Only in times like these can the internet oscillate between getting excited about the woman serving water on the red carpet at the Golden Globes and fascination with Jeff Bezos' love life in the same week. That's especially true when one considers there were pitstops along the way for musicians apologizing for collaborating with R. Kelly and people wondering if the US government shutdown would ever end. Still, at least HBO was trying to get viewers thinking about The Sopranos again, so it wasn't a complete loss. This, my friends, is what else people have been talking about online over the past seven days.

Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore

What Happened: Sure, the president has the right to make an address about any topic he wants, but does that mean television has an obligation to let everyone hear him? That theoretical question turned practical at the start of last week.

What Really Happened: The President of the United States started the third week of the government shutdown with what many considered to be a public relations masterstroke: his decision to take his case directly to the American people.

The announcement grabbed the media's attention for obvious reasons, but there was one problem that hadn't been solved by the time President Trump made his announcement: Television executives hadn't actually agreed to broadcast his address yet.

As network executives—and everyone else on Twitter—struggled with the question of broadcasting or not, some considered the decision an easy one.

In reality, however, the choice to air was complicated by the fact that, five years ago, President Obama was denied network airtime for his own Oval Office address on immigration, as others pointed out.

Ultimately, the fact that President Trump was making a public speech about the central issue behind the government shutdown—aka, something that would likely make for good ratings—won the day, and networks confirmed they'd carry the speech. But that wasn't all they'd broadcast, as it turned out.

By the time the day ended, the televisual stage was set for a full day of speech-making, just as the founders would have intended had they foreseen television and the current political situation and still, somehow, decided to go along with the whole shebang anyway.