DEAR TMV: I am 10 years old. I was talking with my friends and they said corporate standards and the corporate conscience in America are disintegrating.
My father says, “If you see a Starbucks on every corner it isn’t so.” Please tell me the truth: are there standards and is there a corporate conscience in America or are they going down the tubes?
Virginia Schmidlap
1500 Main Street
VIRGINIA, your friends are partially wrong and your Dad is partially right.
Your friends have been impacted by the act of reading newspapers, a weblog or watching TV news where they’ve learned the latest sad news as two corporations have lowered the bar on taste and standards once more so low that plumbing companies are putting in bids.
Your friends don’t realize that there are Starbucks or companies such as McDonalds’ (McDonald’s late philanthropist owner Joan Kroc left tons of money to charities when she died and enabled a major shelter for homeless families to be built here in San Diego) and others that put something good back into society, even if people mock their mega-size and some of their products.
But we hate to tell you:
Yes, VIRGINIA, there are some who are tossing away corporate standards, ruining their corporate images, and lowering our overall societal standards as they take a calculated risks that Americans’ standards have fallen as low as their own.
The latest lowering of the bar comes from shunned former football player O.J. Simpson and we’ll give you THIS LINK to give you background that others who are reading this already know.
O.J. was found not guilty of murder, and lost a wrongful-death civil suit. He has vowed to hunt for his wife and Ron Goldman’s “real killers” and has been steadfastly doing so on the finest golf courses in America.
And now he’s coming out with and peddling a book called “If I Did It,” which is being hyped by the one-time football hero as a strictly theoretical how-to guide about how he WOULD have butchered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman — if he really did it.
After the book tour, Virginia, he’ll resume the search for the real killer on golf courses, at fine restaurants, hotels, and at autograph signings where people reportedly pay some money to get him to sign a jersey or something so they can have proof that they met someone (in)famous.
Yes, VIRGINIA, a corporate conscience DOES exist but not at every corporation.
You see, VIRGINIA, Regan Books, an until-just-now book publisher that had become a respected publisher of conservative books among conservatives, decided to not only publish O.J.’s book but to hype it — big time. In fact, the company’s publisher is out there hyping it. (We won’t give you any link to Regan books because we won’t read any of their books again, even if we are reincarnated four times).
You see, Virginia, there is a TV special coming up where O.J. is interviewed in a supposedly no-holds-barred interview by…publisher Judith Regan. You see, VIRGINIA, she has a teeny-weenie interest in this book. And O.J. will — surprise — be talking about his book as he is interviewed by his publisher who will (presumably) make money off the book.
Even so, corporate conscience and corporate standards in 21st America do exist, even as comedy has become more cruel and coarse (the funny movie Borat ain’t Abbott & Costello), political debate has become mean and personal (pick a weblog and read some of the posts or comments under the posts and turn on any screamfest talking head TV show).
The REAL 21st Century God is audience share at the movies, in selling books, attracting radio audiences, getting blog hits and getting TV ratings. All other Gods seem to be cast aside in the scramble to get BIG NUMBERS and/or BIG BUCKS.
Nothing else matters to some: not the many years of work these companies’ employees put into putting out printed or broadcast product nor the millions spent on advertising to create images for these companies.
They are hooked on the drug called Instant Big Bucks. And they will try whatever they can do get it — even green-lighting things that they would have passed on in a second only a few years ago.
But, yes, VIRGINIA some standards do exist: NBC turned down the special. So we’ll give you THIS NBC LINK and THIS MSNBC LINK since we will make sure we watch their shows and patronize their sponsors.
But, alas! How boring the world would be if Fox didn’t exist.
Fox has picked up this special and is hyping it. Fox News recently got in trouble due to a news Vice President’s memo letting reporters know right after the election that he wanted to get some instances of Iraqi insurgents welcoming a Democratic party victory. Now the entertainment network Fox is going to broadcast a show that is basically a big, fat TV commercial for O.J.’s exploitation book, hosted by the publisher who stands to benefit from it.
We won’t give you a link to Fox because TMV is so angry if he has to choose between a Fox and non-Fox program he will pass on Fox. He can watch The Simpsons on DVD…
We don’t know about what sponsors The O.J. Simpson Show will have but we know it won’t be Ginsu Knives, because it might not be good imagery, no matter how you slice it.
It probably wouldn’t be Hertz Rent-A-Car, either, because late night comedians might could say the car company needed a new slogan: “Love Hertz.”
How dreary life would be if you were not here, VIRGINIA! There would be no one who could stand back and ask whether its fair to say all corporations are flushing down the toilet the idea of maintaining certain standards besides trying to attract numbers by any means possible.
There would be no one who would pause and say “Hey, NBC wouldn’t do it so there’s hope yet! Most book companies would NOT print this book, so don’t despair! And most Americans with an IQ over minus 26 wouldn’t buy the book or watch the TV show!”
Yes, VIRGINIA, you see, notoriety doesn’t always translate into riches. There was once a fired New York Times reporter named Jayson Blair who thought his hyped book would sell but, alas, it was remaindered because most Americans’ standards were too high to buy it.
Yes, VIRGINIA, the readers for the O.J. book would probably be better served if it was written in crayon.
Not that we’re pre-judging its value. Of course not (LEGAL DISCLAIMER)!
Not believe in corporate standards and corporate conscience! You might as well not believe in discounts at CostCo! You might get your papa to hire men to surf the Internet to catch other examples of corporations throwing aside any standards or their own images. But even if they found that, would that be proof? You can’t always see a corporate conscience — but you can see when one is lacking.
Some things that are real are things that neither kids or adults can see. Did you ever hear Senator John Kerry tell a funny joke? OOPs! Poor example. Did you ever see weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Sorry! Another lousy one.
Well, you get the idea.
Nobody can put it in quantitative terms, but there ARE people with standards and consciences out there. And they’re Republicans, Democrats, independents, men, women and children. There are plenty of corporations that take care what they endorse, promote — and how they are perceived. They realize that integrity is a long-distance run, not a quick sprint where you grab as much of the green as you can along the way.
No corporate conscience or corporate standards! Thank GOD! It exists, and in some corporations it will exist forever. Years from now it’ll continue to make glad the hearts of consumers who have standards and IQs above zero. But the other ones will exist, too…but perhaps in reduced numbers if we don’t buy their books or watch their shows.
But now, Virginia, TMV must leave you.
And he’ll continue to look for the standards and conscience of Regan Publishing and Fox on the finest beaches and in the best pizzerias in San Diego.
He won’t bother looking for O.J’s conscience.
SOME OTHER READING ON THIS SUBJECT:
Yes, Virginia There Is A Santa Claus
Simpson book, interview raising eyebrows
OJ Kills! On Fox
Fox News’ Mike Straka
Newsweek’s take on it.
Readers overwhelmingly condemn ‘slime’ O.J.
O.J. Book Is Called `his Confession’
O.J. comes all but admits it … he’s clueless
O.J. isn’t the problem anymore … we are
Fox Squeezes O.J. for Killer Ratings
A Fox Shocker: In Depth With O.J. Simpson for A Ratings Boost
Where’s the outrage over Fox’s O.J. shill?
Huffington Post
Simpson Interview: Victim’s Sister
Fox sinks to new low with O.J. interview
UPDATE: Also read Jon Swift
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.