The other day I'm on the treadmill and I'm watching the TV monitors hanging from the ceiling: CNN, MSNBC, and Fox were all on. As I watched the odd behavior and even odder reporting of the talking heads, I became convinced that the news has changed.
There seems to have been a time when the purpose of the news was to get us in touch with reality, report on what is happening.
After watching Fox report on how Obama is losing so many jobs (in a recession that began before Obama was even nominated by his party) and CNN speculate on whether Michael Jackson's ex-wife will sue for custody of kids we average Americans would not recognize even if they ended up on our porch selling cookies, I can only conclude that reality has become too much. Now even the news has to perform the task previously reserved for TV sitcoms, soap operas, and movies: it has to give us an escape from reality.
Color me strange, but for all my day dreaming, I've always kind of liked reality. Too bad the TV producers don't think I can handle it anymore.
2 comments:
Ron, you silly, sweet, soul. TV Producers don't CARE if you can handle reality or not. They only care you'll watch their show. If it's FOX they want you to watch their show because either you love Obama and watch FOX just so you can write angry emails or letters to them complaining about their attacking Obama or you hate Obama and watch FOX to get your daily dose of a news network that totally agrees with you that Obama was the wrong choice.
Just remember: dull news doesn't sell. Sensationalism and bias does,
I think that's why we still need print media.
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