Anchorman 2 (2013)

I want to be perfectly clear that htis is not a good movie.  I find Will Ferrell to be wonderful in dramatic roles and less so in comedic roles, but Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd also fall quite flat in this movie.

So why write about it? It is not simply to warn you off.  It is to reflect on the time within which the movie is set, which is the beginning of the era of the 24/7 news channels.  The movie perfectly captures the essential prolem that these channels perpetuate, which is that when it is not possible to fill all that time with in depth reporting on actual news that they just make stuff up and call it news.  These guys go from washed up newsmen to sought after TV personalities based not on talent but on being completely outrageous.  Never let the truth get in the way of telling a sensational story.  That is what we have stooped to, and that is where we remain.  But maybe not for long--I read a poll last week that the average age of people who watch these shows is over 60 years old.  I did not read the original data, so it is unclear if that is because to be able to watch at noon you have to be retired, or if that is the entire pool of people who watch, regardless of the hour, but if it is the later, then perhaps their days are numbered.

A few weeks ago I read Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about the Golden Age of Journalism, where crack reporters revealed the inherent corruption in American business and politics, which sawyed public opinion and led to progressive changes in the country.  Anchorman 2 convinced me that those kind of changes are not possible in the era of fake news masquerading as real news.