Thursday, February 22, 2007
That is news to me
So I'm watching the "news" last night with my wife, when suddenly for no apparent reason what so ever, I commenced to ranting and raving like a lunatic at the television. Well, to be accurate, the no apparent reason logic was my wifes.
You see, we were watching MSNBC's early morning program. They led off with the story of Anna Nichole Smiths rotting corpse and deranged judge. After several minutes of that they covered Iraq, and then Vice President Cheney for a bit. THEN... they went into a rundown of the travails of Britney Spears. That is the point where I started ranting.
America has been stupified to the point that gossipy trash which would have been headlines in the National Enquirer, but nowhere else, just 20 years ago, now is fed to us as important news. 20 years ago the networks would have put this tripe in the final few minutes of the broadcast, and everyone watching would have known that this was the signal that this particular broadcast had jumped the shark, and to only watch if there was nothing else of interest on. Yet the sad thing is... it's not going to stop, because most of the sheople love it.
My wife was a bit taken aback by this, because from her perspective this was a typical newscast. Actually, it truly is typical, and it is just me, and those like me who want to watch real news who get aggravated by it. We just want to retch at 10 minutes of precious news cycle devoted to a dead model and a one time superstar imploding on the world stage.
The "news" once offered as a money losing public service by the broadcast networks has been perverted by conglomeration and greed to be simply another money making enterprise. And there isn't any money in tracking down the financial records of 363 tons of cash flushed into Iraq, or that type of story. But there is money from advertisers in hyping the latest blonde celebrity gossip. The fact is that "news" these days must be gleaned from between the gossip stories, and nearly invariable right wing talking heads shouting their talking points.
I don't know how to turn this around. To try to fix it is to throw money away. It would be to the benefit of those who cared to follow the news to have such an outlet, but that channel would basically be C-Span on steroids.
Maybe the answer is the internet. Thats where I turn these days for most information I use, and I suspect that increasingly those who feel like me will do the same...
You see, we were watching MSNBC's early morning program. They led off with the story of Anna Nichole Smiths rotting corpse and deranged judge. After several minutes of that they covered Iraq, and then Vice President Cheney for a bit. THEN... they went into a rundown of the travails of Britney Spears. That is the point where I started ranting.
America has been stupified to the point that gossipy trash which would have been headlines in the National Enquirer, but nowhere else, just 20 years ago, now is fed to us as important news. 20 years ago the networks would have put this tripe in the final few minutes of the broadcast, and everyone watching would have known that this was the signal that this particular broadcast had jumped the shark, and to only watch if there was nothing else of interest on. Yet the sad thing is... it's not going to stop, because most of the sheople love it.
My wife was a bit taken aback by this, because from her perspective this was a typical newscast. Actually, it truly is typical, and it is just me, and those like me who want to watch real news who get aggravated by it. We just want to retch at 10 minutes of precious news cycle devoted to a dead model and a one time superstar imploding on the world stage.
The "news" once offered as a money losing public service by the broadcast networks has been perverted by conglomeration and greed to be simply another money making enterprise. And there isn't any money in tracking down the financial records of 363 tons of cash flushed into Iraq, or that type of story. But there is money from advertisers in hyping the latest blonde celebrity gossip. The fact is that "news" these days must be gleaned from between the gossip stories, and nearly invariable right wing talking heads shouting their talking points.
I don't know how to turn this around. To try to fix it is to throw money away. It would be to the benefit of those who cared to follow the news to have such an outlet, but that channel would basically be C-Span on steroids.
Maybe the answer is the internet. Thats where I turn these days for most information I use, and I suspect that increasingly those who feel like me will do the same...
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