TV programs worth watching
Sun December 5 — Sat December 11

The dumbing down of the ABC continues. Even programs about 
books are not immune.

In a quest for popularity — and ratings — the ABC invited 
viewers to vote for their "favourite book". A favourite book is 
presumably one that you read and re-read with pleasure.

It is probably not the same as "the best book written in the last 
century" (or "the best book ever written"), or "the most 
influential book ever written" or "the most 
exciting/romantic/comic/imaginative book of all time" or any of a 
host of categories concerned with differentiating quality.

But as the ABC's publicity says, "The votes are in", and on My 
Favourite Book (ABC 7.30pm Sunday) "journalist, former 
publisher and a woman who loves a good read, Jennifer Byrne, will 
reveal all".

Gosh, doesn't that sound exciting. And the ABC promises 
additional delights: "ABC TV will celebrate [our] love affair 
with reading in a playful and provocative evening of 
entertainment, stories and discussion as we countdown Australia's 
favourite books, from ten to one."

It doesn't sound like a very cultural evening, does it, even 
though the ABC's publicist did promise that "There'll be cameos 
from famous Australians who will bravely reveal dark secrets 
about their reading habits.

"Which books do actors Sophie Lee and Claudia Karvan recommend to 
pick up the opposite sex? Which actor has admitted to being a 
book thief — Sam Neill, Naomi Watts or Sam Worthington?

"How do David Koch, Glenn Robbins and Amanda Keller feel about 
reading on the loo?" 

Striving for excellence appears to have been abandoned in favour 
of the relentless pursuit of superficiality. No doubt Prime 
Minister Howard will heartily approve.

Viewers of Victoria And Albert, which is being repeated 
this week (ABC 9.00pm Sunday), could be excused for thinking 
Britain was an autocracy and not a bourgeois democracy in which 
Parliament makes the laws and the monarch simply reads them out 
at the opening of Parliament.

The program takes the line that "Together, Victoria and Albert 
ruled with distinction". Ruled? They were expensive figure heads, 
that's all, their pomp and splendour a useful device for 
impressing both locals and foreigners with the apparent wealth 
and power of the British Empire.

The antics of the ruling class have taken a bit of a battering 
over the last century or so and all these programs about Royals -
- very top people who are seemingly unsullied by sordid commerce 
— seem to be intended to repair the image.

Basically, they are just ruling class propaganda, and an insult 
to the downtrodden masses who toiled to create the wealth these 
Royals squandered so profligately.

It's sometimes hard, given that the US is now the world's only 
superpower, to realise that there are still struggles within the 
US leadership over how their military might should be used. 
Rumsfeld's War, screening on the Cutting Edge 
timeslot (SBS 8.30pm Tuesday), is a report by the PBS 
Frontline team and the Washington Post to 
investigate US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's contentious 
relations with the Pentagon.

When George W Bush came to office, the Pentagon still sought to 
dominate the globe and prevent any rival world power from 
developing. The extreme right Republicans in the Bush White 
House, however, saw the need to fight numerous wars, to protect 
"America's interests" and Christian civilisation.

Some current and former officers from the US Army now say the 
army is on the verge of being broken and that Rumsfeld is 
responsible. 

The program maintains that in the early months of the Bush 
administration, Rumsfeld saw his biggest enemy as "the outdated 
Cold War-mindset of the troops he commanded" (2.5 million 
enlisted men and women).

Professor John Arquilla of the Naval Postgraduate School in 
Monterey, California, says:  "Donald Rumsfeld wanted to build a 
smaller, nimbler and more networked military that could respond 
swiftly to threats anywhere in the world."

Rumsfeld's push for a reduction in the number of troops in the 
army found him clashing with General Eric Shinseki, the US army's 
Chief of Staff. By September 2001, there was open speculation 
that the unpopular Rumsfeld might lose his position.

Then came the September 11 attacks and Rumsfeld's position was 
secure. He moved to invade Afghanistan using the Pentagon's 
Special Operations forces.

Now, Rumsfeld's critics allege that his methods — effectively 
marginalising advice about troop strength, post-war planning, and 
the treatment of prisoners — has left the US with mounting 
casualties in Iraq and without a clear exit strategy in either 
Iraq or Afghanistan.

Former Centcom Commander-in-Chief General Joseph Hoar (Ret.) 
says, "Today we find over fifty percent of the United States Army 
— the regular army, ten divisions — committed overseas. It's 
not sustainable."

This week on Creature Comforts (ABC 8.30pm Thursdays) 
Aardman's Nick Park and director Richard Goleszowski seek out 
insights about ordinary English people's attitude to the sea, 
gardening and eating habits. For each ten-minute segment, 
interviewees' comments are put into the mouths of appropriate 
Plasticine animals, to clever and whimsical effect.

Mind you, I still think they should have been used as ten-minute 
fillers once a week rather than cobbled together to make a "half-
hour program" as here. I think the joke is more sustainable in 
short bursts.

Another repeat beginning this week is the BBC series about the 
history of popular music, Walk On By: The Story Of Popular 
Song (ABC 9.30pm Thursdays). 

Not nearly as compelling as the US series Jazz, which it 
clearly seeks to emulate, Walk On By is nevertheless 
eminently watchable. I found it to be most interesting when 
dealing with the early development of the pop-music "industry".

Starting with black and Jewish-influenced traditional music, the 
staple of Tin Pan Alley at the turn of the century, the series 
examines the growth of musical theatre on Broadway and Hollywood; 
the emergence of singers such as Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and 
Frank Sinatra who toured with the dance bands of the '30s and 
'40s; and the blues and country roots which produced Elvis-style 
rock'n'roll.