Sunday, October 18, 2009

SOCIAL COMMENTARY: Breaking News - Or Is It?


I have to tell you; with a pile of bills stacking up ever higher versus the amount of money I have coming in to meet them getting less and less, watching friends lose their jobs on a weekly basis (while worrying about my own fate in such matters), having a close friend literally dying from cancer, another threatening suicide every other damn day, not to mention the fact that kids these days seem like they need to be feared on the streets more - so you gotta watch your back even with the tot on a tricycle... I am a bit on edge.

So, I am very picky about time these days. It could also be due to the fact that I will be 40 next year, and doubt I am where I thought I would be in life by that age - then again, who ever is? I am also one of those people who isn't too cool about having my intelligence insulted. That brings me to the other day. I didn't get just one, nor two - three...nope..., but I got FIVE breaking news alerts regarding a boy in a runaway balloon. All which ended up with him hiding in an attic or garage (who knows anymore) from Daddy. And by the looks of Dad and his antics...it was no wonder why the brat hid.

What?!

This was a major WTF moment for me.

By the end of the day, I gave less than a fat rat's behind about that boy, his fate or his family. I may have cared a bit more if the media didn't feed into whatever that was all about so much. I actually heard a news anchor the next morning say (and I am paraphrasing), 'The nation was gripped for the two hour ordeal.'

Really?!

Sorry for all of you who were.

It took me back to when Brett Favre returned to the NFL after a second retirement, or was it a third?

Who gives a crap?

And why is this bull funky breaking news.

They seem to think a sneeze is breaking news anymore.

'The Queen of England farted today.'

I mean...seriously.

Before the balloon boy, I didn't care.

During the balloon boy and breaking news 'alerts' - I was annoyed by the distraction.

And after, I REALLY don't give an ish.

Not that I am insensitive to the boy and, yes, thank goodness it all turned out with him being okay, but we are a country involved in not one, but TWO wars with an economy still in the toilet and, quite frankly, our children are bringing guns and knives to school - and using them - AND setting each other ablaze with rubbing alcohol.

I don't have time for re-re-re-retired million dollar football players and fame-seeking aliens from Colorado.

News Flash my fellow press and media peeps - if it's a slow news day, so be it.

We have enough rhetoric.

Report on something with some damn substance and stop trying to catch someone dying on live television already.

Because really, it seems like that is what you are looking for anymore.

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