The idea of direct speech in television is an anachronism, perhaps even in the theatre; but with "live to tape", the frequency of reruns, etc. what was direct or the illusion of direct is now quotation and distanciation even when its not intended in a Brechtian manner. As Ben Alpers notes, even the most self-reflexi ve gestures on television become conventionalized ways of reassuring us of th e truth of the foreground/frame as true against the background-as-illusion. We need to think then of the effects of truth and illusion. Trinh Minh-Ha pace Foucault makes this clear in cahpter 2 of her When the Mon Moon Waxes Red (1991) Rob Morgan. [log in to unmask]