Spam

by Paul Giacobbe

“Spam,“  I recall my father, a World War II vet, saying “is ham that flunked it’s physical.”

For one viewer, the on-air comments of the 5 p.m. news team, following a story about the resurgence in popularity of the Hormel meat-in-a-can (ham, pork, sugar, salt, water, potato starch and “just a hint” of sodium nitrate, according to the website, http://www.spam.com), flunked the test of journalistic good taste.

The banter between the anchors and weatherman at the end of the Spam story was, according to the viewer, insensitive.

After the story:

Anchor #1:  “That’s what Gary had for breakfast today.”

Anchor #2:  “. . . Thanksgiving with a big old Spam.”

Anchor #1. “I guess it’s cheap though, I don’t know.”

Anchor #2.  “It’s tasty too.  I don’t know, I’ve never had one.”

Only the one viewer complained, but in keeping with this space’s attempt to present as much viewer input as possible, here’s what she said:

“It’s obvious that some people eat it,” the viewer said, and in this economy, with so many people homeless, such comments are “inappropriate.”

“There are some people who buy it because they can’t afford meat,” the viewer said, “and these kinds of comments from people with six figure incomes are not funny.”

As has occasionally been noted, many of the complaints which find their way here result from the casual, unscripted chat among anchors and reporters.  Segues and time fillers can be live television minefields, sprinkled with the occasional faux pas and the thankfully rare career killer.

But, Spam?? Even the company appears to make fun of itself with the kitschy website and the invitation to join the Spam fan club.  Notwithstanding that the bi-generational anchor team insisted they had never had Spam, it is an American institution, and we always poke fun at our institutions.  This viewer thought that the butt (considering where the Spam probably comes from there is, I swear, no pun intended) of the banter was the people who eat the Spam.  I’m not so sure.

In any case, now that the elections over there has to be something in the news that annoys us.
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NBC10 provides the space for this blog, but the opinions are mine alone. – Paul Giacobbe