This is one of the prophetic visions of Neil Postman. In his book, Entertaining Ourselves to Death, which I had to read in college, he provided a clear warning about the diminishing quality of broadcast news, as the line between entertainment and actual news was disappearing rapidly. I’ve read most of Postman’s books, and I highly recommend them to anyone who has anything to do with media and technology.
Well, Professor Postman must be spinning in his grave, as a recent CNBC reporter talking about Pirates of the Caribbean compared the box office receipts to Aquaman, which beat out Spiderman. (WHAT?!?) You have to check out the video clip in the link to believe it.
For those that may be in the dark on this story; Aquaman is a fictional movie in the HBO show Entourage, where the main character is the star of the movie, and James Cameron, who directs the fictional movie, plays himself – probably adding to the confusion.
What a profound day to witness when a show about reality is suddenly reported as reality.