A Grumpy Rant

[madamesilverspurs]

Yeah, I've got cable. Health issues keep me at home much of the time, so I do enjoy being able to watch something to give me something else to think about now and then. I confess to enjoying some of the old, corny movies. And I've gotten used to checking what passes for "news". I have managed to disable Fox on my set, and the local affiliates are good for weather. Out of forty some channels, at least six are dedicated to sports. There are three that purport to be "news". With Fox gone, that leaves CNN and MSNBC. And on weekends, MSNBC abdicates any reporting effort in order to indulge some weird obsession with prisons.

My current pout is occasioned by none other than Keith Olbermann's Countdown this evening. Tonight he reminded me of a conversation I had with friends in the days following 9-11. In that conversation we talked about how if you'd asked a kid on September 10th to name a hero, said kid would likely give the name of a sports figure; after 9-11, kids were looking at firefighters and police officers as heroes. We talked about how so many people (kids included) could give you the rosters of several teams, but those same people all too often couldn't tell you the name of their senator or congressman. We talked about how people got so easily fired up about the World Series or the Super Bowl, but couldn't be bothered to inform themselves about candidates beyond what they saw in a campaign ad. And we talked about the important information that is shut out by our insistence on indulging our obsessions with pitching stats and point conversions. We said that, given that self-imposed ignorance, it's small wonder that our awareness of our place in this world has become dangerously dimmed, to the point that we were shocked to discover that there are those who hate us.

So how did KO manage to dredge all this up? By spending the last 10 minutes of his show discussing the earth-shaking Favre story. For a time he'd gotten away from the celebrity stuff. That's sneaking back in, too. But I guess I'd just gotten to depend on an hour when something of no real importance DIDN'T get to trump the stuff that matters. Oh, well.

As of today, we've lost 500 troops in Afghanistan.

[liberalmuse]

1. I've only been barely following that...

and it is aggravating that some sports hero's mid-life angst is getting so much coverage, given the much more important things the MSM could be focusing on. I don't really blame you a bit for pouting. The focus on triviality is probably the most to blame for our nation being in the state it's in right now.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. My non - US friends are just appalled at what passes for news here.

My question....is the apathy of the people driving the laziness of the media, or the laziness of the media driving the ignorance and apathy???

[Nay]

5. Same here -- Canadian relatives can't believe the 'nooz' here. When

we visit, we enjoy long, engaging articles and discussions on US problems in Canadian newspapers. If only we could get comprehensive discussions in the papers in the US!

[Lars39]

3. iirc, Olbermann started out doing sports.

Got a soft spot for it still.

[TahitiNut]

4. While there are apparently some "shocked to discover that there are those who hate us" ...

... they seem to have yet to discover why and how it's deserved. :shrug:

As the atrocities of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo, and abu Graib are committed in the NAME of "Americans" it should be no small wonder that saying that word is followed by spitting by so many decent people in this world.