World Snooze Tonite

 

The other day, my radio pal Pete had some high school students on his show talking about Iraq. Some of the young people were onto the Bush-boozling but some had absorbed the propaganda, mostly garnering their information from Fox. These brainwashed young thangs aren’t alone; 70% of the American public says they believe Saddam was tied to Al Qaeda, for which there ain’t even a stretch of the imagination.

I got up close and personal with TV news the other evening. I watched some local and some network. I was interviewed by the local anchorwoman who was doing a report on a ballot prop I’m supporting. She taped me for about fifteen minutes, and then we talked another hour. I was delighted to discover a very bright young woman, who is also well-informed. And a political junkie; she did my interview without any written questions.

She then cut the piece fairly, picking out a couple of my more important comments -- yes, of course, they should have played the whole interview; live; over and over -- and she edited them together into a comprehensive report that didn’t lean. I think she would do spectacularly in a quality television news setting.

I say that not to detract from the efforts her station puts out, here in the wild rurality, but this station like so many -- even most -- around the country are producing a soft, folksy "friends-style" newscast that is different for the approach I would take. Nonetheless, the news director is a diligent fellow and always listens when I call with an idea.

I give considerably less credit to Peter Jennings, with whom I worked twenty-plus years ago; he was a more serious journalist then. I watched his World News Tonight -- Tonite would seem more their level -- because I wanted to see myself on the local news and the network newscast is sandwiched between local half-hours. Jennings led with six minutes on the deaths of Johnny Cash and John Ritter.

Sorry, but neither of their deaths is a newscast-leader. A country music star and a television actor, as popular as they might have been, are not worth that kinda of time nor the top of the show. And to make matters worse, Jennings’ newscast closed with a report on what it means if your cat watches television; he’s slower than a normal cat, apparently. No, really.

But not as slow as the people who get their news from such broadcasts. No wonder Bush is able to lie, send our men and women into harm’s way, make our nation more vulnerable to terrorism, and half the people in our country say he’s doing a good job.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.

 

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