Reconnecting to the Source

There was a Reuters story in the news the other day which cited a University of Miami study which concluded that local TV news coverage is 'top-heavy' with stories concerning crime, criminal justice, and the like.

The study concluded that coverage of the rest of life is almost totally absent from news coverage. The unsurprising response of news agencies was that "if it bleeds, it leads," presumably meaning that stories which don't evoke some politically correct emotional revulsion don't qualify for coverage-almost a dead giveaway that sensationalism is more important to them than reality. I have long been skeptical of TV news, partly because of the brainless Barbie-and-Ken personalities which are hired to dispense the drivel, but mainly because television news has never really been informative beyond headlines (almost universally sensationalistic and out of context) and film clips (likewise).

It isn't news at all of course, but rather sleazy entertainment masquerading as news. Its purpose isn't to inform or educate, but to shape public opinion and sell products. While writing this article, I have felt torn between targeting news in particular and television in general. I think the predominant gravity is drawing me closer to the latter, because stupidity is morally and ethically unconscionable, and television is bursting at the seams with stupidity-it isn't just in the news and during the commercials.

In fact, I realized that just about the only thing you can find on television which isn't canned, predetermined, orchestrated, edited, and/or slanted, is sports. If you don't like sports, then all there is on television is fiction. Don't believe it when they declare that it's true, or based on a true story ... unless you yourself saw it happen yourself in real time, then it's been interpreted, and if it's been interpreted, it's fiction.

This is a sad commentary concerning a potentially rich and engrossing medium which promised so much when it first became more or less public fifty years ago. This isn't to say that there isn't value here and there on television ... if one seeks respite from reality, television is ideal.

Unfortunately, by its very nature, television programs (that's a noun and a verb, not an adjective and a noun). Unless you happen to own your own television station, or several of the major industries which are required in order to pay for it, then you are powerless. Television is not interactive, it is a one-way conduit of opinion ... there is no meaningful mechanism for response.

Check that ... there is one, and it is very powerful. This mechanism is activated by the red button on your remote, and pressing it will instantly return you to reality. Isn't it curious that mind-altering-that is, changing a person's perspectives in order to promote a lifestyle profitable to the sponsors is praised in television, but abhorred in reality?

It's okay, even considered highly-respectable, to fill a person's mind with fear, suspicion, and hatred by means of news programs or dramatic (re)productions, but it's a criminal offense (against whom, it is never specified) to use a common plant to open your mind to creativity and new perspectives which are largely positive. It's quite American to vividly portray cruelty, killing and maiming, but strictly forbidden to portray the un-draped human form.

But this is one monster over which we still retain a certain degree of power. If nobody watched television, they'd be doing something else; they'd be thinking their own thoughts instead of someone else's, delighting in their own activities instead of someone else's, living their own lives.

Except for the occasional sporting event, I don't watch television anymore, even as the number of channels expands endlessly into the distance (and I refuse to sit through commercials).

My time is my own, and isn't invaded every few minutes with mindless appeals to fear, vanity, ego, or any of the other strings attached to the contents of most peoples' wallets.

More importantly, of course, my thoughts are my own, the sanctity of my mind is not eternally invaded by Madison Avenue's gurus of gush.

The present state of television is dismal. If you don't want a dismal life, don't watch television. Like the bumper sticker from the Sixties, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"

"What if they tried to program your mind, but you weren't plugged in?"