If the rampant Charlottesville weather hasn't gotten you yet, it soon will. I honestly don't think anyone's immune system can take a sampling of each of the four seasons in one week. But staying in your room because of the chilly rain can only mean two things: either movies or TV.
Because most of the movies out right now aren't even worth mentioning, though, most people's eyes have been swept away once again by the glass screen sitting somewhere in their living quarters.
With Baghdad now occupied and Saddam somewhere -- but we don't know exactly where -- the news has had quite a bit of popularity recently.
Fighting between which one gets to claim it's the world news leader, each station has taken on a new form -- a form that has become quite irritating to the avid observer.
If you haven't noticed yet, perhaps you have fallen into their trap that keeps you watching. You are too fearful of what Rumsfeld might come on to tell you next.
It had already been happening gradually, but 9-11 sealed the fate: the news is growing. Millions of paranoid Americans flock to the screen in search of new instruction. What happened today? What should I be doing?
Even when nothing is happening, they still will have a huge header on the screen in red, white and black, reading "Special Report." If there haven't been terrorist attacks, they will replay the ones that already have taken place.
Given, the news is our one source of worldwide information. Now that it has escalated into a moneymaking enterprise, however, things seem to be getting out of hand.
I recall one afternoon the weather was quite nice and everything was going well. My roommate turned on CNN, and standing behind a podium were two parents crying over the loss of their children and speaking out against terrorism -- the banners covering every other square inch of the screen led us to believe that this was live and something awful had happened. Immediately my heart started pounding with the same beat it held on that dreadful Tuesday morning a couple of years ago. CNN didn't seem like it was going to tell us what had happened until the speech was over, so we quickly turned to MSNBC to find out what drastic event had occurred.
To our surprise, though, MSNBC was doing a routine report. Confusion set in, but only for a little while. We turned back to CNN and found out that this was a replay of events after the Oklahoma City bombing. The anchors were trying to enrapture us into believing something terrible had happened yet again so that we would join the ranks of psychos who never change the channel from whatever news broadcast they prefer.
It appears these corporations are trying to keep us frightened so we will keep watching and worrying and they will maintain their beloved ratings. The eye candy they have added to the screen only increases the psychological attachment we have begun building to this constant need for knowledge of world events.
With the advent of the Internet and constantly live news programs, we have become a generation of this second, right now -- "Oh no! Did I miss it?"
We need to know everything all the time, we need to have our cheeseburgers right this second and we want our deliveries here the next morning.
While I am no doubt a member of this culture, I must stop and wonder if it really is doing us any good.
The war on Iraq is like none before it. Reporters are everywhere, constantly trying to interview whomever they can on the front lines. Sure there were reporters over in Vietnam, but they weren't giving a live broadcast of every event -- keeping the viewer there in the middle of the war, believing deep down they are doing their patriotic duty by increasing CNN's ratings and thereby helping out Ted Turner's bank account. To top it off, our every war strategy is announced publicly on worldwide news. Forgive me for being skeptical, but isn't it a little stupid to let them know where, when and how we are going to get them? Hell, if Napoleon had announced his attacks in the London paper beforehand, maybe Wellington would have gotten him before Waterloo.
But my point still lies in those little banners that cover the screen: a scrolling marquis at the bottom, directly above a CNN logo and a description of what is going on at that exact moment. To the right is the logo for the program you happen to be watching with a "War in Iraq" banner hovering above. Then there is a picture-in-picture of the correspondent in the middle of the desert reporting with bombs flying overhead, the main screen depicting the other anchor in the studio, and of course, on the top is the inevitable "live" symbol.
I don't know if you agree, but I think this is a little excessive -- what exactly happened to the old guy behind the desk who occasionally skipped to the weather guy and the sports person?
Now all the conventions of news have long since faded away, replaced by this constant report of the worst possible world occurrences to keep us afraid and in our place.
Even when there's nothing to report, they try to suck us in with some recap of a past horrendous event: that's right ladies and gents, this is brought to you by the same people who told you the wrong results to the last presidential election before the polls even closed. Now they are trying to keep us unhappy by plaguing us with reports of tragedies.
I don't see how anyone could possibly enjoy a beautiful day when Wolf Blitzer is summoning us to look at the suffering children and the victims of the last bomb raid. And by the way, were his parents insecure about his masculinity or something? I mean, what kind of name is Wolf Blitzer?
If you haven't realized yet, you will discover from everyone else just about everything you need to know about the news -- someone else is always watching it, absorbed in the brainwashing reports of unnecessary liberal ranting. The depraved reality of the whole thing is that these people want you in front of that TV or downloading their latest report on your wireless device so that they can keep making money. And the only effect it has on you is that you become more paranoid and need more input.
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