"Not Reality. Actuality."

A few nights ago, I was laying on the couch, mining my pudding cup for the last globs of butterscotch, taking in a little Anderson Cooper 360, when that slogan for truTV, the reincarnation of CourtTV, slammed against the screen.

As the station's new slogan flashed across the screen, I, a scholar of visual anthropology, nearly shrieked aloud, "What the Gluckman?!"

OK, so, you're wondering what visual anthropology is. My mentoring professors would wince to read this simplification, but here goes: Visual anthropology is the high-brow social science of pointing video cameras at other cultures and then returning to Ivory Tower to discuss, highly browed and pretentiously, other academic videos of other cultures.

I'll spare you the semantics discourse. I only bring it up because truTV's motto seems to be a direct homage to John Grierson, the pioneer film critic who originally coined the term "documentary" in 1930. His definition: "The creative treatment of actuality." Filmmakers may attempt to challenge and subvert the definition, but you'll find few who will actually disagree with it.

Here's how truTV justifies it on their FAQ page:

Q: Is truTV a reality network?

A: No. Our focus is on series that feature real-life situations. That is why we're using the theme "Not Reality. Actuality." for the network. The goal is to let people know that truTV programming is different from typical reality shows, which often involve contests or other highly staged events."

Ever since CourtTV was dropped from a whole lot of cable providers, they've been trying to rebrand themselves as the place to go for "true crime." Intrigued by this whole "actuality" thing (and because my provider doesn't feature the station in its basic package), I logged on to their site to check out their offerings.

OK, so I'm not sure about actuality, but originality isn't exactly their forte. The opening of their program The Investigators is a complete carbon-copy of CSI, and the rest of listings are little more than Cops rip-offs. In fact, most of their programs seem like reality knock-offs of popular films and TV shows. So, maybe there aren't contests and "tasks," but the site brags of their veteran reality-TV producers, which seems more than a bit contradictory.

In coming weeks, truTV will be rolling out some new programming, including the much-anticipated (by me, at least) The Smoking Gun Presents..., a "world's dumbest" program put together by the TheSmokingGun.com, the authority on ridiculous crimes committed by celebrities and average joes alike.

For now, though, the best program they've got is The Real Hustle, a show where a team of scam artists run daredevil cons on unsuspecting citizens. Of course, a lot of it seems unbelievable and fake (particularly the hidden cameras they place in hotel rooms -- what guest wouldn't sue for that invasion of privacy?) ... but then again, that's exactly what Grierson meant in his definition.

His statement was in reference to Robert Flaherty's seminal ethnographic work Nanook of the North, about a family of Eskimos going through their daily igloo-building routines. Introduced to a record player, Nanook attempts to bite into an LP like it was a giant vinyl cookie. Flaherty later admitted that scene was pure fabrication.

So, if "reality" means contests and "actuality" means staged stunts, where the heck are the rest of living?

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