April 2005

There is a lot of activity in the world but everything seems to be standing still.  It's a little like Groundhog Day.  I'm a bit of a news junky, but to be honest, I find very little change from day to day....bombings and deaths in Iraq, genocide in Africa, b.s. in Washington...I would like to hear that Iraq has finally gotten its act together and driven out the terrorists/insurgents and is ruling itself with dignity and pride.  I would like to hear that the U.N. Security Council has quit playing around with lives of innocent people in Africa and DEMAND  that the military disarm NOW...not a week or month from now, during which they can kill more.  I would like to hear that the Congress and the Senate have done some meaningful work for a change instead of spending the taxpayer's money passing stupid unnecessary laws instead of working on the real work that they were elected to do.

I am tired of hearing Lou Dobbs playing the same tune, singing the same song and dancing the same dance day after day.  I'm tired of some inconsequential story being repeated for days and days on end.  I'm not saying that the death of Pope John Paul wasn't history and important or that the marriage of Charles and Camilla wasn't fun(?)LOL!!  I just don't think that it was necessary to forego all of the other important things that were happening.  The world doesn't stop because some high profile person does or doesn't do something.  My God, what happened to real reporters?

Why has the public given the news media so much power?  Do the people no longer know how to decide for themselves?  Have they become complacent or just plain mentally lazy?
I have watched the media make and break political candidates.  It has become almost a death knoll for the media to take a shine to a candidate.  Within weeks that candidate is out of the running because once on the top of the heap the media turns like rabid dogs to bring him down.  A little God playing, you say? 
I have watched the media take a private family matter and turn it into a national religous, legal, political and personal choice circus, feeding the fanatical frenzy of religious and political sharks with the dignity and privacy of  two families.

I have watched the media turn the marriage of two adulterers, who, because they are middle aged and have been lovers for 30 years, into a "at last two lovers....story".  If that were two "common" people it would have been a different story.

I for one, have become very jaded as far as "news" goes.  It is no longer pure reporting but rather, manipulation through "spin" and it is no longer unbiased reporting but either conservative or liberal bashing.
Edward R. Murrow, Chet & David, and other late greats....WHERE ARE YOU?

Footnote:  Today is 6/12/2010 and, except for the absence of Lou Dobbs on the media scene and a new Pope in the Vatican, things are pretty much the same.  CNN is still running mostly the same stories about the same things, day in and day out, there are still bombings in Iraq, b.s. in Washington and the U.N. Security Council is still issuing meaningless sanctions and Iran and North Korea are still thumbing their noses at the rest of the world.  Reflections of “Groundhog Day”!