just listen

 I was talking with my wife about the evening news shows on television today, how you can watch nonstop for two hours. I was remembering when I was a kid the news was a half hour program. Where I grew up we only had two channels to choose from anyway, channel three and channel eight. Both of those stations originated out of Conn. There was no local news for us, that was called a newspaper. And our newspaper was the East Hampton Star, whose banner proudly proclaimed, shined for all. That was the definitive source for all local news. I was thinking, my, the times sure have changed, and the newspapers too!

 I viewed the news as an information program. That was the reason you watched that. Walter or Dan would fill you in at what was going on in the world. There was little opinion expressed about what it all meant that was left to you to figure out. Later Dan got in trouble for showing unauthenticated papers regarding Bush and his military service. That cost Dan his job eventually. That's something that has certainly changed as well. Today reporters produce documents out of thin air, and no one pays it any mind at all. Well, if it detrimental to the conservative view of things it they aren't anyway. There is no doubt about the political leanings of these news corporations these days. To this day I couldn't tell you how Walter felt about any number of issues, he just never said. Today the news is geared more towards entertainment than information.

 All this mass media is a good thing I suppose but there are times I wonder. It has been shown that people learn more by reading than by listening. I'm thinking when we used to read the newspaper it did make us think more. Unless it was the editorial page those stories were based on the five w's. The who, what, where when and why of it. The why of it didn't include the personal opinion of the reporter. The car crash was caused by a drunk driver, not the driver of the car suffered childhood trauma which caused an addiction to alcohol, so the accident was the fault of the brewing company. That's the major difference I'm hearing. Walter simply said, and that's the way it is. You figure out what "it" is. Too many today just listen to the popular opinion, at least the popular opinion funded by the progressive left, and adopt that. There is little to no critical thinking going on. Oh, we like to use the term, critical thinking often enough, makes us sound so educated, but it is what was once known as common sense! 

 Today most reading is done on Facebook and Twitter. There aren't any reporters on any of those platforms, just opinions. Three or four lines of text, usually divisive and derogatory, to present a defense for their opinions. Defending popularity is a major enterprise these days. Defending principles not so much. Today we are telling our children what things mean, where we used to ask them, what do you think it means? Isn't that what book reports and essays in school were all about? I remember having to read that local newspaper for history class and present a story on current events. What was happening in your neighborhood? The idea was to get you to look at the big picture. 

 Now I realize there was a certain amount of bias in that local paper and on the national news. I was aware of that even then. All of that is created by people after all, and for different reasons. Walter became the most trusted man in America according to several polls taken. He did so by reporting the news as factually and concisely as he could. Geraldo went for the shock value on television while Stern was doing that on the radio. Others have tried for popularity by simply repeating the popular opinion. Free with their opinions and freely changing those opinions each time it becomes popular to do so. I'm hearing a lot of parrots talking these days, repeating whatever they have been taught to say. Teleprompters rule the day. Just read what is on the teleprompter and don't think about it. Just listen to what you are being told and don't think about that either. We'll tell you what it means, how you should think about it and how you should react. If something just feels wrong to you, ignore that, we'll tell you when it is wrong. Just quit reading into things! Heck, just quit reading altogether and listen. This is what you should believe and so should everyone else.