What are you watching?

What happens when the "talking heads" don't know what they are talking about?


I find myself asking this question a lot as our nation is fed from a twenty four hour news feed. As we all know people make mistakes sometimes. I am often torn between being in the "know" and being bombarded by the constant poking and prodding of the same issue over and over. My guess is that the squeaky wheel always gets the grease and the redundancies provided by our news media provide most of the squeaking. Maybe all the squeaks will get some of the grease cleaned out of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. Maybe their squeaks will fix the economic status of our country, maybe the news media will bring light to the right issues and ignore the things that have no bearing on the issues of the day. Maybe…or maybe not.

Regardless of what they do it is our job to know as viewers that we tell them what to do. Every morning, evening or all day long, the channel that we stay tuned to, in an effort to hear what's going on in the world, becomes a part of a national statistic. These statistics provide the news media with the answers to the question of the day - are they watching? Are they consistent viewers, are they staying tuned or switching around?

Please know that I respect the work of our journalist and the news media as a professional whole. These are the men and women that come into our homes to tell us the good news and the bad. These are men and women like you and me that decided on a profession and have excelled in that profession. This group of professionals have became the watch dogs of our government, this group has kept us well informed about what's going on in our country and abroad. In times of crisis and tragedy we become very close to news anchors and personalities as they share breaking news in ways that only they can. This is such a needed service that I feel very uncomfortable critiquing their daily procedures.

However, the networks that produce propaganda, that stomp around on the issues of the day with nonsensical chatter, and quite frankly turn certain new outlets and stories into a tabloid, never get turned on at my house. I make a conscious effort to watch and read things that I feel comfortable with as well as well informed by - that's just me.