Where Has All the Real News Gone?

Well, I've been sick today. I didn't have any classes scheduled today, so I was going to be home anyway, but I did have a lot of work to do. My tonsil has swollen up for no particular reason and with no warning, and I'm feeling a general malaise. This has made me want to screw off and not do any of the work I had to do. I didn't really want to do any of that work anyway, and only needed the slightest of excuses to put it off.

So, what have I been doing since I got up? I watched some of the cable "news." I was particularly disgusted by CNN's Headline Prime "news." The segment I was watching was actually a talk show, run by an extremely conservative host who was spewing invective at the camera. His face and upper torso were featured prominently on the right side of the screen. Factoids and bullet points from his dialogue popped up on the left side of the screen, as well as relevant photos. And beneath his image was the news ticker, and a logo for CNN Headline Prime. A less than alert viewer might mistake this for a real news program, though admittedly they'd have to be pretty unobservant.

The turn that cable news has taken in recent years is very disturbing. Since when has it been the reporter's job to tell us how to think? Sure, there might have been a slight spin on the reporting, but there was never such blatant and unabashed opining as has been displayed lately. Despite the logo decrying otherwise, this was not news at all. It was editorial, and should have been unequivocally labeled as such. Newspapers keep opinions to the op-ed section where they are clearly marked. Such boundaries have been blurred to obscurity on cable news.

I actually felt like I was in some futuristic dystopian movie as I watched this guy spitting and thrusting his finger at the camera, surrounded by all the markers and indications of journalism. It was confusing and contradictory. Who was behind it all? Who wanted to project these ideas and images into people's heads? Who was watching and absorbing it all? Who would be parroting this fascist tomorrow because they saw this "news" program today?

People can't be manipulated quite as well through other forms of media as they can through television. Yes, radio can be pretty powerful, but it doesn't have the added oomph of visual stimuli to further distract our senses and slip in more subliminal messages. Newspapers and print internet have still images, but a person has to read the words and hear them in their own internal voice.

I guess we have to lump internet tv in with regular tv, but there's a bit more intention to using the internet -- a user has to point and click, and usually the segments aren't streaming. Usually they are short clips, and as such leave room for more thoughtful digestion after viewing. Soon enough though, technology will catch up and there will be streaming video for all "news" channels online.

Long story short, I changed the channel. I went searching for a nice, decent movie to while the next 2 hours away. But I couldn't find anything that I either hadn't seen already, or that seemed entertaining. Daytime tv can be so drab. So I put in a video instead. I'd just bought it from the thrift store for $3. I'd seen it before but it was a favorite of mine.

Eventually I lost interest in the video too. And I noticed how very depressed I was feeling. I don't know if I would have been feeling depressed anyway, because of my tonsillitis, or the boring work I still have to do, or the general gloomy weather outside, but I thought maybe the tv had something to do with it.

So I turned it off and started typing out this blog entry. Writing this has been therapeutic for me. I've felt productive, and I've felt like I have some control over my life, and what I do in it. I don't have to watch tv all day just because I'm sick. I don't have to watch tv just because I have a bunch of work I'm procrastinating. I can do something else. Right now, that something else is writing this entry. Once I'm done, I will do another something else.

As I mentioned in the last entry, I can look this sucky day in the face, and say "Hey, you sure do suck a lot. I'm going to find some way to make you suck less." And I can guarantee that one way NOT to make it suck less is to turn the tv back on.

How Not to Make Your Life Better

It's been a long time since my last post. I must admit, I am still watching tv. But lately I've been turning it off a little more frequently. I'm currently taking some classes, and it's been out of sheer necessity if I'm going to get my work done.

However, for a long time now, I've been watching tv when I should have been studying. I've been telling myself it's a stress reducer, a harmless distraction from homework that I'm avoiding. I also tell myself that I'd avoid the homework whether I was watching tv or not, so I might as well watch the tv. But I don' t know that that's really true. I would probably procrastinate, but not for as long as I can procrastinate while that tv's on.

Tonight I switched off the tv, long before bedtime I might add, and I instantly felt a sense of relief. My body suddenly relaxed, just like that. The television was making me tense. The noise and the stupidity and the flashing lights. All of it was irritating me at a very basic level.

The sense of relief I felt reminded me of why I often speak of quitting tv. And it reminded me that I hadn't posted in quite a while. I tell myself I haven't posted on this, or my other website, or emailed some of my old friends, or started learning Spanish, or picked up the guitar, or written a book, because I don't have enough time. What with my classes and everything. But that's not true. I've made time for oodles of television this past year. Hours and hours that could have been better spent doing something real.

But a girl's got to relax -- I can't be working and being productive for all of my waking hours. That's not healthy either! Right?

Well, that is true. Self improvement shouldn't be done at the risk of our health, mental or otherwise. I'm not talking about a rigorous program of self improvement that accounts for every waking moment, with checklists and agendas and timetables. And I'm not talking about working myself to death out of some Protestant belief that idle hands do the devil's work.

I am all for idleness! Lie around in a hammock, stare out the window at the clouds, watch the grass grow, do a crossword while drinking your coffee for an hour, play with the cat, read gossip magazines, light matches and shake them out, over and over. Whatever. Eventually you'll get bored and then it will be time for the next step -- what to do instead of watching tv.

It's hard, I know. The tv is calling you, and it's so easy. Just sink into the couch and click on your favorite show. Ahhh, all your old friends, getting into some new adventure that you haven't seen before. Boy, that's funny. Oh, so dramatic. That's compelling television! Wow!

Yes, but at what cost? We are talking about your life here! Your precious, miraculous life, dribbling away in spurts, with occasional interruptions for a word from our sponsors. Sweet Jebus, it makes me want to cry.

And it's my life too! My life that's being pissed away! And I'm doing it to myself! Me and millions of others like me! So many people in this world pissing large chunks of their life away every day! It's tragic. Worse than tragic -- I think it is making the world as a whole a much worse place to live in.

I wouldn't say that people are losing their souls to television, but I will say that people put their souls on hold when they watch too much tv. And a soul cannot grow while it is on hold.

A bit melodramatic, I realize this, but I really feel that this is true.

Some people say that they only watch good tv, tv with a message, or educational shows, or only well-crafted programs with good acting and a lot of thought behind them. That's all fine and good, but if it's more than a couple hours a week, they are still stunting their own personal growth by sitting there in front of that tv.

No matter how educational a show is, you shouldn't sacrifice hours of your own precious life watching it.

Life is so very precious, even if it's horrible. People often say they watch tv to escape reality, because reality is so awful a lot of the time. I say look life in the face, and say "You suck, life! But I'm going to spend my time seeing how I can make life better, even if it's in the smallest ways."

And my friends, you can't make your life better by watching tv. It will never happen. Everyone can see the truth in that statement.

Turn off your tv today and ask yourself how you can make your own life better, in some small way, tomorrow.

Good night.