To the wire
*Stands up*
Ahem, my name is Adam, and I’ve been addicted to the news for the last ten years and my last update was two hours ago.
It started innocently enough, just a couple of headlines at the weekends, maybe a magazine section if I was on a blowout.
But I moved on to the hard stuff pretty quickly, the financial section, business, politics…
Before too long I was trying new ways to get as much of it into my system as I could. I was freebasing it off the TV, intravenously wired in an RSS reader.
Then it all turned bad… really bad.
Some unscrupulous news peddler had started cutting it with cheaper, easier to obtain, slightly toxic substances.
On the street we started calling it names like ‘drug-addled pop tartlet’ and ‘rich celebrity baby snatcher’.
You thought you were getting a hit of well informed, relevant daily goings on, but actually you were inhaling the fumes of entertainment news.
I knew I had to give it up when I woke up one morning, after a particularly heavy night, knowing the names of Britney’s children… My world starting spinning, I’d lost all perspective – the goings on of some famous-for-little-reason heiress had become just as important, if not more so, than world politics and science.
The problem is, you can’t just give it up, that’s not how it ends… and everywhere you go it’s going to follow you. The television, the radio, the Internet… you could even go out for a walk and innocently stumble into a news agents or past a newsstand.
But you have to be strong, right?
*sits down sobbing*
*The group recites the fabled ‘4 steps’ before a motivational video is shown*
OH THE SENSATIONALISM!
“Something you use every day could KILL YOUR BABY!!! Find out what it is at 10 after American Idol!”
Every time I watch prime time TV I hear some variation on that sentence in a promo for the local news.
Hah! Yes, I know what you mean. I crack up when I hear that stuff, or roll my eyes and just start rifling through my movie collection, or see if something interesting is on. History Channel has started sporadically showing the History of Sex again, which is much more entertaining than stuff about wars.
I love the idea that something so dangerous can wait until after the break…
Actually that sums up my problem with the creeping entertainment in the news. The idea that you should wait on until the information is handed out. I suppoise that’s why the internet can be a better source.
“Coming up after the break – there’s a popular soft drink that can kill you instantly… we’ll tell you what it is.”
brilliant
haha
You make it sound just like a drug addiction.
Which I guess it is similar to.
I really don’t understand this idolising of pop star.
Why? What is special about Paris Hilton or B. Spears?
Or P Diddy?
This is why I only watch the non-news channels, like Food Network, History, Sci-Fi and all the cartoon channels.
Also tapes. I’m fond of tapes. I will randomly pop Dick Tracy in the VCR rather than channel cruise. (GODS, that movie is just…gah…so perfect. So absolutely perfect. Tight story, gorgeous cinematography…amazing. /fanboy attack)
Really, even Madonna? I’d have liked to see Sean Young in that role.
Other than that it is pretty much one of my favourite comic-to-film adaptations… perhaps because I had never read any of the strips before i saw the film.
Who knew that Britney Spears would be 100x as powerful as FNORD, and she doesn’t even require the same kind of infrastructure? The Illuminati are powerful indeed.
The hotel in Seoul had Australian TV on it. There was some political show on, and I was amazed by two things: 1) it was delightfully boring! The people were discussing real issues, not personality fluff. 2) The conservative guy on the panel was not bat***t insane! Well, at least, not obviously so. Quite a change from American political coverage, where they can spend hours just talking about whether so-and-so’s haircut is patriotic.
That is amazifying. Australia just gained fifty points.
My main news source is the BBC website and topical comedy panel shows, such as “Have I Got News For You” and “Mock The Week”.
Humourous and informative!
Aha, I’m the same way! When I feel news-y, I try and catch the Colbert Report or The Daily Show.
Entertainment coverage has its place in news- take, for instance, the coverage the launches of GTA IV and Halo 3 recieved, as a way of documenting the first real examples of the sea change in big-budget, event mainstream entertainment media away from film, and I don’t think any of us are too upset by those 60’s newsreels of The Beatles and Elvis before them.
However, there’s absolutely no need for general news channels to cover every single game launch, or every rock tour- even the initial “How in hell this this guy managing to do so many drugs in public and not a/ get arrested, or b/ die” of Pete Docherty is fair game so long as it’s not run into the ground so much as it is being.
Myself, I blame 24 hour rolling news channels, who probably only did it to begin with to fill time. I think a new type of news channel is required, where perhaps more time is spent on news-centric programming (or even just themed news blocks) rather than just repeating the same headlines every twenty minutes.
/b
Adam or any one else in the UK, did you hear about the 2 British divers who were rescued near the Whitsundays?
Did you also hear that the locals are asking for some contribution from the rescued pair, esp. considering that they have sold their story to a British paper/tabloid?
Just curious.
I did not, Ben.
Any chance of a link?
http://www.dailymercury.com.au/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3773622
The issue has raised some interesting points of view.
I think the big thing it points at is xenophobia, but we (the nation of Aus) question this when a yachtsman needed rescuing during a high profile event.
I am not to sure how I feel on the matter.
The best thing about that story is that it takes place somewhere called “Townsville”.
/b
What is so funny about Townsville?
Other then that ville is sorta a word for town anyway?
Nice place if you are looking for almost paradise.
Indeed I did…
And I agree, if they have made any money from their misadventure, it would only be polite to offer to pay for some of their costs.
I used to help out with our local coast guard, mostly pulling out cars from the quicksand in the bay (it looks solid and flat, but it eats 4×4s for breakfast). Despite the numerous warning signs that people would choose to ignore. Again, it was very rare we got so much as a thank you, and that’s pretty harsh when as a volunteer it’s all you get.
The paying for your rescue opens an ethical can of worms.
There has now been talk of the two underground gold miners from Beaconfield Tassy to pay for their rescue.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/02/world/main1569132.shtml
Tho, by all indications, the mines insurance paid for it.
Which should give you an idea of the mentality of the ppl who demanding repayment.
But, with the 4×4s on the sand, I think they should be fined for stupidity.
Or (if it wasn’t so bad for the environment) have their cars left there.
As a combination of the recession and an ill-thought out property tax cut, here in Florida our state budget has NO MONEY, so there’s talk all around of making people pay when their house catches on fire. Also they’re firing a whole bunch of teachers.
The news is worse than smoking. Also it’s a perfect mirror of the state of N.American culture (or lack there-of).
n.p.r. is a pretty good news source, but then i’m completely uninformed during pledge drives