I am not a psychologist, and have yet to play one on television. Nor am I a cynic or Pollyanna. I offer simply my own observation based upon a willful refusal to watch talking heads on television.
It has occurred to me that the Cassandra's of the world are so rarely right, that the few times in history they have been correct can easily be chalked up to blind luck. Pick your topic and think about it. The worse case scenario makes the biggest noise and gets the most air time, but when exactly has the worse case scenario come to pass?
The most recent, the Holocaust, occurred before my lifetime, and received little press. African genocides don't make noise in the west.
So what's to do? Try this for one week. You can always extend your trial if it works for you, I going on several years. Assume that every talking head is lying, or has a vested interest in flummery. If you accept you are being lied to, you'll rarely be surprised by one telling the truth.
Remember election season is coming.
Toad
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7 comments:
I'm afraid I've always had a head in sand approach to TV news. It's always such dreary stuff. I once went for about a year without watching the news, and the big stuff always came around to me via colleagues at work. Sadly, what passed for 'big' that year were Harding & Kerrigan, the Bobbit trial, & something about Joey Buttafuoco. Vindication, don't you think?
And with the negative ads -- the mud thrown by each candidate at his opponent, why would you vote for either one?
Excellent posit! I've been using the term "talking heads" for years - my policial relatives hand on to every word from their lips - such a waste of time.
Yes elections are near - so who has a special interest group - and reserved space for back room deals? Either party - the lies are there only now they seem like truths.
Vote for the best candidate - as best as best can be.
Oh yes...I have been doing this for years. Since most tv stations are owned by the government I assume anything a newscaster says has been written by whichever branch of government wanted it put out there for the public. People think newscasters are reporting their own stories! Long gone are the days of journalism. It's a shame really - anyone who reports independant of government influence is considered a hack and a hippy or a conspiracy theorist. It's amazing how often they are right :O)
Everyone is selling something. Some people are selling a party line, others are selling a product, still others are trying to sell themselves. Whether they are on television or not. It is a rare person who can simply be.
I don't watch TV news, ever. I get most of my information via NPR, the BBC, and the New York Times. When I do happen to pass a set tuned to cable news or Fox in a public place, I have to wonder if they inhabit a completely different reality from mine, where teenagers missing for over a year and the divorce proceedings of minor celebrities I've never heard of take precedence over environmental disasters and reports from Afghanistan.
We have an election coming up in a few weeks and so far it is....Yawn...yawn...yawn and nobody really seems to care what their best or worst case scenarios are!
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