One of the ways I entertain myself at the gym is comparing-and-contrasting news coverage on different TV stations, simultaneously. The gym's "Cardio Theater" allows this, by running CNN, ESPN, NBC and ABC on side-by-side televisions.
Last night's nationwide lead story was, of course, the latest chapter in the "Everybody Run, The Vice President's Got A Gun" saga. News these days is all about the visual, and since the poor gentleman in question had suffered a minor heart attack, there really wasn't any decent, appropriate live footage to display. NBC chose to run a computer-generated graphic of a human heart suspended over a clincial blue-grid backdrop while they explained the latest twist in the story. ABC, on the other hand, showed a computer-generated heart inside a computer-generated transparent man — who had the chiseled abs-and-chest of an Abercrombie model.
About this time, NBC switched back over to their anchor, and a photo of the victim, who looked ... well, who looked like one might expect a 78-year-old politically-connected white male quail-hunter to look. Seeing his photo on the TV to my left, while seeing the transparent Abercrombie model on the TV to my right, was quite the incongruous experience. That face with that body? It made me appreciate NBC's incomplete, and yet less inaccurate on the whole, graphics approach.
Now, if we could just merge ABC's technology with a little Glamour Shots action... I'd be ready for my close-up.
No comments:
Post a Comment