Can we talk?

Late Night TV Cultural Influences

  Enough already! I'm tired of hearing about Leno, Letterman, and O'Brien. These guys are millionaires, they all have families, and hobbies, and plenty of fame. So why are they still trying to get sympathy? And why is the public taking sides? Who cares?!!

    Notoriety has done nothing but increase ratings for Letterman. He's actually profited from cheating on his family, and taking advantage of his employees. What does that say about America? Why is wrongdoing so highly rewarded?

    O'Brien has also improved his ratings. At first he made an admirable statement about the preservation of the 60 year old show and took a noble stand. Then he changed his mind and became vengeful and vindictive. He gets to throw a public tantrum nightly and run up huge expenses for NBC. The rest of us lose our jobs, get downsized, get passed up for promotions, or transferred to new departments, all in the name of saving the company costs or streamlining, but we don't get any public outcry, or run our company into the ground financially. Why should celebrities be any different? I've completely lost whatever respect I might have had for him with his childish and outlandish demonstrations.

    Leno has been a little lower key than the other two, but not completely gracious. His humor has gotten a little trashier the last few years in an attempt to get the younger audiences, and frankly he couldn't pull it off. It has gone down hill, and his new show has had a lot of time wasters for the older crowd. Still he's a multimillionaire with a decadent collection of motor vehicles. He has had an outstanding career and should be expressing gratitude to the public for allowing him such a glamorous lifestyle for such easy work.

    Why listen to this bologna at all? These guys and other late night comedians have a lot of influence on American culture. They affect politics and every day life. You have to listen once in a while just to keep up with pop culture. They keep up with the news just so they can make jokes about it. Many viewers would know nothing of the news except for these guys, so these viewers getting news items with a bias. These guys are having a strong influence on American attitudes. Now all this ego-centric stuff they're throwing around will have an adverse affect on the viewing public. What started out as interesting has become just a bad display of celebrity behavior.

    Welcome to the real world famous rich guys! Non-celebrities don't have big salaries or fleets of cars or huge homes to fall back on when they lose their jobs. Instead they go on food stamps, and worry about mortgages. Their kids don't get to go on school trips. Their medical needs have to be postponed. Their need to be in the spot light never enters the picture.

    It's just business, so get over it and stop your bellyaching.