The first time it was with the word “peplum” (Latin “sandal”). A film critic was speaking to a radio newsroom about the genre of the same name – also called “Roman cinema” – and the editorial team was heartbroken over the word because they didn’t know it. Next time it was the turn of a stupid and wise Egyptologist. There was laughter at the way he spoke. This happened a lot more often, but I had lost count of the times when one’s own ignorance was a source of pride.
That was almost twenty years ago. Meanwhile, people like the critic and the Egyptologist no longer appear in the audiovisual media. First they were replaced by “media” profiles – when they tell me someone is a media person, I already know they’re going to be morning kantamanas – and then by YouTubers and influencers. And bullfighters. The bullfighters who are not missing. In these almost twenty years, the profile of the reader – that is, the people who read – has been replaced by that of those who, as music journalist Patricia Godes says, “were hired to pass an exam without ever having written or read.” ”
I recently went on TV to talk about a topic I know, but I barely opened my mouth. The talk show host who constantly interrupted me didn’t differentiate even the most basic concepts of the topic at hand. On television, the battle for the shot is so fierce that whoever thinks loses. And on Friday I saw about ten minutes of a morning show that incorrectly used a verb as common as “execute.” This means that in a team of, say, ten graduates (and zero readers), no one knew what this term meant.
Television was and was a window to the world. But one day the ignorant pride (the real one, not the program pride) shut it down to wallow in its own involution.
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