Like most kids, I never watched the news. Walter Cronkite, and the Huntley-Brinkley Report were the newscasters my folks trusted to bring them the news each night. I couldn't even say if they leaned one way or the other; did the media have slants back in the 60s? Is being so polarized a recent development?
Like everyone, I've become accustomed to 'soft news'. Nothing of earth-shattering importance is ever relayed on the local news. It's all about wrecks and weather. I don't know if we are considered too mentally soft to care about the real news in the world, or if the local news stations don't have a clue what real news is. They talk about TV shows, movies, recipes and reviewing some "As Seen On TV" product as if this is anything people really care about. When did crap like that become news? It's not news, it's crap.
Imagine my surprise this week when the WDAF morning news actually mentioned the war in Iraq; not once, but TWICE! I was still mostly asleep. The TV was set to come on and wake me and hearing the morning news mention Iraq startled me so much, I very nearly sat bolt upright in bed. What's this? Real news on WDAF? Surely not, they wouldn't know real news if it reached up and bit them.
It was short-lived, just one 30-second spot of real news, then it was back to movies, Amerian Idol, a recipe or two and a few car crashes.
American culture is soft in the head. Most people are caught up in sports figures and movie stars, so the local news plays into that passion. I guess in a world as frightening as ours is, being caught up in a fantasyworld can help people escape, albeit temporarily. The sad thing, though, is that there's very little difference between the local news and Entertainment Tonight. It's all just window dressing and no substance. What does this say about our culture? Unfortunately, it says a lot
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