I am being sarcastic about TLC in the headline -- in case anyone doesn't get it.
If the Silver-Spring-based channel isn't feeding hyped-up, phony Kate-Gosselin "news" to the online tabloid monsters, it's finding new ways to debase our culture by giving a likely presidential candidate a worldwide stage to play at being a frontierswoman. And if her image-building campaign involves killing a few fish and animals along the way, what the heck. Hey?
The fact that millions tune in to see Sarah and Bristol Palin in such staged, TV productions is too depressing to further contemplate. Here's the video. Tell me what you feel at the moment when she brings the bat down on the head of the fish. Who would have thought this would one day be considered mass entertainment? But here we are.
I can't believe how sick I am of Sarah and Bristol Palin and TV outlets like TLC and ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" that allow them to package and sell their ignorance as some kind of superior set of values that we should all want to emulate.
That's what is going on with Bristol Palin saying how "gratifying" it is to see the food chain play out this way. Right, Bristol, like you actually understand anything about the food industry and the way a nation feeds itself. I'll buy that when I start believing that ABC's isn't hyping the results and cooking the numbers to keep you on "Dancing with the Stars."
And there's Sarah Palin saying she doesn't need any air brushing or fake tan sprayed on her face for TV appearances -- the hose down on the ship is her kind of moment in makeup. Right. Her outdoors look (The Frontierswoman) is every bit as calculated and artificially put together as a catalogue cover for Lands End. And if you don't think there's a political message to her stepping in and clubbing the fish when Bristol falters, you are living in Fantasy Land. Her grabbing the club and whacking the fish is Palin "manning up" the way she and other conservatives are having such a good time saying President Obama just can't seem to do these days.
"Mother-daughter bonding." Right, bonding as they bludgeon fish to death. Why not go all the way, kill a grizzly with a knife and cover themselves in the dead animal's blood together? I shouldn't make jokes. I haven't seen next week's episode yet, and knowing TLC's penchant for the lowest low road to ratings....
I am worn out by this kind of exploitative television -- worn out. How about you? Are you still buying these Palin lies?
