WHILE watching ABC News’s “20/20,” last Friday seen something very close to this before. Where was it? When was it . . .
Last Friday, after a week’s worth of heavy promotion, “20/20” devoted its entire one-hour to an examination of the sorrowful state of the American educational system, especially compared with school systems around the world.
“Stupid In America: How We Are Cheating Our Children,” hosted by John Stossel, was loaded with important stuff, the kind of information that likely would leave you despairing and angry.
The program mentioned schools that don’t teach, teachers who can’t teach and students who can’t learn. Worldwide, American children, “20/20” noted, are on a steep slide in every educational category that’s known to separate the haves from the have-nots. We’re all messed up. Yet, where on TV had we seen this, heard this and felt this, before?
Oh, yeah. It was right around the notorious Mike Tyson-Robin Givens interviews with Barbara Walters. And there, in the old clips, it was:
In the fall of 1988, also on a Friday night, ABC News’s “20/20” presented a similar, single-themed program, also a grabber. It showed how American children, within the industrialized world, had fallen to or near the bottom in nearly all educational pursuits – geography, math, finance, science, history, language, government, literature and current world events.
The social scientists within this edition were of a like mind: American kids are burdened by a learning disorder inflicted by American society and its addiction to popular culture.
In other words, we were told, far too many American kids are mindless pleasure seekers. They invest far too much of their time on fashion, sex, new-age music, violence, the latest movies, TV and radio entertainment shows, celebrities and sports figures.
Our children assiduously avoid functional education and whatever wonders and rewards that might lie beyond.
Woe is us.
Near the end of the show, anchor Barbara Walters appeared. And she appeared upset, as if on the verge of tears. And after what we’d just watched and heard, who could blame her? Woe is us.
And the very next week, “20/20” would air Part II of Walters’ interview with heavyweight champ and misanthrope Mike Tyson, and his new wife, scandal-monger and TV star, Robin Givens.
Part 1 of Walters’ Tyson-Givens interview appeared on the “20/20” before “20/20″‘s education-in-America focus, the one telling us that our society is in free-fall because of the emphasis we place on garbage. Yeah, woe is us.
And so, last Friday, there was one thing missing at the end of “Stupid in America,” just as there was at the end of that similar “20/20” in 1988:
We needed “20/20” to tell us that except on such rare nights, it recognizes that the show is as much to blame as everyone and everything else. And given that “20/20” is so expert at identifying the causes of the serious decay in America’s ability to educate its children, it is more to blame than most.
After all, the week before “Stupid in America,” two of “20/20″‘s chosen topics were Star Jones, among the regulars on “The View,” an ABC daytime show that includes Walters and is heavy on celebrity gossip, sex and fashion, and pop culture icon and noted social vandal Howard Stern.
The week before that, “20/20” presented “Barbara Walters’ Ten Most Fascinating People of 2005.” They included Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Teri Hatcher, Michael Jack-son attorney Thomas Mesereau, Kanye West, Camilla Parker Bowles and 11-year-old actress
Dakota Fanning.
The ABC News show that at least every 17 1/2years goes to great lengths to so clearly identify what ails us, most other times is exactly what ails us. Yep, woe is us.
