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Mar. 19, 2007 There are several contributors to this website who are always mewling and puling about the liberal media. In this context, I assume that they are using the word media to signify primarily television and radio, and, to a lesser degree, newspapers and magazines. I don't know if they bracket Internet with the other media, but since it is much more interactive and varied, I imagine it would be hard to classify one way or another. These lachrymose contributors include Tom Pain, Ed Abraham, Craig Chamberlain, Ken Hughes, Michael McCrae and others- But to those television-watchers and radio-listeners who spend 20 to 30 or more hours per week glued to their sets, only to get worked up into a state of extreme agitation and irritation over the presentations, my advice is simply to turn the stupid things off. No one is making you watch them. This is not Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia, where your superior at work might ask you if you had heard the leader's latest speech and quiz you on it. Television and radio, as inventions, are two of the great triumphs of the twentieth century, but as a source of entertainment or enlightenment, they're practically worthless in my opinion. I realized that before I was twenty years old. I had already stopped watching television, though I resumed the habit briefly when I first got married, and, again, in China, when I was trying to learn Chinese. Otherwise, it's been decades since I knew or cared what was showing. I listened to the radio, primarily for classical music, until about 1974. So few were the stations that offered the kind of music I liked, and so numerous the long-winded commercials, that I finally just chucked the blasted thing. Then I tried cassettes for a while, but I simply did not want to be bothered, so I fell off from that too. Only with the advent of Internet did I get back in touch with things. The superiority of Internet is so obvious and awesome that I don't need to waste any time extolling its virtues, especially in conjunction with word processing and the other features of computers. I'd much rather have a website where I can express my own opinion than a television channel where I have to listen to Fahey Flynn or Walter Cronkite droning on and on about subjects that don't interest me in the least. The bottom line is that I don't even know what people mean when they call themselves liberals or conservatives, but even if I knew, I don't have the foggiest notion of whether the media are liberal or conservative, and frankly I don't care. I do recall from my teenage years all those stupid commercials and boring weather reports with maps with isobars and isohyets. I recall from the days of my marriage such inane shows as I Love Lucy, All in the Family, The Honeymooners, etc. I remember those tedious baseball games, silly cowboy movies and idiotic quiz shows. But life goes on, even without television, so if you don't like what they show, give your set to charity or sell it for a song. But please don't mewl and pule about the liberal media. The only thing worse than liberal media is people who moan and groan about them. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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