A Haunting Edition of 60 Minutes
November 16th 2006 03:33
An ad for this week’s 60 Minutes is similarly perplexing. It appears to be about some film called The Bridge. According to the ad we will “be haunted” for the rest of our lives by what happens in this film. Now talk about hype. What could possibly happen in this film that could so neatly eclipse any other film ever made? If it were possible for a film to be so “haunting” then we would all be walking around with images of Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon playing on our minds all day.
Where – and when – did 60 Minutes go so wrong? Last Sunday they had two particularly worthless stories. One featured Russell Crowe. Stories about celebrities are fine when they’re actually interesting people. See the recent stories about Owen Wilson or Billy Crystal. Then there’s the ever-growing list of celebrities who seem hell-bent on changing the world: Bono, Bob Geldoff, Madonna, Angelina Jolie. All of whom have surely been on before. The problem is that 60 Minutes seems to be doing more and more celebrity interviews. When did this seriously qualify as quality current affairs?
The other story featured Peter Overton having a colonoscopy. A worthwhile cause, sure. But are we really expected to believe that it would be a good thing if everyone who didn’t have any symptoms decided to get their colon checked? Certainly when symptoms are present the check should be made ASAP. When they’re not, however, it’s really a waste of everyone’s time. Imagine if everyone suddenly decided to get checked out for diseases they had no symptoms of.
Finally, Ray Martin got the exclusive interview with Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali. Predictably, the difficult questions were not asked. It was hard to gauge whether Martin was being deliberately sympathetic to the Sheik. However, at numerous points in the interview he had the opportunity to ask some very pertinent questions. He did not. Perhaps Martin should stick to interviewing Harry Kewell and Ian Thorpe in the future.
Where – and when – did 60 Minutes go so wrong? Last Sunday they had two particularly worthless stories. One featured Russell Crowe. Stories about celebrities are fine when they’re actually interesting people. See the recent stories about Owen Wilson or Billy Crystal. Then there’s the ever-growing list of celebrities who seem hell-bent on changing the world: Bono, Bob Geldoff, Madonna, Angelina Jolie. All of whom have surely been on before. The problem is that 60 Minutes seems to be doing more and more celebrity interviews. When did this seriously qualify as quality current affairs?
Finally, Ray Martin got the exclusive interview with Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali. Predictably, the difficult questions were not asked. It was hard to gauge whether Martin was being deliberately sympathetic to the Sheik. However, at numerous points in the interview he had the opportunity to ask some very pertinent questions. He did not. Perhaps Martin should stick to interviewing Harry Kewell and Ian Thorpe in the future.
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Eternal Days; Author: Illness, M.