Under a Rock and Lovin' It

Watching television has always been an issue for me. Much of what is on television is not worth watching. I can find myself sucked into hours and hours of nothingness, I benefit nothing, I get nothing back and hours of my life that could be so much more wisely invested are gone forever. Even if it wasn't a moral issue - which much of the time it is - it is a waste of time and most television is just stupid. Netflix has allowed us to selectively bring into our home the level of stupidity and waste of time that we are comfortable with.
With this in mind you will see why I find it humorous that while I was gone my husband decided to purchase and install a motorized television antenna. One of the things he was happy about was that we could watch the news. Unlike regular television, the news keeps us informed. But, it makes.me.want.to.crawl.into.my.closet.and.stay.there.forever! This morning my husband woke me up to tell me that he saw our daughter's myspace picture on national television. After talking him down off the ceiling, we decided that it probably wasn't her due to the fact that her myspace is set to "private", and even if it was, why were we freaking about it? He left the boob tube on when he left for work, and I woke to a report that there was a murder in a town just south of us, a girl died when she was hit by a car, and that this hurricane season threatens to be one of the worst in US history. Joy. Back to bed, covers over my head, goodbye.
I think that it is one thing to be informed and have a realistic idea of what is happening out there. I was sad that I didn't know that there were 3 soldiers captured in Iraq, but then I wonder how knowing that would have helped other than if I pray for them. Sadly also that is not my original response - the knee-jerk reaction is to tense every muscle in my body and reach for Pepcid AC. It causes stress, and it is meant to evoke emotion in the listener. Listen to the intensity of voices, the urgency of the music. It is trying to freak us out. Why? Because then what we see on TV can shape our thinking, program an internal agenda, and control what we say and do. (THAT is another whole post!)
I was happy to be able to watch a super sermon on TV with the family on Sunday morning, and I do see advantages to having the ability to get network TV when we want it. But I think for now I'll just stick to reading the news online from time to time. I love it here under my little rock!

Fraudulent News

Here's a confession......I live under a rock. There are times when I have no idea what is going on in the world - and I like it that way. However, I do feel like it is my responsibility to know, and since we don't have cable television, I have taken to reading the news online. However, it is often a activity of frustration - with news being little more than the constant chatter of Anna Nicole, and Michael Jackson (WHO CARES what he is doing?). And so I can only stomach to check a couple times a week and see what's going on.
Today when skimming the news (literally finding only maybe 2 out of every 10 stories worth in depth reading), I found this story. It was a great piece on what we let pass for news.

Really???

Sound the alarm! Call Scotland Yard! I was browsing the news this morning and came across this little gem. Did they really need to do a study to figure this out?