All the News That's Unfit
The truth is out, about seventy-five percent of the drivel on the evening news is completely made up. I wouldn't have known if I hadn't realized that in the past couple of weeks the news is even stupider than usual. See, usually they have writers putting the stories together, and ever since the writers' strike it's being done by the mothers-in-law of network executives, which is why a lengthy segment of the 6 O'Clock News on ABC the other night was devoted to what Oprah did on her show that day. If I wanted to watch Oprah I'd watch Oprah, not the news. It's why we haven't had any high-speed chases lately. It takes talent and know-how to put one of those stories together so that the anchor people don't run out of inane things to ask the helicopter pilots, whose answers are all scripted anyway. That story about Bush meeting some foreign dignitaries in the Oval Office yesterday? A rerun. I hope the writer gets a residual.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:09 AM
6 Comments:
If the motto of the New York Times is "all the news that's fit to print," the motto of the TV and cable networks should be "all the NO news that's fit to run again and again." It's amazing how the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries have been blown up to gigantic proportions, as if the fate of all mankind rests on their outcome. Hillary and Obama, who obviously respect each other and, as far as I can detect, differ very little in their basic politics, are being advised to lunge at each other’s throats. Why? For the amusement of a bored populace with nothing else to watch other than reruns? Bread and circuses, friends, bread and circuses. Instead of lions and Christians, we now have politicians devouring each other.
So true, prof, except that the populace isn't "bored" so much as rattled, befuddled, and, I think, terrified into believing that with their thumbs up or down they have a chance of salvation. Prehensile man is reduced at this late date to grasping at straws.
John,
A very interesting observation. If, as you say, “prehensile man is reduced at this late date to grasping at straws,” it may not be too long before we are further reduced to the condition of the raccoon whose prehensile skills are used primarily to grasp at garbage. Science tells us that as man evolved, the prehensile foot preceded that of a prehensile hand. In our times, it is extremely rare to see a human making use of that foot unless of course he or she is a politician suffering from foot-in-mouth disease.
Which leads me, prof, to ponder what our primate politicians are doing with their tails.
John C. last three cartoons are wonderful. Great comments, il professore and lean toward agreeing with you. Hope that Hillary and Obama resist the urges of the media. We need at least one or two candidate who conducts themselves with dignity and does not lean toward what the media dictates.
Alas, dignity seems to have disappeared with the advent of cable TV.
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