Look. Up in the air. It is Amelia Earhart.

Amelia Earhart opens tomorrow night. Getting to know Amelia has been a rewarding journey. Didn’t think much of her initially. Then Joni Mitchell sings Amelia, a 70’s haunting address to the pilot. But driving to work this morning listening to XM,  I got to know Amelia Earhart better. It set me right up for the day.  The broadcast is at the On Point radio site. The program mixes great newsreels, the biographer for the movie, WWII pilot Maggie Gee, interesting callins with Tom Ashbrook’s winning recap and advance moderation of the discourse. Amelia kept her name when marrying, hearing Amelia’s matrimonial letter on the air was sensational.

You must know again my reluctancy to marry, my feeling that I shatter thereby chances in work which means so much to me.

In our life together I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me, nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly.

I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinements of even an attractive cage.

I must extract a cruel promise, and that is you will let me go in a year if we find no happiness together.

There are whole generations who still don’t believe that men and women both benefit if women are more adventurous, independent and well educated. Amelia’s purpose. I am hoping the best for Hilary Swank’s interpretation. Great Show Mr. Ashbrook.

The Decline and Fall TV Show

Enough writers I respect mention it, so I started reading “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, by Edward Gibbon. The title is not the Rise and Fall, it is the Decline and Fall, down hill all the way. And it is not a book. The original printing is a volume of books a yard long.  Interestingly, the Google, Gutenberg and  other electronic editions are poorly prepared. While in Ann Arbor, I could not afford an original printing, but I happened on the Great Books double volume. It appears to be the original text, but has very helpful maps and a great timeline in the index.

You hear a grand eloquent tone, re-meaning of words, and the sentencing. It is such a pleasure, I often read sentences out loud. I imagine James Mason intonating  in his airy reserved voice:

In the second century of the Christian Aera, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.

In writing about the principle four hundred year decline, Gibbon chronicles the rule of the occasionally good, but mostly snowballing effect of corruption of rulers, largely tyrannical emperors and their hideous children. The variations of decline include powerfully flawed characters, a maniac laboratory of runs at governance, jealous rivalries that divide the land, murder as a way to power, locust-like riots that leave empty thrones; but the continued root cause is no established rule of law as the unmanageable and immoral military rules by terror. It is this repeated pattern of the gifted ambitious honorable soldier who learns the way to become a corrupt powerful Praetorian, to lead military attacks on Rome that destroy any possible hope of a sustainable Roman civilization. Occupation after the Capitol victory surrounds one with the throngs of suspicious and envious defeated. And they all get their revenge. Rome’s own military divides the nation, generation after generation.  You watch over generations as an originally vigorous productive people succumb to the heavy corrupt rulings that convert cultural production to a national method of ownership either through forcible theft or official demands for tribute and taxation.

Gibbon produced the Decline in 1776. He sat in the English Parliament neutral on the American Revolution. You cannot help but reflect that he wrote about the character failures of men and women, the government, the economy, the military as suggestions to the ruling King as a parenthetical to the declining British Empire. If you look at the great lessons of history we see what happens to a civilization that mixes military and State (Rome), church and State (Western Europe). You have to wonder if the mix of business and State (United States) is destined to fail. For when one complex overpowers and dictates government, the civilization is certainly stunted and may not long endure.

The Decline and Fall is a TV Show Sitcom if ever there were a premise for one. The stories are amazing stories. The cast is bizarre. Their character and actions are interesting. Does anyone want to watch generations of ambition and pitiful failure? Almost a morality play per emperor and his family. Roman ruling families transcend the dysfunctionality, idiocy and bawdiness of any of the show in the Television kingdom.  With such an onslaught of devastation it is hard to rise above it all to know where mankind must go next.

Gibbon often has this Highlights for Children, Goofus and Gallant, bad boy and good boy, way of characterizing the stories of obscure emperors. The personalities are richly defined and  he writes in a voice that let’s you distance yourself from the action and make human conclusions. It is inspirational in an academic way.

Reading the Messages – A FOX doubletake

Remember in the 2008 election how so many American popular artists denied Republican candidates from using their material? Few artists are willing to mix with the ever-growing meaner Republican messaging. Where are the Republican artists ? On Fox Entertainment. It appears that FOX is coordinating the delegitimizing of Obama through a clever messaging campaign. It is almost a conspiracy. Even actor Tim Roth is totting Republican story lines. Perhaps his agent is not reading the script as FOX conjures forth a singular message of white males to “take individual action” against the system.

