As I was watching the morning news today while Son was eating his breakfast the BREAKING News thrust onto the screen. It was so breaking that it was only from two days old (there should be only breaking new if it involves window or bones.) I renewed my pledge that if I ever win a big Lottery I am going to buy a TV station and only allow the news readers (what we call anchor or reporters) one adjective per sentence and require that breaking news has to be real news that is so important that they have not had time to write copy or send a reporter to the scene. Something like the return of Jesus.
This is not a new topic for me just ask Wife. When I travel out of the U.S. I actually enjoy the news and feel I am being informed about what is going on in society that has some real impact on the world. Here at home it often feels like being an unwanted intruder into some poor families tragedy.
I get so angry hearing about the latest murder or fire or car wreck that only keeps our attention until the new one comes along. That is unless it is young and attractive white woman and then we will hear about it over earthquakes and plagues. If this woman is pregnant we might forget that thousands of people are dying in far away places or push corporate corruption to the back pagers of the paper or to a five second blurb just before the teaser to keep us watching the ads.
For the Roman leaders all they needed to do was give their people bread and circuses to keep them distracted and docile. For our society am afraid it is Fast Food and other peoples tragedies (and of course NFL football of which I am a fan.)
My central question for the last few years has been "How do we get individuals to see there is something of greater importance than their own belly buttons?"
O well where is the nearest McDonald's?
This is not a new topic for me just ask Wife. When I travel out of the U.S. I actually enjoy the news and feel I am being informed about what is going on in society that has some real impact on the world. Here at home it often feels like being an unwanted intruder into some poor families tragedy.
I get so angry hearing about the latest murder or fire or car wreck that only keeps our attention until the new one comes along. That is unless it is young and attractive white woman and then we will hear about it over earthquakes and plagues. If this woman is pregnant we might forget that thousands of people are dying in far away places or push corporate corruption to the back pagers of the paper or to a five second blurb just before the teaser to keep us watching the ads.
For the Roman leaders all they needed to do was give their people bread and circuses to keep them distracted and docile. For our society am afraid it is Fast Food and other peoples tragedies (and of course NFL football of which I am a fan.)
My central question for the last few years has been "How do we get individuals to see there is something of greater importance than their own belly buttons?"
O well where is the nearest McDonald's?
5 comments:
As you've noted, travel broadens the mind. :) One of the most useful things most Americans could do is go to another place on the other side of an ocean and see how other people live, and, maybe more importantly, how they *don't* live.
As to your bread and circuses comment -- thank you for such an apt illustration! My version is: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!!"
Hey, did you know that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married in Italy today!!
Hey PTP,
Here's a linky for when the news is filled with "Oh, ain't it awful! and Terrawrist, Terrawrist, Terrawrist . . .!" http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/
UpperLeftCorner
And if you'd like to hear more of this argument, several times a day perhaps, feel free to move in for a week or two. We have a nice guestroom.
I did put my foot down on one thing - if we win the lottery we cannot buy an Adjective-Free News station. For one thing, who would watch?
It used to be that watching the news was interesting. It kept one current on world politics/events and it helped in "cosmopolitan conversation". But nowadays it just looks like some traumatic train wreck that haunts you in your nightmares. (I cried for days after having seen some of the early newsclips of the 9/11 disaster which showed jumpers.) And I'll admit that I am currently outraged by the upcoming news coverage of the "if I did it" book by you-know-who. (Sigh...but nobody listens to me.)
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