indignation

I got into the news business long enough ago that I can remember when news was news. There wasn’t such a need to entertain the public because the public came to you for information.

Now, it’s about grabbing a piece of our limited attention span that our video gaming, channel surfing, instant gratificating society has developed. So you end up with Kathy Griffin on the air with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, hosting a New Year’s Eve countdown. (At least it’s a departure from Ryan Seacrest.)

Griffin, however, seems to have a polarizing effect on people. You love her or you hate her. And some people who hate her made a point of letting her know last night. So she responded like someone who is used to dealing with hecklers in her own manner. That’s not necessarily how the television censors would have liked her to respond.

That’s the risk you take when you take someone who is used to performing in one medium and put them somewhere else. It’s probably what you should expect when you add a “performer” to your roster for a quasi-news event.

Hopefully this won’t cause a backlash against Griffin (whom I love). But it’s the risk networks are willing to take to tap into our shrinking attention span.