Recently, I admitted that, beyond a cursory glance here and there to keep up with the overall direction of everything, I don’t follow the news any more. I guess people were surprised to hear this. Things were said. Remarks made.
I, in turn, not surprisingly perhaps, was surprised by their surprise. Because why would I watch the news? Give me one convincing reason.
Ever since it ceased to be about facts and keeping the general public informed and became more about opinion, money, and ratings, the news, I would advocate, is actually not news at all, but a bunch of eye-catching trivialities dressed up as substance to distract you from what’s really going on. Here’s why.
But first: a word from our sponsor: Veridian Dynamics.
Anyway, back to the news thing.
For a start, TV companies are beholden entirely to their sponsors. When was the last time The Today Show, for instance, or the CBS Evening News or even one of the cable news shows did a scathing expose of the pharmaceutical industry and the damaging side-effects of all the dangerous drugs they sell? I’m feeling bold this morning, so I would venture to say NEVER.
Why?
Oh, come on! You know why. Because the drugs companies have bought up every ad break they can get their hands on to advertise their evil products.
Haven’t you noticed? 90% of the ads on the morning shows end with the words, “Ask your doctor if Purobutimansoprol Soothing Nighttime Formula, Cherry Flavor is right for you,” or somesuch gibberish, followed by a blizzard of possible side-effects, read very fast, that must have been written on a roll of toilet paper, it goes on for so long – everything from dry mouth to renal distress to heart failure. Side-effects that viewers by the million seem happy to ignore.
No network would ever dare risk offending one of its major sponsors. If they did, the sponsors would pull their ads and, with them, millions of dollars in revenue, and it’s all about money. So, as always, big pharma gets a free pass, with the result that:
- the whole nation is hooked on drugs;
- people are growing steadily sicker;
- reporters who should be investigating this topic aren’t being allowed to; and
- the culprits escape without a trace of blame.
By the way, our sponsor and mighty overlord Veridian Dynamics issued a great commercial recently.
The question is: if this blind-eye bias from the news shows is happening with the pharmaceutical industry, what other areas are not being discussed or looked into because scoundrels or criminals are buying up ad time?
I’m no doomist, but I’m beginnining to think we’re truly screwed. As individuals, we’re growing smaller and more insignificant every day. In the broader picture, our private concerns matter less to Washington than they ever did; our needs are considered irrelevant to anything the government is doing, or Wall Street, or the banks, or big corporations.
The GOP, for instance, has switched its focus entirely these days from advancing policies that might excite voters or working for a stronger America, to being the Party of No: working to undermine, attack, deride, and thwart the current administration in all its plans, while at the same time ardently fighting to protect the rights and profits of a battalion of powerful special interest groups and other lobbyists from whom they earn millions of persuasion-dollars each year. Why aren’t the news shows all over that?
Everywhere you look, the prime motivator now is simply money, success, having more, owning more, beating the other guy past the post. It’s not capitalism any longer, it’s naked greed unapologetically pursued, and it’s unhealthy.
As is often said by Veridian Dynamics….
So when I catch a TV news broadcast, on whatever network, I don’t feel I’m watching a vehicle for the delivery of truth. All I see is a glossy product filled with color and graphics but short on facts. Carefully manufactured, heavily censored and crafted so as not to test, probe too deeply, or offend. A flash of bright lights dominated by the swiftness of the news cycle and, like a small, eager child, prone to being sidetracked or mesmerized by every fleeting, sensational bauble, no matter how insignificant or bogus.
So why would I want to watch that?
Why would I want to watch Fox News, and see that prime ass and needless irritant Glenn Beck trying to keep the spotlight on him no matter what it takes? By accusing Obama of being a racist, for instance.
Why would I want to hear that MSNBC‘s David Shuster had a meltdown after the camera accidentally caught his bald spot, when in fact this story was entirely made up by a gossip columnist in one of Rupert Murdoch’s rags? Murdoch owns Fox, Fox hates MSNBC, so Murdoch’s other “news” arms feel entitled to undercut MSNBC wherever it can.
Why would I want to watch Lou Dobbs ignoring all the facts and continuing to push the fiction that President Obama wasn’t born in America? On CNN???
No, no, no, no, no.
There’s too much airtime to fill. Too many people trying to fill it. Too much irresponsible, immature, irrelevant crap they’re trying to fill it with. And it’s all done, not to keep us informed, but to line their own pockets.
That’s why I don’t watch news. And someday I’ll thank myself for it.
TV Swami – he say NO to news for the second time in a week.
Not fat enough yet? NBC can help.
Today is not only Casual Friday but also, checking out my calendar, I find it’s Grave Disappointment Day as well.
On Grave Disappointment Day there’s no blog, sadly. Traditionally it coincides with the Swami taking his car in for its 15,000 mile service even though it only has 11,000 miles on the clock, due to some silly contractual clause in the lease, which means he has to sit in Starbucks for hours filling in time rather than doing something constructive. Writing nonsense, for instance.
Sorry. There’s nothing I can do. Blame Audi.
But I’m not abandoning you entirely. Let me keep you entertained with an item of modern stupidity.
The Huffington Post yesterday featured a clip from The Today Show, in which Matt Lauer interviews a dietitian about exciting ways to feed a family on a road trip.
However – and here’s where the idiots in society start cheering – she advises them to eat a whole bunch of food that is recognized as being thoroughly unhealthy for them, if not artery-clogging – from Taco Bell and McDonalds, for instance. Rather than emphasize nutrition, she concerns herself only with calories. Fabulous.
For a country where a large proportion of the population has large proportions, bordering on being clinically obese, it’s one of the most delinquent pieces of mass programming I’ve seen in a long while and makes me want to hold both sides of my head and scream.
It’s HERE. Enjoy.
www.cashpeters.com
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Filed under Television commentary
Tagged as diet, McDonalds, NBC, road trip, taco Bell., The Today Show, Today Show