My wife and I watch almost no television. We have replaced the Daily Show/Colbert with Keith Olbermann since the writer’s strike. The Simpsons completes our weekly viewing. The TV itself is almost never turned on- I use my Mac as a Tivo, and I edit out the commercials.
Since we are rapidly approaching old geezerdom, we like our routines, so we really miss Stewart and Colbert. So it is with mixed emotions that I learn that they will both return on January 7th, writer’s settlement or no. They will be left to their own devices-no writers.
I am in a quandary. If I watch when they return, am I crossing a virtual picket line? Shouldn’t I, out of solidarity with the writers, who clearly have right on their side, hold out until the strike is settled? Can I justify watching by rationalizing that since I’m not a Nielsen family it doesn’t matter? Does the fact that I don’t watch the commercials make it alright?
All those years in Catholic school, and yet I can discern no clear answer to these burning questions. Ah, I know! What would Bush tell me to do? He would tell me to cross that picket line, would he not? At least he would as an abstract principle, though maybe not in the specific cases of Stewart and Colbert. Still, if I’ve learned anything in the past seven years, it is that I should never agree with George Bush on a matter of principle. My mind is made up.
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