This Probably Isn't That Big a Deal But...

The History Channel is changing its name to “History”. "Our brand is, in the media landscape, synonymous with the genre of history so I don't think it's presumptuous of us to call ourselves History," said Nancy Dubuc, the network's executive vice president. What the hell is wrong with you? First, history isn’t a genre. It’s a subject. It’s a topic. It’s a major. It’s a discipline. To some people it’s a complete waste of time – I’m talking to you Mr. President – but it’s not a genre. Stephen Hawking isn’t an Astrophysics stylist. This really bothers me. This lady runs a television network dedicated to an academic field. Her performance affects other people’s jobs. How does she not know what a genre is? Second, are other channels going to change their names? Is Channel 4 The Local Station going to change its name to Local? “Our brand is, in the media landscape, synonymous with the genre of local so I don’t think it’s presumptuous of us to call ourselves Local,” said Rob Sweeting, the stations six o’clock anchor. Are the broadcast networks going to compete over who gets to be Crap, or will they be satisfied reaching into a hat and randomly choosing Garbage, WTF?, and You Gotta Be Kidding Me? Is MTV going to change its name to Anything Except Music Videos? America is getting stupider by the minute, and I seem powerless to stop it. Maybe Communications should be reduced from a major to a class, along with Marketing and Management (6 hours of Marketing and 12 hours of Management help make up my degree). All they seem to offer is a lack of cognitive agility. They are why transition is now a verb. They are why companies now say they want to service – as opposed to serve – their customers( My mom's favorite). Servicing a customer used to apply only to prostitution and husbandry. Then again, I definitely feel screwed by most of the companies I deal with, so maybe they're not that far off. At least MS Word still catches processees as a misspelling. I hate that “new” word the most. It’s as if procex was the singular form instead of process. I’ve veered off of the road. It’s just that Ms. Dubuc’s statement is so absolutely ridiculous, it forced me to comment.