Sorry State of TV News

So it begins. Another blog. Just what the world needs. Another raving lunatic with ideas on what is right and wrong in this world. I asked myself why would anyone want to join the ranks of the bloviators. Yet with the continuing nonsense that parades itself as news and commentary, one needs to yell, well in this case, write, “I am sick as hell and can't take it anymore.”

Let's just start with the recent hurricane, Gustav. Yeah, yeah, yeah, hurricanes are dangerous weather systems. No doubt. They should be covered but to send so many news people don't there is just about as foolish as national coverage of Brittany Spears. Let the weather channel cover it. Let a meteorologist give a straight forward account, but please get the pretty faces and empty heads off the tube. I know this is harsh, but once I would like to see a gust of wind sweep one of those non reporters into the deep. God standing out there – getting the “shot” is nothing short of drama. I guess that is why they give us drama queens.

There is no more news! We have only personalities who demonstrate their inability to comprehend the situations in which they are thrust. Tragedies are followed like vultures seeking carrion. The media prides itself on its sets. It is interesting that they spend as much time promoting their staff as they do the news. Each of these theatrical readers is attired in fine clothes, their hair immaculate, the smiles fixed as if they had just consumed a vial of some happy drug. And then, and this applies mostly to local broadcasts, commentary that demonstrates no insight whatsoever to history. At best, it is blather. At worst, it is idiotic. At its extreme is simply childish.

Then, we have the experts. The so called authorities who invariably are pushing an agenda. They parade before eyes one as empty as the next. Let us not forget the loudmouths like Chris Matthews who believe their shallow insights are profound so much so that they can interrupt their guests with louder and louder questions of no import and believe they are getting at the hard truth. And why is it these news personalities think it is ok to shift from fictional portrayals of themselves in the movies or television made fiction to actual authorities on the news? Shouldn't there be some commitment to their profession? But that is it in a nutshell. They have no profession. They are, well I would say whores, but that would denigrate a noble profession. They are merely there to self-promote their banal positions. The news departments are awash in corporate suits who simply keep on eye on ratings as opposed to fulfill their role in a democratic society. Freedom of the press is a corner stone of a representative democracy. It seems the network bosses have found the supermarkets tabloids marketing strategies to be the way to garner ratings. After all if they can increase their share, they can charge more. More revenues mean they can hire bigger personalities to blather on about the inconsequential. I find it ironic that many of these contemporary news personalities make comments about earlier icons, like Morrow and Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. Unfortunately, they are more akin to Buffalo Bill and Howdy Doody.