Yesterday, I was thoroughly amused that right in the middle of a conversation on Afghanistan, Wolf Blitzer broke away for "breaking news." Do you know what the news was? Well, Rush Limbaugh had been denied the opportunity to own an NFL team after he had long berated NFL players. There were two issues that sprung up immediately. First, how is this that a respectable newscast like CNN could view this as "breaking news?" Second, how is it that the people who watch Limbaugh, who are probably working class folk, allow such a one to benefit by viewing his show? I turned off CNN posthaste!
Now, today I'm watching CNN and they have wall-to-wall coverage of the kid who it was believed had gotten into a balloon and was flying hundreds of feet off the ground in an invention that his dad had created. For two hours, CNN followed the silver balloon in the air and called on experts who spoke on the possibility of the direction of the balloon and where the kid might have been hiding. It was high drama. CNN created all kinds of scenarios. Finally, the balloon landed and there was no child. Oh, my! Now, this bit of drama added more speculation and scenarios, calling on many experts who talked about heat technology to identify the boy. It was getting dark. Where was the basket? Where had it dropped? Thank God for Google Earth! What other kind of technology will be needed to locate the boy?
I was getting very annoyed at the coverage. Yes, I had hoped that if the boy had climbed aboard that he would be found safely. I even said a prayer. But how did we know that the kid had indeed climbed aboard? Where were his parents? Who allowed it to take off with the possibility of the kid climbing aboard? Either his parents should be investigated by child protective services or CNN is running with this story because it's a slow news day? Is health care reform, increasing foreclosures, joblessness, banking reform, Afghanistan, and Iraq not fast enough, not meaningful enough? I got the feeling that CNN was loving a story that could indeed have had a tragic ending for ratings. I cut if off. I had heard enough of this sensationalism. I switched to see what Ed on MSBNC was covering.
Just as I flicked on The Ed Show, Ed was holding an interview with the psychic mother of Wife Swap who had lived in the kid's home for two weeks for this ABC show. But soon Arianna would be on. Oh, good, I thought. They're probably going to be talking about her latest post, "Why Joe Biden Should Resign." But to my utter annoyance Ed began with the story on the balloon boy. I assume he forget who he was dealing with because Arianna shot back with something like "Okay, I understand why the story was covered initially, but why are we still talking about it. The boy is safe -- now on with it. (By the way, he was hiding out in the garage attic at home.) Why are you still covering it?" I must admit to ROFL! The sensational Ed was caught in his own sensationalism. I must also say that his holding the government's feet to the fire with regards to health care reform and joblessness has been noteworthy.
But Arianna's question was perfect for network news en masse. It was one that I was dying to ask. Ed became a little testy and tried to offer a lame excuse. How could he excuse having the psychic Wife Swap mother live on his show talking about extraterrestrial beings? I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. Ed let this psychic go on and on, even apologizing for interrupting her while Arianna was cut short a few times. Amazing! At the top of the 7:00 news hour Hardball lead with "a story that transfixed a nation." The balloon boy had been found. Oh, Keith, it's 7:59. Please don't lead with this story. Does anybody really wonder why old media is becoming more irrelevant while new media continues to pave a new path? Go Arianna and Huffington Post!
Arianna Huffington: A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Talk About Afghanistan
I was asked to do the Ed Show last night to discuss my post about Joe Biden and Afghanistan. Then Balloon Boy happened. Click here to watch the exchange.
Even Maddow readily admits she "gets all her information off the internet and puts it on TV". If you want real news, stop letting the cable companies choose you, which is what happens every time you turn them on, and start choosing for yourself.
As I have repeatedly stated, it is a medium of the past for a generation from the past.
People complain about the state of television, yet tune in anyway, and the networks continue their formats because viewers still tune in. Do something novel like I did: Get rid of your TV!
It was only when the press failed to inform us, at least on the stay-afloat level, that we began our spiraling down into the hell we now face.
If it were not for the Washington Post, our arrival at the fleecing gates we now queue up to would have been realized long before this decade.
But more importantly, Nixon must be realized as a warrior for conservative Republican dogma and therefore a champion of, above all, corporate cause. Pop-up Ford immediately said 'the business of America is business.' I always thought that odd: it suggested somebody offering information without being asked. I concluded that Ford was talking in code to corporate America, promising that nobody but Nixon and minions would be outed. And to prove sincerity, he offered Nixon's pardon as proof of his cred.
Had Nixon escaped his well-deserved, long-delayed karma, and proceeded to do that for which he was willing to commit crimes in order to propagate, we would see exactly what we have now: a nationwide skein of scammings, coordinated and designed by many forever-unknown ninjas employed and task-set within large American corporations, and nowhere else.
All of that which has begat the dissolving of our Democracy by monopoly attrition and US Senate-sanctioned pillory is contained within the confines of the zeitgeist and modus operandi of American Corporations, and nowhere else.
and put it on air. Rush and balloon boys are more important than our men and women who are fighting and losing their lives in the war. We no longer have news channells anymore. All we have is wannabes out their cutting each others throat for a dime. This is why our country is in the mess it's in now. New media didn't hold the republicans, Bush and Cheney accountable.
He'll just be minus one listener/viewer (and as a result purchaser of his sponsors' products)...
Did you happen to notice the 13,5000,000 google results for "balloon boy" while strolling the new path this morning?