 |
Just Turn It Off |
 |
I missed last night’s debate, and I’m glad. By all accounts, it was beyond awful. Questions about flag pins? Who loves America more? Bosnian snipers? It sounds like the debate - which took place at Pennsylvania’s National Constitution Center and was broadcast to millions on ABC - was more at home at a drunken right-wing frat party, given the quality of the questions.
People were rightly pissed off. Thousands of negative comments were posted on ABC’s website. The blogs and even some major news outlets were fuming. Today, not 24 hours after the debate concluded, MoveOn got into the action:
Debate moderators abuse the public trust every time they ask trivial questions about gaffes and ‘gotchas’ that only political insiders care about. Enough with the distractions–ABC and other networks must focus on issues that affect people’s daily lives.
They’ve got a petition up, and if they get 100,000 signers, they will run advertisements going after ABC.
Now, I love MoveOn, and you should sign this petition, and they are on point here, but I can’t help but think that in the long run, there’s got to be a better way to deal with this situation: Just turn off your television.
Television news is some of the worst reporting in the country. The pressures of the 24-hour news cycle, combined with the sensationalist imagery used to get ratings spawns such shameful excuses for journalism as Lou Dobbs, Chris Matthews, and the entire Fox News channel lineup. Why do we keep watching?
Instead of paying one station to run attack ads against another station, let’s just focus on more important things. Sure, television news won’t disappear overnight, be we can individually and collectively stop paying attention.
Your mother was right. TV is bad for you. Just turn it off.
Way ahead of you.
Disconnected direct tv in june because the price kept creeping up.Have only rabbit ears which is another way to discourage myself from watching.All my media comes from dvd or the internet,streaming,torrents,etc.I watch what I want,when I want.I get more accurate and fair information from Progressive talk radio.and when I need a laugh I turn on any right wing show.
I find I am not alone.Many people I talk to are moving to the direction I have chosen.With corporations moving everyday towards control of the internet we will eventually lose this also.
Have you heard of my band? Drunken Right-wing Frat Party?
But seriously. The only exposure to TV I’ve had is my dad watching Headline News and CNN in the past few months. What passes as “news” on television would be laughable, if there weren’t so many people watching who took it seriously. I’m convinced Murdoch and Turner get their jollies by getting people to believe that comedy hours like Lou Dobbs and Anderson Cooper are really “news”.
The petition is going strong–MoveOn has over 200,000 signatures, and is aiming for 250,000!
The worst part of this whole deal is that the constant debates(21 of them) and t.v. advertisements have completely turned the public off to politics in general. No one wants to hear about it anymore because they have been bombarded with all this “Bitter-small town” nonsense, which is purely irrelevant.
The sad thing is that this country pays so much attention to the Presidential race, but when it comes down to it, all the Presidential race is, is like the super bowl of politics (CNN is referring to is as “Ballot Bowl”-gag!) But truthfully our Senators and Congressmen are who we should be paying attention to, they are directly accountable to us. Meaning there is no electoral college, and your vote goes towards your candidate. If any of us really want to see changes made, lets look to our congressmen and Senators as they are the ones who need to enact change.
The president is only one person, the congress is many more with personal obligations to their state. I know these races are not nearly as glamorous as the Presidential race, but what it lacks in glamour it more than makes up for in accountability. I for one would like to commend The Seminal for giving coverage to these important races-Thank You!
You are most welcome, thank you for participating!
“With corporations moving everyday towards control of the internet we will eventually lose this also.”
At least a person on the internet has a chance to find honest reporting. And more and more people once they are exposed to independent news reporting on the web see how the mainstream media deliberately don’t report things we need to know about. The internet is causing a revolution in peoples awareness of what is really going on. Spread the word.