Ron Burgundy has some lessons for today’s anchormen

Who would have thought the film Anchorman  would serve as both a humorous and accurate look at the world of television news? While the film may have poked fun at local news in the 70’s, it appears to be spot on in its portrayal of grown men who feel empowered to make women feel uncomfortable just  because they appear in front of a camera.

Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Bill O’Reilly — and my guess many more to follow — serve as great reminders what fame can do to people. Perhaps all of these men in and out of the media who are getting fired for their past behavior were born jerks and raised to treat women like objects. However, I have to think some of them were actually raised by decent parents who taught them to respect women. In the end, fame is a drug and is not always handled all that well by some.

In Anchorman, Ron Burgundy was given a second chance after screwing up and went on to reclaiming his life. Of course, who wouldn’t want to give Will Ferrell another shot? But do the likes of Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, or Bill O’Reilly deserve the same or should they just fade away and live off of the riches they have earned over decades of work?

Rose is older than dirt so we are not likely to see him again. O’Reilly is finding it difficult to capture the audience he had on Fox News now that he is trying to sell his thoughts and books on the internet. What will Matt Lauer do? He is about to find out the road ahead is full of potholes and dead ends unless he can somehow prove he has been wrongly accused.

Too bad the above three people are not in Congress. I find it laughable they have an ethics committee when we all know you can’t have any to make it in the world of big time politics. Why would any of the men accused of groping women step down from office when the president we elected has a history of not being able to keep his hands to himself? The bar cannot be set any lower for what is and is not acceptable behavior among our elected leaders. I really think for many citizens this is a relief because it allows them to justify their own horrific behavior toward others.

It looks like all this groping has resulted in an end to talk of white privilege and has now resulted in talk of male privilege. Who is the next group of privileged we can make feel terrible about themselves?

Why do Americans get so excited about a royal wedding? Here is all I know about it. A Prince from England is marrying an American actress and it is a big deal. England’s royal family is a drain to many of their hard working tax paying people who wonder why they are expected to pay the bill for a rich family that no longer holds any power and can’t manage to live within their means. How did we all feel about the wealthy being bailed out at our expense in 2008? At least our royal family, the Kardashians, pay for their weddings.

And then there is the guy in North Korea, our own royal pain, who has managed to fire off another missile, this time far enough into space that it is being reported it could be used to hit a target in Washington, D.C. Do you really think he is worth going to war over? Did we go to war when Russia matched us warhead for warhead during the Cold War? Did we go to war when China became a nuclear power?  How about when Pakistan got nukes?  Not even when Cuba had them just 90 miles from us did we end up going to war so why would we do so now?

Kim Jong Un is what the “M*A*S*H” character, Major Charles Winchester described Korea as, nothing but a boil on the buttocks of life. It’s better to lance the boil than eliminate the entire butt cheek.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like commercialism getting worse. I am talking about Christmas, or for the easily offended, holiday shopping season. Black Friday has now grown into a week-long event with sales that make storming a mall store pointless. Cyber Monday has now become Cyber Week which makes rising up early on Monday morning pointless as well. What’s next, Hanukkah extended to two weeks?

Finally, I want to apologize formally to our Thanksgiving turkey. When we purchased it, my wife and I really thought we could consume all 20 pounds of it. I now see we were wrong. We would have been better off with a 12 pounder or perhaps a couple Cornish game hens. I hope to correct my ways in the future and work hard to regain the trust of all forms of fowl who I enjoy eating from time to time. The 18-pound turkey we have in the freezer will be fully consumed even if it means force feeding it to my five dogs.

Top photo is a publicity still from “Anchorman, the Legend of Ron Burgundy,” courtesy of Dreamworks