The “crawl” at the bottom of our television screens is now a staple of the industry. No viewer should be update-challenged. On balance, it works. It’s what an instant-communication medium should be doing.
But ever notice how often it’s more distracting than informative? Whether we’re watching sports or generic news. Too much stuff goes crawling by that’s relatively unimportant, absolutely unimportant or important but redundantly so. Or sometimes just depressing and mood altering.
Just because you can, you don’t have to.
Case in point: when the president is giving a press conference or making a speech. Can’t the networks at least accord him enough respect to let him speak in a crawl-less context? It’s hardly a news blackout. Moreover, how about some consideration for those viewers who – quaint concept that it is – may just want to focus on what they’ve actually tuned in to?