| Let the Break begin We here at the Skiff understand that Spring Break is both a time of joyous celebration and a time where caution gets thrown to the wind. We ask that the five of you who stayed for Friday classes follow the following suggestions and return to campus in one piece. Also allow us to offer some fun Spring Break alternatives to the beach. Safety first, deputy dog: n While the sun can provide your skin with that oh-so desired shade of bronze, the sun can also turn it a painful shade of red. We all know sunburn sucks. It single-handedly can ruin a Spring Break faster than a beach with no beer. Wear sunscreen, and reapply it constantly. n No one underage ever drinks during Spring Break. OK, we are not that stupid. But if you drink, please think. Spring Break is about fun, and if getting sloshed is your idea, more power to ya. Driving drunk can kill you, but more importantly, it can kill others. We want you all back safely. Please, don't drive drunk. And now for something we hope you really like: Not all TCU students will be laying out on the beaches of South Padre or staring into their toilet bowls, but Spring Break can be better. Allow us to present a few suggestions: n Catch up on a little Playstation. Midterms and classes unfairly rob students of Playstation time. Go out and rent a few new games that you have been wanting to play. n One word: Sleep. You know you need it. You know how sweet is. You know how long you have gone without its embrace. Get reacquainted. And we'll see you all a week from Monday.
Network TV decides to 'get real' Television has been moving people for more than half a century now. People laugh, cry, witness amazing historical events and, if nothing else, escape reality through their favorite sitcom and drama stars for a few moments each day. But apparently the realities we have been escaping through sitcoms and television dramas aren't quite as bad as we would have thought. Case in point: a wave of new reality-based TV shows. Networks are releasing everything from a series about 16 strangers attempting to survive on a deserted island to a weekly show following eight young men on their quest to boy-band stardom. The phenomenon started with MTV's "The Real World," which features seven hand-picked strangers who have their every move followed while living in a plush home. In case you haven't seen the show, these homes have included high-dollar London flats, a converted fire station, a Miami beach house, and a waterfront villa in Hawaii. The success of "The Real World" was followed by the equally successful "Road Rules" a short time later, thus bringing so-called reality-based TV to the top of the cable charts in the United States. Hollywood spawned the mildly successful "EdTV" to tap into the idea of reality-based TV, but it fell just a little short when moviegoers realized it was just like any other movie: It had a script. Reality-based TV has no plot, no script and no professional actors. What it does have is uncertainty. That's why we tune in week after week to see what will happen on "The Real World" and its counterparts. We are excited by the fact that real life can be more entertaining than paid actors. Critics immediately scrutinized the casts of these shows as over-dramatic, attention seeking and wannabe stars. There is some truth in the critics' assessment. Now that shows such as "The Real World" have become so popular, many of the casts seem to be confrontational from the beginning. You can't help but wonder how much the casts of "The Real World" have been coached when a disagreement arises. But in any case, it's a cable show, and the viewers are those in the 16-24 year old age bracket who tend to be drama kings and queens themselves. For these reality-based shows to be successful on the major networks and appeal to other audiences, producers will have to try something else. The directors of CBS' new summer series "Survivor" are taking their chances with a new twist on their would-be documentary. In addition to surviving the island, cast members will also have to survive each other: Cast members will vote each week to send one cast member home. (something tells me the "nice guy won't win"). Besides gaining instant fame and star status that cast members have experienced in the past, the cast member surviving the longest will receive $1 million. CBS will launch their second reality-based TV show with "Big Brother," an adventure that includes 10 members who live in a house cut off from the entire outside world for 100 days. Again, members will be voted out one-by-one with the last person receiving a large cash prize. ABC won't be outdone either with their boy-band drama in which three of the finalists will be dumped midway through the series. Is there anything worse than failing to succeed as a boy-band and then having it filmed for TV? With ever-increasing technology, Americans continue to attract to TV programming at record rates. You can watch hundreds of channels over anything you can imagine, but this summer, the ratings will all be taken back by the major networks. Why? Because they are putting on TV the exact thing that we want to see: truth, honesty, budding romance, conflict, and the unexpected.
