Wednesday, March 18, 2009

We'll get there from here, thank you.

This article in today's NY Times got me thinking.

And, you know what? I honestly don’t care if the diversity directors of NBC, FOX and CNN, etc. leverage the production of diverse programming or not.

I’m glad we’ve fought to secure the albeit imperfect level of diversity we now enjoy, but I’m not so sure about continuing this fight. Even though the article focused on black TV programming, if one of the major outlets should produce a news program anchored by an out gay man, I don’t think I’d feel all mushy inside and start clicking madly on that channel, while gulping the products of its sponsors.

Let’s be grown-ups and cut to the chase about the near future of media and diversity. You don’t need Professor Marvel’s crystal ball for this.

On the net, one may get to what one wants to the exclusion of all else. Product delivery addressing the demanding urge of sex is the best example. If I want gay porn, I can get it in seconds and without slogging through images of heteromping. If I specifically want to see only a naked black man from Cleveland wearing Walmart gold and singing Sondheim while straddling a Heywood Wakefield club chair, I can get there (not that I’ve tried) in moments, and he greets me by name.

I think it’s time we released those diversity directors from their agony about how to serve the ten percent of us while making their deliveries profitable. Their ships are sinking anyway. Let the great splintering continue. Let there be millions more searchable options, all of them equally close to your doorstep. Even Bilerico itself is taking this future in stride, as we deliver specially tinted regional editions (nicely ahead of the curve, Bil). Will it be long before we can subscribe to Trans-Bilerico or Bilerico-Leather (sponsored, of course, by Mitchell Gold)?

In the 1950s, the milkman making his rounds early in the morning would read the note from the housewife whose regular order he had probably already memorized. We got away from that because of the dazzling variety of the supermarket. Now, the milkman is back, and this time he's got everything you want.

2 comments:

The Milkman said...

I am indeed back. I never left.

I may not have everything you want, but you'll probably enjoy what I brought.

:-)

Anonymous said...

i tried viewing that rachel...it's painful to watch and i aint a masochist.

hugs not drugs,
chubby hubby