It's taken me most of the week to catch up on my two weeks off, so I'm hilariously behind on posting. (There was a brief bat-removal interlude as well.) Let's start with the present and work backwards, beginning with this Salon opinion piece about the miniature controversy surrounding the G4 network's announcement that it plans to air a reality show titled Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan next spring. Given that G4's usual programming lineup includes stuff like Cheaters and American Ninja, the prospect of them venturing into a war zone has understandably been met with a combination of skepticism and alarm, but it's worth pointing out that many of the outlets who are harrumphing over the potential hybrid of news and entertainment tend to present much more of the latter. I'm not crazy about the potential for Bomb Patrol to turn out as Kabul Shore, but given the appalling lack of in-theater coverage devoted to a war that has tragically outlived most Americans' attention spans, I'm inclined to welcome any coverage at all, especially some that might reach G4's core audience of 18 to 34-year-old males, the kind who are a lot more likely to enlist in the armed forces than sit through an hour of Frontline.
