I was going to talk about Hillary Clinton’s fainting spell, and how that became big news, while some of the more intricate details on the war in Iraq have not. More or less, we hear a lot about the elections over there, but as usual, have carefully edited information on what is exactly happening, as far the actual combat. Expect to hear about the election for another month or so before you get any real meat about casualties or anything else.

However, aside from that, Pseudo-Reporter occasionally has actual solutions to problems, as well as its attempt to delve deeper into the human psyche, as far as why we write about any of this to begin with, and why we cannot write it the way it comes to us, because of commercial interests.

This is the situation; black publications like Essence talk a great game, while the only remotely positive image on black television remains monopolized by interests like BET and UPN, which balance the occasional constructive fare with music videos and “ghetto” programming.

Which leads me to ask, if finding redeeming black programming, outside of comedies like the “Bernie Mac Show” and “My Wife and Kids”, both of which, ironically, aren’t on either of the aforementioned networks, why can’t the print conglomerates like Johnson and Essence apply their same formula to television? Perhaps we could get from being behind 10 hour blocks of music videos, 3 hour blocks of comedy, and 5 or 6 hour blocks of Gospel, to actually talking about the issues, outside of their occasional News Specials, and a half hour News broadcast that individuals are more likely to skip over for Fox News, MSNBC or their own local news broadcast?

Intelligent programming is needed in other niche areas as well. Moreover, do not get me wrong, I love the Lifetime network, but it has denigrated towards being a one-stop shop for leftover direct to video movies that appeal to women and those interested in post-feminism. We need something more on par with Oxygen, something that offers something other than black entertainment, or that is not overwhelmed with entertainment, with information being an afterthought. Infotainment.

Let me know what you think about this idea, and if it is something worth pursuing. I would like to see my peers on sites other than Black Planet and the Hip-Hop blogs, like wise not all of us watch Girlfriends and re-runs of Moesha all day.