Apparently, Andy Rooney is not a fan of Kindles and NOOKs. His 60 Minutes rant this past week was all about ebooks. I really hate to say this about Andy Rooney, but he really missed the mark big time. He expressed surprise that paperbacks are being outsold by ebooks, and seemed wholly perplexed by the concept that an eBook reader holds 3,000+ titles. At one point he touches upon one of his books being free, though he doesn’t explain if he’s mad about piracy, or if it was some sort of “freebie” deal organized by his publisher. Sadly, the germ of that one good thought gets lost in the rest of his rant, which boils down to “it’s just not a book if it’s not paper”.
I don’t mean to be hard on Andy Rooney or 60 Minutes, but it’s not like the show’s demographic is unfamiliar with eBooks. In fact, supposedly the average age of a “60 Minutes” viewer is around 60. There’s also a great deal of mounting evidence that baby boomers are a major age group for eBook readers. So in ending the show ranting in a fairly rambling and uneducated fashion about eBook readers, 60 Minutes is just advertising how wildly out of touch they are with their viewers, many of whom probably went to bed and curled up with a Kindle or a NOOK.
Admittedly, I don’t watch 60 Minutes, so if you did, and think I’m way off in my assessment, please share in the comments!