Dubious awards ‘celebrate’ undeserving winners
Our campaign against dubious TV awards proceeds apace—for the simple reason that some recent “honors” have been bestowed on undeserving “winners” who have been “rewarded” for mediocre or downright lousy work.
Frankly, we don’t really care who wins, as long as he or she is deserving. But, if bad or principled workers “triumph,” that’s disturbing, because the wrong people or programs are being held up as touchstones of excellence for others, particularly the youth, to admire—and emulate.
For a change, let’s address the problem from the opposite direction, by citing the reasons why a TV personality shouldn’t be given an award:
First off, he merely reads spiels written by somebody else, and has little real personality or charisma to imbue his show with his own unique mix of energy, color and competence.
Many program hosts today fail to pass muster in this regard, so we are stumped when they go on to win awards, anyway.
Awards for what? For correctly reading spiels? For briskly going from one portion or feature to the next? For shouting to cover up for the host’s lack of natural energy? For not being genuinely interested in what the show’s guests have to contribute? For not knowing how to ad-lib without stumbling over what he wants to say? For thinking mainly about himself? Give us a break.
On-cam reporters
Things get even dodgier when we focus on TV news reporters and anchors. Quite a number of on-cam reporters do “automatic” work, covering beats that have ceased to genuinely interest them
So, instead of looking for fresh highlights, sidelights and insights related to the events they cover, they merely go through the standard motions, say the same, old things, and let it go at that. —And yet, they win “awards”!
Even less admirable is the work turned in by some news anchors, some of them veterans who should have learned something along the way.
Unfortunately, they’ve become so bored with their jobs that they try to “enliven” the proceedings for themselves by making subjective comments (a big no-no in the news trade) and fussing too much over how they look and dress.
They think they’re glamorous and beautiful, but, that’s neither here nor there, since only actors and singers are supposed to be focused on how they “project,” while news people are supposed to be more concerned with how well they report on and deliver the news!
