The incredible truth about nothing.

I occasionally get trapped into watching "Network News". These networks have found the secret of making money by saying absolutely nothing. The have 24 hrs of minutes to fill, sponsorship to fill them and the talking heads to make it work. The problem is that there is nothing in the world to talk about for 24 hours. They have to invent ways of saying nothing for hour upon hour.

Now, when you wake up in the morning, and turn on the news, it's suppose to be fresh off the press, earth shaking, meaningful. All they say is what is the latest is on the way as soon as we can find something to hype...police and war are good beginnings...stay tuned for a talking head to tell you nothing about nothing for the foreseeable future.

What will the weather be today? Stay tuned to forecast coming up in 10 minutes...will there be frost, snow? We'll let you know. Now a word from out sponsor..

Talking head "weather girl" comes on and says," It's June here in Atlanta and there is no chance of snow or frost, however, in Alaska they are having frost..let's go to Sherry in Alaska. Is there really frost there, Sherry?
"Yes, there is frost this morning and I'm talking to a local resident,"Sir, has the frost here this morning been a burden to you?" "Well, no, we are used to frost." "There you have it Amanda, back to you in Atlanta.

12 minutes out of 24 we don't have to worry about...You see where I'm going with this?

Edward R Murrow got one half hour at 5:00 on the radio station WRFC AM radio. Next came the local news and the  weather forecast given by the local announcer. The next morning we got what had happened overnight. At noon we got the world news from ABC, or NBC, or CBS, followed by the market report and  a half hour of good 'ole southern gospel. what was wrong with that?

Then television reared it's ugly head. A wise man once told his daughter, who had a new boyfriend, " Honey, just cause you got a new toy, don't mean you got to play with it all the time." We're STILL infatuated with TV...and all it's 360 or is it 1500 channels... people pay more every month for cable or satellite than my  monthly payments on a new car in 1966. 

Bill Monroe used to say of anything he found offensive, "That ain't no part of nothing". It's true, TV news is no part of NOTHING, PEOPLE.  Radio Talk is just as bad.  Those guys can kill 3 hours and say nothing. No constructive dialog, just make people feel foolish who call in. That ain't nice...or fun, for anybody.

I'm all for peace and quiet. The news is NOT the incredible hype about nothing we see on TV. As Joe Friday said on Dragnet every night, The fact,s ma'am, just the facts. That the kind of news we need...I need, anyway.

Thanks for listening...