Let's hear it for Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment for Showtime.
(Yes, that title could be considered subjective, so could have been "minister" during my recent nine-year tenure. This is a joke about the title, not the guy, who, by the way, has a great first name!) :)
Below is a quote from an AP article about the recent changes in Emmy Judging which decides nominees. Many have much to say about it. Here's his thoughts.
Showtime president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt was overjoyed Thursday at his network's record showing of 19 nominations but admitted to feeling "incredibly ambivalent" about the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' experimental formation of a blue-ribbon panel charged with finalizing the list of candidates for the comedy and drama series and lead performer categories.
"I think this new system is as flawed as any I've seen in an awards competition," said Greenblatt, who was particularly dismayed about the omission of "Weeds" star Mary Louise-Parker in the lead actress in a comedy category. "It feels like the electoral college to me as far as being outdated. It's like a version of taking away the popular vote and leaving it to fewer people to make the decisions ultimately."
Note the final thoughts? The Electoral College is "outdated". How does a numerical process become outdated? When did we get a new numeric system?
The College was created by some people who were, well, really smart and forward-thinking, realizing that certain groups of people would not have the voice that others would, solely based on where their kitchen is located.
So, if the media were correctly teaching, and schools, college, and universities were correctly teaching, that the "popular vote" has NEVER elected a President, and that YOU have never voted "for a President", but only for the electors of your state who will then represent the vote of the people at the Electoral College, we wouldn't have as much confusion over this.
We also would have people maybe thinking twice about calling the Electoral College outdated.
Click above to find out how it all really works.
P.S.---I'm not trying to single out Mr. Greenblatt here; his quote, though, gave a perfect opportunity to open discussion on the subject.
Re: "realizing that certain groups of people would not have the voice that others would"
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the Electoral College was the result of efforts to ensure the slave states ratified the Constitution. Slaves, you may recall, didn't have any voice, and were counted as 3/5 of a human being for apportionment purposes.
Today, 2/3 of Americans live in states that don't get any attention in presidential campaigns. A majority of Americans are therefore without a voice. That is undemocratic and wrong.