Happy 2004! Another quadrennium, another big-time(!) election year.

I regret not having much more than media criticism to offer these days, but we'll go with what we've got. Later this year I hope to post an account of the Republican National Convention in New York City (how's that for exciting action?), but that's another season.

The TV program in question is another investigative-type drama of recent vintage. Now, I should emphasize that I don't deliberately follow this stuff, but where I live it's often hard to avoid it. Anyhow, this episode's back story presents a certain improbability. I know improbabilities happen--I experience them all the time, in fact--but in this case it suggests unimaginative writing. The climactic piece of unimaginative writing, however, produced a cornily-timed scene of confused characters pointing pistols, the ultimate revelation being that the main bad guy is a wealthy businessman (what a novel concept!) who also happens to have a hidden history of sexual offense.

Here's an idea: The villain should be a greedy film/TV producer!

Well, I've actually found a different subject, having just confirmed a suspicion that a certain perhaps nationally-known conservative media guy (whose name I won't mention at this point) is in fact a former student editor here at our State U. He made a name for himself bashing lefties back in the 80s. Occasionally the Little White North does produce someone famous.