“The pen is mightier than the sword”
-Edward Bulwer-Lytton
(from his play, Richelieu)
Words and, more importantly, the ideas they convey have the power to spark revolutions. A persuasive argument can sway public opinion, topple governments and change the world just as surely as a well placed bullet. And so, as with any great power, the dissemination of information should be handled with a reasonable degree of responsibility. This is, perhaps ironically, the message behind this week’s Two Guys Watching Porn titled “The Penis, Mightier than the Sword“.
In the 1980’s, I was a great fan of the tabloid periodical The Weekly World News, that once infamous supermarket check-out line staple that sent wandering eyes rolling with headlines proclaiming Redneck Aliens Take Over Trailer Park, Prehistoric Bigfoot Lives!, and Pyramid Discovered on the Moon, and offering continuous updates on the mysterious Bat Boy, whose numerous captures and subsequent escapes proved so popular that an entire book of his exploits was eventually published. Of course no one, not even the most meth addicted sister-humping hillbilly in West Virginia, actually BELIEVED any of those headlines, nor accepted anything printed within it’s pages as anything other than pure bullshit. It was fake news for the sake of silliness, delivered without pretense and with a knowing wink. In other words, harmless low-brow entertainment.
Enter 2013, and a world where so-called “Breaking News” is broadcast 24 hours a day, to an over-saturated market where ratings determine the day’s headlines and impartial reporting takes a backseat to sensationalism… CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, and endless online outlets for information are in constant competition for the next big story, circling like sharks for every last scrap of reportable chum. In this digital age of cut-throat news for profit, it is more important to beat your competition to the punch than it is to make sure that what you report is, in fact, true. And so the yellowing of journalism continues unabated.
Case in point – Oakland, CA news station KTVU‘s embarrassingly irresponsible coverage of the recent crash of Asiana Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, 2013. In an attempt to offer a news “exclusive”, KTVU exercised hilariously poor judgement when it chose to report the identities of the Asiana Airline’s pilots before properly checking their sources or subjecting the material to even the simplest scrutiny, as evidenced in their now notorious reporting of several glaringly erroneous and, potentially, offensive names: Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Bang Ding Ow and Ho Lee Fuk. Captain Janks himself couldn’t have hoped for better.
Now, Two Guys Watching Porn hosts Rob and Chris are no strangers to bending the truth a little, especially when it makes for a better story, nor do they deny telling the occasional bold face lie for simple shits and giggles, but they never claimed to be following in the footsteps of Edgar R. Murrow. Their podcast delivers their ill informed and somewhat baffling takes on the day’s important issues in the same idiotic spirit as those laughable tabloids of decades past, with tongues planted firmly in (butt)cheek and fingers crossed behind their backs. Blissful in their ignorance, they’re Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb-ass, paying considerably more attention to claims of Elvis sightings than to civil unrest in Egypt, or chemical weapons in Syria. Sadly, many of the so-called legitimate news outlets of today seem just as prone to distraction.
Catch up on all our previous episodes of Two Guys Watching Porn on iTunes and at Spreaker.com at:
and listen to “The Penis, Mightier then the Sword here:
Murdered by ROBOTS 