Clearly Fox News fans the Limbaugh hate message with O’Reilley, Beck, and the milder Hannity.  Then I read British Market chain Waitrose is pulling programming not only from Fox News, but from the entire Fox Network. Less income for shows like “24″, “House”, and “Lie to Me”.  Advertisers do not want buyers of their products to see corporate association with the unchecked “art messaging” of the entertainment network. The writers for FOX are now writing stories and constructing dialog, coded at having the individual white male kill individuals of black authority.

To Wit : This week (Oct 5-9 2009) on television.

Article 1: On “House”, a white staff doctor successfully infects and kills a powerful black dictator (masterfully played by James Earl Jones). The doctor has little information to go on yet judges this man’s life and future with handwringing certainty. On ER I don’t know how many times an obvious criminal was saved on the operating table by conflicted doctors who would commiserate with their staff. The Fox style is – no need to consult – just do what you think is right in your prejudiced mind – even if it murder. Kill that great political black leader.  You can do it, and your supervisors will look the other way because “you believe it is right” making irrelevant the Hippocratic oath.

Article 2: In the FOX program “Lie To Me” the climax is a large white male (the size an demeanor of Rush Limbaugh) taking the law into his own hands by murdering an attorney who represents the truthful views of his daughter about his love-making with a Black athlete. Usually the script writers show how their miracle Truth squad is able to head this off (they and the audience have all the evidence this will happen), but no – they want the FOX TV viewing audience to be satisfied with a single white man’s justice. The writers’ go on to give the line to the (ignorant?) Tim Roth watching the apprehended murderer of this great attorney loved by Tim’s wife,  ”He looks at peace”. Rather than the more truthful observation, “How a father’s murder is not of his victim, but of his daughter’s relationship.”

FOX is in the programming business, the airtime and the audience. The artists of Fox are now but an artful distance from their uncivil news agency. Fortunately, the smart advertisers are not willing to subsidize the reach of this messaging.

Remember in the 2008 election how so many American popular artists denied Republican candidates from using their material? Few artists are willing to mix with the ever-growing meaner Republican messaging. Where are the Republican artists ? On Fox Entertainment. It appears that FOX is coordinating the delegitimizing of Obama through a clever messaging campaign. It is almost a conspiracy. Even actor Tim Roth is totting Republican story lines. Perhaps his agent is not reading the script as FOX conjures forth a singular message of white males to “take individual action” against the system.

Clearly FOX News fans the Limbaugh hate flame with O’Reilley, Beck, and the milder Hannity.  Then I read British Market chain Waitrose is pulling programming not only from Fox News, but from the entire Fox Network. Less income for shows like “24″, “House”, and “Lie to Me”.  I can see why an unchecked Glen Beck is awful, but the shows too? Then I thought about why advertisers do not want buyers of their products to see corporate association with the deep “art messaging” of the network. The writers for FOX are now writing stories and constructing dialog, coded at having the individual white male kill individuals of black authority.

To Wit : This week (Oct 5-9 2009) on television.

Article 1: On “House”, after much ado, a white staff doctor successfully infects and kills a powerful black dictator (masterfully played by James Earl Jones). The doctor, with little information to go on,  judges this man’s life and future with handwringing certainty. But most artists don’t lead the audience this way. On ER I don’t know how many times an obvious criminal was saved on the operating table by conflicted doctors who would commiserate with their staff. The Fox style is – no need to consult – just do what you think is right in your prejudiced mind – even a doctor can murder. (but no abortions please).  Kill that great political black leader.  You can do it, and your supervisors will look the other way because “you believe it is right”.  An doctor’s will to power is greater than even the Hippocratic oath.

Article 2: The climax of the  FOX program “Lie To Me” is when a barrel-chested white man – the diameter of Rush Limbaugh – shoots dead an attorney who represents the truthful views of the murderer’s daughter about love-making with a Black athlete.  Usually a writing staff shows their miracle actors have decoded evil intent and head it off – in the nick of time. Instead they story “satisfies” the FOX TV viewing audience who get to see the white man get even with a system by killing a person who with an internal turmoil rightly defends a black man. The writers can’t stop here, they give a line to the (ignorant?) Tim Roth who watches the apprehended murderer of a great attorney loved by Tim’s wife say only. “He looks at peace” as the police presses the criminal head down into the squad car. The more truthful observation, “He has murdered not only a great law keeper, but his daughter’s relationship. What a monstrous race we have become.”

FOX is certainly in the programming business, of both news and entertainment. Programming used to refer to the blocking of time, but clearly it is about programming the shape of people’s opinions. The artists of Fox should strike to keep their art and dignity like those artists in 2008. Fortunately, the smart advertisers are not willing to subsidize the reach of this kind of messaging. It doesn’t make cents.