By Darren Johnson
Campus News
You might think a “news guy” like me just immerses myself in 24/7 news. That, while I write this post or lay out the print paper, I have some hard news channel on as background.
But, in reality, this is the show I typically put on to start my day as background:
It’s called “Breakfast Ball” on Fox Sports. Craig Carton is the bald guy who has been doing these sports talk shows for years, and they paired him with a former jock and a nerd (can you tell which one is which)?
(As an aside, many sports shows have added nerds because of bettors. Gambling has so infiltrated sports that such talk shows feel they need a stats guru to discuss probabilities and such for a large part of the audience that bets. This guy pictured above — Danny Parkins — is actually pretty good at handicapping games, not that I partake in such gaming.)
Overall, while I’m not a sports fanatic, nor a bettor, I do like the New York Metro style of sports talk — I have a former student of mine doing really well in that realm — and Carton seems to like the same teams I do.
But, really, I watch the above because it’s not national news. Sports talk ignores the non-sports issues of the day. No talk of plane crashes, egg prices, Trump — whatever the media groupthink is that day. If these sports guys are spinning, about Aaron Rodgers or LeBron James or whomever, big deal. The stakes don’t matter that much (except to the bettors). Shows like these are a relief! An oasis from the daily dire of national news.
But I find shows like this one pictured below unwatchable:
Most of them, but in particular, morning “news” shows like “Good Morning America” and “The Today Show.” Watch them closely and analytically and see how stilted and commercial they are, filled with big-money special interests. They are also loud and garish — especially for that early in the morning — and wholly unwatchable. Pretty much infomercials for the establishment.
I think their overall effect is to make you feel small and insignificant, and to conform — or else.
You’re starting your day, swigging Sunny D and scarfing Pop Tarts, scrambling to get to work while these shows are on, with the hosts chortling and seeming so superior and comfortable, interviewing “successful” singers, authors, chefs, actors, etc., whose lives are so much better and easier than yours.
But the prevailing narrative is that they deserve it because of their blessedness, and you don’t, because you’re not so blessed. You better go to that cubicle job pushing papers, shut up and be happy with your basic wage. Then cue the ads for Sunny D and Pop Tarts.
(Even if they do an “everyman” human interest story — say about some kid in Akron who started a lemonade stand to help the poor — the piece will have an overall feel of being patronizing.)
They pretty much are the propaganda shows from “They Live!”
As Morrissey sang:
Stop watching the news
Because the news contrives to frighten you
To make you feel small and alone
To make you feel that your mind isn't your own
I try not to watch these shows under any circumstances.
So you can see why I avoid putting national news, or national news perspectives, in the paper I publish. I just don’t want to get into that. I know what the perspectives are — I have opinions on national issues, too — but having a national-news-free oasis can be useful, as well. For our spiritual health.
Besides, local news matters, too — maybe more — and we shouldn’t lose focus on that.
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