When the brilliant Paddy Chayefsky was penning the script for the classic film Network, I doubt he was watching television news in Las Vegas. Now I'm not Chayefsky, or brilliant, but I did watch TV news in Las Vegas for the three interminable years that I lived there earlier this century.
So it doesn't surprise me that the land of neon lights is pioneering product placement in the newsroom, as The New York Times points out in this piece. Las Vegas news tends toward folksy non-news presented by either rookies fresh out of UNLV, or low-hanging fruit picked from markets like Phoenix or Tucson that want to come to what was the fastest-growing (and is now the fastest-sinking) city in America. My guess is that if Mr. Chayefsky was, like me, an early riser in a late-rising city, he may have been bored enough to watch the Fox 5 Morning Show each morning (which borders on the surreal). And if so, he would have had plenty of fodder for creating the slow burn and ultimate explosion of Peter Finch's Mr. Beale on the silver screen.
Now that they've put the McDonald's coffee cups on the KVVU anchor desk, my guess is that there's no stopping them. Or those who will no doubt follow. Looks like Faye Dunaway's Diana Christensen character has truly come to life and is merging corporate "entertainment" propaganda and news. Soon they'll be chomping Egg McMuffins while Las Vegas's buffoon Mayor Oscar Goodman tells his tales of swilling gin on a desert island to rapt 4th graders (one of his many gaffes, but I digress) during their "Coffee with the Mayor" segments. Which, oddly used to take place at Starbucks. Score another one for Ronald "Mickey D" McDonald.
Product placement has no place in a news broadcast. I've always grimaced when my local news broadcasters lower their guard with their sales department and acquiesce to present "enter to win" promotions to those of us who have tuned in to get our daily dose of local curiosities and not an eyeful of product or the opportunity to get a discount at Jiffy Lube. As I've stated in earlier posts, I don't have a big issue with product placement. When it comes to entertainment properties, that is. I do have a big issue with it when it comes to news. I'm guessing this burgeoning phenomenon might accelerate the movement of those like me to the cable news outlets, and force us to stay there. If we know that our local news is bought and paid for onscreen, do we trust the fresh-out-of-UNLV anchor when she tells us about the child burned in the home kitchen fire right after a slurp of hot coffee out of her oversized fast-food coffee cup from a large national restaurant chain that will remain anonymous? Is that what McD's wants?
We viewers have the choice to blast through commercials whilst watching the news these days. That makes us happy.
Put the commercial in our news? To quote Beale, methinks we'd be "Mad as hell! And I'm not going to take this anymore!"