spruiked: jakarta style

I am in Hong Kong. In between meetings, I've spent some time in my hotel room on email and doing some work. The TV has been on most of the time, tuned to MTV for background music. Right now, I'm sitting in bed flicking between BBC World, Channel NewsAsia and Australia Network. 

It's pretty woeful viewing. BBC World is probably the worst. The same bundle of one and two minute segments are recycled every 30 minutes under the grand title 'World News'. This isn't news; it's infotainment. Interspersing the 'World News' are more "focused" programs, but most of the time it's just ads for upcoming programs. 

Channel NewsAsia offers something a bit different, Singaporean accents. The presenters are better looking, but otherwise it's pretty much the same as BBC World. 

Of the three, Australia Network tries the hardest to present news that might actually be relevant to its audience, but it's dumbed down to the point of inanity. 

It's pretty obvious that TV is not the place to get your news. Perhaps more than ever, TV is all about entertainment. Thank God for the Internet.