Three Killed, None Seriously

I did something yesterday evening I rarely do anymore, I watched the local news. I find myself searching for an adjective to describe the experience, and I'm at a loss. Appalling leaps to mind, but that's way too strong, suggesting something that has some impact. Stupefying is closer, but even that gives it far too much weight. It's just nothing, the texture of cotton candy without the sugar. On one level, I have to admit it's pretty funny, these people all shouting things at the camera excitedly, as if something actually happened that we should care about. They call those folks anchors, possibly because they're dragging us down with them, or maybe because their function is to keep people in one spot, transfixed. The guy on the "health desk" comes on and gives us the earth shattering information that researchers have determined depression causes some people to get fat and some to get thin. The "life style" reporter tells us about little polished wooden coffins for divorcees to put their wedding ring in and bury it. The weather guy screams out that the "live mega-doppler HD7000 weather cam" tells us that there's no rain in the area, which for some reason that eludes me would show up as green if there were any. And in a bit of breathless "breaking news" the "Eye in the Sky" chopper focuses on a Wal-Mart where inside right now employees have caught a robber and are beating the crap out of him. Wow, a window on the world!