if this is a clever attempt to hide his true identity from film, or if this is the only way this guy knew he could hold people's attention.
The very sight of seeing puppets being used in the news made me laugh, but it really brings up that old point my father made.
It makes me wonder, I would never have seen this story if it were not for the puppet giving it some attention. I wonder if the novelty of puppets is just enough to grab attention and is enough to hold it for our ADD society that we live in.
People might care more if a puppet was talking about important issues. Maybe having Big Bird covered in oil talking about the BP oil Spill. Or having Elmo or The count, talk about the number of jobs being lost in the economy. Maybe have Oscar the grouch talk about global warming?
Hey, I would hate seeing these guys I grew up with used like this, but if the goodness of sesame street can help bring attention to the evils of wall street then maybe it's a good idea.
Seeing Kermit in suspenders replace Larry King would seem bad, but seeing Snuffy Snuffelupagus as an anchor man may just be what the problem calls for. At least adding fur to the puppets on there now would make them seem honest and lovable.
For links to other articles I have written
http://rlwoodsiii.blogspot.com/ for the video..
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-470363?h...