The Butterfly and I became the proud owners of a 50” DLP HDTV a couple of weeks ago, and this past weekend, The Butterfly and I witnessed the best and worst effects of HDTV. We watched Ted Koppel’s Discovery Channel piece on Iran, “Koppel on Discovery: Iran—the Most Dangerous Nation,” Dan Rather’s “Border War” piece on violence and drugs in Mexico, and Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room this weekend, and they were all very impressive to watch. The hypnotizing visuals for the Iran and Mexico pieces drew us in, but they were quite good pieces of reporting, and they kept our attention throughout.
First, Koppel’s piece. In it, TK went to Iran and interviewed citizens and clerics and America lovers and America haters and did a great job of discussing, among other things, a) why it would be Iraq times 50 if we were actually dumb enough to explore the military option, and b) why we are actually dumb enough to explore the military option. It goes into detail on the history of Iran’s hatred for America. It also roams large portions of Iran and gives a glimpse at the overall Iranian life and culture that I hadn’t seen before. The entire piece was enlightening and depressing. And then it became more depressing when you realized, Hey, Ted Koppel was able to go to Iran and actually do some fantastic first-hand reporting...why can’t anybody else? It’s pieces like these, along with An Inconvenient Truth (which I'm subjecting my conservative father-in-law to this coming weekend), that I wish every American were forced to watch.
That same sentiment can be made in regard to Dan Rather’s “Border War.” From the HDnet synopsis:
More Americans have been kidnapped in Mexican border towns than in Iraq. The drug cartels have all but taken over several of Mexico's northern border cities. Dan Rather Reports looks at the growing violence that's just next door.I had read that this was an enlightening but relatively unstructured piece, and that assessment was pretty accurate...but it was still very much worth watching. Rather jumps back and forth between points, but the points are still vital. What can be done about the fact that drug cartels that we think only exist in Colombia are taking over Mexico one city (including Acapulco) at a time? What happens when tourism and large revenue streams in cities like Acapulco die because of the cartels? How much power will the cartels end up with if they win this battle?
And beyond that, why was so much attention paid to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway last year, yet nobody has reported on the more than three dozen Americans kidnapped and missing in Mexico in recent years? For years, there has been a picture painted of a slowly evolving Mexico...still poor, but it could be a lot worse. Is that even remotely accurate? Apparently not. Pretty disturbing.
Also disturbing was watching Smartest Guys in the Room as an MBA graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, home of the one and only Ken Lay. This was exactly what I thought it would be, but it still managed to shock me. When Jeffrey Skilling is on tape joking how California compares to the Titanic (while they were completely and totally responsible for California’s rolling blackouts and obscene prices)...when Enron traders, on taped phone calls, talk about how a major earthquake in California would be the greatest thing that could happen to them...when you’re reminded just how tight Lay and Dubya were (how it was assumed that Lay would become Secretary of Energy)...it still manages to disturb you even when you know it’s coming.
Oh, and finally...the worst effects of HDTV: not only did we watch all of these enlightening reports on the big screen, but sadly we also got sucked into watching all of She’s All That on Saturday night. Proof that we will watch anything if the picture’s big and pretty...which doesn’t say much positive about us...
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