The Decline of NHK
NHK, the Japanese national TV has always been a joke, but now it has become an even bigger pile of junk.
In Japan the new fiscal year starts 1st of April and thus some programs change as of that date.
The more or less only two programs I still watched on NHK, apart from occasionally switching in to the main news broadcasts, were “close up gendai” (gendai means – “present day”), which ran on most weekdays 19:30-20:00, and the “news web” session from 23:30-0:00.
“Close up gendai” took up all sorts of hot topics, national as well as international, from, for example, the rise of depression of regular Japanese office workers to the migrant crisis in Europe. “News web” tried to be “modern”, presented news flashes of the day, dug deeper into one current topic, checked tweet comments of viewers and analyzed “big data” of trending tweets of the day. Both programs were presented by “normal” news presenters, in respectable journalist fashion.
Now, “close up gendai” is moved to after midnight it seems and silly game/talkshow nonsense replaced its slot at 19:30. “News web” has been cancelled entirely and replaced by let me call it “what the fuck – WTF?” Whilst “news web” happened in a regular news studio, somehow designed, with sofas and some decoration in the background, WTF happens in what exactly? A backroom? A storage room? A sound recording room? It looks shabby, small and completely unprofessional. The new “news casters” are show masters rather than news casters, waving silly, making thumbs up and other hand signs, “pop up in front of the camera”, etc. and are totally unworthy of being called serious news casters. They giggle inappropriately, then try to be serious to announce floods in Pakistan, a moment later giggle again and reduce the news to a farce. The camera angles are underlining the idiocy by showing the faces of the happily smiling dipshits from below or other awkward angles.
I do not understand the concept of this “show”. Why the shabby backroom? Why the giggling and waving? To whom is this style supposed to appeal? What happened to serious journalism and news reporting? What the fuck is NHK doing? On which planet do they live?
It’s a shame, as plain and simple as that. It’s outrageous that NHK is forcefully collecting money for their broadcasting. I don’t want to pay for this unprofessional bullshit anymore. NHK is anyway the propaganda channel for Premier Abe, but there were two glimpses of serious, respectable journalism left that are now gone as well. I will check whether I can refuse NHK payment. Poor Japan, with NHK doing its best to further dumb down its populace…
