Bo Burnham’s Channel 5 News
Bo Burnham is a professional funny-person who got his start on YouTube videos like "Words Words Words" when he was in high school. Some of that early material holds up, some doesn't. But in the years since, he's been making some funny, horrifying, thought-provoking songs and comedy. His recent special, "Inside" just started streaming on Netflix, and it's as critically beloved as it its uncomfortable to watch. Most comedy specials aren't also an episode of Black Mirror, but Bo Burnham proves he really can do it all ("it all" of course containing, "have a mental breakdown on camera and still make you laugh.") He also wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Eighth Grade.
One of my favorite Bo Burnham pieces is "Channel 5 News: The Musical," which never ended up appearing in any of his filmed specials, but has a great mix of social commentary, lyricism, and (for lack of a better term) horror.
"Tonight at ten the world is ending again and we know how and when, so you better WATCH"
Bo comes out swinging against news stations and their profit-motivated fearmongering in that opening line. It reminds me of an old Hunter S. Thompson article from the 1980's in which he alleged that the ratings of hurricanes were being gradually inflated to make them seem more dangerous than they actually were. He called the head of the National Hurricane Center a "hopeless hurricane junkie," stirring up chaos for storms that largely ended up passing through peacefully. Thompson noted a link between the perceived danger of storms and attention for the NHC and news stations. Believe it or not, that was actually before my time, so I speak with no authority on the matter, but it does suggest that the history of journalism is tied very closely to how terrified an audience is.
The song goes on to skewer modern news networks for a host of sins: hypocrisy, selling out for "native content" sponsored by big corporations, sexism, xenophobia, and pandering to the worst instincts of the viewer:
"We've got violence, danger, sex, and drugs and it's awesome cuz all of it's REAL!"
That last part of the line keeps returning. When analyzing a piece of literature, the best trick for discussing repetition is watching how the context changes. The first time, Channel 5 news is gleefully celebrating all the terrible things going on that they get to advertise. The second time that line appears is after an "Iraqi guy" is arrested for shoving a reporter harassing his daughter:
"His family's angry, crying, sad, and lost and it's awesome cuz all of it's real!"
This time the news isn't just pandering, it's actively making a situation worse, and Channel 5's Chip Skylark is on Cloud 9 about it. The news is making a villain out of a regular person, and since viewers like us pay attention to that kind of reporting, news stations perpetuate it. We live in the Outrage Machine that news has made but we’ve kept running.
The last version of the line comes in much more solemnly from a weatherman who is "off-script!" according to the frantic news crew whispering in the background. This time the weather news is coming too late to be of help, and Max the weatherman is the only one worried about it, saying:
"The people are angry, crying, sad, and lost and it's awful cuz all of it's real..."
And then, just when someone involved in the news realizes the actual human toll of suffering they're working in, Max is promptly cut off and replaced with a chorus of "Blah, blah, blahs."
The whole piece is really great satire. Local news is a lot less local than it used to be, as larger media corporations buy up local stations and occasionally script them to seem genuine, and it's very easy for sponsored content to sneak commercials into what's supposed to be information for our benefit. I often wonder what the rest of that musical would have been like, if this one song had been more than proof of concept. Would a scrappy reporter have found a way to get audiences the news they needed? Or would people have just kept settling for crap and let it end in "Blah, Blah Blah?" There's no way of knowing, of course. But it's a good reminder that news can't be absorbed passively anymore. Staying informed takes work these days, whether that makes you sad or angry, cry or lost.