Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the (air) waves

In case you haven't noticed, the media hype machine has kicked into high gear because some cove and his girlfriend in Britain will be getting married soon. The groom is a lord or a duke or an earl or a prince or some such, which probably explains all the hoopla. (Didn't we have a revolution to get rid of these people? But I digress.)

Anyway, what's interesting about this is that even staid old PBS has gotten into the act. It's running promos announcing that PBS will broadcast BBC coverage of the upcoming nuptials. This supposedly will be more authoritative than the run-of-the mill coverage offered by the other American networks because the BBC will have Brits covering Brits, making the whole experience more, well, British.

To hammer home the point, PBS is using a British announcer to promote its BBC coverage. Maybe it's just me, but every time I hear this guy, who sounds like a John Cleese wannabe, hyperventilating about what a grand job the BBC will do covering every regal second of the biggest news story of the 21st century, the loopiness of it all conjures up images of Monty Python, and I start chuckling instead of treating this as the Important News Story it purports to be.

If prince what's his name and his bride want to see what real news looks like, they could always honeymoon in Japan.