The media

I find it amazing how much news we can access from around the world. I’m addicted to it. Unfortunately, our around the clock television news coverage seems to miss 95% of it. A kidnapping, murder, fire, or some other news item that should be reported suddenly becomes a 24 hour a day story. Non stop, no matter what time you check the news it’s the same story. Fortunately, I also get BBC on my cable. It hit me when I was learning of all the trouble in Africa from the British and try the U.S. news and we get…the election. Fox News has become the election network with the missing spouse/girlfriend/child of the day network. CNN tries a little harder now, but they spend too much time on puff pieces. Like the coverage of Budweiser being bought by the Belgians. No CEO interview, let’s find the stereotype beer drinker on the street and show how dumb Americans are. When asked about the sale, the guy answered “Yeah it was bought by that Belgian company from Germany, right?” Please.

The nightly news shows? Even worse. I was raised on Walter Cronkite every evening. We would sit around and let Walter tell us everything that happened here and around the world for 30 minutes every day. Now you get 5 minutes of Barack Obama and how wonderful he is, or 5 minutes on how dumb McCain is. Then you might get a few minutes of real news, followed by the remainder of the show on some investigative report or some “Person of the Day” fluff piece. Gee, I turned on the nightly news to see the news, not learn of some guy making his own molasses in a shack in the middle of nowhere. Even in the old days, Charles Kuralt was only on once a week or so. Sadly, the nightly news on the networks has gone politically correct or on their own political agenda. Take a look at the Obama orgy going on in Iraq. No unbiased reporting is available anymore. It’s truly sad.

Is it the total fault of the media? Well, a good bit I think. But they are catering to what America wants. I find it stunning on a daily basis how little so called “intelligent” people know about current events. Sure we know all about who the networks want as president or the newest diet fad, but for two weeks I read and heard about the genocide and stolen elections in Africa before there was even a mention of it here. And then it was an item for a day or so before the next celebrity flounced out of a car wearing no panties and the media was off again. But it’s what most Americans watch! It’s what they evidently want. I find it hard to believe we have become that dull and dense. Does the New York news elite think the rest of us are that dumb that we had to have the bar lowered to what they think the common denominator is? Why should we be banished to a place where we have to get the world's news from the internet or the BBC? This is AMERICA!

The eco-nut Al Gore challenged the country to hug a tree and get totally recyclable energy in 10 years. I think I’ll issue another challenge. I would love my fellow Americans to start giving a damn about what goes on in the world. Demand unbiased reporting. Let’s get back to an America where people actually know who their Congressman is. Let’s get a little more intelligent about current events. Maybe then we can do more about problems than stand around and whine for somebody to fix them. Or make smarter choices about who we elect instead of who is “cuter” or “funnier”. If you can believe it, that last actually happened to me. A co worker said she was voting for a candidate for governor because his commercials made her laugh. Not what he stood for, he made her laugh so he got her vote. So let’s all vote for Lewis Black for President, right? Oh man, it have to go scream now. Have a good weekend.