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TV Is Good

Apr 24, 2009  •  Post A Comment

I love this stuff.
That, in under five words, sums up why I consider myself beyond blessed to have spent virtually the whole of my adult life getting paid to write about television. It’s also the underlying theme of this blog.
True: At this very moment, things are glum in the land of make-believe and fairydust. Business models which for decades reliably churned out billions in profits are evaporating with alarming speed. Many who work in the TV industry have no idea if they’ll still have jobs in five years, or even five weeks.
You won’t hear whining about that here. (Though you can read a deeper dissection of the mood of the TV business right now in my latest column for TVWeek, which you will find thoughtfully posted right here when it publishes).
Instead, my goal for MoJoe is simply to provide a place where the creators and overseers of TV content can talk about their craft. Not in any sort of lofty, Aren’t We Great sort of way. Just people who love this medium chatting about what’s going on right now on the small screen.


Of course, as the ego-stroke of a name implies, MoJoe will also be about my two cents on TV. What’s a blog if not a forum for its author to ramble on about things?
And yes, There Will Be News. A little bit. But it’s not the point of MoJoe; TVWeek.com and our TVBizWire do a much better job of covering everything going on right this minute in TV.
That said, I pray I can avoid falling victim to the bloggers’ disease in which one loses all sense of perspective in the pursuit of hits.
I am a proud ex-employee of the New York Post, and I do not begrudge any blogger the right to tart up a story to drive up said web traffic. We all gotta pay the rent. And a little tease never hurt anyone.
That doesn’t excuse purposely recycling old news (at least not without admitting its age) or making big deals out of things we know full well aren’t going to matter in 48 hours. I will try mightily to avoid that in the electronic pages of TVMoJoe; I don’t guarantee perfection.
I also hope that the above paragraphs will be the last time I bore anyone with navel-gazing about the state of print journalism. And I really, really hope to avoid getting into any blog wars or Twitter shouting matches with fellow journalists, even this one.
Really, guys, this is no time for us hacks to be turning on each other. Even if it’s sometime fun to watch.
Because TV is one of the most democratic of mediums, MoJoe will also work hard to include the voices of those who make television, sell it or just simply watch it.
Watch for guest posts as often as I can convince folks to write them. Comments will be monitored and highlighted in posts whenever merited. Questions, criticisms and feedback? All of that is kindly requested.
It’s easier than ever to be cynical about the television business, as the pressure simply to survive leads to all manner of questionable behavior and just plain dumb decisions. But in the end, I still believe in the fundamental truth of a three word slogan ABC once used to market itself to viewers.
TV is good.

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