According to the media, 2011 is over and 2012 is here. So long as I have a calendar as backup, I trust the media to tell me what day it is. 2011 was not one of our best years, but it got a lot of media coverage. In keeping with my policy of always looking at the positive side of things, I will say positively that all this media coverage is one of the worst things to happen to us as a society.
When I say “media,” I mostly mean television. Oh, we can cast a bigger net and include magazines, radio, newspapers and even the internet, but television is the main media. Everyone watches television---it takes no effort. People don’t have to be able to read fine print or understand big words and certainly don’t need to think to watch TV. That electric machine will tell us everything it wants us to know while we sit on the sofa and eat Fritos and bean dip. There are over three hundred TV channels available right here in K’town on the River. It takes a lot of “news” to fill up all those channels twenty-four/seven, as they say.
Most of us would not keep up with the comings and goings of the current “A” list celebrities without the media. We could care less that Kim Kardashian is “hooked up” with a new athlete or if Regis buys Preparation H by the case. The ravings of Charlie Sheen or the age of the Queen of England have little to do with our daily lives, but the TV tells us everything about them. Television is taking the place of the school system—it educates us all. If it were not for the media, I would think “hooked up” is something to do with a trailer hitch.
As a form of protest, I’m going to watch the Food Channel. I’m going to fix a big plate of turkey and dressing enchiladas, smothered in jalapeno giblet gravy, with a side dish of re-fried black-eyed peas, then sit on the sofa and watch CSI. Y’all have a Happy New Year!
Jim McLaughlin
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