Posted On: Wednesday - May 31st 2017 7:45PM MST
In Topics: TV, aka Gov't Media Media Stupidity
I had to spend some time this afternoon waiting in a used car dealership lobby for a friend to make a transaction. I know, used car dealers*, right, but it turned out they hardly even talked to me. That was the good news, but the bad news was that there was a TV on, there in the lobby, too close and loud to ignore.
But then, more good news: it wasn't set to CNN, it was some sports network with talking sports head on the whole time. Now, I've written of my detestation (new word there) for TV under this topic key way back with a post called Blow up your TV (and eat a lot of peaches). However, the sports show was also bad news, as here's what I now thing of TV sports, or at least as it's presented by the talking sports heads - it's just soap operas for men. Holy moley, enough about this players feelings on this subject, and what are these guys going to do next week, can they work together? The last 2 guys were loudly discussing just some bull that didn't have anything to do with any physical aspect of the sports, football, tennis whatever. These guys could have been talking about who's going to have whose baby, and I wouldn't have known the difference. One hour of that was more than enough for the rest of my life.
This made me think of a time in a small dentist's lobby with my kid. That particular lobby was only about 8 x 12 ft, so there was no getting away from this screen. There was the receptionist sitting on the other side of a big rectangular opening in the wall. Other than that an old man was the only other customer, and he was steadily reading a newspaper. I walked over by the screen, tried to find an off button, and thought it'd be easier to just unplug the contraption. From the voice of the receptionist, you'd think I'd set off a pack of firecrackers in the office. "What are you doing?!" "Hey, nobody's watching that crap.", I told her. She said nothing, and I said to her with a scolding voice of a Mom whose crazy uncle just started watching a porn flick on high volume. "Hey, there's a kid in here!"
This had the tone of the Mad Moms: "If it saves just ONE CHILD from having his brain turned into mush, it's worth it for me to take your cheap flat-screen and smash it on the sidewalk! Bill my insurance." I really feel that feeding a child 15 years of regular TV during his upbringing is more damaging than quite a few psychedelic drugs that people make a big deal about. Maybe TV should be on some kind of DEA "schedule" as some pretty hard drugs, to be doled out only to those patients who have not improved at all during electro-shock therapy.
It's the airports that are the worst, because you can't easily step outside there. They've got CNN, who can claim millions of extra, captive viewers per day, that have no way to get out of it. They are way too high to unplug in most big terminals. You can sit with your back to the screen, but then the sound is nearby. You move 100 ft away, but then you realize they've got speakers spread out to cover the whole terminal. You can't wear a headset all the time, while you might need to listen to gate announcements. Yes, big audience numbers this week, Boss!
* A really funny Kurt Russell movie from 1980 - get it, you won't regret it.
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