James Zwilling is a business and news-editorial journalism major from Phoenix, Az. He can be reached at (james_zwilling@usa.net). GOP pulls Bush's puppet strings In the wake of the so-called "Super Tuesday" presidential primaries, there really were no surprises. There was no doubt about the eventual winner of the Republican primary. Although a few brave Americans dared to think differently, their vision was crushed by an establishment scared of the truth. The truth that things must change. The voice of the real American was silenced to support the power-lust of those who fear losing it. The Republican nomination was bought. It was bought by a man whose head would explode if it ever composed an original thought. I take that back. Texas Gov. George W. Bush never has any thoughts, let alone intelligent ones. Bush said nothing during his few-and-far-between stump speeches. The real victor in his campaign is the GOP status quo. Much fuss has been made over Bush's record-setting amount of campaign contributions. Of his amassed $70 million, most has come from fund raisers orchestrated by Republican Party bigwigs in the months following his landslide re-election in 1998. Republicans, starved from the fine White House cuisine and desperate to get their own interns under the desk of the Oval Office, saw Bush as the savior of the Republican Party. And their judgment was understandable: In winning 70 percent of the Texas vote, he fared well among blacks, women and Hispanics. In 1996, these three voting blocks sent Bob Dole back to Kansas and not on to the District of Columbia. And Bush won his re-election without negative ads; he was a new kind of conservative who ran a positive issues-based campaign. So the entire GOP establishment threw its weight behind him. So Bush is cruising to the GOP nomination. Who would dare oppose him? No one, the establishment thought. But someone did. Arizona Sen. John McCain actually decided to run, and run hard, for the nomination on a campaign based on reform. Reform of a campaign finance system that allows candidates to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. Reform of a system that made politicians more adherent to money than to their constituents. While Bush racked up endorsements from governors, congressmen and Republican backers, McCain held meetings with small groups of voters. While Bush gave one cookie-cut stump speech and then signed autographs, McCain held open meetings and then answered individual questions. Americans are tired of status quo, and McCain understands this; Bush does not. A blip on Bush's radar, McCain blew it up by winning New Hampshire. When this happened, when someone other than the self-appointed establishment nominee made a threat, Bush's power brokers whipped out all the stops. By Feb. 28, Bush had spent $50 million on his Republican nomination. In 1996, Dole spent $42 million on his ENTIRE p9residential campaign. Rather than address issues with McCain, Bush turned negative. Rather than expand the base of the Republican party, as McCain had, Bush enlisted the support of his political machine to appeal to that lowest of political creatures: the right-wing fundamentalist. The Bush machine in New York state even fought not to let McCain on the ballot. Granted, McCain made mistakes. A Republican presidential candidate cannot attack the religious right. A candidate who condemns negative campaigns cannot approve phone calls describing his opponent as a bigot. But as November and Al Gore will prove, Bush made the fatal ones. Instead of challenging McCain for the middle ground, Bush returned to his establishment. He listed his campaign decidedly to the right, and that list will be fatal. ABCNews exit polls reported Tuesday night 35 percent of McCain voters said they would vote for Gore in November. A "compassionate conservative" who was a "unifier not a divider," Bush slashed at McCain's jugular with negative ads. Instead of taking a stand on an issue for the first time, he shot nothing but a steady stream of attacks about the phone call. The establishment may have handed Bush a Republican victory. In doing so, they assured he will not win the Big One.
Assistant Campus Editor Matt Stiver is a junior news-editorial journalism and history major from Uniontown, Ohio. He can be reached at (mrstiver@delta.is.tcu.edu). Quote unquote "I said, 'Robbyn, if you know that this is Ms. Roberts, squeeze my hand.' She just pumped it!" - Evelyn Roberts, an instructor of nutrition and dietetics, on her visit to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha to present Robbyn Kindle with her degree
"I think the truth about the primary is that it's just a way for the government to make people think their vote is important. In the end, the guy with the most money and power will win, and there is not a thing we can we can do about it." - David Elizalde, a sophomore theater major, on "Super Tuesday"
"I am all about voting, but I just didn't have the time to get the information and then fill out the ballot. It just wasn't high on my list of priorities." - Jennifer Jost, a sophomore sociology major, on the importance of voting in primary elections
"I might vote for president in November, but all the other stuff won't matter to me at all. I wouldn't know who to vote for, anyway." - Kelly Patek, a sophomore premajor, on the importance of voting
"It's like the seeds are there, and we're just adding the fertilizer. We're not working with barren soil." - Megan Stuebner, a junior biology major, on the Community and Strategic Alliances task force
"As a university, we are the intellectual center of the city. Our brainpower is important to civic leaders." - Kelli Horst, TCU's director of communications, on the importance of community outreach
"I've been hitting the tanning salons. I don't want to go to the beach and scare people with my white body." - Lauren McDonald, a freshman premajor,on her Spring Break trip to Panama City, Fla.
"My top four safety concerns for Spring Break would be binge drinking, driving drunk, unprotected sex and predatory drugs like Rohypnol and GHB." - Angela Taylor, director of the Alcohol and Drug Education Center, on Spring Break safety
"It's like cigarettes. Companies raised the prices, but consumers aren't swayed." - Lonnie Fletcher, a cashier at the Texaco station at Hulen and 820, on the increase in gas prices. |
The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |