U.S. media succumbs to silly and self-serving ways to pep up the Jubilee

Anchors Get Giddy Around The Crown

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY, NYT

God save us from the queen.

There’s nothing like a regal celebration to bring out the royal pains of American television. And the four-day extravaganza to celebrate the 60-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II was particularly rich in folly.

With so much time and so little new to say, anchors and commentators are emboldened to be their worst selves. Viewers are like Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice,” who watched helplessly as her sisters made spectacles of themselves at a ball and concluded “that had her family made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening, it would have been impossible for them to play their parts with more spirit, or finer success.”

And that was certainly the case on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” whose anchors Robin Roberts and Lara Spencer mugged in front of Buckingham Palace on Tuesday wearing goofy ribbon fascinators on their heads and acting like teenagers on a sugar high at a shopping mall. Other news organizations showcased Elton John and Paul McCartney at Monday’s concert outside the palace. Ms. Spencer singled out Grace Jones’s Hula Hoop performance, which gave Ms. Spencer an excuse to segue to a clip of herself gyrating with a Hula Hoop on an old episode of “Good Morning America.” “Honestly, it was the moment of the concert,” she explained.

ABC was hardly alone in finding silly and self-serving ways to pep up Jubilee coverage, but there was a particular élan at “GMA,” which has narrowed the lead of “Today” on NBC, and has actually come out ahead in weekly viewership several times in recent months. ABC didn’t prevail by getting more substantive than NBC; the Jubilee provided a fresh canvas for the program’s newfound confidence in dumbing down.

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