Why I Don't Watch Network News

I consider myself to be a well informed citizen, consumer and parent. But I can’t watch mainstream news programs or shows. And that’s the crux right there. They are shows, just like the sitcoms and the insane number of ‘reality based’ shows on the air. (Don’t get me started on them!) Only difference is it seems as if the news shows are designed to make you want to go outside and shoot yourself in the head. In fact, I think that it would be an effective and safe interrogation procedure. Force all terrorists suspects to watch back to back, endlessly streaming, on multiple screens and computer monitors - network news. I’m talking the big 3 and their little mini clones – NBC, CBS, ABC along with Fox and UPN or whatever their name is this week. At least two screens 50 inches or more featuring CNN and that irritating crawl that always has useful little tidbits like where Michael Jackson is living or some new shocking celebrity divorce – as if I care where Michael is and what (or who) he’s doing. I’m Black and I don’t care about Michael.

Network news at it’s best is depressing and at the same time silly. I don’t know who’s choosing their lead stories, but they may want to re-visit that selection process. And their attention span is almost autistic. Some shocker story is reported with obvious future implications, usually lead or at most the second story. Hard hitting investigative reporting. We’re shocked or vindicated and then – nothing. No follow up, nothing beyond the novelty of the moment. Case in point is the story about the off shore oil royalties that 3 major oil companies had profited to the tune of 10 billion annually due to an error on their lease. 3 out of 4 of the oil companies that benefited from this error said they might be willing to adjust their lease and one was flat out refusing. The key word there is might. They are thinking about changing a lease that allowed them to avoid paying 10 billion annually in taxes. It was under consideration., in committee, maybe some kind of cost benefit analysis was being done. Do we get to argue with the Internal Revenue Service when we are audited? Are we allowed to say ‘I’ll think about it ‘ when we get penalized by the IRS? I think not. Just ask Wesley Snipes. But I digress. Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil's 2005 net income for the year came to $1,146 a second and I was paying almost $40 to fill up a Dodge Caravan. So…. Was there a follow up story? Did the oil companies have to pay or did the committee come back with a vote of no. We don’t know because network news punked out, probably moving on to more titillating news like Star Jones’ diet and wedding or Michael Richards losing his mind.

Nope. I now get information from vanguard sources like The Daily Show or his partner in crime, The Colbert Report. I also get a lot on line, but not from my Comcast home page, but from links provided by organizations that I trust, along with their links. Organizations like the Autism Society of Washington and America, FEAT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment) and AutismOne. I also have in my favorites – Wrights Law (an excellent resource for special education law), the National Institute of Mental Health, the US Embassy and the Library of Congress.

Network news has too much of what I like to call the Alien factor. If you’re watching a network broadcast and you find your head tilting to the side and your eyebrows crinkling and you’re thinking ‘What the …..? Did I just spend 3 valuable minutes of my life listening to that? I much preferred the substance and demeanor of a Dan Rather who didn’t give lip service to stories that aren’t really stories, but fluff. Stories that newspapers refer to as ‘filler’ used to fill in the spaces when the advertising that they have forces them to print 2 or 4 extra pages. Maybe the solution is to go all out Hollywood, tuxes and glam gowns, dancing girls and flexing jocks and lots more fashion/shopping tips year round not just at Back to School and Christmas. Then they can get voted off they air like every other television show on the air.