...About Stupid Talking Heads

Now that the hype is over after the killing of one and the capture of the other Boston Marathon bombers, the news channels can get back to their regularly scheduled snooze programs. I was one of the quazillion people following the coverage. I would hang with it for about a 1/2 hour at a time. But it didn't take very long for me to get mad... not just miffed; yell-at-the-TV angry. Why? Because I get so tired of the stupid, hoity-toity, know-it-all, hot-air-bag talking heads who ramble incessantly about the same drooling drivel for HOURS! 
In one of my recent blogs - Wait! Just the other day! - we talked about how the media sensationalizes the news events. Now we are discussing how ridiculous they appear when they talk out of their bums about things they know little to nothing about. 

What has happened to TV anymore? Programs are not what they promote themselves to be. Headline News - the 24 hour news source - has about 15 minutes of news, then repeats it over and over. Don't think so? Watch a morning newscast. [It will have to be morning, because after about 11:00, it's all "other" programming - not headlines!] Robin will stumble on a word and make comment about it. The next time that story runs, same stumble, same comment. I used to live on Discovery; not anymore. There is no "discovery" to it anymore. Shows like "How It's Made" don't live there anymore. Now it's "Duck Dynasty" and "Swamp Dumbasses" and "Deadliest Catch" over and over and over. 
TLC, The LEARNING Channel, NOT! It's "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Little People Big World" and "Bridezilla." 
CMT is NOT Country MUSIC Television anymore; it's everything BUT. All of the channels have sold out in a panic, scratching for more viewers. MTV... NOT.   History... NOT!  For example, as I write this, Headline News - the source for news headlines 24 hours a day - is running many, many hours of "Mystery Detectives" one after another. REALLY???? But... I digress! 

Because they are fighting for face-time, the well-known authorities on news say some of the stupidest things. These are some of the actual statements I heard during the broadcasts: 

"We know that he must have had a gun because he did get into a gunfight with authorities." 

"The suspect is alive, which will be important as they try to get information from him." 

[Impacting music and deep voice-over] "This a FoxNews ALERT!" 
[Reporter] "We are still waiting for some information from officials regarding the house to house search being conducted. We've been told nothing for the last few hours." 

[Reporter 1] "We just heard what sounded like 8 or 9 gunshots. (Reporter 2) what did you hear?" 
[Reporter 2] "We just heard what sounded like 8 or 9 gunshots." 

"He exchanged gunfire with them, so he was indeed armed." 

[Reporter] "We're going to talk now with (name), who witnessed the murder of the MIT Policeman. Name, tell us what you saw." 
[Name] "I wasn't there when it happened, I got there about 10 minutes after it happened, and nothing was going on. So I followed some policemen over to (somewhere else)." 

[Police Official] "The homeowner noticed blood on his boat cover, he walked over and looked under the tarp and saw the bloody suspect in the boat." 
[Reporter - seconds later] "It seems that a neighbor or passerby saw blood on the tarp over the boat..." 

You can see how ridiculous this all is. The talking head remarks are equalled, if not surpassed by the foolish speculation about background training, indoctrination, blah, blah, blah.  

The early reports I heard after the bombing said that the 3rd victim's parents did NOT want her name released. "All we know is that she was a graduate student from China."  Someone - apparently not interested in the parent's wishes - decided to release the name. Why? Why weren't the wishes of the parents honored? Why couldn't her friends from school honor that?  I wonder how the parents feel now?  

I get the whole thing about providing the news. I get the whole "ratings wars" stuff. I get the whole "Freedom of the Press" crap. What I don't get is why newsies would rather stay on the air and look stupid, rather than break into programming when there is something intelligent to say. Maybe the need for face time IS the motivator, but I have to wonder... Do these people ever go back and watch themselves? Don't they SEE how stupid they look? 

For many years, when driving down a country road and passing a cemetery, my buddy Ralph has always said, "See that out there? There are a whole buncha people who thought the world couldn't live without them."  I relate that to large, thick, big-city newspapers - "There's a whole lotta news nobody wants to read." And now, I relate that to these mindless talking heads - "There's a whole lotta crap nobody wants hear." 

To me, it is a perfectly applicable example of the old phrase - "It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." 



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